Lindsey

Not a bad story

Revisado: 04-01-25

I read this book sometime in the last year or so and have looked forward to the next book in the series coming out. I saw that the audiobook is now available, so thought I'd listen this time to refresh my memory before starting The Night Prince. Sadly, I didn't enjoy the story as much this time around. I think it's mostly because of Zara Hampton-Brown's narration, which isn't bad, it just isn't my favorite. I don't love the way she pronounced things, like saying "rum" for the word "room, or "bawdy" for "body". Usually I like an English accent, but there's something about hers that doesn't work for me. I also found her a little too breathy or borderline moany, even when not in intimate scenes. I have to admit, I skipped the bedroom scenes, so I don't know what she sounded like like for those. Her Scottish accent wasn't quite right to me either, just based off of what I've heard on TV, social media, other audiobooks, etc., but it wasn't terrible. Like I said, she wasn't bad, she just wasn't my taste. I did like Shane East and I wish he'd narrated all of the male voices rather than just Callum's, it would have improved the autdiobook overall. I think I'll stick with reading the Night Prince and skip the audiobook.

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Couldn’t finish

Revisado: 01-26-25

It’s amazing to me how many great reviews this book has! I was in the mood for an enemies-to-lovers, who-hurt-you kind of book and booktok recommended this one. I gave it a good shot, but I DNF’d it with 3 hours left in the audiobook and pure stubborness on my part is the only reason I made it that far. Since I can’t return it, I was trying to make myself finish it, but I just can’t. Other than the fact that the FMC masturbated in the book and and then it got to the point where she wanted to “lick him everywhere”, which I consider mature themes, the rest of the book seemed more geared to young teenagers. It had a pretty immature storyline that I found myself rolling my eyes at frequently. There wasn’t enough character, relationship (between her and the love interest or her and her new BFF), or plot development for one thing. And that would have helped the book a lot. I guess I’ve just been reading more complex plots these days because this was a little too simple for my taste.

I didn’t love the narration either. I can’t put my finger on exactly what I didn’t like about Ruby Cherise, but she almost performed it too soft or something. It felt too faked rather than performed maybe? I don’t know, like I said, I can’t put my finger on it.

Anyway, no recommendation coming from me, I archived it and never plan to read this author again.

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7.5 hours of my life I can never get back

Revisado: 12-12-24

Well. This was not a great listen. The narrator did a good job, it’s not her fault it’s not a well written book.

I found this book really dumb. I pushed through because I just kept hoping that it would have a plot, but if it did, it was super weak. It seemed like the book was written by an immature, teenage boy and rather a grown woman and instead of being funny it was just kind of dumb/silly. Funny would mean that I would at least have a smile on my face (if not laugh at least once in a while) while reading it and I didn’t. I just couldn’t get on board with it. I did finish it, but it was a close call. There were definitely too many F words/crudeness for no reason. It seemed chaotic trying to make sense if the character’s actions or figure out the plot, she just bounced from one thing to the next and seemed to not really have much common sense for someone who has supposedly been on the run for many years. I might have considered trying the next book in the series if I didn’t think it would be more of the same rambling. The bride war concept isn’t unappealing, but the way this was written is not what I look for in a romantasy or fantasy novel.

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Didn’t know this was erotica

Revisado: 11-28-24

I guess I didn’t read the description well enough because I didn’t realize this was erotica when I bought it. I wanted to hear some of the story, but between my annoyance with the female narrator and the explicit scenes, I had to quit. The male narrator seemed fine, but the way the female narrator enunciated a lot of worse was weird and annoying. For instance blood = buh-lood, bristles = bah-ristle, drug = duh-rug. Like she added vowel sounds and dragged out the beginning of words. Like I said, it was weird. And she was definitely trying too hard to sound sexy or something. It just didn’t work for me, it was gross.

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Fell short, but not bad

Revisado: 06-20-24

love a good heist story and I liked the Shadow and Bone series so I was really looking forward to this book. I thought the characters were interesting, but I’m not a fan of multiple points of view story telling, so I felt like that detracted from my reading experience. I also listened to the audiobook instead of reading any this time and thought the narrators actually detracted from the experience for me as well. The narrator for Kaz was the best of the bunch. I didn’t love Lauren Fortgang from the Shadow and Bone series, but she’s an alright narrator. Like, I don’t enjoy her, but not the point that it would keep me from listening to or purchasing an audiobook done by her. She did fine for Inej’s part, but I would have enjoyed someone else more. I knew Elizabeth Evans from listening to the Crescent City books, and I thought she was actually a good fit for Nina. I did not like the narrator for Jesper at all. I feel like he tried to over enunciate words to the point that it sounded stilted, kind of like a kid first learning to read. So all that combined, took away from a story that I think had a lot more potential than it lived up to. I wish the points of view would have stuck with Kaz and Inej, I think the story could have been so much more interesting and better developed coming from just them. When there are multiple POVs, I just can’t get as invested, my attention wanders. That being said, I’m interested enough that I am going to continue the duology, so we’ll see if I’m more impressed with the next book. Fingers crossed!

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Missed the mark this time

Revisado: 03-07-24

I was actually disappointed with this most recent installment of the series. Parts of it were pretty predictable and then aside from that, I felt like Kelley Armstrong was trying to subtly throw in relationship and mental health coaching or something. Plus, without being specific (to avoid any spoilers), I feel like she threw in a pretty hot political/moral topic and just tried to keep justifying her view point on it. I read to escape reality, not hear someone else’s opinion on political points and mental health. I just really thought she missed the mark on this one with the actual story because she was getting too into the weeds on all that other stuff, which is sad because I feel like there was a lot of potential. It was a very blah book to me.

The narration was what I’m used to from this narrator. I wish she would shake up her performance a little. All the “yep”s and “yeah”s and all the other repetitive things Kelley Armstrong keeps saying in this series are always said with the same drawn out inflection every time she says them, regardless of which character it is saying it. It gets tiresome. Otherwise, she did a pretty good job.

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Didn’t live up to its potential

Revisado: 01-27-24

I wanted to like this book more. It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great, it was just okay. I felt like it had a lot of potential, but it just didn’t quite make it to being a good book. I honestly don’t even remember purchasing this book, but maybe I bought it because it had a similar vibe to ”The Flat Share”, which I really enjoyed, but it just wasn’t as good. I felt like there wasn’t enough building of Cormac’s and Lyssa’s relationship. There were some emails and texts back and forth, but it’s like the author expected you to pick up on messages between the two of them that you didn’t actually get to read for the most part. Most of the story was about her adjusting to Scotland and him adjusting to London and the lives that they were each kind of creating there with each others’ friends and growing in different ways, which was nice, but I just didn’t see their relationship grow. Then all of a sudden it was like hey, I want to meet him/her, I think I have a crush on him/her. You just didn’t see the relationship get there by reading about it, so I felt like I missed out. I wish the author had explored that more. It could’ve taken it from 2.5 stars to 3.

As for the narration, it was very well done. The narrator had a good distinction for voices/characters so that you could understand who was speaking when, and I enjoyed it. I give the narration 4 stars.

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Great story, not my favorite narration

Revisado: 01-21-24

The narration: When I listened to a sample of the narration before I started the book, I thought the accent would make the narration feel more authentic. And I think it could have, but ended up buying the ebook and reading as much of it as I could instead because I found the narration to sound to child-like. I could have understood using the child-like intonations if the story was told about someone younger than around 10, but most of the story took place when Stefania was between the ages of 16-18 and what was going on deserved a more serious sounding narrator. I felt like at times, the narration almost sounds kind of flippant. I thought the book was good, but I would read it rather than listen to it.

The book: I’ve always been fascinated by the stories of those who so heroically sacrificed of themselves during WWII. I has never stopped blowing my mind that there was so much evil prevalent during that time, but the way people overcame their fear to help others will always be such an inspiration to me. The true events that inspired this novel are nothing less than awe inspiring. The novel was well thought out/well written and despite the fact that reading these kinds of books always tends to leave me with a lingering sadness for all that these people suffered, I’m glad to have read it and know the story of Stefania Podgórska and know what a true hero she was.

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Didn’t live up to the hype

Revisado: 11-30-23

I honestly don’t know why everyone is raving so much about this book. I heard so many 5 star reviews for it on social media and since I’ve gotten a lot of other great recommendations from there (and okay, one really bad one…) I couldn’t wait to read/listen to this. I love the genres (gothic/fantasy/romance) and the storyline is pretty good. I liked the characters, which is a must for me; if I don’t like the main characters, there’s no saving a book for me. There’s nothing that I would say is wrong with this book, it just wasn’t all it was hyped up to be. I thought it was good, not great. I wish I’d had lower expectations and then I think I might have enjoyed it more.

And just a comment on the narration…the narrator wasn’t bad. She did a few things that annoyed me, like the high pitched but also monotone voice for one of the characters and all the snorts/laughing/evil laughing, which was just kind of weird and detracted from the reading. I definitely could have done without that. She also sounded a little like she had a cold off and on, but I think maybe that’s just her voice because I’m actually four hours into the audiobook for “Two Twisted Crowns” now and I hear it in that one too. She wasn’t bad enough that I couldn’t listen, she just had a few annoying habits. I wouldn’t let those keep me from listening though.

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Unpopular opinion…hated it/had to quit

Revisado: 10-16-23

I hate to quit after 3 hours, but I really just couldn’t take the ridiculousness anymore. I know this book has a ton a great reviews, which is the only reason I didn’t quit after the first hour, but I’ve hated from the start. The main character is supposed to be some town sweetheart, yet I find her a bit rude with others and kind of immature. Honestly, I really don’t like her. The way she puts down the small town she’s in (doesn’t want to date someone because she doesn’t want to be stuck there…) is really shallow minded. Then the portrayal that it’s so inconvenient that she’s a pretty woman (it was so awful she had to stop wearing makeup in college…barf) to be less appealing. At one point she considers cutting her waist-length hair into a pixie haircut (which sounds like an improvement to me) so she might look more “studious”. Most pixie cuts I’ve seen are way more bold/stylish/flirty than overly long hair is...

Everything is so unoriginal and unappealing. And contradictory. For example, she wants to be taken very seriously, but then says (and this is a direct quote) “but it was a good thing I’m silly and bubbly or else I would be worried about receiving a mad scientist reputation.” She’s so “nice” but constantly corrects people and won’t allow them to call her Cal vs. Callie. Which i just found inconsequential and rude. Then the whole dress/adventure into the dark woods… “I was equally glad Earl wouldn’t see me in this dress. Had it been a gift? I would never have bought something that showed so much skin. Had I known it was this small and tight, I wouldn’t have even bothered to put anything on.” Ummmmm, but she did put it on. And went out in it. If it was that uncharacteristic or uncomfortable, she would have changed immediately. This, “oh it’s so out of the norm for me to wear something like this“ scenario is so cliche. And “had it been a gift?”…pretty sure I wouldn’t wear a dress if I had no idea where it came from. And what normal person wouldn’t change out of a skimpy dress and high heels to tromp through the woods to look for something? Also, who wouldn’t wait until there was daylight to look for something in the woods? And also (again)…who would actually take an expensive microscope into the woods when all they were really doing was picking mushrooms? There are just too many contradictions and cliches for me to get any enjoyment out of this story whatever. I’m glad some others are enjoying it, but it’s a hard pass for me and a waste of three hours.

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