The Weave of Fate (Mists of Kel Doran: Dragon-Touched)

By: S.L. Matthews

Narrated by: Amie Lyn Hornick

Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

The city of Wyvern’s Rest has fallen....

The feud between the capital cities of Cambridge and Sephyra has reached a boiling point, leaving the “Jewel of the Highlands” a ghost of its former glory. Those with the means to live and the will to dream have already fled the city. Those lacking remain, condemned to bury their sorrow while the walls crumble around them. Lawlessness and poverty have overtaken the streets, and as the days grow longer, the shadows of the abandoned Outer Quarter loom ever darker.  

Ava spends her days tethered to her prison, the belly of an old, stone inn, overlooking the docks and the familiar, sea-side market. She leans on her friends for innocent laughter and talk of unimportant things. Every day, the tavern fills with the hopes and dreams of those fleeing for brighter horizons; and every day, Ava watches them leave with the simplest wish…to join them.

Little does she know, her fate is woven to the enormous, crimson carriage that creaks through the shadows of another forgotten morning. The odd-shaped man who emerges from the carriage carries two simple things: an old, leather satchel and a sinister secret. One will free Ava from her prison. One will forever seal her tomb.

Both will alter the course of Wyvern’s Rest forever.

www.mistsofkeldoran.com

©2019 S.L. Matthews (P)2019 S.L. Matthews

I LOVED IT!

I loved it! The narration was great and kept me entertained. The author did a great job with the character builds and plot. I can't wait for the next book in this series! I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Captivating but lacking context.

This is a book I want to like and I want to say positive things about, but I find it difficult. It’s not a bad book by any stretch of the imagination. But it just drops you into the middle of the world with no context and expects you to sprint.

I received the second book as a review copy and I couldn’t follow the plot to save my life. So I purchased part 1, thinking it would clarify my confusion. Nope. It just feels like I was dumped in the middle of a book or it feels like book 1 is actually book 2.

There’s an entire scene about a woman being turned into some kind of onyx person or something like that. It’s at the beginning of the book and is never mentioned again. I think she returns in part 2, but I tend to move on from one book to the next so I don’t remember. Either way, I find that annoying as all hell. What did that add to the story? Confusion.

As I often say with fantasy books I review, the author has a way of describing things seldom seen anywhere else. Checking my notes for my review of part 2, I wrote ” The author paints a world with words. The combat scenes are very well written, despite me not knowing the context of the world.” which rings true for this book as well. The scenes with combat are captivating and intense.

The narrator does an excellent job, with one exception. She says “acrosst” instead of across which is seriously annoying. That annoyed the hell out of me with part 2 because the word across seems to be used constantly and I found myself getting annoyed every time she said a word that ended with t. I can’t stand people mispronouncing basic words and I find it even more unforgivable when they’re a professional voice actor or narrator.

cliched

I gave up on this with about 2 audio-hours left to go. I've been listening to it for weeks and every time I open it I just wish it was over. So, I finally decided to let it go. The writing is questionable and the editing more so. I've several times referenced the example of "contemptment acrost her face." Neither contemptment nor acrost are actual words. Though acrost is apparently used regionally, it's still not actually a word and any editor would have caught this (it's used several times).

I would have finished the book if it was just this though. What made me give it up was the uber cliched characters. The villain is a just caricature and the main female character is a slave-slash-prostitute (underaged at that) that the primary male lead needs to protect or rescue. You literally cannot get more cliched than that. Further, the book starts out with a dragon, then leaps to troll-like creatures, then all of that is dropped for the whore with the heart of gold and the presumably Black slave (based on description and stereotypical speech patterns) that sacrifices himself for the white girl's virtue. Then that's dropped for pirate ships and there are a whole group of other people in carriages. None of it seemed to go together, nor is it well developed. So I was just basically bored and confused the whole time.

Note I recieved an Audible code for this book. I chose to listen and review it.

Great new series

This is an incredible first book of the series and this has great characters and a fantastic created world and the narrator brings it all to life very well

Struggled to get through - Adult Read

Parental Warning- easily an R rating Adult Read - So, I most definitely need to start with the warning on this book. There are several graphic triggers in this book regarding: rape, abuse, suicide, murder and attempted murder. One of the main characters is a girl who is sold into prostitution, is beaten and raped on a regular basis, and has attempted suicide multiple times. The book gets really graphic in flashes of parts of her story and especially her brutal beatings. The violence in this book is very graphic and I would say the gore is pretty intense. Interms of language it also is severe with lots of cussing which does include several f-bombs.

The story was disappointing in that it was hard to follow. You get thrown into the middle of something and then bounced around between different characters and scenes. I started to grasp little bits and pieces further in, but sadly I never did figure out the actual plot.

The narrator was ok but really slow... I had to turn it up to 1.35 speed for it to feel like it was a normal pace.

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

An interesting read

The Weave of Fate are the first book in the (Mists of Kel Doral: Shadowfall) series.
I recommend that you read this series in order. The book doesn’t end with a major cliffhanger, but there are still several story lines, that needs to be finished. It’s a complicated book, in that you are following several story lines at the same time. The book has been written so that we are following several parallel story lines. We also have many protagonists and several antagonists in the book. It also often was hard to see who are the protagonists and who are the antagonists, but that are one of the things I liked about the book. Using the terms light or dark, most of the people here are in the grey zone, which makes for an interesting read.
The style is a little like “the Witcher”, because you eventually see how all of those pieces (of the story) fits together. The world building are fantastic, with lots of details that you can see the author has spend a lot of time on. I think, that’s what carries the book on. Another thing I liked, was that it at times are hard to see who are the protagonists and who are the antagonists. Using the terms light or dark, most of the people here are in the grey zone, which makes for an interesting read.
I can recommend the book to fans of The Witcher, and would set the ages for the readers at 16+. Triggers for the series are violence, rape, abuse and slavery.
The narrator for the audio version of the book, does a really good job, but I am glad I got the ebook version too. The reason for that, is that I sometimes needed to go back and re read some of the passages, in order to understand what was going on. I received the audio version of this book for free, and borrowed the ebook version on KU. Since I liked the book, I am leaving a voluntary review.

Multiple Plot Lines, Many Characters

Caution; this book follows many characters, well-developed, over multiple story lines culminating in a Cliff Hangers. Well written with good world building, it still feels like a long Prologue for what comes next. I liked it enough I will purchase the next in series, hoping for some resolutions in the story line(s), then decide on continuing or not.

For a 1st in Series, WOW!! Just Wow

I really liked this story alot, Main Character is a Young Lady/girl who was taken to be a slave. She is a strong silent type for all the pain and suffering she has gone through. Other predominant Characters in this story have just as much intriguing story lines and involvement in the story. I highly recommend this story to Fantasy Lovers out there.
I truly hope this author has the next Audible book available Very Soon.(Hint,Hint!!)

Good start to the series!

This is a promising start to the series! Great character and world building create a unique personal, political, and adventurous landscape. Ava is a slave, imprisoned in an old Inn to a vindictive master. Enter the man in the carriage. In his satchel, lies the keys to her fate. This story has it all. love, hate, betrayal, and intrigue in a small world about to get a whole lot bigger. I won't spoil a good story but this a must listen. S.L. Matthews crafts a great story and Amie Lyn Hornick brings it to life. I can't wait till the next installment!

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary honest review.

Excellent Book! I’m ready to read Book 2..

I read The Weave of Fate when it first came out and decided to listen to the audio version before Book 2 came out. I’m glad I did. I’ve listened to dozens of books and I believe Amie Lyn Hornick is the best narrator I’ve heard. Her voice changes to match every character. I’ve heard some narrators make every character sound the same. Not Amie- she has an excellent voice and was very easy to listen to through the entire book. I’m glad she will continue the narration for all books in this exciting series.

Outstanding audiobook!

This book is so well-written, and the narrator's voice is fantastic. I can't wait to read Book 2!