I had requested this audio as an ARC a few months ago, but I forgot to listen to it through the app and then it was archived. But, I did purchase the audiobook so i was able to leave a review.

I am a huge Leia Stone fan, she is one of my auto buy authors and I was really excited to read this one.

Dawn was absolutely awesome. This badass that is sent to cute out the heart of the prince to protect the summer court from a deadly curse. Only, that's not what she manages to do. She runs into Zander and travels with him to the prince.

There is tension, action, drama. Literally all of it in one little book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and cant wait to jump into book 2.

2.5 Stars

This is a super quick read and a standalone that will be part of a series of standalones.

In all honesty I did not think this was a well developed book, and things are incredibly rushed including the romance. There is a fine line between making a story fast paced and entertaining, and trying to do far too much in less then 300 pages. However if you are looking for a quick easy fun read, with little depth then this is a good option. This story ticks all the fantasy romance tropes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was an interesting slice of fantasy, but I'm more excited about where the journey will progress to, now that the set up characters and places have been established.

It was well read and acted by the audiobook voices and I loved the fantasy world that was unraveling before me.

Cold Hearted by Leia Stone; Julie Hall
Narrated by Vanessa Moyen; Adam Gold

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and HQ and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

To save my kingdom, someone must die.

Every hundred years, a curse descends on Faerie, ravaging its lands and killing its people. For the last two millennia, the Summer Court princess has always been the one to stop it.

Now it’s my turn.

My entire life I’ve prepared to become one the perfect assassin. My mission is simple. Travel to the mirror realm, find an Ethereum Lord, return to Faerie with his magical heart. But when I step through the portal, I’m immediately taken captive and find myself at the mercy of Zander, a handsome royal guard.

Now I’m forced to play by his rules, because if I fail at my task everyone and everything I’ve ever known and loved perishes. But Zander has secrets, and when I find out what they are they make me question if everything I’ve ever been taught was a lie...

My Opinion

Cold Hearted is a fast paced, quick read. I listened to this as an audiobook and it was easy to dip in and out of. If you are looking for a story that will grab you quickly then this is one you should add to your list.

Rating 4/5

I really enjoyed this book. I really liked the characters. Dawn is a strong lead with a good amount of sass. I liked the banter between Dawn and Zander from the beginning. We are straight in the action at the beginning of the book. I loved the world and the building on it. The plot is easy to understand and follow along with. I listened to the audio and the narrators of the audiobook did a pretty good job of bringing this one to life. I couldn’t stop listening. This is a great start to a new fantasy series and I cannot wait to continue.

2.5 stars rounded up

If you’re looking for a short quick paced YA book. I would say give this book a try. It did feel a little rushed and could have been further developed.

To be honest some of the language was very immature and so some of the banter fell flat.

At first I was disappointed as I was excited for a female assassin trained since birth for her mission and we hadn’t seen it. However this was just me being impatient and we did see some more of this.

I found the cuffs a very interesting concept but then almost felt they were used too much. I enjoyed split into the dual pov.

I read this book alongside listening to the audiobook and I loved the narrator. She was incredibly talented and made the book so much more enjoyable to listen.

Being a sucker for stories about female assassins, I enjoyed this. It was rich and pacy and I’m looking forward to what I am guessing are three more books as the princesses of the seasons seek to dispel the curse that threatens their lands, by cutting out the black hearts of lords of other realms. Of course, love thwarts their plans, but that’s what we are here for, no? And there are lots of romance tropes to enjoy; one bed, force proximity, enemies to lovers. I listened on audio and the narration was good. The only downside came right at the end when there was what felt like a really clunky ‘chastity before marriage’ pitch, which was unnecessary and bugged me for the rest of the book. I see now that it is ‘sweet’ romantasy, but this was already sorted in the ‘showing’, so shame about the ‘telling’.

"Cold Hearted" is a fast-paced fantasy romance perfect for fans of enemies-to-lovers tropes and morally grey characters. The story follows Dawn, a princess trained as an assassin, on a mission to steal a magical heart to save her dying kingdom. Her mission takes a sharp turn when she's captured by a handsome royal guard, Zander, who throws her plans into disarray. With time running out and secrets swirling, Dawn must decide who to trust and what price she's willing to pay to save her home.

While the plot might feel familiar, the authors manage to pack a punch with engaging characters and an intriguing world-building foundation for the upcoming series. The enemies-to-lovers dynamic between Dawn and Zander is a highlight, and the book ends with a happily-ever-after, leaving readers eager for the next installment. However, some might find the subplots overwhelming or the originality lacking.

Special thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins UK Audio, HQ Digital, 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! #ColdHearted #NetGalley #LifeLongLearning

What draws me to Leia Stone's books is that you get the epic romantic fantasy but in a smaller book. You are still full in love the with characters and the world but don't have all the unnecessary fluff.
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I believe there will be four books in this series as there were in her Kings of Avalier series. Each book will follow a different couple, but will all end up tying together in the final book.
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In this series the summer court princess must cross to the realm of the dark fae to kill one of the dark lords, returning to the summer court with his black heart to hold off the effects of the curse put on them hundreds of years ago.
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In book one we follow Dawn and Zander.
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Big thank you to @netgalley for gifting me the audiobook, it is a dual narrator audio which is my fav to listen too. Helps bring the characters to life.

🎧 Audiobook Review 🎧
Cold Hearted: Cursed Fae Book One
By Leia Stone & Julie Hall
Narrated by Vanessa Moyen; Adam Gold
HQ, 23rd May 2024

This charming introduction to the Cursed Fae series introduces us to Dawn, a Summer Court Princess from Faerie. Feisty Dawn has been trained all her life for just one thing: to travel through the mirror portal, to bring back the heart of an Ethereum Lord, thus freeing Faerie from their curse for another century.

Cold Hearted is beautifully written, and the audiobook wonderfully portrayed. Dawn has plenty of sass, and there is some world building, which will no doubt grow as the series expands. As Dawn sets about her mission and encounters Zander, the interplay between their characters is funny, lovely, frustrating, and heartwarming from initial meeting, right through to the conclusion.

I don't want to give any spoilers, so I'm going to leave it there, but I'm so looking forward to book two: Faint Hearted so I can spend some more time with the Cursed Fae!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to HarperCollins UK Audio/HQ and the authors for providing an audiobook via NetGalley; this is my unbiased review.

Special thanks to HarperCollins UK audio and Netgalley for providing me an advance copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

The story was in general what I expected from the blurb. She's a summer court fae, sent to kill an Ethereum Lord and bring his heart back to save her land. Ofcourse things go wrong right from the beginning when she fails to transport directly to the lord. And she meets a soldier who can bring her to his lord and that sets off a chain of events. The plot was for the most part predictable and the female character to me read very immature and spoiled despite the constant reminders she was trained her whole life to do this task. That was a major let down for me unfortunately. But probably a younger audience that me would enjoy the story more.

The premise of this book sounded right up my street with fae and a strong kick-butt MC. Dawn has been trained to kill an Ethereum lord in order to save her land, but she appears to have been transported into the wrong part of Ethereum. The story has intrigue as Dawn has to try and convince those around her she is from Ethereum as she travels with Zander so she can find and kill a lord (not that he can learn that). There's plenty of issues they encounter along the way that make this difficult!

My main gripe with this book is the world building. It had so much potential and so certain things seemed a little lazy. There are a kind of fae dubbed 'tracker fae' and I just wanted to know what made them such. What are their characteristics that make them so good at tracking? There was also something a long the lines of 'the wise ones' for these all=seeing prophesising creatures, It was little things like this that brought me out the novel.

Overall I liked Cold Hearted, its a fae romantasy novel, the first in a series. I listened to the audiobook thanks to Netgalley. I really enjoyed the narrator's style, she spoke quite quickly, which is great as some audiobooks are very drawn out.

Dawn is sent to kill and retrieve an evil lords heart to save her kingdom…yeah things don’t go to planned!

It had everything I wanted in a Fae romantasy book and was a great start to a series:

Enemies to lovers
One bed
Mates
Duel POV
A badass FMC

It was a super easy listen that I finished in a day with great duel narration. It left quite a few open questions and it would not describe it as a stand-alone book (I have seen this in the Goodreads description). I am excited to learn more about this world and see how the story progresses. I will definitely be picking up subsequent books

There was a few things that I am not a huge fan of, the main one being the little nick-names that I felt were over used at times, you’ve known here two minutes, call her Dawn! Also the time line in the book was very fast taking part over only a month which I needed to turn off my realism switch to feel comfortable with, but that may have been a me problem as fairies I can believe but a one month long romance…nah! 😂😂

So clearly I am not a die hard romantic and much more of a realists when it comes to my romance. This was a closed door romance which I didn’t mind and didn’t impact my rating.

Thank you to NetGalley and the HarperCollins UK Audio for this ARC. All views are my own.

This started strong but just didn't hold up for me. It is definitely YA but is not marketed as so. The characters did not feel fully formed so I struggled to connect to them. It was a good start to a series but not one that I am in a hurry to revisit.

Dawn, the summer princess, has a job to do and a murder to commit. The only way to save her kingdom is to cut the heart out of a dark lord from another kingdom and steal its magic. Unfortunately, her plans go awry when she meets Zander. Through their journey, Dawn and Zander discover secrets of the two kingdoms and their feelings for each other. This is book 1 of a series.

I'm not sure why publishers aren't very clear about the genres of their books. This book is most certainly YA and nowhere on Beyonce's internet is that mentioned (that I could find and, honestly, it shouldn't be that difficult). I am not opposed to reading YA. In fact, there are a lot of YA series that I love. However, I do like knowing what I'm getting. Reason being = I don't typically like YA FMCs. They are immature and whiny. And Dawn was no exception. She's hard to relate to because you want to tell her to "shut up" all the time. Zander feels like he belongs in a NA romantasy novel and why he is smitten with his little bird is something that only fated magic can explain. The storyline is the only thing that really saves this. Will I read the next one? Maybe. I think that the FMC of the next novel may be more interesting.

The audio is actually pretty good. There are dual POVs and two narrators. The female narrator is meh. She's ok. I don't hate her. But the male narrator..... 🌶️🔥 yes ma'am.

“Cold Hearted” is an amazing romantasy book and the first of the series Cursed Fae by Leia Stone and Julie Hall.

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Plot: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Characters: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Suspense: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Romance: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

What you’ll find in this book:
⭐️Enemies to Lovers
⭐️Fated Lovers
⭐️He falls First
⭐️Only one bed/ one horse
⭐️Heroine that takes care of herself
⭐️Forbidden love

My Review:
A light-hearted read with lots of twists and sweet romance. It was super entertaining and I was reading at the same time as listening to the audiobook for the commuting time. Both of them are amazing. I loved the world that the authors built for this book but may I admit I hated how many times the main character referred to her mother’s reaction in case she knew what she was up to, get over it girl, she can’t see you! All the forced proximity was super sweet and I loved how he falls first. This book has fights, magic, fae and a curse, a truly amazing combination. I would definitely recommend it to romantasy, fantasy and fae lovers. Is a must-read.

Description:

To save my kingdom, someone must die…
Every hundred years, a curse descends on Faerie. For the last two millennia, the Summer Court princess has ended it. She has travelled to the mirror realm, found an Ethereum Lord, and returned with his magical heart.
Now it’s my turn.
I have trained to become the perfect assassin so I can retrieve my prize. But when I step through the portal, I’m immediately taken captive by Zander, a handsome royal guard.
To reach my target, I’m forced to play by his rules. Fail my task and everyone I’ve ever known and loved perishes. But Zander has secrets, and they call into question everything I have been taught my entire life…

Writing style:
The pace is fast and entertaining. Inner discussions are a delight 🥰. The plot has many twists and the chapters are well divided.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher (HQ of HarperCollins UK) and the authors for my early copy. All opinions are mine and sincere.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. It started strong and liked the banter between the love interests. But then it started feeling a little insta lovey and spoiler ahead ....





They get married after only a month! There's no buildup to the proposal either. They share one kiss and she finds out they're mates and bam - engaged.

Wish they hadn't rushed their romance. So that's why I'm only giving it the standard three stars.

Cold Hearted by Leia Stone and Julie Hall is a standalone romance in the "Cursed Fae" series, focusing on Dawn and Zander's story. Dawn, a fae princess, must assassinate an Ethereum Lord to save her kingdom, leading her to the mirror realm. Her journey is filled with danger, intrigue, and the perfect enemies-to-lovers dynamic with Zander, a royal guard. Their banter and chemistry, especially within the one-bed trope, are highlights of this novel. The audiobook, narrated by Vanessa Moyen is excellent too, Vanessa’s narration style fits this perfectly. I’m really excited about the next one. Five stars.

(Thank you Harper Collins, Leia Stone and Julie Hall for providing this ARC for review)

** I received an ARC copy of this audiobook in return for an honest review **

Trained her whole life to assassinate an Ethereum Lord to save her realm from a curse, but what will happen once she gets there?
I will say that I predicted quite early on who the Lord was and what the plot twist was but that could be because I have read similar books. That is not to say that this book was not unique.
Although there was chemistry between the two main characters it is quite a fast-paced book and will whisk you away into a fairytale land with a slightly darker underbelly. I would be intrigued how much darker the future books will get.
A beautiful love story starts with an assassination attempt.

i am a sucker for a enemies to lovers troupe add one bed and i am chomping at the bit to read it. the characters did mesh well together and they bounced of each other and it was really good. i think the fast paced of it sometimes can make it feels as if something was missing, i do love their story i didnt want it to end as i feel as if there needed to be more said. was a good read.