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King of Flames

Masks of Under Series, Book 1

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King of Flames

By: Kathryn Ann Kingsley
Narrated by: Stephanie Bentley
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About this listen

Everything about my life has been pretty normal working as a forensic autopsy technician. Until the day I woke up with a mysterious symbol tattooed on my arm.  

Suddenly normal no longer existed. The barrier between Earth and a world called Under, dissolved....  

Now I'm trapped with dozens of other people. Held prisoner by the creators of myths and legends, where the realm is ruled by two masked kings who want to turn us into creatures like them.  

But even though I didn't choose to be here, this new world manages to pull me deeper, affecting me differently than other humans. Unfortunately, King Edu, also known as the King of Flames, notices this and I'm now considered a threat.  

If I want to survive King Edu and the dangers of Under, I need to escape. The only problem is, there's another masked king who seems to have an interest in me. Aon, the King of Shadows, wants me here in this world, and he wants me alive.  

I just need to figure out why.

©2019 Kathryn Ann Kingsley (P)2019 Tantor Dark Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Romance Royalty
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Something about the blurb of this book clearly appealed to me, because on two separate occasions I've picked it up 'on a whim' - firstly (I assume) as part of a SYK day, and second from the Audible Plus catalogue! I ended up hitting the audiobook first; while it's not bad, the story didn't really 'do' anything for me.

I do like the fact that the first few chapters of the book do feel like the start of the horror stories our main character, Lydia, so enjoys. It's not jump-scary or particularly graphic (if it was, I wouldn't be reading it), but it has that creepy vibe. But then it takes a sharp turn into fantasy land later on, and while the horror vibe remains, it's not as prevalent or effective. I feel like this could have been quite a good dark fantasy book, but it's missing the depth of either the darkness or the fantasy genres.

Lydia is certainly interesting, but there are a few contradictions in her character that made me a bit confused about her. For example, she's clearly got medical training, but decides to do a bit of home surgery without even an attempt at some kind of local anaesthetic?! Nope, we'll just slice our skin open while fully cognisant - that'll go well! I'm not sure how to describe it, but she also may as well have a big pointy arrow over her head with 'I AM THE MAIN CHARACTER' in neon lights. Of course the main character should be the focus of the story, that's the point, but I got the sense that the secondary characters were all just there as filler to populate the world - for much of the book, there's no real reason or explanation for why Lydia is being sought out over any other person.

That being said, I do like Nick and am definitely interested to know what his destiny is! He's a good mix of comic relief, wise-ass best friend, protector and damsel in distress, and for the majority of the time acts as a good foil for Lydia. Their friendship is probably the thing I believed in most in the book.

There are moments when you think you know what's going to happen, and that I am guessing will follow the romantasy template as the series progresses. But there is precisely zero payoff in this book. Although there is a good amount of action in the first half, the pacing of the story arc is so slow - you don't get any kind of explanation as to what's happening and why until at least the half way mark, and even then it doesn't really give you that confidence in understanding. And the ending of the book feels more like the end of the first act in a play - you expect maybe a brief intermission, then to retake your seat and for the story to carry on. But in this case you have to come back on a whole other day to see part 2. The worldbuilding is there, but there's just not enough of it to paint that vivid picture in your mind.

I may come back and finish the series one day, but I have so many other books screaming at me that need to be read RIGHT NOW. And unfortunately, I'm just not invested enough to shift my TBR list around to accommodate the next books at this time.

Something about this clearly appealed...

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great story so far... funny and action packed, I hope this going to continue . starting with book 2 next

great start.

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This book feels like it was cut short deliberately so the author could squeeze more books out of the series. It was way too short, and nothing really happened. In fact it felt like the story was only just starting when it ended. Unfortunately, this means not only was the artificially short book annoying, but it didn't interest me enough to both with the rest of the series.

Artificially short

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