The Ascended (The Aesymarean Duet, Book 1), by Bree Grenwich, Parker Lennox | Free Audiobook
The Ascended (The Aesymarean Duet, Book 1)Audiobook
A stolen secret, a trial run by gods, and a mentor she cannot trust
Thais Morvaren's survival has always depended on nobody knowing what she can do, and what she can do is forge weapons out of starlight. That secret is the only reason she is still alive, and it lasts exactly until the moment it doesn't. Once her power is out in the open, she is dragged into a competition run by gods, where contestants with divine abilities are offered a simple choice and a brutal one: rise, or die in the attempt.
She enters the trials with a goal of her own, which is not to survive them but to reach the person at the top of the hierarchy and finish him: Olinthar, King of the Gods. Getting there means accepting a mentor she did not choose, Xul, a prince with a reputation built on violence, a talent for saying the cruellest possible thing in the most charming way, and secrets that are worth as much as hers. Neither of them is inclined to trust the other, and the trials keep putting them in situations where trust is the difference between advancing and not existing.
This is the first book of the Aesymarean Duet, and it arrives with a reputation attached: a self-made word-of-mouth hit that built its readership well before the audio edition existed, with reviews of the text running back to the start of 2026. The audio version runs 25 hours and 5 minutes, performed in duet style by Mary Jane Wells, Maxim Reston and Phillip Freeman.
The first thing to say about this book is that it arrives with a reputation that has nothing to do with the audiobook: it built its audience by word of mouth, with reviews of the novel going back to the start of 2026, and by the time this duet narration lands there is a fandom asking the only question that matters for a hit like this, which is whether it is actually good or just well marketed. That question has a thread of its own on r/fantasyromance, and the answer that keeps surfacing is unambiguous, including from the readers who set out sceptical.
What earns the enthusiasm is the middle of the book. The Trials of Ascension are the engine of the plot, and they are the part reviewers single out again and again, with one StoryGraph reader calling them without question among the best trials in the genre. The structure is familiar to anyone who has read a competition romantasy, but the rules here are tied to the worldbuilding rather than bolted on, and Thais enters them with a goal that has nothing to do with winning, which changes what every round means.
The relationship does most of the rest. Thais is bound to Xul as her mentor, which gives the two of them a formal reason to be in each other's business all day and a formal reason to lie, and the book is smart about how long it keeps that tension unresolved. Mary Jane Wells, Maxim Reston and Phillip Freeman perform it in duet style, and on a book of this size that matters: 25 hours and 5 minutes is a serious commitment, and the alternating voices keep the long stretches of training and negotiation from feeling like one person reading aloud.
My one honest caveat is about the size of the thing rather than its quality. This is a duet opener that spends a great deal of time establishing the world before the first trial, and readers who come to it from short, fast romantasy may find the opening third slow rather than atmospheric. Give it until the trials begin and it rewards you. The second volume is not out yet, and the novel itself is not on the site, so for more romantasy on the same shelf there is a top 10 of romantasy audiobooks and, named by the publisher as a comparable read, there is Phantasma.
The Ascended is the word-of-mouth romantasy hit that finally arrives in audio. Thais Morvaren has survived by hiding what she can do, which is forge weapons out of starlight, and that secret holds until the day it does not. Exposed, she is forced into the Trials of Ascension, a divine competition where the choice is to rise or to die trying.
She goes into it with a plan of her own: reach Olinthar, King of the Gods, and kill him. Instead the trials bind her to a mentor she did not choose, Xul, a dark prince with a violent reputation, a sharp tongue and secrets as dangerous as hers, and neither of them trusts the other while the competition keeps making trust the only way forward.
It runs 25 hrs and 5 mins, narrated in duet style by Mary Jane Wells, Maxim Reston and Phillip Freeman. With the free trial, you can pick any title you want, this one included, cancel whenever you like, and the audiobook stays in your library after the trial ends.
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