Acquired Audiobook By: I started to listen to audiobooks in [2016] as a way to offset my readings of print books whilst noting there was a rumour about how audiobooks could help curb chronic migraines as you are switching up how your reading rather than allowing only one format to be your bookish choice. As I found colouring and knitting agreeable companions to listening to audiobooks, I have embarked on a new chapter of my reading life where I spend time outside of print editions of the stories I love reading and exchange them for audio versions. Through hosting for the Audiobookworm I’ve expanded my knowledge of authors who are producing audio versions of their stories whilst finding podcasters who are sharing their bookish lives through pods (ie. AudioShelf and Talking Audiobooks). Meanwhile, I am also curating my own wanderings in audio via my local library who uses Overdrive for their digital audiobook catalogue whilst making purchase requests for audio CDs. It is a wonderful new journey and one I enjoy sharing – I am hoping to expand the percentage of how many audios I listen to per year starting in 2018.
I received a complimentary audiobook copy of “Realm of Knights” via Audiobookworm Promotion who is working with Jennifer Anne Davis on this blog tour in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
What inspired me to listen to this audiobook:
Ever since I first started to co-host @WyrdAndWonder with Lisa and Imyril – I’ve been purposefully keeping my eyes peeled for new & emerging story-tellers within the realms of Fantasy I personally enjoy reading and/or listening to via audiobook. When I heard about this particular blog tour – what I liked most about the sound of the story is that it was rooted in a coming-of age narrative arc wherein the girl (Reid) was emerging into her own independence as much as rising into her rightful place in her kingdom.
This was surrounded by a story where a girl was not at full liberty to identify herself as a girl – as she was conditioned and trained as a boy – which also had a slight appeal on its own because whenever a girl has to hide their truer nature and their honest selves, that leads-in a plotting about living authentically and shining through newfound confidence to lead a life on your own terms.
The timing originally felt good for me – however, the events of October & November proved to be a bit too much to resolve and this is one reason why I am spotlighting this story rather than reviewing it in full as I’ll disclose in a moment. The key reason I was dearly interested in hearing the story however had to do with the *narrator!* The more audiobooks you gather to listen, the more chances you’re going to develop a short and longlist of favourites – such as I have myself – and Ms Bretton is on my shortlist!
I *love!* her in the Wonky Inn series – having had the pleasure of joy of reviewing the first novel and will be reviewing the second come December when I re-focus on my #WitchyReads leftover from our Autumnal quirky mini-event for Wyrd and Wonder which is #SpooktasticReads!
Ergo, I knew if anyone could settle me into this world of knights & a girl emerging into rightly asserting herself in her own kingdom – Ms Bretton would be the right narrator to help me take that journey!
Realm of Knights (Audiobook Spotlight)
Subtitle: Knights of the Realm, Book One
by Jennifer Anne Davis
Source: Audiobook via Audiobookworm Promotions
Narrator: Kim Bretton
Reid has spent her whole life pretending to be a man so she can inherit her father’s estate, but when a chance encounter threatens to expose her lie, she is forced to risk everything.
In the kingdom of Marsden, women are subservient to men, and land can only pass from father to son. So, when Reid Ellington is born, the fifth daughter to one of the wealthiest landholders in the kingdom, it’s announced that Reid is a boy.
Eighteen years later, Reid struggles to conceal the fact she’s actually a young woman. Every day, her secret becomes harder to keep. When one of Marsden’s princes sees her sparring with a sword, she is forced to accept his offer and lead her father’s soldiers to the border. Along the way, she discovers a covert organization within the army known as the Knights of the Realm.
If Reid wants to save her family from being arrested for treason and robbed of their inheritance, she will have to join the knights and become a weapon for the crown.
To protect her family, Reid must fight like a man. To do that, she’ll need the courage of a woman.
This is the first book in a new fantasy series from best-selling author Jennifer Anne Davis
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 978-1-73236-615-2
ASIN: B07YWM5TF2
Published by Reign Publishing
on 11th October, 2019
Format: Audiobook | Digital
Length: 7 hours and 58 minutes (unabridged)
Published by: Reign Publishing
Formats Available: Trade Paperback, Audiobook and Ebook
Converse via: #RealmOfKnights + #AudioReads, #Audiobook
#YAFantasy, #YALit and #YoungAdult or #Fantasy
About Jennifer Anne Davis
Jennifer Anne Davis graduated from the University of San Diego with a degree in English and a teaching credential. She is currently a full-time writer and mother of three kids, one weimaraner, and a tortoise. She is happily married to her high school sweetheart and lives in the San Diego area.
Jennifer is the recipient of the San Diego Book Awards Best Published Young Adult Novel (2013), winner of the Kindle Book Awards (2018), a finalist in the USA Best Book Awards (2014), and a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards (2014).
Publishers Marketplace listed Jennifer as one of the best-selling indie authors in June 2017. She has also been ranked among the top 100 best-selling authors on Amazon.
on why I am spotlighting knights of the realm:
I was dearly awaiting the day where I could begin my journey into the Realm of Knights story-line as this is one particular year where Fantasy Reads are my jam as a reader! As a co-host for an annual Fantasy event now two years running, I’ve purposefully been trying to endeavour to grow my reach within the world of Fantasy – not just from major trade but the Indie world of authors I dearly love exploring and supporting whilst also moving between mainstream and INSPY markets of exploration as well. I read such an equal amount of Fantasy from both Adult and YA (or MG) markets – this one just felt delightfully joyful for how the author was going to approach telling Reid’s story.
Then, of course, I was quite ill in October and this November has been anything but typical – I’ve also had 3x migraines, a major tech nightmare for my blog to overhaul and an issue with the images on Jorie Loves A Story which a plugin blessedly bailed me out from having to stress about too long during the holiday season. Mind you, I felt my stresses were easing until last Sunday when my Dad ended up nearly eight hours in the ER whilst Mum and I watched his BP levels spike past 200+ and placing him in threat of a serious stroke three years to the week of his anniversary for surviving his first one in 2016! This is what truly upturnt the clock against me and why this audiobook is still within the opening bridge of being listened too.
Try as I might – as I even queued together a #ThanksgivingReadathon TBR and knew I would be listening to Realm of Knights in the hours betwixt and between trying to sort through what was going on with my father. The truer truth is my motivation to read decreased this week and my inspiration to read just didn’t exist. I think it was the bottled anxiety and restlessness of waiting so dearly long for some measure of hope in seeing my father’s immediate health turn round to where laying hat and mind on a novel was just not working for me as a reader or a book blogger. Even though, dear hearts, did I try! I’ve been trying to listen to this story off/on and the first time its truly starting ‘connect’ with me, I’m meant to be sharing my review this morning! Oyy.
When it comes to life intervening on your reading hours – some days and weeks, like mine recently not only try your patience but they are moments where you have to recognise the timing was all wrong. You might try to re-queue yourself into a place to enjoy a story but for whichever reason, some stories have to wait til your heart and mind can relax off a medical crisis and resume the joys of reading for the purity of why we devour the stories we do.
Here is a glimpse into why I am going to be continuing to listen to Realm of Knights
and why I am thankful it is finally resonating with me an audiobook listener:
→ Ms Bretton pulls you directly into Reid’s life – she gives you a reason to want to hear the girl’s story by giving you a firm gravity of depth into who Reid is and why Reid has something to say about disguising herself as a boy when she’d really love to be living her life as the girl she has been hiding all these years. There is even a one of resignation in her voice – of how she’s fated to this life but she’s not fully in acceptance of the path her father carved out for her – especially when she contemplates the purpose behind it and the over-reaching effects this might have once the truth is found out.
→ Ms Davis has written a cheeky comfortable YA Fantasy – you get the angst you’d expect from a coming-of-age story-line but also with a bit of cheek, humour and that tension you find whenever a girl is attempting to asset herself in a male dominated world. I might be early-on yet within this story but what was interesting is how Reid is chuffed about her accomplishments, doesn’t try to let others influence her and still remain true to herself even if the version of herself she is presenting is a stark difference to her authentic self.
→ I loved how Reid was still able to find ways to be ‘Reid’ without the armour and the fighting – to find little niches of where she could shed some of that disguise and own her own truth for a small bit of space and time. I would imagine as the story develops and more is revealled of her path – this is either going to continue and/or there will be sacrifices she will have to make in order to pursue what her purpose and path is within this world.
→ Directly on the narration styling of Kim Bretton – what grounds me into her words and her voice is her presentation of the voice she lends to the characters! I love her instincts for how she intones their personalities and how her crisp dictation of the dialogue and the narrative bits wherein you start to peer into a world behind the ‘voices’ themselves starts to fully grab your imagination – those are the moments where the narrator starts to step through the story and the reader starts to step into the character’s shoes – where the circle of the experience begins to complete itself and enfold on your mind. She just has this lovely way of enticing you forward into the stories she’s narrating and I suspect I’ll have many more delightful moments ahead of me to savour within Realm of Knights!
About Kim Bretton
An accomplished and award winning actress with West End and Broadway theatre credits Kim has been doing voice over work for 15 years. She has voiced cartoon characters for the BBC and been a regular vocal impersonator on a popular London radio show.
Kim has narrated and produced 15 audiobooks since she joined ACX this year! Her voice over clients include Carnival Cruises, Gucci, Sennheiser, American Express, HRH UK Prisons systems, Doubletree Hotels, Victorian Trading Company and so many more. Quick, reliable and always professional.Kim has a reassuring, kind and expressive style.
This blog tour is courtesy of Audiobookworm Promotions:
Whilst participating on:
Be sure to follow the blog tour route to see what else awaits you!
{SOURCES: Book Cover for “Realm of Knights”, the biography of Jennifer Anne Davis and the narrator, Kim Bretton as well as the blog tour banner, the audiobook promo banner and the host badge were provided by Audiobookworm Promotions and are used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded by codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Audiobook Spotlight banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2019.
I’m a social reader | I tweet my reading life
.@AnAudiobookworm When it comes to my shortlist of narrators @nashvegaskim is one of ones I love listening to for Fantasy & Witchy stories – Find out why #RealmOfKnights via #audiobook is one of my #nextreads as an audiobook listener🎧📖 #WyrdAndWonder https://t.co/a4L7VvdZCv
— Jorie Story 📖🎧 (@joriestory) November 30, 2019
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