The Rat King

A Darkish Beauty and the Beast Retelling

By: Jennifer M. Waldrop

Narrated by: Ruthie Bowles, John Joseph Rogers

Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Marry the king. Fall in love. Break the curse. Sounds easy, right? Then I see him....

Let me rewind.

Once, I believed the planes between the witches' and warlock’s realms were separated by happenstance, like some sort of cosmic yin-yang. I was woefully naïve back then.

The summer of my 24th birthday, the head of our coven made me a proposition. A 17-year peace deal is ending, and they must deliver a witch-bride to the warlock king in the parallel plane within six months’ time.

I am slated to be that witch.

My latent witch gene makes be the perfect candidate. Besides, I dropped out of theatre school mid-way through and bartending in a Miami nightclub is already getting old. This I could do.

Not only would I be keeping the peace between our planes, but I’d also be queen and it was just another role after all. What could go wrong?

When Nighval, the warlock in question, comes to collect me, his size and the pure power radiating off him is staggering. And his features are two clicks away from being too severe, but I can work with it. Who am I kidding? I want to work with it.

Then I learn the truth about the curse and discover this powerful man isn’t who is set to become my husband. It’s his pasty, well-meaning brother.

Bad things come in threes, right? I know this, still I am not prepared for what comes next.

The Rat King is a standalone darkish fantasy romance Beauty and the Beast retelling suitable for an adult audience. You can expect spice that builds throughout with a HEA payoff at the end. Listeners should be aware of the following: language, violence, and attempted SA. Perfect for fans of Kerri Maniscalco, Elise Kova, and Raven Kennedy.

©2022 Jennifer M Waldrop (P)2022 Jennifer M Waldrop

All’s Well that Ends Well

I enjoyed this story. I think it could be turned into a great series with other supporting characters getting their own love story.
Next time I would have the finished audio edited better. Around the five hour mark, John broke character to correct something and it had me in stitches after hearing his normal voice going back into his dark n brooding voice.
Also the two narrators were good individually, but there were many moments where one would read with one emotion, and the other would express the scene with a completely other vibe, which was disconcerting.

There was one poorly established plot point in particular that was confusing. Character 1 betrayed character 2 in some way. Seemed like the initial betrayal was having children. But… between two people in love?
And the main character started off well, the personality was defined in such a way that I felt I had a pretty good bead on who she was, and her motivations. I saw myself in her. So when she started acting irrationally (bratty, whiny, misplaced anger) I almost took it personally lol. I frequently hit the fast forward button till things seemed to get back to normal.

But all’s well that ends well. Despite the bumpy ride I made it to the end and my overall impression is a good one.

A fun fantasy frolick for all

It's certainly a fun read and will be a definite re-read for me. Though it felt like it could have been multiple books, and that there was a bit of a race to hit all the plot points. Overall worth the read and a tropey good time.

Definitely different

I think I've read a million fantasy/paranormal romance novels and this one is definitely different which I liked. The story is a little disjointed and there was a lot of things that made me want to scratch my head and ask why. There was definitely times I wanted to smack Avery for being a spoiled little brat, but for the most part I like both of the main characters. I think if we cut down about 4 hours from this book, it would've been awesome. It was just ok for me.