Lovely concept, No pay off story wise

I fell in love with the world, the way the humans and nature where so intertwined. And the concepts of the spirits were great; but the story ended up being flat, I was left frustrated at character interactions. Older characters for some reason acted very immature and left me feeling whiplash.

I have a few other gripes but the character interactions and the seeming immaturity of the book were my biggest problems.

5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Steadily Lost Momentum

I was wondering why this series wasn't more popular as I enjoyed the characters, the magical system and the world the author created. I was three quarters through the book when this question was answered. Everything became cliché from the problems she had at home, romantic interludes and unwarranted guilt over the decision to kill a villainous murderer. Then there's the ending, that even with a stretch of the imagination was unrealistic and improbable. The main enemy was done away with way too easy as well as some rivals. Okay, I'm gritting my teeth because in order to really explain how this book fell apart I would have to be more specific. Unfortunately, I cannot do that without major spoilers. I'll just add that this book may be okay for those who are just getting into this genre, but if you are an experienced reader of fantasy this book will seem elementary in the extreme.

4 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Unfettered II brought me here, no regrets.

The performance by Khristine in unfettered brought me to this book. She did a good job on this one too. The story really is interesting and kept me on edge near the end. It was so so throughout. Decent progression and all but lacking in passion and deep background stories.

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Fantastic Narrator, Story Needs Work

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would only if they don't read a lot of fantasy, or just trying fantasy out as a genre. It does have a fun and unique world and magic, as well as a solid ending. But characters were just stock characters, ridiculous instalove and a weak writing style.

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

Yes I listened to the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. Hvam is a fantastic and passionate narrator. She puts everything she has into every story she does, from the voices to the scale of emotions throughout. She saved this book for me; I would've given up if I had read the physical copy.

Do you think The Queen of Blood needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

It does wrap up enough that people might not need the next books. But I am curious of how she's going to expand the world and lore of the spirits.

Any additional comments?

Great narrator that brings life to a story that is slow in many places, stock characters and a writing style that's way too much "telling" and not enough "showing." If you read a lot of fantasy, you might be disappointed by it. But the cool world and magic and solid ending is worth a shot in audiobook format.

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A favorite comming of age story

YA at it's best - a fun magic school and a setting influenced my the magic. I loved how the spirts were a combination of an elemental magic system with the perils of summoning.

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ugh. skip this

terrible character development. you really don't care about any of them.
story jumps around without adding anything in the making
very superficial descriptions and much more of a YA novel, with emphasis on young

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Needs an exposition dump.

I like that this book doesn’t waste time with exposition, but at the the same time, I feel like it needs to. Primarily when it comes to the environments and the spirits. Beyond what element they are, there’s not a whole lot else describing them. This, combined with not having a lay of the land, made it a little difficult to wrap my head around what exactly was happening in certain scenes.

Eventually, I decided I was going to picture the spirits as some kind of humanoid flying fairy formed by their respective element (I know that’s probably completely wrong, but there wasn’t a whole lot to go off off). But then that image completely fell apart when one of the spirits gets cut and starts to bleed... like, blood. Now I don’t want to criticize the authors world building (especially since I didn’t fully understand it), but an elemental spirit bleeding normal blood seemed a little weird to me.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

This was awesome

The story and characters were really imaginative, and it had and ending I never expected. Really good listen.

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Amazing!

If you like fantasy then I recommend this book. While it has a serious case of Insta love, the rest of the story is so incredible that I got over it quick. I'm getting the next book immediately.

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unique and engaging

After listening through the book, I have to say I can understand why this is a bestseller. The author Sarah didn't follow the normal cliches and danced around them in interesting and exciting ways, laced with fresh ideas and excellent writing that kept me enthralled. I highly recommend to anyone whom is a fan of Fantasy genre.

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