Daughter of No Worlds

Author: Carissa Broadbent

Narrator: Esther Wane & Dan Calley

Tissanah is a slave, stolen from her family at a young age and only saved from the mines due to her innate magical ability and her confidence. Many years later she has finally saved up enough money to buy her freedom but instead barely escaped with her life. She pursues The Orders, the magical wielders who live across the sea, to get their assistance in releasing her friends and countrymen from slavery. They require an apprenticeship and match her up with Maxantarius Farlione, a reclusive member who hates The Orders, to teach her what is required to become a member. At first, Max and Tissanah are at odds, he doesn’t want to help and only wants to be left alone with his garden in the middle of nowhere. They progress from that to actual friendship and then the feelings between them really start to blossom as they spend months together building Tissanah’s skills. Then her final test comes and nothing will be the same again. She takes on an ancient form of elven magic that merges with her body and soul, a magic entity that was once merged with Max, and with it comes even more power but a loss of autonomy. Enslaved to a man, then enslaved to The Order, and finally enslaved to the entity, Tissanah must figure out a way to rise above them all.

I really enjoyed this novel. It’s intricate and detailed, the magic system is fairly unique, and the world itself feels actually real. The author is really good at description and characterization. The romance is a slow-burn and the main characters actually take time to build a foundation before they actually get together. Their relationship makes both stronger, but unfortunately causes Max to have to go back to the life that he had previously sworn off. There is some spice once the characters actually get together but it’s not a huge focus. 

Narrator Esther Wane did a great job voicing the FMC. Tissanah’s inner thoughts are much different than her spoken word, by necessity as she speaks with an accent and is learning the language of her new land, and Esther does a great job with both. Delivery and tone were spot-on for how I expected the FMC to react to her circumstances. Narrator Dan Calley, unfortunately, did not meet my expectations for Max. I’m not sure if it was because of the editing or his set up in the booth but I was hearing way too many breath noises, both actual breaths and breathiness within the words themselves. Overall I appreciated this story & FMC delivery but not the performance by the MMC.