The Scholar

The Genoa Chronicles, Book 1

By: JJ Anders

Narrated by: Marnye Young

Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's Summary

Anna is clearly different from others. With obvious physical differences and powerful abilities, she's never quite fit in...anywhere. Having no knowledge of her parents, she sets out to discover her true origin. On the run for most of her life, she's become a master at eluding capture, even a little cocky, you might say. When a sticky situation forces her hand, she hitches a ride with a wizard, who whisks her away to another world where, according to him, she'd been exiled from as a child. This new magical place seems oddly familiar as Anna discovers powerful enemies and treasured allies on her quest for answers. The dangerous journey thrust her headlong into the arms of Kriston, who finds himself caught between sworn-duty and insatiable curiosity.

©2017 Idealist LLC (P)2017 Idealist LLC

Excellent Fantasy Adventure!

The story is great and gets your attention and keeps you hooked all the way to the cliffhanger conclusion.

Narration was great and brought the story to life.

The story starts on earth but most of it takes place in a magical world called Genoa. Anna doesn’t remember where she comes from but soon after she gets in Genoa she learns about her family and her past.

Kriston follows orders from his brother which is a king. He is tasked with capturing and bringing the “spy” to his brother.

There are a lot of characters to keep up with and the story goes back and forth between the two main characters. It definitely required my full attention to understand everything that was going on.

There are unexpected twists and turns and the story is interesting and captivating with wizards, dragons, trolls, kings, etc...

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Appropriate for an 11 yo

If you like golden dragons, blue trees and orange horses, this book might scratch that itch. It has the imagination that I look for in a fantasy novel... but just didn't flow well. The narrator didn't help much... moving from scene to scene leaving the reader wondering who she was talking about. I won't be continuing with this series, but it is age appropriate for YA.

Editors note: Please check the word "Speculum". The context in which it was used here does not match my definition

Wonderful story with amazing world building

Anna has been on the run from the military for years, ever since her caretaker, Orden, was killed. She doesn't entirely understand why they want her, but she knows it's because she is different. She ages much more slowly than humans, she has white hair and translucent skin, and she's able to gain all the information in a book simply by touching it. During the years she has been on the run, she has been searching for information on who she is, yet it is when she is cornered by the military, and the general who killed her caretaker, that she begins to get the answers she has been seeking her entire life. And, strangely enough, they come in the form of a strange man who is driving a car without the engine running.

Thus begins this novel, which is an amazing story; I absolutely loved the world-building. It was done in such a way that the information was provided when it was needed without seeming like an infodump. The characters are also well-written and, aside from Anna as the main character, I think my favorite so far is Shiara.

If you like epic stories with magic, political intrigue, royal families, long-lost princesses, and purple horses, then you should pick up this book to read. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm definitely looking forward to reading book 2.

For this book, I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by Marnye Young. Young gave a great performance and is one of the few narrators I have found with solid pacing that I don't have to speed up. The only issue I had with the narration is that there were no pauses within the chapters to indicate a change of POV when they occurred. It was rather jarring at first, and I found myself having to rewind and bit and relisten in order to catch on to the fact that the POV had changed and we were now with different characters. I'm not sure if that's a narrator issue or a producer issue, but it does make listening a little more difficult. Still, Marnye did a wonderful job with everything else that, given the chance, I would listen to book 2 as well.

Really disappointed

Ok, there was a really great story here, but it got completely missed by the sporadic telling. It felt like there were about five hours where nothing happened and the exciting parts of the story were completely missed. Also, the narration really bothered me. When switching between characters, there wasn’t even a breath, so all of a sudden you’d go from one perspective to another and have no clue when it happened.

Good book. Decent Story.

I really liked this book in several different ways. I thought it started out very well and even though it didn't go where I thought it would, I still enjoyed it. Definitely solid fantasy writing by the author,

There are two negatives that I would give this book:
First, I wish it hadn't ended in a cliffhanger. I really hate that.. (I know I'm just complaining...)
Second, I actually liked the first parts of the book that took place in modern-day earth. I actually wish that this book (or another book) could have continued along this line...

I thought the narrator also did a very good job with this title. I'd like to hear her again in future books.

I requested and received a free copy of this audiobook from the author, publisher, or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review. I was NOT required to write a positive review and this reflects my honest opinion of the work.