Timeborne

Blade of Shadows, Book 1

By: Sara Samuels

Narrated by: Sarah Sampino, Liam Price

She was born in darkness, under the shadow of a full moon during a solar eclipse with a mysterious black dagger at her side. As a child, Olivia James witnessed her mother’s gruesome murder. As an adult, her godfather has trained her to be a skilled fighter. But when Olivia’s boyfriend betrays her and threatens her life, setting off a string of events that catapults her back in time from 21st-century Seattle into third-century Rome, the secrets of her past begin to unravel.

The discovery that she is a Timeborne, one with the ability to travel across time, is just the beginning. Soon, Olivia finds herself under the protection of—and owned by—Roman Alexander, a former gladiator and bodyguard to the emperor. Torn between his duty to his emperor, a desire for vengeance, and a longing to search for his lost twin brother, Roman now has the added complication of protecting this strange woman from the depravity of ancient Rome. Worse, he finds himself falling for her, despite accusations that she is an enemy spy. But even Roman is no match for the dark shadow that has pursued Olivia into the past.

A fighter in her own right, she’s forced to work with Roman to find a way back to her own time. Do the ancient scriptures on her dagger hold the key? Can she trust Roman with her secrets? And can she fight her enemies and protect her heart at the same time?

Timeborne is the first book in the Blade of Shadows series.

©2023 Sara Samuels (P)2023 Sara Samuels

When the female voice actor takes away from the narrative

I really wanted to like this book! I like the idea of time travel and of the roman empire and enemies to lovers.

However, the voice actor for this book consistently sounded like she had something in her mouth while she was speaking. It was obnoxiously distracting.

When the main character does go back in time it isn't explained how much time she has spent there....or if she had IUD. So when she and the male lead share a secret and are magically in love it's really hard to buy into, especially since he wanted to help her and wasn't exactly an enemy.

The main character also commented that she hadn't cut her hair since her mother died which meant she has fourteen years of hair and that also was a little hard to buy.

Lastly, I am going to need a better description of what a stola is. There wasn't enough world building to recreate the time the main character was in. And if this is a garment, hoopskirt, head band or scarf from that time period, a little more information may have been helpful, as this was a resource that got the main out of a lot of situations.

I think I may have been too critical - but feel like some of this should have been in the book.

Lastly, I think "round house kick", "goose skin", and the word "filthy" as a stand alone description are the authors " Obscene gesture" :)

if you aren't overly critical or analytical, it was a fun book.

Maybe reading the book would be better than listening?

Bad narrators, the male especially sounded like a robot. The dialogue was hard to listen to and I seriously questioned whether it was AI for the male roles for most of it.

enjoyed

this one was definitely not what I was expecting., but I must say it totally sucked me in. Looking forward to more of this series.

Poorly written

I can’t believe someone recommended this book. Poorly written; I gave it a shot but couldn’t Finnish it. Don’t waste your time.

Bad narrating and writing

The narrators were very stiff, the male ones in particular. Although I did enjoy the dual voices. But the writing itself was very amateur. I kept thinking maybe it sounded bad because the narrators were terrible, but the actual dialogue and writing was overall lacking and almost over explained everything going on in a way that distracted me and took me out of the book.

I didn’t care for the narrators

I never write reviews. But this was so bad I had to. The narrator sounded like she had a bag of marbles in her mouth the whole time. The way she chanted ancient words sounded horrible. I felt like the performance really brought the whole book down. The story also cell very rushed.

Weak story, poor male narrator, good female narrator

Spicy parts were gratuitous and DIDN’T fit wit story line. Found myself skipping through, not because I don’t like spice (I do), but the time they were was STUPID, and I found myself annoyed.
The male narrator was almost monotone.

Poor narration

I’m sorry, I just can’t get past the terrible narration. She sounds like she has something in her mouth while she is talking and the male sounds like his teacher made him stand in class and read out loud. Not good.

Voices

I’m halfway through the book and I just had to write a review about the male voice. He is an amazing speaker but he sounds exactly like the gentleman from the show River Monsters! Loving the book so far!

Terrible

I have read some terrible books, however this one is on thd top of the list.