littleread1
Written on Apr 19, 2017
Seoafin “Finnie” Wilde was taught by her parents that every breath was a treasure and to seek every adventure she could find. And she learns this lesson the hard way when they perish in a plane crash. But she never forgets and when she discovers there is a parallel universe where every person has a twin, she finds a witch who can send her there so she can have the adventure of a lifetime.
But upon arrival in the Winter Wonderland of Lunwyn, she realizes she’s been played by her twin and finds herself walking down the aisle to be wed to The Drakkar.
Thrown into inauspicious circumstances, with years of practice, Finnie bests the challenges and digs into her adventure. But as Frey Drakkar discovers the woman who is his new wife is not Princess Sjofn, a woman he dislikes but instead, his Finnie, a free-spirit with a thirst for venture just like him, without her knowledge he orders his new bride bound to his frozen world, everlasting.
But at the same time Frey plunges Finnie into a web of political intrigue that includes assassination plots, poison, magic, mystery and… dragons.
- ISBN10 0692577793
- ISBN13 9780692577790
- Publish Date 11 November 2015
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Kristen Ashley
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 494
- Language English
Reviews
Melanie
Written on Jul 15, 2016
I read the second book in this series, The Golden Dynasty, a few years ago based on the recommendation by Jessica Haluska from Rabid Reads. I loved the book, but never got a round to picking up any of the others, even though I wanted to. I was really excited to see that Audible was releasing these books on audio, because I can get to a lot more books on audio than I can to sit down and read them, so I quickly grabbed this one up to try it.
Since I had read book two, I had a little bit of an idea of how this story might go, but this one is a bit different. Basically the jist of it is, Seoafin “Finnie” Wilde who lives in the world we all know. She lost her parents when she was a teenager. They were adventurers and instilled that love of adventure in their daughter. When Finnie hears about the chance to travel to a parallel universe, she is more than willing to drop the million dollars to do this and trade places with her twin from this other place for a year.
Once Finnie gets to this new world she finds out that the other Seoafin wasn’t as truthful as to her reasoning for wanting to switch worlds. Within minutes of arriving, Finnie is whisked away by her mother to be wed to The Drakkar as part of an arranged marriage. Frey Drakkar knows the original Seoafin of this world and he is not a fan. He treats Finnie as if she is this other woman (who I might add is also known for not liking men and having a knack for taking care of herself). He drops Finnie off at his lodge and leaves her there. When he comes back, he does start to notice the differences between the two females and the elves confirm it. That is when his attitude towards her changes, though he does not mention to her that he knows her secret.
While The Drakkar does start off as rather a jerk and continues to make mistakes along the way, overall, I think he does mean well. He lives in a world that is much different than the world we live in. Like many fantasy novels, this is world is much more like olden times where there is no technology, more horses, men make the decisions and there is magic. Add to the fact that Frey is a very important person in that he has the loyalty of both the elves and the dragons, he is used to getting thing his way.
That being said, Finnie isn’t blameless in this story. She gets really upset at Frey about something that happens before she even knew him. Plus, she isn’t taken into account that the culture in this world is different than what she is used to. I thought she was a little hard on him at times, too.
While the romance is a large part of this story, the world that Kristen Ashley has built here is pretty amazing. I really loved it. There is also some action as there is a plot to kill Seoafin. We also get to see how Finnie steps up to being a princess and a ruler.
I really loved being back in this world. I’m even more excited to pick back up the second book of the series, which I loved when I read it and I know I’m going to enjoy listening. If you enjoy fantasy romance, this is a fun series that I highly recommend you try.
Narration
Tillie Hooper is the alter-ego of a narrator that I’ve listened to before. I don’t know how common it is that they are both the same person. As I expected, she did an amazing job on the narration of this series. She has a great pace (though I do listen at 1.25x, but that is standard for me). I thought her male and female voices were great. All the different characters had their own unique voices. If you haven’t tried anything by Tillie Hooper I highly recommend her.
**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
stacey_is_sassy
Written on Jul 12, 2016
I don’t know what I’m more excited about…finishing and LOVING Wildest Dreams or starting The Golden Dynasty. They’re both awesome but doing them one straight after the other WITH a glass of champers in my hand and it’s FRIDAY makes it monumentally AWESOMER!!
Now, before I go on with this review, it’s going to be extremely spoilerish because I feel the need…the need to dish.
(If you don’t want to read this spoilerish review, exit stage right)
OMG!!
I think I need my hubby to start calling me *My Wee Sassy/Stacey* (he can choose, I’m not going to be fussy). I need to be a wee lassy at least once in my life. I’m 5ft 6.5 and it would be lovely to be called wee. I know, I’m not extremely tall, but I’m tall enough to still tower over a few blokes in my time. Anyways…I wouldn’t mind being a wee lassy for awhile.
Funny thing…today, hubby and I had a bit of a bust-up (in my world a bust-up is considered me pulling a cranky face and telling him I’m not happy…no violence, I promise) and I left him to go to work a wee bit cranky. That lasted about 10 minutes. See, I couldn’t get it out of my head that Finnie had had a bust-up with Frey and then he was arrowed down (you know, shot down but with arrows) right in front of her eyes. Bloody hell, how bad would I have felt if my last words to hubby were…*Yeah, have a great day* (with extreme sarcasm)? Those 10 minutes were HELL… I caved and sent him a mushy gushy text telling him I loved him. And, because he’s AWESOME…I got a mushy gushy one back and we’re all good.
Seriously…I absolutely LOVE Wildest Dreams. Who wouldn’t, mind you? Considering our hero is the Frey Drakkar. Sure, for about 4.5 minutes throughout the story I’m slightly peeved at him, but he more than makes up for his douchewaffle ways. Seriously, Frey, Viola…what the bloody hell were you THINKING? Lucky he does the *My Love* and the *My Wee Finnie* thing a lot.
Again…ANYWAYS…Finnie, oh how I wish I could be as strong and brave as dear old Finnie. I’m not sure I could step into another world and handle it as well as she did. ESPECIALLY, considering she had to boil her own water AND she had to clean. There is no way I’d be a happy camper if I’d just forked out a million dollars for THAT kind of adventure.
I think I’m rambling…ANYWAYS…I loved the excitement, mystery and FREY!! Yep, he’s one heck of a man. I know, I know, he does some REALLY dodgy things but come on, we’re stepping into his world and his rules apply, we’ve got to give him a little leeway for that. BUT Frey…DRAGONS…ELVES…BOSSY…SEXY…TIGHT BRITCHES…GROWLY…HOLY MOLY…Hubby, how do you feel about be calling Frey for awhile???
I’m sorry readers, this was a bit of a mess. Blame it on the champers…or that it’s Friday Night Party Night…or that KA’S A FRICKIN LEGEND!!!
I’ll probably regret this slightly tipsy review in the morning…BUT FELLOW FANTASYLAND FANS UNITE!!!!!
**********
The audio was Awesome and Brilliant
I knew the story was brilliant already but the audio just enhanced the experience. Onwards...it's time to visit The Golden Dynasty.
nitzan_schwarz
Written on Jun 14, 2016
YOU CAN ALSO FIND THIS REVIEW ON MY BLOG
To tell you the truth, I have never planned on reading this one, or any book in the series. It was a mixture of things; the first being the unappealing covers, the second being the synopsis which was overly long and messily structured (imo).
But I have read another Kristen Ashley novel (Play It Safe) which I loved, so when this one only $0.99 I decided I would get it. For that price, what did I really have to lose? Luckily for this book, I almost immediately found myself in the mood for a romance, and picked it up. There were a lot of things that I liked about it. There were a few I didn't.
But at the end of the day, I decided to rate it based on my enjoyment which was a solid four stars.
In it's essence, it's a pretty simple premise: Finnie lost her parents when she was younger, so when she discovers there exists a parallel universe to ours where they still live and breath (even if it's a different version of them), she jumps on the opportunity to see them again, switching places with that world's Sjofn.
Only turns out it's that Sjofn's wedding day... so now Finnie is getting married, to a frightening beast of a man called Frey Drakkar ("The Dragon") and this Frey doesn't really like Sjofn and so he thinks he doesn't like Finnie.
Thus starts the little adventure that would eventually lead to these two falling in love.
Finne was a good character, and a good person, refusing to let any negativity control her life. She finds joy in whatever and wherever she is, easily excitable, and has a wondering spirit. She fit the Drakkar very well, despite a few hits and glitches along the way (and moments I was shaking my head because shame on you Drakkar!). The Drakkar is a natural born leader, a strategic, imposing figure with a lot of power at his hands, being (essentially), the true king of Finnie's country.
It's a marriage-before-love type of story, which is one of my favorite tropes in historical and this reads very much like an historical in the medieval fantasy world it presents. A fantasy world that is well thought out, but takes second place to the love story itself.
And I honestly, and truly enjoyed that story very much, even if I was a bit sad with the villain.
However, there were a few things that bothered me, and they mostly had to do with the writing. It's not the best... not even close. It took a while for me to get used to it and put it out of my mind enough to concentrate on the story itself. It was all kind of choppy at places and very young, which is a bit weird considering this has some very adult content.
Or maybe, it felt young because of how Finnie talks and expresses herself. Finnie should be around thirty years old, but I wouldn't put her past twenty-two based on her voice. She sounded so, so young to me. Younger that I, and I am 22 years old. Her inner monologues included a tedious amount of "wow", "cool", "awesome", and the likes. Every new thing she encountered was awesome and freaking beautiful, more than the last one. After a while, I was desensitized to all her exclamations of beauty because they appeared so often and so frequently.
Then there were the descriptions. Good god. How many dresses and items of clothing can you describe to teeny tiny details? It drove me mad. I did not need to know the exact shade and shape of your dress, what fabric it was made from and how many bows and strings and belts it had in it. It gives nothing to the story. I can handle a few dress descriptions in order to establish the fashion and how it differs from ours. But almost every dress and every item of clothing you see? It was too much by far. You can leave some things to the imagination, and it won't take from the story at all.
These two things were the major issues I had with the book, and while they did bother me greatly, I decided to just skim the descriptions and focus and the story and I enjoyed that story enough to one click and start the second book immediately.
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Romance Schmomance
Written on Jan 22, 2016
Eve1972
Written on Dec 7, 2015
leelu92
Written on Nov 16, 2012
I needed a good solid read and I knew my girl KA would do me right. And oh boy did she! Seriously, who wouldn't love to have a badass warrior who was gentle and affectionate AND commanded dragons and elves??!!! And I LOVED Finnie! She asked for the adventure and she got it and she went for it completely...no whining and no major issues holding her back from her new world or Frey! I do hope that we see Apollo again and that he finds happiness.