Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ALC, it is much appreciated.

I really wanted to love Forewarned because I am a sucker for enemies to lovers, fated mates, and shadow daddies, but unfortunately this just wasn't for me. Anne did a wonderful job narrating though, but the story itself just didn't hook me.

I received an advanced audio copy for review. This is my honest opinion.

**This review will contain a mild spoiler below. I will put it at the very end of my review, marked with stars. The spoiler is related to the thing that happens after Astrid meets Rave's brothers. If you, like me were frantically searching reviews for an answer, scroll to the end**

Forewarned has
✨Fated mates
✨Shadow Daddy
✨ALL the supernatural beings
✨Untested powers
✨FMC with mysterious beginnings
✨MASSIVE cliffhanger at the end (at least book 2 is on KU)


In a world where fated mates are rare but everyone seems to have one (this is super common in romantasy and I get a good chuckle out of it every time) Astrid wants to avoid hers. She's a seer, but being a seer is dangerous, particularly when she's seen a vision of her mate, and he just happens to be the biggest, baddest prince in all the land. Naturally, Astrid wants to avoid him, but when they accidentally cross paths, he'll do anything to keep her.

Forewarned was fairly light content-wise, I mean yes there's some violence, but it's not dark, despite Rave being on the slightly more toxic end of toxic masculinity we like to see in fiction but don't want IRL. I think this would be good for readers who are looking for a spicier intro into romantasy. There's not a ton of info-drop worldbuilding, and while there are a lot of characters, it wasn't terribly hard to keep them figured out. It also uses a lot of modern language (Shadow Daddy, sausage fest, etc. etc.) so it's easy to read--listen to?

Also. THE CLIFFHANGER??? OMG. THANK GOODNESS BOOK 2 IS ON KU.

Thanks to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media, and Chantal Fernando for the ALC! I enjoyed this one!





**Spoiler below**







Okay. So. If you're here, you're looking because of the signs pointing toward a why choose situation--it's not that. Astrid's connection with the bothers other than Rave is because of her heritage, which is actually a really big spoiler (once you see the signs you'll figure it out!) but I'm not spoiling that one.

I was totally intrigued and captivated by this story I couldn’t get enough the narrator really amplified was enjoyment of this story you know when you read a Chantal book you’re in for a good time just wow what can’t she write this is one of my fav fantasy romances and that ending left me craving for more and more..

This book had a lot of potential to be more interesting and I only finished it completely because it did have interesting parts which is why it’s getting two stars instead of one. However, modern language in fantasy is such an off putting thing for me as a reader and takes me out of the story completely. Because I read this in audio format, I wasn’t able to take notes for each part and am forgetting a lot, but the parts I do remember were terms like “shadow daddy” and “praise kink”. The last one that really got me was “flight risk”. I don’t think I’ve ever read something so ridiculous in a fantasy book as flight risk. The writing felt incredibly juvenile and choppy, we were moving from one thing to the next every minute with no reaction time or understanding of the events. Including the excessive and uncomfortable sex scenes. It was the epitome of telling instead of showing.

This audiobook was narrated by Anne Robert. I did think it sounded a bit juvenile at times with how the main character was speaking. Especially during explicit scenes.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Chantal Fernando, and Dreamscape Media for providing this free ARC. This is my honest review. This publishes on September 3rd.

I have posted my review on Goodreads, my Facebook book club, and will make a TikTok to post before the pub date raving about this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an early copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.✨

I found the beginning of Forewarned to be a bit rough. The story jumped ahead jerkily without proper world building... But then it got spicy and became much more fun. 😉

I'm giving this 3 stars for good spice, and intriguing me enough to want to read the next book.

I wanted to desperately like this book because the premise sounds pretty interesting. The execution was lackluster unfortunate. The dialog was very middle grade and the attempt at "enemies" was poorly executed. The fmc said she despised her mate more often than not just for her to be taken with him less than a third in.
The narrator was pretty decent but she sounded too childlike for this to be heard like an adult in a fantasy novel.

Overall, it's a 1 star to represent the dnf.

thank you to Dreamscape Media for the advanced listening copy.

*ARC review of the audible*

The narrator did a great job. She was easy to understand and used different inflections for all character’s.

Thank you to dreamscape media 🖤🖤

Posted to Goodreads

Forewarned was an interesting take on the fated mates trope in that Astrid starts out wanting nothing to do with her destined mate. It’s also an easy to binge book that could easily be read in one sitting. I really enjoyed the use of the enemies to lovers trope in this book and felt the FMC and MMC had excellent chemistry. I also loved the inclusion of so many different fantasy groups — fae, vampires, and incubus to name a few. I found the world building to be sufficient for my enjoyment and the magic systems were well explained. I also enjoyed the cast of characters that Astrid ends up surrounded by. They were all so different with their own unique backstory. What I loved most, though, is this book kept me on my toes. Every time I thought I knew what direction the story would take, Fernando threw a curveball especially with that ending. I read this via audiobook and found it to be a highly enjoyable experience. Anne Robert did well to bring out the wide range of emotions that Astrid was feeling. Robert also did well to keep me engaged throughout the book. I would recommend having book 2 on standby before finishing this book, though.

The set up for this book was so fun! A fated mates situation where she wants to reject it? She's a healer and a seer and mated to a prince? Love it! All four brothers feel a bond to her? Weird! This book was too spicy for me and I wanted more world building and magic and less spice!

I got an early copy of this book and the “spicy enemies to lovers” subtitle was not included on the book, or I wouldn’t have read it….because if you have to advertise it like that…you know the writing isn’t enough to sell the book lol. And that was definitely proved correct, because it was bad. I Could not finish. Absolutely everything obnoxious and bad with this genre can be found in this book. The writing is immature…feels like a wattpad book. On top of all that, the narrator sounds like she should be reading Charlottes Web, and nothing else. This one was not for me. And the constant alluding to threesomes and bondage? Just bad writing that clearly relied on sex to sell the story, rather than a good story that was enhanced by the romance.

Thank you to Netgalley and Chantal Fernando for gifting us this ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Okay Chantal I see you!

This book ya'll, I was drawn in from the jump and listened to this entire book in one day, now I'm pissed I have to wait so long for the next one!
We follow Astrid as she finds her mate and discovers how strong she truly is throughout this book,
The spice was spicing and the romance was romancing through this whole story as it's really the main focus with some of the more fantasy elements and politcal intrique playing out in the background.
Also, talk about a cliffhanger!

The audio was great and I really enjoyed listening to this narrator.

The only thing I was, just like I say with every short fantasy I read is I wish there was more of everything. This could have been 200 pages longer and really went into much more detail in terms of world building, the potential war going on, and really just every aspect needed a little more, even the romance could have had a little more build up.

That being said I will be first in line to get the sequel and see what happens next with these characters.

Forewarned was a quick, fast pace spicy romantasy that ended with such a cliffhanger that I am wondering what comes next.

The narration was easy to listen to. I received an audio review copy via NetGalley and Dreamscape Media, and these thoughts are entirely my own.

I really enjoyed this fantasy romance! The narrator was easy to listen to, although I don't know if she was reading extremely slow or it was slowed down somehow, because I had to put it to 1.25 to sound normal! The story was fast paced and easy to follow. I like the characters especially Astrid and August, although sometimes Rave and his possessiveness annoyed me. The very end definitely caught me off gaurd and left me wanting more! I am excited to see where the next book takes Astrid, and to explore the other courts!

Ty to NetGalley and publishers for the ARC Audiobook!

Read if you like:
Touch her x die
Overprotective alphaholes
Fated mates!!!!!
SHADOW DADDY!!! 🖤
Spice: 4/5

How tf does Astrid juggle FOUR brothers? Oh, you lucky girl, you.

The only brother she didn't get much interaction with is Nico.

I really really really wanted to love this. It has EVERYTHING. Fae princes, a shadow daddy, vampires, succubi even!

Some characters don't know how to talk dirty to each other and still make it sexy, but Astrid & Rave did and they have sizzling energy and such witty banter. 🥵 THE TENSION BETWEEN THEM. It was perfect. 🤌🏻

These two are like bread and butter, peanut butter and jelly! Their relationship went from zero to 💯 REAL QUICK!

The plot was basically just a looooot of sex.

Rave was SUUUUUUPER overprotective, controlling and a possessive (alphahole), no wonder Astrid ran at first! He didn't even really let any of his brothers have a real shot with her (Helios, you little sweetheart, you'll make such cute lil ginger babies), and even got jelly around his own best friend, Soren.

Astrid and Rave were toxic as shitttt but I was addicted.

Honestly, they're not really enemies when they met. Astrid just didn't want to be mated to him because she hoped it was August and knew it wasn't. Also, thinking that Rave was dangerous... Rave didn't respect Astrid's boundaries. Like, at all unless she really put her foot down. BUT bonus points for Rave since he wasn't an asshat while she drank the fae wine. But he didn't even want her discovering who her other parent is.

I really loved the narrator, my only feedback is that the chapters were unfortunately suuuuuper short for an audiobook (like 10 minutes each), and sometimes the narrator kind of sounded like she was bored or lethargic. I ended up putting it on 1x speed for the lilting voice. Otherwise, her voice was really pleasant.

I would've loved to see more world building (since Rave wouldn't let her out of the castle without him) and more of bestie August.

If you haven't read this, go get a copy! RIGHT NOW. Just off adding this to my Amazon list to buy later. I need the paperback now! And the next book! ✍🏻 THAT DÃMN CLIFFHANGER. Gonna need that second book ASAP!

This book is a wild ride. I wanted to start by saying that the audiobook narration was very well done and helped make the book come alive. This book has a lot of happening. We have fae, vampires and succubi. We have war, fated mates and secret children. There was a point in the middle of the book where the story definitely started to drag but it definitely picks up at the end and leaves quiet the cliffhanger. I can't wait to read book two.

Well, that was devastating! I've been up and down with this book the whole time reading it. At first, I loved it with the Astrid running from her fated mate. Then *boom*, they're together. Then she still tries to resist him, sort of, and insta-love happens. There are a lot of modern references that really drew me out of the story, including calling the prince a "shadow daddy." The spice was kind of weird too and used too liberally. Despite these downfalls, I seriously ate this audiobook up and read it in less than 24 hours. Will I read book 2 after that cliffhanger? Most definitely. 3.5 stars

Story: ⭐⭐⭐
Narrator: ⭐⭐⭐

I got to listen to this as an audiobook. The narrator if left on 1x speed was soooooo slow it was intolerable. But once I sped it up to where it sounded like she was talking normal I was able to enjoy the book.

My first reflection of this book is if Fourth Wing and Broken Bonds had a baby it would be this book. I was hooked from the first chapters. I ate this up. I love a good romantasy but to me it didn't feel so much like enemies to lovers. Maybe very loosely enemies to lovers. Its told through a single POV. Astrid is a seer and healer. She has a vision and knows who her mate is. Because of a vision she had she does not want to mate for fear the vision will come true. Of course fate gets in the way and they meet. Rave is a powerful prince. If they mate their powers will grow which would be helpful for the impending war.

This book started so strong. I was sucked in until we get to the middle of the story where things just seem to get slow and like we're running around in circles. For the fight she puts up to not want to mate I would have expected more of a resistance on Astrid's side at least. Or maybe some more angst. For the buildup of it, it just fell flat a bit in the middle for me. I was really hoping for some high tension. But, that still didn't stop me from enjoying it.

Rave, aka shadow daddy, seems to have a good heart and he treats Astrid well for the most part. It just annoyed me about the hypocrisy of his requests. Astrid was always seeing things from his side and relenting but he was basically free to do as he wished (don't worry, there's no cheating). I get the idea that the bond can make you get territorial or possessive but I felt like she had to keep submitting to him which felt wrong to her character because she's trying to be portrayed as this bad ass.

I felt so bad for August! I loved his character and he deserved so much better. The youngest brother had to be the best of the three. Total lady's man too. So much charm and charisma. Soren was also amazing. He didn't go soft on Astrid especially while she was learning to fight.

The fighting scenes also fell flat for me. I was expecting battles but it felt brushed over too quickly.

The cliffhanger at the end took me by surprise. I need to know what happens like ASAP.

I had such a fun time listening to this book! Forewarned is a fast-paced, entertaining, and spicy romantasy. I really liked the characters. I felt an instant attachment to our FMC. I really enjoyed the cast of side characters as well. The brothers were especially fun to watch interact, and I can't wait to see where they go through the series. The narrator was very expressive and easy to listen to. She brought all the characters to life and was well suited to the part of the FMC. She was also easy to follow even when sped up. This book ended on a crazy cliffhanger and I cannot wait to listen to more in this series!

I could not stop listening to this audiobook! It was so good! This was probably my one of my favorite books of the year, I cannot wait to read the next one! The narrator was amazing and had such a great voice for this story! 10/10 recommend and can’t wait to continue this series!

3.5 Stars

Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for the gifted ALC.

Synopsis:
The fae spend their entire lives searching for their true mate.
But me? I know who my mine is. And I don't want him.
My name is Astrid. I'm a fae, a seer and a healer.
Not much scares me. But him?
That's the darkness I'm never going to let catch me.

The audiobook narrator had a great voice and made the story come to life. I jumped into the story quickly and was entertained throughout the book.

I was intrigued by the fae and vampire story and at her unique magic as a healer and seer.

I do however prefer stories that have a little more character development and plot. This story was heavy on the spice over the character development.

It ends on a cliffhanger and I’m curious where the story will go.

Romance Content: 5+ Open door scenes 🌶️ with language