In the Shadow of the Palace Audiobook By Eliza Andrews cover art

In the Shadow of the Palace

A Tide of Shadows, Book 1

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In the Shadow of the Palace

By: Eliza Andrews
Narrated by: Elizabeth Saydah
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The one thing Cara knows about herself is that she doesn’t want to grow up to be a prostitute. But as the daughter of a prostitute, growing up in a brothel in one of the seediest districts of Port Lorsin, she has resigned herself to her fate. As soon as her monthly blood comes, she will follow in the footsteps of her mother.

But a client of her mother’s takes pity on Cara. Leveraging his status, he takes Cara somewhere she never thought she’d see up close: the palace of the House of Dorsa. When a crisis strikes, Cara finds herself thrust into the very center of palace politics. What comes next will change Cara—and the course of kingdom history—forever.

This book is the first in A Tide of Shadows, the prequel series to the Chronicles of Dorsa. You do NOT need to have listened to the Chronicles of Dorsa series first to enjoy In the Shadow of the Palace.

©2023 Rachel Medlock (P)2023 Rachel Medlock Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Literature & Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy
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A master class of epic story telling!
It’s been some time since I’ve listened to the Dorsa series, so I’d forgotten how much I loved Eliza Andrews’ writing.
This one is a roller coaster ride of events! The story is just so well fleshed out- characters, world, storyline- all of it is chef’s kiss. If you want to take a journey and be fully immersed in quality story telling, this is for you. It can be enjoyed as a standalone as well. This made me want to go back and re-listen to the others just to envelop myself in this world again.

Narration 10/10 as always
Story 10/10 as always

Chef’s Kiss

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Chronicles of Dorsa is one of my favorite series, so it's blissful to be back in that world but awash in a completely different story. This is the foundational book of what promises to be another great series. The plot and its twists are well formed. The characters are well developed, with plenty to love and plenty to hate...and even some in between. The ending leaves you begging for more. I can't wait!

Excellent

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Love all her books. This one left me wanting more. Since it is book 1of the series, I am anxiously awaiting the next book

Can’t wait for the sequel

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I loved this whole series. This author has a specific story lone in mind, and it's town and people, and she stays true to it. Well written, I have found all the Dorsa novels to be engaging, this one was like an extra treat added on top. Please write more like these, I love the castle and knights type stories.

Finding love and yourself

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Overall, amazing, captivating, suspenseful story with just the right amount of authentic queer love. The crossover of the storyline from Chronicles of Dorsa is hard for me because I have to reimagine Dorsa and the princess while I am still mentally wanting to know what happen next with Runaway Queen Adela. Outside of my personal struggle to have the storylines cross, the story was great and I look foreword to hearing what comes next for the main characters.

Another bingeworthy book

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Great narration! Another amazing story by Eliza Andrews. The characters are layered and fascinating, pacing is perfect. Just fantastic!

What a banger of a story!

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The imagery is incredible and the story line is both familiar and very new…with depth and differences from the Princess Dorsa series that allowed me to both continue the series I love while experiencing a brand new story. I can’t wait for the next one!

This book brings to life the capital and its’s history

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First and foremost I was not prepared for the description of the wide spread plague to really trigger some good o’ memories of 2020 and Covid but I find it fantastic that Andrews was able to really capture that in the book. Andrews was able to really transport me as a reader into that world more than I feel like they’d done in the past. Maybe because I find Cara so relatable? I’m not sure but I am very happy to have read/listened to this book and I cannot wait for the next.

The book starts smoothly, building the back story of Cara and really letting you get to know her perfectly before it thrusts her forward into a crazy situation.
The story becomes dark and dramatic thrilling and had me on the edge of my seat.

I highly recommend the “Chronicles of Dorsa”anytime anyone asks for book recommendations but now I will be recommending the “A Tide of Shadows” as well!

Bravo Eliza Andrews. Fantastic as always!

Pestilence, Dark and Gritty, couldn’t put it down!

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okay so cuz it's just so much to cover and I've done this thing over like five times because I can't get it right let's see if I can get it right this time. and sorry for any mistakes. and this is long I'm not sorry. LOL if anyone reads all of this and can understand it cuz it's like 1:00 in the morning you guys are awesome.
had to cut this the full review will be on on Goodreads if you want to read the rest.

should you buy this book hell to the Fucking yes you should buy this book.


did I like the narrator

yes I Fucking love the narrator she was amazing no one else can read this series you hear me audible when the next book in this series come out it better be the same woman. who did the entire series I'm going to be unhappy about it if I get someone else who's doing the reading because let me tell you something the entire performance made me feel like there are multiple people reading this book and it was not it was just ONE.

Her male voices sound like men with different accents different speeches because not everybody speaks the same and most of the men in here a common folk with no education and the ones that do a royalty in the way she balances back and forth between that is amazing and then all the women don't sound like they all have different dialogues different personalities different sass to them it's just was amazing and it just felt alive like reading this on an Eform or even as a book you can kind of imagine your voices. but when you get a really good amazing narrator it just takes and shoots it out of the sky a good narrator will make your book amazing a bad one will break it this one took it to the moon to the stars and then wrapped it around earth that is what this narrator did so no one else can read for this for the series and I mean that seriously no one else.


characters

there are a lot of characters in here but I'm just going to talk about my favorites. Fin and Cara are the main heroes in the story Cara is where the story picks up on is how the story starts with she is a daughter of a sex worker and because of that she lived her entire life in a brothel I was very shocked by that opening I wasn't expecting the darkness or the cringe-worthy of a young girl barely 18 a child for that matter living in that type of environment being exposed to that type of stuff but it's supposed to make you uncomfortable you're not supposed to like what you reading or what you're hearing and to see where she started and to see where she ended up fabulous.

I'm not too thrilled about what happened with her direction but I'm hoping she doesn't end up doing what she is supposed to do.

I'm hoping that doesn't happen but I won't be surprised if it does because this author is very realistic and she's not going to just not do it. So I'm trying not to give spoilers away. even though this book been out for a while but yet other than that direction that cara goes to at the end of the book I still am really enjoyed her character design and all the kind of switches it up between this book and her other series were in the other series princess of Dorsa that princess in there was very spoiled from what I remember it's been a while since. I read the first book she very naive of the real world and how things work as in this princess is the opposite she knows how this stuff works she understands the underbelly of the world and because of that she has a different look on things and I think that stands out very well. For Finn I absolutely loved Finn's character design. I'm hoping will happen with Finn concerned at the end of this book but at the beginning of this journey with Finn is a tomboy who likes to dress up in men's clothes who was born with a disability. one of her leg is 2 inches shorter than her actual normal leg and it's also bend the ankle is turned inward which makes her walk with the permanent limp and because of these things on top of the fact that Finn is also gay makes her stand out no one knows about her being gay.

I Fuking, LOVE!!! THIS BOOK DON'T CHANGE THE NARRATOR!!! FOR THE NEXT ONE KEEP THE SAME NARRATOR!!!!!!

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I loved ever second and I get bored with books in slow spots. Elizabeth Andrews is absolutely one of the best authors I have ever read!
you will not be disdisappointed.

Amazing 👏

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