Powerful Purples

The Zadok Series, Book 3

By: Nikki Minty

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam, James Patrick Cronin, James Fouhey

An explosive ceremony rocks Winter’s caves and those responsible must flee to the Drake village and start a new life.

When Harlow is imprisoned by the Queen’s guards, Slater is forced to flee for his life and team up with Jax — the one man he detests more than any other. Together with courageous Zadonians from all four races, they devise a daring rescue mission to save Harlow from impending death.

Nothing is what it seems, however, and Harlow finds herself being drawn into political intrigue that will change the landscape of Summer and Winter forever.

Torn between Slater’s wants and needs, and her own — will Harlow stay to keep Slater happy or follow her heart and return with Jax?

©2021 Nikki Minty (P)2021 Nikki Minty

Intense, Connections, Dark Fantasy

Part three of this adventure, finds Harlow struggling with her emotions. Who does she love? Before she can decide, Slater, Jax, and the decree by the Queen complicate her life. Nothing is what it seems and there is political intrigue and suspense around each corner. Life for everyone on Zadok is about to change, forever!

Nikki Minty, the author, weaves an intense story around emotions and connections commonly found in teenagers or young adults. She takes her time building the suspense and keeping the story flowing naturally. Well-written, the characters are developed and rich. She is deliberate in executing each plot twist. Adding in political intrigue and letting it take more of a center stage adds to the richness of the story.

The narrators, Khristine Hvam, Jodie Harris, James Fouhey, James Patrick Cronin once again, give a solid performance moving the story forward with clarity and unique voices for each character. Their performances depend heavily on one another to keep the story clear. Their intonations were flawless and enriched the story.

The ending is climatic!

There were no issues with the quality or production of this audiobook. The sound was clear and well done.

Disclaimer: This Audiobook was provided free of charge by the author, narrator, and/or publisher in exchange for a non-bias, honest review.

Excellent

Overall: I can’t believe I’m already at book three! I’ve loved every minute of this series, but this installment really stepped it up.

Story: This book was full of tension, and it was so hard to pause once I got into it. We get to know the characters even more, and see more of the summer side of things. I was dying to see what choice Harlow would make in the end, and how she’d get out of her predicament. I’m not crazy about Slater, Jax is amazing, and I’ll always love Harlow. Also, I don’t want to give too much away, and you should definitely start at book one or this won’t make much sense, but you really don’t want to miss out on this series!

Narration: Another great round of narration, with each narrator taking a different POV, but still distinguishing voices, so it’s easy to tell who’s narrating and who’s talking. They really bring the story to life, and even though you’re listening, it’s easy to get lost because you’re almost watching it unfold as you hear it.

Insert Slow Clap Here

Having read Pastel Pink two weeks ago and Ruby Red last week - I was able to fly through this series and with good reason. It's a near-perfect YA series - that just kept on giving. Each story built on the last but also felt like it was its own story as well. Powerful Purples would have been confusing had I not read the other two but not completely. Minty's writing style and ability to build insane worlds with complex characters make these stories come alive.

Powerful Purples was such a fitting end to this series and one that I'm glad that I had the honor of reading. As I said, Minty's ability to write these complex loveable characters in this insanely well thought out world makes these books stand out to me. Usually, you get one or the other with YA books - but this had both.

I think the bigger and more important thing that each one of these stories had - but this one had in spades was the story behind the story, or what I as a reader took away from them. It was such a great story about the power of inclusion and the power of looking beyond color, race, or creed. It's obvious if you're an adult reading these stories that there is subtext and messages hidden in the story - but I wonder as a younger adult a few things. One of them is would this even stands out to me. My generation (millennials) have been fighting for this but were raised by racists who were raised by racists and bigots. We're learning how to do a lot of this, which is why these stories and the inner messages in them stood so far out to me. But I hope that a younger generation reads this as "yeah, that makes sense" versus "I hope that's true".

Minty did all of this with beautifully written stories that without the inner meanings still were some of my favorite fantasy/YA books I've read in a long time. I hope that people looking for new stories can pick this up. Especially those who want beautifully written YA. I also hope that those that can grab the audiobooks, do. These books are SO well done. The different characters by different narrators are so hard to come by and it just feels so natural here. The production value is definitely there.

Great adventure, perfect to end the trilogy

Powerful Purples is the third and last novel in The Zadok Series of fantasy books by rising and truly talented author Nikki Minty. This is a beautiful saga written with love, care, and attention to details, perfectly suited for young adults.

Nikki successfully combines fantasy elements with magical realism and thus creates a unique adventure filled with endearing characters that you can’t help but care for. But the most important message of this captivating trilogy is that we all need to fight so that there is inclusion and equality in our society.

The two previous books, Pastel Pink and Ruby Red introduced us to this fascinating world and its inhabitants. Powerful Purples will continue to escalate all previous events and will deliver a roller coaster of an adventure that will keep the reader or in our case, the listener, on the edge of their seat.

I really can’t tell you anything more about the story except that all our heroes need to be on their toes and at their best in order to survive and overtake this new challenge. If you want to understand what’s happening and not miss anything, I highly recommend that you start from the beginning, with Pastel Pink. But rest assured, the conclusion to the Trilogy is more than satisfying!

The audiobook version of Powerful Purples is performed by award-winning narrators Khristine Hvam, James Patrick Cronin, and James Fouhey. Each one of them is fantastic in their own way but combined they are delivering a superb narrative experience that will thrill, delight, and entertain the listener. The audio production is crisp and clear, the narration is superb and the characters spring to life in our imagination thanks to the vivid writing style.

So, if you’re on the lookout for a good young adult fantasy adventure I got you covered with not one, but with three excellent audiobooks. The Zadok Series is great and I highly recommend that you give it a try. This is top-notch entertainment beautifully written and expertly performed!

I can’t wait to see what’s next from Nikki Minty!
I hope that you found this review interesting and will consider leaving a helpful vote below. Thank you! Take care, stay safe, and don't forget, always listen with your heart.