This is good for an easy read with fast character dynamics but I felt the plot lacked depth and didn't captivate me how I'd hoped for.

This sounded so good but for me it was a let down. It was one of those ones I wish I had stopped reading but something kept me going back but I'm really not sure what maybe it was just curiosity of how it would end. It was just all a bit too far fetched (yes i know its fiction) and everything fell into place too easily for me. I did enjoy the narration. Sadly it just wasn't for me but I'm sure others will love it

I just read Cold Hearted by Leia Stine and Julie Hall
Amazing! Didn't want it to end and cannot wait for the next book!
Beautifully created world and characters, excellent story telling with a powerful FMC that you want to cheer for and a strong MMC that you want for yourself. Low spice but it wasnt missed due to the high quality banter!
Allowed the privilege of reading this arc through NetGalley

Cold Hearted by Leia Stone and Julie Hall is a stand-alone romantasy in the interconnected Cursed Fae Series. This is Dawn and Zander‘s story.
 
Dawn is a fae princess and in order for her kingdom to survive, she is sent to the mirror realm to assassinate one of the Ethereum Lords and bring back his heart. Dawn is a lovely heroine who isn’t afraid to use a sword and that was so badass.
 
This curse situation was so intriguing, and it creates the perfect enemies-to-lovers situation. She meets the handsome royal guard Zander, and he is so much more than that and I love how you discover more of him with each chapter. The two of them have so much banter and one of my fav scenes involved the one bed trope. It was just wonderful to see them falling in love and they are a stunning couple. I listened to the audiobook and the narration was amazing and especially Vanessa Moyen did a fantastic job, and she is one of my new favorite narrators and I can’t wait to listen to more books narrated by her.
 
Overall, I think it’s very difficult to come across good fantasy stand-alone and this is one of them. I can’t wait to read the next book in this series. 5 stars.

(ARC kindly provided in exchange for a review.)

Cold Hearted – 4.5 stars (rounded to 5) | Pub Date: May 23, 2024

#ColdHearted is the first book of the new series Cursed Fae. The story starts around Summer Court of Faerie, the mirrored world of Ethereum. Long time ago these two worlds were cursed and to keep curse strained, every 100 years a Princess from Faerie should travel to the mirrored world and bring the black magic heart of a Lord of Etherum. And Dawn, the crown princess of the Summer Court, was trained all her life for this moment. But the next second Dawn stepped through the portal, she realizes how badly she messed up. She meant to appear in a Lord’s castle, but she found herself in a barn facing a pig. Now Dawn has no choice but travel to the castle and get the black heart. From her success depends whole Faerie. But it doesn’t go as smooth as she thought it would be. She was captured by the Commander of Noreum's army Zander and from that moment Dawn’s journey starts. Will Dawn be able to go through every challenge on her way to save Faerie on time? Or she will be the very first Princess who failed? Giiirl, no pressure!
I listened to this book in one day because I just couldn’t stop. I constantly was wondering what’s next, what’s after. The storytelling flowed so smoothly that it was very easy to fall in love with the characters and the world. I felt unity with Dawn from the first line, with her I felt the confusion in the pigs barn and the difficulty in finding the way to the Lord, and with her I felt the full weight of the responsibility of saving her people and Fairie. I liked how the relationship between Dawn and Zander was built and what a twist towards the end! It is nice when a book makes you feel.
The reason I gave 4.5 stars is because the story was a bit predictable and the ending of the book felt a little rushed.
Overall, this book would be perfect for those, who like tropes like forbidden love and fated mates, secrets with hidden lies and adventures with challenges.
Thank you to narrators Vanessa Moyen and Adam Gold, you brought Dawn and Zander to life! You made this story so good that it was very easy to get hooked on straight away.

Author: Leia Stone & Julie Hall
Narrated by Vanessa Moyen and Adam Gold
Publisher: HarperCollins UK Audio | HQ
Pages: 288

Thank you Netgalley for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

#ColdHearted #NetGalley

I was in a bit of a slump when I started this book and I did initially struggle to get into it but I’ve now realised I just wasn’t gelling with the narrator initially. About 50% in I started to get hooked as my reading slump was finally lifting.

This is a fairly short book and therefore its action packed, I really enjoyed Dawn’s character and for me she was a perfect mix of dedicated to the mission but also having a heart of gold. Zander is flirtatious from the start and I really enjoyed his interactions with Dawn and how he riled her up throughout. We spend the majority of the book following Dawn’s mission to retrieve the heart, but of course this gets side tracked and she finds herself seeing more of Ethereum than she thought she ever would. The world building was fairly basic I’d say but it isn’t really a major focus of the book so it was just enough for me. My main negative is the relationship felt rushed at the end and the wedding seemed unnecessary, I’d have liked to have experienced their relationship blooming once they actually discovered their connection and had more romance in the series but perhaps that’ll come more in the next book.

Overall I really enjoyed this and I’m excited for the second book. The epilogue sets up for book 2 really well and I’ll be adding that to my preorders. I only rated this 4⭐️ because of my early struggles but I’ll definitely be getting a copy of this to read in future as I think I’d actually enjoy that more than the audio. Saying that I did fully binge the last 30% of the audio so I would still recommend that version.

I have left a similar review on Goodreads but can’t give the specific link to mine unfortunately. I will also share a summary review on my instagram within the week.

An interesting Fantasy story, this is only the beginning. So I cannot wait to see where the world and the story will go from here.

This was a fast paced, quick and easy romantasy that I thoroughly enjoyed! It was exciting, and immersive while not being slowed down by overly in depth world building. I enjoyed the lore around the fae and the realms and liked the forbidden love, enemies to lovers, she’s sent to kill him vibes as well as the fated mates. The romance was quick but it still felt natural to read and though this was fade to black there was a sweet steaminess hinted at by what wasn’t on the page.

This is the first in a series of romantasy books that have an overarching plot but each focus on a different couple so they are more interconnected than most standalones that are set in a shared world and I think Dawn and Zander will have more than just a cameo in book 2. This seems like it will be interesting as it’s slightly different from what is generally done so I’m really exciting to see what happens next… When can I read/listen to book 2?!

(I listened to an audiobook of this which I was kindly sent an advanced copy of by the publisher and netgalley. I enjoyed the narration and these are my honest thoughts.)

A romantasy with fae and curses - I immediately had to read this. It’s fun, full of fairytale vibes and action packed. I enjoyed the romance the most - I think the enemies to lovers is done well with good banter. I love the trope of one horse and this took it slightly further in a really lovely way. The book isn’t too deep, it’s super easy to read and follow, a little predictable, but sometimes you need that in a book. It’s a fun time and full of magic. I would definitely recommend the audiobook as it felt all the more immersive! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

Absolutely loved this audiobook.

Short and sweet with very likeable characters. I didn't want to turn it off!

If you are in your fantasy / fae / romance era ✨️ you'll enjoy this. Quick romance, enemies to lovers with lots of twists and turns.

My first reading from these authors and cannot wait to read more!

I absolutely binged this in just over 24 hours! I really enjoyed this audiobook and I don’t usually like to listen to fantasy. It has some of the best tropes - enemies to lovers, only one bed, forbidden love. The world building was really simple so I think that’s why this one lends itself to an audiobook (in my opinion), and the storyline is really engaging. A great fantasy romance in a new world of fae that I would recommend to any romantasy lovers! ✨💕

I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook. Fast-paced, always something happening to keep me alert, interesting plot... And enemy to lovers trope!! Yaass please 🤩 I was obsessed with Zander for the majority of the book I will confess.
I cannot wait to read the next one in the series!

If you like fantasy books but without the 200 pages of world development give this one a try. Since it was an audiobook having a simple plot and not a lot of descriptive build up worked really well. I found it quite cosy and the perfect company while on a flight ✈️ ☺️

Thank you @netgalley and @harpercollinsuk for the audiobook copy of this book.

Will be purchasing the physical book because that cover! 🥰

Thank you to HarperCollins UK Audio and Netgalley for the ARC Audiobook in exchange for review.

YA Fantasy romance

Duel POV
Enemies to lovers
Fated mates
One horse/bed
Forbidden love

"Little bird, didn't they know they couldn't cage you?"

This audio book is narrated by Vanessa Moyen and Adam Gold. They voices suited the characters and brought the story to life. Initially, I felt the pacing was off, and it felt very rushed, but by Chapter 2, this seemed to have slowed down to a more natural pace.

This story is majoritively told from the POV of Dawn, our strong, highly trained FMC. Dawn is the princess of the summer court and is next in line to save Faerie and its people from a curse that occurs every hundred years. Dawn has been trained all her life to travel to the mirror realm and cut out the magical heart of an Ethereum Lord.

When Dawn arrives in the wrong area, she inlists the help of Zander, our likeable, cheeky black glass weilding, mind speaking MMC. There is an instant connection between Dawn and Zander and their easy banter was my favourite part of their story, can we just take a moment to appreciate this gem from Zander: "If I were a horse, I'd want you to ride me as well". Their story is meant to be an enemies to lovers, but for me, their story moved so fast it felt more like insta-love.

Unfortunately, the story felt rushed through, the characters are thrown from one situation to the next with not a lot of world building. I found the characters predictable, the plot twist with Zander was so similar to the Rip storyline in the Plated Prisoner series by Raven Kennedy. Overall, it didn't feel original with mash up of multiple generic romantasy tropes. This is a quick and easy read, which was generally enjoyable, but it's probably not one I will remember.

This book is a standalone with a happy ending, but there will be further books in the series following different couples. Personally, I dont think I'll continue with the series as I just didn't feel enough for the world or characters to want to know more.

Ughhh I so wanted to love this book, I am genuinely sad to have to write not such a great review first of all its 2.5🌟 just didn't quite make the 3 for me...

The narration was well done had no issues there and maybe it was more of a me thing with this novel being so spiritual I may have set myself up with high expectations from the book description. With all this being said I just felt it was a little too much of repetition of the fight, I appreciate this was the main plot the fight to gain the magical heart to take back to her realm however the word dagger itself seemed to be overused I felt it was almost in every paragraph. There could have been more use of the spiritual world itself that may have made this a little more intriguing to the reader.

There was so much potential for this novel and the characters were well narrated I just didn't seem to be able to really immerse myself with this one sadly.

I do appreciate the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in return for an open honest review. With thanks to Netgalley & Harper Collins UK Audio.

I loved this book. All of the twisted and turns. I loved the budding romance between the main characters. I felt that it was written in a style that made for an East read.
THe narration was spot on. Admittedly, I was surprised by the male narrators voice, but I think his voice did suit the MC.

Very pleased

Cold Hearted is what I'd describe as a half standalone. As while it is part of an interconnected romance series. That you will have to read in order to understand due to wider plot points outside of the romance elements, the book itself focuses on a single relationatiom while I believe the next ones will focus on a different couple and so on.

This books I cludes a lot of Tropes that made my ao3 heart very happy. With Tropes like one horse, one bed, fated mates, forced proximity, enemies to lovers, assasin princesses. It has a lot of the Tropes we have come to love. And while some of them seem a little clunky, that doesn't take away from how enjoyable the reading experience was. It was fast paced, with an intriguing concept and world building. Sometimes I found the pacing felt a little rushed, but I think that is just what happened when you try to fit everyone into one book. I'm hoping the sequel will feel a bit better paced due to not having to have to introduce the world as much. Either way I'm eagerly waiting the second book, excited to see how things work out and who the next couple is going to be.

I absolutely loved this romantasy. It was fast paced, gripping narration and pure joy to listen to. The narrator is fab and very easy to listen to. This book has everything, from enemies to lovers and a forbidden romance. I am soo looking forward to the next book and have added this one to my purchase list.

Ok that was a super enjoyable light fantasy! It’s kinda a standalone, as it’ll move on to another couple in the next book, but not because they are super connected and you will be left confused if not read in order. It was awesome. I love how the story built and everything happened in just a small amount of time (compared to other fantasy books) it was all done really well!! I also loved how it’s connecting the books. It’s such a cool way to do it! It’s fast paced and hard to put down!

The banter between Zander and Dawn is the best. I love the barbs they throw at each other. I love how it was slow burn but also Insta love at the same time haha (it’ll make sense when you read it). It is closed door, but I didn’t mind, they still had amazing chemistry!

It was a little predictable, but didn’t make it less enjoyable. The narrators were great! And I so excited for the next book and what is to come!

I’m a little obsessed with the dynamic between Dawn and Zander in this book. There’s flirting and chemistry, but there’s also the way he thinks about her. He admires her, is confident in her skills and basically thinks she’s amazing - who doesn’t want a man like that?! Their road is definitely a bumpy one with a few obstacles along the way, and plenty of danger. I would have liked to have seen more of Dawn and Zander together, and their romance felt very sudden and rushed despite how much I liked the vibe.

I enjoyed the audiobook, and the narrator for Dawn’s character, though there was something about the voice of the narrator for Zander which felt a little off to me, perhaps not completely natural, but that’s definitely a personal thing.

All in all though it’s an easy read and has interesting fantasy elements, leaving me looking forward to the next book in the series!

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

I enjoyed the unique concept, I liked (and hated 😅) that the dual POV didn't kick in until later in the book, both the MC's were very likeable and I enjoyed the banter between them.

I personally would have preferred more world building, and more description in some scenes, but that's just my preference.

I think its perfect for people who like Sarah J Maas but would prefer something a bit lighter and more fast paced.

I felt the ending was a bit rushed, but it still left me wanting to go on to book two.