Packed full of plot and character study, the 3rd book in the Kingdom of Lies series is perhaps my favorite so far. Prisca and Lorian continue in their quest to defeat the King and prevent him from sacrificing his pseudo-son to gain ultimate power. Together with their band of family, friends, and uncertain allies, the pair traverse the land to forge alliances, deal with enemies, and save the Prince from being used in his “father’s” devastating plan.

This book also gave the side characters their own povs which I LOVED. Madinia, Asinia, Demos, and the Queen all have such complex backgrounds and motivations that kept me hooked from chapter to chapter. I think the diving into these side characters was a very smart move by Stark to keep the reader interested in the story, and not oversaturate them with more tales of Prisca and Lorian. Although these two are still certainly our main protagonists, I had more space away from them in this book, their absense only making my heart grow fonder.

Just like in the first two books, the voice actors did an incredible job of immersing me deeper into the story. They also managed to carve out a separate voice for each of the new characters who were given their own perspectives.

Overall, I think one of my favorite parts of this book in particular is the way it differed from it’s two predecessors. Whereas the first two novels featured a lot of basic character introductions and world-building, this book focused in on those characters. I felt like there wasn’t an excessive amount of change in the world at large from the start to the finish of this book, but I became so much more absorbed into the inner lives of these characters. That being said, the ending action was sweeping and heart-racing, and that cliffhanger? I need the next book ASAP!

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

The plot thickens, POVs multiply, and action intensifies in this latest instalment. While I appreciate the expanding world and where the story is going, compared to its predecessors, this one feels somewhat weak, more of a filler. That said, the storyline advances and I’m interested in knowing how it will end. Especially after that hell of a cliffhanger

Now, I’m going to surprise myself with what I’m going to say next, but despite my affinity for steamy scenes, the abundance of smut felt a tad excessive and detracted from the plot's momentum. It's not that it's overly explicit, because it's not; rather, there were simply too many scenes.

The strained relationship between Lorian and Prisca also played a big part in this, they bicker and fight more than they actually agree. But I’m interested in seeing Demos and Asinia's journey.

Although the audiobook's performance was very well done, the lack of distinct narrators for each character occasionally created confusion. Prisca or Asinia are easily mistaken, same with Medinia and the Queen.

In essence, while the fantasy elements shine, the romance aspect falls short, yet the audiobook narration remains engaging, making it a worthwhile read.

I’ve always loved how Meg Sylvan narrated a book when I heard her narrate A Touch of Darkness. Sylvan just has a unique talent to narrate multiple characters and to keep her voice consistent with each character to make it easier to remember the personality and purpose of that character.

I thought maybe this was my first time hearing Tim Paige. I’ve gone back and searched the audio narrators of other audiobooks I’ve listened to, and discovered he narrated Crave. His voice is a decadent flavor to add to the story.

To enjoy this book further, I do want to go back and get the first two books to fully understand and appreciate A Crown This Cold and Heavy. I had some trouble following along at first, but I was able to start sorting who was who and why such and such was happening!

Just to let you know….this one does have steam! I mean the hottest hot shower that fogs your mirror type of steam!

I appreciate Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for sending me the audiobook to review. All thoughts and opinions are mine!

This is the third book in the series so I can not go into much detail about the plot but I can say that I am thoroughly enjoying the series. Romantasy is really hard to do right because you have to balance both the romance and the fantasy plot lines but Stacia Stark is doing an amazing job at balancing them.
This was an audiobook arc and I really enjoyed the narrators take on the characters. I find that audiobooks can be very hit or miss, so finding one that works is very impressive. Going forward with this series I think I will continue listening to the audiobook while following along with the ebook because I find that it helps with processing the fantasy plotlines.

I listened to an audio ARC of this book.

As far as the audio/ narration goes they did a fabulous job! I followed the whole story and enjoyed how they verbal painted the scenes.

The story was a bit slower than the previous book, but I still was entranced with every twist and turn.

I continue to love this story, the characters and world! I loved the progression and was literally screaming at the cliff hanger of an ending. Book 4 please come soon!!!

Loved the female narrator but I’m in the fence with the male narrator. I do appreciate the ch age in pronunciation consistency from book 1 and 2 between the narrators!!

Definitely still enjoying the series but I would have been fine with a trilogy. It is just reading a bit long for me. The audiobooks are well done and keeping my interest. I enjoy the character POV changes.

God like powers. Magical Kingdoms. Adventure. Love. What more could you want! Love love loved this audio. Narrator kept me engaged and loved this listen.

I love this series so much! It romance is so good! The world building and magic system is very well done. I absolutely loved this book!

Since this is the third book in the Kingdom of Lies trilogy, there's not a ton I can say about the plot in this book specifically. What I can say is that I picked up A Court This Cruel and Lovely because it was nominated for Best Romantasy in the Goodreads Choice Awards and a couple people that I follow read it and enjoyed it. It was described as a good time with good world-building and I am so glad I listened and picked it up. Essentially Prisca lives in a world where babies are forced to give up their magic in some weird ritual that everyone does and then they get a small fragment of their magic back on a particular birthday. If you are found to have magic prior to that birthday, you're considered Corrupt and killed. Prisca has magic and she knows that she's eventually going to have to run away, only that timeline gets dramatically sped up. Along the path of running away she encounters a group of mercenaries and has a good bit of sexy banter with the guy who seems most opposed to her being with them.

Things evolve so much from there and these books have some truly incredible found family elements and by book three, the spice is spicing. I think if you have liked Sarah J. Maas in the past, you should give these books a shot because while Prisca and her man aren't Rowan and Aelin, they are pretty freaking cute. And the mercenaries give me slight Cadre vibes. So basically, what I'm saying is if you want Throne of Glass vibes but with Silver Flames level spice, give this series a shot.

And since I was lucky enough to receive the audio ARC of book three, I can attest that I am desperate for A Queen This Fierce and Deadly in the series which is out in May. Stacia Stark definitely knows how to write a cliffhanger. Oh, and audio these for sure. The audiobooks have been fantastic and have been how I've consumed each book in the series. I think they're well narrated and despite the multiple POVs, I'm never confused about who I'm following. Make sure you are paying attention though. There are plenty of details happening that you don't want to miss!

4.25 Stars

I'm going to start of this review by saying that I AM NOT HAPPY with the cliffhanger at the end of this book. Seriously NOT HAPPY.....

With that being said, the fact that this book made me immediately try to find the next book in the series, and then realize that it is not going to be out for a few months, and then silently scream to myself....I'd say that this book definitely made an impact on me.

The third book in this series has everything coming to a head story wise. The goal in the last couple of books was to keep the King from sacrificing his son and taking his excess magic - which would in essence make him comparable to a god. The other goal was to take down the barrier that the King had erected that blocked their continent from the rest of the world and other possible allies. This meant that Prisca and Lorian had to rally allies willing to fight against the King. Those allies included the various factions of the Fae world, who couldn't even seem to figure out their alliances between themselves, the Hybrids, the Rebels, and the fleet of the Pirate Queen Daharak.

Then we had the situation between Lorian and his brother Conreth - the Fae King. As I said before, there was a lot going on and everything began to build and build as we got closer to the climax. For some reason, I assumed that this was the end of a trilogy and did not realize that there was going to be another book until this book was almost completed. That was a big bummer. HUGE....

So, without going into spoilers, Prisca is given a prophecy that has her on edge. The two of them (Prisca and Lorian) have been through quite a bit and things finally felt like they might be on the right path, so of course, you had to figure that it might not last. Ugh...that cliffhanger.

Not cool.

So, now we wait. I'm not even sure what I'm hoping for, I just know that I want it.

This series came highly recommended and with a high review score on Goodreads, I had been holding off and reading this until I really needed a good solid read. Unfortunately, my thoughts on the book do not reasonate with many of the other reviewers and I was hesitant to read the sequels after finishing the first book. I found the writing of this book to be a bit jarring - either rushed or just skipping around a lot. The dialogue between the FMC and MMC didn’t flow naturally, often skipping between topics without any sensible transition and the characters inner thoughts were no better. Their inner thoughts seemed more juvenile and appropriate for a YA level book rather than a NA level book. The plot itself had a lot of plot armor… meaning things were loosely explained and just magically made sense to the characters even though they had no grounding in the world building or logic.
The audio book itself was fine - the narration was great and they actually made the book seem better with their inflections and performance, but unfortunately their skills couldn’t fill the gaps within the story itself.

2.5 Stars

To keep it short and straight to the point...

I don't know what to say. With this series I've had kind of this decline in interest as I progress through each book. I really enjoyed the first book, the second a little less and now the third one just a little bit less.

There was a lot going on here, with multiple POV's that created kind of a muddled effect. With all of the information I found my mind wandering and just wanting the book to be over.

No doubt the ending is a cliffhanger and a half- I'll be checking out book 4 for sure, hope I have better luck with it.


“I had two choices—face it and live a rich, full life, or hide from it and never truly experience the joy and happiness of loving with everything in me. The price of love was loss. We all paid it eventually.” 💘



Many thanks to NetGalley, Dreamscape, and Stacia Stark for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review. 🌷

Stacia Stark has very quickly become one of my favourite fantasy authors. I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys Sarah J Maas and Rebecca Yarros. I thoroughly enjoy this series and LOVE the main characters growth and character development. The romance and the broody moodiness was absolute perfection.

I received this audiobook via NetGalley and Dreamscape Media in exchange for an honest review.

Stacia Stark count your days!!!!! That ending UGH and now I have to wait until May for the final book in the series!!!

In "A Crown This Cold and Heavy" we get to see Prisca grow into her role as the hybrid heir. I don't want to say too much because honestly any synopsis will struggle to not include spoilers since book 2 ends on a huge cliff hanger. However, I will say that book 3 expands to include more POVS with storylines that diverge from Prisca's and Lorien's. This added so much depth to the story and there were moments where I even preferred Asinia's and Madinia's POV.

This book includes:
- epic battles between warring peoples
- political machinations and manipulation
- supernatural abilities and peternatual relics
- fated mates
- multiple POVs with a male and a female narrator
- even more slow burn
- huge cliffhanger ending (yes AGAIN)
- grief and regret

This book was a journey for sure. Whereas books 1 and 2 felt like they fit right into the romantasy genre, I feel that book 3 moved us more into the epic fantasy genre with its high intensity battle scenes and complex political narrative. I really think this was a great choice by Stark because upped the stakes and veered away from any romantasy cliches. Seriously so good. While there were a few moments in the middle that felt a bit slow, the story is so dynamic that I quickly found myself invested once again.

I listened on audiobook and I thought the production was great. The narrators were emotive and I love it when they make an effort to act with the dialogue like when they add a scratch to their throat when it is included in the text. I have to give additional kudos to the female narrator, Meg Sylvan, who went above and beyond giving each of the female POVs a unique voice that matched so well with each of them. Considering that there are 4 female POVS, I was thoroughly impressed at how easily I could tell which POV I was in just by the voice.

I highly recommend this series. Especially to lovers of Throne of Glass and Crown of Blood and Glass.

I received this audiobook as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media (they never miss), and Stacia Stark for the opportunity to review this book. This review is also available on my GoodReads - check out my profile https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/62314863

Audiobook production thoughts: This was really well done and I loved the multiple POVs.

But excuse me, that cliffhanger??

This book was the best in the series so far. The plot, the pacing, the romance...it was all there. Although the cliffhanger was a bit predictable, it still tugs at the heart. I'm looking forward to reading/hearing what happens next!

Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape for the ARC audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

4.25 stars

Prisca's harrowing journey utterly engrossed me. Her resilience in the face of brutal torture and her cunning strategy against overwhelming odds truly inspired me. Her relationship with Lorian blended strength, love, and mutual respect, adding depth amidst the chaos. The multiple perspectives, especially the cunning side characters, added layers of intrigue and emotion. The story's blend of dark fantasy, romance, and political intrigue kept me on the edge of my seat, culminating in a cliffhanger that left me desperate for the next installment. This book was a pivotal and thrilling addition to the series, masterfully weaving together its complex world and intense character stories.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape for this audio copy. All thoughts are my own.

4 stars for another excellent installment to Stacia’s romantasy series! The audiobook performance was also well done and I’m so glad I experienced this story through my ears.

There was surprisingly A LOT of plot movement in this book and I love how our characters keep growing in their own. There were many POVs-my favorite being Medinia, which I did not see that coming. Prisca continues to evolve into the ruler she is meant to be.

That cliffhanger though…cruel! Not so patiently waiting for the next book!

I received an audio copy of this book via NetGalley (thank you Dreamscape Media, Stacia Stark and NetGalley). All thoughts and opinions provided are my own.

Is it weird to like the third book more than the second! I feel like this had so much more to it! This was such a good book and the audio was superb! Will definitely stick along for more Stacia Stark books!