Paul

Not as good as I was hoping

Revisado: 07-26-22

An enemies to lovers romantic comedy that doesn't overstay its welcome. I think there's a few memorable things about this book. Jason's obsessive love of food is his quirk. It's silly and it's fine, and the fact that "little grasshopper" is the new "zoey-bear" (see the tourist attraction). Mathewson doesn't do a whole lot here to give our characters long-term staying power. It's pretty obvious that Haley is a mary-sue, she doesn't have any real hobbies or personality, she's a teacher, her friends are barely featured etc. I'm struggling to find the words, since this isn't a terrible story, it's just a b-level rom com, that if it were a movie would be a netflix film of the week buried the next. Sure the sexy times are pretty hot, but somehow Haley is a sex goddess even though she's a virgin, she's great with everything else. Pretty eye-rolling, Jason's cool with whatever he just wants to be with Haley whether it's for her love of the Yankees, her cooking skills, she's a great friend once we get past their hatred for each other. It's a fairly week plot device, but it serves it's purpose. Some other things that are included, but don't matter much are that Haley's family is super rich and her parents don't approve of Jason and think she can do better, don't know when her birthday is etc. It's silly, but ultimately doesn't matter. I will say that the book cover is pretty misleading. It's not like that at all, and probably would serve potential readers better with a different cover.

Narration wise, Fran Jules is sufficient, I don't think she stands out in anyway, gives Haley a voice that works, The rest of her cast is fine and you can tell who's speaking when, but it's nothing groundbreaking. I think there's some technical issues with the mix and not causing proper pauses between sections, but that's due to audio engineering and not the performance.

Overall, this is a fine story, it's around 7 hours with a sneak peak of the second book. I don't plan on listening to the rest of the series, but it's OK to do so, just not our jam.

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Solid thriller

Revisado: 07-20-22

I think the series name is a bit of a red herring, but overall this is a solid thriller. A bit by the numbers, but still has a good creep factor. We know the villain early in the book, but it's more of a question of how we get there and what happens in between that really matters.
Hoyt and Dewell are working to find two missing girls on their way to see Hoyt's son. Time is of the essence like any kidnapping. We see inside the minds of all the players, it's effective and makes the creep factor that much higher. It's effective and while it's mostly by the book, it's still a short thriller with some cool twists and turns.

Holter Graham delivers a solid performance, and I really like how he narrates thrillers.

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Depressing and a slog

Revisado: 04-18-22

My wife had this for her book club. Her club hated it, we hated it. It's a depressing slog to get through this book. Ms. Hartmann weaves a grand tale of woe from depression of losing a loved one to attempted suicide to starting over and finding love again. It just doesn't work. None of the characters are particularly likeable, and the one who sort of was gets used as a plot coupon. This is a long book even at 13 hours, it feels so much longer. There's not a lot of bright spots in this book, Melody loses her husband to a hit and run which felt almost comical how it occurs. Parker has a tortured past, they end up meeting in a suicide support group.
There's some twists and turns, some of which are predictable and some aren't, There's a natural ending point to the story and this gets there and then has an unnecessary epilogue that added nothing to the story.
From a narration perspective, it's fine. I think Stefanie does a better job than Neill. He does OK, but I think the story limits his performance as Parker.
There's a lot of romance books out there, I don't know why anyone would choose this over something has likable and less depressing characters with a plot that has some laughs and where the characters have fun with each other.

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A very saccharine romantic comedy

Revisado: 02-18-22

Zoeybear, if I hear that one more time, I may jump out a window. I want to like this book way more than I do. I think there's some OK comedy in there, but it's too long, and the drama is way over the top and pretty eye rolling. I like the idea of a townie falling for a tourist and it's a cute concept, but everything is so sugarcoated, it make it hard to swallow.
Zoey's up in Moose Springs for an overdue vacation. She meets up with her uber rich friend Lana who's back in Moose Springs for an event that's all hush hush, leaving Zoey for the most part on her own which seems to be spending a lot of time with Graham, resident owner of novelty restaurant "The Tourist Trap" Some hijinks ensue, a moose doe some things and we're supposed to have feelings, but nah, it was silly, the whole story is just a bit to sweet for our tastes.

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A whole lot of nope

Revisado: 01-01-22

I hate this book. That being said, there's a good book here somewhere, but what's presented isn't it. It's set in fake Europe with fake gods, except for the Norse pantheon, they're real for some reason. It starts off as courtesan trainee learns basic spycraft with a sex positive vibe. Sounds OK, but while there's sex, it's terribly boring and clinical (phallus this, phallus that). It's not hot or passionate. There's some excitement around 12 hours in, but a book shouldn't take 12 hours to start to become interesting. Narrator Anne Flosnik doesn't bring enough excitement or passion to the performance to make the book any better.
The character names are laughable and way more often than not, characters are addressed by first and last name. This gets tedious when you hear the names countless times in a 31 hour novel. I think some of the Nordic characters are the most interesting, Gunther and his crew bring the most excitement in the entire book. The spy parts aren't very good either. Phedra is good at her craft, but she doesn't think she is and there's no enthusiasm other than being a good servant of Namah.
There's some action sequences throughout the later half of the book, but they just don't grab me in any meaningful way, and I found myself caring less and less about any of the characters as time went on. There's magic, but it's not less fireballs and more curses/visions which while interesting, only plays into one particular part of the story.
I want to say this is worth a read, but it wasn't for us, it's boring the narrator has little enthusiasm. The story could be there, but needs a good edit with more focus on what kind of story this is.

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The Fool is back

Revisado: 08-19-21

The Fool is back in another spoof, parody, original story based around Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Cask of Amontillado and an original story by Christopher Moore. I will say this is pretty good, but I didn't like it as much as Fool. I think there was a bit too much going on and a few too many characters to keep straight and have enough screen time to actually be fully effective. I think the comedy is pretty solid, the jokes mostly land. The Fool is the pretty solid and SOME of the supporting characters are good, Othello and Jessica being my favorites.

Euan Morton does a great job with all Moore's characters. The fool, Drool, Jessica, Shylock are all given stellar voices. He's got a wonderful range and delivers an outstanding performance.

Overall, I like this book. I think Moore bit off a bit too much by trying to blend too many stories, but it's still a great entry for a fun character in The Fool. Worth a listen if you have already listened to The Fool, if not, start there and end up here.

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A great rom com

Revisado: 06-01-21

This is a wonderfully refreshing romantic comedy story for the modern age. We have two really great characters performed by two different people which really works well in this book. Great laughs, short which actually works in this book because the two leads are communicating via phone calls. It keeps the story moving along and nothing gets bogged down, but we come to understand where each character is coming from an not too much backstory/unnecessary details to drag the story down. I think my favorite thing is that it's funny, it's cute and really funny. That helps keep things fresh. Rom com's that aren't actually comedies are generally bad films and books, so, I'm glad this one is actually really funny.

The two narrators are great, play off each other (either by direction, or they were in the same studio), but either way it works.

If you like romantic comedies, contemporary romance or, just fun sweet stories, this is definitely worth a listen.

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More hijinks in the Hollow.

Revisado: 06-01-21

I think Half-Moon Hollow is getting a bit stale. It seems the stories are getting shorter every adventure we have. We of course need to have references to most or all of the previous characters in the series with Jane at the helm. I don't hate that, but it leaves little time for each of the new characters to actually develop. It feels like we get introduced, and then in Act2 they heat kicks up, then they have their fight and then the get back together in Act3. This is great, but when the story is less than 7 hours, it really gets formulaic and by the numbers with little to no deviation. I really like the world building that's been done over 16ish books, but I think it would be great to shake things up. It's gotten stale which is sad because there's a lot of good stuff in the series.

It wouldn't be a Half-Moon Hollow story without the always solid performance of Amanda Ronconi. She really gets into the characters and the world that Harper has created.

It's a fine listen, but I think we're due for a shake-up in the series.

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An island at the end of the world

Revisado: 06-01-21

Terminus is not a stand alone story. You really need to have read or listened to 14 before diving in. 14 is one of my favorite books. Terminus is an OK follow-up, but it fails to capture the magic of 14. Clines delivers on excellent world building and some great characters. Our novel starts with some characters on a ship near Madagascar. An approaching storm, engine failure, and a nervous captain sends 4 to shore to wait out the storm while the rest of the crew works to repair the engines and secure the cargo to ride the storm out. On another part of the island, The Family arrives to open the way for the Great Ones to cleanse the world. Mysteries, action, surprises await all on this island, and Clines does a good job of not getting too handwavy to explain things away.

Ray Porter is really one of my favorite narrators, he can just read a story and make even simple explanations interesting and exciting. I really have come to like his work over the years. He may not have the myriad of accents that some narrators do, but he just nails his performances.

I wanted to love this book more than I did, I still really like it a lot, but it's not jaw dropping like 14 was. I really like Peter Clines work, and if you like 14, the Fold, Dead Moon (big dumb zombie fun on the moon), and the unrelated, but still amazing Paradox Bound, then this is a must read. If you read 14, and wanted more, then this is a good follow-up. If you're new to Peter Clines or Threshold, then this is not the place to start. Go read 14 and come back.

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A story I couldn't get into

Revisado: 03-11-21

There's probably a lot of good things in this book. I think some of the world building is neat, but after about 2 hours of listening, I just wasn't feeling it and cannot get into the book. It's a rare DNF from me.

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