Two Halves, One Brian

Book Stats

• ALC from NetGalley 🖤
• Book 1 of The Covenants of Velora series
• Publication Date: 05/19/26 (for the audiobook) & 08/05/25 (for the ebook)
• Publisher: Tantor Media
• Format: audiobook & ebook (doing an immersive read)
• Pages: 466
• Length of audiobook: 14 hours & 22 minutes
• Narrator(s): Lilly Drake & Curt Bonnem
• Chapters: 69, plus 1 prologue and 1 epilogue
• Narrator POV: 1st person, from Koryn’s POV with an epilogue from Garrick’s POV
• Available on Kindle Unlimited 🖤

Book Rating

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5

Spice: 🌶️🌶️ / 5

Summary & Review

Let me start with the narration. This isn’t a duet narration; it’s considered a dual narration. But really, Lilly Drake narrates the whole thing except for the epilogue. She does a great job with the story and bringing the characters to life, but she does voice the male characters as well, so just keep that in mind. For the epilogue, Curt Bonnem did a great job, and I felt like his voice was perfect for Garrick’s character. Hopefully in the next book, he’ll get to narrate a bit more.

The story pulled me in right away. I mean, we start immediately with the death of our main character, Koryn. It’s essentially her origin story. She was dying as a human, then turned into a witch. The story takes place 377 years after this event, but we do get some flashbacks that help us better understand Koryn’s character and mindset.

In this world, we have fae, witches, humans, and all sorts of creatures. The continent of Velora, once a prosperous and magical land, was cursed by the gods 400 years ago and is dying. Very few remain on the continent. Primarily just the poor who can’t afford to leave. There’s also one witch coven that remains, The Midnight Coven. This was the family Koryn belonged to until she was cast out.

Now, Koryn is torn between helping her remaining kin and trying to earn enough money to flee and try to start over somewhere else. During one unfortunate even, she’s approached by one of her previous coven sisters and told that she will be allowed to return to the coven if she goes through the 7 gates and lifts the curse.

Keep in mind that TONS of people have attempted to lift the curse by going through the gates, but rumors claim no one has ever made it past the 5th gate. Most die well before that, even. So, the request was basically impossible. But Koryn finds herself in another situation that prompts her to take action, and she makes the choice to attempt it anyway.

She’s not alone, however. There are 6 other supplicants who will also take part. One of which is a very large man she had mistaken for a fae at the tavern earlier that evening. A very large BLOND man. Come on, guys, we’ve read enough romantasy books to know that nothing good typically comes from blond male characters. 😂 I just knew this man was going to be trouble based on that description alone!

I won’t give away much more because I don’t want to spoil anything. But this book has so much going for it – there’s tension/longing (my fav), slow burn romance, unlikely alliances, curses, vengeful/angry gods, betrayal, deadly trials, and enemies-to-lovers. So many wonderful tropes that were well done, in my opinion. Also, dragons. Well, dragon. Singular. And she has strong Andarna vibes. Some comments are nearly identical, in fact, to things Andarna has said throughout the Empyrean series. But I do love a sassy teenage dragon.

I will add that while I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I did find parts of it to be extremely repetitive. I got really tired of hearing about how large and attractive Garrick was. I was also tired of constantly hearing about how her coven’s magic works and the frost in her veins. I KNOW she’s a frost witch, but it doesn’t need to be mentioned every few pages. I swear I don’t forget huge details that quickly. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I really enjoyed the ending. It felt a bit rushed, but overall I liked the info dump we got, the twists and turns, and the emotional betrayal. I apparently love betrayal tropes, especially when the character clearly plans to redeem themself. I’m very excited to read the next book and see where this story will take me!