Smada's Book Smack : Audiobook Blog Tour: Tracing Shadows (Scout #1) by Alex Lidell

Author: Alex Lidell

Narrator: Hayden Daviau

Length: 6 hours and 21 minutes

Serie: Scout Series, Book 1

Publisher: Danger Bearing Press

Released: May 21, 2018

Genre: YA Fantasy

To protect the throne, 17-year-old spy Kali must play a male guardsman trainee by day and royal lady by night.
Orphaned and trained on a spymaster’s remote estate, Kali is a scout who works alone in the shadows. But when a terror group threatens the Dansil throne, the king forces Kali to accept a mission at the palace or forfeit her sister’s life.
Suddenly thrust into the light, Kali must infiltrate high society as the royal Lady Lianna while penetrating the servant ranks as Kal, a male guardsman trainee. It doesn’t help that Trace, the harsh and enigmatic captain of the king’s guard, is soon assigned as both Lady Lianna’s palace escort and Kal’s commanding officer.
As Kali edges closer to the truth behind the violent group’s identity, she uncovers dangerous secrets that could bring her mission to a brutal end. A scout’s job is to observe and report, never to engage...but if it means saving her sister and kingdom, Kali may have no choice.
Tracing Shadows, by Amazon best-selling author Alex Lidell, is the first novel in the Scout series. Perfect for fans of Tamora Pierce, Leigh Bardugo, and Sarah J. Maas.

My Review:

4 Out Of 5 Stars

Genre: Another-World, Mystery, Royal-Court, Supernatural, Suspense--

A few months ago I read Ash and Air by Alex and absolutely fell in love with the writing, the world, the character- pretty much everything was spot on to make me seek out more of her books. When I saw that she had a brand new series coming out with a female spy, there was no question that I would read the book, more of just how could I get my hands on it.

Tracing Shadows was a fast paced story full of court intrigue, lies and deception, where you are not sure who to trust and what a person's true intentions are. Oh and don't forget the forbidden magic that runs underneath everything in this world, regardless of the fact they try and deny it. If you like your book full of twists and adventure, then I highly recommend this start to the series. In a world where magic is seen as the enemy and acts of terror take place against those that wield the power, how do you use the power to help people/things/the situation?

Kali's entire life is about lies and pretending to be someone she isn't as a Scout aka a spy, making her a hard character to pin down. Her job, or rather life goal, is to find out as much information as she can in any given situation, be it the enemies to the empire or the Crown itself- after all, loyalty can be bought. She was so fluid as to who she became, be it personality or appearance. I did find it kind of wonderful to have such a transitional character, taking on traits and quirks befitting her new identity- and yes, she could be a convincing court lady with manners and breeding (cough, cough, she technically is a high lady, just not recognized, but whatever) and she could transform into a powerful male in a blink of an eye (and a well bound chest). Her loyalty was flexible as well, except to her sister Leaf, who was her whole reason for pretty much everything. Side note, there is another voice used to narrate the story and that was Violet, a young teen in the court, who was an interesting character but more like a side note to me- there to help the story, but I was happier to get back to Cali and her disasters. (oh an ps, I love Wil!)

The narrator was able to create unique voices for all the characters, making it easy to decipher who was talking. She also gave personality and emotions to each person, really helping the audiobook come to life. I will say sometimes the sound quality of the audiobook was a little off, like with a slight echo when the narrator would speak that was slightly distracting, but it did not occur all the time so it was easy for me to overlook it.

Alex was able to create another really cool, unique world within these pages and I found myself blowing through the book because I had to get to the end and discover more information. I am really excited to see what will happen next, especially with the bombshell dropped and the potential changes coming. Alex yet again made a book that I really enjoyed and I am so glad that I was able to experience it.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Alex Lidell. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Alex Lidell is the author of Amazon best sellers AIR AND ASH and WAR AND WIND (Danger Bearing Press, 2017) and an Amazon Breakout Novel Awards finalist author of THE CADET OF TILDOR (Penguin, 2013). She is an avid horseback rider, a (bad) hockey player, and an ice-cream addict. Born in Russia, Alex learned English in elementary school, where a thoughtful librarian placed a copy of Tamora Pierce’s ALANNA in Alex’s hands. In addition to becoming the first English book Alex read for fun, ALANNA started Alex’s life long love for YA fantasy books.