Spellbound

An Enemies to Lovers Fantasy Romance (Embracing Darkness Collection)

By: Rebecca L. Garcia

Narrated by: Krystal Hammond

A dark and twisted fantasy stand-alone romance where hate and love collide in a world filled with snarky witches and vengeful gods. Perfect for fans of To Kill a Kingdom and Kingdom of the Wicked.

Grieving being torn from her beloved sister, who remained behind in the human kingdom, Elle makes it her life purpose to become a keeper in her cursekeeper coven.

But this calling won’t be an easy one. The magic possessed by her small coven of four casts them as outsiders throughout the kingdom. Yet when witches are found murdered in the woods, the cursekeepers quickly become the town’s only hope.

Many believe the murders are the work of a god. An old one returned in search of vengeance. Elle, on the other hand, suspects Viktor, the new warlock to town, is somehow linked to the violent deaths. However, his agenda doesn’t stop there.

Infiltrating her coven.

Charming everyone around him.

Threatening her plans to become a keeper.

This rivalry quickly becomes personal.

When the truth behind the murders surfaces, Elle finds herself thrust into a dangerous new world, trapped between twisted hearts and terrifying beings. With the victims piling up, she must decide who to trust and who to protect before it’s too late.

©2021 Rebecca Garcia (P)2021 Rebecca Garcia

Good book, interesting voice over

The book is really captivating. I didn’t want to stop listening and finished it in one day. The voice actress through me off sometimes because she would randomly speak in a southern accent or start speaking like a golem out of nowhere

great read.

rebbecca is so good at writing stories that pull you into other worlds.
16 and older there is language and sexual content .
this was a great story to listen to I got it on audible but also in hardcover.
narration was good even though in a few spots a southern drawl came out.

Finished it

I don’t always finish everything and I did finish this one so it must have kept me relatively entertained till the end. But as I got closer and closer to the end, I started to realize that there was some real depth missing. For one thing, the book starts off with Elle’s powers manifesting at a young age, and then she hardly ever uses her powers in her adulthood. Like hardly ever. Like even at crucial moments. I just kept waiting for her to kickass, and I’m still waiting. I am wondering, is this really a standalone? Because I still feel like the climax, the revelation, the character truly coming into her own…. never really happened. I also love the tortured hero trope, but Elle and Raiden’s relationship did not do it for me. Again, it lacked conviction and substance. And literally the same back and forth happened for like 2-3 hours between the two characters at the end. “He loves me; he loves me not”. It got repetitive and slightly cringeworthy. The sex scenes, while I actually prefer a little graphic language, seemed out of place in this book and felt meh. I do think the concept was good; the supporting characters were good, and overall the narration was pretty decent. So it’s okay. Entertaining, but I’d you are looking for something that really digs its claws into you, this may not be it.

ehh

it takes a while to get into. and the narrator is TERRIBLE with accents and male voices.
You can tell by the vocabulary that some characters are supposed to have accents. and she does a very poor job at doing them, if she does them at all, because she often forgets to. not to mention her noticeable lisp.

Enemies to Lovers Fantasy Romance

Spellbound by Rebecca L. Garcia is an enemies to lovers fantasy romance that I listened to on audio narrated by Krystal Hammond. The book is part of the Embracing Darkness Collection and can be read as a standalone.

This is the first book of Rebecca's that I have read, and it definitely won't be my last. I was pulled in from the first chapter and couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. I really enjoyed the relationship that bloomed between Elle and Raiden.

I can't wait for the next book in the collection Heart Of A Witch to be released on audio.

Krystal did an amazing job on the narration. I really enjoyed that she used different tones/voices for each character. She really brought the story to life. I look forward to listening to more of her work in the future.

I would recommend this book if you like fantasy romances or enemies to lovers romance.

A fun, twisty fantasy book

The narrator was amazing. The inflections and accents were done to perfection and she brought the characters to life. Her voice was easy to listen to, clear, with no mistakes that I could hear. Five stars

The book itself is fantastic. It's set in a land divided between witches, gods and humans. The side characters were fun to listen to (especially Maddox) and came to life on the page just as much as the main characters,
Elle was a great character to follow and her enemies to lovers romance with 'Viktor' was done well. This is a standalone so there's no need to get tied down to a series, and everything wraps up nicely. There's found family, enemies to lovers, and secret identities. Well worth a listen.

Embracing Darkness Collection

Spellbound (Embracing Darkness Collection) is a thrilling novel intricately weaved romantic fantasy with a fascinating well-detailed world building. Two realms, enemies to friends to lovers romance and a spellbinding new world with mythical creatures. Brimming with danger and mystery; gods, humans and witches bring a tantalizing plot that unfolds seamlessly. Absolutely prominent, highly recommend.

Krystal Hammond A1 performance was phenomenal. Her inflection was smooth and changed with the different emotions.

Highly recommend listening to this audio.

Love, darkness, steam, and tension abound in Spellbound

I had the pleasure of reading the Spellbound ebook as an ARC before it was released in September and now I have the pleasure of listening to it as an audiobook. I just love audiobooks so I of course loved Spellbound even more as an audiobook. Thank you to the author for my free audio review copy. It was my choice to read/listen and I’m leaving this review voluntarily.

I like that Spellbound is witchy, brutal, in a world filled with magic and monsters in all forms. I loved how I got God of War mixed with Hercules vibes but if these had a female, witch MC. Unlike the ebook, I’m giving the audio 5 stars instead of 4. The narration and way you can hear the inflection in characters voices etc added to my enjoyment and helped me feel more into the book earlier on. There is a lot of unpredictability and mystery which I also love and I was satisfied with the ending.

The only complaint I have is that I didn’t realize where Elle grew up there is a bit of a country accent so when the narrator started slipping in and out of this when Elle would get upset it was a bit jarring and confusing to me until later in the book where Elle talks to someone from her hometown and Elle refers to the accent in her internal dialogue and the other person has it too. When Elle would slip into this accent sometimes I would rewind to make sure I didn’t miss something and it was actually Elle speaking.

Brilliant Narration with a great story!

First time with this author and this narrator and I'm really pleased with both!

It's also my first time reading fantasy standalone and not a trilogy/full series and i looooved, cause there's never a dragging moment and everything is fast paced.

Elle is a great character full of strength but also a bunch of human fears, while living and growing up between witches. She's trying to fit between them, cause her only blood family is living with the humans.

Viktor is that guy that we hate to love, but do it anyway! He's cocky, handsome, skilled and a fierce protector of her.
Together they're like fire and gasoline going through a love and hate relationship that i couldn't stop listening!

They go from rivals, to friends to lovers, so the romance is slow burn, but there's so much going on with the story, the different enemies and their quests, that it didn't bothered me.

The side characters, the witches, the family build between different personalities on the same coven, Edmund fatherly relationship with Elle were everything that i didn't know i needed!

The fast pace worked for me, since it's a standalone, but i wish the smut part wasn't so rushed to the point where their actions looked out of blue and out of place.

The time period confused me a little, cause one time looked like old times, with a gothic vibe, where a mascara was a huge thing to create on makeup, and in the next she was talking about a cellphone that they didn't have. So I still don't know where they fit and it didn't matter anyway.

🎧 About the Audiobook Narration 🎧

The narration was brilliant!
I really have zero complains about it and it definitely helped me to love the story!
Usually single narration ain't my thing, but she was incredibly talented with the details and intonation, bringing emotion and life to every scene!
I'll definitely be looking forward to her audiobooks.

Best story ever!!! 5+++++ stars!!!!

Spellbound, an Audiobook by Rebecca L. Garcia is the PHENOMENAL story of Viktor and Elle. This story brings paranormal romance to a whole new level!!! I was under the spell of this book immediately and that spell never let up!!!! Elle wants to be a Keeper….but, has problems with self-doubt. Enter a ‘new’ addition to the coven, Viktor….who seems to complete everything effortlessly.

There is so much more here than meets the eye!!!! There are secrets that Viktor is keeping…and life-threatening dangers lurking throughout….evils, threats, death….so many things surrounding these two…and yet……Fantabulous Audiobook!!!!
This story was narrated by Krystal Hammond whose lyrical, haunting voice brought this story to a whole new level!!! Her performance brought chills down my spine!!! Whew!!! She’s fabulous!!

I am volunteering to leave a review for an Advance Reader Copy of this Audiobook.