Longbourn: Dragon Entail Jane Austen's Dragons, Book 2 by Maria Grace ★★★★★

A wonderful second instalment

This is book two of Maria Grace's Jane Austen's Dragons series and follows directly on from book one Pemberley: Mr Darcy's Dragon. If you chose to listen to the entire series, the reading order should be book four, A Proper Introduction to Dragons, then books one, two and three. You need to read books one, two and three to get the entire story.
This combines a Pride and Prejudice variation, with fantasy about dragons. It will appeal to both JAFF readers and fans of fantasy.

Set in a Regency England with a large population of dragons. This book continues directly on from Pemberley: Mr Darcy's Dragon. At the end of the first book, the stolen firedrake egg is recovered. The baby dragon, Pemberley has benefited from the care of both Elizabeth and Darcy. Elizabeth is devoted to Pemberley and is devastated when Mr Darcy takes her away to the care of an adult firedrake, at Lady Catherine De Bourgh estate, Rosings.

Her distress is made worse by the presence of Mr Collins, the heir to Longbourn. Not only is her mother pushing her to marry him, her father and the dragon Longbourn are also pressuring her. Collins is dragon deaf and cannot be left in charge of the estate, without a dragon hearing keeper as his wife. It is the law, that the estate dragon has the right to arrange the marriages of keepers. Elizabeth has heard that the law may soon be changed, which gives her hope. The local dragons hate Collins because although he cannot hear dragons, he seems to have a prejudice against them and is cruel to the animals they are pretending to be. Eventually it becomes too much for Elizabeth and she flees to her aunt in London.

Meanwhile, Darcy is at Rosings, trying to look after baby Pemberley and fend off Lady Catherine and her machinations. When Pemberley becomes unwell and the De Bourghs only make things worse, Darcy has letters sent to Elizabeth to ask for help. he receives no answer, unaware that she has left Longbourn.

The main characters are Elizabeth Bennet, Fitzwilliam Darcy and Pemberley the dragon. Elizabeth and Darcy come to a closer understanding. Mr Collins is even more unpleasant than usual. Mr Wickham is typically self-serving, seeking a way to obtain money and power from knowledge about dragons. Mr Bennet continues to be an exceedingly disappointing father and Longbourn the dragon is grumpy, selfish and devious.

This is an excellent story. Complex and involved plot, with a surprising conclusion. You will be keen to move on to book three. I would recommend it to all fans of JAFF and fantasy.

This whole series is narrated by Benjamin Fife. His narration is very good, his voice warm and pleasing to listen to. His female voices are convincing and his dragon voices are excellent.

I look forward to more stories by Maria Grace.

I received a free copy of this audiobook via StoryOrigin and am voluntarily leaving a review. All views expressed are my own.

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