The magic touches with all the prince and princess overtones is truly enjoyable, giving the reader prior knowledge to draw upon. There is evil lurking, dark ravines, and suspense throughout the 500+ pages. Both stand out as outcasts in their respective kingdoms. Oddly enough, Princess Lyra looks more like the people of Nerezeth and Prince Vesper looks more like the people of Eldoria.

King Orion and Queen Nova have a son named Prince Vesper. There was a blood pact between the two kingdoms that when Princess Lyra and Prince Vesper both come of age to marry, the joining would benefit both kingdoms. It was dragged down into the Earth, lives in eternal nighttime, and the inhabitants are pale-bluish skinned with silvery-white hair. The other kingdom, called Nerezeth, is ruled by King Orion and Queen Nova. Its residents live in constant daylight, and their skin is bronzed by the sun. King Kiran has a despicable sister named Lady Griselda who has three daughters.Īfter a magical war long ago, the land was split into two kingdoms. King Kiran adores his daughter and is willing to do anything for her. She is the only daughter of King Kiran and Queen Arael however, Queen Arael dies during child-birth.

I found the dialogue to be self-indulgent, disconnected and the characters to be ridiculous.Stain’s real name is Princess Lyra.

It was dragged out to the point of pain -a bit like this review. To be fair, I believe that some or many people may enjoy this audio but The plot, characters and storyline was simple yet it managed to get caught up and convoluted. It might come down the fact that it just wasn’t for me. I found myself rolling my eyes and really struggling with the experience. I don’t usually listen to books that annoy me. I really wanted to abandon this book a quarter of the way through but for some strange reason, I decided to see it through to the end. From time-to-time, (rarely) I will decide to not finish an audiobook but I will give fantasy books a little extra time to engage-especially if it requires setting up realms and complicated characters. That said, I committed to listening and finishing Stained. By the time I realized I just really didn’t like the book, it picked up a little. I found getting through this long audio difficult and tedious. Typically, I really enjoy the Fantasy genre and the occasional fairytale-based.

Ag howard stain