Many thanks to NetGalley and Second Sky for the audiobook ARC.

Ashley Metzler’s The Mortal Queen was an enjoyable listen, though it didn’t quite grip me as much as I’d hoped. The story follows Aisling, who is forced into marriage with Lir, the fae king, to secure peace. While the enemies-to-lovers dynamic had potential, the pacing felt uneven—some moments were engaging, while others dragged.

Aisling is a strong protagonist, and I appreciated her journey, but I didn’t fully connect with her relationship with Lir. Their chemistry felt inconsistent, and at times, their interactions lacked the depth I was hoping for. That said, the narration was well done, adding emotion and atmosphere to the story, though some dialogue felt a little stilted.

The world-building was a highlight, with its rich fae lore and political intrigue, but I wanted more development in the secondary characters and the setting to make it feel truly immersive.

Overall, The Mortal Queen is a decent listen for fans of fae romance, but it didn’t leave a lasting impression. A solid audiobook for those who love the genre, but not a standout for me. 3 stars.

A solid read with some great tropes—fae vs. humans, enemies to lovers, and found family all worked well. Aisling was a strong FMC, though frustratingly naive at times, and Lir, while fitting the broody fae mold, didn’t stand out much. Their slow-burn romance had good tension, and his court added depth to the story.

The plot had promise but got overly detailed, making it hard to track what truly mattered. The repetitive use of “the mortal queen” started to grate on me, but the audiobook narration by Samantha Norbury was a definite highlight—engaging, well-paced, and emotionally resonant.

Despite some confusion toward the end, I’m intrigued enough to continue the series!

3.5⭐️ rounded up

I enjoyed the premise of this story. It has all the good tropes: fae vs humans, enemies to lovers, found family, two sides to one story. I also like Aisling as the FMC. She’s sheltered but stubborn. I think her family treats her pretty poorly given they sell her to the enemy, but I think she’s been groomed enough that she takes forever to notice it.
Lir is a very typical, brooding fae male MMC. It’s not a bad thing, just not super unique in his behavior. Their relationship is definitely going to be a slow burn but you can feel the tension very early in. I also like the rest of his court that help Aisling throughout the story.
As I mentioned, the plot was good but I think it got convoluted and overly detailed at times. It made it difficult to track what was going on and what was important. I found myself a bit confused towards the end but also excited to read more of the series. Other than that my only complaint is what I found the be an excessive use of “the mortal queen.” I’m not sure why but it really bugged me after a while.
Samantha Norbury is one of the highlights for me. Her narration style was easy to listen to and I like her voice. She did a good job with pronunciation and making distinctions between the different characters. She did a great job conveying emotions. I hope she narrates the rest of the series.

Thank you to Bookouture Audio, NetGalley, and Ashley Metzler for this listening opportunity!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishing house, and the author for the opportunity to listen to an ARC copy of this audiobook. In return for my honest review.

The blurb for this book sounded fantastic, I was so in the mood for a dark fae romantasy. Well, this book started out really good and I really enjoyed the characters and the storyline at some point about midway through the book I started to lose interest. I found the storyline was really draggy from the middle of the book too close to the end. I think the story could’ve been a little shorter, and I think that would’ve made it better. I did like the connection between the characters, and the narrator did a great job.

No Spice 🌶️
DNF at 93%

This book had soooooooooooooo soooo soo much potential. The beginning caught my interest; a political marriage, fae vs human, alliance and peace between the two. I had already read a similar situation (not really) for February's BOTM, so I thought this one would be promising....Boy, was I wrong. Though I stopped at 93%, I did read the end of the book and the cliffhanger was weird. I didn't hook me in. To clarify, I read the ORIGINAL indie edition (to see if there was a difference between the self publish and traditional publish), and it was just copy and paste. No corrections or edits were made. I will say, I preferred the OOP cover than the new one.

Honestly, I was bored throughout the story. I would tune out for majority of the time, and when something caught my interest, I didn't understand it because I wasn't paying attention. I looked at the reviews before deciding to DNF, and apparently I wasn't the only one who did the same.

There was no romance. Granted, I think this book is advertising that it's a slow burn. Which that's fine, but there was NO CONNECTION BETWEEN THE TWO LOVE INTERESTS WHATSOEVER.

The story was redundant, and no "real" point of the story. Just the whole, 'fae are savages and beast; unlike the mortals" and "don't fall into their trap" crap over and over again. WE FREAKING GET IT.

I do not plan on continuing the series.

I received an ARC from Netgallery. Though my review is honest and true, I wish the author the best of luck.

I loved listening to this book on audiobook. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. I really enjoyed the world building and character storylines. Felt a bit like a slow burn story which I struggled with but stuck in there. Over all I enjoyed it but did find it slow.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

I was provided this audiobook from NetGalley in return for an honest review. It's not a bad book, but not a top read for me. It's listed as an enemies to lovers and slow burn romantasy, but for most of the book the two main characters didn't even speak to each other. Very little romance, maybe some vague liking, but maybe that is to come in later books. I like the intended storyline of the book, but not sure I'll read the next ones. It also drove me crazy with how often "Mortal Queen" was used, I get that's the title of the book but absolutely unnecessary. I saw another review that said it was used 333 times. Also maybe I missed that they weren't horses, but I also hated the term stag being used for the fae horses.

Thank you @NetGalley and @BookoutureAudio for the Audio ARC. Aisling has been married off the the Fae KIng as a peace treaty. The humans have been at war with the Fae for what seems like ever. Aisling father says he wants peace but might have more sinister ideas. Lir wants peace and will do anything to make sure the humans hold their end of the treaty, but he knows he can't trust his new wife and her family. I enjoyed reading about the Fae world and excited to learn more about what Aisling truly is and who she will fight for, family or her husband. Great start to a new must read series.

I recently listened to the audiobook of The Mortal Queen by Ashley Metzler, and it added a whole new layer of immersion to the experience. The narrator did a fantastic job of bringing the world of Aisling and Lir to life, with just the right tone and pacing to match the story's emotional beats. The different voices for the characters were distinct, which really helped bring the personalities to life, especially with Aisling and Lir, whose evolving relationship was a key part of the narrative.

The world-building, which is one of the highlights of the book, felt even more captivating through the audiobook. The descriptions of the fae realm and Aisling’s journey of self-discovery had a certain magic to them, especially when spoken aloud. The narrator's ability to convey the mystery and intensity of the fae world really made the story feel alive.

That being said, while I did enjoy the audiobook overall, I still felt the pacing was a bit slow at times, especially in the beginning. There were moments when the story didn’t seem to move forward as quickly as I would have liked, and I found myself losing focus a bit. Still, the narrator's voice kept me engaged, so I stuck with it. The gradual build-up of the romance between Aisling and Lir also came across well, and I liked how the chemistry between them developed, even if it was slow-burn.

Overall, if you enjoy fantasy with great world-building and a bit of romance, the audiobook of The Mortal Queen is definitely worth a listen. While it didn’t fully blow me away, I’m still looking forward to the second book in the series to see how everything unfolds.

Thank you to Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for the ARC of The Mortal Queen audiobook.

I will start by saying that the imagery and world building in this book is stunning. If you love world building, similar to the scale of George RR Martin or JRR Tolkien, this book may be for you! At times, it was too intricate for me and I felt that it took away from the plot of the story. I would have preferred time be spent on growing the characters more.

Be ready for an extremely slow romance. I don’t feel like I can say slow burn because it never quite seemed to catch on fire. The dynamic between Aisling and Lir did not build to romance until chapter 34. Most scenes seemed to build to a friendship or alliance rather than any romantic feelings growing other than some light yearning and stolen glances.

Ashley Metzler’s fae world was really fun to be immersed in. There are so many species and Aisling’s handmaiden and many of the other characters reminded me of Chronicles of Narnia.

3.5, rounding up

Thank you NetGalley for an e-ARC of this audiobook!

Would love to start with the world building / fantasy archetypes because I loved a lot of the choices.
The fae you meet in this series are well connected to the earth, something I truly appreciate theming-wise. Iridescent wings, living within the land, the unseelie, mythical monsters- there were so many little descriptions that I enjoyed as a high fantasy lover.

A big theme here is cultural divide. The author chose to tackle this with a lot of internal tug-of-war that sometimes felt disjointed and I was occasionally frustrated at the FMC’s stubbornness or backslides. I could start to see a payoff towards the end, and do understand as part of a series it’s better to have slow growth.

For the Romantasy aspect- it’s got a lot of my favorite devices- political enemies, fated mates, arranged marriage. I appreciated the slow burn, and left the book wanting to continue the series.

Excited to continue the series!

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Listened to on Audio as well read on kindle, the usual fated mates, enemies to
Lovers slow burn, if it’s your thing, then I’d recommend it to you.
Thanks to BookFunnel for the adv read ☺️

I thought the story was good and had a strong start, however it did lull a bit. I found it weird that the narrator would flip between referring to the Main characters as mortal queen/fae king and their names. I understand at first when introducing the characters or if someone else is referring to them but the back and forth even within the same paragraph was distracting.

These fae books now just how to pull me in. This was another great enemies to lovers book. A lot of these books have the same tropes in them, but that never deters me. I just keep coming back for more.

I was so excited to read this one... and even MORE excited because book 2 is already out! The Mortal Queen is the first book in the Aisling Trilogy, and if you're into slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance with fae, political intrigue, and a strong-willed heroine, The Mortal Queen by Ashley Metzler might be your next obsession.

If you know, you know, but once you read a fantasy book that sticks with you, it's hard to get it out of your head - and this both cured me and created a new problem. 😂

The story follows Aisling, a mortal princess forced to marry Lir, the brooding fae king, to keep the peace between their worlds. She’s stubborn, he’s infuriating, and the tension is *chef’s kiss*. The world-building is lush, the magic unique, and there’s plenty of courtly intrigue!

The pace was a bit slow at first, but the audio was LOVELY for helping me get into the world. Once you're in, you're in. If you love character-driven fantasy with a simmering romance, unexpected twists, and a heroine discovering her power, this one’s worth picking up! I can't wait to read the next two books!

The Mortal Queen (The Aisling Trilogy Book 1)
An absolutely addictive fae romance
by Ashley Metzler
Narrated by Samantha Norbury

Audiobook rating : 3.5 stars
Book rating : 1.5 stars
Overall rating : 2.5 stars

The narrator has done a good job but the book didn't work for me.

The mortal Queen started out great. Like the first scene in the book was like OMG I'm gonna love this book. The prose was elaborate and stunning. But it was too much, so much that I would forget what's going on in the story. This is perfect example of "purple prose." It was so overdone that I wanted to dnf the book. There's no chemistry between the protagonists. I didn't care for any character and after a while I didn't care for descriptions too.

There would be an intense action scene going on and the narration will wander to something which doesn't really add anything to the story or the world build-up and it will go on and on until you forget what was going on in the story. This happened so often that I just couldn't connect to anything.


The ending was different and unexpected but then again on the other hand, there wasn't any real development between the MMC and FMC so that was not shocking to me.



Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture Audio | Second Sky Books for the audiobook ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Tropes:

🗡️ Human / Fae
🗡️ Arranged Marriage
🗡️ Prophecies & Curses
🗡️ Slowww Burnnnn

Couple Thoughts:

1. Pacing was tough - in the beginning I was intrigued, and then it lost me, until about 70%, when things REALLY started coming together. Just wish it hadn't taken that long.
2. This is really not a romance (probably will be more so in book 2) ... so don't go in with that expectation. It is the slowestttt of slow burns.
3. The 3rd person POV really threw me on this book and took me out of the story at times (normally I am not someone who cares about this) but the narrator kept referring to our FMC but her name and also by The Mortal Queen, interchangeably and in the same sentence... all the time... and my brain was just like, this is too much 😆

Overall, I liked it and am very curious where the series is going to go from here!

Rating: 3.5 ⭐️

Aisling (pronounced Ash-ling by the narrator) is a mortal princess in an iron age land, who’s forced into an arranged marriage with King Lir of the Fae as part of a peace treaty. Her father has raised her to hate and fear the Fae as evil immortal beings who main, kill, and even eat humans. She leaves everything and everyone she’s ever known to live among Fae who hate and fear humans just as much. Can she survive long enough for her people to see peace?

This book tackles some heavy topics. Ash tries to come to terms with how misinformation and censorship can color how people on either side of a conflict view their enemy. She deals with essentially being a pawn in the game of war, used to the best advantage by those she loves. Also, as a woman in what essentially iron age Britain, she is neither educated nor informed as much as her brothers are, so she is at a disadvantage in all of her interactions.

As the story solely follows Aisling and Lir is frequently absent, we don’t find out much about him. The majority is towards the end, so I’m hoping we get more in the next book. His frequent absences also make this a truly slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance! I did enjoy the introduction of some of the side characters and the world building is excellent! I do wish the author wasn’t so repetitive. Ash was referred to as “the mortal queen” more often than by her own name. I was particularly bothered by how everything she liked was said to “like an opiate.” Not only was it repetitive, but it didn’t fit with the setting, which pulled me out of the story. Opiates were not mentioned in the book as something that was actually present in this world and they were not present in historic iron age Britain, so it just seems odd to use that phrase so often.

I listened to this on audiobook and the narration was on point! The pacing was great and she did a wonderful job with the voices for each character. I hope she narrates the next one!

So… I felt like I was dropped in the middle of this book. I had to keep checking that I was really on chapter 1 via audio. Just dove right in without any kind of back story which led me to have zero connection to the main character. These are really long chapters too, which is always a struggle for me. Enjoyed the characters overall but this was a little anticlimactic for me personally.