Narrated by Zachary Johnson

Nazri Noor’s fast-paced and imaginative fantasy/urban fantasy romances are a lot of fun and I’ve enjoyed a number of his books over the past couple of years. His latest release, Grave Misfortune, is in the unique position of (I think) being the only standalone he’s published, so if you want to sample his work, this could be a good place to start. The book is part of the multi-author Fortune Favors the Fae series that follows the progress of a mysterious and ancient Fae coin that travels from world to world, and although this one is listed as book eight, I listened to it without having listened to or read any of the others and it worked for me just fine.

When Grave Misfortune begins, we meet Orphium of the Dawning Court, a charming fae confidence trickster who travels the land in his magical carriage bringing happiness and fun times to those he meets – while he wins their precious hopes, dreams and memories from them in games of chance. He’s self-serving, unrepentant, and bored with his solitary life of constant movement, but it is what it is.

Battle-hardened warrior Leoric was delighted when the villagers of Barrowdeep offered him food, pay and shelter in exchange for acting as their gravedigger. An honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay was just the ticket for a world weary former soldier – although the townsfolk neglected to give him one teeny bit of rather important information before he took the job. The local corpses don’t stay dead. But Leoric isn’t the type of man who would just down tools and leave; knowing there are lives at stake, he opted to stay, and wields his trusty shovel with the same skill with which he’d wielded a sword. At least this time, he’s fighting for a cause he can believe in.

When Orphium arrives in Barrowdeep, his reception is not of the sort he’s come to expect. Okay, he’d have made a much grander entrance during the day, but even at night, the lights from his magically-propelled wagon usually draw attention and interest… but he opens the door to find a couple of scrappy town guards and a scary-looking woman he guesses is the local innkeeper, and they’re wary to say the least. Orphium lays on the charm, but gets nowhere – until another man approaches – the local priest – and extends a much warmer welcome. However, it seems the priest is to be Orphium’s only ally; his greeting is followed by some sharp, abrupt questions from another new arrival, a striking, dark-eyed man with a thickly muscled body and the air of one who has seen darkness. Orphium immediately shuts down the recognition that sparks in him – and the attraction. He does, however, acknowledge the potential this man’s obvious dislike affords him to play a very different – and potentially pleasurable – kind of game.

Leoric takes an instant dislike to the flighty, gregarious fae, and he wastes no time in accusing Orphium of being up to no good and telling him that he intends to find out exactly what he’s up to. Orphium has already worked out that Leoric’s open hostility is best countered with carefree insouciance, which is exactly what he serves up, and the animosity between the pair grows every time they meet, despite the simmering attraction they’re both feeling and trying to ignore.

That tension ratchets up several notches when Leoric digs up a beautifully crafted gold coin – and Orphium, recognising it for what it is – an ancient fae treasure with the ability to bestow great luck (or terrible misfortune) on its owner – tries to sweet-talk him out of it. Needless to say, Orphium’s charm doesn’t work on Leoric at all, making Orphium even more determined to do whatever he has to do to get Leoric to hand it over.

While Leoric and Orphium continue to snipe and strike sparks off one another, the undead ghouls continue to threaten the village – and their attacks are becoming more frequent and stronger.

Grave Misfortune is an amusing and inventive enemies-to-lovers story in which the antagonism between the leads is palpable and morphs convincingly from dislike to something much sweeter. The author does a really good job of turning Orphium from the rather shallow and selfish individual we first meet into a more sympathetic character we can understand and emotionally invest in, and of showing why Leoric is so staunchly protective of Barrowdeep and so fiercely determined to protect its inhabitants from Orphium’s schemes. The worldbuilding is excellent, as usual, the action sequences are expertly and vividly depicted, and there’s a small, but nicely rounded-out secondary cast. It’s a fairly short book (the audio comes in at under five-and-a-half hours) but Mr. Noor packs in some interesting and poignant backstory for both leads, plenty of snappy banter, steamy sexytimes and wraps it all up in a very intriguing plotline.

I really enjoyed listening to Zachary Johnson in Mr. Noor’s Arcane Hearts series so I was pleased to learn he would be narrating Grave Misfortune. His performance is entertaining and well-paced, with distinct and appropriate vocal characterisations; Leofric’s voice is full of gravel and drips with disdain, becoming less abrasive and warmer as he gets to know and understand Orphium, while Orphium is flirty and inclined to the over-dramatic. Mr Johnson differentiates here more by tone and accent than by pitch, so both voices can sound a little similar at times, but I had no trouble telling them apart. The handful of secondary characters are nicely portrayed, too, and I have to make special mention of the way Mr. Johnson voices the villain of the piece – it’s raspy and raw and grating with a manic quality that is really quite chilling.

If you’re in the market for an entertaining, light-hearted, and well-put together fantasy romance, Grave Misfortune is definitely worth checking out – and Zachary Johnson’s excellent performance makes a strong case for picking it up in audio format.

Breakdown of Grade:  Narration – B+ ; Story – B

Running Time: 5 hours 20 minutes