Alexandra Marie

DNF - painful

Revisado: 12-14-23

Had an interesting premise but the plot never moved. It ended up being mostly about a woman in the kings guard being brutalized by her peers. Story was painful to follow

But excellent job to the narrators.

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Huge let down

Revisado: 06-30-23

I’m so frustrated with book 2 of this series. There were some really interesting elements in book 1, but book 2 doesn’t deliver. It started going off the rails once the main character arrives in the south capital city. Her promised is an under developed character, predictable and boring. Olathe only made it out of her safe zone by running away from R but then she suddenly becomes this adventurous must discover the city girl and then starts taking chances left and right, most notably on this day she has guarded and chaperoned carriage tour, sneaks away from the guards then ends up at a sex club, looses her virginity to a random dude, sneaks into a park outside the city, falls asleep in the sun, then almost gets kidnapped, gets her necklace stolen, then burns everyone alive again, gets stuck in another dream/nightmare, wakes up naked (except her bag isn’t burned so it’s ok, runs away from a vruk through a sewer/mud, then cuts off a branch growing out of her shoulder while the vruk is still not that far away, she’s glowing and naked and bruised and bloody and freaking barefoot, then changes back into her fancy gown, then reveals her secret identity to the captain and his family who mistake her for a relative and she learns about the persecution of her people while having tea and getting bandages up, then miraculously sneaks back into the palace, convinces her dumb as rocks fiancé that she dropped her cupola and then he goes to the palace forge, which he can use because a spoiled royal like him totally would know how to use a forge, solders it on while burning her, then has a snuggly panic attack with R, then gets all angry with him while he has randomly become nice after being incredibly absent/cruel to her, instead of working together to form a plan—all I’m one day because that’s possible.

The nightmares have disappeared, the agoraphobia has disappeared, her issues with loud noises she started doing exposure therapy for but then disappeared, her ability to turn down R has disappeared, you could drive a spaceship through these plot holes and I’m starting to dislike all the characters.

Out of all that, somehow what bugs me most is that she doesn’t bring up some really obvious conversation topics like hey R, cool you like me back now, but aren’t you still engaged to someone else? She becomes all mean.

All this while she’s trying to train to get out of a pool with a piranha and octopus in it and her trainer is one of the cultists that murder her people and sell their body parts like crack cocaine.

I can do suspension of disbelief but this is just annoying now,

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Disappointing. Interesting plot line crashes and burns though poor writing and bland female narration.

Revisado: 04-30-23

This story had a lot of promise. The story framework and characters create an interesting premise that piqued my curiosity. But then the headmaster/student dynamic became predictable and somehow bland instead of a sexy meaningful relationship and the toneless unvaried storytelling from the female narrator made me fall asleep numerous times. The narrator could have overcome the generic writing and brought this story to life. Instead her performance made listening to this book incredibly painful.

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Christian novel-not a typical YA fantasy read

Revisado: 04-20-23

This story and characters had some potential for me but ultimately it was frustrating how it quickly transitioned from a typical YA fantasy read with a romantic interest into a young naïve insecure girl trying to find god with too many direct connections to Christianity. I enjoy authors that have religious themes and characters, such as the Narnia series or The Golden Compass, for example. But those were metaphors while this feels a bit like it was designed for a Christian youth group to teach important values. Wish that the book description was more accurate. The story was also a bit predictable and the narration style compounded the main characters ramblings.

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Good YA fantasy romance - though not Wildensteins best

Revisado: 04-03-23

Solid YA fantasy romance, and only caveat to fans is that Olivia Wildenstein has improved her technique since this series, check out her other audiobooks.

For performance I gave a lower score for the following reasons:

Holly Fielding is one of the better female narrators out there but sometimes her characters can sound a bit too ditzy/high pitched/sing songy/whiny. I couldn’t find a more descriptive adjective so some combo of the ones listed above.

Thomas Locklear had a nice timber to his voice but was the main reason I gave only two stars for this performance. His French accent is SO TERRIBLE it is painful. In addition to that, two other factors made me not a fan of this performance—he has a tendency to make his internal character monologues sarcastic in a way that set my teeth on edge. Maybe it’s a generational thing (I could be way off here) but his pronunciation brought to mind a 40 year old man with a beer belly and gripes. And finally, his female character voices sound demented and don’t have any difference between them.

So in summary—pretty good but get a better male narrator.

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Good YA fantasy romance - though not Wildensteins best

Revisado: 04-03-23

Solid YA fantasy romance, and only caveat to fans is that Olivia Wildenstein has improved her technique since this series, check out her other audiobooks.

For performance I gave a lower score for the following reasons:

Holly Fielding is one of the better female narrators out there but sometimes her characters can sound a bit too ditzy/high pitched/sing songy/whiny. I couldn’t find a more descriptive adjective so some combo of the ones listed above.

Thomas Locklear had a nice timber to his voice but was the main reason I gave only two stars for this performance. His French accent is SO TERRIBLE it is painful. In addition to that, two other factors made me not a fan of this performance—he has a tendency to make his internal character monologues sarcastic in a way that set my teeth on edge. Maybe it’s a generational thing (I could be way off here) but his pronunciation brought to mind a 40 year old man with a beer belly and gripes. And finally, his female character voices sound demented and don’t have any difference between them.

So in summary—pretty good but get a better male narrator.

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High quality new fantasy read

Revisado: 03-22-23

This book really took me by surprise. Strong, detailed writing, lovable well developed characters, realistic and humorous dialogue, an enthralling plot that includes all your favorite tropes (slow burn romance, forced marriage, loyal best friend, discovery of another world) while turning some of them on their head while simultaneously committing more thoroughly to certain aspects than most stories.

I will caution you that this story goes a bit more slowly than others—but the depth of detail, lack of plot holes and the way Starling breathes life into the characters make it worth the wait as the suspense grows. My hope is that book 2 will be as strong as book one—it’s an incredible opening act and will be hard to keep up the quality and level of cleverness. I also noticed that Sasha and Lorn avoided some immature fights, really appreciated Sasha saying for example “I want to be furious with you but this isn’t your fault”, or that they both apologize and get over the “old couple fighting” after the almost kidnapping. As a reader it meant I didn’t have to read through a fight that I have read a million times before even though it is a superficial way to create conflict. I hope the second book maintains that level of emotional intelligence (at least on Sasha’s side, Lorn is still a novice thigh he is mature despite being completely cut off previously from his feelings).

In book 2 I hope they explore a more physical relationship—and are able to talk about it maturely as well. Sex and physical touching are big components and sometimes thermometers for how a relationship is doing. I also think they should use the proper words for sex and body parts—unless it’s building up to a way for him to tease her as an elementary teacher. But she is is 30 and self proclaimed as sexually demanding and he used to have many paramours than they should be able to express themselves better than “adult type touching”. Adding more details about their physical relationship can enhance the character development and overall plot line. In other words you get more steamy without going tawdry.

I will also say outstanding performances by both Steve West and Emily Ellet. I hope book two will be recorded in duet!

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Everything you’re looking for in a fantasy romance

Revisado: 03-08-23

This book checks all the boxes. Well written, characters with depth, comical dialogue, romance build up, steamy scenes, and a happy ever after ending. Great selection on the narrators. Only critique is that it could have been stretched into a series—but it did make a solid enjoyable standalone story.

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Leia Stone is at the top of my do not read list

Revisado: 02-20-23

So many things wrong with this authors stories, they always leave me disappointed and frustrated by plot lines filled with holes/generalities/lazy writing and love stories that are downright dumb—this one includes a woman justifying that it’s ok if she marry a man that will need to have several mistresses because she can’t give him an heir. Also the sex scenes are boring—beyond vanilla and also make judgmental comments about any girls that have sex before marriage or pursue one night stands. Grosss!

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Not worth your time

Revisado: 02-15-23

This has all the hallmarks of a good fantasy series, a strong female lead, magic and mayhem, murders, and a hot mysterious man. But the writing character development and slap dash “investigation” is so incompetent that it’s painful to listen to. The narrator is fine but her voices for male characters are incredibly unrealistic and not distinguishable from the regular narration or female characters.

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