This fantasy was absolutely fantastic! It’s so fast paced and jam packed with everything someone needs to hold their interest - mythology, romance, mystery…there was so much to it and I really enjoyed watching everything unravel into an amazing story!

The narrator for the audiobook was absolutely perfect. Between the tone and voices of the characters, there was no way I was putting this down. Much of that is thanks to the narrator as well as the story. It was a perfect pairing.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook and ebook!

I wanted to get into this book but I just couldn’t understand the world building

~This book was given to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this audiobook for me to review! All thoughts below are my own.

TLDR:
Overall: 3.5 / 5 rounded up
Plot: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Worldbuilding: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Narration: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️/5
Character development: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Synopsis:
She and her siblings were enslaved as children, and have grown up under the thumb of a horrid master. She’s taken the brunt of the beatings to protect her family. As an adult, she’s determined to get them all out, but that’s easier wished than done. When her plans fall apart, Harken offers her a path to freedom by helping him pull strings among the elite of their society.

Harken is the lord of the Weaver Court, but ever since he’s locked the court away and denied new Weavers to the world, they call him the Savage King. He’s secretive, discriminating with his trust, and utterly disgusted about having a slave. She realizes that their connection binds their minds together as well.

Is this for readers of ACOTAR? Yes, it has a lot of the same themes without being a rip off. A girl is brought into a court she knows nothing about by a powerful ruler, but there’s a wider spin to it since his agenda is political. The ruler she’s falling for is a little more like Rhysand, with a secret court locked away, and maybe a blacker reputation than he deserves. Their chemistry sparkles, but Harken refuses to go very far while she’s still enslaved so as not to take advantage of her (spice level is consistent with a YA-level of descriptive language).

Strong start for the world-building! Lucy Holden clearly thought through the slavery system, and the parts of the world we see are multi-layered. Harken is a barrier to learning too much since he’s so secretive about the true way of things.

I somewhat disagree that you could read this as a standalone. This is definitely the first of a series, one building block toward a wider climax. My rating of this book could rise as I read additional tomes in the series.

This book was very well written! Being a fantasy I normally get lost in the world and character building until the end but I felt like I caught on pretty quickly to this world.
The narrator is a big part of audio books and sometimes they pick the wrong one. Not the case for this book I enjoyed how the narrator read this book.
There was one part towards the end I felt didn’t need to be written into the book but over all i thoroughly enjoyed this!

dnf 25%

I’m sorry, I can’t do it. 😩

Maybe my head is just not in it, because the story sounds really promising, but I’ve got 50 chapters to go and I’m completely lost. 🤷🏼‍♀️
I think this might need some fine tuning.

Zaria lives only to protect her siblings. Her goal is to enter the dangerous Braid Race, a win-or-die competition that gives her freedom from the shadow braid she's had for her entire life. With that freedom, she will be able to free her siblings as well. However, everything goes wrong when her brother falls into a Dark Rip and her sisters were bought by Indigold lords. Harken, the Savage King saves Zaria from meeting the same fate as her brother, but at a cost. When she is edged out of winning the Braid Race, Harken does the unthinkable and claims her as his slave. They both know she's bait. What they don't expect is to have feelings for one another.

I normally don't enjoy fantasy books. I just can't get into them. This one, though, pulled me in immediately. Zaria is a young woman whose only purpose has been to free her siblings, so when she loses that, she has to discover who she really is. Likewise, Harken is a mystery, even to himself, and he punishes himself greatly for mistakes of the past. They both have to come to terms with the choices they've made and learn to move on.

There is a cast of characters in this book that are interesting and dynamic. The world-building is vivid and complex. It can be a little hard for me to get into that normally, but I enjoyed the writing in this book so much that I got swept up in it all. I am also a huge fan of found family stories, and this one fits the bill.

While this is meant to be a spicy book, the levels of spice are quite low. If you are new to spicy books, or just don't enjoy the really spicy ones, this one is probably just right.

Such a great fantasy romance! I think the most impressive characteristic of this book is the high quality of the writing style. And also that while this is the first book in a new series, the ending is so satisfying that I want to hug the author for not emotionally torturing me with a cliffhanger abyss.

This story is told in first person following Zaria. She’s a first generation slave in a magical fantasy world and she doesn’t remember her past. She makes a deal with Harkan, the Savage King, to act as his slave to help him in an investigation. The two of them have great banter and nice chemistry. I liked watching them shape their relationship, negotiate, argue, and try to understand one another. It gave a lot of substance to their characters.

Zaria is straightforward, reasonable, and she thinks through her actions (usually). It made her relatable and likeable.

The magic system is also very cool and adds a lot of vivid imagery to the world. I’m looking forward to seeing more of that in the next book.

There’s also a lot of information, lore, and history to follow. I enjoy world-building (plus it’s well written) so it worked for me but it does feel like their world has an extensive backstory that we glimpse in fragments.

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator’s voice added to the personality of Zaria and increased the feeling of her being a rational and thoughtful person.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.