A Court This Cruel and Lovely

Kingdom of Lies, Book 1

By: Stacia Stark

Narrated by: Tim Paige, Meg Sylvan

Length: 14 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

For years, when I fell asleep, I dreamed of a man with blazing green eyes and a cruel smile. The day I meet him, the ruthless mercenary leaves me for dead.

Just hours after humans are born, the gods take what little power we have. In return, they protect our borders from the vicious, merciless fae.

The humans who manage to keep their power are known as the corrupt. And they are burned.

When my forbidden power is discovered, I’m forced to flee my tiny village and the life I adore. To survive, I make a desperate bargain with the mercenary who abandoned me at my weakest moment.

Our deal is simple: I’ll help him and his mysterious friends sneak into the city, and he’ll help me learn to wield the strange, dark power I’ve always kept hidden—the power that may just be the key to my survival.

But the ruthless mercenary is hiding secrets of his own, secrets that threaten the safety of everyone I love, that could tear this kingdom—and perhaps even this world—apart.

Please note: A Court This Cruel and Lovely is an NA/adult romantasy book with steam. While this series is slow burn, the chili-pepper rating will increase for each book.

©2023 Stacia Stark (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

loved

Good characters, not an overdone plot, couldn’t put it down. I’m a SJM and JLA fan, and this book was right up my alley.

Love the series

Love this book. And the series. And love the narrator s. I was unable to stop listening. So good

I could not stop listening!

This book was performed so well in my opinion that I could not stop listening to it. The story was creative. I love the FMC, her power, her strength, her conviction. she was very well written. MMC was definitely a bad boy who oozed with sexual tension and annoyed with his arrogance and I ate it up. I can’t wait to see what is in store for these characters in book 2.

solid read

good story with some spice! I'm hooked and will get book two. I recommend

12/10

This book was devastating and absolutely amazing! World building and character development and plot w/spice!! It was everything I had hoped for and more!

Great storyline

I’m ready for more. I’m excited for the rest of the series.
I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Great story with ok narration

Entertaining and interesting story that is on par in some parts and better in others than a lot of the books in this genre. Recommend it, especially if you're looking for something with a more mature feeling than a lot of other books which tend to be written for YA. Definitely going to check out the next book.

The narrators were both good and also didn't seem to be right. Meg Sylvan was a perfect narrator for all of the female voices but her male voices made them all sound like teenage boys with a cold. It was a little distracting. Tim Paige did better when switching between male and female voices but his tone overall didn't seem to fit the words he was reading or how the character is portrayed. Don't get me wrong, they're good voice actors, it was just a little distracting at some points.

Good Storyline

It has a good storyline. A little predictable, but an enjoyable read. Some parts were a bit too rushed that could have been used to build characters where slow parts dragged out without building on anything.

So many lies

I enjoyed the many different secrets, reveals and buildup. I’m excited to know what’s next. The male narrator has a nice voice but it doesn’t fit the character. He’s posh and the character is sly and authoritative

Odd couple

This book was amazing. The characters are well defined and the sex scenes were good without being too detailed or having too many