Evernigh

The House of Aurum, Book 1

By: M. J. Padgett

Narrated by: Ada Thomas

Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Elleck Aurum, King of the Autumn Realm and ruler of Evernigh, has spent too much time in battle and wants nothing more than peace in his beloved kingdom. In a time when tensions are high between the four realms, the people of his kingdom are scared and restless. When the Spring and Summer Realm leaders are murdered and winter magic invades the land, Elleck is called to action once again.

The longevity of Elleck’s kingdom isn’t his only worry. Troubling dreams—premonitions—invade his sleep, pointing to another war on the horizon and the ultimate death of the woman he loves—a woman who won’t give him the time of day.

Nari Crossway is desperate to save her family’s land from the abominable Autumn King, who has declared all land owned by women shall become royal property. Refusing to let go without a fight, Nari hatches a plan. She’ll dig her claws into the king’s brother, a rascal prince whose interest in Nari might be her saving grace—or the death of her. If the king or the prince discovers her newly developed abilities—the power to wield winter magic—it will be more than her family’s land on the chopping block.

Evernigh’s future hangs in the balance…and there’s only one way to save it. Elleck and Nari must work together or sacrifice the land they both love.

©2021 Melissa Padgett (P)2022 M. J. Padgett

Really Intriguing Fantasy Realm Based Season Magic

Parents- PG - PG13 Appropriate for 4th grade and up
Language- none
Violence- PG13- normal to genre violence and death
Sexual Content- PG- Attraction and kissing but nothing too intimate

This being the first in a series has a lot of build up. There's fantastic world and character building and the story really picks up in the last half of the book. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this story goes and can't wait for book two.

Narrator- 3⭐- has a pleasant voice easy to listen to but also pretty slow speaking speed, differentiations weren't great and not the best inflection. I found the speed normal when bumped up to 1.4x speed- I listened at 1.7x speed.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Good Fantasy

I liked this first book of "The House of Aurum" series, but it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, based on the blurb. The story was good. I enjoyed the descriptive phrases that the author used to bring the world to life. The story seemed to be more of a charming romance than a book of fantasy, although there were some characters who could wield magic. Ada Thomas' narration was mediocre as I thought her performance lacked inflection. I was given a free copy of the audiobook, and I have voluntarily posted this review.

I REALLY ENJOYED THIS STORY.

FUNNY, DYNAMIC AND FULL OF SNARK AND SASS MAKES FOR THE PREFECT HEROINE IN THIS FAY KINGDOM MYSTRY ADVENTURE ROMANCE.

STORY WAS GREAT AND EASY TO FOLLOW.

ACCEPTABLE FOR PRETEENS AND UP.

NARRATOR ADA THOMAS WAS GREAT AND EASY TO FOLLOW.

I CANT WAIT FOR BOOK 2.

A FAE OF EVERNIGH

A STORY OF EVERNIGH, FILLED WITH FAE AND ADVENTURE! NARRATION WAS WONDERFUL! I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE SEQUEL!

3 star listen

not my favourite
i enjoyed the other series i started from this author more
a little to young for me but i would look at listening to book two as the world building is good enough. Theme is interesting enough.
3 star listen
gifted audio
start of a YA series.

narration is awful.

Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.

I honestly believe this book had so much potential. I would like to find a physical copy of it to see if the story was actually good or not. I recieved an audio arc through bookfunel. The narration was so bad I just couldn't listen anymore. It wasn't even a problem that I had with the sound of the narrators voice, it was the fact that they mispronounced so many words and read words wrong. As an example: the narrator would say "execution" but the sentence called for "electrocution". Honestly I don't know if the author or the narrator is at fault and I can't know without a writen copy of the book. But just from listening to all the mispronounced words I'm leaning toward the narration was just bad because the story has so much potential. I reccomend an editor and new narrator for this book. I dont do bad reviews ever. When I like a book it generally gets 4 or 5 stars and I'm not hard to please, however, I couldn't keep listening to this book and I think people should know why.