The scion of a family of enchanted equine breeders, Mikira is a talented horse jockey. Caught using illegal magical enchantments to enhance his horse, Mikira’s father gets caught and arrested by evil Lord Rezek. To earn her father’s freedom, she must help Rezek win the Illinir, a series of deadly horse races. Mikira finds her world colliding with Lord Damien Adair and Arielle, an unlicensed Kinnish enchanter. To exact his own revenge on Rezek, Damian comes up with a plan for Arielle and Mikira with a plan of his own for the Illinir.

Narrators, Laurel Lefkow and Rebecca Norfolk’s unique intonations help bring the characters to life. Characters are original and engaging. Told through alternating points of view, plot is intriguing and mixes in Jewish folklore, but has lots of plot holes. Plot is complex and slow pacing may be unappealing to some listeners. Listeners who enjoy magic, fantasy, intrigue, and horses will likely want to pick this one up. Recommended for general library purchases where horse fantasy books are popular. Gr 8 and up, 3 stars

This was a great YA fantasy! It’s been a while since I’ve read a YA book, and this drew me in with the plot. It was unique and well-written, and it drew me in and kept me wanting more.

The characters were likable, the premise was one I hadn’t seen before, and the political intrigue made it even more interesting. I liked the unlikely alliance that the main characters formed, despite having their own selfish reasons for wanting to win the Illinir.

The story started off excellent, and was easy to get drawn to the mfc, but about half way thru everyone kept backstabbing everyone and it started getting confusing. I wanted to like the narrative, and just got more confusing the more it went on. People making gollums and racing them against each other for titles, and a ton of back stabbing is all I got from this book

Oh my goodness this book is going to be the next big thing, in my humble opinion! I totally expect it to go viral! I couldn’t stop listening, and the world building was top notch.

I found this one a little unengaging, more because of the writing than the narrator. Unfortunately not for me.

This Dark Descent was one of my most anticipated books this year, and it exceeded my expectations! The story is based around a race featuring enchanted horses, but it is so much more than that! High stakes race scenes mixed with great character development and hidden agendas create such an intriguing read. Add the phenomenal world-building and a few morally-grey characters, and it creates a book that is impossible to put down!

There are two main narrators: Mikira, whose family breeds horses, and Arielle, an unregistered enchanter with an interesting history. Both seemingly have no choice but to team up with each other, as well as a lord of one of the kingdom's noble houses, named Damien. They must work together seamlessly or risk losing everything.

The character development in this novel was brilliant! Seeing certain characters change their morals throughout the course of the book was amazing! It was incredibly well written, too. Damien was a perfect bad boy right from the beginning, and I think he may be one of my new favourite characters. All of the main characters were unique in their own ways and easy to empathize with, which was great!

One of my favourite parts of this book was the world-building. It was a phenomenal mix of religion, mythology, and politics, and created an incredibly lush world! The magic system was intertwined with the world in a seamless way, and very well planned! I hope we learn more about this world in the sequel!

The audiobook narrators added so much to the story. They did a great job! I really appreciated that there were different narrators for Mikira and Arielle, as it helped differentiate between the two. I highly recommend the audiobook!

I'm so glad that this book lived up to my expectations, and I highly recommend it to people who like morally grey characters, unique worldbuilding, and high stakes fantasy.