Kalliopee: A Princess’s Sacrifice

Nhan (“Gentlemen’s Jewels” series) offers an English-language debut of the first installment in her “Kalliopee” series. The novel is set in a dystopian future where women are chattel and subject to punishment for their husbands’ crimes. Continuous warfare has devastated the landscape, and Kalliopee, the Princess of Viridia, is sacrificing her freedom to become the wife of Prince Karel. Their respective kingdoms despise each other, and Kalliopee’s reception is dubious at best. Kalliopee and Karel had a summer camp romance when they were 14. Their adult reunion is complicated by their kingdoms’ fraught relationship and Karel’s father’s disgust for Varidians in general and women in particular. Tara Novie, a relative newcomer to audiobook narration, shines with her uncanny ability to verbalize Kalliopee’s internal dialogue. Her excellent pacing and pitch pull listeners into Kalliopee’s emotions and motivations. Her co-narrator, Sebastian Grove, is experienced in narrating romance novels but seems stiff in this role and is unable to keep up with Karel’s ever-changing feelings. Listeners may wish for a more straightforward story arc, as the plot is marred by inexplicable digressions, and character development happens out of sight.