The Henchmen of Zenda

By: KJ Charles

Narrated by: Antony Ferguson

Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Jasper Detchard is a disgraced British officer, now selling his blade to the highest bidder. Currently that's Michael Elphberg, half-brother to the King of Ruritania. Michael wants the throne for himself, and Jasper is one of the scoundrels he hires to help him take it. But when Michael makes his move, things don't go entirely to plan - and the penalty for treason is death. 

Rupert of Hentzau is Michael's newest addition to his sinister band of henchmen. Charming, lethal, and intolerably handsome, Rupert is out for his own ends - which seem to include getting Jasper into bed. But Jasper needs to work out what Rupert's really up to amid a maelstrom of plots, swordfights, scheming, impersonation, desire, betrayal, and murder. 

Nobody can be trusted. Everyone has a secret. And love is the worst mistake you can make. 

Contains mature themes.

©2018 K. J. Charles (P)2018 Tantor

Intrigue! Swordfights! Dalliances!

This was sooo much fun. It's Prisoner of Zenda, from the POV of Jasper Detchard, one of Black Michael's six henchmen. It cleans up a lot of the more ridiculous and/or sloppy details (one that gave Charles the most trouble was that the drawbridge apparently opens from both sides in the original... She picked the direction most crucial to the pivotal end-scene), and comes up a lot more plausible as a result.

While reading Prisoner of Zenda is not required, I would recommend it. It's so much more entertaining to have that background in mind while you see what the henchmen were really up to.

I loved this narrator as Jasper. He has just the right sneering attitude. There are one or two places where I quibbled with his tone of voice, but overall it's excellent.

#MM #Swords #Castles #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Perfect

Funny, clever and just plain fun. I walked around with a big grin while listening, I just couldn’t help it. I haven’t read The Prisoner of Zenda but the story still worked really well for me.

An incredible Aromantic Adventure

WOW. THIS BOOK!I cannot rec it enough! But despite it being tagged as such, I think calling it a romance is a disservice. It's an adventure, with gay characters, and it's simply incredible. KJ Charles has never disappointed me and I'm always impressed with what they can come up with, even in a short novel. So why is it not a romance? The MC/narrator is explicitly #aromantic (but not asexual... there's def multiple steamy scenes). The "love" interest may not necessarily be aromantic but they don't have "expectations" of each other. There is a HEA/HFN ending which I'll spoil below.
.
.
.
.
.
SPOILER!
In the epilogue, they stay together for years and go their separate ways every so often, always coming back together at some point. At the very end, they are reunited to go rescue a youth they had a menage with. It's very satisfying imo.

Fantastic narration!

I love the alternative view of this story and the life given to it by Antony Ferguson’s narration! KJ Charles always delivers and Ferguson was the perfect choice for this book. Well done!

Hard to follow

This story had an overly complicated plot with too many characters to keep up with.

Interesting story

KJ Charles is one of my favorite authors and I have listened to most of her books, but for me, this book wasn't as good as others, the characters were not very interesting and there were long stretches in which nothing really happened.

Cloak and Dagger

They are mercenaries. And this is an excellent cloak and dagger. You will find yourself being on the side of one plan or another because of how good the plan is not because of how ‘good’ the person who develops the plan is. And the plans keeps changing and who to trust isn’t always clear. I was surprised more then once. the protagonist likable and it’s nice to see someone so mature queer or otherwise in a book. He is serious and cautious seeing lighter side feels an intimate treat. you will know him but everyone else is a mystery and find yourself wanting him to be even more cautious.
You won’t find a great romance and deep declarations of love but two queer characters care and are affectionate. But they are mercenaries and they don’t make formal pairs.

DNF'd

KJ Charles writing keeps getting worse and worse. I mean not to buy any more, but keep hoping she will return to the wonderful writing of The Magpie Lord. So I keep giving in and buying her works. Something needs to happen. Authors rush to get books out in this e-book crazed universe the Zon has created, because readers don't seem to have much patience with waiting for something new. Which leaves us with a plethora of subpar books with little in the way of plot or characterization.

I couldn't finish it. 1 dimensional characters. The narration didn't have a lot of difference in voices.

delightful

I loved this story! It was absolutely delightful to hear a queer romance featuring older characters.

Plots Within Plots

What an exciting adventure! I The Henchmen of Zenda is a retelling of the Victorian story, the Prisoner of Zenda; however, you don’t need to know the original story to enjoy this book. I’ve never read the Prisoner of Zenda and was still able to enjoy this book. I wouldn’t classify this book as a romance, but it does have romantic elements (and some hot sex). Instead, it’s more action based with a thrilling plot and subterfuge. There’s a lot fights and plotting, with a great developing friendship between the main characters.

The narrator was Antony Ferguson who did a fantastic job. I loved his voice and thought he voiced each character perfectly. I had fun listening to his performance and really enjoyed this audiobook. The audiobook production was well done and I definitely recommend it.

Latin Declensions so well demonstrated

Hilarious retelling of the classic tale The Prisoner of Zenda, well written, perfectly narrated with full drama and expressive irreverent banter. It might help to read the cliffnotes of the real novel before embarking on this lampoon in order to comprehend just have well set and reanacted this is. Enjoy the perfection of the pantaloons of James Mason by envisoning him as our MC and whose "memoir" this is. Enjoy Rupert bare. If ever Hollywood wanted a movie to redo with a MM slant, with a ready made script, this is it.

Joyous and tragic.

VERY ENTERTAINING

Rip-roaring reworking of a classic tale

I enjoyed The Prisoner of Zenda when was young. But this was SO much more satisfying and fun.

Enjoyable Story

The concept is interesting and well written. The characters are likeable and the narration is good.