Excellent

Great storyline. A little drawn out in places but overall it worked. Strong characters when it counted.Fun. Worth the Time!

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The magic and mysteries of Ravenglass

This dystopian fantasy had a VERY, VERY slow start for me. It starts with the oldest princess and future empress, Kat, getting her first menstrual flow (I believe she is 16), which in this world makes her a woman and therefore an adult. This occurrence signals many immediate changes, including betrothal to a man many times her senior to prevent war. I wanted to like Kat, as she is suddenly faced with so much change, including much knowledge that was not shared with her before as she was considered a ‘child,’ and discovers that many things she ‘knew’ to be false or inaccurate. Unfortunately, Kat is pretty unlikable from the start. She is whiny, self-centered, and selfish. She has no care for her family, people or her kingdom. She has no care for Hansel, a boy she claims to love, and thoughtlessly and selfishly endangers him, by continuing to pursue him, even after her mother (the Empress) threatens to have him killed and his body put on display. So, we have a whining heroine, a vicious younger sister, and a harsh mother. Everyone else seems to be pretty vague and under-developed. There is also a mysterious wyvern spymaster, whose purpose and loyalty remain shrouded in questions throughout the entire story. So, basically, five hours into the audiobook, I was still looking for someone to care about and cheer for.

The story did eventually start to pick up beginning in Section III (the Empress), although it still plodded along at a snail’s pace much of the time. The story is largely a coming-of-age for Kat as she comes to learn about herself, magic, her family and kingdom, and the world around her. There is plenty of intrigue. political machinations, action, and numerous side characters. I can’t say much about the action or plot without risking spoilers, but I will say that there is mystery, betrayal, treachery, questions of allegiance, enemies, allies, amnesia, slavery, death, and more. The story chronicles Kat’s journey to recover her memories and eventually find her way back home. There is torture, death, dreams, darkness, and confusion (for Kat and the listener.) In the end Kat does arrive back home, but to me she didn’t seem to have grown much as a person. She left a spoiled, willful child and returned a spoiled, willful adult. She still didn’t seem to adequately consider her actions or consider the ramifications. In the end I think there will likely still be a war or rebellion. I guess I find myself asking (after 41 hours), ‘What was the point?’ The only character I really ended up liking and admiring was the wyvern, Kreig (sp?)

The narration was good with the different characters given distinctive voices that were easily discernable.

I received a free copy of the audiobook and am voluntarily leaving this honest review.

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Ravenglass

Fantastic story, was a bit slow to start with but soon picked up and ended amazing. The way multiple plots lines converged in to one

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Really enjoyed this

Well narrated and cleverly told the story using the tarot.
A little slow to start but characters were strong

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A Very Slow Burner

This book is a tedious listen/read. Even the most interesting chapters (in the last 7-6 hours) lacked lustre and energy. More could have been done to build the other characters, more said around the machinations of the key political players. The story has an elaborate twist in the end that’ll leave you frustrated with more questions than answers.

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Slow, anticlimactic, lazy

The story had an extremely slow start but even when the story picked up it didn’t pick up much and it kept crawling along. Every time I thought there’s finally a plot twist that will move the plot along it fizzled out and moved along at the same excruciating slow pace.
A lot of the plot twist seemed to be ways to give the Kat, the main character and easy way out and opportunities to go further or dig deeper were ignored.
It just overall seemed a bit lazy when it came to the character development and plot.
Although I liked the narration I would not recommend this.

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