I wanted to like this.

I don’t normally leave negative reviews...because I believe we all have our own tastes. However I felt compelled by how much this book really didn’t sit will with me.

I’ll try to be as non spoiler as possible.

Serena starts out her tale put in a rough spot that gets rougher throughout the first hour of the book. She shows promise and quiet strength and a backbone during a plot hatched by two evil villagers. I was rooting for her.

As soon as the Fae enter the story Serena loses everything that strengthened her character. It happens slowly, but by the time she gets to the place where she meets the other main characters the book got so much worse.

Here are the parts that irritate most:

-Serenas interaction with every male protagonist are all based on them wanting her on some level and protecting her. Fae culture or not ..it’s distracting and unrealistic.

- Serena let’s others make her decisions and choices. The author tries to counter act this by saying phrases like “he was giving me a choice..” but it’s apparent that there is only one option they are giving her.

-The writing is very “Tell not show” , so rather Serena narrating her observations or using action to relay information... nearly all information in the book is delivered through dialogue.

-Serena has no agency, just instructions. Need to know something? Someone magically knows so all you have to do is go talk to them Serena!

-Serena doesn’t grow, she degrades or at best gets stagnant by the end of the story.

There were other things but I can chalk them up to personal preferences.

This would be a book I would show to my future daughter and say “this is how you act if you want the world to swallow you up and make all your choices”

The one thing I did like? Hawk. He was in the story for five minutes and I’d already read a novel about him.

If your looking for a Feyre or Aelin or Nahri or Yrene in this book...you will not find them.

If you’re looking for fantasy, adventure. romance and resourceful women ... save your credit and go read Sara J Maas or SA Chakraborty

52 people found this helpful

Aheart pounding ride through a beautifully rendered fantasy world. Sarah J Maas fans: this book is for you.

A Kingdom of Exiles is a wonderfully written fantasy novel that immersed you into its world from the first page. The main character, Serena Smith, is incredibly relatable but still has enough “special chosen one” vibes to keep you intrigued. This novel has so much heart, displaying heartwarming family bonds, a steamy romance, and the importance of friendship in such a vicious world. I highly recommend this book to fantasy lovers all around (15+). You’re in for quite a ride. There was, however, one problem I had with this audiobook. I loved the story and the narrator, but there were times when I had no idea what the narrator was saying (only a few cases, but major cases). I couldn’t even figure out what was being said by playing the audio slower or multiple times; I had to find the sentence in my physical copy of the book. It sounded like gibberish. However, this was an amazing overall listen.

11 people found this helpful

Pretty Okay

I'm not a huge Maas fan, but I enjoy her books enough so when I saw many comparisons to her I decided to give this one a go. The start of the book was pretty awesome. But once the MC is with the fae I suddenly realize I have been dropped into A Court of Thorns and Roses fanfic. Of course the characters are unique and I think Nova did a pretty decent job with the back stories for these characters, but its pretty obvious she was HEAVILY inspired by Maas. I know that everything has been done before so I wasn't that bothered by it. But honestly, some scenes and even particular phrases were straight from Maas' series. (give or take a word swap and sentence restructure.)

Look this book isn't bad. But it needed some definite changes. I think it probably could have gone through another round of editing and maybe a few more beta readers. I love me a big fat book, I mean my favorite book series is Brandon Sanderson's stormlight archive so I'm willing to sink my teeth in for the long haul. But this book could have done without about half the inner monologue's from our whiny MC. That probably would have cut the book size in half. I also think the book ended at a really bad spot. I think without the tedious inner monologue's we would have had room to go further in the time line to a more satisfying place to end. Cliffhangers are fine and all but NOTHING was resolved in this book. Even in a series the books should end with at least one plot line tidied up. This had none! Everything was left wide open!

I'm fine with the whole territorial fae males, but what I hate is a random female lead who has all these hardened 'stone hearted' men falling at her feet in a matter of weeks if not days or in some case directly upon meeting her WITH NO EXPLANATION AS TO WHY.

But I'm still going to read the second book because I have hopes that the author will only improve. I do hope she can delve into enough of her own world building that she can leave behind some of the love letter to Maas weaved throughout this story.

Also I'm like 90% sure I know who the MC is going to end up with and if I'm right I will be very disappointed in the author.

As for the narration, i really liked Conneff I thought she did a pretty good job except for the voice she used on one of the males in the story. I honestly couldn't tell him apart from the MC and it got pretty confusing.

2 people found this helpful

Amazing narrator and a talented author

I was really struggling with rating it. But first things first. Half of my thanks for the great experience go to the narrator. She was bloody amazing! I rarely find something with a narrator which can not only do a good reading of the book but live through it. With each line she was able to deliver a living and breathing person, so it felt like you was there, talking to the characters, fighting alongside with them, feeling their pain. It was very emotional and exactly what I’m always looking for. Secondly thanks to the author I was never bored. Almost all characters are interesting, memorable and I’ve become emotionally invested in all them very quickly. And more often then not I was clueless what would happen next and that’s always a sign for me that I’m reading an interesting book. I was expecting something like ‘OK, not bad, now let’s find something else’ but instead halfway through the book I was like ‘how am I going to wait for a sequel? It will be like torture!’
The world building is good and plot lines moving at a slow pace. It won’t overwhelm you and you could picture everything with no problem. So I’m very thankful to the author for this book. For making it so heartwarming because of all the friendships and kinships. For interesting characters, their training (I enjoy reading about training camps and how it always changes the protagonist), adventures, Fae world and the plot. And for choosing a perfect narrator!

Now to the ‘but’ part. But how did we end up with a heroine that can't make her own decisions and always whines that she is useless? Don’t get me wrong I had no complaints about that at the beginning because I was expecting that she would become smarter or grow as a person. And she was! So everything was going very well until it didn’t. Strangely somehow she became even more dependent on others and really useless! Even if she is trying to think what to do she never knows what exactly until Auntie helps. It was ALWAYS like that through the whole book until the last moment when she decided something on her own. Not consulting with the necklace or her pack. I can’t remember the last time when I was so frustrated with any character. Maybe it is because ALL other characters actually did something. Fought on their on without any guidance from some magical necklace. Made their own decisions. Serena wasn’t even interested in exploring what’s needed to help her or the others. I mean, you’re sitting in a room full of books. Read something useful! She was being helped through everything and always excepted others ideas rather than giving her own. So it was really hard to see why all the fae men she meets are so obsessed with her. And the way she treated Hunter was just awful. Demanding things from a person she barely knew. Treating him like shit without even trying to step in his shoes. And never EVER thinking about what would happen to him or how he is doing! Always just using him. Ok, I’ll stop now. If I continue to go down that road, I’ll explode with rage))

On the bright side I’ve still enjoyed how the author portrayed the Fae. And yes, many people are saying that the world is very similar to S.J. Mass’s but in this case it helped to connect with the book rather than pushed me away. I can't wait for the second book and the same narrator. Please let it be this year!
By the way this is my first review on Audible since I’ve joined it 4 years ago and this fact alone should speak for itself how I feel about the book.

2 people found this helpful

Give this book a chance.

Ok when I first saw the pitifully small number of reviews for this book, I almost passed it up and went for something more popular. Then I remembered Audible.com refund exchange policy and decided to give it a try knowing that I could return it if I didnt like it.
I am so glad I gave this book a chance, SB Nova has shown great potential to be the next Terry Goodkind. This book has all the promise of a great epic adventure that could span many volumes. If you have ever read the novels by Sara J Mass and liked the way she portrays the Fae then you will definitly like this book.
I Sincerely hope if your reading this that you give this book a chance

5 people found this helpful

Confused

I am confused as to how this book got such good reviews. I felt like I was listening to a knock off version of something Sarah J Maas would write. I felt zero connection to any of the characters and felt myself daydreaming while listening. Pass..

8 people found this helpful

i liked the story but not the narrator

I liked the story but the narrator was harder to understand, made mistakes such as saying a sentence twice and did not do a good job with accents because you couldn't tell which character was supposed to be speaking

1 person found this helpful

amazing!!!

I absolutely loved this book. S.B Nova creates a spectacular world with great characters and character development. I can't wait to follow the story and continue into this world!

2 people found this helpful

Okay

I was super excited to read this book based on the description but I think it is the narration that ruined it for me. The characters weren't brought to life, they all sounded the same and mundane. My interest was not peaked, therefore, my connection lack luster this giving my impression.

This made my heart happy

The only reason this story does not receive 5/5 stars is simply because of how slow it moves — particularly in the beginning. This book does a lot of developing of the story line and the characters. Once you get through any slow portions, it is a lot easier to appreciate the characters and their personal growth.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s similar to stories by Sarah J Maas and Holly Black, merely because of the “fairy/romance” aspect, but the author definitely has her own voice, which I seriously appreciated.

I listen to a ton of novels, and I would 10/10 recommend this one.