Marissa Bing

A little too fiction for comfort

Revisado: 01-23-23

I’ve been trying to stick with this series to see if perhaps it gets either a bit more realistic, a bit less overly dramatic, or at the least, grows on me a bit more. The major ideas are fun (solving mysteries, a really smart and talented house flipper, close family, etc), but it’s surrounded by too many *very unrealistic concepts, and a lot of unnecessary drama. The fact that a detective keeps asking this random girl to help him on cases (which gets to an annoying point- he legit cannot interview a single person without her help, and he seemingly runs out of questions that she then asks- which are incredibly obvious questions) is more than annoying. If she added something really intellectual or intuitive to the situation, it’d probably work. But she doesn’t. And it seems the only reason she gets invited is to make the person be interrogated “comfortable.” No detective cares for the suspect to be comfortable… Additionally, the main character’s fiancé/husband’s (Ansel) family wanting to come to a wedding and then just being absolutely disrespectful, horrible, and almost always about to fight is just so unrealistic. We get that the family has issues and don’t like each other. Not to mention how many *times guys “stared at Jazzy” and made a move on her, but yet she finds herself not that attractive despite being hit on my every character? The writing just *really exaggerates to such an unrealistic point that it gets aggravating.

The author is great at creating mysteries, and putting fun clues around, and the storyline of the *mystery is great- it’s the extra stuff that just gets so left field and takes me entirely out of the story. The amount of rumblings of “this is *so unrealistic,” “we get it, Jazzy is hot…” “what family does this?!” has gotten to a point that I cant keep giving my money to this series.

I really wanted to like this series, but sadly this series is a no for me. Like so many other reviews, def gonna check out the author’s other books cause l do think there is a talent in the writing, it’s just the storytelling that is killing me.

Last note- this is one of my favorite narrators!

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Great story, odd pauses

Revisado: 07-31-22

Im a HUGE fan of this narrator. She creates incredible characters that provide additional depth to the story’s descriptions. I have read this entire series. LOVE the books, LOVE the author, LOVE the narrator. She’s absolutely one of the top narrators I enjoy. But in this story, she has a lot of odd pauses. It seems like maybe she cut out some unwanted sounds that happened between words and forgot to move the audio files so that they flowed. It also seems like she might be prioritizing ending consonants (like “T” “D” “G” “F” “K” “P”) and implementing a space between the next word to further enunciate, resulting in further odd pauses. This really took away from the story.

I haven’t finished the book just yet, I’m maybe 1/4-1/2 done, but so far the book is another goodie! These pauses are just really distracting that I felt compelled to write a review. Again- I’m a HUGE fan of this narrator. Crossing my fingers that upcoming additions to the series lose these odd pauses. I dont remember them in previous books. But I am loving the story:)

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Sooo good!

Revisado: 01-27-22

Love the narrator, love the story. Super similar to Stephanie Plum, but also so very different! Incredible product!

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It’s okay

Revisado: 01-19-22

Reading through the reviews, a lot of people have complained about the narration. Admittedly, I’m not the biggest fan of the narration either, but I didnt think the actor did so bad that I had to quit the book. I feel like she did best with what the writing was; that said, I dont think she was the best narrator for this character or story.

As for the writing…the storyline is good, IMO. I liked the idea, and there are some good scenes. The play up of mystery is done quite well, and were it not for the choice writing style, it might have been categorized as a great book for me. What mostly bothers me is how unrealistic the story is. This character is in the FBI, and she’s a bad ass agent who is focused on a particular case, yet she has the time and permission to work on a homicide case with the local police? I made it over to book 2 out of curiosity, and the woman is still working with the local police. Why not have her be a bad ass cop vs FBI agent if she’s going to unrealistically work local police cases?

I have a friend in the FBI, and it’s just super unrealistic. I understand it’s a fictional book, but there has to be some form of truth within it. At least a notion that she’s on PTO, or forced leave due to trauma, or something. It makes me think the only reason the character is an agent is to amplify her credentials and skill, and nothing more. That’s my main rant.

I’ll continue buying the books cause I do like the plots, and appreciate the author’s skill in the creation of those.

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Great story! Great narration!

Revisado: 12-30-21

A favorite narrator of mine! Found this book via searching through her catalog- and actually really enjoyed this author. Sometimes it got a bit lengthy (people’s monologues of thoughts), and some of the stuff was a bit unnecessary (the dead child’s kiss / flaky skin shedding) but otherwise it was a great story with a twist I hadn’t anticipated.

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The narrator is what keeps me interested!

Revisado: 12-28-21

The story is fine- it’s more cozy than a cozy mystery, and at times it feels as if the author writes for the characters to come off as more dramatic (for drama’s sake) when the moment doesn’t really call for it/ it’s not really a natural behavior/reaction. If that’s you’re style, then this book is perfect for you (I know some people genuinely do prefer that).

That said, it’s a great background story when working, easy enough to follow, and creates safe and warm imaginative play. I love books that create an environment for I dream of living in, and this little town is cute and simple in those ways. The premise is great, and the idea is strong- I think a few adjustments would make this story awesome! I do plan to continue purchasing and reading because it’s not very ideal to judge a series on the first book (in my opinion).

All the same, this narrator is one of my favorite narrators. I heard her first in a Shay Archer series, and truthfully, in search of a new mystery series, because I loved this narrators style so much, I searched through the works she was apart of. A lot of these kinds of cozy mysteries have really annoying sounding narrators and/or narrators that bore me. This narrator provides the perfect touch that keeps the mystery going and interesting. I honestly can’t say if I’d continue listening were it not for her. Great work!!!

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Love it

Revisado: 08-02-21

I have read and listened to this series time after time.
Sometimes I feel that the narrator gets too goofy- but if you’ve ever talked to the writer herself (as I have through booking a reading), it’s clear that the narrator is likely reading it perfectly according to the way the author wrote it, which is really quite funny. This is one of my more favorite books because it has more twists, gets a tad edgy, and includes characters I never would have thought, like Cat.

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A great series

Revisado: 08-28-20

I really love this series, but I’m not a fan of this specific story. I felt like it was played really safely and there could have been more risky choices to amplify the drama of what happened. Especially since it was an important character kidnapped. But all the same, it was a good story overall, and naturally the narration was quite wonderful:)

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Obsessed with this series

Revisado: 08-22-20

I am in love with this series!! Such a fun read, and all of the characters are so perfect! Please don’t stop making these adventures! I’d go crazy in this quarantine without these books. I’ve been reading them for a year now and I love all of these characters so much! Also the voice actress is incredible!

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My fav narrator

Revisado: 10-15-19

This is my favorite narrator. I love the sass she brings to her stories. She’s so great!

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