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Our kind has been enslaved by the Fae for as long as this kingdom remembers. They need us to keep water in their kingdom flowing, without it, their kind would surely all perish; as not even the powerful Fae have control over the waters that feed life to everything. Somewhere along the line, they all lost that ability as if that element revolted against them. For over twenty-one years I’ve been kept in the dark about my true heritage, being raised as a witch like my auntie, that can wield water with spells. Soon I would be old enough to leave my childhood home and go beyond the protection spell that has kept me safe all these years, to seek out my destiny. A vision, perhaps even a prophecy, in the castle where I was born caused my parents to secret me away under the cover of darkness. Saved by an unlikely partnership. For the first time in thousands of years, the elements are set to combine into the greatest power ever known, and somehow I am the center of it all. The power of the elements are told to bring about peace in the lands and restore life in the realm; to a greatness more than it has ever been before. No more struggles for food, no more starvation. No more taxation with penalties of death. No more hatred and fear of the rulers of the kingdom. Only prosperity, health, and maybe even something more? Please note: This is a Reverse Harem Novel. It contains explicit content intended for adults only. 18+
Publication Year: 2021
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Gets off to a very intriguing start and the reader has the idea that they know what’s going on before the characters even do as it goes on …
A great way to execute a book about a prophecy, IMO, this was well done. The varying POVs only serves this further and keeps me intrigued despite less-than-stellar narration.
Great world-building and good character development.
I think it would’ve been more enjoyable if the steamy stuff was left out of it … not because I have any opposition to steamy bits at all, but because this sort of writing doesn’t seem to be a strength of this author’s. All of the spicy scenes were ones I felt I’ve read/heard before, right down to the dialogue during these times. To be fair, it certainly is hard to keep this original. But it was also cheesy at times.
The bigger issue for me was, there were entire paragraphs dedicated to his ‘bulge’. If this is to be believed, he’s just running around, sporting a … ‘bulge’ for any and no reason whatsoever, unprovoked, pretty much all of the time, like a preteen or something … but he’s supposed to be an adult and have 10 years on his mate. I just found it, not only implausible, but very redundant. When the male lead was talking about something other than his ‘tightening pants’, I did find him to be a well-developed, likable character. I feel like a few thousand words collectively were probably spent on just this one, uh … thing, and cutting the bulk of them out would take nothing away from the story. (It might actually add to it, by tightening up the manuscript as a whole and eliminating lots of repetition.)
The plot was interesting and fun and it managed to pack a moment or two that tore at my heartstrings. This author absolutely has strengths and I think they’d be amazing at writing clean speculative fiction.
I'd probably explore more from this author. But not these narrators.
3.5 stars.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Audio:
Love dual narrators, conceptually, and usually. On this one … the male sounded more robotic than human to me so I had a little trouble paying attention during his turns. (His voice is actually really hot, if he’d tone down the AI-impersonation, he’d likely be great.) The female narrator had a smooth voice, but also sounded robotic. Better than listening to AI for sure but, not narrators I’d seek more from.
There are also instances, later into the book, of words and names that were clearly spliced in. I fear the audio production team on this book took advantage of this author.
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