L Mars

Beautiful, emotional, and painful

Revisado: 11-29-20

This book is going to stay with me for awhile. The story synopsis does not give too many details about the plot and I have to say this is one that you just have to listen to. I went in not knowing what to expect (though I've read others by Whitney Barbetti) and was just blown away.

The attraction between Parker and Everett was amazing, I could really feel it and just kept wanting to read more. Both are complicated characters, but not unnecessarily so as to cause needless drama. The author put a lot of thought and care and detail into these characters, and their brokenness as well as their connection to each other felt very real.

This is a highly emotional read and covers some difficult topics. You will feel pain reading/listening to this. For me it was worth it in the end.

Some reviewers did not care for Natasha Soudek's narration too much. I thought she did an amazing job. She does have a breathier quality and her lower pitch doesn't sound like what one would expect of a 21 year old. However, it was perfect for Parker's character, whose past experiences and current apathetic outlook on life made her seem a bit older anyway. When she read Everett's parts of the dialogue, or the chapter that was from his POV, I actually forgot I was listening to a woman. She did a great job with the different characters and with depicting the emotional and heartbreaking moments without being overdramatic.

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ok

Revisado: 11-25-20

The story itself was really interesting and sweet. However, I didn't like the characters too much. I like funny quirky humor but the dialogue was kind of cringe at times. I also thought there was too much reliance on stereotypes to portray the characters. Daniel's whole internal dialogue about Six..."she's not like other girls because she doesn't carry a purse and doesn't wear makeup, and omg a girl fist bumped me and made a dirty joke, girls never do cool guy things like that!" The whole "not like other girls" stereotype is old and tired. I actually didn't finish this the first time because of how annoying it was and only finished it now because I want to read Finding Perfect, which I hope doesn't disappoint like this one did because I absolutely love All Your Perfects.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Slow paced, emotional drama w/out substance

Revisado: 08-23-20

I was not able to get into this. It seemed like there was a lot of inner monologue about the characters' angsty feelings, but not enough substance in the plot to back up these feelings. I never got too clear of a sense for what happened or why the characters were going through the emotional struggles and angst. The inner monologues got repetitive; it just seemed like there was too heavy-handed of a focus on the same feelings over and over again.

A lot of the present-day scenes would have some interaction between the two characters from one POV, then the other character would describe the same scene from their POV. This just added to the repetition and slow pacing as nothing was added to the story by having 2 POVs for the same scene. The flashbacks to the past seemed to contain a little more of a plot, at least in the first 1/3 that I listened to.

I love Sarah Puckett's narration and I mainly gave this a try because of her, but sadly this wasn't something that interested me sufficiently.

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interesting enough plot with some serious issues

Revisado: 05-27-20

I've read and enjoyed dark romance, including non-con. It's a difficult subject on which to write well. So why did I have issues with this particular story?

I think it was mainly the main male character, Kayne. I can appreciate a "bad" alpha male lead, but don't try to convince me that actually he's a good person and he just had no other choice but to do what he did to Ellie. That Javier is the bad guy (that part isn't debatable) and Kayne's just the hero protecting the world from the bad guy.

Speaking of Kayne and Javier, why did the narrator have to keep talking about Javier eating tortillas and having rice and beans in his kitchen?? There were just constant references to Javier being Mexican and to tortillas in particular ("that tortilla-eating motherfucker"), like it's one thing to mention it as part of the character's identity and another thing to keep calling him Mexican alongside other insulting words (an actual quote: "Just what we need: a drunk, belligerent, abusive Mexican") and all the stereotyping. The casual racism really jumped out and was very distracting, it was totally unnecessary and didn't add anything to the story, unless the point was to show that Kayne's got some internal racism going on. SEE I TOLD YOU HE'S NOT A GOOD PERSON.

The funny thing is the actual sex scenes were written pretty well. Though I am not sure how I felt about the threesome. It just felt like the author put that in there to make it kinkier (which is a pretty gross treatment of same-sex coupling IMO), also the tired hypocrisy of no other man can have Ellie, but it's ok for Kayne to get off on Ellie and another woman.

The plot was interesting enough, I wanted to see what everything was leading up to, what Kayne's end game with Javier was and why he had to stay on Javier's good side. Then the end was really fast and abrupt, there were a couple "oh shit" moments but they didn't last long enough to create any real tension. It really was a let down. And then the GASLIGHTING of Ellie when she learns the whole truth, "he did it for you, he doesn't just love you, he's OBSESSED with you!!!" Just hell no.

The only reason this got 3 stars from me was for Sam Crowley (male narrator), he was amazing. I'm pretty sure that he was the only reason I kept listening...that and the plot being just good enough to want to find out what happens.

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Suspenseful at a slower pace

Revisado: 05-05-20

For the most part I didn't want to put this down, except for a few places where I got so frustrated with the main character. A lot of the danger and suspense come from her making awful decisions. It's annoying when the character's foolishness is responsible for a lot of the plot.

Other than that, I thought the story was fascinating. A relatively normal couple come across a very abnormal situation. It was interesting to see how being put in this situation took them from a normal average life to something very different.

The pace gets kind of slow at times, the author spends a lot of time laying out the relationship between the couple and their history, through their engagement, wedding planning, wedding, and finally the honeymoon. It took a seemingly long while for the event that sets up the rest of the plot to even occur. There is also a side plot with the main character's film project that takes up considerable time. It ends up tying into the main plot and all of the background ended up being important. I didn't mind all of the exposition and side plots, but it does take some time to get exciting. Still held my interest.

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Good story, got exciting towards the end

Revisado: 04-21-20

This was a fascinating story. At times I became tired of the main character's constant inner dialogue about her issues (saying this as someone who struggles with mental health myself). However, I see how it made the character more interesting and flawed and gave her a purpose for why she kept investigating. It also made the later part, when she finds herself in a dangerous situation, even more scary and gruesome, although it meant that action didn't always happen as quickly as I wanted it to.

I love the suspense genre, but find that for me many books end up being a let down. This one did not disappoint; the plot was solid, the main character was imperfect yet relatable, and all the details fit together really well with nothing boring or unnecessary.

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Engrossing storyline, loved the characters

Revisado: 04-10-20

This was an enjoyable story to listen to, I had a hard time putting it down so to speak, I just kept wanting to hear more, see what would happen next. The few twists there were weren't too surprising and this wasn't one of those thrillers that leaves your head spinning or has some crazy twist at the end, but I still enjoyed it. I came to really care about Frank and Alice, as well as the family in the past.

There are some reviews that mention bad audio. I definitely noticed it, sometimes it sounds like the audio changes to a different recording, different room or something. I was able to listen without noticing it too much but I can see how it would be distracting to some.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A mystery with depth and layers

Revisado: 04-08-20

This story was so deep and multifaceted, there was just so much to appreciate and consider. From the details of the psychiatric hospital and the therapy sessions, to the histories of the characters (which also entailed psychological analysis - how childhood events affect one's psyche), to the significance of the paintings created by Alicia, and the parallels with Greek mythology. It seems like the kind of story one could analyze in so many different ways.

It wasn't the most fast-paced and suspenseful listen. There is definitely a mystery that drives the plot forward, but it's not exactly a thriller IMO. However, it was really well-written and so fascinating that I didn't mind a somewhat slower pace at which developments occur. It does speed up and get a bit more exciting and thrilling towards the end. Definitely kept me guessing.

Narration was excellent. Jack Hawkins did an awesome job with different characters, different accents (his accent for the American characters irritated me but I don't know if it's because the characters were also irritating or because the accent was jarring next to the European accents). Louise Brealey narrating Alicia's diary was very pleasant to listen to.

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Did not like any of the characters

Revisado: 04-02-20

This started out interesting enough. However, I came to not like the main character at all, she just seemed selfish and made some unwise decisions and I couldn't relate to her. I'm not against cheating (in a book) if there is some really extreme and relatable reason, but here it just seemed foolish and selfish and there wasn't any really understandable reason for her to make bad choices. I'm sorry to say but she was a bad psychologist, as one of the characters said. And the main male character just seemed like a whiny little s*** to me. I can't tell if it's because of how he was written or the narrator's voice or both. It was one of those that after awhile I was just waiting to get to the end so it could be over. I didn't find any of the twists too surprising, but when the perpetrator reveals everything they did and how, it just sounded like a laundry list. I love suspense and mystery but this did not do it for me.

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Grew better towards the end

Revisado: 02-23-20

I can't decide how I feel about this one. For the content and structure of the plot it seemed longer than it needed to be. I didn't feel like this grabbed me or like I was compelled to keep listening. I didn't feel invested in the characters. There is a character in the past who ends up being a major part of the plot, but there wasn't much about this character at first, the person was just kind of sprung on the reader all of a sudden.

I still give it 4 stars (maybe 3.5 or 3.75?) because the last part (from the build up to the climactic moment and after that) made the rest of it make more sense and seem worth it.

Be warned that parts of this could be triggering due to r*pe, it is not overly graphic or gratuitous but it's there...

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