Mini Audiobook Reviews: Beasts of the Frozen Sun & Beyond a Darkened Shore

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on May 21, 2021 | 0 Comments


Mini Audio Reviews: Beasts of the Frozen Sun & Beyond a Darkened ShoreBeyond a Darkened Shore by Jessica Leake
Published by HarperTeen (4.10.2018)
Genres: Young Adult, High Fantasy
Format: Audiobook, 435 pages
Length: 12 hours, 22 minutes
Narrator: Alana Kerr Collins
Source: I own it

3 Stars

The ancient land of Éirinn is mired in war. Ciara, Princess of Mide, has never known a time when Éirinn’s kingdoms were not battling for power, or Northmen were not plundering their shores.

The people of Mide have thankfully always been safe because of Ciara’s unearthly ability to control her enemies’ minds and actions. But lately, a mysterious crow has been appearing to Ciara, whispering warnings of an even darker threat. Although her clansmen dismiss her visions as pagan nonsense, Ciara fears this coming evil will destroy not just Éirinn, but the entire world.

Then the crow leads Ciara to Leif, a young Northman leader. Leif should be Ciara’s enemy, but when Ciara discovers that he, too, shares her prophetic visions, she knows he’s something more. Leif is mounting an impressive army, and with Ciara’s strength in battle the two might have a chance to save their world.

With evil rising around them, they’ll do what it takes to defend the land they love…even if it means making the greatest sacrifice of all.

Overall Assessment

Plot: 3/5
Premise: 4/5
Writing style: 3/5
Originality: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
World-building: 3/5
Pace: 3.5/5
Feels: 1/5
Narration: 4.5/5
Cover: 4/5
Overall rating: 3/5

Mini Audio Reviews: Beasts of the Frozen Sun & Beyond a Darkened ShoreBeasts of the Frozen Sun by Jill Criswell
Series: Frozen Sun Saga #1
Published by Blackstone (8.6.2019)
Genres: Young Adult, High Fantasy
Format: Audiobook, 368 pages
Length: 12 hours, 5 minutes
Narrator: Alana Kerr Collins, Tim Campbell
Source: I own it

2.5 Stars

Burn brightly. Love fiercely. For all else is dust.

Every child of Glasnith learns the last words of Aillira, the god-gifted mortal whose doomed love affair sparked a war of gods and men, and Lira of clan Stone knows the story better than most. As a descendant of Aillira and god-gifted in her own right, she has the power to read people’s souls, to see someone’s true essence with only a touch of her hand.

When a golden-haired warrior washes up on the shores of her homeland–one of the fearful marauders from the land of the Frozen Sun–Lira helps the wounded man instead of turning him in. After reading his soul, she realizes Reyker is different than his brethren who attack the coasts of Glasnith. He confides in her that he’s been cursed with what his people call battle-madness, forced to fight for the warlord known as the Dragon, a powerful tyrant determined to reignite the ancient war that Aillira started.

As Lira and Reyker form a bond forbidden by both their clans, the wrath of the Dragon falls upon them and all of Glasnith, and Lira finds herself facing the same tragic fate as her ancestor. The battle for Lira’s life, for Reyker’s soul, and for their peoples’ freedom has only just begun.

Overall Assessment

Plot: 3/5
Premise: 4/5
Writing style: 3/5
Originality: 2/5
Characters: 2.5/5
World-building: 3/5
Pace: 3.5/5
Feels: 1/5
Narration: 4.5/5
Cover: 3/5
Overall rating: 2.5/5

My thoughts

I’m reviewing these books together in a single review because they were basically the SAME. EXACT. STORY. Honestly, I had trouble telling them apart. I read BaDS back in December, so some parts may be fuzzy, but even after just finishing BotFS I legit can barely tell the difference between them. I think the publisher’s choice in using the same narrator (Alana Kerr Collins) was a VERY poor choice. With a different narrator maybe it wouldn’t have been so glaringly obvious that they were basically the same story.

They’re so similar that it’s hard to review them separately, especially since they made basically the same exact impression on me: meh. I did enjoy listening to them (Collins IS a fantastic narrator!) but the story itself won’t leave any lasting impression. There were parts I enjoyed, but overall it just didn’t feel like anything special.

Both books are based on Celtic mythology with a loose Irish setting. In both books, the main character has mental powers and is shunned for said powers by her village. In both books the MC falls for the enemy, and ends up getting exiled/imprisoned for it. Even their names sounded way too similar – Ciara (pronounced “Kira” in the narration) and Lira (pronounced the same way as Kira). It was so confusing!! I felt like I was listening to the same story a second time. View Spoiler »

The ONLY thing that made BotFS stand apart was the addition of a male narrator. And he was meh, sorry. I wasn’t really a fan of his narration and felt like it didn’t fit. He would have been fine as an Adult fantasy narrator, but it really didn’t work for a teenager.

I think I did enjoy Beyond a Darkened Shore slightly better than Beasts of the Frozen Sun, though. There was a little more depth in the romance and the mythology. I enjoyed the hate-to-love relationship between Ciara and Leif, but I felt like the same hate-to-love romance moved too quickly with Lira and Reyker.

Jessi (Geo)

Posted in: Book Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Subscribe to Novel Heartbeat to get more posts like this!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.