Debbie Hubbard

This review might be a little spoilery, but...

Revisado: 04-25-25

I don't think so. Just in case though, maybe spoilers?

I would have given it 5 stars but...

Great book. Edge of your seat excitement that blew it in the last 40 minutes by changing the rules, per the novel, of time travel. Although the last 40 minutes are full of shocking surprises and betrayals, I was still disappointed by how it seems that you can time travel for certain amounts of time through the entire book only to have it reduced to mere seconds at the end. Made no sense. That and all the wrap ups seemed rushed and not necessarily logical, which Greig Beck's novels usually are.

Not to mention briefly bringing back a very interesting character and then never mentioning them again except for a vague allusion near the end of the book but that's it.

The narrator is consistently awful and I always speed up the narration to be able to get through his voice/delivery. The mispronunciations throughout the series are incredibly distracting and it's always a word that seems to be used throughout the book so the cringe gets exponentially worse the longer you listen. I've never stuck with a horrible narrator before but that's a testament to how good these books are that I just deal with it. I don't know if he's an American but there are several words that make it seem like he's not which kind of takes me out of a book that's supposed to be American Special Forces based. Sometimes different accents for different characters are good, but mostly, not.

Still, great book, stayed up all night to finish it so the end was especially disappointing but the journey there was fantastic and I can't say that the ending ruined it for me, it just didn't live up to the excitement of the rest of the book. It was wrapped up abruptly. I sure hope there's a book 12 in the near future because I think that one's going to be more tense than the rest have been.

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Great story!

Revisado: 04-18-25

I stayed up all night to finish this book. Loved it. Don’t care for the narrator. He speaks so slowly that I have to speed up the recording so I can enjoy the book. It’s not a great solution but the stories are written so well that I just gave up and bought the entire Alex Hunter series anyhow.

I would like the Alex Hunter books to have more Alex Hunter in it. They always seem to be about side characters rather than what Alex Hunter is doing. The books really are great but that’s my only other complaint Well, that and;

You never know who’s going to die in Greig Beck’s books so don’t get attached to anyone. It doesn’t matter how many books a character’s been in, every one of his books are stressful waiting to see who lives! I hate that but I will admit that it’s suspenseful.

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Cameo appearance by Alex Hunter

Revisado: 04-13-25

I stayed up all night listening to this... I kept waiting for it to become boring but it was so darned exiting that I couldn't sleep.

I still don't like the narrator, he speaks so slowly, I finally had to increase the listening speed because the books are so good that I'm willing to deal with it. Still hate it though and the random mispronunciations are distracting. But still, it's not as torturous a listen if you speed it up at least 1.5 times.

I don't know that this could really be called an Alex Hunter book. He's only in it at the very beginning and sporadically at that - - until the final third, if that much, of the book. I kept waiting for him to show up and he was just drizzled throughout the story. To the point where I finally just accepted that he was a background character and not much else.

As a stand alone novel, it's really good. As an Alex Hunter book though, well, if you're buying this because you think it's part of the Arcadian series, it's barely that. The ending does hint at the next book though and it's interesting for the potential to see what comes next.

So, I highly recommend this read and so long as you go into it knowing that it doesn't have much to do with Alex Hunter, it's terrific.

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Narration Problems

Revisado: 12-16-24

I really liked this book but I had to increase the narration speed because it was so slowed down. Book 1 wasn't like that although book 0.5 was. I only paid $3 for that so it's not worth returning.

Story was great. Characters were great. But that audio really made it hard to completely enjoy. The series is narrated by the same person and book 1 was fine so I don't know what's going on. I guess I'll find out on book 3.

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Nice cozy

Revisado: 04-13-23

The sex wasn’t graphic but still stimulating the main characters were cute and I wouldn’t mind reading about their adventures again. A nice entry into LGBTQ print media.

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Baby Kate

Revisado: 06-29-22

Good book except for the performance of Kate. The volume control on her voice is non-existent and when you're driving and she screams out of nowhere, it's a little too shocking. Even sitting at home, everything will be in a normal tone of voice then Kate SCREAMS a word, it's too much. And the next book with Shona's baby now talking, it's double trouble. If these are going to become books of screaming children, I don't care how good the plot is, I just won't listen to them anymore. I don't need jump scares from kids in a book for adults. If you could adjust the volume of the kid's voices to be similar to those around them, I'd be much obliged.

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Terrible Narrator

Revisado: 02-12-22

When the narrator is speaking in what I assume is his own voice, he's fine. Even his Pendergast is serviceable but his Constance ruins the entire book. Someone said that she sounds like Katherine Hepburn and it's true. True and distracting. The voices of the southerners are over done with some accents bordering on unintentionally racist. It was as if Savanah Georgia was filled with people who sounded like Foghorn Leghorn.

The first hour into the book, I sent it returned it. Then I had second thoughts and bought it again to give the narrator a second chance. I just finished listening to it and it was consistently awful the entire way through. One character, an author, sounded like Jack Nicholson which was very distracting.

Basically, I got the ebook again just so that I could leave a review warning others to save their money. Hopefully, the first narrator who replaced Rene will be invited back. His Pendergast could have used a little more New Orleans in his voice but it wasn't unpleasant and his Constance was fine.

Good story though so I bought the actual hardback copy and returned the audiobook again. Just save yourself the aggravation and read the book and hope for another narrator or better director.

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Fantastic!

Revisado: 01-22-21

I listened to this all in one sitting. I had to know what was going to happen next. One of the best things about this particular adaptation? No unnecessary and distracting background music. Just the performers acting out the story.

The vocal performances were amazing! I always knew which character was talking and each character's voice remained consistent throughout. Wonderful acting.

This book is funny, heart warming, packed with multiple mysteries, only one of which seems obvious but keeps changing throughout. Never mind. Just listen to it. It's fabulous!

Sequel? Please? :D

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How can a great idea turn into a tedious book

Revisado: 01-24-20

It's a good book; until it isn't. At first, switching between the two characters is confusing because, although voiced by two different artists, they sounded too similar to each other to recognize that someone else was now speaking. One narrator would have been fine.


It's told from two different points of view going through different times in their lives. Unfortunately, the times vary wildly between the two until you just wish there was one timeline rather then one person telling you what's going to happen while waiting several back and forth perspective switches to actually happen.


I really liked the book at first, then I thought "Ok. I'll give it a little more time." THEN I thought "When will it end?! Haven't the characters and listeners suffered enough?"

It might not sound like it, but I do enjoy Tessa Harris' other work and the description on this new series sounded fantastic so I bought it. I rarely return a book in audible this will be the third book I've sent back in literally years. I feel like I wasted my money and my time.

I wholeheartedly suggest that you skip this one. It's one of the most aggravating stories I've ever heard. Too many plot lines. Too many characters. HUGE plot points left unresolved and not in a cliffhanger way, which I hate. No. It was just over.

My review is all over the place, just like this book.

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esto le resultó útil a 12 personas

Great book, except...

Revisado: 01-21-20

You know who the bad guy is from the first chapter. You keep reading and thinking "Please, don't be that person. Please don't be so transparent" but in the end, it's exactly who you thought only with a slight and silly twist at the end.

Weirdly, this is a really good book - if you ignore that everyone seems to not figure out who the bad guy is even though it's all but smacking them in the face the entire time. It's exciting, tense, great idea, but it has a few plot holes that never get cleared up and it's frustrating. I'm still trying to decide if I regret reading it or not.

Corrie is such a great character. I hope they do something else with her as the lead but if you're only writing it to fulfill a contract obligation, keep some mystery with the bad guy since NONE of us are supposed to be able to figure it out.

SUMMARY

Really good book. Great plot. Great narration. Suspenseful (except for that part where you know who did it the entire time.) If you stop reading at the last few chapters, it'll leave you wishing you knew what happens but you're be better off having left it alone. Helps cut down on the irritation.

Unless your a masochistic reader, use your credit to buy something else. Lincoln Child on his own has a great new series going. Try the Jeremy Logan series. It has some hiccups but all books do, just not as many as this one does.

As an aside: I buy almost every book that these two put out except for the Gideon series. I'm a little leary of being disappointed by that one although I couldn't tell you why.

The best in the Pendergast series, IMO, Cabinet of Curiosities. The first two books are great but aren't really about Pendergast. Cabinet is great from beginning to end. I'm going to go back and listen to that one now to replace the irritation that I found with this novel.

I'm one of those terrible readers who never leave a review unless strongly moved in one way or the other. I'm sorry about this review guys but you're so much better than this. You can write mysteries in your sleep. Were you going to miss a deadline?


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SPOILERS


When did Nora become oblivious? UGH! What a waste of a strong, female character. Corrie is great on her first real case as an FBI agent and all of her insecurities and mistakes make perfect sense. Maybe don't use two leads in one book and then have them at loggerheads the entire time when it seems like they were two logical characters before. What happened?

Here's the thing: Pendergast is mentioned in the beginning as knowing Corrie, which makes sense, but they don't mention that Pendergast also knows Nora. You wait the ENTIRE book for them both to find out and become allies but it never happens. He's never mentioned again - until the end of the book where the thrill of it is on the "Finally but I don't care anymore" scale.

Oh, and if you're going to throw supernatural elements into the pot (sorry, Donner Party joke) at least follow through and confirm it rather than leave us hanging. And finally, don't use the Donner Party as a McGuffin to readers interested in the book because it barely touches on that. It could have been any archaeological dig site. It really has nothing new to tell about that story. So much potential wasted.

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