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, knitting and playing solitaire agreeable companions to listening to audiobooks, I 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 Audiobookworm Promotions, 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. Meanwhile, I am also curating my own wanderings in audio via my local library who uses Overdrive for their digital audiobook catalogue wherein I can also request new digital audiobooks to become added to their OverDrive selections. Aside from OverDrive I also enjoy having Audible & Scribd memberships as my budget allows. It is a wonderful new journey and one I enjoy sharing – I have been able to expand the percentage of how many audios I listen to per year since 2018.
I received a complimentary audiobook copy of “Disenchanted” via Audiobookworm Promotions who is working with the author on this blog tour in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
Quite happily #WyrdAndWonder has become a wicked #awesomesauce event, four years running this 2021 – Imyril, Lisa and I are wicked humbled by how everyone has started to catch our passionate joy for hosting fantastical content during a month where Fantasy can be a celebrated joy amongst us all. Finding out a 100+ adventurers were joining us this May was beyond humbling when you consider the roots of how we began this wicked wonderful Wyrd And Wonder journey – which happily launched its own community.
As previously stated, when it comes to Dark Fantasy – I have a slight aversion to most stories which fall into this category and am extremely particular and picky when it comes to sorting my way through this niche of offerings because I’m definitely what you’d consider a sensitive reader who has a few things which trigger her bookish turnoffs and take her out of a narrative. Having said that – similar to how I finally found a Dystopian writer who is penning a series I find wicked brilliant and intriguing – I am starting to find certain Dark Fantasy novelists (ie. Marcus Lee) who are intriguing me into a area of Fantasy I am dearly under-read but still a bit curious to seek out.
Previously I was caught inside the works of Stephanie Burgis, Jamie Robin Wood, Rebecca J. Greenwood and Sarah E. Boucher. As you can see, I am seeking out certain aspects of darker fantastical worlds but which evoke a sense of what I love about my regular Fantasy wanderings – where it isn’t too dark where there isn’t any light and where its not graphically violent – though in that note, Burgis pushed me a bit in ‘Congress of Secrets’.
Last May, I hosted an interview with this author via Storytellers on Tour – a blog touring company whose championing Indie Storytellers and giving us all a lovely chance to feature their collective works. This was why I was entering into this audiobook with a lot of healthy expectations – but as you will soon read, the audiobook itself wasn’t a good fit for me as a listener. I am not giving up on this story (just yet) but next time I’ll definitely be seeking this out in a printed edition before I finalise my thoughts on its behalf.
Disenchanted
Subtitle: A cursed princess A crestfallen killer And a witch who can save them both
by Ms Brianna Sugalski
Source: Audiobook via Audiobookworm Promotions
Narrator: Krys Janae
A Breton princess at the peak of the French Renaissance, Lilac lives prisoner in her parents' castle after a wicked secret is revealed on the eve of her tenth birthday soirée. Years later, her coronation ceremony looms, and between the riotous townsfolk and scheming nobleman bent on snatching the throne, Lilac prepares for the worst... Until a mysterious letter arrives from The Witch of Lupine Grotto, detailing a curious offer to cure her darkness forever.
Lilac begrudgingly trades her coronet for a cloak and ventures into the forest Brocéliande in pursuit of the impious enchantress at the edge of town. With only the protection of an inherited dagger— and unsolicited help of the sardonic stranger who inserts himself on her quest—she must traverse Brocèliande and return in time to claim her rightful position as sovereign monarch.
This is the story of a cursed princess, A crestfallen killer,
The town that wants them to burn,
And the witch that can save them both.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 979-8621445461
ASIN: B092FZFBVV
Published by The Parliament House
on 15th April, 2020
Format: Audiobook | Digital
Length: 15 hours and 18 minutes (unabridged)
Pages: 456
Published by: The Parliament House (@parliamentbooks)
Converse via: #Fantasy, #DarkFantasy, #YAFantasy
as well as #AudiobookwormPromotions OR #TheAudiobookEmpire
+ #Disenchanted #BriannaSugalski & #WyrdAndWonder
About Ms Brianna Sugalski
Born and raised in Hawaii, Brianna Sugalski is a Dark Fantasy author who prefers to explore the more ominous — disenchanting, if you will — undertones of romance, history, and the arcane.
Her debut novel, YA Fantasy DISENCHANTED, released with The Parliament Press on March 4th, 2020; the sequel, DISILLUSIONED, is in progress as of January 2021.
Sugalski is also a SF/F developmental editor under Crit & Pen Editorial. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband and two little korrigans of her own.
In regards to the audiobook directly:
I’ve been having a bit of a hard-won #WyrdAndWonder this May,… I’ve stumbled into more DNFs than most years combined and I’ve left other stories so disillusioned by how the plots had turnt in a different direction than I had expected – I’ve felt as if I’m treading water this Wyrd And Wonder seeking out the fantastical and falling a bit short on my own expectations. I hosted this lovely author last year, during our Year 3 Wyrd And Wonder – wherein we shared a convo all about this novel & the world its set inside.
It was through that conversation, I was looking forward to listening to this audiobook this month. However, somewhere between the conversation and the narrator’s interpretation of the story – I’ve realised I either need to seek out this story in print or take a pass on reading it myself. I’ve mentioned this previously – sometimes, I find print stories are better served in audio formats and other times, the opposite is true – stories in print sometimes find better traction with me as audioreads. In this particular instance, I couldn’t connect to the narrator’s style of narration nor with the characters as they were first becoming introduced to us. The narrator didn’t alter her voice too much between characters and I was starting to mistake a few of them with each other, which is a bit harder to discern who is whom whilst listening to the story.
What took me out of the threads of the story itself is I was missing the leading in point at the beginning of the novel. The bits where I would have loved to have had a bit of back-story into why we’re being inserted ‘here’ in the plot – where there is a murderous conspiracy arising out of one woman’s greed and one bloke’s inability to speak his mind against her wishes coming to heads to formulate a plan to affect a princess’s fate. I can honestly say I lacked having an emotional connection to these characters – I wasn’t even sure who the princess was or why she was in jeopardy as the details were a bit sparse and broad stroked. I prefer them to be more detailed and expansive – especially in a plot like this one where I want to feel a reason to have empathy for all the players involved.
Without having that connection in the beginning threads of this audiobook, I honestly couldn’t connect with it further which is why this became a DNF for me as a listener. Narrators make/break audiobooks for me inasmuch as the plot itself or the pacing of how a story is revealled. The plot in this story moved too slow for me and I wish I could have had traction in this world but when I can’t make that direct connection as a reader or as a listener, I simply feel disconnected and that’s not the best place to start with a story. For listeners who like darker plots in their Fantasy reads and especially want to dive into a plot of conspiracy against an unsuspecting princess – this could be a wicked good listen for you.
This Audio blog tour is courtesy of:
Follow the Virtual Road Map
as you visit others participating:
Reading this story contributed to my #WyrdAndWonder Year 4:
CLICK THE BANNER TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR YEAR 4 EVENT | READ JORIE’S YEAR 4 INTRO
Enjoying my fantastical reviews about the worlds of Fantasy?
Ever since the beginning of Jorie Loves A Story, I have embarked on a Quest to seek out stories within the worlds of Fantasy which would heighten my awareness of the genre and give me wicked good reads – across the subniches of a genre I’ve loved since I was seventeen. Every May, I happily co-host @WyrdAndWonder – whilst throughout the months of the year, I regularly read & discuss the Fantasy reads I am discovering.
Visit my full archive for ALL my #EnterTheFantastic wanderings! As well as take a walkabout through my archives for #WyrdAndWonder – or take a walkabout through my archive for everything deemed wickedly fantastical!
{SOURCES: Book cover for “Disenchanted”, book synopsis, author biography, author photograph of Brianna Sugalski as well as the audio tour banner and tour host badge were all provided by Audiobookworm Promotions and are used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Wyrd And Wonder banner and badge 2021 (Pegasus) provided by Imyril and is used with permission. Wyrd And Wonder banner 2021 (Pegasus) Image Credit: by Svetlana Alyuk on 123RF.com. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: #WyrdAndWonder Year 4 banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2021.
I’m a social reader, I tweet my bookish life
A #WyrdAndWonder Audiobook Spotlight | “Disenchanted” (Book One, Disenchanted series) by Brianna Sugalski https://t.co/BYlyC83RTk
— Jorie | #WyrdAndWonder?♀️? (@joriestory) May 21, 2021
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- #WyrdAndWonder
Leave a Reply