Outcast

Warden of the West, Book 1

By: Annabel Chase

Narrated by: Amanda Dolan

Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

I live by one simple rule: no magic. Not too hard in the human world, plus it keeps me hidden from my evil sorcerer father. Safe.

When I’m forced into using magic to save an innocent family, the jig is up. Or so I believe. Instead, I’m whisked off to an academy of magic in a place I never knew existed. The problem is - my power is completely raw, which means I don’t know my butt from a broomstick. At first, it's all wands, witches, and a new wardrobe...until I get caught in a restricted area with a dead body. Now, it's going to take more than magic to clear my name.

Thanks to new friends and a magically delicious vampire called Gray, I don't have to fly solo anymore. I'm out of my depth and out of options. Can I catch a killer before it's too late, or am I doomed to live a life on the run?

Outcast: Spellslingers Academy of Magic, the first audiobook of the Warden of the West series, is a fantasy mystery with humor, action, a powerful heroine, and a fang-tastic hero.

©2018 Red Palm Press LLC (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Incredible and Outstanding book and series

Beautifully done, the performance and story was amazing and the series is so inspiring. The character backstory is very well written, the spellslinger academy as a building has its own personality which is difficult to acheive. Seriously underated series. Highly suggest! ❤️💅❤️

Warden of the West

Brinn orphaned by her Mom, is hiding from her evil sorcerer father amongst humans. She has magic but is terrified to use it because it will alert everyone, including her father as to her whereabouts.

On her way home from a night shift Brinn is forced to make a split second decision to use her magic to save an innocent family. She's instantly spotted but instead of being taken into custody she's whisked off to an academy of magic in a different realm. Here they're going to teach Brinn how to use her power responsibly. Trust comes hard for the once street kid - and it gets tougher when she's found in a restricted area with a dead body.

Brinn meets and befriends Gray, an ex-warden and vampire. Together they're going to try and figure out who at Spellslingers Academy has it out for the love child of one of the most hated sorcerers in their history.

Loved this book.

Voices very clear and enjoyable. Kind of got into the excitement. Will buy the next one.

was expecting more

Story just stopped unfinished and left more questions than answers. the plot was confusing at times too

Loved the story, but the narrator hesitates

Story was pretty good. I got these out of order so playing catch up. Kinda glad there is a different narrator for each quadrant. This narrator though is hard to digest. Not sure who teaches narrators to wait one to two seconds between the speaking part and who does the speaking but it throws off the narrative quite a bit. At each pause, I'm expecting to hear the voice of the other character but no.. I hear: She said. I'll give one of the other quadrants a try before my time runs out and see if the narrator is any better.

Weak YA

Arbitrary magic, instant relationships, disconnected scenes (in media res is a fine technique, but not recommended for every scene in a book), convenient cluelessness on the part of presumably more experienced characters, random "jokes" involving references to mundane world media properties that of course the other characters don't understand ... this might be good enough to get a B- in a freshman creative writing class.

Except it's also derivative.

All of the incoherence of Harry Potter without the charm of the early entries in that series or the emotional involvement in the later entries.

Good start...but

The story really seemed to have promise. She's a waitress and an orphan surviving on her own at 20. I really liked the first couple of chapters, but after she got to the school, the story and character development became rushed and weak. It felt more like a weak high-school drama. I didn't mind the main character, but her friends and the love interest were so rushed and weak it was difficult to feel anything for them. The humor was... yeah again, weak is the best I can describe it. Overall disappointing. The narrator was ok, though.

Definitely YA

It’s meh. No descriptions of the magic itself or anything. Very contrived plot. It’s a good casual listen but it could have been better. Too quick in some parts and too slow on the wrong parts. Not very much build up of any of the characters and I barely remember who they are before they all decide to be best of friends with very little scenes. It’s just like a kid playing being an adult but they don’t know the details and then everything ends up okay in the end. Not bad world building and the world itself is cool but everything could have been better. After the first initial set up the intelligence of the main character seems to go from being super independent mature on the run but kind girl to blissfully ignorant and we follow her point of view so… we are ignorant of details too. Idk how a person who can take care of themselves like that can be everything else in the novel. It’s not that I hated it but unless I have nothing better to listen to I probably won’t continue the series.

Kinda boring

Predictable and kinda boring. Not interested in finding what happens next. Read Harley Merlin instead

Not an action, insta-love kinda book

This is a slow burn story where the characters don't fall in love/lust right away. It also is not a fast paced action story. More like an early YA magical detective with potential to grow. I was intrigued by the blurb on Amazon but did not have high expectations.

After listening, I am interested in the characters possibilities and will definitely listen/read the next book in the series to find out what happens.