The Defiant Heir cover art

The Defiant Heir

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Defiant Heir

By: Melissa Caruso
Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

'Melissa Caruso has taken things to an ENTIRELY new level of awesome' Powder and Page

Across the border, the Witch Lords are preparing for war. But before an invasion of Raverra can begin, all seventeen Witch Lords must gather to agree a course of action. Lady Amalia Cornaro knows that this conclave might be her only chance to stifle the growing flames of war.

Amalia and her warlock Zaira must go behind enemy lines, using every ounce of wit and cunning they have to avert the coming conflict. If they fail, it will all come down to swords and fire.

The Defiant Heir continues the spellbinding tale of courtly intrigue and dangerous magic that began with Gemmell Award shortlisted debut The Tethered Mage.

Books by Melissa Caruso:

Swords and Fire
The Tethered Mage
The Defiant Heir
The Unbound Empire

Rooks and Ruin
The Obsidian Tower
The Quicksilver Court
The Ivory Tomb

©2018 Melissa Caruso (P)2018 Little, Brown Book Group
Action & Adventure Coming of Age Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Magic Magic Users Witchcraft War

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Malevolent Seven cover art
The Adversary cover art
Courtlight Series Boxed Set (Books 1, 2, 3) cover art
The Priory of the Orange Tree cover art
Fourth Wing cover art
The Waking Land cover art
New Spring cover art
The Bone Witch cover art
Ace of Shades cover art
Serpent & Dove cover art
Mage Slave cover art
A Soul for Trouble cover art
Heritage: Book One of the Gairden Chronicles cover art
A Court of Honey and Ash cover art
The Queens of Renthia Trilogy cover art
A Coastal Christmas cover art

Critic reviews

"Caruso has really hit her fantasy stride with The Defiant Heir." (Culturefly)

All stars
Most relevant
I feel like the author and the narrator have both really hit their stride in this book (which is the 2nd in the series). I was gripped and would have happily listened in one sitting if I could have gotten away with it.

excellent!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

So much better than the first - and the first was good (slow but good)
This one was seriously good. Please please please bring the final book to audible!!! Also please keep Saskia Maarleveld as she truly is the best!

Yaaaas amazing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This was considerably better overall than the first book. The narration was still excellent and the writing had improved considerably. The book was pacier overall and the story flowed well. Both Amalia and Zaira were better drawn characters, the crow lord was an interesting addition and Ruthven was as vile as ever. I had a problem in the previous book with a certain childishness in the characterisations and part of the reason became clear in this book as Amalia is quite clearly stated as 18, when given that she had supposedly been away at University and was known as a Scholar, I had naturally considered her to be in her mid to late twenties, so I think the author made some strange choices, I wouldn't have bought what might be called a "coming of age"/young adult novel.

Considerably better than Book 1

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Loved this book! Such a good story and great narration. Wish they would record the 3rd book in English!

Loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.