To Valor's Bid

Monster Girls in Space, Book 1

By: M. Tress

Narrated by: Jack Smith, Anne Marie Lebeaur

Desmond McLaughlin was just getting through his life and trying to survive. A 9-5 job and a hobby that cost more than it earned left him just enough money to afford a crappy apartment and time to dream of something better. He was expecting to spend most of his life like this.

He hadn’t expected to be greeted by a CIA agent waiting inside his house one evening. He wasn’t expecting that CIA agent to tell him that he was being drafted for a special mission. And he really wasn’t expecting to basically get kidnapped.

But most of all, he wasn’t expecting to be told two important things. One, aliens were out there. And two, they wanted to take him as the first of the locals drafted from his planet to go to one of the few super-dreadnought class starships in the Hegemony and learn magic.

Join Desmond as he learns to manipulate mana—a source of power that exists beyond the reach of most people in the universe—meets vastly different alien species, risks life and limb, all while trying to pass classes. If he’s lucky, he will find someone he can trust out here amongst the weird. If he's very lucky, maybe someone he can love.

©2024 M.Tress (P)2024 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

good book

if you like Daniel Schinhofen, William D. Arand and Randi Darren
you will love M. Tress

i love book 1 i read book 2 and 3 it is good and need more

the Performance was good it repeated a word or but that were good would love to hear more from them with this series

M. Tress keep doing a good job

Great story

I will start with saying reviews matter. I got this book because of the great reviews. Normally I am not a space fantasy person but this story was excellent the writing was excellent. Many things were out of my comfort zone but because of the narration the story and entire production was excellent I was very pleased getting book 2 now

Entertaining and fun

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I’m a big fan of Daniel Schinhofen and Bruce Sentar, and this book just hits so well but so different. Except me, focused and entertained, even while working. Well, there are a couple of hiccups where words are repeated with the audio, it was phenomenally well written and well done.I cannot wait, for the rest of the series to come out on audible. As I’ll be snapping them up as soon as I become available

Good story/pace/narration

There are sections in the narration that seem extremely challenging. Also some pronunciation issues with specific words that I had to rewind and re listen to just ensure I heard something right. Some of it is nit pic-key, I still give high marks. I guess I am so used to some of the British pronunciations it sort of was odd. Also, I think there are some audio quality issues , where it’s like the baritone of the male actor’s voice sort of winds up running into issues. I am not sure if it’s the audio quality or just the voice depth and my headphones.

Well done

writing and character seem real and interesting. magic system had some thought out into it. The aliens are noticeable alien but they are still relatable. Author avoided making an one race as the "bad guys", which is refreshing.

Trying to keep track of all the aliens species is a bit of a chore but that is by no means a deal breaker. Would be nice to

Amazing world building, dissapointing male voice.

If it wasn't for the amazing world building and interesting gender reversal, and big women, I wouldn't have kept listening. Anne Marie Lebeaur is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in the book, Jack Smith just doesn't really have a pleasant voice to listen to, and his intonations kind of ruin a lot of good scene's, like when he calls Chloe his precious, it just makes me laugh a lot because of how he sais it and how it sounds coming from his voice, instead of having a warm feeling romance is supposed to give you.

Entertaining!

Fantastic story, good audiobook. Odd pronunciation of a few long English words. No dictionary I could find had those pronunciations. Otherwise fantastic!

Amazing Series Must Read

Love this series so much as the world building characters are rememberable and amusing! Only issue is the rest of the series is not out yet!

Fun book with only minor plot holes

The plot holes are big and little at the same time. The world building is where most of them are but since the book focuses on magic and relationships it feels small. The author hand waves most of them off as 'bureaucracy' but feels like a weak excuse. The main character isn't very smart and is very much a reckless mc who gets away with things he really shouldn't. The magic stuff is nice and fun but not very deep. The one mature scene was rather long and unnecessarily explicit. I personally skipped alot of it, but only cause the scene made me feel like a voyeur. The main character clearly has a type for big girls and I'm guessing the majority of his future girls will be larger than him. Overall the story was entertaining through out and didn't overstay on any single thing. The pet name thing near the end is very awkward but mostly goes away later on.

I like it alot.

OK so the story follows Desmond, a pretty normal dud. he is not a chosen one nor a super special case as far as the story is concerned. we follow him through alien wizard training.
Thus far he has not shown sines of being overly powerful of a hidden genius.

the story is driven and likable, there have been no unreasonable happenings, or twists that don't make sense story wise .

So I'll say its a solid story with a feel good tendency.

there are no "villains" but there are certainly antagonists