Savannah

I’ll admit: I rolled my eyes when I saw *another* dragon-nobility book. But *Savannah* disarmed me within an hour. The hook isn’t the dragons—it’s the *people* piloting them, and how SunriseCV turns a grief-stricken house into a masterclass in political chess. Derek’s journey from outsider to reluctant player in Gracefall’s games is compelling because it’s *messy*. He’s not a chosen one; he’s a guy who keeps stumbling into rooms where the stakes are life-or-death, and his only advantage is being underestimated. The scene where he’s forced to negotiate a blood debt over tea—while Verner’s narration drips with repressed panic—is audiobook gold. That said, the romance subplot feels tacked on, like the author remembered halfway through they needed a love interest. And while Verner’s character voices are stellar, his female characters occasionally slip into a breathy register that grates after a while. But these are quibbles. The real triumph is how the audiobook *sounds* like a whispered conspiracy—low ambient hums in the background, the way Verner lets sentences trail off when Derek’s lying. It’s a production that trusts listeners to lean in. If you love fantasy that’s more *The Queen’s Gambit* than *Game of Thrones*, and narrators who act like they’re confiding in you, this is your next obsession. Just maybe skip the last chapter’s epilogue; it over-explains what the rest of the book earned.