The Wraith King

The Rise of Northgall, Book 1

By: Juliette Cross

Narrated by: Troy Duran, Meg Sylvan

A brutal, bloody war against the ruthless Wraith King has cost the light fae more than innocent lives.

Una Hartstone, Princess of Issos, learns the price the Wraith King demands to end the war once and for all—Her. In exchange for the safety of her people, she agrees to give her life—and her body—to her greatest enemy.

Gollaya Verbane is determined to fulfill his destiny and his god's prophecy. When his seer points to the Princess of Issos as the key to the rise of the dark fae, he demands her submission. But when she finally yields, he realizes Una is much more to him than a priceless weapon.

A mystery that has haunted Una for years awakens when she is abducted and dragged back to Näkt Mir. The palace hides many dark secrets… and at least one traitor. A traitor determined to take King Goll's throne—and all he possesses. What he doesn't know is that Una's magick is more powerful than he can imagine and that Goll will burn the whole world to save her.

©2024 Juliette Cross (P)2025 Podium Audio

Enjoyable

I liked the synopsis of the book. The characters and storyline are just okay though. I love the Juliette Cross’s paranormal fantasy series and typically gobble up high fantasy books. This one didn’t grab me though. I had to switch to another book part of the way through and come back to this one. It was just long and a bit redundant in places.

It was good…a little rushed

From the positive side it was a great performance, the MMC and FMC’s voices are exceptional. It’s a good story nothing to write home about . On the other hand, I felt the romance and the conclusion of the book was a little rushed. The main characters go from forced proximity and forced marriage to unconditional love and devotion in like 2 min. It really felt like rushed and like I was missing info in between.

At the edge of my seat

What a fun adventure...well written, not complicated, entriguing love story and captivating plot. Had me at the edge of my seat, throughly enraptured, up until the end! Author created a world that made your heart clench, or tears well up or swoon...the MMC is swoon-worthy! Pleasently surprised with this book! Narrators embodied the characters (albeit a bit cheesy at times) but kept good pace with the events in the story.

ITS OK…

I have a strange feeling this book has used way too much AI. It sounded very repetitive and sometime cringy.

Loved it!

Really enjoyed this! Will be looking into this authors other works.
The narrators performance was also 5 stars & brought these characters to life.

It was good 4.3 ⭐️ maybe

It was a good book dont get me wrong but after reading many romantsy books this year i feel like a 4.3 is a good rating. ( good but not SOOO GOOOOWDD)

1- narration 5/5 🤌🏻😘 (dual narration)
2- characters: ML kinda was lowkey jealous of her not over her ikyk? Lowkey gave me the iyk but FML 🤌🏻😘 10/10 she was smart & strong. Overall 4/5
3- spic 2/5 🌶️🌶️

Definitely won’t be my last read of this author. 💗

Love, death and prophecies

I loved this dark romantasy tale. It was definitely a stay up too late, cannot put it down kind of book. I fell head first into the story and was equally desperate to read it all at once and also to savor it and make it last. The storyline was imaginative, the characters were real and relatable, the writing was captivating and the world building phenomenal. Una is a light fae and the princess of Lumeria. Seeking a cure for a sickness 5 years ago, she was captured and tortured by the dark fae king. She lost her wings and her healing power but was ultimately rescued by Goll who was also a prisoner in the dungeon. Goll was the crown prince and is the new king of the dark fae after killing his cruel father. Goll believes Una is to be his as part of an ancient prophecy. As a condition of ending the war with the light fae, Una agrees to be Goll’s mizrah. Despite Una only agreeing to marry Goll and conceive an heir to save her people, this is not a dubcon or noncon situation. Una understands and agrees to the dark fae customs and their relationship develops organically without forced intimacy. As the pair try to unite their people and solve a prophecy, deep feelings and respect develop. The world building was superb, weaving in legends, prejudices, histories and prophecies. And the story includes all the goodness that you’d expect from this genre - fighting, dangerous situations, end of the world scenarios, paranormal creatures, evil entities, henchmen, loyal friends and family, tragic back stories, mystical coincidences, snark, mystery, secrets, betrayal, revelations, and laughs. I am looking forward to reading more in this world.

Troy Duran and Meg Sylvan did a good job narrating the story and characters into life with enough change of inflection, tone and cadence to voice multiple characters quite convincingly.

Will there be a second???

I love this story. Some most moved a bit too fast and others too slow. Eg. when she ran away to find an answer and he caught up too quick. However, I am not a writer but truly loved this book.

Near perfection

This book is great. No cliffhanger but there’ll definitely be more to this story. Toxic, possessive MMC. Strong, capable FMC. Great pacing.

Entertaining

I found the voice actors work to create a unique duality to the story. Being able to listen in to both perspectives allowed for the main characters to be memorable for me.
Steam level is decent enough. Lacked a bit on the world building part for my taste but I applaud the effort for making the conversations intriguing enough.