House of Ash and Shadow

Gilded City, Book 1

By: Leia Stone

Narrated by: Vanessa Moyen

“And what if I go dark?” I whimpered.

His face sobered. “Then I will jump into the shadows and pull you back to the Light.”

Seventeen-year-old Fallon Bane was born with a curse: A single touch from another person will always cause her excruciating pain. Thus, she has accepted that she will die without ever being kissed, without even hugging her own father.

But when her beloved father falls ill, she breaks into the magical Gilded City to find a healer fae who can save him. When handsome healer Ariyon Madden agrees to help, everything she knows about herself and her curse changes. Because during her father’s healing, Ariyon reaches out and touches her bare skin. She waits for the agony...but it never comes.

For the first time in her life, she imagines a new future for herself. However, that fantasy is short-lived, because not only does Ariyon flee from her in disgust when he learns of her curse, he also reveals her existence to powerful fae who want to hurt her.

Fallon is then swept away to a magical academy, where she learns the terrifying truth about her family history and her dark magic. Her life and the future of fae everywhere hang in the balance, and all the while Fallon is dreaming of being touched by Ariyon Madden one more time before she dies....

©2023 Leia Stone (P)2023 Leia Stone

House of Ash & Shadow

Amazing storyline can’t wait for Book 2! Great story & follow through with characters!! Excited to have found another author to follow

Great start to a new series!

I can't wait for the next 2 audiobooks! Her latest series keeps getting better and better!

OMG!

Oh I was so worried I wouldn’t like this book of it would be boring, but oh how I love to be wrong! It was so good! Fallon is the type of character who you just want to grab her in a hug and tell her all be ok, as long as it doesn’t cause her extreme pain. She is just so good, despite coming from evil. I can’t wait to see what happens next and hope she can fix things in the next book. I love this narrator and think she did a great job!

Just Wow

I wish I’d started this book sooner. What a great storyline, wonderful characters, and great narration.

Now this is a Fantasy!!

Now this is the kind of Fantasy book I love, easy to follow, funny banter, magical and overall fun. This book made me remember that its about just enjoy the fairy tale of the book instead of nitpicking at the wrong things or every little thing. Book review was turning me into this shrewd of a critic instead of just liking what I like and hating what I hate. so for this book dismissing those negative nitpicks I absolutely love this book. I especially lmao every time the familiar wasn't allowed to go for the kill he'd say things like fine " I'll just poop on his head", juvenile or not but it was just hilarious to me. It was a good plot the main characters kept me hooked and the side characters were just as great. No real spice but we all know I don't care about that.
Again this is how fantasy should be fun and witty. Can't wait to get the other 2 books.

The performance was right on task, they understood the assignment, kept me nsync with the story and completely hooked. love, love, love

original

Unique plot. there were a couple small plot holes, but as a whole the story was very enjoyable. The narrator was adept at conveying emotion and tone, but occasionally was difficult to determine which character she spoke as. I enjoyed the humor and that there was not the unnecessary dramatics of situations that have audiences screaming "that could have been resolved with one mature conversation."
As a whole, this is a very good "read" and I look forward to book two.

I liked the characters and the storyline.

It's definitely a YA book but it's not bad its clean so if you have a young reader they can listen or read this book.

Enjoyed it all

Thank you for the beautiful story that I could see unfolding in my mind. I can’t wait for the second book.

Amazing story

I loved it all. There is nothing I disliked of the book. I love the characters and story. I can’t wait to read book 2.

Setting up the story nicely for the rest of the books

A lot happening into to a lot of characters can’t wait to read the rest of the books very soon!