Colorless

By: Rita Stradling

Narrated by: Lauri Jo Daniels

In Domengrad, there are rules all must live by: Fear the Gods. Worship the Magicians. Forsake the Iconoclasts.

To Annabelle Klein, the rules laid down by the Magicians are the mere ramblings of stuffy old men. As far as she's concerned, the historic Iconoclasts, heretics who nearly destroyed the Magicians so long ago, are nothing but myth. She has much more important matters to worry about.

Heiress to a manor mortgaged down to its candlesticks and betrothed to her loathsome cousin, 16-year-old Annabelle doubts the gods could forsake her more.

Then Annabelle is informed of her parents' sudden and simultaneous deaths, and all of the pigment drips out of her skin and hair, leaving her colorless. Within moments, Annabelle is invisible and forgotten by all who know her.

Living like a wraith in her own home, Annabelle discovers that to regain her color she must solve the mystery behind her parents' murders and her strange transformation.

Meanwhile, hundreds of the Magicians' monks, with their all-black eyes and conjoined minds, have usurped control of Annabelle's family manor. An Iconoclast is rumored to be about-a person who they claim goes unseen, unheard, and lost to memory, yet is the greatest threat to all of Domengrad. For the first time in 100 years, the monks plan to unleash the dire wolves of old.

Their only target: Annabelle.

©2017 Rita Stradling (P)2017 Rita Stradling and Lauri Schroll

Colorless

What a story!From beginning to end there are surprises.Annabelles parents die and her life will never be the same.It is a journey story,a fairy type story and a Regent style love story.Read it! Lauri Jo Daniels is the perfect narrator.I was given this book by the narrator,author or publisher free for an honest review.

Caught me by surprise and kept me enraptured

This book was utter surprise for me. The summary made me curious so I gave it a try, and WHOA was it so very worth it!
The heroine is relatable and admirable, and the supporting characters are fleshed out and easy to love or hate.
We're not given detailed descriptions of how/why things are as they are, but that is just fine. We discover things as Annabelle discovers them, and we're presented idiosyncrasies of the world created by the author slowly.
Narrator was awesome too, she forced her voice a little for some of the masculine characters but did a wonderful job acting. I could tell the characters apart easily, and that was great!
I'm really looking forward to the sequel in audio, as I'd like to listen to all of the characters' voices again.

Enjoyable read

Interesting concept and world. Good character building and mystery. Would recommend for most ages.

Fantastic!

Any additional comments?

In this novel we are transported to a fantasy world of magic, religion and myths. The audiobook opens with a little bit of background information and the death of our main character, Annabelle's parents. Their death marks a huge turning point in her young life, a parent passing away is awful enough for a young child but in her case it becomes even worse. Annabelle begins to lose all of her colour - it literally drips off of her. To top it off anything she touches loses its own colour - her furniture, paintings - everything she holds dear. Slowly everyone forgets her and it is almost like she has never existed. What I found amazing was that animals could still recognize her presence and a few special people who want to help her.

The monks in this story are maddening and creepy. They make you feel angry and wish they would just leave Annabelle alone. She is fighting for her life against the monks and you want to be able to defend her every step of the way. You are constantly on the edge of your seat the whole book waiting to see what happens next for her.

I listened to the audiobook of this novel and I really enjoyed the narration of the characters. It was easy to identify by voice alone who was speaking and the narration really helped to bring the characters alive. The monks voices especially! They leave you with this yucky feeling and that you want to lash out at them on Annabelle's behalf.

This was a fantastic audiobook although the beginning left me a bit confused as I tried to follow the history, I would have loved to have known a bit more about the history and religious beliefs in the beginning but it doesn't affect your understanding of the novel throughout.

Imaginative and Original

Domengrad is a world where the four gods rule and magicians are worshiped. The magicians' monks rule over the congregation and teach the people to fear the gods and forsake the iconoclasts.

Lady Annabelle Klein thought her betrothal to her cousin Tony was the worst thing that could ever happen to her, but she's proven wrong one night when her parents are killed. After hearing the news of their death the next morning, she can only watch in horror as the color drains from her clothes, skin, and everything she touches. She becomes something she believed was only a myth, an Iconoclast.

After her transformation, Annabelle is not only invisible, she is forgotten. No one remembers she exists, not even her fiancee. She wanders the grounds of her home like a ghost, isolated from everyone she knows. Only a boy in the stables can see her, and he's drawn to help her as she searches to find out why this happened. But the monks know that there is an Iconoclast nearby, and they are relentless in their search to find and destroy her.

I thought this story was imaginative and original! The world itself was fascinating, a gritty contrast of dirty hovels and noble manors, buckets of body waste thrown into the streets and brilliant splashes of paint on canvas. The religion was creative, a god based religion controlled by the magicians and overseen by the monks. I loved the exploration of a genuine religion exploited for corrupt purposes. The monks themselves were a truly inspired creepy creation!

The cast of characters were well written. Annabelle was a strong resilient woman who consistently thought things through and cared about the people who served her. She was fiery yet vulnerable. Dylan's reputation with women brought up an interesting gender role reversal, and he shared a rare friendship with Jane. And Tony's story arc was wonderful, he quickly became my favorite layered character.

This isn't a book you can listen to with half a brain, I did spend most of the book wondering exactly what was going on. Rather than a series of large info dumps in the beginning, facts are slowly doled out throughout the story. By the end, the relationship between the gods, magicians, monks, iconoclasts, and dire wolves fit together solidly. It's really worth the listen.

The narration was done well, each character had their own distinct speaking voice that fit their personalities perfectly. They were consistent throughout the story. I thought it was a good match of story/narrator. I requested a copy of the audiobook, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Not colorless at all

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Rita Stradling. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

The beauty of the fantasy genre is, that no matter which book you listen to (or read for that matter), you can always discover something completely novel. Colorless is no exception. Here, we have a strange world, with magicians, priests, nobles, and dangerous beasts, and iconoclasts. I really love that word, it was a new one to me, but I didn't have to look it up because the meaning was very clear.

We're thrown into Annabelle's transformation straight away. At first, nothing makes sense, information about why it happened, or how, is as inaccessible to the listener as it is to Annabelle herself.

Little by little we get more and more information as Annabelle sets out to discover what is behind it all.

She has a few companions who help her in her quest, most notably Dillon, the stable boy. He is one of the very few people who can actually interact with Annabelle and isn't intent on delivering her to the monks. His siblings aren't too pleased, but think they can use Annabelle for their own purposes.

The monks are very creepy, a bit like the Borg from Star Trek. They seem to have a collective mind, they're threatening and powerful. The whole society has been brainwashed and subdued, and those who try to resist just vanish at some point.

Annabelle's cousin Tony is one of them: he has to choose between giving Annabelle away, or suffering from what the the monks threaten him with, and it is interesting to see his choice.

At first, he isn't very likable: snobbish, and paranoid, but by and by we get to know a bit of his past, and we learn that he is just another victim of the circumstances.

It will be very interesting to see the story unfold further in the next book, because I think that something more is going to happen. It was a fulminant finale, but I don't think this can be all.

Lauri Jo Daniels did a very good job with the various characters. At times, I had to listen very closely to understand certain words, but that is due to my not being a native speaker, and the narrator's strong American accent sometimes getting in the way.

I would rate the story and the narration at four stars (out of five) each.

Interesting World

Lady Annabelle's parents were murdered one night and when Annabelle was told the news, all her color fell off of her- literally, fell off until the grass until all that remained was gray. And then everyone forgot that Annabelle even existed and she was completely invisible. But strangely, when she touched something, the color would fall from the item making it just as colorless and forgettable. But Dylan the stable boy can still see her and he resolves to help her any way he can, regardless of the danger it puts him in.

​I think the concept for this story and ultimately this world was really cool and unique, with many Gods and Magicians and the different classes of people and curses. I would have loved to learn more about the pilgrimages and the dynamic of the Magicians in the society overall, as well as what the magicians were actually capable of and how they got to be so powerful. The hierarchy was unique and had a lot of potential for conflict and magic, which peaked my interest. I would be super interested to read a backstory ​of the iconaclasts and the magician history (every time the past of iconoclasts was hinted at my interest was 100% peaked).

Unfortunately, I was super confused a majority of the story. It was really hard to follow the plot and all the small nuances of the world, at times I gave up on trying to figure everything out and just go with the flow and hope that things would work out at the end. Some did, some didn't, some were never explained at all (I guess just facts I was suppose to accept?). I liked Dylan as a character and empathized with him (but the whole spiel about him being a pseudo ladies man was ridiculous and 100% not needed for the story), but I did not really care for Annabelle and her snooty ways as well as Tony and his selfishness and crazy paranoia.

I am not a huge fan of the narrator, she had her skill in creating very distinct voices so there was no doubt as to who was talking, but I did not really like all the voices. Annabelle and Dylan were well done characters, but Tony sounded like a drunk snob most of the time and the Monk voices were so drawn out, scratchy and low it was hard to understand their words- I got the gist of their menacing tone, so that was a plus, but the actual words at times I could not catch. I think I may have enjoyed the story more if I had read the book instead of listening to it because I found myself disconnecting at times, completely zoned out and unsure what I last heard so I had to rewind a lot.

The ending was the best part of the story for me, I wanted to cheer Annabelle on for her audacity and how everything was playing out. There were some loose ends that did not completely wrap up, but things seemed to be well enough resolved that I didn't feel like I was missing anything important. I felt like this was a standalone book, but after reading the book I discovered that there is a prequel (not sure if this will be ongoing or not). But there is definitely potential for more. This is the second book I have read from this author and I have learned that she is able to create completely new, unique worlds which I appreciate.

Magic, dire wolves, no one remembers her/sees her

Narrated by: Lauri Jo Daniels
This is an audible book I requested and the review is voluntary.
This is a very unusual book. I didn't know what it really was going to be about and just let the story hit me. Wow, I love different and boy, it is! A girl's parents die, in their room, the reader fears foul play. When the girl is told by the maids that her parents are dead, suddenly, no one remembers her...all her color disappears from her clothes and everything she touches. She lives in the house with servants but no one see or acknowledges her. She is to be married and even he has forgotten or has he? It is a very unusual book. It has magic, evil-ish monks, dire wolves, and a foggy hint of other...delightful for the strange like me. I think it lagged a bit getting started but once on a roll it was good.
The narrator had the perfect voice for that eerie, quiet, otherness....all that was needed was a thick blanket of fog...

brilliant and colorful, don't let the title fool u

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Very interesting and unique world this author has created. It kept me very interested, and I thought it was well thought out. From the Gods, mages, and monks to dire wolves humans and iconoclasts. This was a wide, expansive book full of colorful characters, in spite of the title. Well worth a credit.

Simply A Good Listen!!!

First I want to say I was given a copy of this audiobook by the narriorater Lauri Jo Daniels at my request and I am voluntarily leaving this review with my true and honest opinion. Colorless had me sucked in after the first few minutes of listening. I just couldn't stop listening and had to replay it after I finished it. If you like a unique story with a bit of magical and creepy this listen is for you.