Timeborne

Blade of Shadows, Book 1

De: Sara Samuels

Narrado por: Sarah Sampino, Liam Price

She was born in darkness, under the shadow of a full moon during a solar eclipse with a mysterious black dagger at her side. As a child, Olivia James witnessed her mother’s gruesome murder. As an adult, her godfather has trained her to be a skilled fighter. But when Olivia’s boyfriend betrays her and threatens her life, setting off a string of events that catapults her back in time from 21st-century Seattle into third-century Rome, the secrets of her past begin to unravel.

The discovery that she is a Timeborne, one with the ability to travel across time, is just the beginning. Soon, Olivia finds herself under the protection of—and owned by—Roman Alexander, a former gladiator and bodyguard to the emperor. Torn between his duty to his emperor, a desire for vengeance, and a longing to search for his lost twin brother, Roman now has the added complication of protecting this strange woman from the depravity of ancient Rome. Worse, he finds himself falling for her, despite accusations that she is an enemy spy. But even Roman is no match for the dark shadow that has pursued Olivia into the past.

A fighter in her own right, she’s forced to work with Roman to find a way back to her own time. Do the ancient scriptures on her dagger hold the key? Can she trust Roman with her secrets? And can she fight her enemies and protect her heart at the same time?

Timeborne is the first book in the Blade of Shadows series.

©2023 Sara Samuels (P)2023 Sara Samuels

When the female voice actor takes away from the narrative

I really wanted to like this book! I like the idea of time travel and of the roman empire and enemies to lovers.

However, the voice actor for this book consistently sounded like she had something in her mouth while she was speaking. It was obnoxiously distracting.

When the main character does go back in time it isn't explained how much time she has spent there....or if she had IUD. So when she and the male lead share a secret and are magically in love it's really hard to buy into, especially since he wanted to help her and wasn't exactly an enemy.

The main character also commented that she hadn't cut her hair since her mother died which meant she has fourteen years of hair and that also was a little hard to buy.

Lastly, I am going to need a better description of what a stola is. There wasn't enough world building to recreate the time the main character was in. And if this is a garment, hoopskirt, head band or scarf from that time period, a little more information may have been helpful, as this was a resource that got the main out of a lot of situations.

I think I may have been too critical - but feel like some of this should have been in the book.

Lastly, I think "round house kick", "goose skin", and the word "filthy" as a stand alone description are the authors " Obscene gesture" :)

if you aren't overly critical or analytical, it was a fun book.

When the narrators detract from the story

Pick up a copy of this and read it to yourself. The male narrator does not have range and has poor attempt at accents. It’s like someone asked them to read it for the first time and deadpan the whole way. The female narrator sounds overly anxious the whole time.

Maybe reading the book would be better than listening?

Bad narrators, the male especially sounded like a robot. The dialogue was hard to listen to and I seriously questioned whether it was AI for the male roles for most of it.

enjoyed

this one was definitely not what I was expecting., but I must say it totally sucked me in. Looking forward to more of this series.

Poorly written

I can’t believe someone recommended this book. Poorly written; I gave it a shot but couldn’t Finnish it. Don’t waste your time.

Male Narrator Ruined It

I wanted to like this since I LOVE time travel but the male narrator was so stiff and flat it ruined the audio for me. The story itself was not very well written and the characters were all of a sudden in love— not a good amount of build up at all.

The way all audio books should be performed

I want to review this book in a few different ways. I love love love the dual pov when it is performed by different actors. I am not a fan of actors who have to perform voices of the opposite sex. it always sounds goofy to me. The female voice actor is outstanding. She is such a great performer and she made me cry a few times. I think the male voice actor struggled in the beginnjng. I felt more like he was reading from a text book instead of performing. however it did get better as the book went. As for the story, I thought it was such a great story. Its a unique world and it has been alot of fun so far. I am looking forward to listening to the next one.

Save a credit! Please!!!

Don't make the same mistake as I did. This is NOT the next Outlander! It's maybe kind of like Outlander in that they both have time travel. That's it. Maybe if Outlander had terrible, cheesy dialogue and was based solely on clichés?! Nope. Not even then. Save a credit if you're an avid reader and have higher than average standards for your reading material!

Poor excuse to make a smut book

almost no progression in story, constantly delayed by sex scenes. great premise, poor execution

Poorly written

The combination of poor writing and poor narration made this very hard to get through