Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi Narrator: Bahni Turpin
Series: Legacy of Orisha #2
Published by MacMillan on December 3, 2019
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Length: 13 hours, 27 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible, Libro.fm, Barnes & Noble, Apple
After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could’ve imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.
Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.
With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.
It was quite a wait to continue Legacy of Orisha series, and then it took me almost 6 months to listen to The Children of Virtue & Vengeance. This series should be read in order and I am going to have some spoilers here if you have not read the first book, The Children of Blood and Bone. I did very well at describing the world and the emotional timbre in my review of the first book, which I won’t repeat here.
We get the story of a world through the eyes of three young adults. There is the brother and sister, Zelie and Zane, who are from maji families who now have their magic back, after years of oppression and tyranny of the monarchy. The other brother and sister, are Inan and Amari, who are the children of the King. Our point of view is mostly through the two females Zelie and Amari, but occasionally we get Inan’s view. I don’t know why Zane isn’t better developed but it could be he doesn’t have as much magic.
The characters are so young, right around twenty. They are in brutal battles and have crushing decisions to make which affect many lives. They are so hopeful and compassionate; they all have the country’s best interest at heart but there emotions are explosive and they are the worst when it comes to trust. Others sway their actions and betray them, and they end up hurting each other and themselves. I felt so hopeless because I could feel their mistrust and the way it would ruin their ability to achieve the peace and working together which was needed and what they truly wanted.
I felt so much pain and unhappiness at the violence, death and prejudice. They try SO hard and yet things just go wrong. In spite of the mistakes, they keep trying, but I would say no one really succeeds with so much violence and death. The ending is an upheaval and I can’t say where things will go from here. I’m not even sure who survived.
Narration:
The narration really added to the distinct feel of this world and these characters. Both female and male voices felt appropriate. The performance gave me a wide range of emotions. I listened at 1.5x speed comfortably.
Listen to a clip:
About Bahni Turpin
Bahni Turpin is a Los Angeles-based actress with many television and film credits in addition to being an award winning narrator. She is honored to have been awarded an Audie for Best Female Narrator, 2015, Audible Narrator of the Year, 2016, and American Library Association’s Voice of Choice for 2017. In 2018, Bahni won best female narration again, and was also inducted into the Audible Hall of Fame. She is a two-time Odyssey Award winner, and was also named as one of Audiophile’s Golden Voices for 2019.
Bahni Turpin is also a famous TV and film actress. She started her career in 1987 with the film called “Tiszta Amerika”.
2010 Best Voice in Fiction: PRECIOUS
The talented narrator is now a devoted listener, too, but she came to audiobooks with a bit of skepticism. Another actress referred her to Books on Tape, where she later auditioned. “It was very strange to me at the time because I didn’t listen to audiobooks then.”
In time, Books on Tape engaged her to read A PIECE OF CAKE, by Cupcake Brown, and Bahni was hooked. She had always liked reading aloud and found the assignment to be a comfortable and enjoyable gig. Of course, she’s continued. But sometimes she’s surprised at a director’s requirements. “I auditioned for a new company, and the director was so picky,” she says. “Every time you cleared your throat, you had to restart the paragraph.”
Bahni, who now loves listening to women’s stories as she tools around Los Angeles, was mesmerized by her own voicing of the character Minny in THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett. “While listening, I forgot it was me I was listening to,” says Bahni, who enjoyed the book’s rich emotions and vivid characterizations of several female characters.
The experience of absorbing audiobooks can be challenging for some modern listeners, Bahni feels. The heavy reliance on television for entertainment has led some to forget how to listen without a visual component. But she doesn’t draw a line between acting and narration. Bahni reads each book before recording and makes notes about how each character should sound. “I like to give each one a characterization and really try to read the way I feel the text should be heard. I especially enjoy doing dialects.”
About Tomi Adeyemi
Tomi Adeyemi is a Nigerian-American writer and creative writing coach based in San Diego, California. Her debut novel, CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE, comes out March 6th, 2018 and the movie is currently in development at Fox with the producers of Twilight and The Maze Runner attached. After graduating Harvard University with an honors degree in English literature, she received a fellowship that allowed her to study West African mythology and culture in Salvador, Brazil. When she’s not working on her novels or watching Scandal, she can be found blogging and teaching creative writing to her 3,500 subscribers at tomiadeyemi.com. Her website has been named one of the 101 best websites for writers by Writer’s Digest.
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I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- COYER-20
Wow, this sounds intense! I have not read the first book, but I do have a signed copy (I met her at Comic Con)
That’s awesome! You really should read my review of the first book as it is a better review and accurately states the emotions I felt and the characters. I wanted to just repeat that part but it didn’t seem right.
Sounds like a painful read. It would be hard to succeed in the face of such violence and brutality. I hope things turn out better in the next one!
I hope so. The first too bits have given me tons of angst.
I have a copy of the first book sitting on my shelf but haven’t had a chance to read it yet. It sounds like this one had a rather devastating ending.
I really loved the first one. This one was also good but emotionally painful.
I stopped reading after you said it contained spoilers for book 1, which I haven’t read yet, but I see you gave it high marks. Yay!
Yes the first book was even better. They are both intense, emotional stories.
I have the print edition waiting for me on my TBR …
I found it heart-breaking because it felt like nothing went right.