A Reluctant Assassin

Order of the MoonStone, Book 1

By: JC Morrows

Narrated by: Krys Janae

What if Cinderella had been sent to kill the prince?

Kayden never thought of herself as the belle of the ball, but she finds herself in the royal palace, surrounded by society darlings - and the only thing she has in common with them is that they're all vying for the prince. They're after his crown. She's after his head.

Her mission was simple - get close to the prince, and kill him.

Kayden entered the palace under a lie, one designed to get her close to the prince. On the outside, she may look like a princess, but beneath the mask, a killer lays in wait - for the perfect moment.

Dvarius was not ready to take the crown, nor was he ready for a wife. But due to his father’s unexpected death and an archaic law, he must find a bride before he is allowed to take his rightful place on the throne.

And the one woman he wants - just might be the one who is there to kill him.

©2015 JC Morrows (P)2019 JC Morrows

Unexpected

This book was great. I had not heard about this book prior to getting the audiobook. The book intrigued me as deception from both sides shown through. Krys Janae brought this book to life and the interesting characters within the story. Definitely ends on a cliffhanger. I am looking forward to the next book in this series!

Wow

What a great story! I got sucked in right away! I can’t wait to hear/read the next book!

Cinderella with a murderous twist

A YA version of Cinderella. This version has a faith based prince who throws a ball , most encouraged by his advisors, to find a suitable wife. Twenty -five women of wealthy , influential, socialite families are in attendance. As well as a assassin. A assassin from The Order of the Moonstone. Kayden is a young beautiful woman competing in the ball to win the prince’s affection, but she has her own agenda. Murder.
This is a light fast read ..

Cute love story.

Interesting storyline told with enough background on characters to make it interesting but still some mystery to keep the reader guessing. The angst is real! I was getting mad at the prince and our assassin with the back and forth but it worked well in the story. For being an assassin I expected a bit more intensity from our FMC but overall I enjoyed her character.

The narrator was ok. Seemed a little robotic at times but I enjoyed the story!

Loved this story

This story has is all romance, action, and suspense! I listened in one sitting bc i had to know what happened next!

Fascinating!!!

I really enjoyed this book! It’s the first book I’ve listened to on Audible that I haven’t already read. The narrator did an excellent job reading this truly fascinating story. It’s a completely different outlook than I’ve ever read for a Cinderella story. As the blurb says, what if Cinderella were sent to kill the prince?

I rarely enjoy books that end in a cliffhanger, though lately I’ve noticed a trend in all the young adult/urban fantasy/paranormal YA (this book is not paranormal) of this occurring. I’ve read some truly excellent books by some very talented authors that are so good that even when they end in a cliffhanger, I just want more instead of being annoyed. This book falls in that category where I’m going to go search Amazon to see if the next book in this series is out yet. It’s left me wanting more...

Not what I expected

I got to listen to this in exchange for a review. I have some mixed feelings about it.

First, I feel a little misled. The cover and the blurb both make this seem like it’s going to be sort of badass, maybe with some action and intrigue. Not so much. As assassins go, Kayden isn’t just reluctant, she’s really bad at it lol I lost track of many times someone managed to sneak up on her without her noticing, which seems like an Assassin 101 skill, you know? Also, this is very much a Christian novel. Being a Christian myself, it doesn’t bother me, but it’s not described that way at all and that presents a problem for nonChristians who are expecting God talk. It’s not extreme, but if I weren’t a Christian I would have been put off by it since it isn’t mentioned at all in the description of the book.

Those things aside, I did like the story, even though it wasn’t what I expected. It’s a fairly straightforward Cinderella retelling in a somewhat dystopian future version of Earth. The tension between the Prince and Kayden is engaging, if feeling a bit... immature? I’m not sure that’s the right word. It’s sort of naive, but full of the angstiness that you get with your first love. I think is a great book for teens and young adults who want some romantic entertainment, but it doesn’t get particularly deep. If you have more discerning tastes, this may leave you wanting a bit.

I do think I would have enjoyed this more if I actually read it instead of having listened to it. The narration wasn’t bad, it was just a bit dry. There is a fluidity to the presentation of point of view in this that can make the audio confusing without really distinct voices for each of the characters, and I felt like that was a problem.

However, all things considered, it may not be my favorite, but I don’t feel like I wasted my time with it. I enjoyed it once I got into it, and I would definitely be interested in the next part of the series.

Differ type of Cinderella

This is the first Cinderella type retelling I’ve heard or read. It is different In where Cinderella is debt to kill the prince. The story kept me interested, and looking forward to the next book.

A Classic Fairytale With A Twist

I enjoyed listening to this classic fairytale with a twist. It held my attention and had me wanting more. Especially since we left off with a cliffhanger. Can't wait to see what happens in book two.

It was good enough...

Firstly, the cover is beautiful and really well done. To be honest, I had high hopes from this book for some reason. Prince, assassin, Cinderella re-telling, broken kingdom....it was a cliched good premise for a fun and engaging read or listen to. Alas, it fell short for me in many ways.

I did not realize this was a multiple book series so after that knowledge it was even more disappointing to know the details and depth left out. Another issue for me was the whole Christianity/GOD mentioned few times. I'm not an atheist and usually, don't have problems with religion per se. However, I prefer to keep outright mention of stuff out of my fantasy books unless, religious particular genre. The prince mentioned few times he is a Christian at the beginning, how folks lost their faith in God and he is grateful to God for..........(everything). In the end, there is a bit more mention of Christian content as well. I knew eventually, this wasn't for me. Again, I don't mean any disrespect to any religion. But stuff like this just puts a bad taste in my mouth and I cannot enjoy it. Subtle references I don't mind but blatant mentions like this just takes the joy out for me.

World building is barely there. I don't know much about the kingdom except the poor are suffering and for some reason the prince needs to die. What has happened for him to suffer this fate? There was no blatant reason visible to us readers. I had no connection to the world or the characters.

The whole set up is 'selection' style sort of and not. He is supposed to pick a bride and take the crown. But we barely get to meet other ladies except for 1 another. The lack of character development affected a lot of how things went in this book. While the characters (Prince, Kayden, 2 others) were likable but a whole lot of it felt left out. Prince's best friend just appeared in one of the scenes. Again there was no mention of him prior to that scene, at all.

“What if Cinderella had been sent to kill the prince?"

Well, we know right from the beginning that our FMC Kayden is an assassin and supposedly, a badass. She's on a mission to assassinate Prince Dvarius and enters the kingdom under a disguise. However, we are not shown anything about her past or how badass of an assassin she is. Throughout book she is second guessing everything about things. Not to mention, there is insta-attraction - I get it and in this story I was expecting it. However, I did not feel it at all. The lack of character development made it just meh for me. I wish we were shown a bit more about her past or world building to make it more believable for me.

Same goes for the prince. He is supposed to pick a bride from his ball and get to know them so he can make his choice. However, not much is explored with any of the other characters. The insta-attraction he feels towards Kayden also feels forced. The eventual liking/distancing again feels like oh ok, that's supposed to happen. And not smooth at all like one usually sees in some other series. He did not come across as evil or inconsiderate just lack of confidence in his own self. I failed to see why he had to "accidentally" die. We got few chapters from his POV which were good to understand more about him. Yet, we still did not get enough.

This is romance heavy and lack of everything else. Overall, it was good enough but I wanted more. Some scenes jumped for me and it was hard to keep the link. The narrator did a good job giving different voices to the few characters. I don't have any issues with that.

*I received an arc audio-book of this book in exchange for a review*