Authors: Megan Linski & Alicia Rades
Narrators: Jennifer Jill Araya & Graham Halstead
Length: 15 hours and 3 minutes
Series: Academy of Magical Creatures, Book 1
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Released: Jul. 24, 2019
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Fire and water don’t mix.
Sophia: I’m Sophia Henley, your typical college freshman. I never expected a lion to be stalking me, nor for fire to come shooting out of my hands to protect my sister. Next thing I know, a drop-dead gorgeous guy shows up on my doorstep to sweep me away to a magical school, where I’ll learn to control my element and bond with a powerful creature called a Familiar.
I don’t believe I’m the savior of an ancient tribe, or the missing piece of a prophecy that’s more myth than reality. Worst of all, I’m forced to enter the Elemental Cup, where I’ll either earn my place in this society…or die trying.
Liam: The night I met Sophia, I didn’t think we’d form an undeniable connection. But I’m from the Water tribe, and she’s fire. I’m forced to push her away even as I’m falling for her.
I lost everything, yet Sophia makes me whole again. Our world is fixed on keeping us apart, but we’re in this tournament together. We have to keep each other alive at any cost – or I’ll give my life for hers.
It’s pretty clear. If I continue to play with fire, I’m going to get burned.
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Megan Linski and Alicia Rades are two best friends and the authors of the Academy of Magical Creatures series. Both are USA TODAY Bestselling Authors and award-winning novelists for teens and young adults. Megan Linski is a disabled author who loves laughter, adventure, and fantasy worlds. She is a proud member of Koigni House. Alicia Rades is a mother who enjoys exploring paranormal realms and trying new recipes. She is a champion from Toaqua House. Both girls love nature, animals, sexy romances, and eating cheese.
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Jennifer Jill Araya has been listening to audiobooks since she was a young child, and the fact that she now gets to narrate audiobooks for a living is a dream come true. Jennifer’s training as an opera singer and orchestral cellist lend a musicality and depth of understanding to her narration that help bring her authors’ stories to life. She loves nothing more than giving life and breath to the printed word. When she’s not narrating, Jennifer can be found hiking, biking, running, or generally exploring her home city of Cincinnati with her husband Arturo (aka “Partner in Crime”) and their two children.
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Two-time Audie Award winner and recipient of five AudioFile Earphones Awards, Graham Halstead has narrated 180+ titles for Audible, Recorded Books, Penguin Random House, Macmillan, Hachette, Harper Collins and many more.
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I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Megan Linski. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
The Fire Prophecy is a fun premise that follows the typical YA tropes of girl finds out she is something special and has to prove it to the world and even to herself. The story takes place at a college for the Elementals, where each type of Elemental belongs to a tribe, and dating between tribes is forbidden.
I enjoyed the character types and the different types of Elementals with their various powers. I loved the Familiars and the relationship with the human and beastie. The general plot was a cut-throat competition where you prove your skills or die trying. Literally die. This is not your typical college!
What I didn’t love was the delivery. The story was very “tell” and not so much “show”, so I don’t know I fully believe the depth of emotion between our two main characters. We get a lot of the inner monologue from both characters to tell themselves how they feel, but not fully convincing. The story seemed choppy and at times, maybe not as linearly told as I wanted. Also, I really could have used more world-building. I want to fully understand this world and the different Elementals but I have a lot of gaps in my understanding of it.
The characters, I’m still trying to wrap my head around. Liam is dark and brooding from his failing health and the loss of his Familiar, and Sophia is just naive. Being that Sophia is the prophecized one to change everything, she has a lot of enemies and has to keep secrets. But is she strategic enough to do it right, or will she be taken out? I guess the rest of the series will tell. I did like how the book ended with a bang, not a cliffhanger, but a great setup for the conflict to continue this series.
I will say the audio narration was fabulous! Both POV narrators were great – in voice and tone. They really brought their characters to life and having a separate narrator for each character really helped separate who was leading that chapter.
Overall a good first book in a series, interesting enough to make me want to know what happens next.
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