Fate of a Royal

Lord of Rathe Duet, Book 1

By: Meagan Brandy, Amo Jones

Narrated by: Teddy Hamilton, Aubrey Vincent

Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Number one in fantasy romance

Number one in new adult romance

"You will go to Rathe University, live among the giftless and those of light magic. You, Knight Deveraux, will learn to coexist."

I've never heard more wasted words in my life. Then again, the gifted counsel never did have much to say that wasn't. The only members amongst them who speak a thing worth listening to are my parents, the king and queen of the Stygians, the people of Dark magic.

Unfortunately for me and my brothers, they've chosen to play nice instead of sinking their talons into anyone who dares demand a thing from their heirs. In this instance at least.

Every Gifted is forced to leave our realm behind after graduation to spend the next four years in a world that isn't ours, while pretending it's enough for those with something deeper clawing beneath their skin.

It isn't. Not by a long shot, and while it's as boring as I thought it would be, we find ways to entertain ourselves.

A little Fae Dust, the power of persuasion, and it's a party worthy of a royal...or four.

That was fun the first year, but it's my second now, and the minute I got back to campus, I knew it would be worse than before. I felt it, that pull buried beneath my skin, the whisper of a warning deep in my mind I could hear but couldn't reach.

It starts with a human party and ends with a nightmare.

A five-foot, white-haired one.

With eyes like ice and a body begging to be bitten, she's a problem.

A Giftless one.

That's right, she's human.

Worthless.

And if the shadow circling my soul is telling me what I think it is...she belongs to it.

My new obsession...is my fated mate.

But there is no way the fates would give me, a Lord of Rathe, an heir to the throne of Dark magic, a Giftless girl.

I'll prove they got it wrong.

That she's not mine.

If I'm lucky, I'll destroy her in the process.

This is book one in a duet. Book two, Fate of a Faux, is out now!

©2023 Amo Jones and Meagan Brandy (P)2024 Audible, Inc.

Different

Different types of character but still that twist and rage we love with the dark romance

absolutely wonderful

I love this book so much. Reading it was amazing but listening to it was even better. the narrators did such a great job bringing this story to life and making you feel like you are there with the characters.

At Least It's Unpredictable

This book is 100% for dark romance readers. If you've never read any dark romance books, this is not what you should start with. This book might not be entirely for regular fantasy readers either, but if you want a book that's unhinged with a messy romance and a dash of fantasy, this one's for you. This is a romance told in two parts, so this book does end with a cliffhanger. However, book two is already out in all formats so do have it on hand to pick up immediately after finishing this one. I do recommend this book in audio if you do audiobooks. It is narrated by Aubrey Vincent and Teddy Hamilton.

Content warnings include violence, murder, heavy drug use (both real and fictional), characters having sex with other people who are not the love interest, sharing between brothers, kidnapping, sexual assault, noncon, and a number of HP references throughout.

I’ll start off by saying the trigger warnings in the author’s note at the beginning of this book is extremely inadequate. It defeats the purpose to tell readers to mind the triggers when the authors don’t actually LIST them anywhere. And I have looked. It's just especially weird since the audio narration does read the author's note but then it just leaves you confused when you do try to find what the warnings are...and they're not anywhere.

I did wait for these two books to be out in audiobook first before picking them up and I’m kind of glad I did? This first book has had a cover change since it first came out and I think the new cover does set expectations a little better. I heard this book being promoted as romantasy and the original cover LOOKED high fantasy, but this is NOT. Especially not this first book. More than half of this book (most of this book honestly) takes place in the human world. The book starts off with rival colleges playing an ice hockey game. It’s disconcerting if you’re expecting a fantasy novel, right? Well, let’s just say my expectations were appropriately set when I came into this.

I wouldn’t say the 1- and 2-star reviews are wrong for this book. The critique is very valid. But I enjoyed reading this book and couldn’t put the audiobook down because I just wanted to KEEP. LISTENING. This series is co-written and I’m much more familiar with Meagan Brandy and her writing than I am with Amo Jones. I tried Amo Jones quite a while ago and didn’t click with the book at that time so I was hesitant to try this one. This book definitely runs way darker than what I would consider Meagan Brandy’s darkest books (like Boys of Brayshaw, Girls of Greyson, and Badly Behaved). I want to say this is probably more of Amo Jones’s level of dark then, with guys who have a huge red flag waving over their heads the second you meet them. Can't say it doesn't make for an entertaining story though.

This book has two POVs. One is London, who is a human and a typical college student who doesn’t know what she wants to major in but she loves to party. She’s roommates with her best friend, Ben, who she’s known forever and maybe has a co-dependent relationship with. I do wish we saw more of Ben because we certainly heard enough about him. London never shuts up about him to the point you’d almost think he should be the love interest.

But I digress.

The other POV is Knight Deveraux. He is a “gifted”. He’s royal, a prince and second in line for the throne in the dark realm, where the people are known as Stygians. It’s unclear to me how old he really is because I THOUGHT I heard on the audiobook that he’s a few hundred years old but he’s also just attending college at Rathe University, so I don’t know. Maybe he is a few hundred years old but that's considered young. He plays hockey, but don’t focus too much on the hockey. This is NOT a hockey romance. In fact, there’s barely any hockey in this book aside from maybe two scenes. He attends Rathe U with his brothers, Creed (eldest and heir), Sinner, and Legend (youngest). Knight and his brothers also loves to party.

This book is super loose with consent. Missing it entirely, if you will. When you have immortal creatures who have the ability to wipe a human’s memories and mess with their minds in their dreams. It’s not great. But I would say my line in the sand is Knight creeping on London in her bedroom and watching her sleep and then what he did afterwards...That’s something that was a step too far honestly.

And this next part might not be for everyone either, but I did want to note that Knight does have sex with other women before and after he meets London. This book is HIGH heat and there are others involved at some points. Sharing between brothers is also a thing that happens in this book.

I will say that it is normalized in this book to have queer characters though? I would have liked to see them more substantially outside of sex scenes or for the brothers to be bi or pan or something but…baby steps I suppose. There is a side character, Justice, who works with London and mentions he has two moms. So, there's that.

One thing this book makes sure to point out that felt very out of the blue is that even if you’re an immortal (or at least very hard to kill off), you should still always wear your seatbelt. The tone seems a bit at odds with the lack of consent when it comes to sex scenes, but this is important? People should always wear seatbelts.

One character I would like to have seen more of is Silver. He hangs out with Knight and his brothers, but he’s just sometimes around even though he's apparently Knight's best friend? I’ve already decided I like him and want him to get his own book.

An interesting aspect of this book is how much the mating bond trope and the whole concept of finding your mate takes a left turn in this story. When Knight finds out he’s mated with London, he’s in TOTAL denial and it is hilarious (up to a point). I have never read a book with someone so opposed to finding his mate. He’s in disbelief and violently opposed to the idea. As the first of his brothers to find a mate, he’s technically now first in line for the throne. But the crux is that London is “ungifted,” a human with no powers. It shouldn't be possible for a gifted to mate with a human, yet here we are.

I actually really liked London as a character. She’s a hardcore party girl, but knows that maybe she’s got to stop hitting the hard drugs after an unbelievable party she doesn’t realize was filled with gifted from Rathe U. She’s very opinionated and a ride-or-die for her best friend. I would compare her to a lot of Meagan Brandy's female characters. Not sure how London would compare against Amo Jones' female characters though.

Knight is sexy (or the audiobook narration makes him SOUND far too sexy) but he is a huge red flag. He’s the ultimate alpha asshole in that he won’t hesitate to commit murder and he’s not even 10% decent to his love interest, London. He needs to get over himself.

The audiobook narration is great. I really loved Aubrey Vincent as London. This is just a dual narration and I think I do prefer dual narration over duet. Teddy Hamilton voices all of Knight’s POV chapters. His accent is hit or miss for me on some words but overall, I like the timbre of his voice. The main issue I had with the audiobook is that Teddy Hamilton as Knight does spend time more in the fantasy world of this book (the characters create portals and jump back and forth between the human world and theirs). And there’s a huge disconnect with the way he says the word Stygian vs how Aubrey Vincent says it. They need to get on the same page with pronunciations and they weren’t.

The ending of this book is plot twist after plot twist and it definitely ends with a cliffhanger. Thankfully book two is out so you can dive right in after reading this one. I KNOW this story isn’t for everyone and it takes a certain type of dark romance fan who wants a side of fantasy to like this book. I think if you go into this not taking anything too seriously and you’re just here for a fun, unhinged time, you’ll like it. The downfall will be trying to analyze this book and trying to take anything too seriously. Just have fun. I thought this book was unhinged entertainment that managed to keep me up all night reading, so for that I do give this 4 stars.

Interesting

Interesting story. Very shocking ending. Can’t wait to read the next book. Romeo and Juliet story.

Fantastic

Amo is always an instant purchase for me, and although this one is different from a normal, it was a lot of fun to see her branch out with Meghan

I am so confused

I cannot figure out what any of these people are except for the Mages because they actually call them Mages. At first I thought vampire, then demon, then there are mentions of dragons but I know they are not dragons. Understand my confusion. The only real thing I understood pretty soon was that London's memories were hidden and that she somehow is tied to Knight. There is a cliffhanger at the end and I need to know what is going to happen now that her memories are coming back. Knight should have left well enough alone but that bond that was pulling him towards her was too strong, he had to have her and the spicy scenes were pretty good but now it seems they are actually enemies.

Two worlds colliding…

Can you imagine what would happen if you combine two amazing authors like our dark lady Amo and our lady of secrets Meagan? Well, let me tell you it's quite a story where I was captivated by the world and couldn't get my hands off it. I did not want to join the world of the living while I got a glimpse of their minds and got lost in the words. I even forgave them for the cliffhanger of a lifetime that hit us in this book that to me was earth-shattering.

It has the most amazing blend of supernatural, a lighter side of the darkness, a few confusingly perfect twists, and earth-breaking secrets, and I had a few tears, I laugh a lot and of course, the smut was hot and ever so naughty.

With two worlds colliding for Knight and London, which for them was unexpected and full of, magical occurrences, I have a soft spot for Sin and his role in the story. It's so well written and you'll love the way it combines magic and the mundane it is flawless, and his brothers were fun, too and oh? Let's not forget Ben.

These two authors perfectly balance each other with light and darkness. This was a unique, feisty, and addictive read, I need more books like this from them. Please with a SIN on top.

XOXO Lottie.

the best audio!

this book was amazing and the audio was perfection! I'm so obsessed! the narrators did amazing