I had heard a lot of buzz about Abigail Owens' new book - though I have not read any of her previous books. at the cover is exquisite and the story line seemed very intriguing. This book was Very creative! I felt this was pretty unique to anything I've read to date; it had a very interesting storyline and I loved all the different characters.

Main character Meren is an easy heroine to want to root for. She's loyal, and desires to do what's right. Her power is still developing, so it will be interesting to see what happened when it is fully developed and stabilized.

Reven is also a very unique character. He's everything that is good, however he is battling pure evil from within himself. I won't spoil and expand on that. I like Reven for Meren, but I also hard to put Cain aside for her as well. It'll be interesting how the next books plays on.

This series has so many possibilities and I cannot wait to read the next one! I
Thank you to RB Media, Recorded Books and NetGalley for allowing me to listen and review this digital Audiobook Arc of Liar's Crown

The liar’s curse is a book with a premise that initially peak my interested, but unfortunately the execution didn’t live up to it. Two story is about twin girls who are born to the royal family, but only one of them will be announced publicly while the other will live her life in hiding and only appear when she needs to step in for her twin in times of danger. Tabra was the first born of the two meaning she got the role of the princess, while Meren the second born became her body double.

One day Meren gets the news that the current Queen, her grandmother, has died which means it’s time for Tabra to take the role of the queen. Meren must then go to live with her sister in secret and be always prepared to step in for her.

Just before the coronation, Tabra receives a gift from King Eidolon, the ruler of a nearby kingdom and the man the girls grandmother had always warned them about. Tabra decides she wants to meet with the king but Meren insisters on going instead of her. So on the day of the coronation, Meren pretends to be Tabra and goes to meet the king only to be kidnapped on the way. Thus begins the central plot of the book.

The reason this book didn’t work for me was the overused cliches/tropes. Meren is identical to her sister, but doesn’t think she’s as pretty as her. She refuse to acknowledge her looks, even going as far as to say her lips are “too full”. I’m very sick of female protagonists describing widely desired features in a bad way.

Then there Reven, the mysterious boy Meren meets for a minute at the start of the book and then comes her kidnapper. Reven is part of why I was interested in reading this story as the way he controls shadows sounded so interesting. But the way Meren thinks about him annoyed me too much. When she first sets eyes on him she immediately feels a connection to him. He said a whole of three words to her, “who are you?” before he disappears, and suddenly she can only think of him when she receives a love confession from someone else. Later when he shows up to kidnap her, Meren suddenly knows just by looking into his eyes that he “can see the real me”, and that “he… wants me?”. How she surmises all of this just from looking at his face, I have no idea. What follows is Meren constantly saying she hates Reven, when her thoughts and actions say otherwise. It felt more like denial than actual enemies to lovers.


If there was a bit more originality to Meren’s thinking, and she was like the typical YA protagonist then I might have enjoyed this more, but unfortunately these are things I really can’t stand in books and didn’t make this an enjoyable read.

Meren and Tabra are twins - but Meren is a secret, hidden away so that when the time comes she can serve as body double and protector to Tabra, the future Queen of Aryd. But whilst Meren is impersonating her sister, she is kidnapped and dragged across the realm to become part of a battle that she wasn't even aware of.

I really liked Meren's voice, and thought she was a properly nuanced character. The romance was believable enough, with a good enemies to lovers that played out with some interesting twists. I had a really good time reading it!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

THIIIIIIIS book. I love it, so fast faced, the romance was such a joy, i loved the world-building and the narration.

Thank you so much RB media and Netgalley for allowing me to listen to the audiobook arc! I can't wait to pick up a finished copy of this!!!

The Liar's Crown by Abigail Owen is the first in her new Dominion trilogy. The Liar's Crown checks off many typical YA tropes. Princess protagonist, only has one friend who is a guy she likes, love triangle, instalove, etc.

Meren is a fun protagonist. She' has a snarky personality, is independent and learns from her actions. I did not care for her romance with either guy in this book. Especially Reven. For a guy she's supposed to hate she mentioned how attractive he was way too much in the first half of the book. Their relationship is front and center in this first novel and is 100% instalove. I didn't care about their relationship at all since it felt like it was always stuck on the fast forward button and didn't naturally advance. I wish it was more developed, especially since this is a trilogy with plenty of time to grow.

I was especially interested in the world. The narrator of the audiobook did a fantastic job of bringing the world and Meren alive. More Shadowood please! Meren's relationship with her sister Tabra was also great and thankfully not one of jealously despite their circumstances. I can't wait to see how their relationship develops after everything's that's happened in The Liar's Crown.

The ending was great and makes me very interested in the direction of the second book. The Stolen Throne. I think this trilogy has a lot of potential and hopefully we get more information about the politics and world in The Stolen Throne.

I recommend The Liar's Crown for those who like an interesting YA fantasy worlds and don't mind instalove relationships.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media, Recorded Books for an audiobook version in exchange for an honest review.

The Liar's Crown by Abigail Owen
5/5 Stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

•••Spoiler free review below•••

I'm calling it that this is the Fall's newest YA fantasy obsession. I absolutely LOVED this one. It hooked me right from the start with enthralling writing and likable characters.

Our main character, Meren, is the secret twin sister of the princess of Aryd. Her job consists of being a body double for her sister and she was raised knowing that she will one day sacrifice her life to save her sister's if necessary. When she is kidnapped by a Shadowraith who believes her to be the true princess, she must decide how far she is willing to go to pretend to be her sister.

This magical world is interesting and the author does a wonderful job of weaving the world into the story without any crazy info dumping. We also have a great captor/captive dynamic featuring a grumpy, protective Shadowraith. I cannot wait to find out what happens to these characters in book 2. This one is definitely one of my favorite reads of the year!

(FYI, this is is considered upper YA but I would honestly categorize it as a NA book with low spice levels.)

The Liar's Crown will be released August 30th and if it's not already on your tbr, it should be!
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Special thanks to RB Media and NetGalley for sharing an arc with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

I just finished the advanced copy of the audiobook, and I was pleasantly surprised. I have not heard anything about this book other than the synopsis when I requested to read it. The story was great, and I enjoyed the narration. (the epilogue narration was a nice surprise)
*forgive any name spelling errors as I only had the audiobook
Taebra and Maryn are twins. Taebra is the heir to the throne, and Maryn is the crown’s secret from the kingdom. While Taebra learns how to rule, Maryn learns to hide away and impersonate her twin when duty calls. During one such event Maryn is kidnapped by a shadow wraith, presumably on command of a rival king who wants to make Taebra his.
This book had several elements that I enjoy: banter, battles, magic, blooming love, and a cliffhanger ending. Speaking of that ending….. how long until book two???

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4930033036

The blurb made me really interested but talk all over bookstagram is what got me to request the audiobook for this one from Netgalley. The audiobook is very well done and I like the narration. It was easy to tell the characters apart. The downside is that this book just didn’t do it for me.

The book is told from one point-of-view and it comes from Meren. She is a twin and is used as a body double for her sister who is the true queen-to-be. Body doubles always intrigue me and so I was happy to see this done again. I thought this part of the plot was well done. Although Meren has a sister, I didn’t fully believe in their bond. They were hardly ever together and even though she talked about protecting her it felt that she was more concerned about the love interest.

The love interest was a no go for me. Meren was simping hard right from the get-go. “Oh, he kidnapped me! But, he does so much good! He is a hunk. Oh darn, I shouldn’t feel that way about him.” Nope. Nope. Nope. I do not like. Don’t get me started with him only calling her princess for the first half of the book. 🤦‍♀️ It felt more like insta-love than enemies-to-lovers.

Some of the characters have magic and I thought that they were cool powers. I liked the shadow magic the best and was intrigued by that.

I can’t say that I ever connected with any of the characters and that really dwindled the ability to ever connect to the story overall.

Unfortunately, this one wasn’t for me but it may be for you!

A good pick for fans of The Remnant Chronicles, The Liar's Crown is YA romantic fantasy with some political elements. It also gets rather steamy for a YA book. It follows a young woman who is the secret twin sister of the crown princess, born to be her body double and protect her life. So when she is accidentally kidnapped instead of her sister after the death of their grandmother, she must pretend to be the new queen.

The book starts very strong, with an interesting premise and entertaining pacing. Then once the kidnapper gets the main character to a more static location, it starts to lose steam and kind of meanders, eventually picking back up and getting us to a cliffhanger ending. I would have liked to get more of a complete story arc in this first book, especially because the middle kind of plods and there's a love triangle that gets going pretty late in the game.

That said, I think a lot of readers will enjoy this. It's got interesting magic, a dangerous love interest, a torrid, forbidden romance, and plenty of secrets. I liked it, though the early part of the book had my hopes very high and it didn't quite deliver what I was looking for. If you enjoy books like The Kiss of Deception, give this a try! Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy for review, all opinions are my own.

This was a delight. We have a heroine who feels second best because she's the twin/body double of the princess who doesn't really get to have anything for herself. Except sass. Girl's got that. She gets kidnapped by a shadowy, tall, dark and secretive hot guy. He had good reasons for kidnapping her but she doesn't let him off the hook easily.

She's desperate to matter and get back to her sister who is in danger. Reven's backstory is interesting and I want to see what else he can do. I want good things for Cain despite him clearly being the odd man out of this book. He really wants Meren but he's not the guy, you know? There are all sorts of things going on here that I'm looking forward to seeing in future books in this series.

Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

Born as Twin Princess. One born to Rule the other to forfeit....

Meren was born second, being kept a secret, to serve her sister, princess Tabra of Aryd as a body double when needed in any potential dangerous situations.
After the Queen dies, Meren stands in as Tabra's body double for a meal before the coronation. On her way to the meal, Meren was kidnapped by a stranger, who thought she was the princess.

Trying to escape, Meren needs to get back to her sister, who's life and the Kingdom is in danger. But the kidnapper needs her.

I've enjoyed this book very much, fast paced and easy read. Meren is a great character. There is awesome world builing, romance, action, magic and a plot. A bit of everything.

I would recommend this book if you like a easy fast paced YA Fantasy Romance.

Thank you @netgalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

Thank you to RB Media and Netgalley for sending me an early copy of this audiobook! All opinions are my own!

Boy oh boy did I so love this book! I didn't know much information going into it, but it very quickly reeled me in and kept my attention. I think I read it way too quickly to be honest. But I wouldn't have it any other way! The world was very unique even for what felt like it could have been a basic and repeated plot. It felt like I was reading something that I'd never read before, even as a seasoned fantasy reader, and I adored that. I will say that the plot did confuse me at times, and at the end I couldn't exact explain everything that had gone on. But I did love the twists and the way that it kept me on the edge of my seat. I had been expecting parts of it, but even when I was expecting it, the story still kept me engaged and wanting more.

I really adored the characters, especially Reven. He was the classic tortured soul, but I loved the depth that he had and the way that he and Meren bonded. Enemies to lovers can sometimes feel really forced, but their relationship felt authentic and well-developed.

I do want to mention that I absolutely loved the narrator! Her voices were amazing and I could have told you who each character was by just a few words!

If you're a fantasy lover, definitely check this series out! I desperately need the next book!

(4.5 stars rounded up to a 5)

The Liar's Crown is a YA fantasy romance with lots of adventure by Abigail Owen. I listened to the audiobook, which clocks in at fourteen hours and is narrated by Samara Naeymi with Luis Moreno. We follow our main character with a first-person point-of-view.

Meren is the presumed-dead-at-birth twin of Tabra, the princess of Aryd. She serves as the "reserve" princess, a body double for times when her sister may be in danger. Twin princesses has been a long-held secret in their family for generations, as King Eidolon of Tyndra routinely steals one per generation. With their grandmother the queen dead, Eidolon attempts to ally with their country by marrying Tabra. Meren fulfils her duty by taking her sister's place during the official dinner before her coronation, and is abducted by a Shadowraith.

I really enjoyed the world-building and magic system in this book. The pace and plotting were pretty on-point as well. I wish there was a bit more development regarding world politics, but I'm guessing we may get a bit more of that in the next installment.

In some books with "secret twins," the royal-presenting twin can be condescending to her "duplicate," but I'm glad to note that is not the case here. The two girls appear to be very close and love each other unconditionally. Meren doesn't resent her sister at all, but does hold hope that one day she could be fully known as herself and not just her sister's shadow.

Meren is an enjoyable main character because she is not simply intelligent--princesses must learn the ins and outs of their allies and enemies, after all, including the literal lay of the land--but she also has street smarts she's learned by sneaking out of the desert town she typically hides in. I really liked Reven as her main love interest. He's a well-fleshed-out morally gray character who is literally full of darkness and shadows but still strives to do good.

This book is on the higher end of YA, possibly leaning more into New Adult as Meren is eighteen. There are a few steamy scenes, and one sex scene that does not fade to black.

Samara Naeymi narrates the vast majority of the book, and Luis Moreno narrates half of the epilogue. I will be excited if Luis will have more content to narrate in the next book! I wish I didn't have to wait until May 2023 when we'll get more of this story.

Tropes in this book include: enemies to lovers, mistaken identity, secret twin, forced proximity, dark fantasy, queer side character (sapphic)

CW: abduction, violence, death, murder, mind control

Special thanks to Entangled Teen, RB Media, and NetGalley for providing an audio galley of this book for me to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

This was one of those books where I definitely was benefitted by being able to listen to the audiobook and ebook ARCs simultaneously. THE LIAR'S CROWN utilizes the twin body double trope and did it pretty well I think. The book starts off really strong and immediately grips the reader's attention. The worldbuilding with its matriarchal queendom, the unique magic, and the unique set up of Meren's world and its politics was a particularly strong feature in this one. I also really enjoyed Owen's writing style and the moments where her voice and humor came through in Meren's narration and personality. I was here for the slow-burn dynamic between Meren and Reven and how that relationship stretches and develops throughout the book. While this is a YA novel, it felt kind of NA at times, which I did really like because I like a good fantasy with romantic chemistry and steam between the love interests. This book was tropey, bold and just a lot of fun to dive into. There were moments in the middle of the book where I felt like the plot lagged and lost its way a little, BUT the ending really did make up for it and left me very intrigued for book 2 to see where Meren's story goes.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced audiobook copy. The voice acting was very engaging and I’d definitely recommend it as a format.

The Liar’s Crown is the first in a new YA/NA series (I’m still unsure what the labeling is, but NA would probably be a safer bet). Abigail Owen is definitely a master of her craft and the pacing, prose and world-building were highly engaging!

Pros: Unique twin royals story, morally grey characters, interesting magic system, well placed chapters that make you want to keep reading, cliffhanger ending to hype up the next installment.

Cons: Pretty insta-love on Meren’s side especially, repetition of in-world curses (oh goodness, goddess help me, mother goddess), introducing the main villain in the last 10%.

I’ll definitely be picking up a physical copy when it releases and would recommend to fantasy lovers!

I did not finish this book. I don't read books with LGBQ+ characters, even with side characters.
I don't agree that this should be labeled teen or even older YA due to the language. I would not be happy if child read this in highschool.
I do think the plot is set up to be an interesting and adventurous book. I wish that it were a book that I read.
Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. These are my honest opinions and wish the author the best.

Meren is a hidden princess. Her twin sister is next in line to be queen, and as per tradition, Meren is her body double. She yearns for freedom but can’t leave her sister vulnerable. The ruling queen dies unexpectedly, and the princess receives a marriage proposal and a suspicious gift. Meren decides to take her place at the coronation and unwittingly puts herself in the sights of a shadowed kidnapper. As Meren struggles to gain her freedom, she learns that there are more lies to unravel than just her own.

This was a great read! The author excels at creating a vivid setting. Detailed worldbuilding was woven throughout the story, dialogue, and descriptions effortlessly, which left the setting feeling realistic and immersive. I loved the lore and history included about the Goddesses and the Sacred Trees – I’m looking forward to learning more about the history of this world in the next book.

The characters were well written – even the secondary characters had varying motives and personalities (yay for some well written morally grey characters!). I enjoyed Meren as a protagonist. She had the perfect amount of sass and self-doubt to make her relatable and realistic. She was independent enough to take matters into her own hands yet still had doubts about her place and meaning in the world, making for an overall compelling protagonist. Reven was also a compelling character, with plenty of conflicting emotions and motivations. The concept behind his character was fascinating and unique.

On a related note, the author did a great job with the dialogue and banter between Meren and Reven. AND this is one of the best written enemies-to-lovers that I’ve run across. The author avoided many of the YA pitfalls associated with this trope and managed to create a realistic, relatable, and interesting relationship. This was one of the first romances that wasn’t insta-love or felt forced into existing just for the sake of including romance.

There were just a couple things I disliked. There was a connection that felt glaringly obvious, but Meren didn’t figure out until the end of the book. This felt like plot-induced stupidity and was a little frustrating. Eidolon was also constantly mentioned as being a looming and dangerous threat, but he didn’t come into play until the very end of the work. This made the story lose some of the tension that should have been there.

This was a solid fantasy read that I recommend. I look forward to reading the next work in the series!

My thanks to NetGalley, Entangled Publishing, and RB Media for allowing me to read and review this work, which will be published August 30, 2022. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

22 August Update - Listened to the audiobook version of this work - the narrator did an absolutely wonderful job bringing the characters to life. I may have even enjoyed having it read to me more than I did reading it myself. This work was still great the second time around, and I can't wait for the sequel - I highly recommend both versions of this work.

The beautiful cover and title of The Liar’s Crown immediately grabbed my attention as it looks like something in my wheelhouse. While Goodreads does not label this as part of a series on its main page, there is a note from the author that this is a planned trilogy. After reading I am thrilled that there are more novels to go as there is a lot to explore with the plot and characters. Knowing there are more novels, also helped me with the pacing as trilogies tend to move at a slower build-up in the first novel. I think if I went into this thinking it was a standalone, the pacing may not have been for me, so other readers may be the same.

Meren is the Princess of Aryd and the twin sister of the heir, Tabra. Meren lives in secret as she is the body double for her sister in dangerous situations and those around her have no idea about the real her. During events surrounding Tabra’s coronation, Meren gets kidnapped as she is standing in for Tabra by the Shadowwraith, Reven. He claims that he needs her help to kill King Eidolon of Tyndra, which sets off the chain of events in the story. There are two main elements where there is the threat of Eidolon and the fact that those around Meren after she is kidnapped believe she is Tabra and do not know Meren exists.

As the main character, Meren was interesting and likable. Since she was the hidden twin, she has to balance being herself while also managing to masquerade as an entire other personality. She has her own internal development along with her growing attraction to Reven, who has secrets and internal struggles of his own. This was a nice enemies to lovers story with some nice morally grey characters. I loved the two of them together and they had great chemistry. As I love slow-burn romances, I did want their relationship to build up a little more; however, I can see how the author could have written it that way. There are many directions for how this relationship could be further explored in some way in the following novels

As this is the first novel in a trilogy, there is a lot of information given to the reader. This includes the characters, the world-building, and the magic system. Since I was captivated by the story and listening to this on audiobook, I enjoyed how the information was presented. If I was reading the printed version, I can see how it possibly can read as a slight info dump, especially at the beginning. Overall, I enjoyed this story and cannot experience the next one once it is available!

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Entangled Publishing, for the opportunity to read this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

Why did I pick this up?
Even the most naive person in the seven hells would have been able to read that #1 in the description! But I headed right on with the beautiful book cover and & fantastic blurb around the story. So bear with me on the painful journey:

🏜️ Summary🏔️
The Twins have been ruling the dessert - each doing their part in Light and Shadow. As the second born, her duty is to be in the shadows n when the time comes - to sacrifice herself for her sister, the next queen in line. But who thought that would be all? The Eternal King is coming again to their Kingdom for the fates to be twisted. To save her Queen & the Kingdom, she must be there - but how will she do it when suddenly out of nowhere the Shadows have engulfed her!

🤯My Reaction 🤯
The landscape descriptions in the book have been down right to the pinpoint. Being a fan of Geography, encountering the regional names - as the names of the Kingdom (Tundra, Savanna, Arid, e.t.c) has been blissful. The beauty of this book is it kept hinting to me there couldn't be happy endings everywhere - yet hope strays around the corner. Then again the characters are enviable: specifically talking about the kind of powers they have & recently I have noticed that I enjoy fantasy books more if the elements of power rotate around the Natural aspects.

My pain in the *** was with the part when I missed this book was part of a series. Now, normally I stay away from them unless all the parts are launched and then devour the whole bundle in a big gulp! But here I was left like a person trying to fill a Gallon of water from the trickling tap. So I was just left saying "what the hell is happening" in the last few chapters.

So happy to read another beautiful Fantasy book that kept me on my toes for 2 days!
A 4/5
Genre: #fantasy #ya

Wow! I couldn’t stop reading this one. I actually went into this one thinking it was a stand alone. I don’t know why I thought that. So yeah the ending was a surprise to me! And a whole year until the sequel?! I can’t wait to see what happens next. I really loved the magic and world building in this book. I loved the romance. And I loved the characters. The pace was pretty fast so I wasn’t bored throughout it. Twin princesses who swap roles between each other. A kidnapping. A power hungry king. Really great YA book.
*thank you to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.