Young Adult Audiobook Review: Stormbringers by Philippa Gregory

Order of Darkness Book Two: Stormbringers by Philippa Gregory

Audiobook

Published: June 4th, 2013 by Simon & Schuster Audio

Source: Publisher

The second book in a YA quartet filled with intrigue, mystery, and romance, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory.Italy, 1453. Luca and Isolde grow more and more attracted to each other as they continue their journey to unravel the mysteries throughout Christendom. But their travels are delayed by the uprising of an intense religious crusade that threatens the balance of the civilized world. Death lingers in the air as war ravages on, but this religious conflict is nothing compared to the arrival of an intense and deadly storm.

Caught in the midst of unimaginable chaos, Luca and Isolde must rely on one another in order to survive.

The second in Philippa Gregory’s four-book series delves further into a forbidden romance and an epic quest. And the tension builds as secrets about The Order of Darkness are finally revealed...

I'll be honest, I'm quite sure I enjoyed this more as an audio book than I would have had I read it myself.  It was quite slow paced at times and while it didn't bother me so much as an audio, it may have bored me to death had I been reading it.  The thing is, so much of the story is fascinating to me.  They don't have the knowledge we have about science and they just see everything as a sign from God, or from the devil.  It's quite interesting watching these events unfold and how they try to figure out how and why these particular things happen.  Even I feel myself nearly convinced that some event might be that of God but once the scientific reason come to light, it's like duh, I should have known that! {BTW, I know that God may have caused this particular thing to happen which lead to this other thing, but there's an actual explanation, and that's what I mean.}

Isolde overreacted a bit about some things and this led me to like her a tad less.  She seemed more like a spoiled noble, than the girl she had been in the previous book.  But she had less time on the page and so it never became a big issue for me.  Luca is shaping up to be a great character.  I think that he's more open minded than many others in the time period.  And his friend and servant, Frieze, helps keep him that way.  Firenze is my favorite character of all of them as he keeps things lighter in tone and brings out plenty of laughs.  Overall I found myself pretty satisfied with the cast of characters.

The plot is certainly intriguing but it got a bit lengthy at times, as I mentioned before.  There's a lot to discuss but at times it felt like things were repeated.  Overall it was very satisfying and I find myself eager not only for more books in the series, but to learn more about similar events in history.

The audio was great!  The narrator managed to do all the voices perfectly.  Each character was easy to differentiate and she did so well I sometimes wondered if there was another person there because her voice changed so much for each one.  I also like when it's someone with a British accent reading fantasy or historical fiction.  I know it doesn't actually fit since they are in/from Italy, but really it doesn't matter, to me the British accent makes it seem more realistic.  I give 5 stars for the narration portion of the story.

The rest of it I give 4 stars to.  Though it was slow paced, it wasn't something that bothered me much since I was just busy doing my own thing as I listened.  Overall the story itself was fascinating.  The end was a bit killer, with lots of new mysteries popping up, little threads coming together and just making us wonder about things that aren't clear just yet.

Disclosure: I received this audiobook for review purposes, all opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.