Of Blood & Nightmares

By: Chandelle LaVaun

Narrated by: Amy Landon

A woman with a haunted past.

A prince who was destroyed by it.

The fight for survival that could ruin everything they have left.

My life never truly felt like mine. It was like driving a rental car, mine on loan for now but never to belong to me. Never intended for me.

Now I knew why.

It was all a lie.

The moment that knight dragged me through The Veil into the realm of Terrea everything changed. This world is nothing like home, it’s like I’ve stepped into a fantasy and traveled back in time. The person I was and the life I lived are gone. Lost. That Veil is not reopening. I’m stuck here…Forever.

They insist I’m their lost vampire queen who has been brought back to make them whole again. But I don’t know how to rebuild a broken kingdom or why the vampires are dying. I don’t remember a past life or any sacrificial rituals they claim I did. I’m just an ER nurse from Los Angeles and I’m in way over my head. All I want is to get back to Earth and find my sister, the only person who ever meant anything to me.

Now the sacred Priestess demands I marry the heir to the throne and rule by his side. But Prince Varan is a cold, snarling, gorgeous nightmare who’d rather throw me into the pits of a volcano than even speak to me. No matter how cruel he is to me, I can’t help but be drawn to him. To need him. But trying to get through his walls might be harder than saving the kingdom from death.

In the end, Prince Varan will either kill me or break my heart into pieces…and I’m not sure which is worse.

***

Author note:

This book contains an intense slow-burn enemies to lovers steamy romance, high stakes fake dating, fated mates, and high spice with forced proximity and one bed. Content is for mature audiences and 18+ recommended.

Collection notes:

Eight women.
One sacrifice to save their kingdoms.
A chance to reclaim the love they lost.

Forgotten Kingdoms is a collection of full-length stand-alone fantasy romance novels with fated mates and a guaranteed happily ever after. With vampires, fae, shifters, and everything in between, each book features a unique heroine and her epic love story that can be listened to in any order. All relationship dynamics are strictly M/F.

Authors in this set include:

Chandelle LaVaun

G.K. DeRosa

Megan Montero

Jen L. Grey

Robin D. Mahle & Elle Madison

LJ Andrews

R.L. Caulder

M. Sinclair

©2023 Chandelle LaVaun (P)2023 Chandelle LaVaun

Excellent!

A good friend recommended this book, and I am glad she did! It was excellent. I am looking forward to more audiobooks by this author. I was engaged from the start. The story went by much too fast, and left me wanting more.

Chandelle rocked it! Really good story.

Chandelle rocked it with this first book in the series. Different from The Coven, but you can totally hear her artist voice in this still. Only downside for me was the narrator - she isn’t my favorite (sounds a little too much like AI) so I tend to steer away from her but knew I really wanted to listen to this one because I love Chandelle’s writing. Loved the story, and can't wait to hear the next one!

Chandelle is my favorite author

I love all of her books and all of her other audiobooks. This is completely different from the Coven but I still love her story. It took me a while to get used to the voice on this one but the story itself is amazing as usual and I did end up getting used to the performance aspect of this book.

original, unique world and story

I have to admit that the first 1/3 of the book was a bit slow and confusing. I grew tired of the MC's love interest, Varan, and his caustic hate without explanation. But as the story hit the second half of the book, things became more interesting and clearer. The world is fascinating, and the FMC is kind and courageous. The ending with the mixture of pain and joy touched me more than I expected, and I'm left very excited to continue the series. What's exciting is how different each land and each woman's stories will be with different authors for each new book in the series! It will surely give unique and original tales for every one of the 8 women. It's a slow to heat love story with great spice nearer the end. I would say it's about a 3.5 out of 5 level of spicy! The female main character is clever and relatable.

Great fantasy!

A great story with great characters. A little bit of spice and an overall great read. Would recommend. Narrator was good as well.

DNF - 20 minutes is all it took.

By "vibe" number two I was turned off by this book. The narration sounded like it was sped up, nope, normal speed. She's just talking like she just boofed and eight ball. the dialogue reminds me of a teenage girl diary narration on whatpad.

Worst Narration. I could not listen.

It sounded like she was reading a children’s book to toddlers. Fake and without the right vocal range to match the subject. I couldn’t finish the book.

A bit juvenile for my tastes

I honestly have been trying to give this book a chance and I’m not usually snooty about my fantasy/romance but I’m struggling with the writing style, characters, plot holes… really everything. The writing feels very much like fan fiction, which I think is mot far from where the author got her start. For me, this is the book version of, say, a Hallmark movie, which many people love and therefore will probably enjoy. It’s just not for me. One of the issues that took me out of the story very early on was the dialogue including contemporary/popular culture references that seem a bit contrived and unnecessary. We get it. The characters at the beginning are your run-of-the-mill American zennials. Maybe I’m just a bit older than the intended audience as a 30-something and that’s the issue? I also think the concept of being pulled into another world hasn’t been done here in a particularly interesting or creative way. The dialogue between characters is a bit rambling, immature, and leads nowhere helpful for me as the reader. And again maybe the issue is relatability for me personally, but this was not my cup of tea.