Curse of Shadows and Thorns

The Broken Kingdoms, Book 1

By: LJ Andrews

Narrated by: Stina Nielsen

A rebellious princess. A cursed rogue. A forbidden love that will bring a kingdom to its knees.

As niece of the king, Elise Lysander cares about two things: sneaking into gambling dens, and avoiding an advantageous marriage at all costs.

When her uncle holds the life of her deathly ill father over her head, reluctantly, Elise puts her fate into the hands of Legion Grey, the handsome and mysterious dowry negotiator. He may be arrogant and infuriating, but soon Legion incites a blistering, forbidden passion she can’t ignore.

As their attraction grows, so do the dangers: attacks from black-eyed people, a cursed enemy who is more beast than man, and rumors of fae returning for the crown they believe was stolen from them long ago.

After a bloody coup upends the kingdom, Elise flees with Legion, but nothing is as it seems. The man she allowed into her heart reveals his own secret plans with the return of magic—and he has every intention of using Elise to see them through.

With war between magic and mortal on the horizon, Elise must pick a side to protect her kingdom. Does she stand with her people who stole the throne? Or with a man who lied his way into her heart and whose secret past could bring her destruction?

Filled with luscious world building, banter-filled romance, and epic battles, Curse of Shadows and Thorns is the first book in The Broken Kingdoms series.

©2022 LJ Andrews (P)2022 Podium Audio

Obsessed

One of my favorite books! It's an entertaining story and part of a great series overall. The narrator does such a good job, too. I can really get a good sense of each character!

Love Stina!

Great story made even better by Stina! thank you for another great choice In narrator! On to book 2!

Won’t lie went in pretty much blind

I absolutely love Stina Nielsen. And because she was the narrator I just pretty much bought the book just because of that. But the story while slow paced is really getting interesting and great. Some of it is quite predictable but I read to much so maybe because of that it more predictable then a first time reader. I have not read anything by this author or even knew who she was, again the narrator was the determining factor for me, she’s my absolute favorite! But now listening to the story I will continue to read the saga of this novel and many more to come from the author. I very much admire Stina and she can do no wrong what she narrates is absolute gold. Love the story love where it’s going can’t wait to read the next book. Love even more ms. Nielsen ☺️. I’ve only started reading audio books again this year after almost 100 books I can honestly say Ms. Nielsen is an absolute incredible narrator. She brings the books to life no matter the story.

Very slow to get started

Overall it was an OK read, but honestly it took a long time to get to the meat of the story, and even then it was kind of slow paced all in all.

the "climax" of the story takes so long to get to, and its presented in a means where honestly it wasn't really climatic.

if you're looking for a book that will hook you in amd keep you wanting more, this isn't it. its a nice read, but honestly it doesn't get interesting til the last 3 chapters.

Slow

The characters are written slightly better than average. The plot was completely predictable, standard fare for YA, but not roll you eyes at it. It was okayish. It dragged for me. The pacing felt really off. Resulting in a meh feeling and me only really listened to it while doing dishes, etc. That aside, I can see how this is someone else's favorite story or that they hate it.