The Grave of Valor

A Reincarnation Progression Fantasy (Adelheid, Book 4)

By: D.C. Haenlien

Narrated by: Erin Bateman, Christopher Harbour

War is but an Opportunity

After experiencing death and an irreversible transformation, Adelheid must juggle between hiding her new inhuman nature with her wish to become the next ruler of the Vuldar Empire. Her greatest rival for the throne, William von Vuldar, has already joined the battlefield, but she has to play catch up. She must use all resources and grab every opportunity to join the war and rise above.

However, only those in war will learn that everything has a cost.

©2024 D.C. Haenlin (P)2024 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

VA Change Was Jarring.

The different VA for all the female parts seems to have not reviewed any of the prior entries. Different pronunciations of established terms/words as well as how different characters sounded. The difference in accents for almost all the parts especially Adelheid was quite jarring.

It was fine but...

I enjoyed the story, though I feel the momentum that was building up speed as each book was released is beginning to falter a bit.

The parts where Adelheid was working to understand her new nature were interesting. The lore tidbits on vampires in Veles were also very riveting. Adelheid and William's military sojourn in the beast kingdom was interesting. Adelheid's ruin's explorations were a wealth of good world-building. Character interactions kept me engaged, Though I wish there were more interactions with Rowan and Herrea.

I believe the recap chapter at the start was a waste of time and thus a waste of runtime in the audiobook because normally you wouldn't start a series of books from the middle point. If you started this book you should be well versed with the previous ones.

Once again, Fathers are depicted as either trash people, cold and unfeeling or with no info on them at all. The only exceptions are Prince Fredrick who is dead but we get flashbacks of and Count Avery who is only seen in the second book. Don't get me started on Mothers. Are you telling me in a world where magic is commonplace, there have been no strides in the magical medical field to ensure safe childbearing? It is like the author is allergic to the nuclear family or at the very least parents being good to their children. I get that the structure of the Vuldar Empire's noble system makes it cutthroat, but come on good parental love can go a long way to producing well-adjusted and capable children.

Though I understand the logic behind it, I still feel the name Adelheid used to rechristen the vampire species was just clinical, bland and boring. Nosferatu was a perfectly viable name, kindred could have worked well too, hell vrykolakas or katakhanade was there if you wanted a more Greek flavour. So many cooler sounding names and she chooses what she chooses because of math.

The new female narrator was just bad. Except for Matilda, none of the other character's voices came close to the original female narrator. Adelheid was the worst because her outside voice sounded like a grown woman even though Adelheid is still physically a child. I wouldn't have minded if her inside voice was a grown woman's voice and her outside voice was childlike, in fact, that would make perfect sense, but this narrator didn't make an effort. The male voice actor tried, but it wasn't perfect by any stretch, because it's clear he just placed his spin on the male characters like the female narrator, I hated the Emporer's new voice. In the end, it's like these narrators didn't care to listen to the previous works and just said "I'm a do my own thing."

In the end, I've gone from rabidly craving the next instalment to cautiously curious to see what happens next.

New voice actor

although the story in this one is probably the best, it just feels like getting a big sense of whiplash when you hear the narrator's new voice. she stretches her words out a bit too much for my liking and somehow also sounds robotic, but about halfway through the book you get used to it , I prefer the other voice actress .
all in all, this one probably has the best story. there's a lot of ground covered and you can start to see her path through the throne. I really like it

Great book

This was another great book in this already amazing series. I usually don’t like women main character books, but this series has grabbed me and I can’t wait for the next book.

good story

unfortunately I did not like the voice acting as much the change of narrators is jarring even if they are talented witch they are and the new character voices just don't feel right to me the

amazing

wow that wad a great book I can't wait for the next one to come out. new people doing the voice acting for this book at first I did not like but they grew on me and by the end of the book it was fine

Filler book you can skip without missing anything.

A filler book at best with no importance or progression of the storyline. Can’t wait for the next book to hopefully continue the story. The author needs to really stick to a definite narrative on what this (vampire but not vampire but vampires did exist but they were dragon vampires BS) just choose a story and stick to it.

different narrator.

the story narrator shift was unpleasent. If I had realized I would have bought this fourth book on kindle instead of audible and just read this one.

Narrators Switched

The narrator switch was ok from my point of view, since I didn’t go back and listen to the previous books.
I imagine it would be a lot more jarring if I did.

can't wait for the next one

I LOVE this series one or the best I've listened to by far, I only wish the narrator remained the same. it seems to be the given with 4+. o well. great series!!