Bloodguard

BloodGuard, Book 1

De: Cecy Robson

Narrado por: Taylor Meskimen, Lucas Webley

ONE HUNDRED YEARS. TENS OF THOUSANDS OF GLADIATORS. AND TODAY, ONLY ONE WILL RISE …

Everything in the Kingdom of Arrow is a lie.

Leith of Grey thought coming to this new land and volunteering to fight in the gladiator arena—vicious, bloodthirsty tournaments where only the strongest survive—would earn him enough gold to save his dying sister. He thought there was nothing left to lose.

He was wrong—and they took everything. His hope. His freedom. His very humanity.

All Leith has left is his battle-scarred body, fueled by rage and hardened from years of fighting for the right to live another day.

Then Leith meets Maeve, an elven royal who is everything he despises. Everything he should hate. Until the alluring princess offers him the one thing he needs most: a chance to win the coveted title of Bloodguard—and his freedom.

But in a kingdom built on secrets and lies, hope doesn’t come cheap.

Nor will his ultimate revenge …

©2024 Cecy Robson (P)2024 Recorded Books

The males voice

The male voice was too deep couldn’t understand what he was saying..it made the tension fall flat between the characters

Great story - female performance was grating.

Cecy Robson's "Bloodguard" is an exceptional story that beautifully blends engaging, slow-burn romance with a compelling world steeped in unique history. The characters are rich, multidimensional, and memorable, making it easy to fall in love with the story. The romance felt authentic and realistic, adding emotional depth to the thrilling narrative.

Regarding the audiobook performance, I didn’t mind the male voice talent. He did an excellent job using his deep voice to convey a wide range of emotions, all of which felt genuine and nuanced—a feat that's not easy to accomplish. Unfortunately, the female voice talent left much to be desired. Her delivery often sounded strained or scratchy, and her inflection at the end of sentences gave the impression that every statement was a question. This lilting quality made her narration feel unconfident and, at times, grating. It was distracting and made the audiobook harder to enjoy.

Despite the challenges with the female narration, the strength of the story itself more than makes up for it. Cecy Robson’s world-building and storytelling are top-notch, and I’d wholeheartedly recommend "Bloodguard" to anyone who loves an engaging romance and a well-crafted fantasy world. If the narration detracts too much, the book is certainly worth reading in print (especially the hardback version with the beautiful sprayed edges).

Feels like Hungry Games meets Gladiator

Loved the story and the male narrator was so good. The female’s acting was questionable at times but overall such a good listen!

Great book!

It’s a great book!! Don’t be scared to start it, it will start out slow but it gets so much better!

On the edge of your seat!

If you are OBSESSED with fighting, fantasy, epic romance, and spice then this is it, Bloodguard is definitely packed with detailed epic battles, friendship bonds, and one of the best romance plots I’ve read in all of 2024!

The character building is beautifully written.

You will fall in love with the AMAZING FMC. She is tough, brave, and bada$$!

You will also fall in love with the MMC. He is brutal, smoldering, and faithful.

I have yet to find a book like this yet. This was literally my first ever read for this type of genre and nothing can top it.

The audio book really brings out the tru emotion. The actors did a fantastic job!

Enjoyable but flat.

I enjoyed parts of this book. The story as a whole is decent. The twist was good and there were parts that made me want to cry. I just felt like the love interest fell in love too quickly without any real reason as to why. Time was skipped and I felt like we were left out of some important things as to why they fell in love. Kind of felt like they just went with the “love at first sight” approach. The ending was good. There wasn’t as much action as I thought there would be but the fights were good. I give it a 3.5 if I could. The narration was hard to push past on the audio book. Both narrator’s spoke flat and robotic and drew out the last word of ever seeennnntteence. It was annoying.

You will not be able to put this one down.

I listened to this in a 1.5 days. I was not able to put it down it was so good. First time a moment in a fantasy book brought me to tears. I cannot wait for book 2. I love this author.

Good story, rough reading

The idea for the story was awesome, but the first half was kinda boring. Made me want to stop reading at first, but I am not one to quit a book halfway, so I continued and the story got better as it went further along! I am not a fan of either voice actor, as they both seem to have struggled with the voices of the main characters. However, props to the male VA for his various other voices he did throughout the book. Overall, liked the story and hope there will be more from this author in the future :)

Predictable

The narrators had a sing songy cadence that was very hard for me to get past. I enjoyed the FMC and MMC’s personalities, had a hard time keeping track of the side characters, and felt the story was overall formulaic and predictable. I didn’t hate it but it wasn’t my favorite.

I enjoyed the story

I liked the story, and the female narrator was good, but the male narrator sounded like Batman and was hard for me to hear and understand even when the sound was turned up. That whisper-growl made it somewhat unpleasant to listen to Leithe's pov.