Sarah Monette

This book is a soft DNF. On a day when I couldn’t find an audiobook that fit this one did. This is an extremely long audiobook over 20 hours, and I did listen to approximately three. This story is about the offspring of a king, who has no chance of ever sitting on the throne and has been in isolation on the outskirts of the kingdom. They receive news that their father and all the older brothers have died which means they are now the monarch. All of that was very interesting and kept my attention. However, in listening to this audiobook the number of times they repeat the word “serenity” is annoying. I gather that this is a greeting both in welcoming and in leaving kind of like aloha, but it’s just odd. I can’t tell if this is a mistake, or purposeful. It is done so often it could almost become a drinking game. I was at the stage of the story when the main character is told they must take a wife to keep their nephews and younger siblings from killing them to take over the throne, that I stopped the audiobook and never went back. I was thoroughly enjoying this book, that I will probably read it in print because the story was good, but the narration was annoying.… (mere)