The Swordmaster

De: Kate Heartfield

Narrado por: Maria Nicola Johnson

From the Sunday Times bestselling author, Kate Heartfield, comes a swashbuckling Vampires of Dumas story, featuring a new story arc following Françoise de Montesquiou d'Artagnan, a minor nobleman's daughter who travels to Paris and becomes embroiled in a war between shapeshifters and vampires.

For two days and three nights, Françoise de Montesquiou d'Artagnan has slept, trapped in a strange dream of a shifting world of spirits. Everyone in the dream is clad in the forms of animals, including Françoise herself, and they are discussing secret affairs of monsters and princes—until a host of vampires attacks them in the dream. A man with a beautiful voice faces them down, telling her to run.

Françoise wakes in her grave, buried by her grieving parents and abandoned by her fiancé—and determined to find the man who'd saved her life, identifiable only by his voice. She flees to Paris and finds people like her: the Benandanti, born in their cauls, and blessed with the gift to enter the spirit realm in dreams. She learns that the vampires who attacked her in spirit are a threat in the waking world—and that they sit in the highest positions in the land. Only she and her new brothers and sisters can bring them down.

©2026 Kate Heartfield

Amazing Book and Narration

I really loved The Swordmaster. The mix of 1572 France, the religious conflict, vampires, and Françoise’s journey into this much bigger world made it such a fun and interesting story. I especially loved the atmosphere of Paris and how naturally the historical and fantasy sides of the story fit together. The writer did a great job with the setting and atmosphere.

Maria was fantastic as the narrator. She really gave Françoise a personality, and you could hear the fear, determination, tension, and emotion in the way she performed her. She also made the different characters feel like actual people rather than just different voices. I really enjoyed listening to her tell this story. Great job by the author and the narrator. They both worked as the best combination for this story.