The Serpent and the Wolf cover art

The Serpent and the Wolf

A thrilling romantasy debut combining high-stakes political intrigue and a steamy, slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romance.

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About this listen

 Perfect for fans of Raven Kennedy and Thea Guanzon, Rebecca Robinson’s thrilling romantasy debut combines high-stakes political intrigue and a steamy, slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romance.

All her life, Vaasa Kozár has been sharpened into a blade.

After losing her mother—her only remaining parent—to a mysterious dark magic that has since awakened within her, Vaasa is certain death looms. Her merciless brother aims to eliminate Vaasa as a threat to his crown. In one last political scheme, he marries her off to Reid of Mireh, a ruthless foreign ruler, in hopes that he can use her death as a rallying cry to finally invade Reid’s nation. All Vaasa has to do is die.

But she is desperate to live. Vaasa enters her new marriage with every intent to escape it, wielding the hard-won political prowess and combat abilities her late father instilled in her. But to her surprise, Reid offers her a deal: help him win the votes to rise in power, and she can walk free. In exchange, he will share his knowledge about the dark magic running through her veins—and help keep it at bay.

This proposal may be too good to refuse, yet Vaasa and Reid’s undeniable attraction threatens to break the rules of their arrangement. As her brother’s lethal machinations take form, everything is at stake: Vaasa must learn to trust her new husband, but how can she, especially when their perfect political marriage begins to feel like the real thing?

Readers love The Serpent and The Wolf:
‘The writing was beautiful I blew through this'
'Definitely one of my favorite books that’s I’ve read so far this year'
'I can’t breathe. I still can’t breathe. I just…' Fantasy Marriage

Continue the series
Wicked and the Damned cover art
Wicked and the Damned By: Rebecca Robinson

Critic reviews

'Mysterious magic and a tense political marriage animate Robinson’s captivating debut romantasy . . . Robinson embraces the enemies-to-lovers trope, with the slow-burn romance between Reid and Vaasa taking center stage, enhanced by their zippy and effortless banter, and the nail-biting conclusion will leave readers eager for a sequel' Publishers Weekly

'With intricate worldbuilding and a unique magic system, Robinson draws readers in and delivers a compelling debut' Library Journal

'Weaves violence and witchcraft into a compelling story of finding love, family, and most importantly, oneself. Readers will be clamoring for the next installment in the series, if only to spend more time with their new book boyfriend' Booklist
All stars
Most relevant
Really enjoyed this story and look forward to the next. The narrator was perfect - the accents were super and really helped to distinguish all of the characters.

What a match!

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I haven’t felt this much reading a romantasy since ACOTAR, and The Bridge Kingdom. This hit all the right notes for me and the audible production was phenomenal. Absolutely funing that I can’t jump straight into book two.

Five stars. No notes

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Vaasa & Reid's story was lovely; almost delicious. Love them both individualy and as a couple. Interesting concept of the magic inheritance system and compelling description of witch's covens. Well written female friendship. I appreciated the sentiment of preserving various cultures and languages.

However... I got lost more than once when it came to names of countires, regions, cities, and less central characters. Also never fully grasped geographical and economical details. Too dry, too abstract and too far removed from the main story plot.

Didn't love the ending. Will continue reading the 2nd book though. I got now a soft spot for V and R.

Performance: female voice is pleasant but the attempts at an accent gave me cringe. Reid really deserves to be ready by a male narrator. It just didn't work

Vaasa and Reid's story won me over. Performance needs fixing though

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This is a good overall story, but it did feel like a debut … the world building is a bit lacking and it’s heavy on the ‘political intrigue’ with some long and slightly jarring boughts of intense political scheming between characters.
However the FMC is really refreshing and I enjoyed the amount of agency she had. It was also nice to have a MMC who’s got some clear room for character growth which isn’t going from borderline evil to passably morally grey - he’s got some depth but is a stand up guy from the outset and I’ll be interested to see how his character develops under pressure going into the second and third books in this trilogy!
Overall I wouldn’t say I’m blown away, but it was interesting and enjoyable enough that I’ll probably try to finish the series.
The narrator felt a bit off in the spicier scenes (which are few) and I found the voice used for the males a bit off-putting.

This was okay

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Only thing which could make it better would be a male voice for the male characters’ dialogue.

*****

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