A Ruinous Fate

By: Kaylie Smith

Narrated by: Alex Kydd, Dana Wing Lau

Fate does not choose the weak. Fate chooses the ready.

Illustros is a cursed realm ruled by the ruthless Gods of Fate, and no one understands the Fates' wrath more than Calliope Rosewood. Blessed with unspeakable powers that terrify even the most dangerous witches and fae, Calla hides her forbidden magic in shame and fear that one wrong touch could send her to her death.

With only her two best friends in tow, Calla deserted her coven and has been on the run ever since. Worse, Calla is concealing an even darker secret: fate has chosen her as the final prophesied Blood Warrior, the being destined to start the Fates' War, which will decimate her people and eradicate their magic.

After a betrayal from her infuriating ex Ezra leads her one step closer to fulfilling that age-old prophecy, Calla is desperate to do whatever it takes to reset her fate. So when a mysterious and charming witch offers to help Calla do just that, she immediately agrees to his plan. Only catch? That plan includes journeying into the deadly Neverending Forest with Ezra and said witch, who just so happens to be Ezra's tempting older brother.

Torn between her past desires and alluring new possibilities, Calla brings along her best friends to fight what lies ahead. As the group ventures into the enchanted woods together, they'll all soon learn that choosing your destiny comes with dire consequences . . . and the Fates are not to be tested.

Calla believes the Fates have it out for her, while others believe they have chosen her for a reason. But in the end, Calla will have to fight to forge her own destiny and decide if the risk of choosing herself is worth the possibility of damning everyone else.

©2023 Kaylie Smith (P)2023 Disney Hyperion

The story got better towards the end

I like the idea of this story and feel like it has a lot of potential! Some parts seemed rushed and there were a few unanswered questions but I feel like once I listened to the ending, it’s clear the next book will hopefully answer those. I’m not sure if the author is relatively new but I believe with each book there’s room to grow! Overall I like this book and hope to read the next!

So great! But the narration….

I’m surprised this book isn’t better reviewed! It’s fast paced, dramatic, creative and, unlike many of the romantasies I’ve enjoyed, our leading lady doesn’t behave like an irrational teenager. I’m guessing the rough reviews are on account of the horrific narration. I’d say the male narrator is a touch better than the female, but that isn’t saying much. She struggles to pronounce common words while simultaneously over-pronouncing everything in the hollow sing-song voice of someone reading to a group of kindergarteners. It’s honestly impressive in its awfulness. He is flat, mispronounces ‘rouge’ as ‘rogue’ every time (a big problem when rouge is an entire classification of witches in the lore, and comes up a lot), and doesn’t really do much to differentiate character voices, so it can be super confusing as to who is talking at times. Still, the fact that he doesn’t make them all sound like they belong in a children’s book while they are fighting for their lives in often brutal situations, is better than her. All that said, I really enjoyed the book, and I’ll be praying it’s different narrators for the next in the series.

Must read!

This was an excellent story with plot twists and slow burn romances that are built on the characters needs and wants. This is an awesome author and her other books led me to this and I was not disappointed.

What. A. Cliffhanger!

What a cliffhanger!! 😱
TBH for me this started out a little slow. But I do love how I can’t predict what’s happening with these relationships! That also lowkey annoys me though haha Usually I can predict what’s going to happen and I just eat up all the character’s lives in between but gahhhhhh lol
I can’t wait to read the next book!
Calla is about to be a baddie! 🙌🏻

A Plot-driven fantasy

If this had any character development or world building, I would have rated it much higher. I dont think the male reader had the best sound for the characters. I think he sounded like he should be reading a NYC cop, not a fantasy fae character or witch.