Mad Mabel, by Sally Hepworth | Free Audiobook
30 April 2026
Fury Bound (The Wolves of Ruin, Book 2), by Sable Sorensen | Free Audiobook
4 May 2026
Audiobook details
A sword claimed. A goddess to kill.
Hundreds of years ago, a war tore a world into two halves. Stormside is where mortals scrape by on the edges of a dying land, rationing what little magic drifts across the border. Starside is where the gods and immortals live, untouched and unbothered, sitting on a power that is never shared. Every fifty years, the gates open. Fifty challengers are chosen. One quest. One pool of magic that can do almost anything. People enter for wealth, for healing, for a few extra decades of life. Aris enters to burn it all down.
She was seven when a goddess set fire to her village. She watched her family die. Since then, Aris has had one purpose: get through the gates, reach the gods, and kill them. Not one. All of them. She survives the Culling, the king's brutal selection, not because she has the name of a Great House or access to forged weapons, but because she claims a great sword, one that carries real power, and now every immortal in Starside knows exactly who she is.
What she does not expect is Harlan Raker. He is the king's guard, he betrayed her years ago, and he is now following her across a land full of magic-wielding beasts, ancient creatures, and something new rising from the ground after dark that even the immortals fear. Whether he is her greatest threat or her only real chance at survival is a question she cannot afford to get wrong. Starside is Alex Aster's first adult romantasy, set in a world where power is not inherited but taken, sometimes at a cost you do not see coming.
I picked this one up knowing basically nothing beyond the cover and the Alex Aster name. Twenty hours later, I was irritated it was over. That does not happen often.
The setup is familiar territory if you have spent any time in fantasy: a divided world, a competition, an underdog protagonist with revenge on her mind. What makes it work is the specificity. Aris is not just angry. She has a plan, a timeline, and a level of focus that makes her genuinely compelling to follow. The world-building around the Culling and the gates feels thought through rather than decorative, and Aster gives the immortals enough texture that they do not read as simple villains.
The tension between Aris and Harlan is handled well. The betrayal backstory is not spelled out in one clunky flashback. It surfaces in pieces, and that pacing keeps you invested long past the point where the romance becomes obvious. There is one chapter mid-way through, set in the creature-filled interior of Starside at night, that is genuinely tense in a way I did not anticipate from a romantasy. It earns the stakes it sets up.
A note on the thing rising from the ground after dark: the book does not over-explain it, and that restraint is the right call. It sits at the edge of the narrative and makes Starside feel like a place with history you have not been told yet. For a first book in a trilogy, that is exactly where you want to be.
Vanessa Moyen and Anthony Palmini share the narration across 20 hours and 2 minutes, and the split works. Moyen carries Aris with a controlled edge that never tips into melodrama, and Palmini brings something genuinely unsettling to Harlan in the earlier chapters before the dynamic shifts. The transitions between them are clean and the pacing never drags, which is no small thing for a listen this long.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
Starside by Alex Aster draws you into a world split between mortal poverty and divine privilege, where a young woman named Aris enters a deadly cross-realm competition with no interest in the prize at the end. Her only goal is to reach the gods and kill them, starting with the goddess who burned her village when she was a child. The story moves fast, the world has weight, and the central rivalry between Aris and Harlan Raker keeps the tension alive across every stage of the quest.
The free trial, cancellable at any time, lets you start listening immediately. Vanessa Moyen and Anthony Palmini share the narration across 20 hours and 2 minutes, each handling a different perspective with enough distinction that the duet format genuinely adds something to the experience rather than just dividing it.
The audiobook is yours to keep even after the trial ends. The free trial also opens access to thousands of other titles, with no commitment required. Start listening now and find out why Starside hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list.
US-based editor & staff writer focused on audiobooks. Honest reviews, curated “best of” lists, and practical guides with an accessibility lens.
