Blog Tour Audio Book Review: The Flames (The Feud Trilogy #2) + GIVEAWAY!

Release Date: January 18, 2018
Author: Kyle Prue
Narrator: Jon Eric Preston
Publisher: Cartwright Publishing
Length: 434 pages/12 hrs. & 16 mins.
Source: Audio Book Review Copy

To survive incredible odds, one teen may have to trust both his former enemies and his fire-forged destiny…

Neil Vapros is one of the last free warriors of the great city of Altryon. He and his brother’s only chance of staying alive involves trusting an uneasy alliance with their former enemies. But in the world beyond his city’s walls, Neil’s life is much more dangerous than he ever imagined possible…

The Emperor has hired a ruthless madman and a vicious pack of assassins to hunt down the last supernatural survivors. As the allies attempt to hide from their enemies, the leader of a rebellion singles out Neil as the answer to a prophecy. Neil isn’t sure he believes he’s been “chosen,” but he knows one thing for sure: their only chance for survival lies in sticking together. While treachery and pain wait around every corner, Neil and his allies may win the day, but victory without casualties could prove impossible…

The Flames is the second book in the award-winning Epic Feud trilogy of young adult fantasy novels. If you like rich fantasy settings, imaginative supernatural abilities, and tough-as-nails characters, then you’ll love Kyle Prue’s electrifying adventure.

    

Review:

Protagonists: After being nearly hunted to extinction the last of the Lightborns from the city of Altryon have escaped into the outside world, a world they were once taught was a wasteland filled with savages, but is, in fact, full of thriving civilizations. With their hurt still fresh they aren't ready to fight back against the Empire, but sometimes the fight will come to you whether you want it or not. While Neil is arguably the main character of this book, and of this series, I really loved that all of our main characters have really well developed and defined character arcs in this book. I never really felt that one character was more important than the other, even when Neil starts to get pulled into a "Chosen One" storyline, I never felt that he became the focus of the story. Each character has a great deal of character development in this book, and what I found interesting was that the author definitely made it clear what it was that each character had to learn over the course of this book, but their character development still felt very natural and not like it was being shoved down my throat, which is usually how it is when the "lesson" our protagonist(s) has to learn is made obvious.

Romance: I wasn't sure if I was going to comment on this as the romance in this book is definitely on the lighter side for a YA novel, which is great honestly as I've kind of gotten a little romanced out lately. In fact, at first, I wasn't sure what to think about the lack of romance in this book, especially when the feelings between characters were growing a tad too fast for my liking, though with the time jump between this book and the previous one, on top of the fact that what we know about what transpired during that time jump is limited. Anyway, there are actually multiple romances in this book and I have to say I really enjoyed them both. Again, they weren't touched on a whole lot, and they never felt like anything more than a small subplot, but I felt it was handled well, and the little we do see makes an impact.

World Building: Woah, once we left the city of Altryon this world got a whole lot bigger. In fact, not that much of this book, if any, takes place within the Industrial City. There is so much of this world to still learn about and the complexities of this outside world are an interesting place to start. I was rather shocked going into the outside and just seeing how much story potential there is for these characters as they explore the world beyond the city. There's so much world building to talk about, from new villains to new discoveries surrounding the Lightborns, but unfortunately, I don't want to give too much away. I will say this though, it doesn't take too long in this book for things to get interesting and that's only the tip of the iceberg. Even after the phenomenal expansion to the story and the world that this book is there's still more I want to know, and if the next book is even half as story and world dense as this one I know I won't be disappointed.

Predictability: Like I said, this book doesn't take long for the story to get interesting and what better way than with a twist or to from left field. I mean, I'm thinking back on this book and trying to figure out if I was able to predict any twists, in a reasonable amount of time before they actually happen, and I can't really think of any. There are a couple that I got before the actual reveal, but within a second or two doesn't count. The twists and turns this story has are phenomenal, there wasn't a single one that I wasn't invested in, and while they aren't all good, in fact, I feel there are very few that were good for our heroes, they were still masterfully executed.

Ending: Going into the end of this story, and with it being the penultimate installment, I knew things were going to get good, and they sure did. The final climax, or honestly climaxes as we got different climactic events from different points of view, was amazing. It was a fantastic way to wrap up this adventure, while still leaving a great deal open for the next installment, or installments as this story opened this world up a lot and I could see more than one installment following this one. Anyway, the final climaxes were amazing, full of excitement and tension and I truly felt there was a lot at stake. While the very end of this book wasn't as game-changing as the previous one, that doesn't mean that it isn't as impactful, as a few things are revealed after the dust has settled and let me just say I'm happy it has taken me a while to get to this installment because that cliffhanger is just plain evil!

Audio Book Notes: As I've said ad nauseam, I'm not very well versed in reviewing the presentation of audio books. That being said though if you're going to pick up an audio book, this series definitely has some fantastic ones. While this audio book doesn't have a lot of production value put into it (ambient sound, background music, etc.) the narrator puts his all into presenting a thoroughly invigorating performance. It's hard not to get swept up into this world with such a masterful storyteller conveying the tale, every emotion the characters had I could feel in the narrator's performance, and at the end of the day, that really makes an audio book stand out.

Rating:

I'm quite surprised with how much I fell into this story and couldn't get out. This world is so rich and dense, the characters are phenomenal, and the story is way too easy to get swept away in. While I did greatly enjoy the first book, this installment was everything I was looking for in this series and I (literally) cannot wait until the second installment.

About the Author:

Kyle Prue is an award-winning author, actor, and comedian. Kyle wrote The Sparks: Book 1 of the Feud Trilogy when he was just 16 years old. Kyle has spent the past year on a national book tour visiting over 80 middle and high schools and meeting over 60,000 students. Kyle is now a freshman at the University of Michigan, studying acting and creative writing. He still visits schools and is a keynote speaker for conferences.

Kyle is the founder of Sparking Literacy, a non-profit dedicated to lowering the high school dropout rate by inspiring teens to read, write and follow their dreams.  The Sparks has won numerous national awards including Best YA Fiction awards from: The Florida Authors and Publisher’s Association, the Florida Book Festival, New England Book Festival, Midwest Book Festival, Southern California Book Festival, and the International London Book Festival. Kyle also won an International Moonbeam Award and IndieFab Award for Best Young Author.

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About the Narrator:

Jon Eric Preston received his Theatre degree from Florida State University after returning from the London program. He earned top honors narrating in the Dramatic Interpretation category on the Speech and Debate team, and performed professionally in Children’s Theatre companies and did National Tours of A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night, and Othello.

Giveaway!

The Flames Giveaway: Kindle Fire

Disclosure:

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Kyle Prue. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Audiobook Review: The Sparks (Feud #1)

Release Date: January 31, 2017/February 24, 2017
Author: Kyle Prue
Narrator: Jon Eric Preston
Publisher: Cartwright Publishing
Length: 300 pages/9 hrs. 14 mins.
Source: Audiobook Received for Review

HONOR DOES NOT BEND. A WILL OF IRON DOES NOT BREAK
VICTORY LIES WITHIN THE ASHES.

The Vapros, the Taurlum, and the Celerius: three dynasties bound by an ancient promise, and given superhuman abilities to protect the city of Altryon from the dangerous world beyond its walls. The Vapros have the ability to teleport and turn their enemies to ash, the Celerius have super speed and the ability to heal from any wound, the Taurlum have skin like steel and godlike strength. Centuries of petty infighting, have turned the families against each other, resulting in a secret war. A powerful emperor now rules over all as the families have been weakened by massive casualties.

16-year-old, Neil Vapros, desperately wants to become an assassin in order to please his overbearing father. After failing his first mission, Neil learns that a new sinister threat has awakened. This mysterious new power threatens to shatter the established order and the lives of everyone in Altryon – regardless of their family name or allegiance.

    

Review:

Protagonists: While a majority of this story is told from the point of view of Neil Vapros, a boy who wants nothing more than the respect of his family, this story has many points of view and while not all of them are the protagonists of this story, a great deal of them are. What I love about all of the protagonists is that they aren't these paragons of goodness that you can easily take the side of, they are flawed and their logic of this ridiculous feud between their families is warped beyond comprehension. Each of the protagonists grows in some way or another over the course of this story, it's a growth that's easily seen but not in your face and obvious. I really liked each character who has a POV in this story, while not all the POV characters are good, they are still well layered and it's easy to see their logic, even if it's not something I personally agree with.

World Building: One of my biggest problems with this story, I almost feel too embarrassed to share. This book takes a long time to get fully set up, and while, once it's done, it's a really fantastic world that I'm totally sucked into now and I can't wait to see what happens in it, it was hard to get into at first because there was still a lot of set up. However, once a certain event occurs things speed up and kick into high gear. There's a lot to this world, and while it takes a while to set up it's quite a sight to behold. I mean the synopsis for the story sets it up a bit, but as you dive into this story the backstory for not only the characters but the families as well are incredible. Even after all this story has to offer in terms of set up there are still mysteries it hides and I just want to know more and to follow these characters as they hopefully discover more about the world they live in and the feud between their families that has consumed their entire lives.

Predictability: Other than one very large twist that I was able to figure out from the synopsis alone, this book does a spectacular job at keeping the twists of this book under wraps. If you're worried about reading the synopsis and getting spoiled on something big, don't worry there's enough foreshadowing for that twist that even without the synopsis you'd still see it coming a long time before it's actually revealed. As for the other twists in this story, I'm sure there might have been some foreshadowing for the larger twists, but I can't seem to remember all that much. For the smaller stuff, there wasn't all that much that felt like and intentional twist, but more like a part of the plot to move things along.

Ending: If I didn't know this book was part of a series going in, I would have known it by that ending. While this story doesn't end with a heart stopping cliffhanger or game changing twist, there is a lot that happens towards the end of this story. There are still a great many mysteries in this world and I just loved that the author used what I like to refer to as the "cooldown" period of this book, after the final climax, to remind readers that there's still more that won't be revealed until at least the sequel. The actual final climax of this story was incredible. Since there are multiple perspectives we got to see what was going down from multiple angles and through the lenses of different characters.

Audiobook Notes: As I've said in past Audiobook Reviews, I don't really have a great talent for articulating my thoughts about an audiobook unless it's something special and the creators and producers go above and beyond or the narration was so monotonously boring that I couldn't help but shut it off. While there wasn't anything in the production of the audiobook, such as ambient sounds, music, etc. that heightened the experience, the narrator does a spectacular job at bringing the characters in this story to life. His narration is anything but boring as he does good voices, and really adds a lot of great depth and emotion into his performance. When characters cry it really sounds like the narrator is crying, or when characters have to cover their mouths while talking in a certain scene, that comes through in the narration. Overall, this was a spectacular book to listen to.

Rating:

While this story does take quite a while to get fully set up, and the story can seem to drag in certain parts until then, once things start going they don't stop and I can't wait to find out what happens next in this intricately designed fantasy world.