The Exile's Gift

The Starian Cycle, Book 4

By: Iris Foxglove

Narrated by: Kris Antham

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Laurent and Sabre's story continues....

All Laurent de Rue wants to do is live a peaceful life with his husband, Sabre, and support his little sister Rose’s rise to stardom on the Starian stage. But learning the truth of his heritage and rediscovering his magic brings a whole new set of problems...most notably the Archmage of Mislia, who is determined to find the apostates who fled his wrath all those years ago. He’s willing to use any means necessary to track down Laurent, and that includes cursing his own son and heir, Hektor Drakos, who fled Mislia with Prince Adrien and is now all alone in a city that bears no love for his kind.

But Laurent soon discovers the dark-eyed mage and his clever fox demon is no threat...but, rather, a young man in need of healing and a place to hide from his terrifying, power-hungry father and his father’s demon - a faceless creature who can travel vast distances through mirrors. Despite the danger, Laurent’s never been one to turn away someone in need of protection. As he and Sabre make a place for Hektor in their unconventional family, they’re besieged by old enemies and new threats alike, and Laurent will have to harness the true strength of his magical gift to protect the people he loves.

©2021 Iris Foxglove (P)2021 Iris Foxglove

Returning characters!

I will admit I was initially skeptical about this book. Like, getting a story from Sabre and Laurent again? And this time adding in 2 additional POVs - Hektor and Rose? I tend not to be a fan of multiple POVs when they’re not of the main couple. BUT FEAR NOT. This book was actually really fun (with some angst thrown in of course!) and I loved it.

Content notes include mentions of abuse, mentions of an execution and other murders, mentions of manipulating someone’s mind, and mentions of slavery in Mislia.

We had Sabre and Laurent’s story in the first book of this series. They were literally the intro we had into this world of books. So in some ways, this story is more of a checkup on them and filling in parts of Laurent’s backstory we didn’t get a chance to see before. I feel like this almost felt like an epilogue or a follow-up novella of sorts about them. Like, their relationship is already GOOD and established, so what more did we need? But it was so much fun seeing how Laurent complains about his ...pleasure house, who are oh <i>so</i> dramatic, when really Laurent is the one with the most dramatics and is a man who dares to wear velvet before sunset. I love him. Also, his banter with Isiodore and his horror anytime anyone talks to Emile is great. Every moment from Laurent’s perspective in this book just makes me laugh. He may be a dominant, but he could be an actor on his sister’s stage for all the drama he seems prone to.

Laurent’s adopted sister, Rose, is 16 and wished very much to be an actor and have people act out plays she’s written. And in this book she gets her wish! Sabre’s old home has been converted into an acting school of sorts where anyone can go, much to the chagrin on his old neighbors. Rose also longs to be a submissive, but, well, she can’t have it all. She’s a very natural dominant and I think it’s interesting to see how that works in this world, when the young ones come into their natural dominance or submissiveness. Rose may be young, but she has a good heart. And when she sees Hektor for the first time, she immediately takes him under her wing and always makes sure to take care of him. IT’S SO CUTE.

Hektor is the exile mentioned here in the book’s title. This is a continuation of the story in book 3, The Prince’s Vow. He ran away from the hunt of people who wished him harm, including his own abusive father, only referred to as the “Archmage”. The man controls much (if not everything) in Mislia, and has a wickedly grotesque demon who travels and communicates through mirrors at his side. The Archmage is a villain, make no mistake about that. Hektor has a curse placed on him by the Archmage and this has locked away his own demon, a very cute and endearing blue fox demon called Flick, and his own voice.

I really liked how this book went about describing and showing how Hektor was handling not being able to talk with his “voice”. He would write on a slate to communicate his thoughts across, and he even began to learn sign language from the House of Onyx’s sadist called Charon. (And side note, I love Charon and Yves!)

I do think there were some parts of this story that felt too easy, or rushed. Like, how quickly and simply Laurent managed to figure a way around the Archmage’s spell on Hektor once he was handled the right info, and even the showdown at the end. But overall, this was a very enjoyable book because we got to see so many of the characters again.

Sabre obviously still remembers the day he was sent to the gallows and has nightmares and regrets at how life turned out for his mother and sister, but mostly for his younger sister, Elise. I think a lot of this book is about Sabre moving forward from his past and going towards his future and the role he’ll play by Prince Adrien’s side. Sabre still obviously holds a lot of sadness and regret with him, but his family now with Laurent and the members of the House of Onyx is so different from the life he knew before, and it brings him happiness. And I’m just so happy he’s managed to find so many people who love him and take care of him, when he wants it.

I really liked Hektor in this book. He felt and made decisions like any teen would make in his position, I think. So while he makes some ill-advised decisions he does only want to do what’s best for Rose, and also for his older brother Bazyli. Hektor is also besotted with Rose. They’re so cute. For all that time Hektor couldn’t talk with his voice, I forgot that when he COULD, how talkative he could be. He’s adorable.

But you know who steals the show? FLICK. Flick is the CUTEST character ever and I love him so much. He is a fox demon who would protect Hektor against anything, but he is also maybe a little vain and likes to speak into people’s minds in ALL CAPS FORM LIKE THIS. I love him so much. I can’t wait to listen to Flick on audio, because I feel like that will be so much fun? Anyways, when we find out WHY Hektor winded up summoning such a small demon who eats words, instead of, say, a powerful demon like the Archmage’s, I cried. I just want Rose, Hektor, and Flick to have the happiest and beautiful life together.

As for the audiobook, I really like Kris Antham's narrations, even if he narrates a bit fast for me. He's one of the few narrators I have to listen slowing down to about 1.3x instead of speeding up to 2.5x, for what it's worth. There are times when the audio for women, children, and Flick can sometimes be hard to understand because I think there's something done to the voices to sound higher pitch and they get sped up even faster than the usual pace of the audio.

With this audiobook, some other minor things is that I think the pronunciation for the character's name Mateo was the most unexpected? It's not what I thought it was going to be from when I read the book in text. There's also a weird duplicated line in the audio when Laurant went to meet the street kids for some information. Not sure if that was just my copy of the audiobook or not. But one of my favorite thing for this book is the accent for the Mislians! It wasn't as prominent even in the last book when Adrian and Isiodore were IN Mislia. But it's great fun to realize when Bazyli is one of the main characters for the next book. The voice for him is very swoony.

We do see the set up for the next book here. Which gives more explanation (and maybe what’ll feel like a redemption) to King Emile. I was super skeptical about him getting a book because he was so awful in the first book. But he seems to be loosening up? He winds up with Bazyli? Hektor’s older brother? Bazyli is 14 years older than Hektor, I believe, so that definitely puts him closer in age to King Emile than say, the age gap between Prince Adrien and Isiodore. Bazyli has been hurt so much and I just want him and his flower demon to find happiness too! HAPPY ENDINGS FOR EVERYONE IN THIS SERIES (except the Archmage obviously). While this book ends in a very satisfying HEA, if you listen to the excerpt (which audiobooks don't normally include but there are excepts at the end of every audiobook in this series!), you will be dying for more! I think Emile needs a good cry and someone who he can be vulnerable with, and Bazyli just really needs someone to care for him and treat him like he’s precious. Overall, this is a very enjoyable book and I love all the characters.

Follow up with Saber and Laurent

I loved that we get to see Laurent and Saber and how they've grown as a couple after being married. However, I think it's really Hector that steals this one for me. He's such a wonderful character and I absolutely would love to give him a big hug. His story is and isn't tragic. I think my absolute favorite scene is his memory of finding his brother for the first time.

This story needs to be listened to after the first and third. The second is slightly mentioned but you could get away with skipping it if you must. All these characters have been established before and you need their background to understand the events here.

I love Kris Antham's performance. He's wonderful with all the voices. However, I did take one start off because there were a couple of times that a line would repeat. I thought it may have been me the first time but it happened a few times after that and it kind of broken up the cadence a bit. Even with that, this story is still worth it! Plus it sets up king Emile's story quite nicely.