Smoke and Scar

Shattered Crown, Book 1

De: Gretchen Powell Fox

Narrado por: Dan Calley, Stephanie Németh-Parker

An epic fantasy romance where enemies-to-lovers must brave the deadly trials of the Arcane Crucible, facing dark magic and impossible odds that could shape the fate of their world forever.

For centuries, humans and the magical races of Arcanis have been locked in conflict. The Arcane Crucible, a deadly trial held every twenty-five years, offers a glimmer of hope for peace—but at a steep cost.

Elyria Lightbreaker, once a celebrated fae war hero, has been living in the shadow of her past. After losing the man she loved to the previous Crucible, she has sworn to protect his sister from meeting the same end. To keep her promise, Elyria must find the strength to face the chaos she thought she left behind.

Cedric Thorne, hardened by grief and driven by vengeance, has devoted his life to conquering the Crucible on humanity’s behalf. To win, he’ll have to rely on the one person he despises most: Elyria, the fae warrior he blames for his parents’ deaths.

Thrown together by circumstance, Elyria and Cedric must endure brutal trials that test their strength, spirit, and power. Fragile alliances, shifting loyalties, and growing feelings between them threaten to tip the scales of fate.

Smoke and Scar is the gripping first installment in the Shattered Crown Trilogy, a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romantic fantasy filled with high stakes, dark magic, breathtaking world-building, and unforgettable characters. Perfect for fans of The Serpent & the Wings of Night, Throne of Glass, and Trial of the Sun Queen.

Will Elyria and Cedric survive the trials…or destroy each other along the way?

©2025 Gretchen Powell Fox (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

The male voice actor sounds like an animal plant narrator.

I cannot stand how the male voice actor narrates the story. He’s sound like he should be narrating an episode of Bear Grylls. It’s very high pitched, and the cadence that he speaks almost gives a creepy old dark story teller vibe. The female voice actor is very good tho.

The story is great, think ACOTAR meets Hunger Games. Super interesting political dynamic. Romance is alright, like I said the male voice actor really throws me off. Other than that’s I enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to the next book.

Read the book and now the audiobook

I love this book so much, Gretchen has created such an amazing story. I can’t wait to read/listen to the next book in the series.

Very good production of a 10 out of 10 book.

While the male Kit voice was certainly chuckle worthy, was an excellent listen. After reading all these Romantasy books with an MMC as a "shadow daddy", came across this Romantasy on tiktok, by the author, claiming the FMC as the "shadow daddy". Sparked my interest and read it on Kindle while traveling. Was so good that it was a massive highlight on my vacation and when the audiobook came out, had to get it and listen. Again, the only knock is the male Kit voice but it's not bad so much as, again, chuckle worthy.

It snatched me in and didn't let go

The story is great, and the narrators were perfect for their characters, but how the duet was done was a little jarring. I wish she had done all the female, and he had done all the male. Between different chapters the same side character would be voiced by whoever was doing that chapter, and as a listener it was a little difficult to keep track of what voice was what. That aside I loved the book, and the fact it actually is a slow burn.

Great start!

I really enjoyed this book and found myself becoming more and more invested as the story went on. Of course the ending leaves you begging to read the next one! This had great fantasy aspects and the world building was enough to understand the story. This is slow burn with great banter! I really liked the side characters as well and chuckled out loud quite a few times.
The audiobook in particular was really well done and the narrator’s voices were on par! Read at 1.5speed. Looking forward to the next!

A favorite 2025 read!

Smoke & Scar is a great fantasy with romance subplot for anyone who is looking for a story with an older, strong FMC that flips the script on a lot of common romantasy tropes. Both narrators are fantastic and they do a good job bringing the characters to life to keep you engaged. Happy listening!

LOVE!!

I loved this book! The author did an amazing job and I can’t wait to read the second book!