The Royal Factions Box Set: Books 1-6

By: W.J. May

Narrated by: Graham Mack

When 16-year-old Elise is ripped from her home and taken to the royal palace as a permanent "guest", she thinks her life is over. Little does she know it has only just begun.

After befriending a group of other captives, including the headstrong Will, Elise finds herself swept away to a world she never knew existed - polished, sculpted, and refined until she can hardly recognize her own reflection. She should be happy to have escaped the poverty of her former life.

But she knows a dark truth. The palace is a dream on the surface, but a nightmare underneath. With a dwindling population, the royals have imprisoned the teenagers to marry and breed. Only seven days remain of freedom before they will be selected by a courtier and forever claimed.

Danger lurks around every corner. The only chance of escape is death. But when the day of the claiming finally arrives...the world will never be the same.

Royal Factions:

• The Price for Peace - book one
• The Cost for Surviving - book two
• The Punishment for Deception - book three
• Faking Perfection - book four
• The Most Cherished - book five
• The Strength to Endure - book six

©2021 Wanita May (P)2021 Wanita May

WJ May did it again

I love this author, i have read a lot of her books. This series has been great however the beginning was tough. The narration was difficult to follow in the first two books however later i was used to his voice. His female voices are not great and it’s tough to differentiate the characters many times. I have seen this same complaint from many listeners— maybe he wasn’t the perfect choice for this book. However characters are great— max is a little annoying.

An entire journey

Betrayal, redemption, lies and royalty all seem to go hand in hand and it's so true here. Follow the journey from kidnapped girl to a queen in her own right. This series has a bit of it all.

Very YA but solidly developed. The series kept.me engaged and wanting to know what happens next.

loved it!

Awesome story! I appreciated the unexpected. There were quite a few times I caught myself yelling at my speaker, wanting the suspense to end lol

Fantastic narrator!

Ok I LOVE Graham Mack’s narration. I listened to the first three books before the omnibus was released. Then I read the last three on Kindle. I could hear Graham’s voice for each character in my head. Occasionally I got it wrong and had to re-read a line to bring the correct character to life. I was so excited to pick up this audio omnibus so I could see how close I got to Graham’s voices.

I guess I should also comment about the author. W J May is one of my absolute favorite authors, the first author I started ‘collecting’ as an adult and the author that got this busy professional to pick up a book again in my 40s. I’ve recaptured my youthful love of reading, not just listening, and book #4 was my very first ebook download because, quite frankly, I was too impatient to wait for the audiobook. For anyone picking up the omnibus as your first introduction to Royal Factions, I envy you all the hooks you can plow past instead of having to suffer through to the next release!

Captivating!

This was a dark saga of the children across the realm who were ripped from their homes by the Queen's soldiers, taken to the palace and forced to work or be claimed by one of the court. It has been this way for generations and there is little hope of it ever changing. Elise is a spirited, thoughtful young lady who becomes a de facto leader of the group. She stands out in a crowd, so much so that Prince Eric, himself, claims her as his future bride. She should be honored, but it's not as simple as that. She simply detests the royal family and that includes her intended. Eric is a wonderful man with a heart of gold, even if he is a terrifying head of the royal guard and her majesty's army. As Elise comes to know him better, she is torn between having a future with him, or attempting to make the peoples' lives better throughout the realm by fighting back at the crown. My heart ached for Eric and I was almost ready to throw in the towel on Elise. How could she! It took me quite awhile to see her as anything other than cruel, but she did redeem herself. The story has a good ending with a well-deserved HEA. There's still a chance that there might be some more to come in this tale. The epilogue allows you to take a deep breath and realize that the world is all good...for now. This is an amazing saga of the anguish and the triumph of fighting for peace and how much, in the end, is freedom's price. Graham Mack does a magnificent job with the narration. His dynamic voice brings the characters to life, each with a unique personality and a clear voice.

Beautifully written

It was written beautifully but lost me about book 3. Not wanting to give spoilers but you could tell the prince was not like his mother. I personally didn’t think he deserved his “fate”

Not the right fit.

The story was just okay but I thought it would have been better with a female narrator. The main character is a woman and it should have had a women's voice.

Narrator not paired well with this book!

The book is ok, the story is ok too, but the narrator is terrible for this book. I don't want to dis the narrator, he is ok with male voices but his female voice, intonation, and attitude as he reads is terrible. I would have returned the book, but Audible wouldn't allow me to. A narrator makes or breaks a story for me me and this one broke it. He makes the lead female character sound like an immature, insolent, preteen!

Meh

Boring story, boring narration. Not as interesting as the blurb would have you believe. I quit with 12 hours left because I couldn’t bring myself to care to finish it. To be fair I’m probably not the demographic for this story.

Love the author but what was she thinking

This series was well written, but the narrator left room for improvement. I stopped listening with 15 hours and 36 minutes left because I was horribly upset over a twist. If you like being upset and having no real way of resolving the situation, this series is for you.