Realm of Knights

Knights of the Realm, Book 1

By: Jennifer Anne Davis

Narrated by: Kim Bretton

Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

Reid has spent her whole life pretending to be a man so she can inherit her father’s estate, but when a chance encounter threatens to expose her lie, she is forced to risk everything.

In the kingdom of Marsden, women are subservient to men, and land can only pass from father to son. So, when Reid Ellington is born, the fifth daughter to one of the wealthiest landholders in the kingdom, it’s announced that Reid is a boy.    

Eighteen years later, Reid struggles to conceal the fact she’s actually a young woman. Every day, her secret becomes harder to keep. When one of Marsden’s princes sees her sparring with a sword, she is forced to accept his offer and lead her father’s soldiers to the border. Along the way, she discovers a covert organization within the army known as the Knights of the Realm. 

If Reid wants to save her family from being arrested for treason and robbed of their inheritance, she will have to join the knights and become a weapon for the crown.    

To protect her family, Reid must fight like a man. To do that, she’ll need the courage of a woman.

This is the first book in a new fantasy series from best-selling author Jennifer Anne Davis.

©2019 Jennifer Anne Davis (P)2019 Jennifer Anne Davis

Pretty good except for the romance

There were many parts of this story that I enjoyed. Reid is an enjoyable character and often a practical person. The side characters are also fun. I especially liked her sparing buddies (Harlan, Knox, & Royce) and the varied reactions they had when they learn that Reid is actually female. Then there’s the super secret plot that pulls Reid into the mess of the royal family (mostly the brother princes Ackley and Gordon). I didn’t see where that was going and enjoyed that the plot kept me guessing.

The other side of the coin is what didn’t work for me. A chunk of the story is based on the somewhat tired trope that men are superior & only men can rule and own land in Marsden, so Reid has been masquerading as a male since birth. Her reveal as a young lady was a little cliched. And then her first romance walks into the story and that part is just silly. For the most part, I like Reid, but she turns ridiculous when romantic feelings enter the storyline.

The first third and last third of the book were pretty good. That middle third was a little boring for me with the romantic bits. Reid has been training to lead, inherit, fight. Yes, I know her dad probably didn’t plan to let her actually do any of those things, yet she had to act like she would indeed be doing them upon adulthood. Yet when love’s pitterpatter waltzes in, all that makes Reid awesome gets tossed out the window.

Anyhoo, I was very glad to see that the story got back on track with the mysterious plot and royal family intrigue. Also, I loved that Reid had the chance to see how a neighboring country treats their women and it’s making her rethink what she wants out of life.

Although this book is in the Fantasy genre, there’s little magic or fantastical elements in the tale. I felt that it could use something more from the Fantasy genre. The tale does end on a bit of a cliffhanger. Overall, the story shows promise for greater things to come. 4/5 stars.

The Narration: Kim Bretton has a very pleasant voice. She was spot on for young lady Reid. However, Bretton’s male character voices lacked masculinity across the board and this was troublesome for me as it made it difficult to keep track of which character was talking. A few of the male characters are described as having deep, masculine voices and the narration totally missed the mark on those voices. Bretton did a great job with Reid’s emotions. There were no technical issues with the recording. 4/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Jennifer Anne Davis. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

excellent

Before purchasing this book, I suggest buying the complete trilogy since you won't be able to stop after the first book. I loved the story and characters. Also, each new book picks up right where the previous story left off.

Great Author!

After listening to this Series I was excited to find that Jennifer Anne Davis has more books. She is an extremely talented author. I listened to all her books and thoroughly enjoyed everyone of them. I was playing The first book in the reign of secrets series, My daughter started listening in and was hooked within just a couple minutes. She finished the whole series before I did. I recommend all of her books!

Wow

This was a great book. Throughout the whole thing you never quite know who to trust. It feels like everyone in the royal family is using Reid.

The story moved along swiftly and never got boring. I was always eager to hear what was going to happen next.

There wasn’t much of a love story, which sort of bummed me out, so I’m hoping this next book will have that aspect in it. It’s set up that way, but after little to no romance in this book I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not part of the book at all.

simply amazing

a most amazing tale, and cliff hangar!
Not generally my genre but I'm a sucker for anything Kim Bretton narrates. I am so glad I did because this book was phenomnal and I cannot wait to get on with the next installment!

greeeeeeaaat

This book was so good. Narrator did great and it kept me interested until the end

A must read

Realm of Knights is an absolute must read or listen to! First off, I loved our heroine! She is strong willed and gutsy, and can hold her own in a fight like no other! I also loved so many of the other characters, and the strong family ties and dynamics that could be seen throughout. Ms. Davis does an excellent job at giving detail and personality to each character, whether royalty or commoner, with each having a unique tone and voice. The setting is beautifully described, and the pacing and flow of the story were spot on. The plot os the story totally hooked me right from the beginning, posing questions that we are seeing in our society today about what it means to be a woman, and also how capable a woman is. I absolutely devoured this listen and started book two immediately!

A Fantastic Series Start!

This book was such a great listen! Honestly, time just flew by as I listened to it. I definitely need Book 2 right now!!!

I loved Reid's struggle with who she is as a person. It's a very interesting dynamic for a character to go through especially with the lens of gender roles in the society here and what she is tasked with doing. It provides some great character moments.

What I also loved was the lack of a romance. Yes, there is attraction and flirtation but we completely avoided some cliches along the way and that was uber refreshing. And that's coming from someone who loves romance in her stories.

I wanted a little more from the plot but I'm not sure what. Perhaps more physical action? There are a lot of subtle twists along the way so I was never bored with the story; so I'm not sure what was lacking for me. It all builds nicely for the sequel so I have some high expectations for what's to come.

Audiobook is fantastic! I loved the accents and how each character had a unique voice.

**I received an ARC/review copy of this book and this is my voluntary review.**

Excellent

An excellent story and an excellent narrator. Kim Bretton does a stellar job in this one.

Great story about identity and strength

Disclaimer: I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Jennifer Anne Davis. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

I’ve never actually done an audiobook blog tour before so this was really cool to do. Yes, I’ve listened to many audiobooks before, but never participated in an audiobook blog tour specifically. So I am sooooooo glad that Audiobookworm Promotions exists because that was the coolest thing ever.

I was so into this book like you wouldn’t believe! It’s a pretty decent length audiobook – 8 hours so you could technically listen to it in a day if you wanted to – and the pacing just really worked for me. I loved Bretton’s narration for this as well, and I felt like she really made me like Reid and Harlan a lot more than if I had read them, or if someone else voiced them. She gave this sort of edge to Reid but still make sure that she sounded like the woman she was – despite having to grow up as a boy. I think she gave personality to all of the characters that we got to meet in this novel, and I was really intrigued by the whole story in general.

I really, really hope that she stays the narrator for the entire series. This was my first time hearing Bretton as a narrator and I look forward to hearing her again in other fantasy novels.

Davis made a story where I wanted the main character to be able to fully be herself, and yet I could relate to her in that she had to hide part of who she was. I don’t find a lot of novels where our female MC has to grow up from birth living a complete lie about their sex and gender. The only people that knew that Reid was born a girl, and was still a girl by all physical requirements, were her sisters and father. Unfortunately, her mother died in childbirth, and she felt like she was the one that killed her mother, which is super heartbreaking because it definitely wasn’t her fault. In this world and time, if a family does not have a male heir, the family can lose whatever property and land they have, and their titles. Hence why Duke Ellington – Reid’s father – declared that his late wife gave birth to their son Lord Reid.

So for one, I enjoyed Reid’s journey into learning how she could use all facets of herself to be a Knight of the Realm, almost a group of elite soldiers that act as spies for the Kingdom. Since she pretty much knows the mannerisms of men, and grew up doing combat training, she can handle herself as man, but can also change her outward appearance to be a woman when the situation calls for it. While this may not seem like a novel idea in the present, it seems like in the kingdom of Marsden, this situation that Reid was thrust into gave her so much more agency over herself than she realized. It wasn’t until she had to be “Lady Reid Ellington” that she truly felt how oppressed being a woman could be.

But I won’t spoil the rest of this one for you, because things get so much more interesting when she goes on an actual mission as a Knight, and gets to travel to an enemy realm to save her people. It really was quite interesting, and the entire time I was listening to it, I was engaged in Reid’s journey and didn’t want it to end. I’m actually quite peeved that it ended in such a cliffhanger and I have no idea where or when I’ll get the second audiobook but I need it like yesterday.

Oh, and I also listened to 1.5x the speed, and it just made the story feel so much more intense! I think I need to listen to the rest of my audiobooks at this speed from now on. It also made the laughing in the novel sound super cool for some reason??? I can’t explain it. I just totally dig it.

A strong series starter!

Really enjoyed this start to the series. I didn’t realise it was a series when I started so am happy to now continue Reid’s story in books 2 and 3 on audible- loved Kim Bretton's narration bringing all the characters to life - would recommend for those who enjoy historical novels and good to see the women being the lead - Looking forward to starting the next two instalments.