The Leopard King

By: Ann Aguirre

Narrated by: Wilhelmina Grace

Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

Proud. Imperious. Impassioned. Until three years ago, those words applied to Dominic Asher, the leader of Ash Valley. His family has ruled the feline branch of the Animari for hundreds of years, guiding the pride through perilous times. Unspeakable loss drove him into seclusion, a feral beast nobody can tame. Now he's wrecked, a leopard king in exile, and he wants nothing more than to die.

Fierce. Loyal. Determined. Fortunately for Dom, those words still apply to Pru Bristow, his dead mate's best friend. She's had her heart broken, too, but she never quits. With the conclave approaching, alliances with the Pine Ridge pack and Burnt Amber clans on the verge of collapse, she's prepared to do whatever it takes to drag their leader back, before his second can start a war.

At best theirs seems like a desperate alliance, but when their mate bond turns hot and fierce, there's no end to the questions and the doubts. Neither of them expects to fall in love. But sometimes people don't know what they're looking for until they find it.

©2016 Ann Aguirre (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

more porno than content

was not what I expected I can put up with some sex but this was to much for me

Good story, less than great narrator

The story is unique and something I would normally enjoy because I love shifter stories. And I was excited to find an entire series that was new to me. The book started out interesting but I simply couldn’t get past the less than stellar narration. This narrator has a really odd way of emphasizing words sometimes. There aren’t always the necessary pauses and inflection for the dialogue and reading to sound natural and fluent. It struck me as the type of mistakes that beginner readers make because they haven’t learned to look ahead while reading. Also, the narrator is AWFUL at male voices. To a ridiculous degree. I’m not fond of the female voices, either, to be honest because of how strained/gravelly/whispery she sounds, but the male voices are downright bad. I gave this a lot longer time than I should have because I wanted so badly to get into the story. Unfortunately, the narration never did improve enough to grow on me. It literally ruined what I think would be a good book if there was a competent voice actor or narrator.

3.5 stars

This was an unexpected story that I ended up really enjoying. A story about two people dealing with loss and grief and growing pains always grips me so I wasn’t mad at this one for delivering in that way. But I was kinda bummed at some of the pacing, I wanted more angst and I wanted more yearning. The fact that these guys grew to care was amazing but I didn’t want it to happen to quick and I feel like we didn’t get to see as much growth between them as I wanted. Though they were both good people and good leaders and ultimately I do wanna continue on in the series.

Great story, complex characters!

I stumbled on this and was pleasantly surprised! The book is a really good combination of geopolitics and romance in a unique world, and is quite different from other shifter books I've read.

Pru and Dom's characters both had depth and it was wonderful to see the character development and growth throughout the book. The author tackles the coming together of two broken hearts really well and doesn't brush over the baggage that they both bring. Unlike other books in this genre, it's also really refreshing how conflict between Pru and Dom is handled in a mature way and through honest conversations. I also really liked how competent Pru was as a leader and how her intelligence, perceptiveness and bravery were demonstrated.

The wider story about the Animari is interesting and the world building is ok, though I still have some questions. I think if you're going to combine modern tech with other aspects that we naturally associate with old fiefdoms eg the city walls, it needs to be properly described so readers can wrap their minds around it (think of the city of Asgard in Thor with the old kingdom vibe vs the high tech of the Bifrost Bridge that connected the realms). I'm optimistic that some things will be clearer as the series progresses.

Ash Valley could have also been described in a bit more detail, I struggled a little to visualise the bigger picture of the city i.e how all the buildings were connected, where the park and admin centre and ops unit were located in respect to other places etc and that detracts a little from the overall experience (for me).

It's the first in the series so there are lots of other complex and interesting characters introduced. I'm thoroughly invested in the story and can't wait to read the rest!

not for me

loss of a fated mate drives shifter crazy. Her beat friend is sent to help.

new favorite series

I enjoyed the growth of the heroine. And setup of future story lines. I hope the next book is as detailed

Read like an Erotic Young Adult Novel

So to be blunt, this read like a young adult novel with explicit sex scenes. The female protagonist, I literally thought was maybe 18 to 19 years old, and come to find out she was 27. The love between the two characters is not the worst connection I've read, but it was okay for the most part. But overall, the choices and actions of the characters all read very juvenile. Which could work if the characters were in their late teens early twenties. But to think these characters were late twenties to mid thirties? Really abandoned the belief point.

My biggest gripe is the audio book however. Perhaps the narrator's rendition of the character voices made this unbearable to me... but the dialogue combined with the reader's horrible voice acting really did no justice to the protagonist.

Rushed but interesting

I felt the story was rushed along. I did enjoy the story a lot. There is some heat and very sexy parts, but this is more story than heat. The narration is not great. It is good though. The voice didn’t aggravate me like squeaky narration in other books. The overall experience isn’t out of this world. It is just plain old good. So ..... I give a three Right in the middle.

Awesome

Great start for this series. Highly recommend this story. I laughed and cried . Excitement, adventure, firey , and sweet. I can't wait to listen to the next one.