Thursday, August 2, 2018

Audiobook Review: Chosen by the Vampire Kings by Charlene Hartnady

Series:The Chosen #1
Pub. Date:May 22, 2018
Publisher:Tantor Audio
Narrator:Tatiana Sokolov
Length:12 hrs 19 min
Source:Publisher

This is my first read by Charlene Hartnady, even though this book has been on my TBR for a bit. I'm not a fan of serials, so I was happy to see that it was released as one book in both print and audio. It's been a while since I've read a new vampire book, and I was pleasantly surprised by this one. 

The heroine of this paranormal romance is Tanya, a curvy girl who thinks she has no chance in hell of being chosen by one of the vampire kings at the choosing ceremony, which happens every century. Orphaned and owner of a small bookstore, she has things to take care of and no one to pick up the reins if she had to leave. But Tanya is also the kind of girl who will speak up and voice her opinion, which gets her noticed, the one thing she didn't want. So Tanya was forced to adjust to being a sole human among vampires, but will show everyone that just because she is physically weaker, doesn't mean she is weak of character. I liked that she held her own among the vamps and was able to put her alphas in their place.

As you can tell from the title and cover, we aren't restricted to a single hero in this story. Our vampire heroes are Brant and Zane. Both men are kings of their clan, which have been at reluctant peace for a number of years. But just because they are at peace, doesn't mean that the kings like, or even tolerate one another. This becomes readily apparent Mate's Lore is invoked and the two must learn to share. I really liked Brant in the beginning. He is a super sexy vampire with a bit of a tender and flirty side, and I liked the interaction between he and Tanya. But then I was overtaken by Zane's unapologetically alpha maleness that also had a touch of vulnerability. Ultimately, Zane won me over as the favorite hero due to his willingness to bend and adapt, where Brant remained stubbornly closed-minded for much of the book.

This is a paranormal menage, so you can except your phone/kindle to steam up fairly quickly. I would also place this in the fated mates trope, so you can expect things to get hot and heavy from an early point of the story. For these type of stories, sometimes they become sex over substance and the story gets lost with all the clothes coming off. But I didn't feel like that happened here. There was a good amount of relationship building, drama between the kings, and a secondary plotline involving other warring supernatural factions.

Overall, I enjoyed this story and all of the characters. There were some interesting secondary characters that have me wanting to read the related stories, so hopefully I can get to those soon. 

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this audiobook that I received from the publisher, Tantor Audio.


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