Summary

Sick and tone deaf fantasy about a woman falling in love with the equivelent of a Nazi who hunts and kills women who are witches. Gross for 2025.

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7.21.2025

Real world negativity

Chapters 12 thru 21

I listen to audiobooks to relax and help deal with racing thoughts and anxiety while I’m trying to fall asleep. In a previous version of this blog I wrote a whole essay on how I never even listened to audiobooks before the pandemic. In 2021 I really found it difficult to fall asleep without sleep aids or some kind of intense meditative practice because my anxiety was at an all time high. In 2025 with the country in absolute Hell and so many people dying and struggling just to make it through the day, including myself and my tribe, the last thing I want to do is listen to a book before bed that mirrors everything happening in the real world.

This book is ALL about the persecution of women who are witches. It’s all about the new “republic” that has spent years tracking down and slaughtering women who are suspected of being witches or are witches. It also highlights those who have been turned in or betrayed by their friends and family members who want to stay in the good graces of the new regime. Welcome to the United States in 2025 and beyond. This is not something that I find enjoyable listening to.

Our main heroine is a witch who turned in her own grandmother (at her grandmother’s request) and now spends her time pretending to be loyal to the regime while also helping to save witches and basically smuggle them out of the country. Rune is a freedom fighter who risks her life and lives in a state of constant anxiety and fear that her true identity will be discovered and she’ll be executed … and, oh yeah, she’s falling in love with the most dangerous witch hunter of the regime because that makes sense …

Beauty and the Beast is NOT a romance and neither is this. It’s really disturbing and gross and is getting more and more cringe and offensive as it goes on. There is this game of “I’m seducing you to get you naked so I can check your body for witch markings” and “I’m seducing you so I can find out where you are keeping all the witches you plan on executing” and “oh yeah and I’m also falling in love with you” … It’s repulsive and maybe this kind of thing would have been fetishy and hot a few years ago before Nazi and KKK were marching proudly in the streets … but for a book written in 2024 it is really out of touch with reality. Or maybe it’s just the typical perspective of a woman with a lot of white privilege who thinks Nazi are hot in uniform and just has no idea how the rest of the world lives.

Power fantasies by women tend to be oddly gross and sometimes much worse than stuff written by men.

Story this session: 2.0 out of 5.0 stars2.0
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0

7.18.2025

New Author and New Narrator

Chapters 1 thru 12

Narrators are the sole reason I choose a book, though occasionally I can be interested because of a nice cover. It’s nice to find a voice that is not only really soothing on the ears but also incredible at narration.

I will often listen to the sample available on Audible just to see if I think the narrator is someone I can listen to or whether they will completely destroy the story with horrible vocal work. Grace Gray is such a wonderful find and I only listened to the sample audio for about a minute before I decided she was going to be someone I would be looking for more work by.

I’m not a huge fan of hetero-romance or really anything involving typical males. Enemies to lovers stories (especially featuring incredibly smart women who should absolutely never be attracted to someone so utterly below them and offering them nothing at all) hold ZERO interest for me at all and I will often turn them off as soon as I find myself rolling my eyes. The eyerolling has started early with this book.

Story this session: 3.5 out of 5.0 stars3.5
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0