Rise of a Dark Throne

The Mōsa Chronicles

By: Ligia N. Cushman

Narrated by: Ruthie Bowles

Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

When Sole awakens from the darkness, a terrifying plague that killed her family, she is left with the one thing she never wanted: Magick. She soon discovers that this rare power, thought to be long lost, has the ability to save her world. The tyrant King of Sundom summons her to serve his own purpose, setting her on an incredibly perilous journey. Sole soon finds herself navigating a dark web of politics, alluring power, desire, and great evil.

Rivian Alacor had his life all planned out. As the high-born second prince of Sundom, he could never be heir to the throne. Instead, he would lead the Sundom Guards, and when his brother became King, he would be part of his high council. Rivian would secure alliances by being mated to Selah Grado, the fairest and fiercest woman in Sundom. But when his cruel father becomes infected with the Darkness, Rivian is sent on a journey to retrieve the first mage in generations. Meeting Sole changed everything.

Will they be the future of Transea, or will they burn it all down?

©2022 Ligia N Cushman (P)2023 Ligia N Cushman

Very exciting new fantasy series!

This new story has amazing world building with fantastic stories and characters! Very excited to see where the next book leads!

Beautiful World

The author does a great job at bringing the surroundings to life. Lush and descriptive writing style and great charcters. The narrator did an incredible job bringing each character to life and giving their voices distinctive personality.

Take me back to Mōsa

This author has created a world where WOC are the heroes, love interest and centered! A spicy adult fantasy saves the day!

Engaging World building and powerful presense

There's a lot to say about a story that can weave conversations about privilege into it's very seems.

Brief Summary: Sole wakes up to a changed life. She has magick and everything she thought she knew and loved is gone. Now she's forced to be the monarch her people needs...but at what cost.

I want to say that Ruthie does not disappoint with her narration. She took a story that I very much enjoyed and brought it to life. I loved going back and getting to experience this story in a new way.

Frustrating actions: I thought the pacing of this story was a little off. It started off even in the beginning but then escalated rather quickly and from there everything happened either fast or slow and it sort of threw off the flow for me. This ended up making the romance in the story feel more forced than natural progressing.

Beautiful Descriptions: I loved how the world is described. The bioluminescence is stunning. The beauty of colors with magick was expertly described and the people are just stunning. I was even caught off guard with that spice. Very hot!

Great conversations: The conversations surrounding privilege and being the second born were enlightening and so insightful. We get to see both sides of the conversation and it really digs deep into what that really looks like. With Mōsa being seen as the aggressive people (even when they aren't) and the Sundom kingdom being the more benevolent and civilized (even though they are not). It's so well done.


The Twist: While I saw the twist coming I will say, I was not expecting it to be the person that it was.

I really loved it overall and am excited to read the next one.

Wonderful

I am in love with this book! I’m always on board for a strong FMC but Ligia has taken the woman in charge to the next level! From our FMC to the Mosa- the amount of powerful feminine energy in this book is off the charts and I am HERE FOR IT. The story is amazing, well crafted, and the plot twists!!! Ooooh if I don’t get book two soon I’m gonna cry.

Exciting Fantasy & Fascinating World Building

Rise of a Dark Throne gives its listeners a rich, detailed and entertaining experience. With a fantasy world full of magic and unique lore for the people of Sundom and Masa.

The narrator’s ability to give the listeners different cadences for each character I felt really brought the story together. And even though the story is in 3person perspective, I found I could really connect with the characters on a deeper level. Likewise, the narrator’s pacing and the emotion invoked into the book will have listeners wondering what to expect next.

The listeners will really feel for our main character, Sole, as we see her world shift completely upside down over night and she’s thrust into a position of power during the rise of the darkness plague.

With that being said, I think Rose of a Dark Throne is more plot driven than character driven;so at times I felt I questioned character motives.

Even thought the characters are in their early twenties, it still reads as a YA for most of the book.
I’ve stopped reading YA books but I do hope to see more of Sole and get some answers regarding secrets about her family 😃.

Loved it can’t wait to read the whole series

Loved this book!! Loved the characters!! Can’t wait to read the whole series!! Love this author!!

Not for me

I have started and stopped this book a dozen times, each time restarting without remembering why I stopped. I always made it to chapter 8 or 9 before stopping, only then remembering why.

The narration isn’t the best and very distracting going on monotone and very bland. Then the constant switching of characters constantly was even more distracting, especially with one voice Andy as a narrator. I kept losing tract of where I was but it really didn’t matter because it’s so slow I barely missed anything. Maybe a conversation on a side character.

Rivian (and all the male characters really) seemed like your typical 18-24 year old raging with hormones and the FMC (Nova? Nara? I can’t remember but really again all the female characters are ALL THE SAME) is the uptight Queen that lost her virginity to her first “love” only being married 1 night. Rivians inner monologue was “her breasts her skin what is she wearing curvy” while the FMC only thought about her lost 1 night husband. It was repetitive and boring.

Combine it with the monotone narration with 1 voice for her female characters and 1 voice for male characters, I will finally review and hope to come across it again in a few weeks so it’ll remind me that this book wasn’t for me.

Stopping at Ch 9 hopefully for GOOD! Also Hopefully my review gets posted as they seem to disappear. But I’ll post to GR as well :)