The Enchanted Princess

By: Dawn Brower

Narrated by: Sarah Brooke Sheehy

Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

As the royal heir of Zelnon, Princess Elodie should be living a charmed life. It is enchanting in a diabolical way that could destroy not only her existence but those she cares about as well. Her coronation is set for her 18th birthday, but an evil force is determined to destroy any chance she has of becoming queen.

A week before her birthday a curse is enacted sending her to the nightmare realm of Malediction - sweeping her, a trusted guard, and the prince of a neighboring kingdom into its dark clutches. Escaping the world is impossible, but if they don't find a way out they will either die or become permanent residents of the dreamscape. If Elodie doesn't return home in time her kingdom could be lost to her forever.

As they battle for their lives, every decision exacts a monumental price. They must make sacrifices that will burn holes into their souls and every step brings new risks. With victory within reach, they realize that it comes with an irremediable loss and must suffer the consequences of their actions.

©2017 Dawn Brower (P)2017 Dawn Brower

Mediocre Story, but worth a listen

I was really excited about this book, but I’ll be honest, it was all over the place for such a short novel/audiobook and it had a hard time keeping my interest. There were some fun parts about the story. I could not connect with any of the characters and I feel like I missed certain parts because I was just generally bored. I found myself comparing it to Snow White, even though it’s supposed to be an original story—evil step-mom, Prince Charming, old witch, etc. Not a good look. The narrator—wasn’t horrible. She had a great voice for the characters and I loved her voice for the witch and LuLu. You can tell she may have been a newer narrator. She made several narrating no-nos that we’re slightly irritating (repeating lines, in and out of mic, voice changes—volume changes, etc.) Overall, I will try to listen to this book again to make sure I’m making a fair judgement, but I’m not looking forward to listening to it again. I just feel bad when I tune out audiobooks and lose track of the story—but if it wasn’t boring, then maybe I wouldn’t have lost track. I was given this audiobook for free for an honest review.

A fairy tale in the making

I enjoyed the story, it has all the hallmarks of a story that will be considered a fairy tale in the decades to come:
- Evil stepmother - check
- Forced betrothal - check
- Alternate love interest - check
- Knights - check
- A heroine unwilling to wait to be saved - check, check, check

I love that Princess Elodie is determined to be able to take care of herself, there is damsel in distress here! I'd read this again.

But I wouldn't listen to it again, nope, eBook here I come. I know I gave the narration 2 stars which suggests it was bad, but mostly it's just really REALLY badly edited. There are dozens of sections where the audio repeats because a mistake hasn't been edited out, some are small, just a couple of seconds a fair few are 10 seconds or longer, and in some cases the audio is there three times. It had a large impact on my enjoyment of the book.

This book was supplied free by the author/narrator/publisher and I voluntarily wrote this honest review.

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fun read

really enjoyed listening to this. New to me author I liked the characters and the way the story unfolded.

Liked the book but the audio wasn’t the best

I really liked the story and will definitely listen to the next book in the series. The audio in the audiobook wasn’t the best. Especially at the beginning (after that it was much better). The editing could’ve been done better (repeats of the last words of a sentence or sound going softer). But I’m glad I’ve kept listening

Very Cute Story!

This was a really cute story! The fact that it ended on a huge cliffhanger? Well...I'll definitely be on the lookout for Book 2.

Narrator:
The narrator did a pretty good job overall, especially since she seems to be new to the narrating field. There were a few areas that caught my attention though. 1. The first 3rd of the story it seemed the narrator would move back and forth in relation to the microphone. I don't know if she realized this was happening, but with her voice going from normal tone to suddenly quieter...yeah, I noticed.

2. I've noticed that with some narrators (new or not) they'll read the story as it's written. Wait! Isn't that what they're supposed to be doing? Well, kinda sorta. To me, when a narrator reads exactly what's written the voice sounds stilted. For example (made up line), "She should not be going or else he will get mad;" this might sound fine but when I hear someone speaking it, well, saying it as "She shouldn't be going or else he'll get mad" sounds smoother and more natural. I guess I just prefer the contractions better. A similar area/issue is when words are pronounced exactly how they're spelled or what I refer to as proper English. For example, the word certain. It's pronounced: cer-tin by the narrator, yet, when speaking who actually pronounces the "t?"

3. Again, new narrator here so I can understand having a few issues. Well in the story after the princess and prince leave the witches house there was a lot of repetition on the narrators part. This is a first for me, I've never heard this in any of the audiobooks I've listened to. Obviously, when reading something for the first time, plus recording it, there will be some outtakes. Well, in this case, those outtakes seemed to included in the audiobook.

4. I don't want to leave the narrators part of the review on a negative note. She did a great job for her first time. She has a lot of potential as well and did a great job with male and female character voices.

On to the story:

I liked this one. It was original and held my attention the entire time I listened to it. Yet, there were certain words that the author used repeatedly that stuck out to me. Perhaps she was trying to sound smarter? I've listened to plenty of stories of like (audio, paper, e-book). The number word that stood out to me was "ascertain." Who actually uses that word when they're casually talking? I can't imagine many do. Yet, the author had the princess trying to ascertain, many times, what was going on. Sorry, randomness like this always stands out to me.

In the end, I'd recommend this story to others.

An Enchanted Adventure

Elodie is one week away from her 18th birthday, when she'll inherit the throne from her evil stepmother Fiona. Her stepmother is strict and won't let Elodie learn to fight and defend herself, but Elodie has been training in secret with one of her guards, Cale. Returning from training one day, she's told that her stepmother has betrothed her to a minor prince from a neighboring kingdom, Daire. Elodie has despised Daire since he pushed her into a mud puddle when they were children, and has refused to see him since. Learning that he's her betrothed enrages her.

Elodie decides to run away, and Cale and Daire follow her. A mysterious force whisks her away to a different realm with the two men. Talking flowers, murderous trees, blind seers, and a magical force are the least of what she'll face there in her struggle to return to her proper realm and the kingdom that is rightfully hers.

This was a clean YA read with light cursing. It didn't end on a cliffhanger, but it's part of a series so the main conflict wasn't completely resolved. The dialogue was a fun mix of modern slang and formal speech, Elodie said 'Whatever' and 'As if' like any valley girl, and then reverted to formal speech. It made me laugh every time. I really enjoyed the world the author created. The magical realm seemed a bit like Wonderland, bewildering and with no clear rules. I liked that the tables were turned and Elodie was the one out to save the men, rather than being the damsel in distress. I hope we see more of Fiona in the second book, I want to know what made her 'evil', and why Elodie would be a better ruler than Fiona.

I liked Elodie in the beginning, I love a spunky heroine who can kick butt. She was very abusive though, she slapped Cale and punched Daire without provocation, and spent a good portion of the book thinking about punching, stabbing, and killing Daire, and not in a joking way. She had to be physically restrained at one point. If it were a male lead repeatedly thinking about punching the female lead, he'd be the villain in the story.

The narrator's voice was a great fit for Elodie, she narrated dramatically and with spirit. She performed voices for several of the characters like Lulu and the witch. I received a copy of the audiobook, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

The Enchanted Princess

This is a nice and clean story with quite an adventure. After the princess is poisoned she finds herself in a new word. I some ways at first the world reminded me of wonderland. The bird and her riddles remind me of the cat in wonderland. But the bird has way more character and depth that soon comes out! I look forward to the rest of the series. The narrator has a nice sweet voice that works great for the princess and she does really well with the animals.