3.5 but rounded up for narration.

I don’t know that this is what I would really consider a dark romantasy, but it was an interesting premise. Maybe if I had gone in not expecting a dark romance I would have enjoyed it more but I also think there was just a bit too much going on at times and the connection between the two Mcs didn’t feel organic.

What kept me listening was the narrator who did a wonderful job.

The Seventh Sister is a perfect mix of "High Fantasy " and "Romantasy". I say High Fantasy because the world building in this story is epic. There is a magic system, a number of deities and a beautifully atmospheric setting. I listened to the audio, and the narrator did a wonderful job of keeping a steady pace and adding inflection when describing the mystical, magical elements of the lore. It really added to the atmosphere of the story.

As for the Romantasy genre, it's got all the ingredients: a pure and innocent FMC, a grumpy MMC with a very dark and violent persona, morally gray, longing, enemies to lovers, mysterious intentions and spice. Again, the narrator did a wonderful job bringing these aspects to life.

I struggled a bit with keeping the Gods straight, but after awhile it was much clearer. I didn't really love any of the MMC but maybe that was the point.

Definitely a great start to an epic series.

This book had such an intriguing premise, and I was genuinely excited to dive in. The first 30% really pulled me in — I was hooked and fully invested. Unfortunately, after about the 40% mark, my interest started to fade.

The story had so much potential, but somewhere along the way, it lost momentum. I can't quite put my finger on what went wrong, but the pacing slowed significantly, and the plot started to stall. It just missed the mark.

One major issue for me was the lack of connection between the two main characters. Their relationship felt forced and lacked chemistry, which made it hard to care about them or their journey. Overall, the characters felt flat and underdeveloped as a whole.

The writing itself was beautiful and lyrical, but it felt like more effort was put into crafting pretty prose than into building a strong, compelling story. While I still really liked the premise, the execution just didn’t deliver.

Also, this is labeled as a dark romance — but in my opinion, it didn’t fit that category at all. Fantasy - yes. I kept putting the audiobook down, hoping it would pick up again, but by the 85% mark, I had to call it quits.

I'm not sure how to categorise this book - but I know it's not a dark romantasy as marketed. It's more like a slow-burn cosy romance with a historic Nordic backdrop... If that's your thing, then this is worth a go but if you read it based on the description you'll likely be disappointed.

It's quite well written in terms of flow and wording, but it almost feels like it was plotted by more than one writer. From gods and seers to smutty book clubs and yoga - it's all just a bit random, and half the time I had no idea what was going on.

It almost feels like nothing happens? There are a couple of more dramatic moments but they're over as soon as they started - and there's no growth or struggle, even though there were nearly-there plot points that could have offered this. There smutty scenes are few and far between and like they came out of nowhere (particularly the one with the well), and they don't fit with the wider tone of the book - even if some of them are pretty hot.

I really didn't like the soundscapes used in the audiobook, but I'm not a dramatised adaptation person - sometimes there are background sounds, sometimes not, and the music between chapters felt a touch unnecessary to me.

The story centers on Ertha, a healer who is thrust into enemy territory. Dark romantacy at its finest, with fairytale elements, world building and deadly secrets. Jacci did an amazing job as the narrator for the audiobook. It was a little slow paced at first then ramped up! It ends on a cliff hanger. I would consider reading book 2. I thought it was a good time.

Thank you NetGalley for this ALC!

So first off, let me say, Jacci absolutely CRUSHED the narration of this book! She was phenomenal (as usual)- she delivered various accents and was instrumental in the story-telling of this book.
As for the book itself, I think it’s a good book, but it’s not the book for ✨ me ✨.
I was initially drawn to the story based on the blurb, but the more I listened, the more I found myself losing interest in the plot and characters. Even at like 55% in I found myself being like “what exactly is going on? What is the book working towards exactly?” It is completely possible that this is a ME problem, and I’m considering re-listening to the book at a later time and seeing if perhaps it resonates with me more then. 🫠
It is beautiful writing, highly descriptive (which can be wearisome at times), and again, the narration was amazing and definitely the highlight for me.

Thank you Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the advanced audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

The Seventh Sister is about Ertha, a healer who is stolen from a temple where she's lived in the last 10 years. She's taken by the Sons of Uther to a different kingdom that she knows nothing about except what she's heard in her frightening bedtime stories. The book is about how she navigates her time in Uther and tries to find her way back to her family.

This book pulled me in and the plot intrigued me to the point that I finished it in two days. I truly enjoyed the author's writing style. The way she describes the scenes and situations, and her choice of words. This book had so much potential to become a favourite for me but I unfortunately have major issues with the characters.

There is almost no character development in the story. The FMC's character seems inconsistent and I couldn't connect with her. She doesn't show much emotions with news that seem to be significant. At times, she seems to just forget and move on from anything that happens around/ to her. For example, at some point she hears news about a family tragedy which is a great opportunity for the author to introduce the readers to her upbringing, her family dynamics and explain how she got to where she was at the beginning of the book. But instead of all that, the next day she's happily shopping for dresses and wonders when the last ball she went to was. Then she goes back to crying about being lonely but never once gives a backstory of who she actually is. So we never learn about her kingdom or why she ended up living at the temple for 10 years.
Here are some more character related questions that were never answered: Why is being a healer so unique? And if it's so unique, why isn't she getting patients from all over the world and is just limited to healing basic injuries? What's exactly the difference between being a healer and being a witch and why is being a witch punishable by death? Where did she take the Healer's Oath and master her skills? Why did she need to carry healer's supplies when all she was using was her hands?

And some questions about the world that were not answered: What is this conflict that we are thrown into about? Why did The Sons only kill the men and boys of the village in the initial attack? How are the different kingdoms situated in the world in relation to each other? Why exactly did The Sons take her? As a hostage or just a healer? What are they even after in these attacks? I get that this is a series but I personally expect more introduction to the world from a book with 600 pages.

In addition, the two MMCs are so so bland with no personality that I was just rolling my eyes every time they opened their mouths, which didn't happen often and we still don't know much about them after 600 pages. It didn't help that the voice actor for both of them was the same person which I disliked.

Overall, I couldn't get invested in any character but loved the plot. I'm not sure if that's enough for me to read the second book.

★☆☆☆☆½ — Yet another disappointing August read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I liked the idea of this, especially with the Witcher comp. But this just didn’t deliver. I waited a few days before writing this review, and honestly, the only things that really stuck with me were the horribly cliché sex scenes and the intense focus on breeding. The word “breed” appeared way too many times for it to feel like anything other than a kink. That’s fine if that’s your thing, but it’s really not for me.

It was also incredibly overwritten. The prose leaned so far into purple that it became ridiculous at times. Example:

“I crashed back into my skin. Skin marked with the shackling bond. The smooth, butter-soft fabric suddenly felt like a vice slowly squeezing me until I popped like a too-ripe berry rendering me into nothing but a scarlet jelly for the Father and Mother to smear across their morning bread.”

Stuff like that can work occasionally, but this book was full of it. And I really wish the author had found something else to call a heart other than “soft, fleshy organ.”

The only reason this isn’t a one-star is because I liked some parts of the worldbuilding. Not enough to continue with the series, but there were a few good ideas buried in there.

That said, most of the book just felt flat. The beginning had some action and violence, which gave me hope, but once the protagonist arrives at the enemy kingdom, she just spends most of her time healing people and doing very little else. It got boring quickly.

Also, it uses one of my absolute least favourite tropes:
“He’s so evil and cruel and has killed people I care about… but I’m soooo horny for him.”
I just have a visceral hatred for that. Maybe I’m the crazy one, but I can’t wrap my head around being attracted to someone who might have murdered my best friend.

Anyway, I don’t know. I’ve had a bad reading month, and this is just another book added to the pile. Also I think comparing it to The Witcher is a risky move, especially when readers might expect a much more epic or grounded tone than this.

I truthfully am tempted to give this one star.
I’m usually one who tries to give grace and be diplomatic in reviews but I just simply hated this book.
HATED IT.
I found it sort of a mess, not captivating, and many elements of the story I just felt were simply abhorrent.

Also, while I enjoyed the narrator herself, the audiobook production was not good. The added music - why? This was not a graphic audio. The music didn’t fit and was just distracting.

All said, I’m so glad this is done. I won’t be reading book two.

If you have a breeding kink, this book is for you!!

Ertha is a princess (although this seemingly has no relevance to the plot whatsoever) and is kidnapped from the temple she is being holy in by a band of brutal dudes called The Sons and taken to their land to be used for her healing powers. While there she is aloofly disdained by a gorgeous lord (who definitely isnt the love interest) and immediately and relentlessly pursued by a just-oh-so-sickly-sweet-nice-guy (who definitely IS the love interest) Anyhoo, Ertha is mostly put to work caring for all the women the Father has impregnated across the realm, but she soon discovers something is deeply wrong with the babies she is saving.

I honestly couldn't count how many times the words womb, breed and seed were used in this book, but whatever the number it is TOO MANY. Impregnation, pregnancy and birth are described in vivid detail so if that's not your thing, this ain't the book for you.

Breeding aside, this book is.... okay. Ertha is super annoying, she does stupid things all the time and while constantly trying to work out the mysteries around her, somehow doesn't manage to ever put anything together correctly. After trying not one other idea to escape she decides 'I'm going to enter a rape chase, I'm sure to outrun all the rapists although no woman before me has!'

The surrounding characters are again, okay. They don't seem to be able to emote or communicate in basic ways so it's difficult to care about them. I found that the pacing was just odd too, some sections seemed to take forever for nothing to happen, then there is an entire book crammed into the last couple of chapters.

I listened to this as an audiobook and I also found the addition of random bits of music really distracting and sometimes downright cringe. Where the story mentions a song, the narrator sings it in a really creepy ghostly voice to some weird sudden music and it just sent me into a tailspin.

I feel like I've been quite negative, but that's literally everything bad I have to say about it. The premise is interesting, the world is rich and mysterious, the groundwork has been laid for a banger of a series that I would definitely read. So would I recommend it? Not as an audiobook. As a book? For sure.

Really enjoyed this book. The world building was fantastic and the reason I could not put it down. The romance, character development and pacing were also very well done. I cannot wait for the next book, eekkk that cliff hanger!!

The Dyslexic Who Reads (or in this case listens)

Things I loved about this audiobook:

❤️ I only got into audiobooks in the last four months or so, and the Narrator - Jacci Prior, has been by far the BEST narrator I've listened to. Her voice is captivating, she does accents well, and her "male" voice is really good.

❤️ The music and sound effects were actually really nice. I've listened to other dramatized books or books with music between chapters and wasn't really a fan, I thought it took me out of the book a little. But in this book it was really nice! The transitions were very smooth and soothing in a lot of ways. This audiobook also had a song in the story, normally I skim over that part in books, but hearing it song out like that was really nice, I mean it was a creepy song but that was part of the enjoyment of the book.

❤️ The story and world building was deep and refreshing. I enjoyed how she changed some common words to slightly different words (such as night being "noc" and goddess being "emresses" (I listened to the book, so I'm not sure on the spelling of these words). This made the world more real to me, as every world wouldn't come up with the same words we have.

❤️ The story was interesting and engaging; I cried, I laughed, and I really couldn't stop listening to it! The main character was believable and relatable. You really get into her story and get wrapped up into it.

❤️ The main MMCs were both intriguing and at some point in the book I was rooting for one or the other. They had depth and secrets that I'm looking forward to discovering in the next book in the series to find out more.

❤️ There was some good spice, mostly towards the end of the book. I'd give this book 🌶️🌶️ but I can see that the next book might have more spice than this one. Which is believable since you have to world build and the characters need to get to know each other. What spice there was, was written well and I did enjoy that aspect of the book.

Things I didn't like:

😂 I have to wait for the next book now!

Seriously GET THIS BOOK! 🥰🥰🥰

I got this audiobook through Netgalley for the free for my honest opinion.

The Seventh Sister promises a dark fantasy story and unfortunately this was not the story for me. I was drawn into the concept originally and was excited to see a story with rich world-building, but the immersion kept breaking with the odd pacing and references to pseudo-modern devices and concepts that felt out of place in a viking/norse world. Also, while I liked the narrator in general, the constant "do be"'s became grating extremely quickly, so it felt like I could never fully settle into the story.

The hardest part, however, was Ertha. Her motivations, goals, plans and actions were completely inconsistent throughout the story and at some point very early on, I stopped caring about her character. She seemed to easily make friends with every female character she came across while constantly lamenting who her raven was. There were times when she would respond in a "sassy" way, but it felt like it was simply to create banter in a scene instead of being needed dialogue. It is hard to root for a character that seems to just be floating along in pretty dresses and being the perfect chosen one. Since her character was boring, I did not find the romance enjoyable or the plot twists since it she was incredulously obtuse at points.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Though a bit slow to build, this book was overall, pretty enjoyable.

Ertha awakens after an attach on her Temple as the soul survivor of the the Sons of Uther. I don't think we are given clear reasons why the Sons are so vehemently against the Temple members but they seem to have an insatiable blood lust. Ertha is a true-healer which means she has the innate ability to pull people back from the brink of death and though she finds her best friend slain in the carnage, she cannot help but try to heal one of the Sons who is dying from his wound. When she does, she is captured and the Sons take her as hostage and as prize as they have now seen the type of healing she can do.

The story gets a bit twisty as secrets are revealed and nothing seems to be as she thought it really was. I know a few times I saw hints of Norse Mythology woven in, especially with the idea of Fenris and others. The world building is good but I still feel like I need a bit more to understand some aspects which she may develop in the second book of this duology. I would love to see the chemistry between some of the characters feel a bit more... natural... instead of stockholm syndrome-esque. It's a bit hard to define but I am not certain the romance was really working for me. I do wish I had a copy with the art. I've heard it was well done and added a bit of charm.

Overall, it's really not a bad book at all, especially if you enjoy the romantasy genre. I am not sure if it fits me and my personal preference but I know it's audience is out there.

I feel guilty for this as I was given it as an ARC, but I simply could not finish the audio book.

The narrator was great she did her job very well. However I simply could not understand what was going on and that is because of the way the book is written.

I found the lore of the place quite confusing and hard to follow. Perhaps if I was reading the physical copy this would be easier.

Once the FMC had been kidnapped, the dialect of the characters introduced from this point on made me cringe honestly. The repetition of the “do be” made me feel like I was listening to a children’s pirate book.

I liked the overall concept and I think it could be a really amazing story if some things were tweaked/ edited. This idea and the characters definitely have great potential. I did enjoy the back story of the FMC and the concept of her having been hidden away.

Thank you to Victory Editing for giving me access to this audiobook and I’m sorry that I just didn’t enjoy this one.

Title: The Seventh Sister
Author: M.A. Brown
Media Type: Audio
Narrators: Jackie Prior


The twists and turns at the end of the book were absolutely delicious! The build up of the story was great. I felt that the prologue was a great way to start the story and was much needed to set the vibes. The vibes of vikings meets gods and dark academia had me feral! This is a fantasy book with a sub-plot of romance. Which I am very hopeful will be able to see more of the romance in book two.

The pacing of the story seemed fast at times and then perfect through the rest. The way that the author kept me guessing on who her love interest would turn out to be had me in a chokehold. Then the twit and turns at the end have me anticipating for book twos release. Slow burn romance for sure. With some wonderful angst.

The characters have much to grow in the upcoming books. However I was hoping to get to know Fenris more. Knowing there is a second book to come makes me hopeful to see the characters grown. The magic system has much room for play as well. It was new and refreshing to read.

I did listen to the book on a 1.5x speed and It was the perfect speed for me to be able to still understand the narrator and feel the emotions she portrayed. I absolutely love the added music at the beginning of the chapters. I thought it helped set the vibes of the story. As well as helped transport you into the world and time period that was created by the Author. Jackie Prior has a very convincing, soft and soulful voice. She was animated at all the right spots and spoke clearly.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Victory editing and M.A. Brown for allowing me to listen and review The Seventh Sister. I will be posting a review on Goodreads (TriciaReads), TikTok (triciareadds) and Amazon (TriciaReads).

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I love this book. Gave me all the feels.
I will be recommending to other Romantasy readers.

grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me this e-ARC.

this was a very interesting and conflicting read. the writing was very much lyrical and somewhat poetic but sometimes it felt like a bit of a cop out for really showing character’s feelings and actions. a lot of the dialogue also felt quite weird and distorted. i wanted to care so much more for the characters than i did but for some reason, no matter how hard the author tried to imbue depth, i just couldn’t connect to any of them, even the fmc. the plot was also somewhat all over the place and felt rushed at the end. regardless, i’m invested and interested in the rest of this series.

I really enjoyed The Seventh Sister. I picked it up for the beautiful cover and intriguing blurb, and I’m very glad I did. I liked Ertha, especially her healing magic and how she used it to help anyone. I really enjoyed the worldbuilding in this story. And I absolutely loved the prose! It’s a very beautifully written book. The romance is pretty slow burn but I have a feeling it might heat up in the next book. The reason I’m giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is because I found the pacing lagged in a few places. But it really ramped up towards the end, and I couldn’t stop listening for the last couple hours! It ends on a pretty crazy cliffhanger, so if that’s a problem for you, maybe wait til book 2 is out. If you love romantasy, especially with some more complex worldbuilding, I definitely recommend this book. Overall, this is a really solid start to a new series, and I can’t wait to continue, especially after that ending!

As for the audiobook specifically, the narration is extremely well done! I really enjoyed Jacci Prior‘s performance and the extra music special effects added to my enjoyment of the book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and M.A. Brown for an audiobook ARC of The Seventh Sister. All opinions are my own.

This book was amazing ! I really enjoyed the descriptive imagery used in this story. This author really knows how to transport you into the story. The ending was such a twist I really didn't see it coming. I can't wait till the next book in the series

Originally the cover and the description drew me into this book. I always get reeled in by the “As above, so below” as it could mean many creepy things. This book unfortunately was boring and I couldn’t find the point in most of this, like they made it seem like so much was at stake, but it never felt like it was.

This tale follows Ertha — a rare true healer in this world who is taken by the sons of the Uther after the place she was living was ransacked and slaughtered.
She doesn't know who to trust and fate is really pulling the strings.

The prose of this book was wonderful, very beautiful and mystifying. While, the words were good the story literally told nothing, this book just had so many words that meant nothing to what was actually going on. Like nothing was going on in this. The characters had no development, I found Ertha to be such a frustrating and inconsistent main character I never understood her personality or her goals till 75% of this book.

There was also a lack of growth for the romance. Even at like 80%, I barely noticed romantic tension between the main characters. Where was the romantasy part of this? There was some spice scenes, but it honestly made no sense and the love interest had no connection that made these scenes strange.

A positive of this was the narrator! They were phenomenal and did bring this story alive. I did enjoy the music aspect to this and set the mood a lot of the time.

I am not sure who to recommend this book too. Maybe for fans of slow burn, low stakes romantasy.