Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Raven: Part One
SERIES: Forbidden Desires Spinoff
AUTHORS: Piper Scott & Virginia Kelly
NARRATOR: Michael Ferraiuolo
LENGTH: 10 hours and 12 minutes
RELEASE DATE: March 29, 2024
BLURB:
Bertram Drake, the most mysterious Drake brother, leads a life shrouded in secrecy. Taken from his brothers at a young age and shaped into a weapon to be used by the dragon council, he has one sole purpose: obey the orders given to him, no matter what they might be.
Once a perfect jewel of the Pedigree, Sorin’s sparkle has been dulled. Taken from his cloister and sold regularly to the highest bidder, he has learned two vital truths.
The first: that dragons are monsters who will stop at nothing to get what they want. And the second, most terrible truth of all: that egg madness is a lie—omegas are not saved from a lifetime of pain even when they are separated from their eggs.
When Sorin’s newest buyer mysteriously dies, Sorin sees it as his chance to escape from the hellish life he’s been forced to lead. The only obstacle? A handsome agent of the council who has been tasked with ending his life.… and who has custody of his eggs.
Raven: Part One is a 100,000 word omegaverse mpreg-ish romance set prior to the events of the Forbidden Desires series. It contains action, adventure, heartbreak, laughter, and more than its fair share of steam. For maximum enjoyment, Raven: Part One is best listened to following the events of Clutch, Bond, Mate, Swallow, Magpie, Finch, and Peregrine.
Please use the Look Inside or Download Free Sample feature to examine the Content Warning for possible triggers.
REVIEW:
Note: This book is a spin-off of the main series and has major spoilers for all the preceding books. Therefore, it’s recommended that this series be read/listened to in order. Please be sure to read the content warnings before listening as there are sensitive/triggering topics and events described in this book.
This story opens with a rather gruesome episode for Sorin, a sorely abused omega who has repeatedly be used to produce clutches for various dragons and then sold on again to do the same. This time it’s Unwin, a dragon of the Amethyst clan. What he has done to past eggs and plans to do again with this clutch of 4 new eggs is really unspeakable. But then Unwin dies. How? By whose hand? The only possibility is the poor omega who looks like death warmed over himself.
Enter Frederich (aka Bertram Drake), Amethyst agent of the dragon counsel sent to investigate the mess left behind. What he discovers are horrific experiments and specimens, a dead dragon and an omega out of his mind and determined to get his eggs. After discovering what Unwin was up to, Frederich makes a decision to let Sorin live if he agrees to never show his face again. Frederich will take the eggs and raise them.
Of course Sorin can’t do that. It takes him a long time, but he manages to get to Bertram’s isolated castle in the Scottish Highlands by following the call of his eggs. When he gets there, Bertram is none too pleased. But as Sorin recovers, it’s clear that he has a story to tell. At first Bertram believes he is lying, but over time, the details are too strong and accurate to think that Sorin is just crazy. Sorin is determined to free all the pedigree omegas from the cloisters that trap them.
Bertram comes to realize that what he’s been told about the cloisters, the omegas and this supposed egg madness are lies. He now understands why Sorin believes all dragons are monsters – despite being the papa of 4 of them. Bertram strikes a deal with his father to get a 10 year break in his council duties to raise the clutch. What Grimbold doesn’t know is that Bertram has Sorin there as well.
When the 10 years are up, Grimbold returns and demands that Frederich resume his duties. This of course is unwelcome news to the entire family – which is what Bertram and Sorin and the whelps are now. Because over the decade, Bertram and Sorin have fallen in love while raising their boys. Of course no sooner does Bertram leave and arrive at his appointed target than Sorin has to do with a surprise visit. And Bertram feels his pain. What a time to find out that Sorin is indeed his true mate!
Bertram is able to return home, but the price is heavy and not just for him. He can’t risk anyone else finding out what he and Sorin and the Vanguard are up to clandestinely liberating omegas and teaching them to stay under the radar. Time passes and they continue to fight the system that commodifies and exploits the omegas and ignores their suffering. Until an incident hits closer to home and this just may be the turning point for Bertram and Sorin and the Vanguard – and may either break or save the Amethyst Clan and the Dragon Council for good.
Well the long wait is over and it doesn’t disappoint! This first part of Raven’s story covers the time from Sorin’s laying of a clutch for Unwin, a sadistic Amethyst dragon all the way through to the beginning of the story told in Clutch. This story also includes the history of Bertram/Frederich Drake – mysterious agent of the Dragon Council. While this is book 8, it’s really more of a prequel to the whole Forbidden Desires/Spinoff series. Covering roughly 500 years, there are incidents in this book that are also described in some of the previous books where Sorin is depicted only as a villain – trying to “liberate” omegas who do not want to be freed or taken from their mates and also trying to kill some of the dragons. There is quite a bit of violence here – some of it unintended. There is foreshadowing of some of Harrison’s theories long before Harrison is on the scene 😉 Everard and Alistair and Sebastian and Grimbold make appearances here – some more welcome than others. Sorin is not a crazed murderer – well at least not all of the time 😉 The abuse/coercion/expendable treatment of the omegas is a driving force for this story and this series. It’s clear that they just are not “equal” to the dragons – despite providing the next generation. I cannot WAIT for Part II to see how this will all be resolved along the timeline of the previously published books.
Michael Ferraiuolo is a dream narrator. I know everyone has been waiting for this 20 hours plus of audio and thankfully it’s here! The emotion, the pain, the ferocity of Sorin were so well portrayed. The performance of all the dragons and the rest of the characters are completely consistent. The whelps were adorable. The accents lovely. Everything about this performance is spot on. I loved it and can’t wait for the next one 🙂 Highly recommended.
RATING: 
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