myworldinwordsandpages

*I requested to review a copy of this audiobook for an honest review from the author or narrator.

On his knees, prepared to be executed, Stephen Noble calls Mike Endar leaving the short message that only Mike will know the meaning of. To protect Stephen's two children. Mike knows who to go to, and with owing Mike one, Jonathan and his team are on the job. To protect Rayna and Graham Noble. Rayna doesn't want to live by the rules of the old world's ways, she wants to live on and not die. But she needs to convince her brother of that thinking in this new world they live in, things are different on this side of the gate. Jonathan and Kelly know there is information they don't have, but they fight a family of thirteen to protect Rayna and Graham as best they can.

Joe has returned for the third book in this series to voice Jonathan and crew for us. Joe has become Jonathan Shade's voice for me so I'm thrilled when we stay with the same narrator. Joe does different vocal timbres for each character to help differentiate them in the story. Implications of male and female along with inflection of the characters mind set. The story narration is clear and seamless in it's creation.

This story has a little different format. It's not all from Jonathan's POV. We get the view of the story from a few additional people. We have Jonathan and Kelly working as a team to protect Rayna and Graham, each having their own lives to live and things to do so we split up with the two protectees. By doing this we get views from all four characters so we learn what information of the Noble family and ways of their world are revealed along with what happens to each.

Getting the view through Kelly's eyes and in her mind gives us a softer look on her. It seems Kelly has grown as well. Kelly still loves to kill, that's what she was created for, but she's starting to see that life needs to be preserved as well.

Kelly also sees that her dear friend Jonathan is not the same person he was a few months ago. She can see a hardness in Jonathan now that also prevents his good nature jokes and smiles from appearing as often as they use to. This is what I was waiting to see in this book. I wanted to see how Jonathan would be different and how he'd handle it with his friends. Jonathan is struggling with how to handle things with his friends as Kelly and Brand are both questioning him about being different, both personality wise and fighting wise. Jonathan doesn't want to admit his failure to them. A failure he corrected and in the process became a different person. Jonathan has to find a way of working through his fear of losing people and let himself connect again. He seems to come around at the end. Which is nice, because I do enjoy his sense of humor too.

Jonathan seems to fall for the woman he does jobs for. I figured that would be coming in this story as well. It's a slow growth then suddenly Jonathan turns the corner to start being his old self. In doing so, Jonathan might have found himself a keeper girlfriend, but his track record hasn't been so good as his past girlfriends are dead. Will this one live?

Gary is not afraid to beat up his characters, on many fronts. Jonathan, Kelly, and Brand all go through drastic changes in this book. Physically and mentally they come to realize things, but are they ready to face what the outcomes will be?

The story here had me curious as to what the Noble family is. There is a connection between them and the Dragon Gate in the tunnels under DGI, as you probably could guess from the title if you've read the previous two books. They are something... different. But what?

I'm caught by this series. I'm curious to see where and what new magical beings or events we come across in the future.