Adventure, interesting dilemmas, future romance, monsters, battle, rivalry, friends. All this can be found in Sword of the Squire. I like that this series is set in Andomhaim and that there are glimpses of past characters from previous books and their deeds. One thing I like about Moeller's writing is that you don't have to read what came before chronologically to enjoy the story, but if you do there are fun Easter eggs to glean. In fact, I read The Sevenfold Sword Saga before I had even heard of The Frostborn books. The same holds true for Sword of the Squire; you don't need to know anything about Ridmark and Calliande to enjoy this book. Going in blind may even be preferable to some.
I'd be open to more Ridmark tales, but I have to admit I enjoy this change of pace with Gareth as the protagonist. Where Ridmark is essentially a paragon of a warrior who has overcome most of his inner turmoil, Gareth is just starting out on his adventure and coming into his own. He'll make mistakes and grow. I like the cast so far and they bounce off each other in entertaining and interesting ways.
The narration of the audiobook is done by Brad Wills, who is my favorite performer for any of the Andomhaim series to date. His diction is top-tier and professional. (Not someone to be replaced by ElevenLabs any time soon since he's so theatrical lol)
The product itself is 5 stars but I subtracted one star because I was under the impression I would be able to download the audiobook to my drives for safekeeping, use on my preferred listening app, ownership, etc. I even received a txt file after purchase detailing as much. However, the audiobook is locked in my BookFunnel account, meaning if you want to listen to it you need to download their app. It's only a minor inconvenience so I'll be more careful next time. Just something to keep in mind if you're like me and prefer to have the actual files for stuff.
Overall, I would recommend this if you're a fan of the fantasy genre and Moeller's work in particular.
