Crier’s War
by Nina Varela (Quill Tree Books, 2019); audiobook read by Kim Mai Guest (HarperAudio, 2019)
A YA fantasy with plenty of romantic and worldbuilding potential yet overly dramatic on a line-by-line basis. The relationship plot outshines the kingdom intrigue but neither are settled by book’s end (a disappointing lack of closure supposedly stoking hunger for the sequel).