The Vampire King: The Kings Series, Book 1

If it's got the word 'Vampire' in the title then I'm interested, couple it with HKW as being the author and before you know it - it's in my basket.

This is a spin- off from The Big Bad Wolf series, but if you haven't listened to any of them it probably won't matter much as there are a few mentions of werewolf pack members. Yet another interpretation of how vampires came about and what they can do. Roman, the Vampire King, can't resist Evie who is 'hi hoing' it through life until she becomes a 'person of great interest' not only to Roman but an old enemy of his who thinks she's the key for his revenge. Apart from vampires (obviously) it's got Hunters, Werewolves, Witches, Warlocks, magic and all sorts of other supernaturals in it (sometimes too many) and they either help or hinder Roman.

A very enjoyable listen which was action packed and the plot was good - 13 supernatural Kings are going to find their Queens, but for me, I felt it lacked the dark sensual passion a vampire book should have (girls - if you loved and wrote vampire books and was saved twice by THE most handsome of all vampires wouldn't you say "bite me please"). If it wasn't for the very end then this seemed more YA than adult with only one not very hot or heavy sex scene.

Worth a credit? For me, I am looking forward to book 2 The Phantom King coming soon to Audible but it would help if HKW could make them a wee bit more passionate please please please.

It was an interesting start to the series. I liked the unique take on Vampire mythologies, incorporating magic was a great touch.

I'd have to say the interactions with each vampire, I wanted to know more of how their power worked.

My problem with this book was the narrator. How do I explain this, Anthony put a definite pause/punctuation at the end of every sentence. So instead of it sounding like a continuous story it sounded more like bad slam poetry. It made it so very difficult to get into the story, I KNOW I would have liked it more if someone else was reading it. And since he is narrating all of them I'll have to read them instead. I can't bring myself to pay money for that experience again.

Not particularly

I just wish someone else had read these books, someone else could have made them great. As is, it was more of a chore to get through.

I love vampire books but this one just lacked a certain "bite" of a typical vampire romance novel. There were too many characters and too much information given in such a short amount of time. I felt a little dizzy and confused in the beginning. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this one more if I read the Big Bad Wolf series first. The story switched back and forth between characters too much for my taste. Some of the side stories weren't even relevant to the main story. All the more reason I think I should have read the BBW series first.

Overall it wasn't a terrible book but it wasn't great either. I also didn't care for the narration but that's just a personal preference.

A story that flows, not this chopped up one we get to listen to. Also more dialogue between the characters. Nearly 5 hours of narration gets old.

No, but I will never buy another book by this author.

The only redeeming quality is that Anthony Ferguson was the narrator, he is a very talented narrator and I have enjoyed many books he has read.Too bad he had such a terrible story to read.Anthony Ferguson was the reason I purchased this book.

The first 5 hours of this book is all narration with practically no dialogue between characters. The story jumps around so much it is disconcerting. One minute the story is in a hospital and the next it is in a house without any connection or chapter break..New characters are introduced without any warning. One minute you are reading about the king and the next paragraph it jumps to new characters. This might be ok if reading but not for listening. At least there should be a new chapter to bring in things that at the time are not connected in any way. Overall this is not a well written book. The story is weak and so slow during the first 5 hours with hardly any dialogue. I did listen through to the end because I thought something was going to happen. What a disappointment. No surprises as it is easy to predict the story. I read a lot of PNR and this one falls very short. The others usually have me hanging on to hear what happens next. Also they have a lot of dialogue. Listening to this book it seems that a lot of the story was cut out. When finding out vampires exist there should be more than a 3 word sentence. Perhaps this is bad editing because it does seem that parts of the story had been cut out. I would not recommend this to anyone.

This was a fantastic story! Wow I just loved it, I read it in one sitting I couldn't put it down. This book would be getting 10 stars if there had been more dialogue in it. For me dialogue is very important when reading a book. Even though this one was lacking in dialogue I have to admit it was still a great read/listen I am hoping the rest of the series will have more.

The characters were fantastic, so many varieties of characters and powers, its magical, and opens up a whole new world.

AHH Roman...now that's what I call a Vampire! The story was great. The sex was mild and minimal but it was there, barely, but it was there.

Credit worthy? OH YES.

This is the first in the series of the 13 kings but I felt like to much information was packed into this story. It gives you information on characters, such as who they are and quite a bit of their history not to be mention again in the story. Which I found a bit hard to decipher as well as follow. The story to me seemed to deal more with the kings then them finding their queens. In this first installment I found it hard to believe that the Vampire Kings' queen had any real feelings for him other than gratitude by the time he transformed and claimed her. I mean when he abducted her he was trying to explain what he was and trying to get her past her fears then when they are reunited the author wants me to believe she loves him and nothing else has happened between them other than him rescuing her from a mad vampire. Once you get past a lot of additional character history and you can follow along with the story overall I'll say is good. To me it felt like the story was rushed and overstuffed with details that should have appeared in some of the books to come. Some of the information felt a little out of place. I will continue with the next book to see how it all comes together and I'm hopeful that the next book won't read and feel as if the author rushed the story line.

This book intrigued me enough that I'm downloading the second in the series to see where it's going. As a stand-alone novel I don't think I would consider recommending to others, but I like the world/ situation that is set up so I'm willing to ride this out a little further.

I'm curious to see what the 13 realms are, and how the overarching plotline is going to develop. The only problem I had was the romance between the two main characters. It didn't feel very passionate or real, just contrived for the sake of the story. I'm hoping (as is often the case) that the first book/ pairing is more about getting readers adjusted to this world than anything else.

British, Attractive and British some more.

I am really torn about the narration for this book. I definitely liked the tone, cadence, etc. of Antony Ferguson's voice, but ALL of the characters in the books were done with a British accent. If the story took place in England, or the characters had all been clearly ID's as Brits that would be cool, but the story takes place in Oregon, and so it's weird to hear everyone sounding like they're from the UK. I'm hoping this was some sort of producer/ directional oversight, and there will be more variety in The Phantom King. Although, like I said, he does have a nice voice, so even though that's annoying, he puts a lot of inflection and thought into his performance, so I'm willing to suffer through it. In my book, a British accent makes everything sound better!!

The heroin wasn't a -teen-, and as an older vamp fan, I'm sick of all the stuff that caters to the too young. Our heroin has a responsible mundane grownup life as an alone still-single. I like relatable characters in unreal stories.

My favorite character is the vampire King! So take charge and beautiful. He doesn't take "no" in today's politically correct world!

I'm a first time listener to this author.

There was one scene in the story that made me laugh.

Thank you author for this particular book, I love it.

Like many of the other reviewers the first 5 hours of this nearly killed me to listen too. It was fully of introductions, and not a lot of substance, and I saw little point most of it. The two main characters were rarely present and the points they were present for held little to the story.

Fast forward to last couple hours and it picked up and the story became decent and intriguing enough to make me think about trying the second novel. If it continues with actual story and less world history / explanation it should be good.

I disagree with the reviews on the narrator as I have adored everything Antony Ferguson and this one is no exception, the drag of the story was not due to his narration at all, and due to the story itself.

This was overall a decent book, and the start of a potentially strong series. My only issue was a lack of development between the two main characters. They went from 0 to 60 with very few interactions or even "moving" interactions. I think the author focused more on setting the stage for future books and characters, making the main character development suffer a little. However, I am definitely getting the next book in the series with hopes that it offers a little more interaction.