Serpent's Touch

Serpent's Touch, Book 1

De: Marina Simcoe

Narrado por: Stefanie Kay, Tyler Donne

Mysterious and tragic, Madame Tan’s menagerie is the only home I’ve ever known.

It’s a place where two worlds merge; a twilight zone between Earth and the magical Kingdom of Nerifir.

The menagerie is filled with fantastic animals, but I discover that Madame captures and displays sentient beings too.

One of them is locked in a crate day and night, not seen by anyone, and one day I learn why—looking at him kills. Even talking to Kyllen is forbidden, but I break that rule.

I break many rules for him.

He wants his freedom and offers me a chance to escape Madame’s cruelties.

Little do I realize that with Kyllen, my heart is in even greater danger than my life.

Can I love a man whom I can’t even see?

Serpent's Touch is a slow-burn MF romance that contains graphic descriptions of intimacy and is intended for mature listeners. It is part 1 of a duet set in Marina Simcoe's world of the River of Mists. It ends with a HFN (Happy For Now), but the story continues in part 2, Serpent's Claim.

Cover art design copyright Marina Simcoe. Images and fonts licensed by Depositphotos.com.

©2022 Marina Simcoe (P)2022 Podium Audio

Quietly entertaining

Audiobook - Audible
Narrated by
Stefanie Kay
⭐️⭐️
Tyler Donne
⭐️⭐️

I didn't know what to expect diving into this book, but I was pleasantly surprised.

It was innocent, naive, cosy, violent, and quietly entertaining.

Pleasantly surprised

I enjoyed the plot and story . It was a slow beginning but quickly got into it I enjoyed it very much love the characters

The Best! ✨🌟

I can’t say enough how entertaining and unique this book was. I wish I read it earlier! I love the characters. Plus, the storyline held my interest. I can’t wait for the next book to come out on Audible; so I’ll definitely be reading ahead. However, I get the Audiable too come 12/27!

Mixed Feelings

I am going to guess that this duology would work better as a single book (started book 2 and it easily could have been just part 2, imo).

I really liked Amira as a protagonist. I tend to prefer gentle & intelligent female protagonists anyway, but with the current popularity of mean girl/boss bitch female protagonists in romantasy, she felt even more like a breath of fresh air.
I also really like stories of healing and personal growth.

That being said, our male love interest? Temperament wise, he's so stereotypical that he could be easily switched with pretty much any other standard male love interest from a romantasy book, especially one of the SJM male fae protagonists. Arrogant and self-assured beyond belief. Proud. Possessive. The best warrior. The most handsome man in existence 🙄 I think that sounds quite familiar by now in the romantasy genre and I am sick and tired of it.

Also, while I am not usually bothered by pet names (and sometimes I can find them to be cute), sweet pea is definitely outside of my comfort zone. Who the heck wants to be called a sweet pea?!!

Steamy scenes felt pretty cringe-y to me. I was not enjoying them. I especially found the male narrator's moans to be uncomfortable to listen to. Additionally, and while I might have been naïve for not seeing this in advance (mostly because I didn't expect the snakes on his head to be that long), the steamy scenes definitely land into tentacle porn territory, imo. And that is not something I tend to enjoy.

While I cannot properly verbalize it, there was something about Amira being blindfolded in this new land that made me quite uncomfortable. Like, even though she openly consented to it, taking so much of her agency made me uncomfortable. Especially since blindfolding her could have easily been avoided by simply finding her a pair of glasses.

I listened to this book on audio and I found the male narrator, Tyler Donne, to be more or less ok, except in sexy scenes. The female narrator, Stefanie Kay, was very good, imo. She captured Amira's emotions and fears very well. I would gladly pick up something else she narrates.

Painful

The story started out strong. Drew me in for sure and the performances were good. By the middle of the story, it became difficult to listen to.