Prince of Air and Darkness

Darkest Court Series, Book 1

By: M.A. Grant

Narrated by: John Solo

Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Phineas Smith has been cursed with a power no one could control. Roark Lyne is his worst enemy and his only hope.

The only human student at Mather's School of Magick, Phineas Smith has a target on his back. Born with the rare ability to tap into unlimited magick, he finds both Faerie Courts want his allegiance - and will do anything to get it. They don't realize he can't levitate a feather, much less defend the Faerie Realm as it slips into civil war.

Unseelie Prince Roark Lyne, Phineas's roommate - and self-proclaimed arch-nemesis - is beautiful and brave and a pain in the ass. Phineas can't begin to sort through their six years of sexual tension masquerading as mutual dislike. But Roark is also the only one able to help Finn tame his magick.

Trusting Roark's mysterious motives may be foolish; not accepting his temporary protection would be deadly.

Caught in the middle of the impending war, Phineas and Roark forge a dangerous alliance. And as the walls between them crumble, Phineas realizes that Roark isn't the monster he'd imagined. But their growing intimacy threatens to expose a secret that could either turn the tide of the war...or destroy them both.

Contains mature themes.

©2019 M. A. Grant (P)2019 Tantor

great listen and time well spent

such a good book to listen to on a long drive great storyline with good characters and great development

The love story

I liked the story and I liked the enemies to lovers trope. But the story did drag at some points. But overall a good story.

fast-paced finish

I really enjoyed reading from Roark's pov the best! The first part of the story felt like it moved a little slow for my taste, but it really picked up speed in the 2nd half. Overall, I enjoyed the adventure, though there were a few things I questioned at the end.

Shouldn’t have put this one off...

This one has been on my TBL queue for a while and finally, I was able to listen to it.

The world building, the establishing of characters, the various range of conflicts and its different tangents, not to mention the storytelling.. it’s incredible.

I was captivated from start to finish. There have been a few times when I wanted to flick Finn and give him the gold medal for jumping to conclusions. 😒 There were a few times where he’s been SO juvenile and how the consequences of his choices made me wanna scream at him (well, I screamed within the four walls of my room) but hang in there, he redeemed himself in an epic fashion.

John did an awesome job narrating this story. He brought it to life. His accent for Prince Lyne is on point. 👏🏼

On to the next book because the ending left me wanting to unfold the mystery left dangling...

Fantastic

At first I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but I was oh so glad I purchased it by the end. A wild combination of fantasy, magic, political intrigue, romance, and even contemporary, I highly recommend. The author does a fantastic job of conveying the weight of expectations, character’s motivations, and their emotions. This book will have you grinning, griping, and hoping along with each of them. It was performed beautifully by John Solo, giving each character their own personality and voice while flowing together fantastically. I can’t wait to listen to the next.

NOT a 2 book series

Audible tends to get the series counts wrong fairly often. In this case, the 2 books end on a little cliff-hanger. After just finishing book 2, I checked online and there is minimally a 3rd book.

Books 1 and 2 focus on different characters. Book 1 does get pretty graphic in the sex dept at times if that bothers you. Book 2 only has 1 brief scene.

Both books are enjoyable, but completely different.

A good fantasy story

While i do like fantasy stories, they need a very solid set of principles and chatacter credibility to work and in Prince of Air and Darkness you have it, with John Solo's great flair for dramatic narrating.

This is a very slow burn and the tension is well written.

John Solo excellently delivers the story and its different characters.

And the world building has a fun college drama feel not unlike 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', with a sort of 'monster of the day' line of story and with the fantasy magic of 'Stardust'.


Despite that towards the end of the story things somehow got away from my understanding...
I admit I didnt understand why Roark was suddenly okay in the end that Phin would take on the mantle of the Knight - something he basically describes as a suicidal role.

And how the sudden frost helped save the farm after Phin's use of magic scorched the fields and crops there is beyond me.

Or why, after Mabe gives her promise she suddenly turns it to striking a deal, and Phin buys into it - when he couldve just as well demanded her to stop trying to bargain, uphold her promise and he and Roark would discuss with her the need to protect the kingdom.

Theres also a large cast of side characters that we dont get to see in the ending which i found disappointing.

Overall I think this story has a solid base and starts off with a lot of promise but in my opinion gets a bit lost towards its conclusion.

Its still a fun dive to a fantasy world, a bit on the dark side if you're fond of torture chambers, and a cute love story following self-imposed forbidden love.

Good story

The story was enjoyable, but it felt like the narrator missed a lot of the humor (or just failed to express it, dry humor can be hard to convey for some). The accents for the 'old Irish fey' left something to be desired, and the occasional mispronunciation of words and names was a little distracting. Still overall I do not regret the purchase and was suitably entertained.

Pretty good, not my favorite

idk if it was just me or not but I was confused several times during the book. Like the "curse" placed on Phin, I'm not really sure what it did and why it was important. Also, how his brothers fit in to the story didn't make much sense. The Knight position was super confusing... why was it a bad thing? Does the queen want him to do this so she can kill him or so he wouldn't be a threat to her? Idk maybe the next books will help clear it up but from what I can tell those books are about other characters.
That being said, I like the narration and it was a decent love story in a fae world. Just a bit unclear about certain plot points and a bit slow.

Doesn't make sense

An underlying premise of this story is that the Winter Knight is destructive to the individual who steps into the role. Even so, the HEA has one of the main characters do just that. it makes no sense.
The next book in the series does not look like it will address this or other outstanding issues since it revolves around completely different characters. 😟