The Exiled Queen Audiobook
Catrin Muzquiz
After being pronounced Queen of Faerie and then abruptly exiled by the Wicked King Cardan, Jude finds herself unmoored, the queen of nothing. She spends her time with Vivi and Oak, watching reality television, and doing odd jobs, including squaring up to a cannibalistic faerie.
When her twin sister Taryn shows up asking a favour, Jude jumps at the chance to return to the Faerie world, even if it means facing Cardan, who she loves despite his betrayal. When a dark curse is unveiled, Jude must become the first mortal Queen of Faerie and break the curse, or risk upsetting the balance of the whole Faerie world.
Eight years have passed since the Battle of the Serpent. But in the icy north, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has reclaimed the Ice Needle Citadel. There, she is using an ancient relic to create monsters of stick and snow who will do her bidding and exact her revenge. Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, and the one person with power over her mother, fled to the human world. There, she lives feral in the woods. Lonely, and still haunted by the merciless torments she endured in the Court of Teeth, she bides her time by releasing mortals from foolish bargains.
Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life-working hard all day and partying all night - until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She'll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths. Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose - to assassinate his boss' enemies, no questions asked.
It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his 18th year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.
Until an oracle predicted my regal future, I'd never imagined myself rising above the curve of my round ears. After all, I was the magicless halfling loved by beasts but loathed by every pure-blooded faerie at court. Well...by all but one.
For years, Erik, the scarred king of the Ever Kingdom, has thought of nothing but vengeance against the man who killed his father and trapped him beneath the waves, making him a prisoner in his own realm. Until his enemy's daughter unintentionally breaks the chains on the Ever, and Erik makes her the unwitting pawn in his vicious game of revenge. She's innocent. He's vicious. He will take back what he lost, no matter the price. Unless she steals his heart first.
A powerful curse forces the exiled Queen of Faerie to choose between ambition and humanity in this highly anticipated and jaw-dropping finale to the Folk of the Air trilogy from a number one New York Times best-selling author.
Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan's betrayal. She bides her time, determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.
Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict's bloody politics.
Young widow Lady Elizabeth Grey puts herself in the path of King Edward IV to seek his assistance in reclaiming her late husband's estate for her sons, but it is love at first sight for both of them. They marry in secret, which later puts Edward, Elizabeth and Elizabeth's entire family at odds with Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, who had helped place Edward on the throne expecting to control the young king. Masterminded by Elizabeth's mother Jacquetta, an experienced courtier formerly allied with the ousted queen Margaret of Anjou, Edward and Elizabeth secure strategic marriages and positions for Elizabeth's siblings and other relatives to bolster Edward's power and alliances against Warwick. Edward and Elizabeth have three daughters, and Warwick rebels, attempting to put Edward's malleable younger brother George, Duke of Clarence on the throne instead. Edward foils their plan and reconciles with Warwick and George to consolidate his power, but not before Warwick executes Elizabeth's father, Richard Woodville, Earl Rivers and brother, John Woodville. Elizabeth vows revenge.
Warwick marries his elder daughter Isabel to George and rebels again, luring Edward into an arranged uprising where he plans to kill Edward. The plot fails, and Warwick and George flee to France. Isabel gives birth during the journey, but the child dies. Warwick marries his second daughter Anne to Edward of Lancaster, son and heir to the deposed king Henry VI, to secure Warwick's new alliance with Henry's exiled queen, Margaret of Anjou. Warwick invades England. Caught off guard, Edward is forced to flee to Flanders with Elizabeth's brother Anthony. Warwick arrests Jacquetta on charges of witchcraft, but she is soon released on the orders of her old friend Margaret. Jacquetta joins a pregnant Elizabeth and her children in sanctuary in Westminster Abbey, where they are left unmolested by Warwick. Elizabeth gives birth to Edward's son, also named Edward. Returning to England, Edward is reunited with George and first defeats the forces of Warwick, who is killed, and then Margaret's army. Her son Edward of Lancaster is killed on the battlefield, and Edward murders the captive simpleton Henry VI to end the Lancastrian claim to the throne once and for all.
England is at peace, but a covetous George continues his plotting to undermine Edward's rule. Their younger brother Richard marries the widowed Anne Neville, and disapproves of Edward's choice to broker peace with France rather than fight for English holdings there. Isabel's death drives George over the edge, and his plots and slanders against Edward and Elizabeth result in his conviction for treason. Despite the protestations of their mother Cecily, Edward has George executed. Edward later dies himself, leaving his brother Richard as guardian to his surviving sons Edward and Richard despite Elizabeth's protestations. Richard seizes young Edward from the custody of Elizabeth's brother Anthony, and from sanctuary Elizabeth eventually relinquishes to Richard a page boy posing as her younger son, whom she actually sends to Flanders to be raised in secret under an assumed name. Believing he has both of Edward's heirs under his control in the Tower of London, Richard has Edward and Elizabeth's marriage declared invalid, and accedes the throne himself as Richard III.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth plots with her brother in law and former ward, the Duke of Buckingham, and Margaret Beaufort, the mother of the exiled Lancastrian claimant Henry Tudor, to overthrow Richard and free the young princes in the Tower. They betroth Tudor to Elizabeth of York, Edward and Elizabeth's eldest daughter, in part to seek the support of Yorkists for Tudor's cause. The young princes vanish and are presumed murdered, and though Elizabeth has not forgiven Richard for his execution of her brother Anthony and her son Richard Grey, she suspects that Buckingham, Margaret and Henry are more likely responsible for the disappearance of the boys as part of their own plotting to wrest the throne from Richard. Elizabeth leaves sanctuary and sends her older daughters to Richard's court as ladies-in-waiting to Queen Anne. Richard's and Anne's son Edward dies, followed by Anne herself. In the meantime, Richard and the younger Elizabeth have fallen in love, but he fears losing the support of the northern lords loyal to Anne's family if he marries Elizabeth right away. Henry Tudor's forces arrive in England.
Publishers Weekly wrote of the novel, "Gregory earned her international reputation evoking sex, violence, love and betrayal among the Tudors; here she adds intimate relationships, political maneuvering and battlefield conflicts as well as some well-drawn supernatural elements." The review adds that the author "is especially poignant depicting Elizabeth in her later years" and that "she captures vividly the terrible inertia of war," but notes that the novel "may not be as fresh as earlier efforts."[1] Maureen Waller of The Telegraph called the novel "entrancing" and its heroine "intriguing," adding that "Gregory is very good at describing the bitchiness of the women in this tale of dynastic rivalry."[2]
The White Queen has been released in audiobook form in both abridged (performed by Bianca Amato) and unabridged (narrated by Susan Lyons) versions. AudioFile magazine wrote of the novel, "Gregory has become wildly popular in the U.S. It's easy to see why in her latest heady mix of history, romance, and political intrigue as she teases apart the tangled skeins of the War of the Roses." The magazine praised both recordings, calling Amato's performance "powerful and compellingly believable" and Lyon's voice "regal" and "self-possessed."[6][7]
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