R. A. Steffan

First off, about the audiobook. The narration is pretty bad which I find baffling because the narrator seems to know what she is doing. She is quite adept at narrating in multiple distinct voices which are clearly recognizable and fitting to the characters, but two of the narration voices she chose are horrible. Her third-person narration voice sounds too high and forced, a bit like a bad impression of a baby voice. But even worse is her voice for the MC. It would be a perfectly fine voice for a palm-sized glittering fairy or a talking hamster, it's incredibly high and squeaky to the point that her voice regularly cracks. I find it incredibly distracting especially because over 90% are spoken in either of the two uncomfortably high and forced voices. It's a real shame because the natural narration voice of the narrator is very pleasant but she only uses it when reading the chapter numbers. Her other (mostly but not exclusively male) voices are also very good and pleasant to listen to.

Now to the actual review.
At its heart, this is a very typical good angel FMC and demon male love interest who is a bit of a patronizing asshole but also very protective and mysterious. You probably know the type. The two don't end up in a mushy relationship early on as initially suggested but actually assume somewhat antagonistic roles towards each other.
The world-building around the central romance, while being built from many common tropes, was quite unique and interesting in the way the parts were assembled and presented.
Sadly this is not actually a complete book. It just abruptly ends halfway to the plot climax somewhere. It's not even a real cliffhanger. It's more like the book was too long so someone just cut it in half at some point.
Together with the painful audiobook narration I don't feel compelled to get the second book despite the story being completely open-ended at this point.… (mais)

When I started reading, I didn't realise this was part of an already-established series. The reader is thrown into the middle of a conversation and it was a little confusing. A lot of the previous action and character building was done in the previous books and, while you do end up getting some background information, it's not enough to really get to know these characters if you're starting here. I guess I wished that had been more clear by the title or cover of the book.

This is another urban fantasy that combines a lot of established worlds and creatures that usually don't interact in lore - vampires, fae, demons, necromancy, etc. - in a real world setting. This book mostly takes place in St Louis and Chicago but that has little to do with the plot. The author could have left out the location of the city and just made it Anytown, USA and it would have been the same.

The weird take on the Wild Hunt was interesting but seemed really bizarre, like it's this sentient demonic mass that has to be herded by specific fae to find its selected target. It's very much an urban fantasy take on the Wild Hunt lore rather than the mystical fae entity that it's more established as.

The "witty banter" was also wearing. There's a lot of random pop culture references or just the main character trying to be antagonistic in a really immature way and it didn't feel like it fit in this world. There was also a lot of random cooking, incl. making cannabis oil from scratch, that didn't belong.

Overall, because I was thrown into the middle of the world without context and the weird almost sci-fi take on fae lore, I was mostly just confused and didn't enjoy this book that much. It's definitely for readers already familiar with the author and their previous work.… (mais)

This book was a tease! There was just enough plot and development to hook me and and then left me on a cliffhanger.

The story is set in a Romanesque era with the addition of magic and supernatural entities. An old soldier who is disenchanted with the current direction of his country has a moment of 'weakness' and helps a prisoner escape execution. Said prisoner is on the many bastard sons to the emperor slated for death at the order of the second in line to the throne.

There is intrigue, betrayal and all manor of plots happening in the palace. The emperor is unwell and all three sons have an interest in ruling. A plot had already been set in motion, but I'll have to read book two to dine out what's going one.

The narrator did a good job distinguishing between characters an immersing the listener with the world.… (mais)