One moment Riley Murrough is living a normal life working in a coffee shop, and the next he’s running for his life from demons, learns he bears the mark of a shape-shifter king from a magical realm, and—worst of all—he’s destined to become the mated prince to the arrogant tiger shifter he would rather strangle.
Khalon, the shifter king, is equally distraught at the idea of being bound to a human prince, and along with his Soldati warriors, he sets out to return Riley to his own world where he belongs. On their journey they might discover why the priestess brought them together—if they can escape the demons and make it to her alive.
First Edition published as The Soldati Prince in Charmed & Dangerous by JCP Books LLC, 2015.
Listening Length: 3 hours and 27 minutes
Narrator: Manuel Pombo
The Soldati Prince sounds like the solid start to a series, and the story delivered on that point, but overall it was a beginning that needs more stories to give it staying power. It’s a fully fleshed out setup and I would be interested to see where the characters go from here. I have so many questions and ideas about the direction the series could go and secondary characters that need their own stories!
I really liked Riley and his humor charmed me from the beginning, but unfortunately, it didn’t translate well in the audiobook for me. It didn’t flow, it read like it was being read not felt and I know I would have enjoyed the story more had I read it rather than listened to it. I liked the narrator’s voice, he’s very easy and pleasing to listen to, but I find humor doesn’t always translate well in audiobooks, it takes a special tone and timing to work and Riley’s snark was lost in translation.
Now, his Khalon worked well, but Khalon is a much more serious character with a deeper timbre that flowed with the narrator’s voice. Actually, all of his shifters sounded good, their more formal speech pattern was a good match for the narrator. The bummer is, the charm of the story lies with Riley and I felt like I was missing something from him throughout.
There’s a lot of backstory in this one, but it was never overwhelming and it all came together well and flowed as the characters learned more about their backgrounds and their fates. The story is definitely not done through and as I said, it’s a solid setup to a series and the story is far from over with the tale that is told here.
I’m ready to dive into Book 2, The Foxling Soldati, this is one of the secondary characters, I needed to know more about! I’ll be reading this next one though, I think that will be a better fit for me and I’ll appreciate the story more.
**a copy of this audiobook was provided for an honest review**
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