Kings of Muraine is the first book in The Journals of Ravier and what you get is a high fantasy story told by a thirteen-year-old boy, Tyler. He lost his dad in a bombing or so he thought. It appears things aren't as straightforward as he presumed.

This was a great read that kept my interest and the pages turning. The world-building is great, giving you clear and concise scenes of both sides of the portal. With Gemma by his side, Tyler has adventures he never even dreamed of as he tries to unravel who his father was and, in turn, who he is.

If I had anything negative to say, it would be this. First off, the numbers. I loved and loathed them! I really enjoyed how they ruled Tyler's life and had such an impact on him but I also loathed how they showed up so often. Some of the 'clues' were cryptic enough, without adding numbers to the mix! The other thing for me is the simple amount of characters in here. By the time we reached the end, I was struggling to remember who was who, which side of the portal they belonged, etc.

Fair warning also - this book ends on one helluva cliffhanger with a character who seems to be both good and evil - or maybe evil with designs I don't yet know about! Yes, I am left with questions unanswered but that just leads me onto the next book so I'm happy.

A great fantasy book that I thoroughly enjoyed. Definitely recommended by me.

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I liked this one! I am always on the lookout for new Urban Fantasy series to try and I just couldn't resist a story about a necromancer with a resurrected pet pig named Bacon! This book is a collection of 6 different novella-length stories that all tie into a larger story. I did like some of the stories much more than others but I had a good time with the collection overall.

I loved Octavia! She had a lot of spunk and was just a lot of fun. Every time she put her pet pig, Bacon in a baby carrier under her shirt and pretended to be pregnant, I couldn't help the smile that would work its way onto my face. She was tough and rather resourceful. I liked seeing her handle herself in such a wide variety of settings.

In this collection, we see Octavia encounter a lot of different challenges. Each story was different but sometimes things from a previous story would carry over. I liked some of the stories a lot more than others which is normal for a collection of shorter pieces. I liked the stories at the beginning and the end of the collection the best and found that the middle stories dragged a bit. This audiobook did keep the beginning and ending credits for each of the six shorter works which I found somewhat unexpected.

This was the first time that I have listened to Brenda Scott Wlazlo narrate a book. I thought that she did a marvelous job with this one. I probably enjoyed this book a bit more because of her narration. She made the story come alive and everything flowed beautifully. I loved that when Octavia sang, we got to hear it. I hope to listen to more of her narration work.

I would recommend this book to others. I thought that this was a very well done collection of stories with great characters and just the right amount of humor. I would love to see what comes next for Octavia, Bacon, and friends!

I received a review copy of this audiobook from the author via Caffeinated Services.

Initial Thoughts
Probably more of a 3.5 star read. I liked this book and had some fun with it. This is a collection of 6 novella-length stories that come together to tell a larger story. I liked some of the stories much better than others. I did like the characters and thought that the narrator did an amazing job.