The Lion Mistress, Book 1

The Horse Mistress, Book 5

By: R. A. Steffan

Narrated by: Gwendolyn Druyor

A new chapter in the 2016 Rainbow Award-winning Horse Mistress series.

Kathrael is a nobody - an escaped Rhytheeri slave with a face disfigured by an acid attack and a giant chip on her shoulder. Despite being alone in the world, with no possessions other than the clothes on her back, she has vowed to lead a rebellion against the brutal overseers who once owned her. First, though, she's going to murder the cowardly bastard of a shape-shifter who was prophesied to save them all, and didn't.

The man who destroyed her life.

She's fully prepared to die along the way, if that's what it takes. But falling in love with both a eunuch priest and a scruffy, itinerant lion-shifter? Well...admittedly, that part she really didn't see coming.

Favian is content with his life as a pagan priest. After finding and losing a forbidden love, he has devoted himself to helping others as best he can. When a starving, desperate girl takes him hostage at knife point, he has no glimmering of the kind of journey that will follow. He'd convinced himself that love was for other people - not for the likes of him. And the one he lost? It turns out that when the gods are kind, what is lost can sometimes be found again.

As a lion-shifter, Ithric knows that his feline nature tends to get him into trouble. This time, though, he might be in just a hair deeper than usual. After he and Favian broke each other's hearts over a stupid misunderstanding, Ithric decided that relying on other people was a fool's game. Of course, that was before he ended up collared and locked in a cage. Now, some outside help would be just a teensy bit useful...even coming from a decidedly unexpected source.

The Lion Mistress, Book 1 contains graphic violence and graphic sex, including sex between men and sex with multiple partners. It is intended for a mature audience.

©2016 R. A. Steffan (P)2017 R. A. Steffan

LOVE THIS 10 STARS SERIES!

Any additional comments?

Another awesome story in this amazing series. R. A. Steffan writes a very unique and entertaining story. I fell in love with Kathrael, Favian, and Ithric and loved seeing Carivel, High Priest Senovo, and Andoc from the previous book and how they were doing. I can't wait to see how all three characters will grow in there relationship.

This audiobook was provided to me by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchanged for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast.

Loved it

Where does The Lion Mistress, Book 1 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It's definitely in the top 20. That's really good because I listen to a lot of stories.

What did you like best about this story?

The world building and the writing was done well.

What about Gwendolyn Druyor’s performance did you like?

She did awesome

Any additional comments?

“This audiobook was given by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.”

A Fabulous Story!!!

I didn't think that R.A. Steffan could exceed herself, but OMG food that just happen. I honestly didn't want to stop listening, not just because Gwendolyn is AMAZING for this story, but the depth, the emotions, the EVERYTHING!!! If you haven't read nor listened this, why not?!

Belly worms, eunuchs, lionshifters, prostitutes

Any additional comments?

This had to be the most interesting concept in my roster of audiobooks in a looooong time.

If you like long books, involved books, with lots of worldbuilding with religion/gods etc - which you should guess with a priest as a character - but even so, it was a little more than I was prepared to delve into BUT good interesting story, with elements you don't normally see and elements that were fascinating. Some great lines to get a kick out of too; "...mad as a bag of weasels." ;)

Worth your time

Any additional comments?

4.5 stars

Creative and interesting story. This is the first book in the series I have listened to so it took me a bit to catch up and keep all the characters straight. While it is it's own story, I am not familiar with the backstory of the characters this is where some of my confusion came in. Even with that I was pulled into the story from the beginning and it kept my attention from the start. Very entertaining, interesting and enjoyable story. I enjoyed the story enough that I am looking forward to the next installment, before that though at some point I would like to listen to the series from the beginning.

The book gives a disclaimer warning even before you start listening so anyone listening should not be offended by anything that goes on inside the story. That was your opportunity to turn it off.

The synopsis tells you everything you need to know except that it's a really good story and worth the listen. I would start at the beginning of the series though.

A world where certain individuals have gifts or are shifters. What an interesting and unusual cast of characters. Shifters, eunuch's, priest's, prostitutes and more. Really enjoyed the world the author has created.

Gwendolyn Druyor did a great job with the narration. Pleasant voice. Easy to listen to for long periods of time. Clearly spoken with a smooth even pace. Really good character voices. She was able to make the characters and the story come to life through her narration. She is the perfect narrator for this book/series. Very enjoyable.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher.

Erotic eloquence for open minded souls.

When an author has the ability to elicit strong emotions from me through words they get added to the secret library of treasured books in my head that are worthy of reading more than once. The whole Horse Mistress series made me laugh, cry, rage and love. I have a better idea of what gender fluidity is and I found myself contemplating the erotic possibilties of such oxymorons as monogamous polyamory. I truly hope the series continues. Also the narrator they found for this is quite simply... brilliant.

Awesome

Any additional comments?

This Audiobook was given to me for an honest unbiased review. This story was great. The background and character building was through, but not tedious. This set the scene for the next book. can not wait for them. This was energizing and relaxing.

The Strength of Unlikely Bonds

The Lion Mistress is a fantasy set in a country five years after an invading force has been repelled. Think of it as an allegory to Britain and the Romans, except here the Romans were defeated. While life is better on the island, that prosperity hasn’t found its way to all people, certainly not Kathrael, a scarred prostitute and former slave. With nothing more than spite as fuel, she goes on a mission to get revenge on the prophesied savior of the slaves who has done nothing to help them.

As part of Kathrael’s journey, she meets lion-shifter Ithric, who is captive in a travelling side show. Though he remains captive, Ithric helps guide her along to the next part of her journey where she eventually ends up holding novice priest Favian at knife-point. Favian and Kathrael then embark on a journey together to save Ithric. It might seem completely crazy, but these very odd people fit together and work. This is a menage romance, but one that burns more subdued though no less strongly.

One of the things that RA Steffan does well is writing a story that’s about the story itself and the relationship the people have together. She doesn’t shy away from writing graphic sex, but it is always in service of the story and not just to be salacious. This book has less sex than The Horse Mistress series, and the most graphic sex in this story is when Kathrael inadvertently finds Senovo, Andoc and Carivel with each other on a festival night.

Narrator Gwendolyn Druyor once again does a fantastic job of narrating. She even sings a pretty lullaby near the end of the book, and it is no surprise that she is a master of her instrument. One of the fun things she did was her voice for Favian. She pitches him in the range where his voice is almost fully dropped, but not quite. It’s a pinched sound, but it’s definitely the right sound. Druyor is the right narrator for Steffan’s works, and I look forward to more stories with these two together.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

starts kind of slow, but gets much better.

The.start off this book was kind of slow for me. It built the background and told you about the main characters. It was not painfully slow, it still kept me interested, but i do like faster paced books. I am very glad I stuck with it though. before you know it, you are very into the story. I will say though, this is not kids. has a lot of juicy parts in it.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Excellent continuation of this series

Any additional comments?

This series just keeps getting better. I did not realize that Kathrael was the little girl that we saw in a previous book. This book has a lot of traveling involved & where we get to see more of this world & the people that live there. I really enjoyed watching these three fall in love, even though we don't see them all together until way further in the book. We also get to see the characters from the prior books which I loved. I can't wait for the next book in this series.