Brenden Vetch lives a solitary life as a gardener until the wizard Od asks him to go to Kelior to tend the gardens at her school of magic. But the king’s wizard, Valarin, believes Brenden to be a grave threat and sets out to constrain him. Gabrielle de Cuir has a light touch with this narration. She maintains the undercurrent of tension surrounding Valarin as he seeks to exercise tight control over what magic is sanctioned and what is to be banished. De Cuir’s voice reflects a fondness for the young princess who is to be betrothed to Valarin as well as for the magician's daughter, who helps keep wonder and true magic alive.
Pub Date: 2009
Duration: 11 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This highly satisfying quest brims with humor and friendship courtesy of Church.
During a magical adventure set in a traveling bookshop, narrator Imogen Church ensures that each conversation is a dramatic experience. Listeners meet failed book witch Louella Twig, whose strident tones mask her loneliness. She encounters former thief Everett Sharp who, intrigued, parries Louella's defenses with his deep, rolling voice. When Louella's former mentor, Feralorn, asks for her help finding pages from his grimoire, Louella accepts the quest. Church's voice for Feralorn is that of a creaky trumpet—highly distinctive, occasionally overwhelming. Church gives each character their own voice and mannerisms, including gnomes and a European wizard. Pacing, phrasing, and inflection are deployed skillfully to denote emotion, especially between Louella and Everett.
This highly satisfying quest brims with humor and friendship courtesy of Church.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
Duration: 12 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9798898856663
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
Suvari’s strong performance commits to the drama, increasing the stakes of a plot that has more atmospherics than...
This audiobook’s plot satisfyingly deploys familiar motifs of retro New England academia and of witchery as metaphor for the stigmatization of women’s power. Ava and Lauren, in their first year at the elite women’s Radcliffe College in the 1950s, are recruited into the secret Lilith Society of witches. When Mena Suvari is portraying adult Ava and Lauren and their Radcliffe milieu, her narration is delivered as seriously as the women take themselves, in defiance of a sexist era that belittles them. Memories of Ava’s childhood in small-town Maine sound guileless and open, bright with the child’s sparkling potential and curiosity, even as her family cruelly attempts to suppress her magical destiny.
Suvari’s strong performance commits to the drama, increasing the stakes of a plot that has more atmospherics than action.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
Duration: 12 hrs, 50 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668117026
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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