Malina Righter

So dreamy

Revisado: 07-26-20

I have a difficult time visualizing, even when meditating, but this narrator's soothing voice and the dreamy content are easy to picture and incredibly calming.

My one complaint is that the story just kind of drops off, and I found myself waiting to see if there was more, which was distracting, especially when you sold be falling asleep at that part. However, I decided to just keep the visualization going for myself after I realized the meditation had ended and was still able to drift off peacefully.

Overall, this is an easy, wonderfully approachable way to rock yourself to sleep.

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Interesting material, abysmal narration

Revisado: 08-03-19

I genuinely want to finish this book because I'm curious about the author's experiences but HOLY COW she's painful to listen to. I appreciate when authors want to narrate their own material because you can sometimes get a better feel for the true sense of the writing and how it's meant to be read. But the author's Midwestern accent, dull intonation, and grating enunciation make her interesting material sound terribly boring. I had to return it.

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This started out so well!

Revisado: 07-11-19

Packed with magic, grittiness, hardship, adventure, and beautiful world building, I LOVED the beginning. It felt like being transported to the dark ages of adolescent Europe when magic and mysticism were part of daily life. I was genuinely surprised to find that in a vampire novel.

But as the vampire side of the story started developing, I found myself rolling my eyes and feeling like I was listening to a tacky, pulpy, goth romance vampire novel. Yuck. All of the magic drained out of the story for me when the main character droned, unceasingly, about the highly sexualized process of being turned. There's just far too much heavy-handed eroticism. I also skipped through the VERY drawn out sex scene earlier in the book.

Don't get me wrong...vampires can totally be sexy and alluring. It's often why we love them. And I'm not a prude by any means. But the story has to be told tactfully, without turning into porn, and that's what this felt like. No thanks. I'm not sure what else I expected but I couldn't finish the book.

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The first book was amazing! This one was a slog

Revisado: 02-03-19

I love the world building in the first book and was very excited to read the latest volume. Unfortunately, the back-and-forthing between two narrators to bring two sides of the story together was sort of neat but ultimately distracting. I think this was partly the case because I wasn't crazy about the male narrator's voice and the fact that he pronounced some names and places differently than the female narrator. She did a great job with her side of narration but this book just didn't pull me in the way the first one did. I'm not sure if I would read a third installment if one comes out.

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A few grumbles

Revisado: 01-26-19

Writing:
The beginning of the book was very difficult for me to get into. It later set the stage for much of the happenings in the story, but getting through it felt like watching a pompous family political drama with tedious with tedious writing. My advice to new readers is to bear through the slog -- it's worth it in the end.
I was also frustrated by the sheer number of characters that the reader has to keep up with. There were several times in this series that I thought "Wait who the eff is that guy??". It was a lot to follow, especially when some of those characters were seldom seen throughout the story.

Narration:
The narrator did a stunning job of juggling tons characters and their varied accents. Some were even believable as normal speech for her. But her accent for the author's Japanese character bordered on sounding racist (and the "manga" comment from that character felt so heavy-handed and contrived for the author). I also quickly tired of the narrator's breathiness as she read non-dialog text. It was distracting, overdramatized, and hard to take seriously sometimes.

Overall:
All of those grumbles aside, this is a transporting and intricately woven tale of high magic and drama. The author researches her material like a PRO, even the witchcraft feels real and surprisingly accurate. Harkness spins quite an epic tale and I'll be sure to keep an eye out for more of her books.

4/5 Would definitely recommend to lovers of supernatural romance, colorful history, and powerful witchcraft.

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Could have been better

Revisado: 05-28-18

Somehow, I completely missed that this series was a YA romance series when I started it, but I was surprised how much I really liked the story. Sadly, I felt like the 3rd book was a bit disappointing with how it wrapped up the series. I think the whole thing could have been at least 1 book longer because it felt like there was a lot of potential for more exploration in this universe. Instead, book 3 felt like a rush to tie up loose ends and had kind of a cop-out ending.

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What happened to the narrator?

Revisado: 05-28-18

The first 3 books were pretty good. Not the best writing I've encountered, but entertaining enough to want to finish the series. But then I start this book and, for some reason, the narrator has adopted this growly edge to her voice that wasn't there in the previous audiobooks. And she doesn't just use it for dire situations in the book (which would be more appropriate and tolerable). She uses it for every sentence, starting with the first one. It's so annoying that I couldn't even get through the first chapter before I just decided to abandon the series altogether. Not sure where this artificial "hardened" tone came from, but it's irritating and makes the narrator sound more she's trying out her Batman voice. I'll have to pass.

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SPECTACULAR!

Revisado: 06-17-17

I'm positively blown away by the quality of writing and narration from this audiobook.
The story is rich, very engaging, brutal (sometimes violent), and charming, all culminating into a perfect blend of storytelling. The characters are effortless to connect with, and my god...the narration is the best performance I've heard on Audible by far. The narrator does a tremendous job of voicing many different characters with quite a range of accents, styles, and subtle nuance. I can't wait to read the rest of this series, and I can't recommend this installment highly enough. If well-written fantasy and intrigue is what you seek, you won't be disappointed here. I've adding Erika Johansen to my list of favorite authors.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I have!

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Insidiously indulgent...

Revisado: 04-18-17

Impeccable narration by the actor who played Pinhead in Hellraiser. While the frequent request of the main character asking the reader to "burn this book" became repetitive, this was a wonderfully crafted story unlike anything I've ever read. Highly recommended for anyone with a taste for horror and a fascination of demons and angels.

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