Chained

A Choice of Light and Dark, Book 1

By: Lacey Lehotzky

Narrated by: Daphne Fields, Gideon Frost

Narrated duet-style by Gideon Frost and Daphne Fields.

Years in chains have taught Princess Izidora one harsh truth: trust no one. When she is finally freed on her twenty-first birthday, Izidora finds herself in an unfamiliar world brimming with danger and intrigue. Surrounded by the warriors who rescued her, the lost princess remains guarded as they journey toward Vaenor, the heart of the vicious Night Realm. Yet, her resolve is tested by High Lord Kazimir Vaszoly, the formidable leader of the Nighthounds. He seems to orbit her like she's his sun, ever-present and unyielding, especially when her traumatic past threatens to consume her. As their journey progresses, Izidora's distrust blooms into something far more potent and unsettling—an irresistible attraction that could unravel her carefully constructed defenses.

But in a realm ruled by a mad king and filled with scheming courtiers eager to exploit her naivety, Izidora and Kazimir must navigate a perilous path. Will their developing love survive their arrival or will they be torn apart at the whims of the mad king?

Chained is the first book in the bestselling dark romantasy series A Choice of Light and Dark. With a cast of morally grey characters, MMCs with touch her and die energy, and a prophecy that will change the course of history, dive deep into this dark + spicy story of trauma healing and finding love. Perfect for fans of Gild (The Plated Prisoner Series), To Bleed a Crystal Bloom, and Game of Thrones. Chained contains scenes and themes that some readers might find disturbing. A full list of TWs can be found on the author's website.

©2023 The Lehotzky Group LLC (P)2024 The Lehotzky Group LLC

Darkly fantastical story with beautiful duet narration

This is the first book in the A Choice of Light and Dark series, a dark romantic fantasy about a rescued princess who has to try to learn how to function in a world she’s never been a part of, and her rescuer that spent years looking for her. Tropes include touch her and die vibes, feminine rage, found family, mental health and trauma representation, and he falls first. Please check the content warnings before reading as there are some dark topics/themes in this book. In addition, there are a number of open door spicy scenes in this book.

The Lovely: The characters, main and secondary, were well rounded, flawed and lovable. The FMC might be haunted by her dark past but her tenacity propels her forward. The MMC’s obsession seemed over the top (repetitive) at first but a revelation towards the end of the story helps to explain why he was like that. This book might be the best found family story I’ve read since Lady of Darkness. I loved each of them, and everyone’s relationships with each other.

Also Lovely: The plot and tension made it nearly impossible to put this book down. The concept/history is something I haven’t seen done before. At first I thought she was getting over her trauma “too quickly” until you remember how long their journey was and that she was highly motivated to learn. And it’s no one’s business to dictate how someone deals with trauma (or on what timetable). There’s a nice ebb and flow to the pacing that worked well without overwhelming or stressing the reader.

Audiobook: This audiobook is done in duet style narration, where the dialogue flips back and forth between two narrators. This makes the dialogue feel much more “movie like” and as if you’re present. I loved the two narrators for this book. The male narrator is all sorts of growly and just sounds morally gray. The female narrator is perfect for Izidora and I loved how you could hear Izidora going from a scared, terrified victim to someone stronger and more self assured.

Rating: 5/5 Stars 4/5 Flames

Recommendation: I loved, loved this book in a way I haven’t loved a book all around in a while. It had everything I want in a dark romantasy (ok, except maybe a shadow daddy, but the MMC does have wings). How is it possible for a book to make such an emotional impact? If you like romantasy books with a darker undertone but heavy on the character relationships, you would like this.

If you’ve read any other fantasy book, you’ve already read this one

A girl gets rescued from a tower, takes a bunch of baths and eats a whole lot. Despite the fact that she’s been in iron chains her whole 21 years, she’s super strong and definitely the chosen one. Also, they bang. This book could have been a novella.

Okay

I liked a lot about this book doesn’t get me wrong I HATED the mate shit like it seriously took them the whole book to realize they were mates I mean seriously are they dumb. Overall tho I liked the characters they were fun and funny and I genuinely enjoyed the book. I did also hate at the end where she like has all this power n shit but just stood there watching her friends fight for her n shit like idk man.

Love this book

Spoiler: I fell in love with the book once their relationship blossomed. Him teaching her how to hone in on her magic, absolute perfection. The end of this book had me pacing my floors.

was not worth the credit

The summary of the book was interesting sn ran along the lines of the books I normally read however I feel that the narration was relatively OK with what it had to work with but the book just seemed very slow and had a lot of unneeded additives to make it longer which I think took away from the story which caused me to lose interest and have boredom not really wanting to finish the story even though I wanted to know the end I guess is the best way I can explain it

PLOT PLUS SPICE

I love a book that I can read that has a good plot line while still having the spice and romance that makes it appealing. This book, not only has the plot line that doesn’t make me want to gouge out my eyes, but also has such a good storytelling. The people reading fit the book perfectly. Overall an amazing book!

ACOTAR knock off!

This story line would have been so much better if there was more thought out into the characters and if this didn’t seem like a Dollar Store version of ACOTAR. Way too many similarities in the worst way possible.