Fire Maidens: Switzerland

PARANORMAL: This is the final entry in the Fire Maidens series. In this audiobook, Heath Cauley is a bear shifter who is tasked with guarding the last known unmated Fire Maiden, Claudia Kaiser, who is a dragon shifter. It turns out that they recently shared a one-night stand, without either one realizing that Heath would soon be her bodyguard. It isn’t clear how the heavily-guarded Fire Maiden escaped her guardians for a night of sex without anyone looking for her…Fortunately, she ended up with Heath, who is a good guy, but it could have ended much differently.

This audiobook brings together many of the couples featured in the prior Fire Maidens stories. It takes all of the couples working together to thwart a significant foe that is intent on deception, corruption, and power, and who doesn’t care about the evil unleashed as a result. The tension is tight, and the pacing is moderately fast. Because this is a paranormal audiobook, the author has a lot of extra wiggle room for actions that can occur within the context of the story. The logical mind knows that dragons don’t actually exist, yet Anna Lowe makes this story believable within the obvious bounds of a paranormal.

Exceptional narrators can navigate flawlessly between genders, accents, and varying ages in a believable manner. While this story is engrossing, Ms. Osborne doesn’t bother with the various accents from across Europe. Listeners might expect an Italian speaker to sound, well Italian. Or perhaps a Greek speaker might sound somewhat Greek, but that is not the case here. Every speaker has the same accent, and they all sound remarkably similar. Nevertheless, the sound quality of the recording is excellent, and there aren’t any unexpected noises or noticeable variations in volume.

Carey Sullivan