The Bright & the Pale
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Narrated by:
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Carlotta Brentan
About this listen
Debut author Jessica Rubinkowski delivers the thrilling first book in an epic Russian folklore-inspired fantasy duology filled with pause-resisting romance, tragedy, magic, and monsters. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Sara Raasch!
Seventeen-year-old Valeria is one of the only survivors of the freeze, a dark magical hold Knnot Mountain unleashed on her village. Everyone, including her family, is trapped in an unbreakable sheet of ice. Ever since, she’s been on the run from the czar, who has set out to imprison anyone who managed to escape.
Valeria finds refuge with the Thieves Guild, doing odd jobs with her best friend, Alik, the only piece of home she has left. That is, until he is brutally murdered.
A year later, she discovers Alik is alive and being held captive. To buy his freedom, she must lead a group of cutthroats and thieves on a perilous expedition to the very mountain that claimed her family.
Only something sinister slumbers in the heart of Knnot. And it has waited years for release.
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As the only female to survive the devastating virus, Ara hasn’t seen another human in months - not since her father disappeared. The plague has swept away humanity, and Ara’s world is desolate, haunted by the ghosts of her former life. Her mother. Her sister. Kaden and his crew live by a code: stay alert, stay alive. When they catch Ara stealing from them, they are furious - and confused. She is the first girl they have seen in three years. And while Kaden knows taking her captive is wrong, he tells himself he’s doing it to protect her.
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Animal Deaths
- By TMuss on 06-06-22
By: H. J. Nelson
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Royal Bastards
- By: Andrew Shvarts
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Being a bastard blows. Tilla would know. Her father, Lord Kent of the Western Province, loved her as a child but cast her aside as soon as he had trueborn children. At 16 Tilla spends her days exploring long-forgotten tunnels beneath the castle with her stablehand half brother, Jax, and her nights drinking with the servants, passing out on Jax's floor while her castle bedroom collects dust. Tilla secretly longs to sit by her father's side, enjoying feasts with the rest of the family.
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Reading is not the same as the physical copy
- By Annelle Powell on 07-09-18
By: Andrew Shvarts
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Mask of Shadows
- By: Linsey Miller
- Narrated by: Deryn Edwards
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Gender-fluid Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and to get closer to the nobles who destroyed home. So when auditions to become a member of The Left Hand - the Queen's personal assassins - are announced, Sal jumps at the chance to infiltrate the court and get revenge. But a childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the audition: a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers.
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Good audio, okay plot.
- By Aly P on 05-13-19
By: Linsey Miller
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Defiance
- Courier's Daughter, Book 1
- By: C. J. Redwine
- Narrated by: Renée Chambliss
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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While the other girls in the walled city-state of Baalboden learn to sew and dance, Rachel Adams learns to track and hunt. While they bend like reeds to the will of their male protectors, she uses hers for sparring practice.
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Rolling my eyes!!!!
- By Tiger on 06-02-16
By: C. J. Redwine
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Queen Heir
- NYC Mecca Series, Book 1
- By: Jaymin Eve, Leia Stone
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Arianna is a queen heir and at 20 years old she's now eligible for the crown of wolf shifters. Heirs are trained and groomed so that they're ready should the queen perish during their time of eligibility. Of course, there's little chance of that happening. The Red Queen has stood for a century, and her power is beyond reckoning. Or so Arianna believes, right up until the final tolling of the bells. The queen has fallen. Four heirs will now fight it out for the crown.
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Eehhh... it's okay
- By LexiLikesLiterature on 03-03-17
By: Jaymin Eve, and others
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The Forgotten Locket
- By: Lisa Mangum
- Narrated by: Lisa Mangum
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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The only way to rescue the future is to alter the past. When Abby stepped through the hourglass door, leaving her beloved Dante blind and bleeding on the other side, it was in full faith that she could find a way to repair the damage to the river of time and restore him - as well as her family. It was a desperate chance that seemed worth taking. But Zo had other plans. Now Abby is trapped in a full-fledged battle for her own mind and life and heart.
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Good story, stale reading
- By Alicia Johnson on 06-08-22
By: Lisa Mangum
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The Affiliate
- By: K.A. Linde
- Narrated by: Erin Mallon
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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On the day of her Presenting, in front of the entire Byern Court, 17-year-old Cyrene Strohm's lifelong plans come to fruition when she's chosen for one of the most prestigious positions in her homeland - an Affiliate to the Queen. Or so she thinks. When Cyrene receives a mysterious letter and an unreadable book, she finds nothing is as it seems.
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Not a fan of Narrator
- By Priscilla on 05-25-17
By: K.A. Linde
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The Withering Palace
- By: Alexia Purdy
- Narrated by: Lillian Yves
- Length: 1 hr and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Untold darkness rules the Unseelie realm of the Land of Faerie. Hidden in this vast area, Aveta, the future queen of the Unseelie Army, perfects her gifts over lifetimes. Learning that magic isn't the only way to manipulate the world around her, this naive girl grows into a woman of strength and cunning, ultimately becoming one of the most feared leaders in Faerie.
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Excellent! Dark Prophecy, faery princess, forbidden love and an Evil Queen
- By sherry Christenson on 02-22-17
By: Alexia Purdy
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Rhapsody
- Child of Blood
- By: Elizabeth Haydon
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 30 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Rhapsody is a woman, a singer of some talent who is swept up into events of world-shattering import. On the run from an old romantic interest who won't take no for an answer, Rhapsody literally bumps into a couple of shady characters: half breeds who come to her rescue in the nick of time. Only the rescue turns into an abduction, and Rhapsody soon finds herself dragged along on an epic voyage--one that spans centuries and ranges across a wonder-filled fantasy world.
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Good story! Terrible narration.
- By CharmY2K on 04-30-15
By: Elizabeth Haydon
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Lichgates
- Book One of the Grimoire Saga
- By: S.M. Boyce
- Narrated by: Kara Kovacich Stewart
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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When Kara Magari uncovers a secret door in the middle of the forest, she discovers (and trips through) a portal to a hidden world full of terrifying things: Ourea. She just wants to go home, but the natives have other plans for her. She clashes with immortal shapeshifters, is carried off by a dragon, nearly dies on several occasions, and somehow becomes the master of an ancient book of magic called the Grimoire. Every time she thinks she's safe, her new "friends" show their true colors.
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A twisting tale
- By James on 11-19-15
By: S.M. Boyce
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Defy (Defy Trilogy, Book 1)
- By: Sara B. Larson
- Narrated by: Rebecca Mozo
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Forced to disguise herself as a boy and serve in the king's army, Alexa uses her quick wit and fierce sword-fighting skills to earn a spot on the elite prince's guard. But when a powerful sorcerer sneaks into the palace in the dead of night, even Alexa can't prevent him from abducting her, her fellow guard and friend Rylan, and Prince Damian, taking them through the treacherous wilds of the jungle and deep into enemy territory. The longer Alexa is held captive with both Rylan and the prince, the more she realizes that she is not the only one who has been keeping dangerous secrets.
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Could have been a great story
- By Rebecca on 04-29-14
By: Sara B. Larson
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The Oremere Chronicles Omnibus
- The Complete Series
- By: Helen Scheuerer
- Narrated by: Angele Masters
- Length: 52 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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At 16, Bleak lost the only person she cared for when her mentor died at sea. Now 19, she still misses him terribly. She needs him more than ever. That’s why Bleak drinks. But the haze of the mead and wine has hidden something from her. Her powers have grown more than she knows. Others have noticed. When the king sends his top commander to take her, Bleak is too hungover to resist. But he isn’t the only one who needs her for their plans. What does he want?
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“Whut?”
- By Anonymous User on 02-08-23
By: Helen Scheuerer
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The Sacrifice
- The Fey, Book 1
- By: Kristine Kathryn Rusch
- Narrated by: David DeSantos
- Length: 26 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Defying their Black King in order to rally an attack on the peaceful Blue Isle, warrior-prince Rugar and his fearless daughter, Jewel, do not suspect that the islanders, under young prince Nicholas, have prepared to defend themselves.
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Great new series
- By Anthony Cascella on 06-27-10
What listeners say about The Bright & the Pale
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- J. Steidel
- 01-28-23
Enjoyable!
I have listened to this book twice. the story buold and I did not want it to end. enjoying the sequel now.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Haley Houser
- 05-26-21
Amazing
It is an original story with new gods that really pulled into a frozen world. The author made me feel like I was in the mountain. The performer did a good job with the voice and portraying the tone of each scene. Overall a great listen and a great book.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Jadd
- 03-04-21
Jessica Rubinkowski swings for the fences.
If I had to describe The Bright and The Pale in a single word, it would be this; Gripping. Thankfully, I'm not limited to a single word, so please indulge me as a gush about what is in my opinion, a home run of a debut novel.
Rubinkowski sets up and delivers a fast paced, engrossing narrative, with a diverse cast of characters each with their own hidden motivations that are drip-fed throughout the story- leaving you unsure of who exactly to trust and building ultimately to this tense and trembling climax. There will be characters that you love, characters that you hate, characters that you love to hate, and characters that you hate to love. Everyone feels believable and grounded within their own reality, and for me a character that I hated at first became the most tragic before that gripping final line.
The Bright and the Pale is not a story that I wanted to put down, at just over nine hours long, this is the first audiobook that has held my attention so perfectly that I listened to it in a single sitting, and as a fantasy genre fan, I found the setting to be remarkably refreshing. Heavily inspired by Slavic culture and mythology- the story felt new because it wasn't styling itself in the same cultures as hundreds of other fantasy novels and stories. While fans of the fantasy genre might be able to guess some of the later story beats- I guessed two of them -there are still plenty of surprises to be had.
My sole issue with this audiobook is sadly, the narration. Carlotta Brentan reads this tale with what to me sounds like a sad and desperate tone- which I feel doesn't correctly match the tone of the story itself. Further, for the first few hours of the performance, the different voices of the characters aren't completely distinct enough to differentiate themselves, and more than once in the first third of the story, I had to go back and relisten to understand who had said what during a dialog. This issue does sort itself out before the halfway mark, which I am so grateful for- as the latter half of Rubinkowski's debut novel is a thrilling tale to behold.
On the whole, The Bright and The Pale has given me the gift of being able to relive the grip of a good story not wanting to be put down- while listening to this story, I was reminded of my time with Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games and Veronica Roth's Divergent; desperately wanting to consume more of the story while simultaneously praying that the story wouldn't end. I for one, will be waiting eagerly for the sequel.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Anna
- 03-04-21
Thrilling!
I found this to be a compelling debut that left me eager to listen to the sequel. Well-developed characters with believable wants and needs. A unique world. A sprinkling of romance. A lot of action and excitement, particularly in the second half. Excellent, immersive narration. Definitely recommended if you're a fan of fantasy/YA!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Zac peel
- 04-01-21
loved it so much csnt wait to hear/read the next
loved it so much. Cant wait for the next one. Jessica is a life long friend and did an amazing job
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3 people found this helpful