A Court This Cruel and Lovely

Really pretty good. Took me a minute to get sucked in but that’s because I was only paying partial attention at first. Now I’m all in 😂

I may try and read this book instead of listening to it, because the storyline sounds intriguing, but the narrators are just awful (especially the male). It sounds like she’s a robot and he’s a game show host. No real feeling or inflection. I feel bad for the author that they didn’t do her book justice.

Let me start this ARC review by saying O M G this is hands down in my top 5 books of the year. I was BLOWN AWAY by how good this was, and I’m prepared to never shut up about it. Stacia Stark is a new to me author, and I requested an audiobook arc on NetGalley with only the synopsis to go off of and holy wow am I grateful I came upon this title! It has absolutely everything I love and more in new, inventive and exciting ways. The pacing was FLAWLESS including the slow burn build up. The world building was fleshed out so perfectly and never felt heavy handed or devoid of detail. This is really saying something because this book revolves around unpacking a world in rebellion and control after magic wars with the Fae. The King has a strict grip on magic users and the common people of this world face brutality at every turn. To be born with magic is a death sentence and there is nowhere to run. The stakes are so high, and they only get higher. It’s clear we’ve only scratched the surface of this world and that Stark has set up the perfect landscape for the next books to absolutely explode with action. The ending has me immediately looking for book 2, and 3 and ordering both because I will not sleep tonight just thinking about this ending. The gasp that came out of me could topple a building, and I loved every second!

Let’s talk characters in this dual POV. Our FMC is in some serious chaos from start to right now, and I am rooting for her with every fiber of my being. She is strong, fierce and has more heart than most people combined in her world. She’s willing to fight with anything she can get her hands on to save the ones she loves, and might just save the world on her road to accomplish this mission. The side characters? Equally root-for-able! We get a healthy helping of the endearing side quest heroes that you will give your heart to, and equal parts hate to love them characters that are deliciously infuriating in the best ways. Now don’t let us miss our mystery man from which actual dreams are made of! This MMC and our other POV is everything you’d want in a morally grey hulking brood master secret cinnamon roll! You will be up all night wondering is he or isn’t he the bad guy, and maybe WHO CARES IF HE IS! This guy will soon become your favorite walking red flag. The road to this duo clashing into each other like a tidal wave is paced to perfection and will have your toes curling and you saying just one more chapter because WILL THEY OR WONT THEY?! To put it simply, this book is unputdownable, and it deserves to be on every bookstagrammers radar immediately. You’ll be frantic to find out who is the true villain and is what we know even remotely the truth? It’s a fantastic suspense filled ride I am certainly not even remotely ready to step off of!

This is the series for you if you love Romantasy, found family, forced proximity, hidden powers, Fae, enemies to lovers to enemies, morally grey MMC, slow burn, touch her and die, one bed, one horse (my fav!) spice (which I’m told ramps up in the next books but yall we get a good girl!) firecracker FMC, us vs the world and magical mystery!

Now for the audiobook, we get dual narration by seasoned and beloved narrators who you might recognize from countless other fantasy reads. They are both pros and I found their narration as faultless as this book! Great wide range of voices, distinctive characters, perfect execution of masculine and feminine voices and lots of emotion comes through. I couldn’t recommend this more with audio because it brings to life characters that are written with a lot of fire and spice! It’s a slam dunk for me and can’t wait to listen to book two with the same narrators.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape & Stacia Stark for the audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review