I enjoyed this book from the very start.
The characters were all very well established and the relationships were well formed.

I enjoyed the premise of the games for royalty to pick life partners and I’d be interested in reading more of the series

it started out strong, but aroud half way it went down hill.. i was cofuded of who was who and what they where doing in the story. i think if there had been more than one narrorator it maybe whold have been eseyer to follow.
but i also realy enjoyd the story

"But Sander had always preferred the crisp shade of a reading room to swordplay under the hot summer sun. And the touch ⠀
of parchment to a smooth leather hilt. The dusty smell of old books, though not always the most fragrant, was home."⠀
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Kaitlyn Davis, The Raven and The Dove⠀
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The Raven and The Dove by Kaitlyn Davis is a unique retelling of Tristan and Isolde that incorporates a royal tournament and magical portal worlds. The worldbuilding and lore of the magic and abilities of the families is so cool and I really liked how each one was described in a Hunger Games type entrance. Rafe is a tall, dark, and moody warrior who immediately captured my attention with his tortured secrets. Lyana is a future queen who is the exact opposite of Rafe. She is vibrant and excited to learn more about the mysterious Raven that she shares a secret with. I enjoyed the intrigue of this story and I feel like each small betrayal hinted at the ending...that was just the beginning.

I really enjoyed this, it felt new and fresh and the characters were fantastic.
The only thing I would say is that I wish we discovered more about the actual world, which hopefully we will in the next books.

Sarah Sampino did a reall y nice job with the narration

Luckily the next books are out and I can already get onto reading them

It is a fascinating story. I greatly enjoyed the world building of a society of winged people. While not a bird watcher, I appreciated the variety of bird wings and thus some bird characteristics. The audiobook is well done. the narrator reads at a good pace, has great distinctions between characters and makes the story easy to follow.

The story was enthralling. Right away you are transported to this world and the adventure begins. I really enjoyed the narration it gave so much life to the story.

So I requested The Raven and the Dove audiobook for a reread. Which is how I do most rereads these days. I absolutely adore this series and author. Except for getting to experience the story in a whole new way and fall in love all over again, my views haven't really changed. So I will include parts of my original review below. I also would like to add that it's a bit heavy on the worldbuilding in the beginning. And it was kind of confusing with keeping names straight. I struggled a little with getting through the first half during my first read. But I'm so glad I persisted because I inhaled THAT ending and all the books after.


(ORIGINAL REVIEW)

To be honest, I initially requested The Raven and The Dove for it's ridiculously gorgeous cover. I even preorded it so I can hold it in person at some point and stare at it longingly, similar to Ana and Rafe most of the book. All jokes aside, I love forbidden romances and star-crossed lover stories and even if there wasn't very much of it here (YET), I have high hopes for the sequel.

The world building was vague (I kept picturing those floatly block things in the early Mario Brothers Nintendo games ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) but the characters were all described beautifully and I had no trouble picturing them. I even have some fancasts in mind.

I've got to say, no offense to any author in particular, but I officially hate the word mate now.

If you love Fantasy, The Raven and The Dove feels refreshing in an overwhelmingly heavy Supernatural genre. It reminded me in some ways of one of my favorite series Falling Kingdoms but with more birds and dragons. And maybe a little bit of Gulliver's Travels.

***Thank you to Kaitlyn Davis, Netgalley, and Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) for providing me with an audiobook review copy.

for the review copy.***

I really enjoyed this story. It started out with a lot of heavy world building, but the story soon sucked me in. Full of drama and betrayal all the way until the very end with a gut wrenching cliffhanger. I can’t wait to read the rest of this series.

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. I was hopeful when starting this book based on the description of this kind of retelling. However, it was a bit difficult to follow at times and I was not a huge fan of the style this audio was done in. I ended up DNFing the audiobook but might give this a try at a later time in physical book form.

had high hopes for The Raven and the Dove as a Tristan and Isolde retelling, but there were just too many plot elements in too little time, making it feel both rushed and all over the place. The narrative just didn’t flow.

While the language itself was very eloquently written, but the worldbuilding was very lacking, which had the potential to be so much more if it was more explored.

On top of this, I didn’t really connect much to the characters, and it all just seemed too superficial.

4.75/5

Thank you NetGalley and Kaitlyn Davis for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own. 

I CAN'T WAIT FOR BOOK TWO. I loved this book. I grew so attached to these characters and can't wait to see where the author takes them in the future.

I picked up this audiobook at first because I was in the mood for reading/listening to a fantasy romance novel, and when I saw this was an adaptation of Tristan & Isolde, I couldn't really help myself!

I felt this fantasy was quite unique, taking place in an avian-inspired world that was very different to me. And while there were a few different POVs, each one was different enough to keep me engaged without being too complicated.

The story begins before the courtship trials, where the princes and princesses must compete, in effect, for a partner. It was a familiar concept to me, as I was a big fan of The Selection series when I was younger, but I still feel it had a unique twist to it that I quite liked.

Overall, the book was longer than I am used to, but I really enjoyed the world, the romance and the characters. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

I had read this book when it first came out a few years ago and really enjoyed it but when I saw there was a audiobook version I knew it was time for a reread and it did not disapoint. I hope to relisten to the whole series again.

Olympic Games meets romance meets another world. Rather interesting book. There were lots of twists and turns to keep the reader focused engaged. The only somewhat downfall was not knowing it was a part of a series with the book ending in a cliffhanger. Make sure you grab the second book before you finish this one!

The Raven and the Dove is an amazing fantasy romance, full of magic, wonderful worldbuilding and incredible writing. This is not cliché at all, there are so many twists and a really unique premise/setting for this world with different houses correlating to different birds and a really interesting courtship trial. But this had such a heart-breaking ending I can't wait to get my hands on the next instalment in this series.

This is such a great book. I love how the characters are. The fact that they are so relatable is great. I also like that their was a twist at the very beginning. I also love the fact that she was able to save him right off the bat, The book is well written and the narrator was amazing. The plot of the book keeps your interest and makes you want to continue with the series. I can not wait to find out what comes next. There are several twists that I did not see coming or at least some of the reactions of the characters. This is one thing that I really enjoyed about the book the attitudes of the characters was amazing. The class separation was also very interesting and as far as it being based on birds it is something I have never seen before.

I absolutely devoured this, a fantasy, courtship trial storyline, a fake dating/forbidden romance mash up, some deceit and heartache, jam packed action, dragons and a mind-blowing setting and you have everything to make a page turning, banger of a book!

I absolutely loved the romance in this story and the twists and turns it took, at some points you knew exactly what was going to happen and could only watch it beautifully unfold in all its uncomfortable and awkwardness, and at other times you could never be too sure where it would lead.
I absolutely loved the moment of disparity, of betrayal and deceit between characters that you really feel you get to know. Arcs are explored well and you have a sense of the characters past and how it influences them in the present.

The storyline is amazing with lots of action and is face paced with twists you won't see coming but this comes with a cliffhanger warning!! It’s a series and it’s a belter of a cliff so be ready to head straight into book 2 because you honestly won't be able to wait at the end of this book.

The world building is beautiful, I love the world the author created with the divining cities above and below and all the variety of creatures and birds in these lands, it’s described beautifully to set the scene and its a world I can't wait to revisit.

Narration of this audio book was enjoyable, easy to listen to and the character voices were easy to tell apart with good expression and voice acting.

This book was so enjoyable and I’ll be recommending it to anyone and everyone, thank you for providing me with an audio to enjoy.

I reaalllllyyyy wanted to love this one! Unfortunately, it just fell flat for me. I loved the concept, but the execution just wasn't there.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kaitlyn Davis for this opportunity to listen rage and review this audiobook which will be available Aug 14,2023.

These are my personal thoughts.

First let me say that the narrator Sarah Sampino did a lovely job acting out this novel. She added the right amount of emotions and differing voice that I was entertained.

The story itself was wicked fun. I enjoyed the day it took for me to listen to this audiobook. I highly recommend.

I ultimately DNF'ed this book. I am not sure if it was the audiobook or the actual story but I was so bored trying to listen to this story.