Oak King Holly King Audiobook By Sebastian Nothwell cover art

Oak King Holly King

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Oak King Holly King

By: Sebastian Nothwell
Narrated by: Gary Furlong
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Shrike, the Butcher of Blackthorn, is a legendary warrior of the fae realms. When he wins a tournament in the Court of the Silver Wheel, its queen names him her Oak King - a figurehead destined to die in a ritual duel to invoke the change of seasons. Shrike is determined to survive. Even if it means he must put his heart as well as his life into a mere mortal’s hands.

Wren Lofthouse, a London clerk, has long ago resigned himself to a life of tedium and given up his fanciful dreams. When a medieval-looking brute arrives at his office to murmur of destiny, he’s inclined to think his old enemies are playing an elaborate prank. Still, he can’t help feeling intrigued by the bizarre-yet-handsome stranger and his fantastical ramblings, whose presence stirs up emotions Wren has tried to lock away in the withered husk of his heart.

As Shrike whisks Wren away to a world of Wild Hunts and arcane rites, Wren is freed from the repression of Victorian society. But both the fae and mortal realms prove treacherous to their growing bond. Wren and Shrike must fight side-by-side to see who will claim victory - Oak King or Holly King.

©2022 Kenneth Henry (P)2024 Kenneth Henry Fantasy Romance Heartfelt
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I was originally drawn to this story by its cover, one in which the two depicted characters that vaguely resembled Tom Sturridge and Ferdinand Kingsley’s characters of Netflix’s ‘The Sandman,’ a pair of actors which I have since been utterly besotted with after watching their performance together. I was further drawn in by the premise of a romance between a fae warrior and an unsuspecting clerk of Victorian London. At the time I learned about the book, the audio production had not yet been released to wider markets, only available to Kickstarter backers for a little while. So I resigned myself to wait for a wider release… and was not disappointed.

To start, though I have not heard any of Gary Furlong’s previously narrated works, he was a perfect choice for this one. His phrasing and cadence in narration are well suited to the setting, and each character voiced are well and truly distinct from one another; personality given form through performance. Though, I am sure that while Gary’s performance does these characters a great justice in their variety and distinction, the wide cast of human and fae folk alike of course would not exist at all without being brought to life through the words of Sebastian Nothwell.

And then of course the story itself surprised me, though not through any twist or turn of the plot, but with the seemingly effortless speed that Wren and Butcher’s relationship quickly evolves with not but a few chapters in. Their first kiss is consuming and titillating in a manner that caught me off guard, as did the deeply intimate ritual that followed not long after. But, none of the sex scenes put me off at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. Nothwell paints such scenes of heated intimacy with a delicate but precise hand. The phrasing is blunt, yet evocative, and none of these such scenes overstay their welcome or feel out of place over the course of this tale. Nor do they encompass the entirety of Wren and Butcher’s relationship. There too Nothwell gifts them the grace to grow into their love as it follows a refreshingly natural course.

I will not spoil how it ends, and the minutiae of the story itself is best experienced in the listening (or reading) of it, but I can say that this story has quite cemented itself as one of my favorites. I have no doubt it is one that I will return to time and time again, and I can think of no higher honor for a story than that.

A Heartfelt Tale of Unexpected Pleasures

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What an incredible tale wherein 1800’s London has a mushroom fairy ring connecting the human and fae worlds!
It’s not only well written, characters fully developed, fantasy woven perfectly with human reality, but it’s a generously long book! Many authors today would have broken the book into parts, each of which must be purchased separately.
Gary Furlong is a fabulously sexy velvety and beautifully performed narrator. I have rarely looked for books based on the narrator, but I discovered this book by searching for his narrations.
I didn’t let much life stuff get in the way of listening to this book.

Fantastic Fantasy

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I committed myself to finishing this novel even though it is the single most pointlessly verbose, lexicographicly antiquated, and achingly boring piece of literature I have read since James Joyce's "Ulysses". Whomever was the editor to this story should have never let it be published as it is. "Oak King Holly King" would be a decent graphic novel. However, it is a rubbish book.

It appears the author enjoyed world-building FAR MORE than character and relationship development. If you find joy in reading a novel that's like playing Guild Wars with a lexicon similar to a ren fair, this be your bible.

Following along with Wren and Shrike's relationship is like riding insind of a train and watching the world pass outside. You know what you're looking at out there but you can't spend any meaningful time enjoying it, and right when you see something with potential, it's gone in a blink. The spicy parts of the novel are INCREDIBLEY ABSENT. Like, mere sentences and nothing more. So, don't expect anything because you ain't gonna get it.

And don't expect any sort of explanation for anything. It's all surface knowledge, as if based on faith. How does Wren have the power to make sigels? Dunno, he just can. Why does Shrike's "bones" seek out Wren? Don't know. Do Wren and Shrike ever get down like a steamy Boyz 2 Men song? Maybe? But we don't get to be voyeurs to it.

The only saving grace for the 100 mile long journey through the baren desert that is "Oak King Holly King" is the remarkable Gary Furlong. As always, Furlong narrates with skill and enthusiasm, and is the ONLY reason I was able to trudge through this... dictionary.

Save yourselves the frustration.

Verbose, Archaic, and Boring

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