what a great read! betrayls , magic, kingdoms on the brink of chaoes, Fae.. all buzz words for me and Madelin did not disappoint. I cannot wait to get my hands on book 2

Get ready for a mesmerizing journey through a world of power, mystery, and self-discovery in "The Assassin Thief". This debut novel introduces us to Telium, a morally grey assassin grappling with past trauma and navigating a complex world of power structures. In this tale of intrigue and action, Telium, once the Assassin Thief to the Queen of Alkoria, finds herself imprisoned and subsequently fleeing into the forest to live in solitude. Her past resurfaces when a Fae appears, seeking her help to assassinate the Mad Fae King of Meannthe.

The narrative thrives on mystery and revelation, weaving sub-plots one over another that unveil Telium's true origins, the enigmatic alliances she forms, and the looming conflict between humans and Fae. It's a gripping tale that explores the dichotomy of belonging and defending one's perceived family while navigating a world divided between two conflicting forces.

One of the book's standout aspects is the immersive narration by Tanya Schneider, whose captivating voice adds a layer of depth to the narrative, drawing listeners into Telium's world. Schneider's performance elevates the storytelling, making it a compelling experience for fantasy lovers.

Special thanks to NetGalley, Bolinda Audio, and the editorial team for giving me the opportunity to review the ARC in audiobook format and to you, my reader, for taking the time to read this honest personal book review.

If you are interested in other of my book reviews, make sure to follow me on GoodReads! #TheAssasinsThief #NetGalley #LifeLongLearning

It's such a good and addictive book, I can't wait for the next book in the series. Be warned this book ends on a VERY upsetting cliffhanger!!!

The story, characters, and world-building were great and I loved the narrator. It did take a few chapters to get into the book but once that had happened I was hooked!

In this riveting narrative, debut author Madeline Te Whiu weaves an unforgettable world filled with dark secrets and captivating romance. 'The Assassin Thief' is a beautifully crafted fantasy tale, intertwining the lives of Fae, humans, and otherworldly beings, with their trials and tribulations at the story's core.

The characters are exquisitely developed, allowing readers to delve deep into their minds, hearts, and souls. Telium's journey evokes a range of emotions, from heartstring-tugging moments to awe-inspiring displays of her strengths and abilities. Mallux, the enigmatic male antagonist, a Fae with his own unique powers and hidden motives, adds layers of tension, passion, deceit, and uncertainty to the narrative.

The vividly portrayed settings transport readers from Telium's humble beginnings to the opulence of the Fae cities, offering a rich visual tapestry that enhances the reading experience.

'The Assassin Thief' marks a splendid debut for Madeline Te Whiu!

Unfortunately not my cup of tea… such a shame as the blurb of this book was quite promising.
I just couldn’t get invested into the story or characters

Overall I can see why other readers are raving about this. If you love S J Maas and other writers of Fae assassins/ queens etc then this is beat for beat well within genre norms. I think I might just be done with sexy fae though. The same reason others love this is why it didn't gel with me - it felt very like things I'd read before and didn't really want to read more of. The writing was solid but the plot and characters were very off the peg. Again, fine if that's what you're looking for. So overall, this was ok but I just wasn't in the target audience.

It unfortunately took me months to finish this book, just because I had to write this review, well, reading it has been a terrible experience.
The synopsis is extremely promising, and the execution definitely lacks. The book is not entertaining, it is actually boring AF.
I do not recommend it at all.

An interesting premise, with a good magic system and lots of potential for an amazing story. The blurb made me excited for this one. However, the overall story fell flat and characters felt dull and disappointing -but plot weak and characters not fleshed out properly.

Nevertheless, the narrator was great but sadly the book was not to my taste.

Oh. My. God. That ending had me absolutely blown away!

I will be honest - this book was going to be a solid 4, maybe even 4.5 rounded down until that last 10%. I have to give it 5 stars now. It wasn't perfect, but the amount of entertainment I experienced with this book more than compensates for the few niggly bits.

Some realistic bits of critique before gushing about this book: the overuse of certain phrases and words became tiring at times, the slipping in and out of 'omniscience' status was a bit confusing (though not as distracting as I have seen some make it out), and the use of fight scenes more than I think was strictly necessary made the book longer than it needed to be. I don't normally do fated mates, and don't like the whole 'males' and 'females' thing. Personal preference!

**THAT SAID** Let me tell you about this audiobook real quick.
This was absolutely NOT what I thought it was for the first half ... maybe even first 3/4, where it is for the most part a standard (on the more ruthless side) fantasy. Not a lot of spice, but it does exist in there.

Me, the idiot: I heard fae (particularly with attractive fae 'male' and 'female' characters who look like chiselled gods, I assumed I knew things. I saw the plot, the way it was going and the past that has been revealed to us gradually through the strategic use of flashbacks, the character dynamics and relationships, and I assumed, INCORRECTLY, I knew where this was going. The way this book SHOOK ME with that final 10-ish percent?! I had to come home and rant to my partner about it for about half an hour. I played myself. I assumed too much. To the people whose reviews say this was predictable, I _really_ do not think it was, or at least I was completely surprised by that ending (and I'm normally good at getting where things are going)! It completely threw me, and I really don't know where it is going next. But the way the author, on a debut novel, took the genre 'cliches' and turned them on their head was absolutely brilliantly done.

The narrator was FANTASTIC - pacing, tone, speed and amount of passion in each segment really elevated this audiobook and in a way I do think this is the ideal way to engage with this book.

<i>Thank you so much to Bolinda Audio who provided me with a complimentary copy of this audiobook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, which I leave voluntarily. This has not affected my review.</i>

I had good expectations for this book since the blurb is very interesting, but unfortunately they weren't met.
The main character Tellum is supposed to be a smart and powerfull assassin, but half the book she is just moaning.
The magic system was very interesting but unfortunately not a lot was explained about it.
I would have liked to see more world and character building instead of the repetative desciptions.

I liked the narrator a lot she changed her tone and cadence when necessary for the story.

A great debut from this author.

The story has really good quality world building and the writing is so easy to follow and paced nicely.
The world built in this book has a unique magic system that i havnt come across before as well as the original twists and turns our morally grey fmc is subject to on her journey. There was lots of action with such a good end to the book, cant wait for the next one!

A kingdom with people gifted with magic resides next to a kingdom of Fae. How well can this go? Can the two kingdoms leave peacefully next to each other, or is war to be expected? Let’s find out!

Alkoria is ruled by a gifted Queen. Like some of her subjects, she has magic in her veins, she is a Thief Queen. She has a power not many people share. But along her side she has her very own Assassin Thief. A trained assassin and a gifted Thief, a girl that was raised in the palace, Telium. They were meant to have a bond like the one shared between mother and daughter but, when the book begins, we find Telium at the dungeon, imprisoned by her Queen. She is treated like a traitor. Thankfully, Telium escapes and resorts to the forest were she lives quietly among the trees and the creatures that have been living there for ages now. She doesn’t meet people often. Nobody comes to her forest. For them, the place is haunted and they better stay away. But all this changes one day, when Telium finds a Fae warrior in the forest. Fae people are not usually seen in Alkoria after the war, so this is unexpected.

The Fae has come to request her help. He has started a rebellion against his King and he has heard of how gifted Telium is. He wants her on his side. He needs her to assassinate the King and Telium is not opposed to the idea. Fae live for hundreds of years, so she knows this is the Mad Fae King, the one that has caused so much pain on her Queen. She is determined to revenge for all the pain, all the misery and all the damage done. As the times passes by, Telium learns how the Mad Fae King kidnaps human children, Thief children and he experiments on them. This feeds her anger and makes her more determined. She follows this rebel Fae to Meannthe, where she will have to fulfill her mission. But until she reaches her destination, she will be confronted with the darkness that is hidden inside her, a raw power that threatens to consume her on any given chance.

I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook of “The Assassin Thief”. The narrator did a wonderful job of portraying all of Telium’s feelings as well as the inner dialog with the power inside her. It was easy to understand the different characters in the dialogs and there was never a question as to who was speaking at the time.

I also enjoyed the story very much. It gave me ACOTAR vibes, like with that bonding between the Fae, and that plot twist at the end for example. The magic system is a very interesting one. The Thieves are people with magical abilities, but they don’t all have the same abilities. There are stones involved and magic being transferred to other thieves, even though I didn’t really understand how this transfer happened. The Fae have different abilities as well. All of which, Fae and Thief abilities are very interesting. I would like to read more on this universe and see how Telium reacts to what comes next.

Thank you to NetGalley & Bolinda Audio for an advance copy of this book. The views expressed are my personal and honest opinion.

This NA fantasy by Madeline Te Whiu showcases beautifully descriptive writing depicting a Fae vs human world where our morally grey FMC struggles with her gifts and powers.

The world-building is easy to follow through the start, there is a little lull in the middle where the story could have picked up some pace. However, the twists and turns taking you to the end of the book snag you and make you keen to see where the story goes next into the second book of this trilogy.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and Madeline Te Whiu for the audio arc of this debut novel.

DNF - This just wasn't for me. Its hard to review because I didn't get very far, but the book seemed predictable, and looking at some of the GR reviews it seems like I wasn't wrong. The language was too in your face for me but also overly descriptive. I wasn't drawn to the main character. And as soon as she found what was going to be her main love interest, I was done.

I enjoyed this book after I got into it as I found it was a little bit of a slow start! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for early access to this book.

Overall I enjoyed this book although it was hard to follow in places. I don’t know if reading it as opposed to listening to it would combat that issue.

Well established magic system which is love to learn more about in future books.

Amazing for a debut novel

I don't read much fantasy, but I really enjoyed The Assassin Thief and it's an amazing debut. Telium was a great main character and the plot held my attention throughout with strong narration. I did guess how it was going to turn out and I would have liked a little more detail on the specifics of her gifts, but these didn't affect my overall enjoyment. I'll look forward to the other books in this trilogy.

While relatively new to fantasy fiction, I found this an enjoyable and descriptive read, containing as it does many mystery sub-plots including the true heritage of the heroine Teliam, the reason for and duration of her exile in the woods and the identity and true agenda of some of the acquaintances she makes.

Perfectly capturing the feeling of not fully belonging to one group but also the battle to defend/avenge those you perceive as family, this is a tale of humans versus fae with the addition of the power bearing human Teliam. Both sides believe they have the right to rule the land, each have shared tales of the others' acts of cruelty and all have an agenda.

As someone who usually reads thrillers and mysteries, I loved the twist toward the end and was definitely a fan of how Teliam sought to address it which, while possibly quite bloody felt uplifting rather than dark.

Telium has many magical powers, she has been imprisoned for treachery against the queen.
We follow her escape to self-imposed exile in a forest, where years later she meets an unlikely person. Wanting to protect Alkoria, we accompany her on her adventure. Even Alkorians are suspicious of her.
We do travel a bit back and forth in time, sometimes I wasn’t sure if I was in the present or the past - but it was soon realised when she was reliving parts of her past and seeing events with fresh eyes.
I found this audiobook well read and created vivid pictures for me - I listen to audiobooks when out running and found it engrossing and consuming.
Bring on book two!

Rated: 3.5/5
Full Review posted over on instagram on @katandthebookshelf

I found this a bit difficult to follow, I feel like I needed some visual aid with this one even though I generally prefer audiobooks