Alchemised (Unabridged)
-
-
4.5 • 558 Ratings
-
-
- $26.99
Publisher Description
In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy—and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past.
“What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There’s no one left for you to save.”
Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed.
In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive.
According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance’s final gambit?
To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This dark and twisted romantasy already has an established fanbase because it’s adapted from an exceptionally popular work of fan fiction inspired by a well-known fantasy series. But even if you come into this story completely cold, you’ll still be magically compelled by the complex and painful bond between a torturer and his prisoner. The Resistance against the High Necromancer has been crushed, and healer Helena Marino has fallen into the hands of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s trusted lieutenant. His primary mission is to pry out two years’ worth of memories that are alchemically locked within her brain, as inaccessible to her as they are to everyone else. His secondary mission is to make her pregnant, as there is a shortage of alchemists. As their distorted present-day relationship progresses, Helena’s memories gradually reveal the dark secrets of their past relationship and her hidden role within the group known as the Eternal Flame. Saskia Maarleveld’s soft, refined narration sets the graphic horrors of the story into sharp, aching relief. This audiobook is the antithesis to the usual happily ever after. If you seek the flames of romance burning palely from an abyss of gore, emotional and physical torment, and the highest degree of angst you could possibly imagine, you’ve found them here.
Customer Reviews
A slow-to-start listen that leaves you with questions just long enough to connect the dots later!
This book starts slow, but that allows you the time to take stock of all the delicious world-building and prepare yourself for what is to come. It’s one of those books where you are start in-the-action just to have everything come to make sense in Part 2.
The romance is certainly problematic, but without spoilers it isn’t really a Stockholm syndrome story but one of dealing with trauma and repressed memories, which really rang true to me as a combat vet. If I woke up with amnesia, I would happily listen to this book again.
Not worth the $
This is probably one of the most disappointing books I’ve read in a while. It’s very slow moving with so much unnecessary information that it sounds more like an encyclopedia for the world than a story about people. The characters are very 2D and there’s no depth to them at all. There will be random changes in the characters behavior with no reasonable explanation. Helenas constant desire to die is actually annoying because it’s so in your face for no reason. Every minor inconvenience and she’s like “well guess I’ll just die then” Everything important is just glazed over while the descriptions of the moon take up whole pages. It’s not worth your money. Don’t do it.
It’s a no
Not my cup of tea