A Story Spun in Scarlet by R Dugan

Rating: 4.5/5

Let me tell you a story.

Audra and Jaik go on a journey to try and discover why stories have lost their ending, and let me tell you, I went on a journey with this book as well.

It may have taken me a little while to get into, but once I was into it, I was hooked! The world building was amazing, the characters were SO lovable! Their story was just URGH and don’t even get me started on the epilogue

4 Luck Blessed Stars ⭐
Spicy Level: 0/5 Only kissing

This is a story about stories in a world cursed with fantastical beginnings but plagued with no endings.

We follow Audra, a disgraced storycrafter, on her long trek for purpose in her life now that there is no more magic in her craft. Disowned by her family and forsaken by her friends, she finds herself destitute and desperate to survive. Serving as a barhand, she encounters a situation where she needs to tell a story, knowing it won't have an ending. However, what she doesn't expect is Jaik to walk into the bar, giving her the ability to finally finish a story.

This isn't the first book I've read by Renee Dugan, but every time I do, I'm in utter awe of her ability to write and craft. She takes the expression of "creative writing" and turns it on its head as the epitome of being a master storyteller herself. Her talent for words is enchanting, poetic, and lyrical, yet filled with description and emotion, making reading her work feel like seeing a piece of art unfold before you.

This, however, creates a small detriment to the story that I'm not sure everyone will appreciate. If you're looking for a fast plot, you won't find it in this tale. It's a slowly woven tapestry, filled with adventure, love, and twists and turns that made me gasp out loud. Like any woven work of art, it's not always clear where the image will go until the end. I found myself fumbling for understanding at the start but persevered because of the quality of the writing. I was truly hooked on the story by about 40% but often had to reread scenes as they were so full of details and sometimes abstract descriptions that I needed to concentrate to create the complex imagery in my mind.

Audra's life and struggles on her adventure are sometimes challenging to read; she has suffered so much and carries so much on her shoulders. But she doesn't let this stave off her determination to do right with her inherent sense to help those in need. Compassionate, loving, and kind, Audra has become a character deeply ingrained in my heart.

Jaik was the best quirky, protective, and perfect puzzle piece to everything that Audra was. They brought out the best in each other, with their sword and story. He allowed her to be vulnerable, to catch her when she would fall, and to help build her back up. His way to calm her down during panic attacks will stay with me for a while, and his funny quips and banter made me giggle out loud.

While the romance between the two wasn't at the forefront of this story, it was stunningly beautiful to see how these two developed from strangers thrust on the run to friends to lovers.

Overall, I'm in awe; this was beautifully written, and the world and magic system were so well-founded and unique, expertly tied into the masterful art of stories. I'm almost sad that this seems to be a standalone. I want more of this world and more of the magic-telling tales that can spin into being.
Edit: This is a standalone but there are SEQUENTIAL STANDALONES....meaning this is not the end of this world!!!!

If you love beautiful, lyrical, and descriptive writing akin to Roshani Chokshi and Erin Morgenstern, and you're a fan of traditional well-founded fantasy with excellent world-building, this is the book for you!

Trope Summary:
▶ Strangers to Friends to Lovers
▶ Only One Bed
▶ Only One Horse
▶ He does her hair (love this micro trope)
▶ Unique Magic System of Stories

Many thanks to NetGalley, Wave Walker Press, and the lovely Renee Dugan for the ARC and the opportunity

The start of this book is rough, the first 15% is a gigantic info dump. I think I took longer to read the first half than I did the whole book. Honestly, the premise was promising but the execution was lackluster. The world building was a bit confusing but that might be because I struggled to not skim the loads on information provided. In this book storytellers cannot finish their stories (don’t ask I really didn’t get this concept because it wasn’t a concrete magic system). The FMC Audra finally finished a story when a farm hand named Jaik walks into her place of work. Then they embark on a journey. The story was sweet and lovely but boring.

2 stars- ⭐️⭐️.
GENEROUSLY.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with this ARC for my honest review.

This book lacks in a lot of aspects. First of all its quite hard to keep your attention when the story keeps getting interrupted with another story.

I liked the plot of this story but not the way it was executed.
I think it is beautifully written but still lacks the path its supposed to have for a reader to be able to read and ENJOY reading it.

All in all, I did not finish this book, hence the 2 stars. I tried to skim through it but again failed to do so.

I wish the author the best but I might never read from them again.

What can I say Renee has written a beautiful book with such poetic writing. The story about a storyteller is unique with twists and turns everywhere. You cannot help but fall in love with the characters. And Jaik..... I love him! Well done Renee on another masterpiece.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for allowing access to this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

« And love, as we are all aware, is a force strong enough to alter the shape of the world. It can restitch the seams of all we know to be true and possible. »

Rating: 1⭐️
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Format: ARC Ebook
Pages: 659
Spice: ? 🌶️
POV: ? POVs
S/S: Standalone
Check trigger warnings for any book

DNF 10% into the book. I usually give books more of a chance but I couldn’t.

I did not match with the writing style. It is beautiful but just not one that I can get into.

And it’s just description on description on description.

I might come back to it and give it another chance later on, as I believe it’s a great story. But as of now, I could not get into it at all.

Leena - Leena.reader review - @leena.reader on tiktok and instagram

Thank you to R. Dugan, Wave Walker Press and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC.

It has taken me a little while to leave a review since I finished reading this book, simply because I wasn’t sure where I landed on it.

The book is a love letter to writing and storytelling, and that is evident in the use of language by the author. I love words and I love it when they’re used well, and this book does them justice.

The story had an interesting premise - the only magic in the land is that wielded by storytellers. A story can be used to improve lives, or to create horrors. However, the magic of storytelling abruptly disappeared and no story has had an ending since.

We journey alongside Audra, a storyteller finding her place in a world without endings.

The plot development was really interesting and I loved the path the story took. However, a big part of the main storyline has to do with the relationship between the FMC and MMC, and that relationship lacked emotional substance. We were told about their relationship more than shown their deep connection, and as other reviewers have said, it felt more like friends than lovers. Unfortunately, we’re meant to believe these two mean everything to each other, so that’s a big miss for us.

I am newer to fantasy but diving in head first. I really liked this one. It had an interesting story and magic system and the characters were interesting. I would recommend to people attempting to get more into fantasy.

The premise of the book is quite intriguing and very interesting, but I got to say that is a bit tricky to start since it’s quite wordy but it’s worth it if we keep going. The writing style is lovely, and the world building was so well done with a lot of description.

The magic system is tied to a person’s ability to finish a story and they can help the prosperity of the kingdom with just their words, and that was quite unique to me. We embark in a journey with some mystery with exciting adventures and good characters. However, I felt like the pace was a little slow and a bit rushed not allowing the emotional connection to the story itself and it made me not enjoy the romance part of the book since it felt like I was reading a story between to friends instead of two lovers.

I liked the book, and the potential was there but I wished the execution was a bit better. I still recommend it to everyone who likes novelty in their fantasy books, since we have a great magic system that was quite interesting to me.

Thank you, NetGalley & the publisher, for approving me to read this arc and write this review.

I loved the concept of this story but after it taking me more than a month to get through the first 10 chapters or so I realised it wasn't for me.

The writing style was lovely but it was just too much description and not enough actually happening. I'm all for world building etc but I couldn't stay focused for long enough to get through it.

I may pick it up again one day but for now it was a dnf.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC

ARC Review

Scale information:
1: terrible, awful, I cannot stop ranting about how bad it was; 3: this is exactly what I expect from a book of this genre; 5: I cannot stop thinking about this book, I must own a copy, I will tell everyone to read it.

Wow. Wowowowow. The book has left me speechless. This is the most "five star" book I've read in a while. It was a treat.

The first few chapters were quite the slog to get through. Very verbose. But oh man was it worth it to tough it out until our MC made it to the tailbone city. The story was very well crafted and had enough crumbs of foreshadowing sprinkled throughout the whole novel that no twist felt out of place. I was able to guess some of the twists and turns, and was left satisfied with the twists that I didn't see coming - in hindsight the clues were there, I just hadn't noticed it before. The book left me thinking about the plot and the mysteries long after I had put the book down, coming up with theories or explanations.

I hadn't even gotten to halfway when I was telling my bookish friends to add this book to this TBR piles. The world building was strong, the adventure exciting, and the characters real (and real people can be annoying sometimes: when I tell you I wanted to throttle our MC at moments...). The ending was a bit underwhelming, but for once the bulk of the story makes up for it in my mind.

My biggest complaint is that this is not yet released and therefore there is a serious lack of fan art online for me to look at while I await book 2.


I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I cannot remember the last time that I was so intrigued by a premise to a book. A world where the magic system is entirely tied to peoples ability to finish a story and their words are able to create and help the kingdom prosper, but something happened to cause all those endings to cease. In the beginning were met with Audra who is a storyteller. She shares with us a few stories she attempts and you can feel the hurt in her as she is unable to finish them.

I enjoyed the humor in the characters relationship as she meets and begins to travel on adventure with Jaik, but other than the main characters, everyone else felt more like a prop. A big theme in the story is Audra not remembering a certain time in her life and this leads to many plot points being brought in abruptly that left me confused and in some cases think that I skipped a page.
With Audra's character, I did still want more. I felt as though her selfishness drove her in many aspects, but she wasn't ever allowed to be fully selfish leaving her to turn on a dime between polar opposite emotions that didn't feel organic.

The writing within this book is extremely descriptive in painting the picture of the world, but this can sometimes be to distracting degree and leave the story falling into a rut where nothing is happening for pages. This impacted the pacing since I felt everything was moving along too slowly only to have us jump from one situation to the next before there was even much resolution or parts were just far too rushed not allowing for the emotional connection. While the descriptives of the setting were overflowing with prose, I never was drawn to the emotions. I couldn't buy in to their feelings especially with the romance. The entire book felt more like two friends traveling and far less romantic connection. I wish there was more character focus on these relationships both with the main characters and all the friends met along the way.

In the end, I did enjoy this story, though I was left thinking the execution could have been better. I think this book is too long and could have been parsed down and it would have made the reader experience more enjoyable.

“The things we held onto the hardest were the things we’d brought with us into this strange, broken world.”

“A Story Spun in Scarlet” by R. Dugan

A world where storytellers bear the burden of lost endings. Audra is a storyteller and the loss of her family and friends haunts her. Audra, attempting to forge a new path, finds herself entangled in a web of mystery and consequences. Audra is talked into telling a story one day and with the arrival of a mysterious man she finally ends a story causing the end of new the life she built. Jaik, the mysterious man, is thrown into Audra’s world, they are on the run to seek for the reason the world lost the endings.

Wow… just wow. This book might end up being the best book of the year. The concept immediately drew me into the story. The story was so full of world building and character development. Not only do the characters transform from their current characters to their characters before the loss of endings, but they also undergo a secondary character development as they strive to rectify the chaos they unintentionally caused. The layered character growth is a unique dimension that is uncommon in the books I’ve read before. The characters were perfect, Audra and Jaik relationship felt authentic. The map page was so nice, gotta love a good map page. The book was long and it strengths the book without adding unnecessary things. The ending was absolutely perfect as well. I gave it a perfect 5 out of 5 stars.

-Storyteller/Story Weaver
-Magic
-Panic Attacks
-Enemies To Lovers
-Slow Burn

It’s been awhile since I’ve read such a good standalone fantasy novel. Everything about this book is just so freaking cool. I especially loved the world itself. The land of Mithra-Sha, the land where stories have immeasurable power. I just loved everything about it.

I cannot forget to shout out my love for Audra Jashowin either. She’s such a great main character and I loved reading from her point of view.

A Story Spun in Scarlet is a must read for anyone looking for a standalone fantasy novel!

I enjoyed the magic system in this book. It's unique and fresh. Plus the writing is compelling enough to keep things moving, and you want the characters to succeed. The things I think could improve are the setting up of relationships and more authentic dialogue. The relationships felt like tell more than show, and the dialogue was a bit stilted at times. I think building up the relationships to make them seem real would improve the story a lot. That said, I would definitely pick up more from this author.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book and for the eARC copy. I am voluntarily leaving this review.

Content
No swearing that I remember except for a few very, very mild in-world curses, minimal violence, mild to moderate romance with kisses and (view spoiler)

I absolutely loved this book, it was brilliant from start to finish. I read it so quick.

The character development was so good, you come to love the characters. The writing is incredible, the descriptions detailed.

Thank you to R Dugan for giving me the opportunity to read this fantastic book. I will certainly be recommending this to my book club members!

Really promising start and synopsis. I love long books, however, I can’t stand it when it’s meaningless. It kept being dragged on with unnecessary explanations. It was all about descriptions yet such few storytelling and feelings. I feel like I was being described a scenery and not a story.

(Thank you to R. Dugan, Wave Walker Press and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC)

Holy moly was this book amazing. And if I could give this book more than 5 stars, I very much would. Not only did it have an (in my opinion) very unique story but also a very captivating writing style and lovable characters.

On top of that it was a whole lot of action and also see how the two main characters start from strangers to friends and maybe even more.

On top of that we also have loveable characters, a cool world where everything takes place and a whole lot of emotions during the entirety of the book.

HOWEVER; I do have a tiny bit of complaint about the book even though I loved it from start to finish, which is that I wished that the rulers of the country this story takes place in would be described a tiny bit better because it took me a while before it was fully comprehended for me. But that might also be a personal thing.

On top of that I urge the readers of this book to have tissues at the ready for the emotional rollercoaster that the epilogue will be coming at you with, because the author really pulled at our strings there and it showed (take it from a person who rarely cries at books and who sobbed their heart out after reading the end of this book).

I will definitely be rereading this again since this was such an amazing read. And I will also be checking out the author’s other books that they have written.

This book was amazing. The character development was very well done and I loved the banter and romance. I would highly recommend this book!

When all the tales in the land of Mithra-Sha lost their endings, Audra ran away from her family’s rejection and the only home she ever knew. Now, with a sense of veiled danger haunting her heels and her life as devoid of direction as her stories, she arrives at long last in a city of fresh starts and second chances.

A simple farmhand with a way around weapons, Jaik possesses more than a sharp wit that sets Audra’s soul aflame. He’s a natural amplifier with the talent to breathe life into her tales… Into all the tales in Mithra-Sha

To fix the broken stories in Mithra-Sha, Audra and Jaik must learn to embrace what lives at the core of their own the bravery and brilliance, the loyalty and love, and the purpose and power they both harness—together and apart.

And they must face a terrible truth penned between the pages of their quest…a tragedy that will change the course of history and rewrite the ending of their tale forever. Intrigue keeps you wanting more,