The Adorned

By: John Tristan

Narrated by: Shannon Gunn

My name is Etan, and I am Adorned.

A living piece of art, I exist to please the divine rulers of Kered. With nowhere to turn after my father died, I tried my luck in the capital city. Little did I know how quickly I would be robbed, beaten and forced to sell myself into servitude. But I was lucky enough to gain the attention of Roberd Tallisk, an irascible but intriguing tattoo artist who offered to mark me with enchanted ink for the enjoyment of the nobles. I was given a chance to better my station in life, and I could not refuse.

But the divine rulers want not only the art but the body that bears it. In their company I can rise above the dregs of society and experience a life most only dream of, at the cost of suffering their every desire as a pawn in games of lavish intrigue. Their attention is flattering, but I find I'd rather have Tallisk's.

Caught between factions, I learn that a revolution is brewing, one that could ruin Kered - and Roberd and myself along with it...

©2013 John Tristan (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

My favorite MM book

Would you listen to The Adorned again? Why?

Yes, I bought the ebook and wanted to be able to listen to is as well because I loved the story so much.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Etan, I bonded with him right away. He had a very hard life and did what he had to, to survive in the world. Luckily he finds his way to Roberd.

Have you listened to any of Shannon Gunn’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It's an emotional story and I thought the narrator did a good job of portraying emotion.

Any additional comments?

LOVED this story and the audio book version!

Beautiful genre writing - worth a read

I am giving this book 3 stars mostly because I doubt I will re-listen to it, though I am glad that I bought it and spent the time listening to it as a once through. My summary - Not a waste of time, an excellent narration, enjoyable for it's style but probably not going on many play on repeat lists.

I always feel like I need to caveat these sort of reviews. I go through phases where my tastes radically differ. I went through a period where pretty much all I read were "dime-store novels", and a gross Harlequin *cringe* romance novel phase, a huge sci-fi stint that melded into a fantasy gorge. As a young adult I got *way* into vampires, and I still love a lot of stuff that falls into the paranormal/urban fantasy classification. I have never found myself particularly attracted to historical fiction, though I am also not specifically adverse to it. Right now I am on a huge MM romance kick (kind of long lasting phase, to be honest.)

The point of all of that? This book definitely falls into a (fictional) historical/supernatural sub-genre that isn't really my thing at the moment. Honestly, I bought it because I'd listened to pretty much everything else available in the new releases section that I was interested in but I wanted something new rather than re-listening to an older favorite.

Although it is kind of a slow paced book, both the story telling and the narration kept me engaged through-out. It was beautifully written and it took me a long time to realize that I was, in fact, reading a somewhat novel and unique imagining of a vampire book.

There was so much *potential* in this story, but I think that it is a bit watered down at times, to be honest. It was like the author loved the characters so much that although he knew that it was his job to torture them, he didn't quite have the heart to go full-bore, then at the end he all of a sudden decided to get it all over with in one fell swoop before tying everything up in a pretty bow and attaching the gift tag to the package.

For those interested - very little in the way of sex - not nearly as much titillation as it could have had - and definitely not a light or feel-good sort of read. Even-so, and especially if you like a bit of paranormal and/or fantasy "historical" twist to your reads - Very worth the time and credit. So yeah, 3 stars - not a glowing review I guess but there it is.

Heart-gripping!!

What a beautiful, heart-gripping story!! I loved it!! The author transports you to a place in time that, while indecipherable in itself, is so richly described you can actually see, hear and touch it. As others have reviewed the prose is absolutely beautiful. The plot chains intrigue, vanity, despair, admiration, survival, grit, loneliness, and ultimately love… and Mr. Tristan demonstrate to be a master at it. Oh, and Tallisk’s art!! Etan’s tattoos (and his brothers/sisters) were so wonderful and captivating *bows to author* Excellent book!!!

wonderfully different

I really enjoyed this book. if you are sensitive to accent, watch out, Mr Gunn did a great job, but there are some areas that were a little off. I enjoyed the world building and characters. there is some tragedy, but no moping.

Interesting Story; Great Narration

I've long been a fan of Shannon Gunn's narration, but when this book started my mouth fell open. I had no idea he had this much range. Absolutely fantastic.

The story itself was interesting. A little too long maybe, but definitely worth the listen.

Delicious, slow, burn!

***4.5 Stars***
Well, if that wasn’t one hell of an emotional rollercoaster ride narrated by the one and only Shannon Gunn!

I went into this without even reading the blurb. All I knew was that Shannon Gunn was the narrator and that my friend, Michaelle, loved this book.

Talk about slow, slow, slow, slow burn. So slow you’re not quite sure there is anything smoldering. Yes, this took a long time to set up, but like any long con, the bigger and more solid the play, the bigger the pay out. That also means that sometimes you have to lose a little, or a lot.

In this book, after a huge emotional investment, the losses, small and big tore me apart. You may be wondering what the hell I’m talking about. Long cons, pay outs. WTF, Eugenia, what about the book?

OK, so this is a fantasy book. The world building here is phenomenal. This is a world in which the very wealthy have a lot of power. The wealthy in this case happen to be the Blood, and they live for a long time. They have fangs. The word vampire is never used, so I’m not going to either.

The Blood love beauty and in this world, such beauty is seen on the Adorned. These are beautiful individuals, fully tattooed by Masters, and displayed at feasts and parties. Each Master has a Blood patron and infuses the ink with minute bits of their special blood. This blood makes the tattoos come alive. Pretty damned cool, huh? Writhing snakes, crashing waves, etc.

This is a story of one boy who is chosen to be Adorned by a Master. The boy falls in love. Spoiler! So does the Master. Bad things happen. People get hurt. People die. It’s a fucking rollercoaster of feelings because, really, it feels like ANYONE could die. And characters do. They also get HURT.

So remember that slow burn you invested so much time blowing to life while listening to Shannon Gunn’s sexy voice? This is where it blows up in your face and you want to run and hide and protect yourself, but you don’t. Because you’re safe in the land of romance and know that something good has to come at the end of all the hell you just went through.

Thank god for romance land, ‘cause darling, Shannon Gunn talks you down from the cliff, and holds your hand as he talks to you all the way to HEA.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. <a tale of two cities>

In this story, with echoes of the most light and frivolous plus the most dark and cruel Dickensonian passages, we get the the happiest times of a poor boy who achieves fame and later of a love tested by revolution.

The book is difficult but proves in that, between true loves, no surface wounds can touch the heart.

What happend!!!

This story started out so great..but the end... OMG! Did he even get completed...I just don't know... I was so pissed.. It was like the story just rushed through to find an ending... From the way the story was right up until the end...Ur gonna be disappointed.

This would have been a buy for m/m romance fans...but the end...I just can't recommend it, unless you prepare yourself to be pissed off at the end. Yes you get your HEA...but dang... I am still mad here...

Hummmm

This is a m/m book. But if you are looking for some hot sex, find another book. This book has 62 chapters. Quite a few characters. That’s why I gave the narration a 3. He just didn’t have that many different voices in him. It’s all Lords and Ladies and servants so I felt like I really had to listen to understand the way they spoke. This is a rags to riches to rags story. If you have the time to waste it’s not to bad. Just LONG!!!

I tried but DNF

The narration was outstanding. It was the only good part of this book.

I could not get into the story. It was very slow moving and I could not connect to the characters. I nearly stopped at the point where Etan agreed to a night with the count. It just seemed thru the story, he made decisions contrary to advise of people who appeared to have his best interest in mind. Being an indentered servant, he had no choice in what happened, but whenever he did have the power of choice for his life, he was just "oh, ok". I have little patience for main characters with no back bone. I made it to chapter 26 and gave up.