The Council

Witch's Ambitions Trilogy, Book 1

By: Kayla Frederick

Narrated by: Lynn Norris

In the Land of Five, witches are divided into five Covens based on their abilities. For those born without magic, like Lilith, the Arcane Ceremony, where witches are evaluated by the Council, is a waste of time.

When Lilith develops powers, though, her entire life turns upside down. With power comes responsibility, and with it, the serious possibility of leaving her home coven.

But her secrets don't stay secret for long. An attack from a rogue witch forces her to use her newfound ability and reveals it to the entire Land of Five. Intrigued by her finesse, the Council recruits her. Fearing the consequences of saying no, Lilith accepts, but not everything is not as it seems. Under their wing, Lilith gradually learns the truth...everything she's learned about the Land of Five, herself included, has been nothing but lies.

©2016 Kayla Krantz (P)2020 Kayla Krantz

Wow!!!

I very much enjoyed this book!!! The story is fantastic!! The audio narrator was great too. I couldn't get enough. Now I'm off to purchase the next book. I dying to know what happens next.

The characters are well developed. The story is exciting.

I received a free audible copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

GOOD SUSPENSEFUL READ

The Council, my second read from author Kayla Krantz and the first entertaining book in The Witch’s Ambitions Trilogy. Narrator Lynn Norris adds greatly to the listening enjoyment with her wide variety of entertaining voices & inflections. I was given an Audible copy of this book & am voluntarily reviewing it and look forward to Book 2. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018).

Great start to a fun series!

This is a review for the audiobook The Council (Witch’s Ambitions Trilogy #1), Written by Kayla Krantz and Narrated by Lynn Norris.

Author Kayla Krantz developed an amazing magical world where The Council governs over the witches of the five regions. The main character is Lilith, a young witch who begins developing her powers after she thought she would have none. Powers that create more questions than answers for Lilith.

As Lilith is recruited by The Council, she is forced to travel through the five lands, searching for answers on behalf of The Council leader. Again, this leads to more questions for Lilith as she confronts many new characters. Speaking of characters, Kayla has really excelled at character building in the first book of this trilogy. You got a great feel for who and what each person was about. Her world-building was great as well!

In regards to the narration of the audiobook, Lynn Norris recorded a wonderful performance. Each character is portrayed to make them easily identifiable. She speaks with a clear vocal throughout the book and knows when to add feelings in her voice where appropriate. Definitely a narrator that I could enjoy listening to on many different styles of books.

Overall, the YA vibes and storytelling magic created in this tale create a fun adventure to follow for anyone who is into the paranormal fantasy style books. It is set up wonderfully and I look forward to what will transpire in the second installment of this series.

Had me hooked

I really enjoyed the angle on witches and covens in this world. Each coven having one area of talent was something I hadn't heard of before, and it really laid out the idea for how divided everyone is. I do think that the entirety of people seemed rather small, with each coven being no more than a couple of days walk between them, less than a few hundred witches in each, and no mention of "normal" humans or creatures other than witches and fairies. Still, Ms Krants REALLY created a world you could be submerged in. I could practically hear rainfall and bugs chirping. Every chapter I was swaying back and forth on who the actual bad guys were, with more and more flip-flops towards the end. I'm still not sure!

My biggest complaint for this book was that it had little/a slow plot. It was like a huge book of world-building, with lots of unneeded internal dialogue and descriptions of things in minute detail that dragged on. It painted a beautiful picture, yes, but it made me anxious for when things would get back to the actual story. It wasn't until the last few chapters that things started to pick up and progress into a complications/climax pattern, and then ended on a cliff-hanger (I'll be very happy to listen to the next book to find out what happens). For the next book I'd exchange a little less details about objects like hair and food for a faster plot development. And a minor complaint was women being referred to as girls. Lilith is 18 and refers to women older than herself as girls, which threw me a bit at first since I was picturing people under 15.

I ~adore~ this narrator. She hops from accent to accent with ease, puts emotion and depth into each character, and always makes each person unique in such a way that I've never once confused who's talking when she narrates.That woman could make make the world's most boring book interesting.

Oh and Team Cleo! I want to see more of that guy. We need some romance up in here.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Great YA supernatural/fantasy read!

loved it! it does have a cliffhanger ending, but it is a series, so to me, its expected. The narration is perfect! she does a great job getting into each character.

Witch and Fairies

I’m a big fan of supernatural stories. The story is about a witch who has no powers or that is what Lilith was led to believe. It’s a wonderful journey to discovering her potential and how to deal with the changes that occur.
The story leaves me wanting more . I enjoyed listening to the book wanting to hear the rest of the story. I can’t wait to find out what happens in the next book!

absolutley amazing!

this story was very compelling and intriguing. very well written and had me on the edge of my seat many times and was sad when it ended. the narrator did a very good job.

I have received this audio book free in exchange for an honest review.

Extremely good

This was an extremely good listen. The characters are well written and in fact the whole story line is great. The narrator does a wonderful job reading and defining each character.

talk about a cliffhanger!

Would you listen to The Council again? Why?

If I did, it'd be for Lynn Norris. It's all about Lynn Norris. She has style, substance, wit, real intelligence, beautifully delineated characters — and oh, that voice.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

To be honest, the story is not that compelling for me, despite the energy the fabulous narrator, Lynn Norris, infused into every character and plot point. It's a decent plot, but the writing is pedestrian and gratuitously ungrammatical, with too many words just plain misused; malapropisms are indefensible in the age of Google. Also, it's all in first-person, but with glaring faux pas for that MO throughout: the narrator says stuff like, I couldn't hear what he said, and then quotes what he said verbatim. That kinda thing just yanks me out of the moment, and is such an easy fix: just switch POV now and then!

Most interesting? I guess the whole supernatural thing, for which I had high hopes going in; it can be such a gas if it's given its full due (which it emphatically wasn't in this case). The least interesting bit is the marked absence of rich, discrete cultural detail for each of the covens; the protagonists' trip through each one is cursory at best, the "mission" the characters are on is an absurd failure in terms of the paltry amount of time spent in each coven's territory, precious little interaction with inhabitants that aren't already known to them, and the lack of thought and effort they expend in identifying subversives before hustling on to the next locale. A disappointingly lazy construction of a world with little texture or nuance, leaving only the lasting impression of Lynn Norris's always exceptional work.

Oh, and BTW, that's a truly shameless (and again, lazy!) cliffhanger at the end of this book.

What about Lynn Norris’s performance did you like?

Two major things stand out here: her beautifully detailed vocal characterizations (of which my favorite here is probably Lazarus, though he's but a cameo — and that's the point, of course. No opportunity to expand the palette is overlooked.), and her full-on commitment to the breathless terror and excitement of the battle scene at the end of this story. Norris's rendering of dialog is always natural and flowing, but the identity of speakers is never lost in complicated exchanges. And her voice, the instrument itself, is just beautiful and clear at all times. She elevates the text far beyond its intrinsic value, and delivers a flawlessly paced, intelligent, emotionally rich performance. I actually search on the Audible site for books read by her. She never fails to engage and delight.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Hey, Lilith:

Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?

Do you know?

Any additional comments?

Can't wait till the material offered to Lynn Norris is worthy of her extraordinary talents.

damn it Cliffhangers can really mess you up

I think no scratch that I know I need the second book of this story absolutely needed the story was a fantastic very well written interesting captivating everything I could want it's not a usual book it's not a book that you hear or read everyday it's a fantastic and swelling book I loved it I need the second book because the cliffhanger just wow
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review