Stolen by the Shadow King

Kingdoms of Lore: Underworld, Book 1

By: Alisha Klapheke

Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly

Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

A dark elf king. A mortal witch. Their courtship will save the world...if they don't kill each other first.

The magic that holds both the Upperworld and the Underworld together is crumbling—fast. And if someone doesn't fix it soon, everyone and everything will die.

Maren uses her magic—her connection to the Underworld—to call up the elven shadow king, Kynan, to discuss a prophetic dream. Instead of having a helpful chat, Kynan drags her to the Underworld and demands that she mate with him to repair the magic of the realms.

When she demands answers, he refuses her. Brooding, secretive, and harsh, Kynan uses his shadow magic to control her and tells her little to nothing about the supposed prophecy that involves her ability to speak to the dead. He locks her in a fine chamber in his castle and treats her like his queen, but she refuses to bend to his insane idea until she learns the whole truth of the situation.

She is willing to sacrifice her life in the Upperworld if she must, but she's not giving up everything on one dark king's word.

As she explores the Underworld with Kynan looming over her every move, she learns just how much power is within her. And, the hardest lesson of all:

All is fair in love, war, and saving the world.

Stolen by the Shadow King is book one in a completed duology set in the world of Kingdoms of Lore. It is a passionate enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance with tension galore, blossoming magical powers, found family, and true love. Listen on in book two for a touch of spice and the continuation of this epic story.

©2022 Alisha Kalpheke (P)2022 Podium Audio

stolen my heart

This story was everything it had lead up to being from the previous series. I loved how the MC's had completely the wrong idea of each other based on the histories they both been taught to believe and how they still were still prepared to work together to fix things on both sides, despite having to forego their freedom to do so. I also loved hearing them learn about each other and begin to appreciate each other despite the hardships that were in the way. The narrator does a great job capturing the characters and conveying the emotions of the story

Fantastic story with amazing character development

This was a re-read (well, listen) in anticipation for book two, and I have to say.. it was just as good the second time as it was the first!

The characters are so well done. I love the good guys; I hate the bad guys. As it should be, haha. The story had me on edge for the entire book (even on the second read because my goldfish brain doesn't remember everything after the first, haha).

Highly recommend! I'll be listening again, I'm sure.

This is a big NOPE for me.

Oh boy... Well I decided to give this book a try after seeing it on booktok. It was a disappointment and not at all what I thought I was getting. To start with the book takes place in the same world as previous books and it says you can read it without having read her other books. I respectfully disagree. There are a TON of characters from previous books not to mention plot points that obviously reference previous books. Now for the story... One of my biggest pet peeves with books is when there isn't enough motivation for the decisions being made. This book is basically the manual for this issue, like the MMC just suddenly decides that the FMC is ok and kinda cute. Nothing happens to motivate this change after he literally locks her away after kidnapping her. There are so many plot points that seem to come out of nowhere and I hated it. This book was also advertised as a spicer read, it's not. Literally, nothing happens. Mild kissing, oooh so scandalous. This book is so confused about what it actually is, it tried to be a Hades/ Persephone and/or Beauty and the Beast retelling for the first 25% of the book then just throws all that out the window. Honestly, if you're looking for a fantasy romance with common tropes such as...
✅ One bed
✅ Enemies to lovers
✅ One horse
✅ Love triangle (kinda)
✅ Shadow hands
There are much better books out there than this one to cover those tropes.

Story ⭐
Spice 🚫
Audio 🎧🎧