Beneath the Sand

By: Katherine L. Bichler

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Growing up in the caverns underneath the colosseum is anything but ordinary for a Roman teenager like Noemi. Helping her father train wild beasts for the emperor’s extravagant shows and being feted with romantic gifts from her noble fiancé, hers is a life few girls could imagine. But despite her good fortune, Noemi is beginning to doubt her upcoming wedding, which could threaten what she desires most—to train as a gladiator.

While Noemi loves the lions beneath the colosseum and the bloody shows above, her sister, Livia, is a contrast in extremes. If Livia can’t be an enviable Vestal Virgin in a garden temple, she’ll do the next best thing and use her charms to climb the social ladder, as high as the emperor’s palace on Palatine Hill. While Livia will stop at nothing to improve her social life, Noemi can’t stop her secret desires, nor her stealth training with swords.

And then there’s Cato, a top-ranked gladiator who is keeping a risky secret of his own. Against Noemi’s better judgement, she finds herself drawn to this mysterious fighter, who has both a temper and an imperious reputation. Soon, Noemi, Livia and Cato find that keeping secrets is not just child’s play, but dangerous games with deadly consequences. Can they all fool the emperor long enough to avoid a date with the executioner?

Great Story Bad reader

the story was great. kept my Interest about the whole time. the AI reader made plenty of irritating mistakes and mispronounced plenty of words. which just made it hard to listen to and focus on the story. Instead I. wondering what the actual word was or why they skipped a word and changed the sentence from a question to a statement. the lack of tone and emotion was very prominent in this reading. overall the story was very interesting and I enjoyed the plot. I understand that narrators are not cheap and AI is the affordable way to go. Its just really difficult to stay focused when you are trying to figure out if the character is confused, annoyed, happy, sad, etc... and if the sentence is a statement, or a question.