Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Onyx & Ivory
    Onyx & Ivory
    Onyx & Ivory
    Audiobook14 hours

    Onyx & Ivory

    Written by Mindee Arnett

    Narrated by Khristine Hvam

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    “At once fresh, at once classic, Onyx and Ivory is a page-turning blend of monsters, magic, and romance.” —Susan Dennard, New York Times bestselling author of Truthwitch

    Acclaimed author Mindee Arnett thrusts readers into a beautiful, dangerous, and magical world in this stunningly epic and romantic fantasy for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Sarah Raasch.

    They call her Traitor Kate. It’s a title Kate Brighton inherited from her father after he tried to assassinate the high king of Rime.

    Cast out of the nobility, Kate now works for the royal courier service. Only the most skilled ride for the Relay and only the fastest survive, for when night falls, the drakes—deadly flightless dragons—come out to hunt. Fortunately, Kate has a secret edge: She is a wilder, born with forbidden magic that allows her to influence the minds of animals.

    And it’s this magic that leads her to a caravan massacred by drakes in broad daylight—the only survivor Corwin Tormaine, the son of the king. Her first love, the boy she swore to forget after he condemned her father to death.

    With their paths once more entangled, Kate and Corwin must put the past behind them to face this new threat and an even darker menace stirring in the kingdom.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 15, 2018
    ISBN9780062840769
    Author

    Mindee Arnett

    Mindee Arnett is the acclaimed author of Onyx & Ivory and its sequel, Shadow & Flame, as well as Avalon and its sequel, Polaris. She lives on a horse farm in Ohio with her husband, two kids, a couple of dogs, and an inappropriate number of cats. You can find her online at www.mindeearnett.com.

    Related to Onyx & Ivory

    Related audiobooks

    YA Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      For The Wolf

      Jun 16, 2021

      ⏵ RELEASED 17 JUNE 480 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook ⏵ Author Hannah Whitten ⏵ Publisher Orbit Books Wolves run through fairy tales, flashing a tooth here, a tail there. But if you pick this up expecting to see familiar motifs popping up, you’ll

      1 min read

    • Article

      Fourth LEOPARD At Eighty

      Sep 19, 2023

      Fourth LEOPARD At Eighty
      9 min read

    • Article

      Mountain man Music

      Dec 2, 2023

      Mountain man Music
      6 min read

    • Article

      The One That Got Away

      Apr 8, 2024

      The One That Got Away
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Right Time

      Oct 14, 2019

      The Right Time
      5 min read

    • Article

      Saving Freyfaxi

      Apr 1, 2024

      Saving Freyfaxi
      10 min read

    • Article

      Small Antelope, Big Challenge

      Dec 12, 2019

      Small Antelope, Big Challenge
      4 min read

    • Article

      In Search Of Wild Marsh Pheasants

      Nov 23, 2022

      In Search Of Wild Marsh Pheasants
      5 min read

    • Article

      Keeping The Faith

      Jun 7, 2023

      Keeping The Faith
      10 min read

    • Article

      A Buck For Barry

      May 31, 2022

      There is something about a fallow buck that gets my blood pumping - probably initiated by my friendship with the late deer hunting guide, Barry Nelis. Barry was an experienced hunter, having travelled to many exotic destinations, and was a wealth of

      6 min read

    • Article

      I Can Show You The Veld

      Dec 10, 2020

      I Can Show You The Veld
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Primeval Comic Book

      Aug 1, 2017

      The Primeval Comic Book
      8 min read

    • Article

      Scene But Not Herd

      Apr 7, 2022

      Scene But Not Herd
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Dancing Skinny

      Jul 11, 2019

      The Dancing Skinny
      12 min read

    • Article

      Following In Their Footsteps

      Feb 15, 2023

      Following In Their Footsteps
      5 min read

    • Article

      Duck From Dusk Till Dawn

      Nov 18, 2020

      Duck From Dusk Till Dawn
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Must For Mudlarks

      Sep 30, 2020

      A Must For Mudlarks
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Darkly Beast

      Sep 1, 2021

      A Darkly Beast
      5 min read

    • Article

      Small Boars big Ivories

      Oct 8, 2023

      Small Boars big Ivories
      9 min read

    • Article

      Where Lions Roared

      Aug 12, 2019

      Where Lions Roared
      6 min read

    • Article

      Ursula K. Le Guin

      Jun 15, 2018

      He was thinking of Lookfar, abandoned long ago, beached on the sands of Selidor. Little of her would be left by now, a plank or two down in the sand maybe, a bit of driftwood on the western sea. As he drifted near sleep he began to remember sailing t

      15 min read

    • Article

      The Sand Eland

      Feb 17, 2020

      The Sand Eland
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Onyx & Ivory

    4/5

    432 ratings14 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Fans looking for another epic fantasy with magic and romance will enjoy ONYX & IVORY. It is told from two viewpoints. Kate is known as Traitor Kate since her father attempted to assassinate the high king of Rime. She has fled the capital city and is working as a relay rider in another city. Kate is a wilder - having magic that lets her communicate with animals especially horses. She doesn't understand why her father, master of the king's horses and a friend of the king, would have tried to kill him. She would like to clear her father's name but doesn't know how.The second point of view is Corwin's. He is a son of the king who has recently spent some years away from the kingdom. He and Kate were childhood friends and beginning to fall in love when the assassination attempt occurred. He has been waiting since he was young for the uror which is a magical contest to determine which of the king's sons will be the next high king. Corwin has always felt overshadowed by his older brother Edwin who has made a career of belittling Corwin. Corwin doesn't feel worthy of being the high king and wants to let his brother rule.Corwin and Kate meet again after three years apart when she saves him from an attack by daydrakes. Nightdrakes and daydrakes make travel in the kingdom hazardous. Nightdrakes have been a long-time threat but daydrakes are new. Kate has a weapon - a revolver - created by her wilder friend Bonner who has a gift for metal. The new weapon saves the day and gives Corwin hope for a way of defeating the daydrakes.Corwin gathers Bonner, Kate and their friend Signe who has the formula for making the powder that allows the gun to shoot and takes them to the capital city. They need to hide their wilder magic from the magists who are determined to root out all who have it. An Inquisition was begun around the time of the high king's near assassination and after a wilder attack killed Corwin's mother which makes being a wilder very, very dangerous.While Bonner is working on the revolvers and trying to hide his magic, Kate is looking for any information that could tell her why her father tried to kill the high king and Corwin is involved both with court politics and the uror which has finally appeared. Secrets are uncovered and hidden enemies surface.I recommend this story to fans of epic fantasy.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I want to preface that while this is not the best book of all time, I genuinely enjoyed it. I think some of its strong points are interesting world building, some great battle scenes, a cast of characters that actually have a wide range of personalities, and good, descriptive writing.
      The beginning starts off strong, and while I agree with some reviews that it slows down a bit, I didn’t hate it. It starts off very action heavy and then we get into some nitty gritty political intrigue and mystery solving bits. Don’t approach this book thinking it’s all daring horse chases and battling drakes (though I think there’s more than a fair amount of that as well) — this is very much about Kate, our MC, returning to her old life and the place of her father’s purported betrayal, and attempting to uncover her father’s secrets that he took with him to the grave.
      Reflecting on the characters, I think Kate definitely had room for improvement, but while I didn’t love her, I understood her and related to her. I hope to see her grow from a naive and afraid girl, to a woman of great confidence and power. I loved her two friends, Tom Bonner and Signe; the former was lovable in a teddy bear kind of way and the latter was lovable in a honey badger kind of way. Corwin, our love interest, is cute, sometimes annoying, but cute. I found that while I definitely leaned towards Kate’s chapters, Corwin was still interesting enough to hold my attention.
      Mostly, I loved the world — it felt rich and dangerous. I loved Kate’s first big drake battle too, you really feel the terror and her courage. Actually, that was Kate’s big redeeming quality to me — SHE IS COMPETENT!!! I get SO frustrated when the MC is dumber than a doornail and makes the silliest decisions or is just completely helpless.

      At every. Single. Turn. This girl comes through! SHE saves the Prince in distress, SHE saves herself when things go wrong, SHE saves everyone! The girl is independent and even in dire situations, she figures it the f*** out. Thank goodness y’all because I just came from a series where the MC was saved by some Mister Man or another at every turn. It’s always so inspiring to live vicariously through women that don’t wait around for a man to figure things out for them. ALSO, something else this book got right is that while Corwin can be a teensy bit annoying, he does come around and he is accepting despite his fears. This is refreshing because sometimes authors go too far in making their love interest fear the awe-some power of the MC, and it never truly feels like they are accepted wholly for who they are. Finally, FINALLY, we get a love interest that feels his fear and clearly conquers it because he knows her and accepts all of her, good and bad.

      Also the narrator slaps! So I recommend the listen 100%. Also…HORSIES!!!! And big LIZARDS! What more can a gal ask for.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful characters, love the world and the concept of the magic within it.
    • 5/5
      Loved this book, can't wait to read the next one!!
    • 5/5
      Loved this book I would ignore all the negative reviews I am certainly glad I did. If you like Debra Dunbar you will like this book too
    • 5/5
      I loved this novel and am eager to start the next one. The world building is intricate, yet not complicated and the are characters relatable. I listened to this on audio and I think the reader did a fantastic job!
    • 5/5
      Great story line and characters! I loved listening to it and dread the drake's! Can't wait for more!
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed it. Great characters and story once it got going.
    • 5/5
      Holds your breath at every dang turn! It's Amazing, nicely constructed, leaving you eager for the next adventure.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic! I read right through the series and will look for more by this author immediately!
    • 5/5
      Kate Brighton and Corwin Tormane used to be best friends until the night that Kate’s dad tried to kill Corwin’s father, the High King. Kate’s dad is executed and Kate leaves Rime in disgrace. She earns a living as a relay rider and that job is what causes her path to cross Corwin’s again. This book has a mystery; why did Mr. Brighton try to kill the High King? It has a romance; will Kate ever forgive Corwin and let him back into her heart?It has adventure and thrills; can Kate and company survive the nightdrakes if she keeps her wilder secret? It is book one in a duology and has a lot to offer to a reader. I can only hope book two will be as good.
    • 3/5
      ONYX AND IVORY started out strong, but slowed down and lost some of my excitement thereafter. I honestly liked the characters in ONYX AND IVORY. Kate's story quickly drew me in and I really wanted her to come out on top after all that she had been through. Corwin had a few annoying moments, but he had some good growth throughout the book. The romance between the two was slow, but I enjoyed learning about their past and friendship.I found a few things lacking in ONYX AND IVORY. The world building wasn't fantastic. I felt like I would have gotten more into things if I knew a bit more about the world. The plot didn't totally draw me in, there wasn't really anything that made it stand out among other books in its genre and I found the pace too slow at times. Let's talk about the ending, it was very quick and a little confusing. I really wanted it to blow me away, but it didn't.I am a bit on the fence about if I would read more if this was a series. I feel like things were left open in a few spots and there could be another book, but I wouldn't be disappointed if there wasn't.* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
    • 5/5
      Before I fully launch into my review (which I've saved up for release day), I have to first say how totally excited I am that this book is going to finally going out into the world. I got to be on the ‘Street Team’, one of the 'Relay Riders', for 'Onyx and Ivory', which meant I helped get the word out for it on social media. BUT that does not play into my review of the book. Happily though, I fell in love with Mindee Arnett's book. I've not read her other books but I have a feeling she is putting something different out here and pouring something of herself into this one. O&I is an epic fantasy that started off (I believe) as a germ of an idea for Mindee some 6 years ago now, and it became a novel that opens up a world of dark monsters, forbidden magic, and brings us characters that feel complex and vibrant.The main character of the novel is Kate, otherwise known as ‘Traitor Kate’, named as such for her father’s actions, for trying to assassinate the high king of Rime many years ago. Her father had been master of horse to the king, but he was executed for his crime, one that Kate can’t believe he would have knowingly committed. Now she hides the gift of wilder magic that allows her to touch the minds of animals that makes her so in tune with horses as her father was, but wilder magic is forbidden and punishable by death. Because of her father’s treachery, she has been relegated to being a Relay rider for Farhold, the imperial courier service, but there are these nasty monsters out there called ‘nightdrakes’ (deadly flightless dragons), that make her job intensely dangerous, and soon these drakes are attacking in the daylight, massacring whole caravans of people. Now, beyond this basic plot of Kate and her forbidden magic, and the drakes, as a reader you are quickly immersed in a world where there is a lot going on. This is a book that is not fast-paced but it is totally absorbing: when I took my time to read it, I felt like I was settling in to fully entrench myself in the world of several sub-plots that weave together and a number of fascinating characters. They are key to enjoying this book. To name some, there’s Corwin (Kate’s first love, and heir to the throne), Signe (her spunky best friend), Edwin (Corwin’s nasty brother and competition for the crown), and Bonner (long-time friend who knows her magical secret). Kate reunites with her first love Corwin, after saving him from an attack by drakes, and she and her counterparts must embark on a full-on quest to not only understand who tried to kill the king, but also who is controlling the daydrakes. Corwin must also prove he is more worthy to be the heir to the throne than his brother. Something that I particularly think that is important for a novel of this length, is that the characters felt fully realized and fleshed-out, so much so that I could imagine them all throughout the book like companions. While there seem to be a number of subplots going on in the book, Arnett proves she is a skilled writer because I never felt lost. When one part of the story wasn’t being written about, it was fine to just leave it for a while, and continue with another part, and then go back to the other one. I don’t want to say too much about the plot lines of the book because it is jam-packed, but somehow Mindee has threaded them all together, and they’ve culminated in an ending that begs for another epic book. As long as O&I is, I didn’t want the journey and the book to end! There is so much great imagery and vivid world-building woven into the book, such as the different types of magic, the descriptions of clothing, and landscape; on Mindee Arnett’s Website, there is some beautiful artwork and images to represent the Land of Rime, maps that show political regions, all the magic descriptions, and way back to her original conceptual beginnings for the book; it’s all there if you want to see it in detail. I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a fantasy they can really dig into, not rush through; there’s action, complex subplots, strong friendships, magic AND monsters(!), depictions of females as positive, independent characters, and there’s also the questioning of judgement of others/hypocrisy with respect to the laws regarding use of magic. There may seem to be, at first glance, the usual tropes of ‘fighting for the throne’, and ‘childhood friend likes girl now she’s grown up’, but I didn’t feel like the book was covering old ground, particularly as I got further and further into it.‘Onyx and Ivory’ really is an amazing book, and it’s already on my ‘best-of’ list for 2018. I definitely want to be there for the Relay Ride for Book 2!
    • 4/5
      Disclaimer: I won this ARC in a giveaway from the author. Neither the author, nor the publisher have influenced my review in any way. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.This was a solid start to a new fantasy series from Mindee Arnett. It reminded me of Tamora Pierce’s The Immortals Series meets the Red Queen Series. While I have my issues with the pacing and length of the book, the story and world created within are interesting enough to surpass any problems I have with it. This book is quite the chunker, at 512 pages it covers a lot. For me, although something was always happening it felt like the story was dragging and just tried to cover too much in one book. The story was a bit too ambitious in my opinion and some of the stuff towards the beginning/middle of the book could have been cut out. I ended up taking a two week break reading this book because I got bored and couldn’t bring myself to continue. I regretted putting it down later though because the story started to pick up again and I loved the ending. Kate at the beginning was just kind of just a blah character; I didn’t love her and I didn’t hate her. It wasn’t until she started to explore more of her power and the extent of it that she really started to interest me. At the end of the book I loved her because she has explored her dark side, and although she did give in to it she wants to do the right thing and not let herself go again. The only thing that really frustrated me about her was how she idolized her father to the point that he could do no wrong. I don’t understand that she wasn’t more upset when she found out her father had a secret life and another family that she was unaware of. Also, why wasn’t she more appalled that he father tried to use their power on another person? He had other choices he could’ve made, whereas when Kate used that same power on a person (other than Vikras) she used it to protect people and she had no other choice. I just felt like she hero-worshiped her father and didn’t really see him as a person with faults. I love that Kate doesn’t need anybody to save her and she is badass in her own right. Corwin’s character quite annoyed me towards the start of the book, but I liked him much more towards the end. It really bothered me how Corwin liked to just blame all of the evil deeds done in the kingdom on the wilders. Just because of one incident, which granted did kill his mother he decided that wilders were the main evil in the kingdom. Even when common sense told him that children didn’t deserve to be arrested and killed, he willfully made himself ignorant to their plight. He also had a really defeatist attitude which bothered me. He just took everything he didn’t like in his life and just decided that there was nothing he could do about it anyways so why even care? I found the main factor to change him started with the uror trial. I also felt like the trial was kind of a side story that merely existed to protect him so he couldn’t be killed and to progress his character development though. It was so satisfying to see his change throughout the book. Minister Rendborne was around too often, so I started to get suspicious. Is he behind the daydrakes? Or is he a part of the Rising? It turns out that he was the “Big Bad” for the book. I knew he was no side character because he popped up in the story too often to not be more important. I didn’t see that he was the Nameless one and a previous uror participant. Something I really loved in this book is that we get actual character development throughout the story. And not minor developments either, Kate and Corwin changed their life views on the journey through the book. Corwin went from a spoiled prince who only saw the world as not perfect, but unchangeable and blaming the wilders for all the evil happening to seeing that not all rules should be followed and the world is more of a greyscale and all people have good and evil in them. Kate on the other hand was all about getting revenge for her father and hiding the fact that she’s a wilder but at the end of the book she’s decided she is no longer going to hide the fact that she’s a wilder and she doesn’t want anyone else to hide either as well as that getting revenge isn’t all it is cracked up to be. She got her revenge on Vikras, but it didn’t make her feel any better afterwards and in fact opened her up to the darkness inside herself and her power. Even the side characters like Dal, Signe, and Bonner have major character developments at the end and are no longer the same people they were at the beginning. It was one of my favourite parts of this book and I am looking forward to seeing who they become as they go further on their journey. I absolutely adored how this book ended. I really liked that the story didn’t just end with the wilder revolution and the Rising. It expanded into a bigger tale with saving all of the wilders shipped off and stoping a massive war that could destroy the kingdom. Kate is focused on saving her brother and making it so the wilders no longer have to hide who they are and Corwin is focused on saving the wilders to prevent his kingdom from collapsing and warring with the Godking. Both have the power to protect and have the darkness inside of them and it will be interesting to see how far they will go to protect or save those they love. I was going to be so disappointed if this turned into another book about a girl saving her people, but I a,pm so pleased with how it ended. There are things that I am interested in getting some answers. From the mundane like linked names (Edwin and Corwin), was this just coincidence or is it a trait in this world? To more serious questions like does Corwin actually have magic, or is it the uror magic working through his mark? I think the latter is more likely to be honest. Also, is this series going to deal with core problem of the daydrakes/nightdrakes and how to get rid of them for good? I would love to learn more of the history and how they came to be in the kingdom and just more worldbuilding and learning new things about the history and this world in general. Overall this book is a great start to a new fantasy series and I am looking forward to where the story goes next. I can’t wait to see where the characters go and how they are going to further change and meet the Godking. There is so much left to explore in this world and I can’t wait to go on the journey!