Dagger's Destiny

Curse of Clansmen and Kings Series, Book 2

By: Linnea Tanner

Narrated by: Kristin James

A Celtic warrior princess accused of treason for aiding her enemy lover must win back her father’s love and trust.

In the rich and vibrant tale, Author Linnea Tanner continues the story of Catrin and Marcellus that began with the awarding-winning novel Apollo’s Raven in the Curse of Clansmen and Kings Series. Book 2: Dagger’s Destiny sweeps you into an epic tale of forbidden love, mythological adventure, and political intrigue in Ancient Rome and Britannia.

War looms over 24 AD Britannia where rival tribal rulers fight each other for power and the Romans threaten to invade to settle their political differences. King Amren accuses his daughter, Catrin, of treason for aiding the Roman enemy and her lover, Marcellus. The ultimate punishment is death unless she can redeem herself. She must prove loyalty to her father by forsaking Marcellus and defending their kingdom - even to the death. Forged into a warrior, she must overcome tribulations and make the right decisions on her quest to break the curse that foretells her banished half-brother or the Roman Empire will destroy their kingdom.

Yet, when Catrin again reunites with Marcellus, she is torn between her love for him and duty to King Amren. She must ultimately face her greatest challenger who could destroy her life, freedom, and humanity.

Will Catrin finally break the ancient prophecy that looms over her kingdom? Will she abandon her forbidden love for Marcellus to win back her father’s trust and love? Can King Amren balance his brutality to maintain power with the love he feels for Catrin?

©2019 Linnea Tanner (P)2024 Linnea Tanner

Critic reviews

"Fast paced, romantic, passionate, and tragic in moments, Marcellus and Catrin have a story that is gripping and seductive." (InD’Tale Magazine)

Forbidden Love, Magic and Evil

I don’t know where to begin! This is an amazing story by Linnea Tanner. Tanner continues the tale of Princess Catrin, Marcellus her love and husband, her parents and the hideously evil and vile Merrick. Caught up in removing the curse that has doomed them all, Catrin must assume the Raven Warrior mantle and rescue her people and her home. Catrin becomes enmeshed in the political intrigue and mystical complexity of her father’s curse and those who are driven with ambition for power and revenge.

This is a much darker story than book one; it is historically true to the time period. Tanner took some serious situations that were disturbing but instead of focusing on the grotesqueness of the situations, she provided enough detail without being over-the-top gruesome.

Tanner focused this book on the growth of Catrin and the trials and tribulations she met for being a woman. Accused of being naïve, Catrin falls prey to a mystical druid but so did her father and other males. The differences between Catrin as a female and males was well presented and while subtle, was powerful.

Tanner is a masterful wordsmith and storyteller. There were no plot holes, everything was believable, and her characters grew as did the plot. This is an epic story, one that takes a lot of organization, research, and perseverance for the writer. A tale that requires solid and constant action to keep all the parts moving along and not becoming bogged down. I cannot wait for book 3!

Kristin James, the narrator, performs the book excellently. Her smooth voice is a pleasure to hear, almost melodious. She kept the story moving along with her passion and investment in the story – she is Catrin! Well done!

There were no issues with the production or quality of this audiobook.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author/narrator/publisher.
Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog.
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excellent

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! After listening to this story,. I totally enjoyed reading this book. It’s well written and the characters were uniquely fantastic. I would suggest this book to my friends that like this sort of genera. this was a good book. The narration was great.

LOVE OR DUTY?

Daggers Destiny is the second book in a series about confiicts in AD24. Catrin is the daughter of King Amren who is the local Britannia tribal leader. Catrin is in Love with Marcellus who is a Roman officer. The penalty for Loving a Roman is death according to her father. But her father loves Catrin and Catrin loves her father along with Catrin loves Marcellus. The story is a Love\Hate relationship with the Characters and with the book itself. I received this audio book for free in exchange for an unbiased review. I did enjoy listening to the story. Thanks!

The Saga Continues

The together forever question for Catrin and Marcellus is still not resolved. The evil shape shifting Bloodwolf is the victor despite our heroine's efforts and has joined with Rome to destroy Catrin's family. The traps set for both heroes are relentless and daunting. I hope book three will provide some closure. The narration was good.
I was given a free copy of this audiobook with a promise to provide an honest review.

The story gets darker with every chapter...

In the first book, Apollo's Raven, Catrin, a princess of Britannia, and Marcellus, the grandson of Marc Anthony, fall in love... But it's forbidden love as they come from warring nations. When Catrin saves Marcellus from certain death in battle, in the eyes of her clansmen she commits treason - and punishment for that is death...

This is the starting point for the second part of the series - Catrin undergoing a trial and accepting her punishment, willing to redeem herself in the eyes of her father, King Amren. But nothing is easy in the times of war, and Amren and his family have a formidable enemy, one who can transform into a wolf, one who can weave powerful magic, one who hates them more than anyone else... And there's also Marcellus, trying to save Catrin as she once saved him, loving her beyond reason, and taking great risks to still try and prevent war between Britannia and Rome...

The plot in Dagger's Destiny is full of suspence, full of emotions, and full of surpries. The tale takes you trough a rollercoster of emotions: hope, despair, anger and joy... With every chapter the story gets more complicated; in one moment we feel that maybe there's a chance of a happy ending for Catrin and her beloved only to discover a moment later that the dark forces at play seem to prevail... The nearer the end, the more violent the whole tale becomes, with fearful battles taking place, with heads being severed and women, children and the elderly mutilated... It's a heart-breaking kind of ending, I must say - with almost all hope lost, with all the main characters losing faith and with more questions left unanswered that we would like... But it definitely is a tale you want to continue reading/listening to - I certainly will.

As for the narration by Ms James, it's very good, although I sped it up a little - it's a long book, and Ms James reads it rather slowly. But she is great at interpreting individual characters and adding emotions to the narrative parts. Generally, it's a pleasure listening to her interpretation of the book.

DISCLAIMER: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A Curse, Romance, Revenge, and Magic

Author Linnea Tanner and Narrator Kristin Jones mesmerized me in the first ten minutes of this story. The tale of Celtic Princess Catrin and her Roman husband Marcellus are from different lands. Their powerful fathers not only fight one another but force their star-crossed heirs to consider sacrificing their love for their kingdom.
Author Tanner continues her epic world building of Southeast Britannia in 24 AD, in vivid detail that commanded all my senses. She artfully leverages the ancient times, places, and events in this historical fantasy. Apollo’s Raven, book 2 of this series, provides the right foundation for the reader or listener. The brutality of the action scenes delivers a realism to the character interactions by both the Romans and Celtics. The additional magical qualities woven in using Catrin’s powers versus those of her arch enemy Marrock felt as natural as rain falling from a darkened thundercloud.
Catrin’s father, King Amren, is a strong ruler. He rules with an iron fist, including the potential to end his daughter’s life because of her treasonous act involving Marcellus. Her ability to change the threads of life saved her man but nearly killed her father. It was this section where I could not stop listening until the end.

“Whose life did you extend? Mine?” asked Amen.
Catrin’s voice cracked with emotion. “I saved Marcellus.”
“Cursed gods!” Amren’s eyes blazed with fire as he pointed to the gash in his belly. “This wound was inflicted by your lover’s blade. He almost killed me!”
A sense of dread overcame Catrin. Marcellus couldn’t have done this! He knows how much I love Father. Why hadn’t I foreseen this?
She averted her eyes from her father. “I never meant to harm you!”
Amren snarled. “But I just saw Marcellus fall with an arrow in his chest.”
“No, Father, he is alive. I rewove his life thread so the death arrow wouldn’t pierce his pierce his heart.”
Amren sunk his fingers into the cave’s dirt floor. “This is the disloyal act of a stupid girl blinded by love—not a noble princess I raised to put family and kingdom first.

Catrin is positioned to forsake her love and gain her father’s forgiveness. She is staged to learn how to fight and lead her kingdom in an unexpected manner. Using the amulet given to her by her love, Catrin must gain support from him for the release of her sister Vala. This epic story has twists and turns leading the reader or listener through a treacherous journey that has high possibilities of death and failure. The ending will make you beg for the next book in this series.

Kristin James does a fabulous job of performing this story. The voices of the characters are distinctive and never miss a beat. It is her smooth voice punctuated with emotion and inflection points that gains immediate investment in constant action contained within this epic tale. There were no issues with the quality of the recording or execution of this audible. WOW.

Roman tale of magic, love and war !

Its a Romeo Juliette story with magic and wars!!

The story is compelling the heroes and evils are real people, not one-dimensional characters.
for example Katherine -a warrior/ witch/princess on one hand and very sensitive, somewhat gentlewoman on the other hand, facing very difficult decisions and events
The narrator is a bit too melodramatic at the beginning, but become much better late on, can make good distinct voices late on, including great Scottish like accent :)

The story is also about some very strong female characters in a man's oriented world and their struggle to make a difference.
I liked it a lot, now I need to read the first book!!

One note: it is not a PG13 book, get ready for some graphical sex scenes.

Action packed and dramatic

The story was pretty good. One word that comes to mind is dramatic. You think Catrin is almost out of the woods and then a semi-devastating event happens, it's as though she almost cant catch a break. There were a couple minorly awkward parts in the story. I really like that she was a type of Oracle because it was something new that I haven't encountered before. It was relatively fast paced, because of event after event happening so you need to pay a little bit more attention.

Since I didnt read/listen to the 1st book in the series, I think there were some things that confused me that wouldn't have been confusing if I had read the 1st book. This is good because it avoids the dreaded character information dump but bad for me since I had to fill in the blanks on some stuff and I missed how Catrin and Marcellus fell in love.

I would definitely be interested in how the series ends, because the story ends on a major cliff hanger!

The narration was pretty good too!


I received a review copy in exchange for an honest review, at my request.

Blends mythological intrigue and political drama!

"Dagger's Destiny" by Linnea Tanner is a gripping continuation of the Curse of Clansmen and Kings Series, masterfully narrated by Kristin James. The writing seamlessly blends mythological intrigue and political drama, immersing readers in Catrin's perilous journey to reclaim her father's trust while navigating forbidden love. James's narration brings the characters to life, making this epic tale of ancient Britannia and Rome an unmissable adventure.

Good book

Good continuation of the series. It is just as full of twists and action as the first book. You can tell the author took the time to research the world the story is set in so it is accurate and the characters are well done.