The Twenty-Sided Sorceress Series, Books 1-3

Justice Calling, Murder of Crows, Pack of Lies

By: Annie Bellet

Narrated by: Folly Blaine

Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

Gamer. Nerd. Sorceress.

This is the omnibus of the first three books in the USA Today best-selling urban fantasy series Twenty-Sided Sorceress, collected together for the first time in one convenient volume. Fans of The Dresden Files and The Iron Druid Chronicles will enjoy this series.

Book One - Justice Calling

Jade Crow lives a quiet life running her comic book and game store in Wylde, Idaho. After 25 years fleeing from a powerful sorcerer who wants to eat her heart and take her powers, quiet suits her just fine. Surrounded by friends who are even less human than she is, Jade figures she's finally safe.

As long as she doesn't use her magic.

When dark powers threaten her friends' lives, a sexy shape-shifter enforcer shows up. He's the shifter world's judge, jury, and executioner rolled into one, and he thinks Jade is to blame. To clear her name, save her friends, and stop the villain, she'll have to use her wits and her sorceress powers.

Except Jade knows that as soon as she does, a far deadlier nemesis awaits.

Book Two - Murder of Crows

They say you can never go home again. If only that were true.

Game store owner and nerd sorceress extraordinaire Jade Crow knows death stalks her in the form of her murderous ex-lover, Samir, a sorcerer who wants to eat her heart and take her power. With the help of her friends, and sexy tiger-shifter Alek, Jade trains for the inevitable confrontation.

Until her estranged father shows up begging for help. Someone or something is murdering the crow shifters of Three Feathers ranch and her father believes sorcery is the only way to stop the killings.

Faced with an unknown foe, a family that exiled her decades before, a deepening relationship with Alek, and Samir's ever-present threat, Jade will need all the power she's gained and then some to stop the Murder of Crows.

Book Three - Pack of Lies

Let sleeping dogs lie. Wolves, on the other hand.

Recovering from a broken heart and coming to terms with her family history, all sorceress Jade Crow wants is to resume running her comic book store and gaming with her friends. With a town full of strange wolf shifters, a 150-year-old peace accord hanging in the balance, and the Justice who broke her heart back in her life, Jade's plans go out the proverbial window.

Wolves are killing wolves, innocent human lives are caught in the crossfire, and not everyone in town is who they appear to be. As the bodies stack up and the doubts build, Jade and her friends race to find the true killer.

And then Jade's evil ex-lover makes another move.

©2015 AnneMarie Buhl (P)2016 AnneMarie Buhl

A nice bit of Fluff for Urban Fantasy

If you could sum up The Twenty-Sided Sorceress Series, Books 1-3 in three words, what would they be?

Short, Sweet, Simple

Almost 11 hrs for three books is a bit like reading a dime store paperback or a young adult book. Not what I'd expect from this.

The story isn't bad, but it's nothing special either. I'll keep at it, as I'm curious enough to want to know more.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The only moment when I had an extreme reaction was that in the first book you hear Jade swearing a fair amount. F-bombs drop all over the place. And then she uses the phrase 'Lady Bits'. I laughed and asked the book 'What? Are you joking?' as it amazed me that she could swear like a sailor, but couldn't be vulgar in that moment. A more general fade to black would have been better.

Nice but short and under developed

A good premise for the story, but it lacks depth. It reads like a YA novel, but with a lot of swearing. I get the feeling that this is a first attempt at an adult novel for this author and the only way she knew to do adult speak was to pepper it with f@ck. I wouldn't have spent the credits on all 3 books separately as they are very short, but as a collection they were okay.

The characters are interesting, but very 2 dimensional. I really don't care if none of them survive because they do not have that real quality that makes the reader actually care about them.

The narrator has a nice voice and does okay, but misprounces Alec's as Alex's; petty I know, but it is annoying.

It's Okay

The first story was ok, but, I'm not sure if I wll read the next two stories. The plot was predictable and a bit flat. However, the characters and the world created is interesting.

Not bad

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Probably not, though it is ok for a light read.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

As a rule I find cliffhangers annoying.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Folly Blaine?

I'm not sure if it is the narrator or the editor's fault but in the first story the character Alek has a Russian accent. In the second story he has no accent. And in the third his accent is all over the place.

Good base/ main cast wasn't interesting

Narrator was fine main character was generic and did not give me any reason to be concerned about her (the fact that she was nearly unkillable didn't help), love story felt a bit rushed with neither character having enough chemistry developted beyond we solved a mystery together and she has a high libido. Supporting cast was alright I suppose, side characters where interesting if not a bit condescending ( let's turn on the person who saved our butts and lived as our neighbor for years because she happen to be part of a minority). Overall it's an interesting universe with a well done structure I only wish the characters had a bit more time to be flushed out before the story moved on to the next romance scene.

Decent

in my opinion, the story, the characters, the whole thing has serious potential. that said the story feels rushed, the characters are not explored very much, and the love interest feels sloppy and rushed as well hope the books after this one or done better. The narrator is fantastic though.

Most Impressive

A nerd/geek sorceress, foul mouth ,non white and enough nerdom references to make any True Believer smile. I did not have high hopes for these books( the wanna be Potter/Twilight/True blood everywhere) but this refreshing take on a well travelled story road was a welcome surprise. That is such a rarity these days.

Enjoyable but too short

Liked triligy but can't justify the credits at only 3+ hours long for the rest

Good but could use more development

The story is good, but the characters could use some more development. They are a bit thin. The love interest seemed like it was just thrown in. It really was not needed. I will probably get the next one. I am interested enough to see what happens next.

The narration was excellent. Really to marks there and it makes up for any short comings of the story.

Ok.

Timeline issues. If the character has lived here so long, and has been dreading something for so long, why.... The world here seems not quite built . Might think of continuing if next 3 novellas get combined...

The books are too short

The characters are great, but the books are too short and leave you wanting more!

Can't wait to listen to the rest in the series.

Pretty decent but not spectacular

There's a lot to like about these books. The characters are fairly well fleshed out. The narrative moves quickly and is interesting. The sci-fi/gamer references are a LOT more subtle than in, say, Ready Player One or many other books of the genre.

Unfortunately, as with most strong female characters the hunky male turns up very early on and by chapter 5 of book 1 has already, quite literally, swept her off her feet. This isn't like Owl and the Japanese Circus where the hunky super boyfriend solves everything. The main character is still very much the main character it just might hve been nice if she was more established in herself before the male lead entered the scene.

She thinks her best friend's mum just died but is imagining him with his clothes off with like an hour. Fortunately, after book one lines like "liquid desire raced from my mouth straight into my lady bits" were a bit less frequent as the books switched from romance driven to story driven.

There are bits like when the MC uses a white flag of truce to fake a surrender so she can get close to some guards and kill them. With Russia's current tactics in Ukraine this had a very not-cool vibe and it was annoying they were never called out on it.

The narrator pronounces some words strangely: Foci as fokki, Vice as vies; but overall did a decent job.

Would I recommend this book to anyone? No. To gamers/LitRPG fans/Mystical romance fans?Probably. Will I read the sequel? Maybe.

An Gripping Start To This Urban Fantasy Series.

The Twenty-Sided Sorceress is now a completed series. I'd already read and enjoyed these books on my Kindle a few years ago. So I used this box set to remind myself of the stories before continuing with series.

I love Ms Bellett’s writing style. The way she builds her plots, the world her tales are set in, the characters she creates and the way she lets them evolve. For me to root for a female protagonist, she has to show certain personality traits. Most important of which are intelligence, resilience and gumption. Jade Crow has these as well as a humour that made me chuckle. However it was her insecurities that made her feel credible as a person. I loved watching her grow through these stories and know that there's more for her to learn in the books to come.

Folly Blaine is a new-to-me narrator. I felt that she encapsulated Jade's character with her performance and liked the pace she read these stories. However, I've listened to other narrators whose talents include character voices. Folly's performance lacked this, making many of the scenes filled with dialogue hard for me to follow.

The three books contained a different mystery or crime to solve which kept my Miss Marple mind engaged that Jade and her friends solved within each story. As with every great book written as part of an ongoing series, there are threads unresolved and questions unanswered. However, none of the books ended in a life-or-death cliffhanger. I really appreciated that.

Easy listening

Loved the story also the narrator was excellent realy enjoyed listening to all 3 books and hope there is going to be more to the series as I felt the first 3 we're a warm up. Well done annie.

A kick ass nerdy magical story.

I am glad this one was 3 books in one which was value for money as they are not that long. Folly Blaine did a lovely job of narrating the books.

Simply Amazing !

I was thoroughly amazed how entertaining and well written book !

It is light reading , but well made story lines that catches your imagination and give you rich experience of Annie's world .

I read in previous comments how short the books are , which partly that is true , but this can what some readers looking for . Just to be clear , the novel is fully comprehensive in details and by no mean a superficial detailed novel .

I also thoroughly enjoyed the nerd's rich experience shown in the books ( from computer games through comic world and surprises mentioning Naruto's famous manga reference . Making this novel into a unique special piece of art and a small treasure .
Try the novel ! Don't miss out !