Pale Queen Rising

Pale Queen Series #1

By: A. R. Kahler

Narrated by: Amy McFadden

As royal assassin for the Faerie Queen, Claire is used to moving between the mortal world and the Winter Kingdom. When the queen commands her to kill, Claire does the job and doesn't ask questions. Her deadly skills and loyalty are soon tested when Claire is sent to the Immortal Circus. It is one of the many places where Dream is harvested from the imaginings of mortals, and someone is causing it to mysteriously disappear. Claire's job is to find the culprit before the Winter Kingdom's supply of Dream is depleted enough to threaten the very survival of the Fey.

But when she meets Roxie, a beautiful mortal singer with a strange link to the Dream thieves, Claire quickly recognizes an odd and unexplained connection that may cloud her judgment. As each new clue unveils another secret, Claire finds herself confronting the riddle of her own buried past - and a dangerous illusion that, as part of the Immortal Circus, is just another act in the show.

©2015 A.R. Kahler (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved

Give it time because, the story gets good.

The story starts off a bit trope-ish, with the blonde bombshell heroine, but improves greatly as we see the author's vision of Fairy and the winter court. The story is part investigative mystery, with lots of action and fantasy to round it out. A good piece of urban fantasy fiction overall.

Great story!!

Very action packed and intriguing. Looking forward to reading the next book. Couldn't stop listening to it.

Loved it so much

I've listened to this at least 4 times and loved it so much that I read the rest of the series as well as the trilogy "The Immortal Circus" which takes place in the same world, with some of the same characters. It's basically a prequel to "Pale Queen Rising".
Out of all of them, this one is by far my favorite. I love Claire, who is a mortal assassin for The Winter Queen of fairy, who also happens to be the woman who raised her.
Claire is tough, sarcastic, not very emotional and a bit of a loner. Yet I still found her to be very likeable, funny and relatable. Her coldness makes sense with her uniquely disturbing upbringing.
Amy does a fabulous job and really nails Claire's attitude as well as the various other characters. There were plenty of memorable secondary characters. I especially liked Eli (demon) and Roxy (potiental love interest). Claire is bisexual and has both a male and female love interest, though "love" is probably too strong a word. But there isn't a love triangle and romance is definitely nowhere near the main plot of the book.
I didn't know much about this going into it and was pleasantly surprised by how exciting and interesting it was. it pulled me in immediately and held my attention the entire time. Although the other 2 books aren't as good, I'd still recommend this one.

Fun read

Magic, blood, death, horror, mystery. Girl trying to find her way in a crazy world plus looking for her true mother. I'm conflicted between the winter queen and who her mother truly is. Will she be able to save herself and her true mother ever.

EXCELLENT!

It pulls you in and keeps you from the moment the story begins. The mortal world and the world of Farie collide with a bang. Fast paced. Addictive.