Just for the Plot (Bay Area Players, Book 2), by Meghan Quinn | Free Audiobook
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Crown Me Yours (Heartstring Duet, Book 2), by Liv Zander | Free Audiobook
31 July 2026
Audiobook details
A gravedigger's daughter with a crown she never asked for
She has spent her whole life burying other people's dead, not making deals with the men who create them. But when her brother's illness turns fatal and no doctor can save him, the only offer on the table comes from a man who smells like the throne room and looks like he's never once gotten his hands dirty. Marry the king. Save her brother. Simple, he tells her. Nothing about it feels simple.
The king she's meant to seduce is not what the stories warned her about, and that's almost worse. He's ruin wearing a crown, a man whose kingdom is dying the same slow way he is, and every hour she spends near him makes her forget why she came. Meanwhile the one who arranged this bargain watches from the shadows with a patience that feels less like loyalty and more like a countdown.
She was told she'd be a pawn in someone else's game. She grew up around the dead, though, and she knows better than anyone how quickly the living can end up in the ground. If a king and the man who made him need her heart for their own reasons, she intends to make sure at least one of them regrets needing it at all.
Crown Me Dead had me from the opening scene, a gravedigger's daughter forced into a bargain that trades her body for her brother's life. Liv Zander doesn't waste time easing into the dark romantasy tone here, and I respected that. The dirt under the story's fingernails never really washes off, and I mean that as a compliment.
Kael is exactly the kind of decaying, tragic figure this genre thrives on. He's dangerous in a way that feels earned rather than performative, a ruler whose kingdom is falling apart right alongside him, and the chemistry between him and our heroine builds through tension rather than instant declarations. It's slow enough to feel real, fast enough to keep the pages turning.
Vale is where the book gets genuinely unsettling. He's the architect of the whole arrangement, and his motives stay just out of reach long enough to keep me second guessing whether he's a threat or something more complicated. That ambiguity is doing a lot of heavy lifting for a book this length, and it mostly pays off.
As the first half of a duet, this book ends on a cliffhanger that will frustrate anyone expecting resolution. I didn't mind it, since the setup for book two feels earned rather than manufactured, but readers who prefer standalone closure should know what they're signing up for going in.
Julio Maxwell and Jacci Prior split the narration well, with Maxwell giving Kael a hollowed out, weary quality that suits a dying king and Prior carrying our heroine's grit without ever softening her into something more delicate than she is. At 8 hours and 36 minutes, the pacing moves briskly, and the two voices never compete for space in scenes they share.
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Crown Me Dead by Liv Zander opens the Heartstrings Duet with a bargain no one walks away from clean. A gravedigger's daughter is offered her brother's life in exchange for seducing a dying king, and the deal comes wrapped in more danger than she was told to expect.
Take advantage of the free trial, cancellable at any time, and let Julio Maxwell and Jacci Prior carry all 8 hours and 36 minutes of this dark fantasy romance. Their performances give the king's decay and the heroine's grit equal weight, which keeps the tension between them sharp from start to finish.
The audiobook remains yours forever, even after the trial ends. The same free trial also unlocks thousands of other titles, with no commitment required. Start listening now and see what a gravedigger's daughter does when she's handed a crown.
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