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The Half-Hearted Queen

The Shattered King, Book 2

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The Half-Hearted Queen

By: Charlie N. Holmberg
Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
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In this spellbinding dark fantasy from Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg that concludes the Shattered King duology, Nym must escape the clutches of her captors and find her way back to Renn even as forbidden love, magic, and secrets collide with the weight of the crown and the war between kingdoms.

Nym never told Prince Renn she loved him. And now, as a captive and political pawn to the ruthless King Nicosia, Nym finds herself guarding more than her forbidden feelings for Renn as the kingdoms of Cansere and Sesta clash and the bloodshed of war rages. Nym’s connection to Renn is more than just romantic—it’s magical, and King Nicosia will stop at nothing to find Renn’s weakness and claim the kingdoms as his.

Now Nym must find a way to escape the cruel and twisted fate of imprisonment as she faces the unimaginable horrors and dangerous secrets hidden within King Nicosia’s palace walls. With the succession of kings on the line and a dangerous prophecy unfolding, Prince Renn faces his own impossible choice. The future of the throne hinges on a political alliance that means forsaking his love for Nym. If he can’t fulfill his destiny and unite the kingdoms, King Nicosia will destroy them all.

©2026 by Charlie N. Holmberg. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Dark Fantasy Fantasy Historical Royalty Destiny Magic
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I adored book 1 and found book 2 to be a great sequel, it neatly wraps up the story, I'm really going to miss this series! I loved all of the characters so much ㅠㅠ

A perfect escalation

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I’ve listened/ read all of CH books. And this one -I really struggled with. I love the first book, but I don’t know if it was the pitch and tone of the narrator, which lacked cadence, or just a slow story. Disappointing.

Dull and slow

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I listened to this on a long journey, while driving, which affected the experience.
The narrator’s voice increased and decreased in volume depending on the ‘voice’ being used, and there was a lot of muttering and murmuring. This was completely unintelligible against the road noise. I had to fiddle endlessly with the volume and rewind sections several times.

Never had this problem with other audio books.

As for the story itself.
Gosh, I got tired of the crying.
Lots of dramatic events, violence, cruelty and angst, so some crying was integral. Fair enough.
So was endurance, grit, determination, resilience, etc.

But my goodness, the crying was too much. It just went on, and on, and on. And on. Pages of it. It ended up tainting the whole experience and nearly made me give up.

The mildly irritating theme of vol 1 in this series was ‘the nobility and their loyal staff are horrible, lack empathy and are mean to me.’

The more irritating theme of vol2 is ‘the mad king and other circumstances are mean to me, and I am a poor brave victim to their meanness. And I cry all the time.’

A lot of pathos

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for me, the sequel lost the fantasy/ magic of the story... the romance part feels a bit over-dramatic (in addition to the storytelling drama). book became a dread halfway through.

quite disappointing

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A very easy listen, tho the pacing of the story was a bit mixed. A great first part, quite slow in the middle, and then quick at the end.

Good narration, but the story felt a bit slow compared to the first book

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