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A Court This Cruel and Lovely
Kingdom of Lies, Book 1
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Narrated by:
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Tim Paige
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Meg Sylvan
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Written by:
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Stacia Stark
About this listen
For years, when I fell asleep, I dreamed of a man with blazing green eyes and a cruel smile. The day I meet him, the ruthless mercenary leaves me for dead.
Just hours after humans are born, the gods take what little power we have. In return, they protect our borders from the vicious, merciless fae.
The humans who manage to keep their power are known as the corrupt. And they are burned.
When my forbidden power is discovered, I’m forced to flee my tiny village and the life I adore. To survive, I make a desperate bargain with the mercenary who abandoned me at my weakest moment.
Our deal is simple: I’ll help him and his mysterious friends sneak into the city, and he’ll help me learn to wield the strange, dark power I’ve always kept hidden—the power that may just be the key to my survival.
But the ruthless mercenary is hiding secrets of his own, secrets that threaten the safety of everyone I love, that could tear this kingdom—and perhaps even this world—apart.
Please note: A Court This Cruel and Lovely is an NA/adult romantasy book with steam. While this series is slow burn, the chili-pepper rating will increase for each book.
©2023 Stacia Stark (P)2023 Dreamscape MediaYou may also enjoy...
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What listeners say about A Court This Cruel and Lovely
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- red dragons
- 2024-10-11
great book!
good character development. not too predictable. very good steamy scenes. main characters are not boring or repetitive or whiny like some of the girls can be 'oh it's all my fault' ... very excited to see what happens next
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- Amazon Customer
- 2024-04-09
Great storyline can’t wait to listen to the next one
Narrators were some of the best I’ve heard lately! Gave me fourth wing and acotar vibes for sure!
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- Tania
- 2024-02-21
Terrible narration.
The story was interesting. I was intrigued. However, getting through the book was a struggle because of the character narrations. It did not feel like either voice was suited to the role, especially when each person had to take on both gender voices. At times it was tempting to not finish.
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- Tessa Tremblay
- 2024-12-04
Great story! Keeps you listening
I basically binged book one in like 3 days, and I’m enjoying book 2 just as much. The story and characters haven’t been predictable like I somewhat expected because I’ve listened to so many romantasy books. I’m surprised I haven’t heard more about it! It’s a gem
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- Amazon Customer
- 2024-11-16
Wanted more details but good storyline so far!
Overall good plot. I’d love to dive deeper into the characters emotions, thoughts and would like more details. I find some reactions don’t always make sense to me because of this lack of information. I also find the structure of the book to be slightly confusing. I’d prefer more chapters but shorter to separate the characters storylines and the different side plots. It’s hard to keep track of time sometimes and when the plot unravels, I find lots of stuff happened “behind the scenes”, instead of letting the readers benefit from how it all happened.
For the narration, but both narrators are good but I have a preference for the female parts. I can really feel the emotions there. The biggest thing I’d change would be that all female voice were done by the women narrator and all male voices be done by the male narrator. Have 2 different voices for the same characters gets confusing for me.
Anyway, I still devoured the book and will move on to the second one right after I’m done with this review! Really wished the series was included in the membership though… I guess book 2 will be read on Kindle, not audio since I have to wait 1 month for another credit…
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- Andy W
- 2024-05-28
This cured my ACOTAR hangover!
“A Court This Cruel and Lovely” is a mesmerizing journey into a world filled with magic, romance, and unexpected twists. The author’s descriptive prose and intricate plot kept me captivated throughout. The narrator’s expressive and engaging performance added depth to the characters and made the story even more compelling. This audiobook not only thrilled me but also cured my ACOTAR hangover. Highly recommend!
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- Cellena B
- 2023-12-27
Narration is terrible
Couldn’t get passed the voices
And I find it outrageous that I have to write a paragraph explaining why I didn’t like a book. I wasted $15 on a credit for this and I didn’t like it. 
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1 person found this helpful
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- Lindsey
- 2025-02-20
great reader bad writing
characters had no dept or consistency, their thoughts tended to conflict with each other in back to back sentences that didn't add value to the story. Truly felt like jarring word stuffing to meet a word count obligation
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- kenzi
- 2025-01-30
Cringe
This would have been a great story but all the sexual content was so cringey and grotesque at times I had to pause this book multiple times because of how bad it was. The actual story was really good but the over the top sexual content was SO BAD. Especially with the male narration POV I found it really vile.
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