Of Dreams and Shadows

The Ealdspell cycle book 1

By: Jesikah Sundin

Narrated by: Olivia King

Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

DREAMS ARE DANGEROUS

Unless she unlocks the powers of her mind.

He fights his Otherworld shadow self.

And with only fae magic to re-spin their tales.

Princess Æroreh Rosen was faerie blessed before her birth. To promote the New Dawn Era, the Queen coded her daughter with every feminine perfection.

Beauty. Gentleness. Obedience. Musicality. Kindness. Grace. Good cheer.

Hunger and lung sickness plague the kingdom of Ealdspell. But Æroreh is plugged into the Dream, a program created by a sect of faeries to control the realms through illusions of beauty and contentment. All Æroreh has ever known is blissful servitude to a cursed system, and she believes her realm is prospering. Until a different faerie sect decides to wake her sleeping mind and set her true magic free.

Meanwhile, Félip Batten MacKinley holds a dangerous secret. One made more threatening by the frostbite scar across his cheek. He’s spit on, beaten, and demonized by a community that values a pretty face over all else. With no easy future in sight, he accepts that he’ll die a burden to his foster parents, his true history erased. But a tempting offer from the faerie’s Fate Maker leads Félip to cross paths with the hauntingly beautiful Æroreh - a young woman who represents all he loathes.

Yet only she has the power to awaken a new Dream.

Æroreh is a gritty spin on the romantic tale of Sleeping Beauty and blends faerie magic and pagan ritual with high technology. For fans of Margaret Rogerson, Holly Black, fairy tales, and young adult dystopian fantasy.

Can be heard as a stand-alone.

Name pronounced like Aurora.

©2019 Forest Tales Publishing (P)2020 Forest Tales Publishing

Fairytale Retelling + Folk Tales + Cyberpunk

The magic, tech, writing & narration in this book raised my review to ⭐⭐⭐⭐.
Meanwhile, the plot and characters brought it down to ⭐⭐⭐⭐.

I was expecting steampunk, but this was more technology-focused. The story is one we all know (Sleeping Beauty) with a slightly different interpretation, more of a dream state than actually sleeping.

Complete story–No cliffhanger. Thank you!

THE GOODS
Worldbuilding: pagan inspiration
The use of nanotech
Narration: adored the Scots accent for Philip
Writing: some amazing turns of phrase
Male MC: Much deeper than Æroreh. Nice backstory and arc.

COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER
Plot (classic Sleeping Beauty plot with dreams in place of full sleep)
Female MC. I must say… I really did NOT like Æroreh. Sniveling nitwit comes to mind. I know, it’s hard to have a strong FMC who falls victim to the female villain from such a young age. And Sundin used that to her advantage in the story by making her representative of the idea that women have been belittled, told to sit down and look pretty for a long, long time. However, it just doesn’t endear me to the character.

Great story!

This story was a little confusing at first because it’s so far from what I expected it to be but I loved it! The narrator was excellent and I loved the accent she used ❤️

Ehh

Good concept but never actually drew me in enough to care about the characters or outcome.
Olivia King's performance was excellent!

Fairy tale with a twist + great narration

I combined listening to chapters of the audiobook in the evening and reading the paperback during the day.

It's nice to see how elements of a classic fairytale (of the original version, not the disney one) are intertwined with modern elements, like the existence of an AI and runic technology. The same goes for all Ealdspell books. For the characters, I really liked Félip, Ærorah a little bit less because I like the MC to be a bit more sassy, but she was still a lovely character (the personal growth she experiences throughout the book was amazing). Having read Eirwen already, I was soooo happy to see some familiar faces return in this book too (it's nice to see how they help in connecting all the books together). A small downside in my opinion is that you barely get to know why the villain (won't call them by name here to avoid spoilers) does what they do, what the bigger plan is. But this becomes much more apparent in Eirwen, so I'd just suggest you pick up that one as soon as possible so you can dive even deeper into the world of Ealdspell, because there is so much more yet to be discovered.

Both the writing style and the narration were very pleasant to read and listen to. As English isn't my maternal language, it took some time for me to adjust to Félips accent in the audiobook, but it made me hear his voice in the same way while reading the paperback, so in fact it was a really nice touch once I got used to it.

The historical notes at the end of the paperback were also very informative and a big upside to this book.

So if you like amazing fantasy worlds, with characters that will just steal you heart, lots of bantering, the innovative combination of both fairy tales and modern stuff, I'd really suggest you check out the Ealdspell Cycle.

PRINCESS OF DREAMS. PRINCE OF SHADOWS

WOW! THIS STORY REALLY JUST BLEW ME AWAY, IT WAS SUCH A UNIQUE RETELLING OF SLEEPING BEAUTY IN A TWISTED WAY, BUT REALLY GOOD. THE STORY IS CLEAN, AND THE NARRATOR HAS A SCOTTISH BROGUE, THAT
MAKES YOU WANT TO MELT. A WONDERFUL STORY, AND I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST STORY TO COME TO AUDIBLE!

Great Listen

Book 1 in the Ealdspell Cycle series.

Do you love fairytale retellings with a twist? If so, then this series is the one for you. Jesikah Sundin's unique interpretation and presentation of the beloved Sleeping Beauty fairytale provides for an intriguing read in Æroreh.

Dream vs Nightmare

Unknown Connection...Survivor Bond...Manipulation...Betrayal...Truth...Trust...Love...

Faeries...Fae...Dwarves

Sometimes a voice is the song of freedom. When faced with being an amplifier of magic and learning of past connections, our heroine is thrust into the melee fighting for an eternal balance of life and death. In the midst of the battle, can she find true love?

"Guard your heart and your mind."
"Magic given is magic taken."

fun fairytale retelling

This was a really different fairytale. I loved the "is this technology or magic?" feel of the whole book. it was also really fun to listen to, as the narrator changed accents depending on the point of view (although it did take me a few chapters to get used to).

I recommend this for anyone who likes YA grumpy/sunshine romance, high tech/steampunk fantasy, and fairy tale retellings. 4.5 stars rounded up.