The Prisoner's Throne

By: Holly Black

Narrated by: Barrett Leddy

Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

An imprisoned prince. A vengeful queen. And a battle that will determine the future of Elfhame.

Prince Oak is paying for his betrayal. Imprisoned in the icy north and bound to the will of a monstrous new queen, he must rely on charm and calculation to survive. With High King Cardan and High Queen Jude willing to use any means necessary to retrieve their stolen heir, Oak will have to decide whether to attempt regaining the trust of the girl he’s always loved or to remain loyal to Elfhame and hand over the means to end her reign—even if it means ending Wren, too.

With a new war looming on the horizon and treachery lurking in every corner, neither Oak’s guile nor his wit will be enough to keep everyone he loves alive. It’s just a question of whom he will doom.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black comes the stunning blood-soaked conclusion to the Stolen Heir duology.

©2024 Holly Black (P)2024 Little, Brown Young Readers

A good ending to the series

I didn’t like how the narrator went about it, it made it seem almost childlike. I might have loved it more if I read instead of listening. Overall the book was good, and a nice ending to the series

I never wanted it to end

I was upset at first that they had a different narrator from The Stolen Heir bc I love Saskia so much, but this narrator blew me away with his talent and range! The story and writing was as lovely as the first book in this series and I hope there is still more

Another great story

The story was very well written and very creative. I love all of Hollly Black's books! It was a bit odd at first to switch from a female narrator in the first book to a male in the second, but they were both great. I would have liked it more if they were both used in the story. I'm not sure why that doesn't happen more often.

loved!

I have loved the entire series. I like paranormal fantasy....usually with smut. This series was great without it and I was able to listen with my kid in my car. The characters, descriptions, world building, and narration is top notch!

Best for fans of the Folk of the Air series

Enjoyed this overall. Oak’s struggle with how to differentiate between obsession, seduction and the sincere expression of love was unique and even philosophical. However, at times I felt it got a bit bogged down trying to catch the reader up with the events of the Folk of the Air trilogy. The female main love interest Wren doesn’t show much agency in this book and doesn’t appear as often as I would have expected. In the end I feel like Tiernan and Hyacinth have a more compelling romance and I suspect it’s because they spend more time working together throughout. The narrator suited Oak and excelled at dialogue, but I wished the third person narration had the poetic/storybook tone to match the first in the duology. One nitpick: in the first book we are repeatedly told Wren has a distinctive wraspy voice because of her damaged vocal cords, but from what I recall that is depicted here neither in text, nor narration.

Great story continued!

Just like all Holly Black’s books this one is Amazing but I feel like the narrator moved too fast for the story. I wish they would’ve brought back Caitlyn Kelly! She was absolutely the BEST narrator!

Love the story, wish I had read it instead

I am a huge fan of audiobooks and generally enjoy the readers, however, the narrator for this book continually made pronunciation errors throughout the story that really distracted me from the story. Now, Stolen Heir was probably one of my favorite Holly Black books, so Prisoner’s Throne was one of my most anticipated releases this year and the story is excellent. I love Ren and Oak’s chemistry. I just think it would have been better with either a different reader or if I would have read it myself.

Resolves the story, but not an easy listen

Glad to get resolution to Oak and Suren’s story, but I really did not care for the performance. Holly Black’s other audio books were much easier listens than this one. If you like the Elfhame world and the Greenbriar characters, it’s worth the listen. But not as good or well-performed as the Jude/Cardin books.

A slight letdown

I expected more from this book. The book was all over the place and the ending was a great let down. The narrator was odd and it was weird for the voices to have changed from the narrator who narrated the other book. It made their personalities change it seems.

Great Book, Bad Narrator

I loved this book, but the voice over was so distracting. It sounded like it was being read by an AI instead of a real person. I would have stopped listening if I didn’t like the story so much.