Wow great story

What made the experience of listening to Dragon Gate the most enjoyable?

The narrator really brings the story to life. Makes each Character stand out.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Dragon Gate?

When Brand gave up his power for Kelly

What about Joe Hempel’s performance did you like?

Gives life to each character. Makes them seem real.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. It was action packed all the way through

Any additional comments?

I received this book as a gift from the author/narrator/publisher for a honest review. I look forward to more in this series. This is the second i have read.

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5 people found this helpful

EXCELLENT. ACTION PACKED.

Most enjoyable. Going on to book four. I hope book five will be published soon. Gary Jonas writes fantastic books and the narrator joe Hempel brings the characters to life with his fantastic performance!
Excellent series.

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Action, danger and revenge

The 3rd audiobook in the Jonathan Shade series continues his story from where the last book left off. We see a harder more serious side to Shade, the repercussions of his actions in book two are taking their toll and his friends are noticing the changes in him. Kelly, Brant and Jon are hired by Dragon Gate Industries (whom Slade owes a favour to) to protect the Noble family from the vengeful Marshall clan. Of course, these are not normal people and the challenges and dangers this job presents has effects on everyone on Slade's team. Slade himself is perhaps changed most by the occurrences in this story, changing him from the dark, pessimistic figure he had become, back into a person willing to take a chance on life. This book is somewhat lighter in nature than book two, but it still retains a hint of darkness. It also differs in that it is told from various POV's and I liked this change in format. I found it brought depth to the other characters and gave the reader more insight into their personalities. Joe Hempel's narration has grown along with the characters, infusing more depth and emotion into each one. I particularly like how Brant has been brought to life in this book, his character has developed and grown in the story and Mr Hempel has reflected that in his narration. This story rounds up many of the storyline threads from the previous two books and begins some engaging new ones that will be interesting to see how they develop. I received this audiobook at no cost in exchange for an honest review

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4 people found this helpful

Does not disappoint

All my favorite characters are back. Yes, Jonathan is still having issues with his past inability to protect his friends and his current guilt over not telling them. That is something he will have to deal with. Kelly and Brand notice that there is a hardness to Jonathan and do not understand it.

We have Kelly in a very near death condition over one of Jonathan's plan/not plan. Brand blows my mind over his love for Kelly. I did not see him as a person with any depth. His sacrifice gave him bonus points. The dynamics of the trio has changed.

So what is the Noble family? Where are they from? What is the connection between them and the Dragon Gate in the tunnels under DGI. There is still action, back stabbing, and knelling (yea knelling) going on. These questions set the series in a new direction, which presents an opportunity for character growth and more paranormal opportunities.

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Book 3 doesn’t disappoint

Gary Jonas doesn’t disappoint with his third Jonathan Shade Novel!  After book two and the devastating turn of events was righted, we see a much changed Jonathan.  Gone is his whimsical almost careless sarcasm.  Instead we are given a man who is haunted by the past and future.  He no longer relies on his luck but rather plans everything out and refuses to endanger his friends.

Mike Bender of DGI brings Jonathan Shade a job.  Protect the family of the recently decaptitated Stephen Noble, a wealthy board member of DGI.  Jonathan, Kelly, Brant and Esther agree to provide protection for Graham and Rayna – grown children of Stephen Noble.

Graham and Rayna come from a dimension where honor is everything and is drilled into them from birth.  The Marshall family, also of their dimension arrives and begins to exact punishment for wrongs done before and during the Noble family crossing into the Dragon portal at DGI.

Not only are there dragons and healers, but there are hideous creatures that rip and shred their prey in mere seconds.  The Nobles have deadly family secrets; secrets that may get Kelly, Brant and Jonathan killed.

Jonas keeps getting darker with each book; this one has people nobly accepting death – one person commits the crime and the entire line is wiped out; whether all parties are guilty or not.

Jonas surprises his listeners with more twists and turns.  Resigned to a haunted Jonathan, we are instead given a growing Jonathan.  Kelly and Brant are growing as well.  I enjoyed the Kelly diary writing style to show her viewpoint.  It made the connection to her audience more complete.  She is no longer only the blood thirsty assassin/warrior; she is a more complete character.  Surprisingly Brant became much more as well.

Joe Hempel again does not disappoint.  I am constantly surprised at how well he integrates himself with the characters making them more real than not.  His ability to inject just the right amount of energy and emotion is stunning.  He makes narration sound much easier than it is. Hempel gets Jonas; together as narrator and author this series is top notch.

I cannot wait for book 4!  I am sure it will be as fast paced, action filled and exciting as these three.

There were no issues with production; everything was smooth.

Audiobook was provided for review by the narrator.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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8 people found this helpful

Epic!!!!

I fricking love this entire series!!!! seriously, from pterodactyls in heat to any other crazy scenarios you could possibly contrive, I'm a HUGE fan! This series just keeps getting better! Poor J. S. keeps getting thwarted by his love interests! Hopefully he can keep this one alive
...lol! my favorite part of this series so far, is the paranormal aspect. Especially Clara. LOVED IT!!!

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Third in the Series, Best Yet

This is the third in the Johnathan Shade series, and I have to say, it's the best yet. The story was more cohesive with few side plots to distract from the main storyline. I enjoyed (almost) all of the characters, and Mr. Hempel's performance--as always--breathes life into them. It's very easy to tell one character apart from the other merely by the sound of his voice and the way he acts them out.

The plot itself is relatively simple: Johnathan is hired for a protection job. It seems there is a family of immigrants from beyond the Dragon Gate (Yes, THAT Dragon Gate, in the basement of DGI) who have lived among us for many years. They were fleeing from another family/clan in an alternate dimension who wants them all dead to satisfy their honor, according to their customs. Johnathan, Kelly, Brand, & Esther are hired to after the parents have been killed. The father of the family had arranged via Mike Ender to keep his kids safe in the event of his death by beheading. The rest of the plot follows from there.

In this book, Johnathan doesn't kid around so much... which I liked. His jokes? Not really that good anyway, so I was happy to hear less of them. However, since the events of the last book, he's a LOT gloomier. I'm not sure if the trade off was worth it. Towards the end of the book, it seems a lot of the character development had been mostly wiped away. Kelly was awesome, and I liked the main new character introduced, Raina, but the star of the show for me was Brand. He understood self-sacrifice in a way that was realistic and very moving. That one particular scene (you'll know it when you hear it) really brought tears to my eyes.

There are a couple things which bear mentioning. First, this is the first book in the series which was not all told from Johnathan's POV. I'm not sure how I feel about the series suddenly shifting gears like that... BUT we got to be in Kelly's head, that I really loved that. We also got to be in other character's heads... but they were new and I didn't know them. So until we had more to go on, I spent much of Raina's POV going "I don't get it. Why do I need to hear from her? I don't know her!" In addition to that, the narrative FOR Raina's POV switches from first person to third person limited, which is VERY odd, and it helps for mistakes to be made. At one point, though we know Raina cannot see Esther, the text states she pops into view... but it was 3rd person from Raina's POV, so it became kind of confusing. I'm not sure if the multiple POVs were really necessary, and then again, major characters were omitted from that POV shift! We didn't see Esther or Brand's POV, both of which have been around since the first book and are important supporting characters.

So, while I quite liked this offering, due to the weird changes in format and storytelling narrative, I just can't give it a five out of five. It's still a really great story, and the best I've listened to yet from Mr. Jonas. Joe Hempel's narration for the series remains spot on and perfect. Even though I don't quite like Johnthan Shade, I can't imagine anyone else narrating him.

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2 people found this helpful

I hope the rest of the series comes to Audible

Any additional comments?

I'm enjoying this series. I will say that I enjoyed the first two books more. I like Joe as a narrator. I've listened to some of his other work apart from this series and he did not disappoint. I received this audiobook for free through Audiobook Blast for my unbiased review.

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Dragon Gate

This is a good read.The third in a series and just as good as book 1 and 2.Johnathon is hired to keep a mobsters adult children from being murdered.They are from the other side of the dimension and honor is everything to them leading to unique issues keeping them alive.Joe Hampel is the perfect narrator for this series."This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost

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Another Jonathan Shade Hit!

This was a really good story and great performance, I will not hesitate to continue this series.

These books remind me of the Dresden series but more on the darker side. Dragon Gate moves at a steady pace, and has a good mix of action, humor and several gory scenes that made me cringe. However, what I really like best about the series and this story, is the characters and how the story is told from their different POV's. My favorite character is Kelly, I love her sarcasm and she really kicks A**. She had me laughing out loud. The other main characters Brand and Jonathan are funny too but Jonathan, who is immune to magic, has more lives than a cat and can get out of some of the most dire situations. He may not always have the best laid out plan, but he sure can think quick on his feet.

Jonathan and his team were hired to protect the Nobles grown children Graham and Rayna from being executed by the Marshall's family for crimes they didn't commit. Graham really did not want Jonathan and his team's protection but agrees for his sister sake. The only thing I did not like about the plot was Graham being killed, but hey I guess there is a moral to this story, if a group of people is determine to end you, you don't make yourself an easy target by continuously going to places you know they will be watching.

Joe's performance was great and he really delivered on this story. Each character had their own voice and he used the right amount of tone and inflection to convey the different emotions throughout the story. I really liked how he portrayed Kelly's voice and personality and he was a prefect fit for Jonathan.

"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast dot com."

The story is credit worthy, but personality I would save my credit and purchase at the sale price either way, it will definitely be worth the time invested in listening to the story.

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5 people found this helpful