The Audient and the Phantom Night

The Aeglecian Seas, Book 1

By: Sadie Hewitt

Narrated by: Broghanne Jessamine

Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Inspired by the worlds of The Legend of the Flying Dutchman and Beauty and the Beast, this action-packed fantasy filled with searing romance, outlawed magic, and seafaring danger.

Fenna Terrigan never expected to leave her seaside village. She was too quiet, too gentle, and far too kind to take on life outside of the bookshop she works at. But when her brother shows up on her doorstep begging for aid with a pirate captain hot on his tail, Fenna will do anything to protect him.

Devlin Cato is the captain of a cursed ship and can step foot on land for one day every seven years. Once again, he’s found himself using it to chase a deserter across the continent. His hunt is short-lived when Fenna agrees to take on her brother’s twenty-five-year debt in exchange for leaving her smoldering city to heal.

As Fenna spends more time aboard The Phantom Night with the ship’s mysterious and seductive captain, she soon finds herself caught between loyalty to her brother and her fiery passion for Devlin Cato. But the path to ending the curse isn’t as easy as it seems when Fenna’s dark secret is discovered, a secret that threatens the very foundation of the continent’s stability and one that anyone would be willing to kill for.

©2023 Sadie Hewitt (P)2024 Sadie Hewitt

Must read!

I have both physically read and now listened to this book! I must say each time I read/listened to it I picked up on new details that I had missed before. The story itself is exciting and captivating, and the narrating really brings to life the characters and adventures. I would think of something one way when I read the physical book but hearing it spoken out loud made me think another. Definitely a must read (or listen to)!

SO much fun!!!

This is an amazing seafaring adventure filled with romance, pirates, and danger. This is a series of standalones, but they're interconnected. Not my FAVORITE type of stories, but these have all been amazing and I love a good pirate tale! I love how the overlying story carries through the series of interconnected standalones. I actually read the second in the series first, so this was extra fun because it explained a few little things.

I love, love, love pirates but I'm also obsessed with all of Sadie Hewitt's books, to be honest. Her writing shines - as always - in this action-packed story, with vivid settings and incredibly engaging main characters. The chemistry between Fenna and Devlin is the BEST - it crackles with tension and heat. The banter between the two is particularly delightful and the yearning is wonderful. The bath tub scene was AMAZING. If you know, you know. They're two characters who are easy to love.

Fenna is a quiet and kind-hearted bookshop worker that unexpectedly finds herself drawn into a world of piracy and curses when her brother seeks her help to evade a pursuing pirate captain. Enter Devlin - CAPTAIN Cato - the broody captain of a cursed ship, who strikes a deal with Fenna to settle her brother's debt if she agrees to take it on herself.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator's accent really added an immersive layer to the experience.

However, despite how much I enjoyed this, I did yearn for a bit more world-building and more in depth secondary characters. Thank you to the author and R&R Booktours for the chance to listen and review. This review is honest and voluntary. This was fun and heck and I deeply enjoyed it! Delightful and very quick read. Plus - these COVERS are everything!!

Pirate romance with Beauty and the Beast tropes

While the story is inspired by beauty and beast and the legend of the flying dutchman and falls into a lot of those tropes it is still very much it's own unique story. On a whole I found the story to be engaging and have interesting and unique concepts. The audio was what really brought this to the next level for me though. The cadence and distinct character voices really brought me into the action and pulled me to keep listening! I will certainly be listening to the next book in the series!

Philosophical Pirates, Swashbuckling Adventure, and Fantastic Romance with Delightful Narration

This is a pirate fantasy romance to a T! The relationships and banter between the characters is especially enjoyable. The narrator perfectly brings the book to life. Her intensity and pacing kept me hooked from the beginning to end! There was a great mix of steamy moments, swashbuckling, and wit that makes you love the characters even more.

Amazing

The story itself was fantastic and so well written by Sadie Hewitt and Broghanne did a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life! Will definitely be a listen to again in the future!

Enjoyed it

The Audient and the Phantom Night is book 1 in The Aeglecian Seas series and my first book by this author. The story gave us pirates, curses, violence, action, romance, intriguing characters and so much more. I loved that the majority of the story took place at sea and the world building was easy to understand. The story had me fully engaged and I couldn't put it down.

The MC's Fenna and Devlin were wonderful. Our morally grey MMC Devlin was quite an interesting character. He has a strong commanding presence and knew how to get what he wanted. While on the hunt for an escaped crew member, he meet the crew members sister instead. Fenna decides to take her brother's place to pay back the debt due and winds up on a cursed pirate ship where Devlin's the Captain.

She was shy and quiet, but her strength really shone through as the story progressed and she really came into her own. She had intense chemistry with Devlin from the moment they met and I loved seeing how their relationship evolved throughout the story. He was easily intrigued by her and I loved their back and forth banter and the tension between them. The steamy scenes when it eventually came was sizzling and I absolutely loved how selfless he was for only her.

While I loved the story, I wish it was a bit longer and we got to explore more of Fenna's powers. However it was a fantastic tale and I would definitely recommend it to lovers of pirate fantasy romance.

🎧 I listened to the audiobook version of this novel which was narrated by @broghannejessamine
She did a phenomenal job bringing these characters to life and giving each their own voice and emotion. Her voice suited the role and it was a pleasure listening to her narrate this novel.