Great Story!

Love this story and series by Megan Derr. Although the narration was adequate, I have come to expect narrators to give unique 'voices' for each character (like narrators Gomez Pugh & Greg Tremblay). Unfortunately, that really was not the case here. If I was not already familiar with story, I may have gotten a bit confused because there was no real difference among the character voices when they were all 'talking' to each other.

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13 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

A must read.

Derr' s descriptive text allows her readers to get up close and personal with the characters. This book is a perfect example of how a world could be envisioned if we could accept each other on our on terms with the recognition that who we are and who we choose to love is both an empowering and miraculous gift. Can't wait for her next book!!

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11 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Great book. Audio does it justice.

Have you listened to any of Michael Stellman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I'm very happy that Stellman decided to drop the accent he tried to do in "Tournament of Losers" (also by Derr). There are few things that irritate me as much as this weird notion that audio fantasy books require British accents.

Especially since this is one of my fav books by Derr, so I'm glad I'll be able to re-listen many times without having to suppress that irritation.

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9 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Fantastic story with a next-level good reader!

If you could sum up The High King's Golden Tongue in three words, what would they be?

Fantastic, Layered, Different

Who was your favorite character and why?

Allen for sure. He has a poker face that people can't really read but inside his mind, he is steadily doubting everything and constantly thinking through every situation. At first, I was a little irritated with Sarrica for being so callous but the fact is that miscommunication is the cornerstone of any good story.

Which character – as performed by Michael Stellman – was your favorite?

Commander Lesto. He's kind of an anti-hero. Someone who you'd think was a surly jerk but secretly has a heart.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The man who understands every language in the room holds all the power.

Any additional comments?

This story was so rich and layered, with its own history and lore, I found myself hungry for more information about the surrounding kingdoms. The characters were extremely interesting. I wanted to know all of their stories. The narrator made the story immersive and extremely enjoyable. I NEED THE REST OF THIS SERIES ON AUDIO RIGHT NOW, PLEASE AND THANK YOU!

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8 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Favorite of the year!

WOW. How did I not read this book before?! So I went to Netgalley to try and start reducing my mess of a tbr pile and found the second book of this series on there. I figured since it's a series I should start with book 1 and I LOVE Allen so much!!

This story follows (mostly) Allen's journey as he tries to become an acceptable consort to High King Sarrica, who has promptly kicked him out of court on his arrival. His reasoning: he wants a consort who is a soldier, someone who can rule with him as an equal, not just a pretty face he can't trust. Allen on the other hand, isn't sure why he's been so rudely dismissed and later ignored and humiliated. Instead of letting this get to him too much, Allen puts himself to use, intent on proving Sarrica that he isn't weak. He tries to settle communication affairs with staff, gets to know his surroundings, and finding out about a secret mission in need of a silver tongue (multilingual speaker), Allen appoints himself to the task. A task that ends up being much tougher for everyone involved than Allen expected.

I actually listened to the audiobook and while the narration wasn't amazing, it was pretty well done, keeping me engaged with the story from beginning to end.

I instantly fell in love with Allen's character. I loved how he was so tenacious when it came to being Sarrica's consort. I mean, he'd spent his life (and last 2 years) training to become his partner. He knew 14 languages (FOURTEEN PPL, TWO IS HARD FOR ME ALREADY) like a native, knew how to mingle with the council, and was charismatic enough to make (almost) everyone fall for him. And even with all his talents, he's not prideful or a jerk. He always listens to people and tries to find the best solution to things. And he keeps proving he's not a fragile little prince. Like SARRICA YOUR FOOL.

And speaking of Sarrica. I like how it's almost like experiencing two different characters. We see him from Allen's lense at the start. I swear I was about to knock him out then. And we actually got into his head and realized that Sarrica is stressed out with kingly responsibilities, is still in mourning, and is just an awkward guy who can't seem to express what he wants well. I think this last one made me especially feel for him because I've been in that situation before many times. Plus, his bantering with Lesto and Ren? (the one con about audiobooks is that I have no idea how to spell character names).

Oh, and did I mention that being gay is like being straight in this book?! Like nobody bats an eye at that. And by being gay I mean m/m and f/f relationships since we do get a glimpse at both. There was one thing I was a bit confused about and that's Mpreg. It's mentioned that Sarrica's late husband sired their kids and another character mentions being able to carry children, but I'm not sure if only certain people can or if everyone can.

In terms of the story, it wasn't anything Amazing but coupled with the worldbuilding, I have to say this is one of the few books that I instantly wanted to know more. I wanted to know more about the different cultures mentioned, hear the languages, and just SEE everything. I'm sure it would be beautiful! I also can't say much about the plot but do expect some killing as this does take place in a world where war is a thing.

In terms of the romance, I did enjoy it though if I had to be picky, I did feel like the change in behaviour was a bit abrupt. It's something that Allen mentions at one point but having been inside of Sarrica's head, it also sort of makes sense. We see his change from grumpy ol' fool to smitten high king. And that ending was a bonus for all that tension throughout the story, lol!

I really REALLY want to see more of these two and I'm crossing my fingers that the second book, which focuses on Lesto will bring them back.

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6 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Delightful!

Delightful! Arranged political/royalty marriage, slow burn romance, politics and intrigue. I enjoyed the focus on language/translation with a diplomat-linguist as one of the main characters. I enjoyed the High King's snark with his brothers-in-law/arms as well. There wasn't any pointless miscommunication plot line stuff, and the lack-of-communication/assumptions issues were typically quickly resolved and reasonable for the characters rather than drawn out annoying.

I enjoyed the plot, the world building, the cast of varied characters and the reading overall. I definitely hope future books in this series are made into audiobooks because I would love to listen to more!

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6 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

First impressions prove to be bad for this couple

Ending
💖Happily Ever After

Comedy Level
😄Minimal Comedy

Romance
💜Slow Romantic Build in

Sex
🔥Short Sex Scenes

Series
📘Stand Alone

Misc
👑Royal/Famous
🍼Parent/Caretaker
🏰Fantasy

Narrator
💩No Distinct Voice for Each Character
🎭Voice acting on point and matching emotion of story
🎤Wonderful Voice

If you like this book, then I recommend:

"The Servant" by Mary Calmes
"Lord Mouse" by Mason Thomas
"Family of Lies: Sebastian" by Cornell Collins
"Consorting with Dragons" by Sera Trevor
"Tournament of Losers" by Megan Derr
"The Pirate of Fathoms Deep" by Megan Derr
"Ever After" by Christina Lee, Riley Hart
"Forever Moore" by Christina Lee, Riley Hart
"The Solstice Prince" by SJ Himes

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3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Different ... Odd

This book's approach to same sex romance was very different. The best part were the affectionate "manly" relationships between the main male characters as well as the fact that women play an entirely different and unexpected role. Don't read this book for any kind of sexual surprises. There are none. It has no real BDSM themes, just subtle and very sparse hints of kink. The author's command of world creating is top notch, but still bizarre. That's why the mid-level rating. I'm still not sure that I like the book, not sure that I don't. I am not inclined to read another from this author. Oh ... Michael Stellman's narration made this book more than it could ever be with just print.

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3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

I didn't want it to end.

I don’t know what took me so long to listen to this one, maybe it was the length of the story, 11 hours plus seemed really long at a glance. I’ve been picking out non-lengthy stories as of late. But I’ve read great reviews on this one and finally decided to knock it off the TBR list.

What a masterfully woven world, where it’s open, gender and sexuality is a nonissue, where everybody is well presented and nobody is ridiculed for being polyamorous, or for a king who had a man as a high consort isn’t a big deal, nobody bats an eye. Amazing.

I love every single moment of this story. The characters are multi-faceted. The kingdoms, the countries, the culture, the languages, they all got me hooked. I want to know more about it and I want Allen to be the one doing the storytelling.

This one is not quite an enemies-to-lovers story, but it’s more opposites-didn’t-quite-attract-initially, kind of story. Sarrica and Allen had to face challenges for their own HEA, but it was worth it, as it should.

The supporting characters, they’re all distinct and again, I want to get to know them more.

I want more stories of King Sarrica and Prince Allen. I’m hoping they’ll still be prevalent characters in High Commander Lesto’s story.

Michael Stellman did a decent job. I’m used to narrators who perform better and lines are delivered with more emotions. Mr. Stellman wasn’t flat though so I carried on listening to his storytelling even though I wish each of the characters’ voices could be more distinct.

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2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

great story, weak and overly agressive dialogs

the realm was great, Allan's character was appealing. one thing that bothered me endlessly, the High King and Lesto drove me crazy with their aggressive teasing and crude yet dull comments. " I'll kill you I'll tare you to pieces" every half sentence makes conversations unbearable

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2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile