Audiobook Review – Ravage the Dark (Scavenge the Stars, Book 2) by Tara Sim, Narrated by Maria Liatis (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Adventure
Length: 10 hours and 54 minutes
Publisher: Recorded Books
Release Date: March 09, 2021
ASIN: B08P2C1KCY
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Scavenge the Stars duology
Source: Borrowed Audiobook from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

“For seven long years, while she was imprisoned on a debtor’s ship, Amaya Chandra had one plan: to survive. But now, survival is not enough. She has people counting on her; counting on her for protection, for leadership, for vengeance. And after escaping Moray by the skin of her teeth, she’s determined to track down the man who betrayed her and her friends.

Cayo Mercado has lost everything: his money, his father, his reputation. Everything except his beloved sister. But he’s well on his way to losing her, too, with no way to afford the treatment for her deadly illness. In a foreign empire also being consumed by ash fever, Cayo has no choice but to join Amaya in uncovering the mystery of the counterfeit currency, the fever, and how his father was involved in their creation. But Cayo still hasn’t forgiven Amaya for her earlier deception, and their complicated feelings for each other are getting harder and harder to ignore.

Through glittering galas, dazzling trickery, and thrilling heists, Cayo and Amaya will learn that the corruption in Moray goes far deeper than they know, and in the end the only people they can trust are each other.”

Series Info/Source: This is the second book in the Scavenge the Stars duology. I borrowed a copy of this audiobook through the library.

Audiobook Quality (3/5): I wasn’t a huge fan of the narration for this audiobook. The narrator’s voice is fairly high-pitched and young sounding; it didn’t match Amaya very well. The narration was also a bit dry and didn’t convey character emotion very well. Character voices were definitely different between characters but again didn’t match the characters well. I would recommend reading this in paper format rather than listening to the audiobook. The narration was okay and understandable but not pleasant to listen to.

Story (4/5): This was a well done conclusion to this duology and I enjoyed seeing how things wrapped up. This book follows Amaya and crew as they try to unravel the secrets behind the forged money and Ash fever, and work to find a cure for Ash fever. The world is well built and the story moves at a decent pace. While I didn’t absolutely love this, I did enjoy it quite a bit. There are some fun twists and turns and it was intriguing to watch our characters unravel the web of deceit here. The Ash Fever plotline hits a bit close to home after the last year of the COVID pandemic, so just be aware of that.

Characters (4/5): There is a fun cast of characters, even if I did get a bit frustrated with how Amaya and Cayo keep lying to each other throughout the story. A lot of the characters here are fairly flawed but that served to make them feel very human and relatable (even if it was frustrating at points). I didn’t love the characters but they do have a lot of depth and are intriguing to read about.

Setting (4/5): The world building here is solid and our characters alternate between a couple different continents, finally ending up back on Moray. It’s a very believable world and it’s well thought out. There is a lot of traveling by sea, which is okay, but I am not a huge fan of seafaring stories.

Writing Style (4/5): This was well written and the story was tied up nicely. I was interested throughout the whole book and enjoyed the twists and turns in the plot. I also enjoyed the flawed characters and how they had to learn to accept each other’s faults to work things through. I enjoyed Sim’s Timekeeper series a lot more than this series, but this wasn’t a bad series.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this, it was a decent retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo with a gender swap. I found the story entertaining and liked how the whole thing played out. There are a lot of politics, twists and turns, and confidence schemes set in a seafaring type of fantasy world, so if that sounds like your thing I think you will enjoy this. I didn’t love this was much as “The Timekeeper” series but I did enjoy it and plan to check out Sim’s future books.