A rebellious princess, a cursed rogue, and a kingdom edging toward a coup pulled me into this audiobook faster than most romantasy premises manage, and LJ Andrews's first Broken Kingdoms book earned that pull by the halfway point.
A Closer Look at Curse of Shadows and Thorns
As niece of the king, Elise Lysander cares about two things: sneaking into gambling dens and avoiding an advantageous marriage. When her uncle holds her deathly ill father's life over her head, she puts her fate into the hands of Legion Grey, the arrogant, infuriating dowry negotiator her uncle has assigned to her. Legion incites a passion she can't ignore, but as their attraction grows, so do the dangers around them: attacks from black-eyed people, a cursed enemy more beast than man, and rumors that the fae are returning for a crown they believe was stolen from them long ago. After a bloody coup upends the kingdom, Elise flees with Legion, only to learn that the man she let into her heart has his own secret plans tied to the return of magic, and every intention of using her to see them through. It is a busy plot, layering a forbidden romance over a fae-versus-mortal power struggle, and Andrews keeps most of the plates spinning without letting any one of them drop out of sight for long. This is the first book in the Broken Kingdoms series, released through Podium Audio in August 2022, and it reads accordingly, setting up the return of magic and the fae's grievance against the crown as ongoing conflicts rather than problems this single book intends to resolve. The romance and the politics are deliberately tangled together too. Elise's fate is handed to Legion in the first place because her uncle is using her father's illness as leverage, so the attraction that follows never fully separates itself from the coercion that started it, which gives the slow burn a harder edge than a straightforward meet-cute would.
What Makes Curse of Shadows and Thorns Worth Hearing
Reviews here are enthusiastic almost across the board. Harlie calls it close to perfect, singling out the world building, the slow-burn romance, the political intrigue, and Elise herself, who reads as likeable and headstrong from the first page. Ashley describes the way the story mixes fae, a Beauty and the Beast dynamic, and Vikings into something that felt genuinely unique, and admits the opening stretch runs slow before it clicks into place like a puzzle. Melissa Brooks, who says reviews don't normally get written after finishing a book, made an exception here, praising the prose on a purely technical level, clean grammar and language, without the excess of cursing some romantasy leans on, and calling the subtler storyline running underneath the betrothal plot the real draw. That range of praise, from craft to characters to the tangle of political scheming, suggests this isn't a book coasting purely on tropes, even with a premise built from familiar romantasy pieces like the forbidden dowry negotiator and the missing throne. Harriet, reviewing from the United Kingdom, went in without having read anything by this author before and came away calling Elise gripping from the very start, describing a book that was hard to put down once it had begun. Taken together, the reviews suggest the world building carries at least as much weight as the central romance, with the black-eyed attackers, the cursed enemy, and the fae's long memory of a stolen crown giving the love story somewhere dangerous to unfold.
Things to Know Before Starting Curse of Shadows and Thorns
Not every reader was won over completely. Carmcarm, who rated it three stars, liked the overall story and liked Legion Grey specifically, but found Elise came off as a naive teen at points, set up as the family's black sheep who wants to change things but only pushes back at the worst possible moments. That reviewer also flags a specific structural gripe: Elise secretly trains for danger throughout the book, but when real danger finally arrives, the payoff for that training doesn't fully land, leaving a buildup that never quite follows through. It's a fair thing to keep in mind if you're hoping for a heroine who gets to use every skill she's shown developing. On the pacing side, Ashley's comment about a slow start is worth taking at face value too, since this is a ten-hour-and-thirty-eight-minute listen and the political and romantic threads take real time to interlace. None of the five reviews discuss Stina Nielsen's narration directly, which is a notable gap for a slow-burn romance where a narrator's handling of tension between two leads often makes or breaks the listening experience, so factor that uncertainty in if voice chemistry is what you listen for most. It's also worth flagging that all five reviews here cut off mid-sentence in the data available to us, which means the fullest arguments some of these listeners were building, particularly Carmcarm's more critical read, may go further than what's quoted above suggests.
Who LJ Andrews Is Writing For
Romantasy listeners who want their fae politics and forbidden romance served with real plotting underneath, not just tension for its own sake, will find a solid pick here, and so will anyone starting the Broken Kingdoms series looking for a first book that sets up a bigger conflict without feeling like pure table-setting. It's less of a fit if you want your heroine fully capable from page one, since Carmcarm's critique of Elise's uneven arc is worth taking seriously going in. Listeners who don't mind a slower opening stretch in exchange for a payoff that several reviewers describe as coming together like a puzzle should find plenty to enjoy across its ten and a half hours. And if you're building out a full listen of the Broken Kingdoms series, starting here gives you the coup, the curse, and the fae's grievance against the crown all in motion before book two presumably picks up the threads Andrews leaves open.
Does this audiobook work as a starting point for the Broken Kingdoms series?
Yes, it's the first book. Elise Lysander's story and the coup that upends her kingdom set up the larger conflict, and reviewers describe the opening stretch as slow before the plot threads click into place like a puzzle by the midpoint of the book.
Is the romance in this audiobook enemies-to-lovers or something else?
It centers on Elise and Legion Grey, a dowry negotiator she's forced to work with. Reviewers describe a slow-burn dynamic built on forced proximity and mutual suspicion rather than open hostility between the two leads from the very start of the story.
Does this audiobook lean more into romance or fantasy plotting?
Both, according to reviewers. Harlie praises the world building and political intrigue as much as the romance, and Melissa Brooks singles out the subtler storyline behind the betrothal plot as the strongest part of the book overall, beyond the central love story.
