Cair

Veiled City, Book 1

De: Eryn Hawk

Narrado por: Parker Douglass, Nick J. Russo

Duración: 10 h y 1 m

Resumen del Editor

Twenty-five-year-old Luca Elliot lives in a city divided.

The humans and the supernaturals mostly keep to their own kind, but Luca—curious and desperate for work—crosses the border and finds himself employed by a tall, stupidly handsome Fae with killer horns. He should be intimidated, but instead, Luca is utterly captivated. Falling for the boss is a bad idea though, right?

Cair Haryk is only a visitor to the human world, and between his position in the Fae kingdom and a bargain he made years ago, he can never remain. He's content with that until he meets Luca—his soulmate—and hires him to work in his high-end lounge. Cair tries to guard his heart, but fate has other plans, and despite his best intentions, he falls for the pretty little human. Hard.

Luca can't enter the Fae realm, and Cair's time in the mortal lands is drawing to an end, so while the attraction between them is irresistible, their situation is impossible. They can't be together. It's tragedy and heartbreak just waiting to happen.

Isn't it?

Cair is an MM paranormal romance with spice, size difference, and soulmates. Cair is first in the Veiled City series, which is best listened to in order due to the overarching plot. Each book focuses on its own pair and their HEA.

©2023 Eryn Hawk (P)2023 Podium Audio

Fae + Human? = some hot tension

I rad the book and LOVED the book. As some stated before the ending is kind of abrupt, BUT it's to lure you into the next book. I love the narrator performance for this story & author. Both narrators fit both main characters perfectly. It really brought the entire story to life.
I would say both the book and audio are equal in terms of which is better. I'm an audio snob (So I can craft, cook and do things in my house) but I also enjoyed the book and read it ravenously.
I can't wait for the audio for book 2 if that is greenlit!

First time

It's the first book from this author and the book didn't disappoint! I love the diverse characters, especially the monsters. I can't wait for the next book!

Perfection!

Great story, amazing steam, fun narration and performances. Hoping there are others or additional books in future. Well done!

Good audiobook, bad split between narrators

While the story was good and entertaining, I was disappointed, that the two narrators changed in different chapters instead of each of them narrating one character. The audiobook would definitely have benefitted from that.

Love the book

Overall, I’m excited for the next book and narrator and a story, and I love laughter that this book gave me Keep coming

Really enjoyed this dip into the Veiled City series!

The story was good if a little predictable, the narration was done well, and the world building was very interesting. I enjoyed my first dip into this world and am looking forward to Teigan’s story for sure!

Fun Read!

I love this audiobook! Luca and Cair are so fun. The side characters are also great! I will definitely listen to this again and I can’t wait for the next audiobook in the series!

Low action story

Fans of fated mate stories will probably enjoy this but I struggled with the story. The characters are likeable enough and the universe seemed interesting, though more world building would have been helpful. Overall, not a lot happens. Most of the story is from Luka’s perspective which worked for the first half. Unfortunately, Cair’s chapters mostly involved a lot of internal monologuing and bad decisions that create the only drama in the story. It was an easy listen though. Not a bad option if you want a story in the background while who focus on another task.

Started out great, then devolved into a first draft

This book started out great! Very promising! Fun and fascinating worldbuilding, hints of intriguing backstories, lovable romantic leads afraid to start a relationship, and distinct and interesting side characters who play well off the leads in different ways. My friend and I read it together and were invested and engaged, thoroughly enjoying Luka’s fish-out-of-water experience as he explored life on the fae side of the tracks and the obsessive pull he felt toward Cair, his alluring new boss whose possessiveness and determination to act like a sugar daddy seemed at odds with his refusal to yield to their mutual attraction.

Then the novel jumped the track and straight into cliches and foolishness. It was disappointing to get a few hours from the end and feel like the only way my friend and I could reach it was to take a page from MST3K’s playbook and start sassing the characters for their foolishness.

The last third of the book felt like a first draft. The pacing and tone were all over the place; characters lost IQ points so they wouldn’t ask the obvious questions that might resolve the plot too soon; character blocking and setting descriptions went out the window; side characters became cardboard Schroedinger’s cats that were or weren’t present depending on whether the leads chose to notice them; plot threads were seemingly introduced, but never resolved; and finally, the fierce and terrible, cleverest, oldest beings in the world—Cair’s parents, the fae king and queen, before whom even Cair and Teagan feel helpless—were confounded into silence and outsmarted by a bratty twentysomething human man who never even stood up to his mother.

Which, I guess, is fine. Luka’s Not Like Other Boys.

I love fanfiction, but this story’s ending felt like that in a way that didn’t translate well to a published work about characters I didn’t already have a giant IP’s-worth of emotional attachment to. The cornucopia of fanfic tropes and cliched romance phrasing didn’t fit the preceding story. My friend and I spent that section frustrated, arguing with the characters’ choices, and feeling like the author had flipped the script on us. I think an editor and thorough revision of the last third of the book would’ve helped it live up to its initial promise, feel grounded in character and setting, and made the happy ending feel earned.

Perhaps such a revision would also have improved my final impression of the narration, since I don’t recall having trouble distinguishing character voices until the last act.

I enjoyed the beginning enough to try more of the author’s work. They know how to start a great story, and this one pulled me in. I think plenty of people will enjoy the melodramatic climax and ending, too, rather than feel maddened by their uneven writing and unfulfilled promises—especially if you read for promise/potential as much as prose. For those more sensitive to writing quality, however, this book may feel like a bait-and-switch.