What a performance!

The voice are credible and vivid, the pace is great, and everything is as it should to provide the perfect stage for this captivating story. Interesting characters and great plot. I am buying the next ones in the series for sure.

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my favourite narrator so far!

I had already read this series on my own but wanted something to fall asleep to at night so I got the audiobook. The narrator was so fantastic that it was hard to fall asleep to but gave new life to the story. I am so disappointed that the second book isn't on audible and that the third in the series isn't with the same narrator.

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loved this

everything about this was just what I wanted! highly recommend. the story and voice actor was great

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Enjoyed the book, but where’s the 2nd?

Audible has the 1st and 3rd books...but not the 2nd? Really want to continue the series!

Update: July 2022 *spoilers*
I audiobooked the first of this series back in 2019 and gave it 5 stars…looking back now that I’ve re-read this first book in paper format, I’m like whaaaaaaat, 5 stars how? This is a solid 3 stars.

I don’t get how this soon-to-be-Queen is trained daily from the time she was an infant to inherit her mother’s crown but at the age of 19, as planned for to the exact day, she goes off to do just that and face off with assassins with no knowledge of how to protect herself beyond using a knife, isn’t in peak survival body conditioning, isn’t good on a horse, has a huge gap in her knowledge about her kingdom, it’s history and her mother’s reign because her tutors swore an oath not to tell her. So the people meant to prepare her for her life’s supposed purpose missed some of the most essential things she’d need in order to do the job in the first place……..seems a little sketch and ridiculous to me.

Other than that general silliness and a handful of other confusing bits that made literally no practical sense…the world is interesting and the characters capture my attention. She’s a little silly sometimes, but the MC Kelsea is mostly a badass. I’ll be continuing the series to see if things improve 😅

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4 people found this helpful

A great story

This a great story & the narrator Katherine Kellgren does an incredible job with the different voices. I would highly recommend the series but question how Audible doesn’t have book number 2 (Invasion of the Tearling)???? I had to buy from iTunes.

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1 person found this helpful

Great Book

I really loved everything about this story, and they had a great voice actor!
#Audible1

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No thanks.

Found the writing lacking. I swear if I heard Mace reprimand the queen with, "Lady!" one more time I would have screamed. Not only was the writing annoying, with serially impertinent characters, but the narrator was inconsistent with her voices in the beginning, even if she did settle in eventually. I found her voice too shrill. There is build-up for two more books in the series, but I will not invest my time. Characters are too two-dimensional. This was a soggy ham sandwich of a book, sorry. Did not enjoy at all.

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Comments as below

I'm a super critical reader, and I'm listing the highlights and weak points of this story,
Strength:
1. The female protagonist's personality is perfect. There're only a few female protagonists who make me think they have flawless characteristics, and Kelsea is one of them. She is clever, studious, confident, tough, decisive|, mentally strong, She has compassion on women, on her people, aims to free her people, and improves the environment of her kingdom comprehensively. She doesn't believe in God, has the least interest in religions, but believe in herself, but in humanity. My fictional character is also an empress who says "When humanity stands strong, and people reach out for each other, there is no need for gods." (Though I hate humanity myself). Kelsea also wants to abolish prostitution. It's a crucial idea which represents a normal woman's attitude towards prostitution and porns. Only men have demand in prostitution, if there's no demand, there'd be no supply. Any women want to have pleasure in prostitution are traitors because they gain happiness from other women's suffering. Prostitution shouldn't exist and need to be forbidden worldwide entirely in reality. I can't tell all Kelsea's virtues in this comment.
2. Kelsea is a princess who claims her mother's throne(not her father's) and fights with the least all allies and respect from the nobles, even her guards. She muss learn how to be a ruler from the beginning but still has come so far.
However, there're so many aspects unsatisfied.
1. Kelsea is the most impressive female character in Book 1. There's none other outstanding female characters by Kelsea's side yet besides her foster mother(and she's dead) or her maids/servants. All her trustworthy courtiers are men!!! And the author make them heroes, we don't need that many male characters heroic in a pro-women fictions. YES, as always, straight women have a horrible taste in men. It's too ridiculous that Kelsea has a crush on her kidnapper who she doesn't even know his face, then they're flirting in inappropriate occasions! I rolled my eyes each time when this guy showed up, I'm so disgusted at straight women's twisted aesthetics in men . If the fetch and Pen were a female, then most things would be perfect. The red queen would be hot and attractive if she's not cruel to women, too.
2. There's no need to overly demonstrate women's suffering in any kind of literatures. I understand that it's needed to some sort of descriptions to make the story more vivid, impactful, impressive to show the tyranny of the red queen which increases the contrast comparing to Kelsea's mercy, but excessive details of women's torture not only pleases men and make men sexually arouse(because men've been loving seeing women suffering for thousands of years since patriarchy's from on their own hand), but also let female readers scared which leads them to feel helpless in front of men(actually men're fragile). There're enough abuses toward women in men's writing, as a female writer should never do the same. Instead, the author can describe the torment on men as much details as possible.
3. The bad fame of the red queen used to made me believe she's a smart ruler until last few characters in Book1. Unfortunately, she is stupid enough to lose herself in the pleasure of past victory. That's not a ruler who has been on the throne for over a hundred year should do.
4. A queen, who has the most power in her kingdom, doesn't need beauty. Only those who don't have power or have lost power need beauty. In the nature, only males need beauty so they can be chosen, which means females are the one always have the right to choose. The day patriarchy form, women lost their power as female, and the roles have been swapped. Women should never envy other women's appearance, or upset with not gaining males' attention. It's men who need to be beautiful and please females. Not a single woman needs beauty since we are FEMALE.
I rated this book 5 stars in my mind at the beginning for a perfect female protagonist, but started losing me patient afterward. I'm not going to another credit for the second book. I know there'll be stupid romance going on.

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