An Emporium of Hearts

An Infernal War Saga Novella

By: Hailey Turner

Narrated by: Gary Furlong

To forget and live, or to live and fight?

THE MARSHAL. Melvin Kaur is a nobleman, a magician, and a high-ranking cog in the Clockwork Brigade working out of Istal. His well-established spot in high society is a grand cover for the smuggling his family oversees. But when a handoff goes wrong, and Melvin is forced to flee through the night with his charges, he finds unexpected help from an endearing man in the unlikeliest of places.

THE TOY MAKER. Ezra Wren is trying to keep his family’s business in the black and the banks at bay, but the numbers in his ledger do not lie. Debt bondage is a very real threat he will soon have to face, and that was before a bloodied nobleman broke into his toy shop in the dead of night. Despite the risk, Ezra can’t turn away those in need, and finds himself saying yes to a nobleman’s plea and losing his heart in the process when he can ill afford to lose anything.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Hailey Turner (P)2024 Hailey Turner

Great Combo

Hailey Turner knows how to satisfy the readers, and Gary Furlong did a Wonderful job bringing her characters alive

Masterful introduction

I’ve already read the first book of the series but in preparation for the second book I’ve picked up this prequel on audio and it is such a wonderful start to the series! In very few pages Turner does a masterful job of introducing this steampunk fantasy world in an entertaining way that makes you truly want for the rest of the series! And of course Gary Furlong narrated perfectly giving the characters life when the short length doesn’t allow for much character development.

Great characters

I read The Prince's Poisoned Vow and loved the world building there with its capricious gods, humans with hidden powers and skills and the plotting and scheming of the rulers and want to be rulers. Getting to listen to this story performed by Gary Furlong where we find out how Ezra and Melvin meet and get additional background on them and this world was wonderful. As always, Furlong brings the characters vividly to life.

The cog and the toymaker

For as sprawling as book one was both in terms of setting and the large cast of characters, this book focuses on two. We learned of the Clockwork Brigade and their part in freeing debt slaves from the corrupt system that chews them up and spits them out only when they’ve been used up. Melvin and his noble family have been part of the brigade for quite some time. When he tries to help two slaves escape, things go wrong, and he ends up needing the help of Ezra.

Ezra is a toymaker who struggles to make ends meet and is only just shy of becoming a debt slave himself. He helps Melvin and the fleeing rescuees out of kindness and fear of being the one in their place. Also, maybe a tad because Melvin was kind to him earlier in the marketplace, and Ezra’s kind of attracted to him. The two men are from two vastly different backgrounds, but they have mutual attraction and the ability to do good for the Clockwork Brigade in the future.

This is a nice little snippet set in the world of the Infernal War Saga, and a sweet little romance. It wet the whistle in preparation for the release of book two next month. Not to be ignored, is Gary Furlong’s excellent narration. He is one of the best at his craft.

Amazing short listen!

I love this short listen! I love that we get the story about how The Marshal and Ezra met. This might be a short story but it still does a great job in telling about this new world that Hailey Turner has created. Gary Furlong does another amazing job with narrating this novella. I can't wait for the next installment of this series.

Perfect Addition to the Series

Short but really good. Ezra definitely saved the day and thank goodness Melvin has good intuition and lots of money!

fast-paced steampunk fantasy adventure

Story: 3.5⭐️
Audio: 4.5⭐️

This introduction into the world of Marisol is a fast-paced adventure that focuses on one of the two plagues of this world—debt bondage. When people can't pay their bank loans, they and sometimes their family are sold as slaves to work of the debt; most people die before even coming close to working off the debt and its interest.

Marcus is a nobelman whose family helps smuggles slaves to safety who pulls Ezra into his orbit when a drop goes bad, and Ezra's life is forever changed in the process.

The story manages to pack in a lot of worldbuilding to make the events understandable while hinting at a lot more, but as the narrative is so fast-paced and has some heavy lifting to do, there isn't much time spent with Ezra and Marcus. We get an idea of who they are and they are interesting enough that I would have liked to have gotten a bit more. Nevertheless, it's an engaging story and a good prologue to the series. Gary Furlong is great as usual and outside of a few odd pauses, the audio production is solid.

Matching gears

This is an interesting glimpse into a piece of the author’s Infernal War Saga. For something so short and specific within such a large and complex world, it manages to have a surprising amount of drama, detail, and romance. Melvin and Ezra come from opposite ends of the social spectrum, but manage to fit together perfectly. This can definitely stand on its own or act as a prelude to the main series. Gary Furlong does a good job at narrating this type of story, even if I’d prefer a bit more emotion and distinction between voices.

Great novella!

I already read the Emporium of Hearts’ eBook. And it’s also my first audiobook. I loved Gary Furlong’s voice. It was perfect. I took me some time to adapt to his interpretation but once I did, I discovered a new experience. It was very interesting to notice the narrator and dialogues’ version especially during the actions’ scenes. So, I really enjoyed this novella and I can’t wait to listen to The Infernal War saga’s audiobooks.

The Marshal and Ezra begin

When I read The Prince's Poisoned Vow one of the many questions and plot lines that needed to be figured out, for me, was who The Marshal and Ezra were. Well this is where their story begins and it's narrated by the amazing Gary Furlong.

I'm only hoping that these two will survive Hailey's next installments in this trilogy.