I received this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland Narrator: Donald Chang, Greg Chun, Zion Jang, Sophie Oda, Jaine Ye, Roger Yeh
Series: The Broken Blades #1
Published by Entangled Publishing, Recorded Books, Red Tower Books on May 7, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Epic
Length: 15 hours
Pages: 512
Format: ARC, Audiobook
Source: Publisher, Purchased
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The instant New York Times bestseller
It’s the season
for treason...The king of Yusan must die.
The five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together for a single objective: to kill the God King Joon.
He has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles flourish, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined...or sold.
And now each of the five blades will come for him. Each has tasted bitterness—from the hired hitman seeking atonement, a lovely assassin who seeks freedom, or even the prince banished for his cruel crimes. None can resist the sweet, icy lure of vengeance.
They can agree on murder.
They can agree on treachery.
But for these five killers—each versed in deception, lies, and betrayal—it’s not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other...but only one can take the crown.
Let the best liar win.
I really enjoyed this book! I am the first to admit that I was first drawn to this book by its gorgeous edges. I try not to pick up books based only on their appearance but I am a huge sucker for sprayed and stenciled edges. I am happy to report that the story inside lived up to its beautiful packaging. Once I started reading, I didn’t want to put the book down and was entertained until the last page.
This book is told from several points of view. I thought the characters were incredibly well developed and rather unique which helped to differentiate each of their voices. As the story progressed and the characters came together, I couldn’t wait to see what would happen and wondered how they would be able to fulfill their quest to kill the king. There was plenty of action and enough romance worked into the story to keep things very interesting. I loved that some pretty big twists were able to take me completely by surprise.
I listened to the audiobook and believed the full-cast narration took the book to the next level. All of the narrators were able to add a lot of personality to the characters they represented. I liked that each of the narrators had distinct voices, making it easy to identify which character’s point of view the book had shifted to. I am certain that their performance elevated my enjoyment of this entertaining novel.
I would recommend this book to others. I thought that this was a very well-done novel filled with characters that I grew to care about. While I wouldn’t quite say the story ended with a cliffhanger, there were some unresolved threads so I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series.
I received a copy of this book from Entangled: Red Tower Books.
I hope you’ll have more answers in the next book. it’s the first time I hear about this one.
I hadn’t heard about this one. I’m glad you liked it.
I do like a good sprayed edge! This sounds really good. I’ve never been much of a fantasy reader but lately it’s a genre I’ve really been enjoying so I need to try this one. Great review!