How To Cheat a Dragon’s Curse is a return to form for the How to Train Your Dragon series. After my disappointment with How to Speak Dragonese, it's nice to be back in the grove of this story. This installment finds Hiccup on the hunt for a cure for vorpentitis after discovering his best friend Fishlegs was stung by a deadly Venomous Vorpent during their last adventure. With the help of a grouchy one-eyed snow dragon and his old friend, Camakazi Hiccup braves the Hysteric Tribe and a monstrous Doom Fang in search of a cure.

How To Cheat a Dragon’s Curse finds our intrepid heroes facing a frostbiting winter. Cowell’s atmospheric writing brought the deadly chill surrounding the Isle of Berk to life vividly. And the snowcapped adventures were a nice change of pace for the series.

We’re also introduced to one of my favourite new dragon characters in the series the surly Sabre-Tooth Driver Dragon One Eye. His disdain for humans and superiority complex isn’t a new feature for dragons in this world but his brand of cutting one-liners and sardonic tone was delightful. Plus seeing One Eye go from resenting all humans to allying with Hiccup was heartwarming. Hiccup actually makes a few dragon friends in this book and they all melted my heart.

How To Cheat a Dragon’s Curse solidified why I read this series via audiobook. I’m primarily a visual reader and appreciate the freedom of reading at my own pace. Having complete control of where my eyes land helps immerse me in the story. Audiobooks by their nature force a listener to read at a certain pace and aren’t suited to jumping around a page or rereading lines. This lack of freedom while negligible when I began the series had begun to grate on me. I especially felt like I couldn’t appreciate Cressida Cowell’s prose because it went in through one ear and out the other.

But this book’s finale reminded me exactly why David Tennant’s performance as the series’ narrator makes this story. Tennant doesn’t simply narrate the story to the reader, he performs. And while I love his hilarious character voices and comedic timing the performance shines in the emotional scenes. Tennant’s cutting, authentic sorrow at the climax of this book brought me close to tears and reminded me exactly while these audiobooks are such stunning reads.

How To Cheat a Dragon’s curse was a fantastic adventure with a harrowing climax and heart-melting epilogue.