🎧 The Broken Heart of Arelium (War of the Twelve #1) by Alex Robins @WriteReadsTours

Hello, fellow audiobook addicts. Today’s my stop on the blog tour for The Broken Heart of Arelium written by Alex Robins and read by Jay Forrester. I’m sharing my thoughts about this first book in Alex’s epic fantasy series, War of the Twelve.

My thanks to Dave @The Write Reads On Tour for organising the blog tour and to Alex for supplying me with an audio format of his book.

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What did I think about it?

A Compelling Start To This Epic Fantasy Saga.

The Broken Heart of Arelium is Alex Robins’s debut novel and I was highly impressed with his writing style. I found myself captivated by the fantasy world he created; its history, the different levels of society, and geography. The language and word choices Alex uses throughout help to propel you into his fantasy. The characters he created were varied; all playing their part in moving the story along or showing us an aspect of life in this medieval-like world.

Jay Forrester is a new-to-me narrator.

I loved the pace at which Jay read this story and the emotions he conveyed. He created some wonderful voices for Alex’s characters – and they are many in this fantasy tale. 😉 I was never confused as to whose perspective we were listening to or who was speaking during the conversations. Jay brought the story to life in my ears!

And, while we’re taling about the story…

I thought that it was an intelligent story that felt well planned out. The way Alex weaved realistic human behaviours, known historic attitudes and etiquettes into his new fantasy world made it feel believable. The battle scenes were incredible – my adrenaline was through the roof! Alex allows both his protagonists – Merad Reed and Jelaïa del Arelium – to lead the reader with their own chapters/sections. This not only gives us a chance to know their inner dialogue but enables us to visit other parts of the world and follow the action there. I really liked this approach because it helped me to gain a further depth of understanding, empathy and connection to both of them.

I loved listening to The Broken Heart of Arelium.

The many threads within the story captivated me. The political posturing kept me guessing while the battles and fighting kept me on the edge of my seat. I’ve got to confess, tears did trickle down my cheeks – quite a bit – at the injustice and brutality of the world! But fear not, dear reader there were enough moments of dry humour and banter to keep my despair at bay. 😘

I can’t wait to get my hands on the next audiobook, The Ashen Hand of Kessrin.

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Keep reading to find out more about Alex Robins. But first, I want to share the War of the Twelve series with you.

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Finally, here is Alex’s bio and social media links.

[about-author]

And as this is a review for an audiobook, here’s Jay’s bio and social media links too.

[about-narrator]

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Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read my thoughts about The Broken Heart of Arelium. Have you read it yet? Do you have any audiobooks narrated by Jay Forrester on your shelves? As always, I’d love to chat and compare notes.

Before you go, check out what my favourite genres are and why I like them.

Bye for now,

Flora x