Audiobook Review – Three Days to Dead (Dreg City, Book 1) by Kelly Meding (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 416 pages
Publisher: Dell
Release Date: November 24, 2009
ISBN: 978-0553592863
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Dreg City series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

This is the first book in the Dreg City series. There are four book total in this series, there were supposed to be seven but the publisher dropped the series after the fourth book. This series was pretty typical urban fantasy; nothing bad but nothing all that original either.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was decent. The narrator did a good job distinguishing characters voices and conveying emotion. My one complaint would be that Evy’s voice was kind of breathy sounding which totally didn’t match Evy’s character-type (at least I didn’t think so).

This was an urban fantasy series about a Bounty hunter named Evangeline who hunts Dregs (the cities dark creatures like goblins, vamps, etc). Evangeline starts the book waking up in a new body that’s not her’s. For the whole book she is trying to remember and hunt down critical information that she knew when she died, information that could save the world. Evangeline (Evy) has been resurrected into the body of a young woman who committed suicide, Chalice. She was resurrected by her friend Wyatt, who is determined to help her hunt down her memories.

While I thought the idea behind the world was interesting, there wasn’t a ton creative here and the world wasn’t expanded much beyond the initial premise of fey-like creatures hiding out in the bad parts of the city.

Evangeline was your typical urban fantasy heroine, except for the fact that she was killed and brought back into a different body at the beginning of the book. She complains some about Chalice’s body not reacting like her own. Still she seems to do fairly well in fights despite the fact that Chalice’s body is untrained. The fact that she only has three days to solve the mystery of this unknown information does lend more urgency to this story.

Wyatt was okay but not all that inspiring as a male lead. He seemed a bit weak and easily led…I didn’t really feel great chemistry between him and Evy. In fact I didn’t find any of the characters to be all that intriguing or engaging in this book.

The plot was also fairly predictable, there are some twists and turns but things end up pretty much how I thought they would in the end. This is a pretty dark story as well with torture, rape, and dank bleak settings. So those who dislike really dark urban fantasy should probably skip this and look elsewhere.

Overall this was an okay read, but nothing that really stood out in the urban fantasy genre for me. The world was kind of interesting but not all that well filled out, Evy is in an interesting situation with her resurrection and all, but I didn’t like her all that much as a character. Nothing really offensive here, but nothing great either. This is a dark setting with rape and torture as part of the story, so just a heads up to those who don’t like those subjects in their reading. There is so much excellent urban fantasy out there that I wouldn’t really recommend this series. I don’t plan on reading any more of this series.

For excellent urban fantasy check out Ilona Andrew’s Kate Daniel’s series, Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series, Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid or October Daye series, Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series, or Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Audio Book Challenge
– 150+ Reading Challenge
– Paranormal Reading Challenge
– TBR Pile Reading Challenge