A Broken Blade

The Halfling Saga

By: Melissa Blair

Narrated by: Kyla Garcia

Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

My body is made of scars,

some were done to me,

but most I did to myself.

Keera is a killer. As the King’s Blade, she is the most talented spy in the kingdom. And the king’s favored assassin. When a mysterious figure moves against the Crown, Keera is called upon to hunt down the so-called Shadow.

She tracks her target into the magical lands of the Fae, but Faeland is not what it seems—and neither is the Shadow. Keera is shocked by what she learns and can’t help but wonder who her enemy truly is: the King that destroyed her people or the Shadow that threatens the peace.

As she searches for answers, Keera is haunted by a promise she made long ago, one that will test her in every way. To keep her word, Keera must not only save herself but an entire kingdom.

©2022 Melissa Blair (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

A bit predictable

A little unimaginative, especially with the names. Legit every females name ends with a. The whole story was easy to predict...

Interesting story, but...

So, the story itself held my attention, but the narrator lacked the depth of inflections and failed to help me connect with the character. Also, the relationship building/romance between Kira & Riven didn't make sense. It could've been a better slow burn, but it was a dive into frigid water on a sweltering day. By the end, I was skipping past unrelated plot scenes between the two.
The end of book one was also irritating. Other than Kira, none of the characters made sense with their reveal. All the rebels treated her with animosity, even the ones who were initially kind. Ones who she saved their lives and proved they could trust her. That's no way to gain a potential ally.

I had undermined this book

Added it to my library as part of audible catalog just to test it. Amazing story and great narration. well done.

Not for me

DNFd halfway through. Couldn’t take another mention of violet eyes, scars or ‘you promised’. Gag me.

Very good!

Not much smut until the end buttt well written! Can’t wait for book number 2!

More narrators

Kyla was wonderful. Because I had to imagine her as every character it took me a minute, but this was excellent. I think for any new readers if Kyla had assistance, as in, a male covering the male voices , then it would be even better.

sweet

I really love the growth of the characters and the way kera overcomes being an alcoholic over the time l

A bit slow starting, but really good finish

This was apparently the week for fantasy YA reads. This was also the second "new to me" author and while it did take a while for this book to take off for me, when it did, I was eager and excited to move on to the next book.

In this book, we get to meet Keera. Keera is the King's Blade - which means she is the head of the female fighting group of the kingdom called the Shades. She is also the King's assassin. The shades are made up of Halfling's and it is important to know that Halfling's are outlawed by the King. He kills any Halflings that he finds and if there are female children left from a family that is killed, he has the Shades take the child(ren) to the "Order." The Order is a compound on an island that serves as the living and training facilities for the Shades. These women are trained for years, sometimes a decade or more, to then go through their trials. If they pass their trials, then they officially become part of the Shades. The King uses the Shades for all types of things from enforcement, to investigations, to typical police type work.

So back to Keera. She is drowning in self guilt when we meet her. She has spent 50 years as the Blade and has had to kill so many of what she calls "innocents". People whom the King has ordered killed, for no other reason than he is a tyrant. Some may have irritated him, made him feel slighted, etc. She has a mage pen that she uses to carve the name of all those she has killed on her skin....the list is long.

The King learns of someone called the Shadow that is acting against the Crown and orders Keera to find him and to bring the King his head. That is where this story starts. Keera has devolved at this point to basically an alcoholic. The only way she can keep moving forward on a day to day basis is to try to dull all of her feeling's with alcohol. Her body is taking the hit, along with her abilities. She has always been the best warrior, but recently she is losing the respect of those around her who only see her passed out and drunk quite often. She finds the Shadow and ends up fighting him and she lets him get away.....twice.

The King finally gives her an ultimatum about delivering his head so she tries to get serious about the mission. She tries to quit drinking and realizes how far she had fallen.

Without going into spoilers, let's just say that there is a whole heck of a lot involved with the Shadow and there are huge reasons behind his actions. Keera is forced to make some hadr decisions.

While I'm really not a fan of an MC who goes around all the time with a "woe is me" attitude, she thankfully pulls herself together before too much of the book has passed. I like the Keera she becomes.

There is some interesting world building created with a world filled with Elves, halflings, mortals, and then dark fae. The characters that we meet begin to develop near the end of this book and I am looking forward to seeing more of this growth and development in the next book.

Romance with slight plot holes

Somewhat unbelievable. Boring after a while, unless, maybe, if one is into romance, or maybe a teen.

I guess I own an apology to “Booktok”

I’m not a fantasy/romance guy and I usually cringe around the whole “Booktok” content and their suggestions, but for some reason this one caught my eye unlike other books and having it free on audible plus made me give it a chance. I was VERY surprised with how much I liked it.

If there’s people that are not much into the whole fantasy/romance books but want to give it a chance I believe this book is a nice entry, action, evil kings and an actually well developed romance in my opinion.

I’ll save up for the second one for sure