Monstrous Lies

Forgotten City, Book 1

De: K.A. Knight

Narrado por: Kasi Hollowell, Tor Thom

Thirty years ago the world as we know it was lost.

Now humans live like rats, desperate for food and safety. The wall towers before us as a mocking reminder of what happened. The wall that keeps the monsters locked away from us. The wall that keeps us safe. The wall that every day I sneak through.

I thought I was safe in the light beyond its scarred concrete. I thought I knew the way of the world. Then, night falls and I’m trapped beyond the wall. Monsters come out to play in an explosion of shadows, claws, and tails. Their black eyes track me like prey until he comes—their leader...and he claims I'm his.

I play along. I bide my time, but as past and present collide I find my carefully laid survival plan unraveling. The secrets the monsters keep make me realize that the wall might not be to contain the monsters inside, but to keep the truth from getting out.

But in that forgotten city I find my purpose, my future. All the monstrous lies we were told come unraveled, and when they do sides must be chosen. Loyalties will be tested and the darkness might claim us all.

Monstrous Lies is the first book in the Forgotten City series, which is best enjoyed in order.

©2022 K.A. Knight (P)2023 Podium Audio

Immersive and incredible!

This book was amazing, which is unsurprising because K.A. knight is just that, amazing. The world building in here was absolutely next level! I listened to this on audible and was immediately sucked in. I felt like I was going through the entire experience with the characters. I do love me a good underdog and the monsters in here are *muah* chefs kiss! I mean he has a tail….enough said! All in all this was such an immersive read and you just don’t get better than that. I wasn’t ready to come back and I look forward to diving back in with the other books in this series!

Yes for Spicy, but too preachy for me

Hot monster sex, yes. Going on and on about how humans are wrecking the world, no thank you. I had to stop listening with about 3 hours remaining which is highly unusual for me. Usually I just grind on through, but I couldn't take it anymore.

great start to a new series

I really liked this book. great start to a new series. very different storyline. the narrators are wonderful!

An exciting listen, in more then 1 way!

I really enjoyed this book and the others in this series. The books build on eachother so well without there being a lot of repeated info. There is plently of spice and a good story to go with it!

Rather primitive

One of those heroines who do smth very stupid with panache, energy and total lack of “let’s think about it “ and then heroically overcome the results. One of those subservient and brainlessly in love monsters who just keep repeating he would die for her so often, that it gets more and more irritating with every page. Too much of repetitive sex scenes that quickly become boring and actually vulgar by the end of the book. Meh.

Mehh

I didn't care for the male narrator. He's robotic and breathy. Not a good combination. He almost ruined it for me, but I pushed through because I thoroughly enjoyed the female narrator. The story is okay. It followes the same monster-mate storyline that's currently saturating the market. I won't be continuing the series.

Man made monsters!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙💚💜❤️
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌍🌎
Character development: 😟🙁☺️😍
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Aria - sixteen years ago, she was all alone in the world, tired and hungry, she was chased by a man who grabbed her when she was resting on the streets. She is not supposed to go on the other side of the wall, though she sees a hole in the wall to the abandoned city that she can fit through that he can’t. She sees orange eyes before passing out.

The Story: Sixteen years later, Aria’s job is a dangerous one. Thirty years ago, a war raged through the streets between the monsters and the humans. Until the humans figured out that they couldn’t win, so they abandoned the city and constructed a wall to keep the monsters within the city limits and keep the humans on the other side, hoping the monsters would starve. Every now and then they send people to check on the monsters, though once they go over the wall they are never seen again.

Though Aria regularly goes through to the other side of the wall. She gets orders for certain things and goes into the city during the daylight hours and gets those items and charges a premium for them. This stops her from ending up in a pleasure house like many girls her age. At night, they can hear the noises that come from the other side of the wall. Grunts, snorts and growls abound at night. It is when the monsters come out.

The Hero: Akuji - when Aria agrees to show a rich girl named Talia through the city, Akuji tracks them as they go through the city. He has seen Aria come into the city before and is obsessed with her bravery. He is the leader of the horde, and he protects her from afar. When Daria and her charge get caught in the city after dark, they are chased by animals and monsters. They separate and Daria ends up hurt in the middle of the city after dark. Akuji rescues her and claims her as his.

You can tell from the beginning that the place Talia wants to go in the city and retrieve research information is going to at the center of how the monsters came to be. As soon as they arrive at that building Akuji mentions that is where he and his horde were created and kept until they escaped and rebelled.

I have to say, I like Akuji. He was a bit of a stalker at first, but I liked that he watched Aria and was impressed by her. He didn’t realize how attracted he was to her, since she wasn’t one of his people, but he liked how courageous and adventurous she was. Though it wasn’t long after he saves her that he starts really feeling things for her. The romance between them was great and like with all K.A. Knight books, the intimate scenes got plenty steamy.

The world building was pretty good as the city with the monsters has three groups of them, one is the warriors, one is the thinkers and the third is the group of more feral monsters who have given in to their inner beasts more than the other two groups. However, when the people outside the walls threaten them, the three groups come together.

I also like the fact that there ends up being three women inside the walls, one ends up with each of the three groups. Talia ends up with the leader of the thinkers and a third woman came through the wall saying she was going to be killed by her people because of what she knew about the monsters. She ends up with the mad king because the feral group was guarding the walls at the time.

This audiobook was told in dual points of view via dual narration. It was narrated by Tor Thom and Kasi Hollowell. Tor Thom is one of my favorite male narrators, his voice is super deep, and he sounds like a huge guy. His voice is perfect for a monster or an alien male. Kasi Hollowell sounds youthful, and she has a clear voice which is very pleasant.

love it!

Such a great monster book! intriguing plot and overarching storyline and great relationships. This monster says all the right things and the FMC is a strong survivor. Can't wait for book 2!

Potential but distracted

This story from what I read was well written and had a good story line, but with all the f-bombs it was so distracting and monotonous that I stopped reading. I was surprised that such a good writer could not find another descriptive word.

meh

Great idea but poorly executed. The story and world building is amazing and the author has so much potential but the spice is just not it and the characters feel half devolved. I think for now this one will be DNFed for me. I just cannot finish it. 😩 Kinda mad I spent over $20 on this. I'm sorry.