Lord of the Fading Lands (Tairen Soul, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Dec 26, 2011 D.G. rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobook, reviewed, romantasy

If I had read this book instead of listening to the audio, I would have enjoyed it more. The narration seemed appropriate at the beginning but as I got to the know the characters and understand the world, I realized the narrator was too over the top. You see, the writing in this book is very lavish so I think it needed a more understated approach so the words would shine. As it was, it sounded like a person eating chocolate and going 'mmmmm' with every bite (understandable at the beginning but t ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Dec 25, 2010 Thenia rated it liked it

Shelves: reviewed, shifters, series, 2012, fantasy, romance

A light, soft romance with lots of drama and mysteries that are still unanswered. The background is colorful (and how could it not be, with characters that are over 1000 years old!), the characters believable and the mystery still going strong.

Ellysetta is a nice girl who loves her normal human adoptive family. She has always had a fascination with the fey, but she also has a secret that makes her unwilling to get closer to them. She gets over that fast, and ends up surrounded by them and their ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 28, 2010 Christina T rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014-challenge, 14-000-in-2014-book-count-challenge, audio, 3-stars, 1-in-the-series, stephanie-riggio

This book/series has come highly recommended by multiple people over the years and when I saw that my library had it on digital audio I thought I'd take the chance with it.

The Good Stuff: Wilson's world building, I believe, is first class in this book. I never felt bombarded with a giant info dump issue because she incorporated it so well into the story that it felt natural. The romance, although relying on a take on the "Fated Mate" trope, was well played out and has an Urban Fantasy feel to it This book/series has come highly recommended by multiple people over the years and when I saw that my library had it on digital audio I thought I'd take the chance with it.

The Good Stuff: Wilson's world building, I believe, is first class in this book. I never felt bombarded with a giant info dump issue because she incorporated it so well into the story that it felt natural. The romance, although relying on a take on the "Fated Mate" trope, was well played out and has an Urban Fantasy feel to it as this is only the beginning of the H/h's story. Their love should develop nicely over the course of several books and we weren't completely whammied by insta-love.

The Good stuff about Listening vs. Reading: Being more of a Fantasy than I'm used to, I liked the fact that someone else was reading the potentially difficult names of the characters and places. I know for sure I'd have stumbled and bumbled my way through them and it would have pulled me out of the story continuously.

The Bad Stuff: No conclusions. Absolutely nothing was concluded. Everything from their courtship to who is trying to harm Ellie is left dangling at the end of the book. To be truthful, the ending felt so abrupt I double checked my kindle to see if I missed downloading one of the audio files. But nope, it really does end with no closure on anything. Another thing that was a bit of a downer was that after finishing the book, I'm still am not sure what a Tairen Soul looks like. It's some sort of shapeshifter and as near as I can tell it's a huge animal with a cat like head, deadly snake venom, giant bat wings with a sharp claw at the joint of the wings, and a long dragon like spiked tail. At least that is what I think it said.

The Bad Stuff about the Audio: Although Stephanie Riggio did an adequate job, I hated her voice for Ellysetta. She sounded like a whiny child and I had a hard time accepting her as a love interest for a Fey King who is well over a millennia old.

In a Nutshell: I would rate the book itself a 4 but the unfortunate voice of Ellie on audio brought the rating down to 3. My library has the next book in audio also but read by a different narrator so I'm going to pick it up soon because I have issues with all those dangly bits mocking me. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review