Inkmistress

By: Audrey Coulthurst

Narrated by: Billie Fulford-Brown

Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's Summary

A sweeping, action-packed, and romantic fantasy full of dangerous magic and dark choices, perfect for fans of Tamora Pierce and Kristin Cashore - set in the same world as Of Fire and Stars.

Asra is a demigod with a dangerous gift: the ability to dictate the future by writing with her blood. To keep her power secret, she leads a quiet life as a healer on a remote mountain, content to help the people in her care and spend time with Ina, the mortal girl she loves.

But Asra's peaceful life is upended when bandits threaten Ina's village and the king does nothing to help. Desperate to protect her people, Ina begs Asra for assistance in finding her manifest - the animal she'll be able to change into as her rite of passage to adulthood. Asra uses her blood magic to help Ina, but her spell goes horribly wrong and the bandits destroy the village, killing Ina's family.

Unaware that Asra is at fault, Ina swears revenge on the king and takes a savage dragon as her manifest. To stop her, Asra must embark on a journey across the kingdom, becoming a player in lethal games of power among assassins, gods, and even the king himself.

Most frightening of all, she discovers the dark secrets of her own mysterious history - and the terrible, powerful legacy she carries in her blood.

©2018 Audrey Coulthurst (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

a fun harrowing fantasy with a bisexual lead

Pros:

The fantasy rules set up lead to interesting and nail-biting conflict with magical twists.

Well written prose and briskly paced. the book takes place over a year and it zooms by.

Strong romance about heartbreak, betrayl and learning to love again. Plus the main character is bisexual and it is never made a big deal.

Gripping character drama, some betrayls and double crosses really hit you in the gut and have lasting consequences.


Cons:

Some world building is not fleshed out enough.

The main character sometimes fails to think through their actions and it can be annoying with how little she learns.

Some dialogue drags on.

The ending is weak and is a poor hand-wave to explain the differences in magic that appear in the sequel. it felt like a last minute note rather than a satsisfying conclusion.


overall still a strong engrossing fantasy story. would recommend.

A bit underwhelming

I was really excited to listen to this after marathoning through Of Fire & Stars. Unfortunately it didn’t capture my interest nearly so much. None of the characters (nor their objectives) held my attention and I finished it more out of a sense of obligation than excitement. It detailed some interesting background on the magical world set up in Of Fire and Stars, being set some several hundred years earlier, but that’s about it.

Solid book

I had to think about my review for this one. I wanted to give it less stars, but I realized that was my own bias. I'm always looking for a good read with some saucy, heated, intimate moments. While this story had some romance, it wasn't very saucy.

That said, the story is quite solid. I liked how the author balanced Asra's character as a bisexual woman. It's not an easy thing to do. I also enjoyed the magical elements. Definitely worth a listen if you like fantasy books.

Very Refreshing

I enjoyed several aspects of this book. I like how normalized the Quiltbag+ content is, the lack of racism or sexism, the 'cliches' are ones I enjoy, and the cliches I hate but expect were absent. I appreciate how realistic the relationships are, they're much more relatable than your average high fantasy romance. I also appreciate that they aren't central to the plot.

Very refreshing.

love!

This is an absolutely amazing book!! I hope to listen to more. This series gets better and better!!

torture plot

anything and everything bad that can happen does. its a really painful listen. the continuity is there and the characters are interesting, but the protagonist gets wrecked over and over.

Wish there were more!

Loved the series. The narration is beautifully done. The only thing I wish is that there were more novels in the series, I did not want the story to stop !

Better than the actual Fire and Stars books

The final words were a bit cheesy, and you need to read the first two books to understand and feel the gravity of the prequel, but the prequel ended up being far better than the other two.

Hidden Gem

I liked the voice. The text was easy to follow. It was an enjoyable escape.

So happy I found this author

Been really enjoying the quality of the books and their narrators. The characters are complex and interesting to match the magic systems, and having a world where queer people exist so naturally is incredibly refreshing.