Yardley (An Unconventional Love Story)

An Elemental Witch Trials Novella

By: Lucretia Stanhope

Narrated by: Toni Alden

Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's Summary

When Yardley, a demon guardian of the void, is illicitly summoned to protect a desperate mage, he quickly discovers more than the ordered existence he treasures is at risk. Forces in charge of balance are hunting and killing humans for the crime of possessing magic no mortal should wield. Until he can decide if she is a thief or the only hope to stop a corruption bent on destroying the magical equilibrium holding the worlds together, he must keep her alive at all costs.

©2019 Lucretia Stanhope (P)2020 Lucretia Stanhope

Yardley 🖤

I loved this story, who does not want a yardley of their own.... i do 🖤🖤🖤

Yardley

This was an ok story.I thought it very repetitive.Toni Aden was a fine narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.' 

Fantastic!

I simply adored Yardley in the series and was so excited to get his backstory. Alma was my kind of woman, strong and knew who and what she wanted. Yardley was a perfect fit. I love the way the romance didn't overpower the story as is the case with all of the other parts in the main series. It added a new layer of depth to things between him and Sebastian and Fannie as well. It can be read as a standalone but is so much better as part of the Witch Trials world. I recommend them all. The narrator did a wonderful job, just loved her voices to bits.

Not a fan.

The cover was what drew me into requesting a code for this story. Unfortunately, the story itself didn’t really pull me in. It wasn’t until I finished and scanned through other reviews that I realized this was a novella to a series. Maybe it would have helped me better understand the story had I read or listened to the other books? I don’t know. Needless to say, the beginning went over my head and I had a hard time focusing because it seemed like it was mainly descriptions of imaginary things, so I had no clue what was really going on.

This was like a different version of Beauty and the Beast but, unlike the movie, I felt the love aspect was kind of forced on the characters. It didn’t come across as natural at all. It’s like one second they’re acquaintances, you could say; she was on a mission and he followed along. But then suddenly Fanny is changing Yardley so that he can mate and be with Alma and he doesn’t seem to even know what’s going on. He’s questioning if he even has feelings for her (regarding loving Alma) when they haven’t been together that long. What? A few days…. It was strange. The fact there was no real backstory to Yardley didn't help.

Why was she always referring to him as “My guardian” and said in such a way? Even after her spell was supposedly no longer compelling him to do her bidding, her emphasis of “My guardian” stayed the same.

There were some questionable phrases, as well as mistakes where the incorrect word was used. For example, “Fanny altered his species.” His species? No, she didn’t. She just altered him, not all of his kind. Or “I will tell her when I send her. The deals are between her with me.” Or “The flood of awful soaking into his feet pads.” Huh?

The narrator did an all right job. I had to speed up the narration, which I never have to do. Otherwise, there were many times throughout the story when the narrator read the story as though she weren’t really sure what she was reading, like slow with random pauses between syllables and words. Thankfully, she provided a variety of character voices.

Questions/Comments:

My biggest question: How was Alma in love with Yardley, so eager to mate with him and bear his children when they’d been together for such a short period of time.

How long had her spell worked on him? When Yardley realized that she no longer compelled him, there was this sudden shift, an unbelievable shift, that had him questioning if he loved Alma when there had been no romantic inclinations from either party besides her randomly kissing him and then them randomly having sex (I can't remember if that took place for he started thinking about her in that way or after), how he was willing to change himself for her, and basically become a different person/creature, and do what she wanted him to do. They were both so eager to get her pregnant with his child and he referred to her as a perfect mate, even though he had to change into a human to be with her. I just couldn’t get into it. This is definitely what you would refer to as insta-love with no real love connection between the characters. It didn’t work for me.

Speaking of sex. Did they have sex? I honestly wasn’t sure. They kiss and then they finish whatever activity they’d just been doing like two minutes prior. That had to have been the weirdest, vaguest sex scene (if that’s what it was) that I’ve ever encountered.

Regarding Alma’s attraction to Yardley, it was strange how they both referred to him being a demon in such a way as though he could change into other creatures or a person. There was a part when "Yardley knew Alma wanted to see his demon." Not see him. As though he and his demon were two different entities. He wasn’t a werewolf who shifted from one form to another. He was a demon. Period.

So Alma got pregnant after having sex with Yardley one time. Did I miss something about her using a spell to raise her chances of getting pregnant that fast?

Then at the end, it isn’t until after their child turns four-years-old that Alma realizes the negative connotation of Yardley being a demon. How was that possible? What were they doing prior to her realization? Had he been in human form during those four years? I still didn't understand why she didn't want him to tell their child he was a demon, not even when the child got older. Couldn't they have raised the child in a more demon-friendly location?


I received a free audiobook in exchange for an honest review.