A Sharpened Axe

By: Jill M. Beene

Narrated by: Sybil Johnson

A cursed nation. An unlikely heroine. Deadly stakes. This love could kill...

A jaded fae princess and a few words whispered in the dark...that’s all it took for the prosperous country of Leiria to fall under a curse. Disease, famine and calamity followed. Fifteen years later, Samiris is one of the Chosen, a group of young women brought to the palace to try and break the curse. But if they fail, one of them will die.

Unlike the rest of the girls, who see living in the palace with the Crown Prince as an exciting privilege, Samiris is indifferent to the social whirl and offended by the sumptuous wealth present in the capital. She just wants to go home to take care of her sick father and younger sister.

Can Samiris survive the social intrigue at court, deadly plots against the Chosen, a seemingly unlovable Crown Prince, and a stubborn adversary to break the curse?

A Sharpened Axe is a stand-alone, young adult fairy tale retelling with intrigue and romance. If you like a strong female lead, fast-paced action, and slow-burn romance, then you’ll love this exciting book!

Buy A Sharpened Axe and be swept away to the magical land of Leiria today!

©2018 Jill Marie Beene (P)2022 Jill Marie Beene

Excellent Story and No Glitches in Audio

Wow! I love this story. The author develops the characters well. Lots of humor is woven throughout. Strong female main character. The male lead character also is strong and complex.
The storyline has lots of details and interesting twists.
I’ve listened to the story twice. I didn’t notice the narrator which to me means the narrator did an excellent job because I got lost in the story.

Too many glitches

I’ve read this as a kindle book and enjoyed the storyline. The audiobook was ok. The narrator wasn’t my favorite, but it’s still a fun story. My biggest complaint is that the audio wasn’t edited well. There were many times that a couple seconds were repeated or skipped. At first I thought it was my connection or something, but I replayed those sections and it happened every time.

Love this book, dislike the narrator

This is a wonderful story about a cursed land and a feisty woman young woman just trying to survive.

Samiris just wants to take care of her ailing father and her younger sister. She has her life planned out on how to do that in a country that suffers from a curse placed on the Crown Prince. Unfortunately, her plans get disrupted when she is summoned to the Palace to participate in the bride selection process that takes place every year according to the rules of the curse. Whoever falls in love with the Prince, or is just the last woman left at the end of the season, will be asked questions about her love. No woman has yet answered the questions to the satisfaction of the curse, and so every woman has died from answering falsely and incorrectly.

Samiris does not fit in, and doesn't want to fit in, with the other Ladies in the competition. She is treated horribly by the other women, and she is also constantly hounded by the Captain of the Guards, Duke Artem to do things the right way. When she asks him, or anyone else, why things are done the way they are, the only answer anyone can give her is that it's just how things have always been done.

Samiris fights against the rules, finding ways to rebell or make small changes to the norm in her own way. She is strong willed, but has a big heart.

This story is wonderfully written, but I am disappointed in the choice of narrator. She made everyone sound childish. The females had Valley Girl accents and the males were all the same, except the crown prince who sounded more idiotic than how he is written. There was just so much to dislike about the narration. The narrator would be better suited reading children's books, not something teens and adults would listen to.

Anyway, buy the physical book, or ebook, and read this yourself. You'll enjoy it so much more.

Worth It

This was a fun story with a fresh take on the enemies to lovers romance. Normally, I am not a fan of this trope bacause I've encountered too many authors who take things too far during the enemies phase, but Beene made this romance work by making her characters listen to one another and think. This process helped the characters grow to respect one another which then grew into something more. The character development was very satisfying!
I like to listen while I read, so I do not think the narration bothered me as much as it did others. The voices did not seem too out of place and I loved the emphasis on the sarcastic banter the narrator used. Overall, I found it worth the credit because I plan to read this book again!

Fantastic story

The story was great, the wit and humor hilarious, and the narrative cleaned up. My highest recommendations.

Couldn’t Stop Laughing

The banter was fantastic and the character growth well done. I read the book a couple of years ago and decided to do the audio version for a reread. I loved it just as much if not more this time around. Narrator did a great job and there were no issues with the quality.

This is so problematic… how is this so well rated

I feel like the author villainized people who looked different in this book, which is worrisome for a YA book. And the treatment of women is awful as well.

Even the main character talks about other people’s appearances a lot and she’s not very nice about it.

Our main male character is an ass hole to the main female character and so extremely manipulative that if your friend had a guy like that you would never let her date him.

You could make a game about how many times the author talks about “white hands”

And the author uses a derogatory word at one point (how did that pass publishing?)