The Realm: Books 1-3

By: Eve Langlais

Narrated by: Marie Smith

Length: 26 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

For those who like their romance full of fantasy and swoon-worthy heroes, The Realm features the first three books:

1. Wizard's Chance: Curvy Samantha is a dreamer looking for a happily ever after with Prince Charming. Her whole life changes when she finds a magical book that transports her to a tropical island with a hunk who thinks he's a wizard.
2. The Hunter: For years, Suzie’s been running with her children, determined to not be found by her violent ex. Tired of hiding, she decides to settle down in suburbia, where she meets Hunter, a hot neighbor with a sword and secrets.
3. Chance's Game: The god of chance has sent Breanna on a quest to free the realm from a powerful spell. There’s just one problem: Chance expects her to team up with a wizard who is also a devilish rake.

©2022 Eve Langlais (P)2022 Eve Langlais

Wizards Chance only

The first book, Wizards Chance was great, Cute plot, feisty and fun Samantha and bit of a tool but grows on you Sin. Tropical beach setting, falling in love while breaking a curse, it was all enjoyable. Some parts were a bit much, but nothing that isn’t part of the fun and some angst. The second book, The Hunter, almost made me want to stop listening. Suzie is the worst character, she’s epitomizes the reason to never have poorly designed single mother characters. They can be great and heart warming, especially with great dad figures (which Hunter is), but not when coupled with a whiny, blame-shifing, insecure, selfish mother figure. Suzie constantly makes comments about what a bad mother she is, but NEVER attempts to fix it, she just glosses over it and thinks she deserves to be lazy. She’s horribly rude to Hunter’s mother (who is apparently a wonderful mother and woman, probably why Suzie is so jealous of her), never apologizes for her overly rude behavior. She constantly expects others to fix her problems or save her, and is upset when she isn’t immediately saved or apologized to. ***spoiler***how dumb can one woman be about birth control!!!! having sex without protection is very likely to lead to pregnancy. it was bad enough the first time (again, she is the worst sort of heroine, she doesn’t even pretend she was in love, she was just stupid and weak).
Chance’s Game was a cross between the two books. Terrance is just like Sin and Hunter, confident and competent, simple man with great looks and charm who fall for curvy, needy women. Breanna is not as annoying as Suzie, but she’s not as fun spirited as her sister, Samantha. She was raised in the Realm, and perhaps that is why her “independent” nature (i.e. obstinate) is so forceful, bc she doesn’t want to be a “broodmare” and appears to have a history of issues with men. But she’s pretty disdainful of wizards (i think it’s supposed to be a shifter-wizard Realm rivalry, but it kind of just seems a bit speciesist). It was ok, but after The Hunter, I was really just struggling to finish the series.
As usual, Marie Smith did a great job narrating but even she couldn’t save Suzie and by the end even her voice was making me regret starting the series.

two places one not magical and the other werry magical

there were some uneq elements, so the story felt werry original even thoug it had the werry popular romance story team to it, loved it.

Too Juvenile and lazy

So, here's a situation of a good story concept but poor execution. It just seems like she got lazy. Repetitive descriptors, restating unnecessary inner thoughts. And details that don't make sense.
example: a librarian who reads a ton of fantasy would absolutely know what a grimoire is. She'd have a way better understanding of magical comcepts simply from her fiction reading. Her persistent innocence about every damn thing is completely unrealistic and not believable.
Nitpicks: Is the author suddenly a 13 year old? her "kitty"???? she could have used any number of words but her descriptions of sexual encounters came off as massively Juvenile.
Also, the narrator was not to my liking. adding emphasis on odd words and using inflections that made no sense. And pronounced words a bit off. serious pet peeve : "dinnit" instead of "didn't"
But, the thing that made me shut off the book was this line after She and Sinclair had sex: "Who knew that lovemaking could be so frantic and pleasurable" REALLY?? Who knew? woman read a ton of romance and fantasy and she didn't know lovemaking would be pleasurable? please. and who says that?
It just all came off as massively lazy and childish. like a tween with no experience of sex wrote it.