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A Heart of Desire and Deceit

The Choosing Chronicles, Book 2

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A Heart of Desire and Deceit

By: Elayna R. Gallea
Narrated by: Kale Williams, Meg Sylvan
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Summary

How does one pick up the pieces of their life after it has been obliterated by the person they mistakingly trusted?

Ryker Waterborn's heart is broken, and his wife is a killer. Their marriage is a sham, built on a foundation of murder, lies, and deceit. They're broken. Destroyed. Yet, even after hearing her confession, Ryker cannot leave Brynleigh in the pit.

In an act of foolish love, he makes a deal to set Brynleigh free. All she has to do is go back to her maker and find evidence that Jelisette de la Point is a traitor.

That's easier said than done, but Brynleigh is left with no choice. She can either accept the deal or rot behind bars. Worse than all that is her relationship with Ryker.

Once, she thought they'd get a happy ending. Now, an ocean divides them.

She broke the rules and fell in love, but is love powerful enough to save them?

This is the second half of Ryker and Brynleigh's duet and should be listened to after A Game of Love and Betrayal.

©2025 Elayna R. Gallea (P)2025 Podium Audio Fantasy Paranormal Marriage
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Meg Sylvan is fantastic as usual as a narrator, but the story was a bit lacklustre. not a hlwhole lot happened, and a bit predictable.

a bit underwhelming

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I love a strong female main character, and this character was meant to be amazing, but I felt she was undersold and the depth of her power and anger was not pulled out enough. I just really wanted more from her. Again the ending was rushed like book one. But voice actors were perfection, the accents and breathing during the spicier scenes lifted the rating for sure.

Shadow mummy moment!

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I preferred this book to the 1st book.
In this book Ryka and Brynleigh refound their love after a few chapters of anger and disappointment. Brynleigh works against her maker and more drama in regards to The Choosing.
A nice HEA at the end, of course.
The narration on both books was very good.
I may listen to the next book, but not sure.

Great

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By the end I was waiting for it to be over. In all fairness, I loved the story in the beginning, actually got invested, but in book 2 things got predictable, the characters got annoying and I lost all patience.

But, the narration was good, and still it’s a nice story overall, but I’ll not be continuing the series. With these two, the story of Ryker and Brynley is over and it really didn’t convince me to go through another couples’ story, I’m good.

Good, not great.

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