All posts tagged Erin Summerill

Once a King

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment
Once a King cover

One of the things I’ve been doing since this coronavirus threat started strangling the world is taking more walks. This means… more audiobooks! I just finished listening to Once a King, part of the Clash of Kingdoms series by Erin Summerill. While I enjoyed the book itself, I didn’t care for the audio narration.

The Story

Once a King is narrated by Aodren, king of Malam, and Lirra Barret, daughter of the Arch-Traitor of Malam, and a wind channeler. Many people in the kingdom are gathered at a summit of nations. King Aodren is concerned because his father murdered channelers; he’s trying to right the wrongs of the past, but a lot of people don’t want to put the past behind.

Lirra’s father sends her a letter and asks her to deliver it to the “Bloody King of Malam,” as she calls him. They don’t have any respect for each other at first, but as they work together to solve a problem that is threatening the citizens of Malam–and Lirra’s da–they begin to like each other.

My Thoughts

I enjoyed the story, but I don’t think I was as enthralled by Once a King as I was with Ever the Hunted and Ever the Brave. I think the character’s relationship in the first two books of this series was more engaging. However, part of this could be due to the fact that I listened to this via audiobook, which I’ll get to later.

I enjoyed the setting in this book, and the villain did surprise me. There were tense moments and how they got out of these situations surprised me as well.

The Audiobook

I really did not like the audiobook narration. Almost everybody’s accents were unnatural and got on my nerves. King Aodren narrated half the book and I especially didn’t like his voice. He spoke with drawn out words that made him seem like he was bored. The side characters often had nasally, drawling, or otherwise unnatural voices that were often more annoying than not.

Overall

If you enjoyed Ever the Hunted and Ever the Brave, you’ll probably like Once a King. This book can be enjoyed without reading the other two books; however, they do give the background information on the magic system that would make getting into this book easier. Britta and Cohen get the briefest of mentions in this book (they’re away on their honeymoon), so don’t bother looking for more on that couple. If you liked the world and the magic system and want a little more of the world, I recommend this book. I don’t recommend the audiobook though.

Ever the Brave Was Beautiful

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

Ever the Brave coverI first heard about Ever the Brave when I kept seeing that Once a King was going to come out this fall.  The story sounded really interesting, so I just had to get the books from my library.  I read Ever the Hunted in July (you can read my review here), but I had to wait a lot longer in order to read the second book in the series.  This book was worth the wait.

Since this book is the second in a series, it may contain spoilers for the first book.

Britta might have gotten herself out of immediate danger in Ever the Hunted, but her life has not gone back to normal.  She now has this mysterious bond with King Aodren, and on top of that, he now seems to have the same kind of mysterious connection to her that she used to have with Cohen.  Of course, she’s in love with Cohen, which makes the situation even messier.  To make things worse, the king seems to be developing feelings for Britta.

The danger in Britta and Cohen’s life hasn’t gone away, either.  The Spiriter that was controlling Aodren is now wreaking havoc in the kingdoms of Malam and Shaerden, threatening to destroy the fragile peace between the two countries.  Cohen has to track down this Spiriter, which is causing strain in his relationship to Britta.

Britta eventually discovers that she has to choose between Cohen, who sometimes is a little overprotective of her, and Aodren, who continues to shower her with gifts.

Choice seems to be a pretty big theme in Ever the Brave.  Cohen has to learn that even though he wants to protect his love from all of the dangers of this world, he can’t make that decision for her if he doesn’t want her to feel smothered.  He also feels like he needs to give Britta the freedom to choose between her and Aodren, even if it means that she might not choose him.  I thought it was sweet that he cared enough for her to want her to make that decision, even if it potentially could hurt him in the end.

I loved the ending of Ever the Brave and am looking forward to reading Once a King at some point, even though Britta and Cohen won’t be main characters in that story.  This is a sweet story with a beautiful ending.  I highly recommend it.

Ever the Hunted is Ever Wonderful

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments

Ever the Hunted CoverEver the Hunted was a wonderful book.  I discovered it as I was looking through upcoming titles.  Once a King looked really interesting, but since it was the third in the series, I figured that I better start at book 1.  I was in luck, because Ever the Hunted was available at the library (I’m on the waiting list at the moment for Ever the Brave).

The book grabbed me from the beginning pages.  Our heroine, Britta, is in a tough situation.  Her papa died, and the king is ready to come and take her lands, because she can’t inherit it.  She hasn’t seen her ex-boyfriend Cohen in over a year, but that doesn’t matter anyway, because she could never marry him anyway: he has a noble heritage and can’t marry an outcast like her anyway.

After she gets caught poaching, she is asked to go find the murderer: her ex-boyfriend Cohen.

Dun dun dun!!!

If you want to find out what happens, you’ll have to read the book.  As the story progresses, we find out that things aren’t exactly as they initially appear to be.  Britta finds out that she is not exactly the person she thought she was.  She finds out that there is more that she can do than just finding out who killed her papa — she needs to try to save the kingdom itself.  Even if it costs her her life.

I loved this book from the very beginning.  The characters’ struggles grabbed me from the start, and they were well-written.  There were many supporting characters, many which seemed to have their own personalities and desires.

The world was interesting.  There are two main countries in this story, both of which seem to have their own unique personalities.  The two countries are at the verge of war, and you can feel the tension as a result.

This book is suitable for teens of all ages.

I’m looking forward to getting to the front of the waiting list at the library for Ever the Brave.  I can’t wait to read more of this trilogy!