I love choose your own adventure stories! This was fun and interesting to see where my choices led me!

Not my style but those younger readers will find this both fun and nostalgic. A high rec for high school libraries.

The Citadel of Whispers was a joy, and definitely hit on all the nostalgia I had from reading choose your own adventures when I was younger. I'm still working through all the possibilities in this one, and might be for a while, but that is the pleasure of these books you can dip in and out to have different adventures as the mood takes you. What I really enjoyed about this one was Ali's writing, which brought an almost poetic quality to the story, especially the world-building, but really The Citadel of Whispers had everything - a wonderful setting, compelling storylines with satisfying endings (and more to discover) and interesting characters, and there is definitely an appeal across the age groups here, because of the call of adventure.

I was pleasantly surprise with this book! As a lover of "The Butterfly Effect", this book was amazing! All the multiple choices and the details of "you" being the main character, made the reading experience much more personal and I loved it! It was so fun to try and get different endings by making different choices while reading, even if some did stress me out as it fell like it ended too quickly! I recommend this book to young people or people that want to relive their younger and playful days. The characters are lovely and the adventures that come with them are even better. I will definitely be re-reading this in the future! I give my thanks to the publishing team, the Author and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this amazing book!

Though I love choose your own adventure books, this one did not grab me enough or feel enthralling enough to make me care about the choices I was making throughout the story.

Because the story was, in my opinion, partially resolved, had I been judging the story alone I would have rated it 4 stars. But because this was a book to be enjoyed for structure, for the journey it took you on, I'm giving it 5 stars

This was a really cool fantasy adventure! I would like to grab a physical copy because you couldn't really make it part the second choice in the e-arc, due to not really being able to have page numbers to flip ahead to. This was really creative and I really liked the world they built. I hope they make more like it!

This book about 'Choosing Your Own Adventure' was something new and different for me. It is perfect for teens and kids with all the world building, imagination and adventure it has. The author takes us through various paths that holds fun, are dangerous, has action and motive of saving people.

The story takes place in Elaria. Krishi, is a Whisperer student, studying about ancient magic and the secrets it holds. He is curious, thinks lot and wants to do right thing and is ready for what comes his way.

The setting, pacing and all the different paths author takes us on are well written. It would also be best when there are kids reading together each on their own path and discussing about it. That would be an enjoying read. A perfect book to play out. The only thing that irritated me was going to and fro to different sections as it wasn't feasible in the arc copy, it will be easy in paperback or Kindle edition if there is link to take us there.

Overall it is a great rollercoaster ride. Thank you Netgalley and Chooseco for a chance to read this.

The Citadel of Whispers is 'Choose your own adventure" book. Reading the book made me feel so nostalgic and it transported me back to my childhood.

I love how there are A LOT of options and choices and the story really branches out. I still haven't tried them all as there a lot. But the ones I've tried are pretty interesting. Also I loved I could make a lot of risky choices and felt like it was actually me who was having an epic adventure. I remembered I used to fantasize about protecting everyone from a sudden attack, that is how it felt like when i was reading the book.

Although sometimes it really annoyed me but that's because I made the wrong choices. But I'm planning to be check out all the endings.

This book is definitely a must read for the fans of "CYOA".

I'd like to thank Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of the book, o really enjoyed it.

I have fond memories from my childhood of reading "Choose your Own Adventure" books. I remember going through each book I could get my hands on, imagining myself doing all sorts of fun and dangerous things.
This story takes place in a secondary world, Elaria, with the Narbolin Empire neighbouring the many city states. A chain of mountains separates the two, and grant the city states some safety from the Empire.
There is also a highly trained set of spies, known as Whisperers, trained at a citadel situated south of the city states and Narbolin. People are recruited young, trained intensively, then deployed into the lands on either side, helping to keep the peace by gaining intelligence.

This adventure starts when there’s word that the King of the Narbolin Empire intends to grab Albahr, one of the city states, and the adolescent you get to play, Krishi, is deployed early, along with two of their peers, to stop the invasion. Along the way, it turns out the Empire is also targeting the Citadel.

I followed all the paths I could find, and had a lot of fun. Krishi is curious, quick thinking, and willing to take some risk to protect Albahr from Narbolin. There were lots of options presented in the adventure, keeping things interesting for what feels like a middle grade or early adolescent audience. What was really cool was that South Asia seemed to be an influence for the look and feel of the Citadel population and a good many of the other characters, making it an extra fun game for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Chooseco for this ARC in exchange for my review.

It's a long time since last I read a "choose your adventure book" and had a lot of fun in reading this one.
It's a good fantasy story and I enjoyed exploring the different paths and discovering new parts of the story.
The author is a talented storyteller and the world building is excellent.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A magical dynasty, enchanting from the beginning until the very end. The Citadel of Whispers is one of those books you will always remember and most likely read again.


American poet and author, Kazim Ali writes a fabulous, fresh, fantastic fantasy, choose your own adventure, interactive story. The choose your own adventure feels like going on a real, magical quest and discovery....

But exactly who are these Whisperers and what kinds of magic are they studying at the Citadel? Discover the Kingdom of Elaria.

I have always loved Choose your own adventure books, ever since I was a child. In fact, they played a major part in developing my love for reading from an early age. Due to this, I was extremely excited to see this book and requested it immediately.

I feel like this book has a richer and more complex storyline than the books of my childhood, which is great as it will appeal to the slightly older audience as well as the younger generation.

The world created in this book is amazing, as it is full of adventure and imagination - just perfect for sci-fi and fantasy fans. There are many ways that the story can unfold, with many choices, and each of them leads to a great adventure. The characters are detailed and multi dimensional and you grow fond of them quickly.

I really enjoyed reading this book, as it was exciting and fun to read, with a great new fantasy world to explore. It also took me back to my childhood, when I was simply obsessed with Choose your own adventure books.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader’s copy for an honest review.

Thank you for letting me read this beautiful gem. It's actually my first time reading this type of book and I was really enamored. It made me feel really giddy with excitement. I have tried reading all sorts of choices and all led to different adventures. As a big fan of gaming, this book really got me hooked. I am now looking forward to buying this one. Preferably a hardcover as part of my collection. My only problem was that I had a hard time reading in digital copy.

How does one go about rating a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book? I’m not 100% sure as I’m pretty sure I did not read 100% of the possibilities…

But I will say this: the story is a lot of fun! I really enjoy the world this takes place in and the author does a great job at quickly setting the scene for the reader and we can go in fairly confident that we are well informed on the current situation! The Citadel is a fun place with quite a few little secrets to discover.

I’ve found about 40 different paths/endings so far and even though some are frustrating and you want to go back to do better, some endings are quite fun and beautiful! My favorite section has to be 81, but don’t let this guide your decisions, the other paths are really cool too.

I would love to read more tales that take place in the kingdom of Elaria or the Citadel and its Whisperers!

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the author, the publishers and the NetGalley team for providing me with an Advanced copy. I cherished this opportunity to read it in exchange for an honest review.

What an adventure! This was a fun throwback to my childhood when I loved to read CYOA books. I liked this story and the many choices you get make. I enjoyed the characters and felt like you really get a good feel on who they are to the main character. It does feel a little more like an RPG than the books I read as a child but that could be just because it's been such a long time since I read a CYOA. It was also a little difficult to "choose my path" in a digital format. Trying to skip ahead to section and then back depending on your choices wasnt easy to navigate, so I definitely would prefer a hard copy.

I was definitely that kid who checked every single one of these out of the library and put a billion little bookmarks in so I could try out every possible branch of every possible story--and reading this yanked me back in time 20 years for a swim through a sea of potent nostalgia. Everything I loved about the CYOA originals is here, but Ali is a master of poetic narration and elevates the genre with this edition. It is at once deeply immersive and cleverly observant, offering plenty of chances to make wild leaps of faith and obviously very stupid choices--with narration that doesn't EXACTLY judge you, but somehow seems to be laughing at you all the same. Honestly, my only complaint is that I want an entire series set in this universe and am grumpy this will probably be the only one I get.

I’ve been having fun with this book these past few days and really loved the storylines and possibilities, and the idea that I still have things to explore!
I requested this out of curiosity and a need for fun. I remember being a kid and seeing my brother getting “Choose your own adventure” books as presents but never being gifted one myself. I really enjoyed reading this one!
It took me just a little time to get used to the second person point of view and get a grasp of the characters and the universe, but then I was set for a very enjoyable moment. The world we are thrown into is fascinating and we meet interesting characters.
Would definitely recommend!