Chained

A Choice of Light and Dark, Book 1

De: Lacey Lehotzky

Narrado por: Daphne Fields, Gideon Frost

Narrated duet-style by Gideon Frost and Daphne Fields.

Years in chains have taught Princess Izidora one harsh truth: trust no one. When she is finally freed on her twenty-first birthday, Izidora finds herself in an unfamiliar world brimming with danger and intrigue. Surrounded by the warriors who rescued her, the lost princess remains guarded as they journey toward Vaenor, the heart of the vicious Night Realm. Yet, her resolve is tested by High Lord Kazimir Vaszoly, the formidable leader of the Nighthounds. He seems to orbit her like she's his sun, ever-present and unyielding, especially when her traumatic past threatens to consume her. As their journey progresses, Izidora's distrust blooms into something far more potent and unsettling—an irresistible attraction that could unravel her carefully constructed defenses.

But in a realm ruled by a mad king and filled with scheming courtiers eager to exploit her naivety, Izidora and Kazimir must navigate a perilous path. Will their developing love survive their arrival or will they be torn apart at the whims of the mad king?

Chained is the first book in the bestselling dark romantasy series A Choice of Light and Dark. With a cast of morally grey characters, MMCs with touch her and die energy, and a prophecy that will change the course of history, dive deep into this dark + spicy story of trauma healing and finding love. Perfect for fans of Gild (The Plated Prisoner Series), To Bleed a Crystal Bloom, and Game of Thrones. Chained contains scenes and themes that some readers might find disturbing. A full list of TWs can be found on the author's website.

©2023 The Lehotzky Group LLC (P)2024 The Lehotzky Group LLC

If you’ve read any other fantasy book, you’ve already read this one

A girl gets rescued from a tower, takes a bunch of baths and eats a whole lot. Despite the fact that she’s been in iron chains her whole 21 years, she’s super strong and definitely the chosen one. Also, they bang. This book could have been a novella.

Okay

I liked a lot about this book doesn’t get me wrong I HATED the mate shit like it seriously took them the whole book to realize they were mates I mean seriously are they dumb. Overall tho I liked the characters they were fun and funny and I genuinely enjoyed the book. I did also hate at the end where she like has all this power n shit but just stood there watching her friends fight for her n shit like idk man.

Darkly fantastical story with beautiful duet narration

This is the first book in the A Choice of Light and Dark series, a dark romantic fantasy about a rescued princess who has to try to learn how to function in a world she’s never been a part of, and her rescuer that spent years looking for her. Tropes include touch her and die vibes, feminine rage, found family, mental health and trauma representation, and he falls first. Please check the content warnings before reading as there are some dark topics/themes in this book. In addition, there are a number of open door spicy scenes in this book.

The Lovely: The characters, main and secondary, were well rounded, flawed and lovable. The FMC might be haunted by her dark past but her tenacity propels her forward. The MMC’s obsession seemed over the top (repetitive) at first but a revelation towards the end of the story helps to explain why he was like that. This book might be the best found family story I’ve read since Lady of Darkness. I loved each of them, and everyone’s relationships with each other.

Also Lovely: The plot and tension made it nearly impossible to put this book down. The concept/history is something I haven’t seen done before. At first I thought she was getting over her trauma “too quickly” until you remember how long their journey was and that she was highly motivated to learn. And it’s no one’s business to dictate how someone deals with trauma (or on what timetable). There’s a nice ebb and flow to the pacing that worked well without overwhelming or stressing the reader.

Audiobook: This audiobook is done in duet style narration, where the dialogue flips back and forth between two narrators. This makes the dialogue feel much more “movie like” and as if you’re present. I loved the two narrators for this book. The male narrator is all sorts of growly and just sounds morally gray. The female narrator is perfect for Izidora and I loved how you could hear Izidora going from a scared, terrified victim to someone stronger and more self assured.

Rating: 5/5 Stars 4/5 Flames

Recommendation: I loved, loved this book in a way I haven’t loved a book all around in a while. It had everything I want in a dark romantasy (ok, except maybe a shadow daddy, but the MMC does have wings). How is it possible for a book to make such an emotional impact? If you like romantasy books with a darker undertone but heavy on the character relationships, you would like this.

Love this book

Spoiler: I fell in love with the book once their relationship blossomed. Him teaching her how to hone in on her magic, absolute perfection. The end of this book had me pacing my floors.

was not worth the credit

The summary of the book was interesting sn ran along the lines of the books I normally read however I feel that the narration was relatively OK with what it had to work with but the book just seemed very slow and had a lot of unneeded additives to make it longer which I think took away from the story which caused me to lose interest and have boredom not really wanting to finish the story even though I wanted to know the end I guess is the best way I can explain it

PLOT PLUS SPICE

I love a book that I can read that has a good plot line while still having the spice and romance that makes it appealing. This book, not only has the plot line that doesn’t make me want to gouge out my eyes, but also has such a good storytelling. The people reading fit the book perfectly. Overall an amazing book!

Good story

*Minor spoilers*
The story has a lot of potential but fell short in some parts. I didn’t like the unrealistic “love story” for example *spoiler don’t read last this if you don’t want spoilers* if a woman has endured 20 years of brutal beings and SA, I doubt they’re going to be looking at a man that she just met, in any other way but weary, she wouldn’t be getting a “heat lower in her core” two weeks after being rescued from such a horrible situation. The way he was almost predatory towards her right from the jump instead of being respectful and sensitive towards her after enduring such horrible abuse just didn’t sit right with me. He was already getting impatient with the fact that she wasn’t looking at him with desire a few weeks after she was taken out of that situation is wild! As the story continues, it gets a little better but I felt like there were more x-rated scenes than world building or story progression. For example, when examining the map, there’s was plenty of opportunities to detail what this world looks like and where they are located in it, but instead we got “on one side of the map was us and in another spot was (city name) at the very top of the cliffs” like no directional points like east or west, no details about terrain or distances other than the fact that it was a 7 week ride from the cave where they started. I have about 4 hours left of the book and there’s been more unrealistic love scenes than details about her training since she’s supposedly learning to read, use magic, weapons training etc but there was maybe a 5 min training scene then right back in the bedroom. I’m so for some smut, but this book just felt like I was reading the weak story line of an adult movie 🤷‍♀️ I won’t be finishing this book

Don’t waste your time

This was hard to listen to. I had second hand embarrassment the whole time. Don’t waste your time or money.

Girl....what?!

*shuts eyes, holds bridge of nose, exasperated* WTF even is this? She's been going through *spoilers/triggers* for 20+ years and after a few weeks she's just fine and happy-go-lucky? Like, I get this man is magical but I can't get behind that much alluded trauma instantly fixed by some magical dick...

AND WHAT ARE THOSE ACCENTS??!! Either commit or omit dawg, damn.

Also, if you've read TOG and/or ACOTAR you can skip this. We basically have mashed up monster-baby here.

*diappointed sigh*

Couldn’t finish this, The main character is so unrealistic it’s baffling and literally started feeling gross

After over 2 decades of sexual abuse and slavery the main character in just a few weeks has magically moved on and romantically entangled without a hiccup and it’s totally okay. It’s just so unreal. And they keep mentioning how SMALL and tiny her body and hands are that she is the size of a small child again and again it’s starts to feel like child abuse. Literally could not finish this book.
Voice cast is great and it was fun to listen to until it all became stupid about half way thru. Could not finish