Whispering Wood Audiobook By Sharon Shinn cover art

Whispering Wood

Elemental Blessings, Book 5

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Whispering Wood

By: Sharon Shinn
Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella
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Valentina Serlast has reluctantly traveled to the royal city to witness her brother Darien be crowned the king of Welce. A hunti woman with an affinity for the forest, Val is much more comfortable living in isolation on her country estates, almost forgotten by everyone. When Darien convinces her to extend her stay, she is drawn into an unfamiliar whirl of activity, meeting with ambassadors from other countries, becoming friends with the unpredictable Princess Corene, and trying to learn the secrets of a glamorous foreign visitor named Melissande.

But nothing makes Val more breathless than the reappearance of Sebastian Ardelay, a red-headed rogue who has been her best friend since childhood. She quickly learns that Sebastian has been risking his life in a dangerous venture that could get him banned from the kingdom—or even lead Welce to the brink of war.

©2023 Tom Canty (P)2024 Tantor Media Fantasy
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This series is one of my "comfort" read series, and this latest installment doesn't disappoint. It's true that the book follows a somewhat predictable story arc, but that's a lot of the reason I like it. Val was a little tiresome at first, but she loosened up enough to be likeable. The biggest drawback is the new narrator. I don't dislike her, but she pronounces the places and names differently and it's distracting.

Enjoyable

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The story was a little boring at first, but finally picked up a bit.

Biggest complaint was the narrator. She mispronounced some of the countries and character names. Did she not bother to do her research?

Altogether it was okay

happy to see new addition

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I was disappointed with this book. It seemed a sad tack on to the elemental blessings series. Shinn overlooked previous characters who probably should have played a bigger part. Leah’s husband would have been more likely to provide assistance to his cousin than the blind sisters. She made Melissande look pathetic and stupid. The story was interesting but not as cohesive as the other works she has written. Normally her books pull me in and keep me captive but this one took a while to get me interested. Perhaps it was just too long between books in the series. And the narrator-UGH! Terrible job with the characters voices and she mispronounced most of the characters names and place names. She calls Hunti-Hoonti. Why? If you’re hired to narrate a series previously done by someone else successfully maybe try listening to one of the previous books to learn? It was painful and she isn’t very skilled as a narrator. Do yourself a favor and skip this audiobook. If you want to know what the book is about-read it, it’ll be more enjoyable. Tantor you suck.

Different, not as good and horrible narrator

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The story was okay in comparison to the first four books. It really didn’t have much to do with the Hunti prime or the heir.

What I disliked the most about this book was the fact that the new narrator obviously didn’t bother listening to the other four books. There were several significant mispronunciations throughout the audiobook, including several characters names (most notably Melissande and Chandran).

It was a struggle to listen to it.

As a series it would make sense that this was the final book, but I truly hope it isn’t because it’s a weak note to go out on.

TL:DR - New Narrator has Changed Pronunciations; The Story is Okay

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The main character begins as somewhat unlikable.

But we get glimpses of society.
And the main character doesn’t stay unlikable.

If you like this series you should read this

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