A Prison of Ink and Ice: A Snow Queen Retelling

Wicked Darlings, Book 4

By: Rebecca F. Kenney

Narrated by: Alyssa Avery, Liam Price

What happens when the fated mates doubt their destiny and go through the most brutal kind of marriage counseling thanks to a villain? In this Snow Queen retelling, Lir and Louisa endure a hellish experience on their way to that happy ending.

(This is a short novel in the Wicked Darlings series. It is concurrent to the events of book two, A Court of Hearts and Hunger, and it contains spoilers for books one and two in the series).

As the King and Queen of the Seelie Court of Delight, Lir and Louisa travel to the prison of Griem Dorcha to hear the cases of the Unseelie Fae that Drosselmeyer freed from his mansion. But when their journey takes an unexpected turn, they are trapped in an icy stronghold and forced to play a twisted game. As the stakes rise higher, Louisa must confront her deepest doubts about her marriage and her worst fears about life in Faerie—as well as some harsh truths about herself.

Contains mature themes.

©2024 Rebecca F. Kenney (P)2024 Tantor Media

Love Rebecca F. Kenney- Just wish I would have bought the physical book

I love Rebecca F. Kenney’s books. I’ve been invested in this specific series for years. I was so excited to find out that this book was on Audible- until I started listening to it.

Alyssa Avery is phenomenal as Louisa, but I wish they would have picked someone else to read for Lir. Every time it’s Lir’s chapter, I’m completely taken out of the story due to the subpar narrating/voice acting. I truly believe for audiobooks it’s essential to hire a narrator who can embody the spirit and life of the character they’re voicing. In this regard, Liam Price’s performance is really disappointing.

I love reading audiobooks because I have a hard time reading physical books, but this is the one time I actually wish I would have bought the physical book instead.

Strange Cadence

I loved the story, and I enjoy getting further glimpses into this world, however, the voice acting was a mixed bag for me personally, I enjoyed Alyssa Avery's chapters, and very much enjoy her voice acting in general, but I found Liam Price's chapters distracting due to the strange cadence of the line delivery.

At times, the text sounded as if it was being delivered like a news broadcast, which I found to be very distracting from the story itself, the delivery was just a bit too rhythmic and lilting, and often sounded like questions due to the upward cadence at the end of a lot of the sentences, and every line was delivered in a similar tone.

I don't like to critique creatives too harshly, but I think the story would have been greatly improved and far more immersive with better vocal direction for Lir/Liam Price's chapters to try and break the obvious cadence patterns that were there, and the transition between the chapters would have been far less jarring.