Review copy was received from NetGalley, Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A Feast for Starving Stone by Beth Cato Published by Brilliance Audio on January 9, 2024
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 390
Length: 14 hours, 5 minutes
Format: Audiobook, eARC
Source: NetGalley, Publisher
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible
Two countries at war. A delicious taste of magic. And a fierce princess comes of age in a rousing adventure by the author of A Thousand Recipes for Revenge . Princess Solenn’s marriage into royalty should have unified the continental neighbors of Verdania and Solenn’s homeland of Braiz against a common the country of Albion. Thanks to Albion’s cunning sabotage, Verdania is now Braiz’s lethal rival. And the dead Braizian sailors washed ashore near Solenn’s château are just the beginning. Arriving in the midst of danger, Ada Garland, rogue Chef to the Gods, is desperate to reunite with her daughter, Solenn. Not only has open war begun; it’s become heart-wrenchingly personal.
Ada’s long-lost, beloved Braizian musketeer, Captain Erwan Corre, is being held in a Verdanian prison, with execution imminent. And her daughter has been tasked with the near-doomed responsibility of uniting violently adversarial countries in peace. Can Solenn and Ada, coming together, stop their land from descending into all-out war? What must Solenn become, what more will she sacrifice, to do it? As ambassador between two worlds—one of humans, one of magic—Solenn must now draw from both to prevent the worst of things to come.
A Feast for Starving Stone is the concluding book to the Chefs to the Five Gods Duology. It picks up three weeks after the events in A Thousand Recipes for Revenge with PoVs from the same two characters of Solenn and her birth mother Adamantine or Ada. We are able to see the story through their eyes, the young Princess who sacrificed her something very large so she could not manipulated by one of the five gods and the mother who desperately wants to help her daughter and the country that protected her growing up.
Solenn, Princess of Braize is thought to have murdered the Prince of Verdania. She escaped, just barely and at huge personal cost, when the true poisoner of the prince was really Albion, who wants to take over the small kingdom of Braize. Solenn must figure out a way to make alliances to protect her beloved country from the war that is coming. As ambassador she travels to the land of the kindred, the land of the the magical creatures that are used in the special ingredients known as Epicurea. Unknown to everyone for so long these ingredients are in fact made from magical creatures cursed to live in the mortal realm half of the year where they are in danger of becoming food. Solenn needs their help and they are more at risk if Albion takes over, as Albion is known for the harvesting of all Epicurea they can find and use it liberally. With the help of these creatures and some other creative negotiating with both gods and other creatures, her precious Braize will stand a chance in the upcoming war.
Ada on the other hand is travelling into Verdania in hopes of saving Solenn’s father, the love of her life being held captive in Solenn’s stead. They have been apart for most of Solenn’s life as Ada is a rogue chef in hiding. She would not work for Verdania’s king anymore with her Chef talents and is therefore a wanted person who will be punished if caught by the removal of her tongue, her conduit to the god Gist that all chefs have. With the assistance a few kin she heads into enemy territory to find the love of her life, hopefully before he is executed so they can return to Braize and help their daughter.
It took me a little time to get into this story. It could be because I tried to start it before the holidays and that was a crazy time. I put the ebook down and swapped to an audio arc provided to me. The story went much better then and I was carried away in this magic world. The thing I liked about Solenn is she isn’t all powerful special. She is a young woman with an impossible task dealing with some PTSD from Gist’s take over of her body. She has fears because of this that hinder a few of the tasks in front of her. She has lost her tongue and that is not glossed over, it hinders her speech and the ability to eat. She is struggling with both and we walk through her journey with that and how she shifts and overcomes. I also liked that she was able to lean on others for help and learns it cannot just be her in this war, she needs to depend on those around her if they are all going to survive.
There are some interesting reveals in this about the gods and Solenn that were good twists to the story and at least one of these I was a bit surprised by, even if there were some clues along the way I didn’t see. This book is very light on romance as a side note. There is the long lost love of Ada and Erwan separated by fate almost 20 years ago but Solenn is too busy with her duties to pine for anyone and I think that is so different than most YA novels I think it worth noting. She has friends but no love interest.
Overall, a satisfying conclusion to the duology.
Narration:
Elizabeth Knowelden is an accomplished narrator, I have a few of her works in my catalog of audiobooks. She gave very different performances for Solenn and Ada’s PoV making it easy to tell which PoV we were in since sometime the characters were in the same place. I liked the slight accents she used for both and how she portrayed the voices of the gods. She had great diction and pacing throughout the story. I enjoyed her interpretation which went better than the reading on my own. I was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
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I do like the sound of this duology. Thanks for putting it on my radar, Robin!
It is an interesting change up to magic.
Such a great cover and it sounds good too! I might have to look for the audio! Thanks for sharing!
Both duology covers really fit.
Elizabeth Knowelden is good!
Yes! I’ve really enjoyed her before.