Entered for Fun Fantasy, Left with an Epic Quest

I rather enjoyed Zelia. The novel comprised of many elements I enjoy reading; fantastical worlds, elves, gods, men, and so much more.

I did struggle getting through it, however. I fell in love with Zelia's elven family, but the whole time I was wrapped up in a web of confusion. For example, Zelia's ability to talk to animals is not quite explained in the beginning, and I assumed the elves just had talking horses, like in Narnia. I also understand that Marie tried to be tasteful with some of the more gruesome elements, but they just came off as unrealistic. Zelia says she spent more time in the cave than with the elves, but to a reader's perspective, that simply isn't true. I was made to care about her first family, and didn't even get to experience what Zelia was going through in captivity. Where was the emotion? A person can be trained to stifle their feelings and physical responses, but the reader didn't get to see Zelia succumb to a general numbness from being suppressed for so long. I never got to really see her agony in the actions she took. It was just torture, Zelia kills, Zelia compartmentalizes. It left me with the feeling that our protagonist wasn't as strong as the cast kept saying she was as the reader was never privy to that inner battle - what would have been the most gruesome part of the story.
But other than that, I'm just grateul to have a story that was an actual epic journey and felt like one and the protagonist got to meet so many new faces. I also very much pair Zelia and Eragon. The chemistry was just too good.

Droege's performance was great. He has a wonderful voice to listen to. My only comment would be that his voices for different characters would sometimes get mixed and would make me confused as to who would be talking. Also in chapter 32, Droege starts, "Cathri, Keller, and Zelia came..." the he stops and restarts the line as if this retake was overlooked in editing. I also very much enjoyed the effects as in the dragons speaking and the booking wizard voice.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Zelia and though I struggled to make it through a little bit, I would definitely recommend this to others.

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A fantasy journey

This story is about a girl who finds out who she is and what family can be as she makes her way through a war torn world.

Marie does a good job of giving us insight into Zelia's thoughts as she discovers more about herself and the world around her.

Droege does a fair job at the narration. His voices are varied and unique yet there just seems to be something off about the delivery. I'm not saying it's bad it just seems perhaps unpolished.

I think if you like fantasy stories told from a young woman's perspective that you might like this book.


I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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decent

decent book that could use some polishing. might reread and change my mind but felt like it kept skipping forward in time by months, maybe intentional

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A dark fantasy adventure.

As always, I have to state that this book was given to me for free in exchange for a review.
I always like to state that this does not impact my review or my opinion of the book. My reviews are honest and my own opinion of the story, performance, and overall thoughts on the book.

Bold characters and a strong, page-turning plot line clearly define this tale as the author spins an absorbing and fascinating fantasy adventure filled with astonishing venues, fantastic creatures, and magic. Marie’s writing consistently builds excitement as her character, Zelia, moves from place to place, amassing knowledge, insight, and survival skills as she faces tremendous danger—and a high likelihood of death—at every turn.

Overall, Zelia’s plight certainly held my interest from beginning to end, however, there was a bit too much repetition with the author stressing her heroine’s physical challenges—The poor girl spends a great deal of her time passing out from her pain and unconscious. It’s easy to understand the author’s intent to show Zelia as a strong-willed, larger-than-life yet vulnerable hero, but her episodes of fragility could have been curbed back with virtually little effect on the overall storyline.

The life-lessons imparted in this work focus on empathy, loyalty, conservation, respect for others, and self-acceptance, even as the story touches on many other topics of concern to teens and adolescents seeking guidance in our own modern, undefined world. Zelia is a model heroine, and her attributes are admirable.

From the very beginning of her tale, Author Marie injects a good deal of violence and suffering into “Zelia”. For example, the situation with the wizard holding Zelia prisoner and brainwashing her demonstrates a high level of prejudice and child abuse. Not only is Zelia forced to undergo extreme physical and psychological torture (which she endures throughout the read), she must also become the abuser—the murderer—when Asenten tests her powers and orders her to execute several other victims, including innocent children and small animals.

This story should probably come with a trigger warning of some kind.

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Tragicly broken heroine, heartwarming story

This book is a wonderful mix of Magic and wonder with a tragically broken hero. Zelia is wonderful and you will get to follow her between worlds as she fights against all odds and against her training to be a hero. I loved this book. It is for older teens to adults because there are some very difficult concepts and fairly graphic fight sequences.

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OMG!! What a wonderful story!

There was such sorrow and friendships that are to die for! This was such a twisting and turning story with love at it's core. This is a book to have and listen to repeatedly.

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2 people found this helpful

Interesting tale

This was an interesting story, though somewhat confusing at times. I was listening to this while I had a migraine so that could be some cause of the confusion.

Zelia is someone who lives with elves and can talk to animals. Zelia is requested to burn the piers of the fallen though she has no clue why she is chosen to do so since she has nothing to do with the royal family. You find out a little of her backstory of where she came from in the 3rd chapter. She has a long tale to go, I wont give the details of it here since I think it is up to the book to bring you through the story.

Narrator did an ok job, a lot of his female voices were a bit too similar for my hearing, but he did good on different male voices.

I liked the story overall, there was some spots that could have been a bit better, but still wont change that I didnt mind listening to the book.

I received a free review copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving am honest review.

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Enjoyed

I enjoyed Zelia. Zelia Is a dark epic fantasy about Zelia, a 500 year that looks like a human girl. Looks can decieving. Zelia experiences, heartache, pain, and guilt. The story is hopeful. There is redemption. There are wizards, elves, wolves, fairies, dragons, dragon riders, talking trees, trappers, torture, heartache, battles, and hope, components of a great dark epic fantasy and good story.
received free ARC, voluntarily reviewing

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Stunning story

Such a great story! Full of adventures and yet a tear jerker too. I enjoyed the description of the characters.

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Dark Epic Fantasy

This epic fantasy novel is written in a slow, descriptive storytelling style that is so typical of the genre. What isn't so typical is the length, it clocks in at just over 8 hours compared to the usual expected trilogy that comes out of a story like this.

Unfortunately this story is very dark making it recommended for adults only. The scenes in the cave contain scenes of graphic violence and torture. This is made worse by the MC seeming to be a young elf. She acts like she is about 14 by human standards, adding child abuse to the list of horrors.

It is unusual that a male narrator is used when the MC is female but he tries his hard to deliver a good performance. Unfortunately when he starts a new paragraph, he doesn't pause quite long enough making some of the paragraphs flow one into the other and leaving the listener a bit confused.

I really did not enjoy this audiobook, it was way too dark for my tastes even if it is not gratuitous violence. A training exercise where a boy is burned to death slowly to teach Zelia (our MC) a lesson ended any chance there was of me finishing it.

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