TinaW

Good story and performance

Revisado: 09-04-23

Great mix of romance, comedy and heartfelt moments. Had some real laugh out loud moments and some very tender high stakes moment. Lots if good on page romantic chemistry between the hero and heroine and fun supporting characters. The narrator was fantastic.

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Perfectly delightful

Revisado: 06-05-20

Outside of the plot (fab) , the characters (I love them ALL) and the world-building (so fun) this book represents the pleasure of reading just to wallow in the words and language.

Nigel Planer really makes Terry's Pratchett's words sing.

I love this book.

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Little book that feels big

Revisado: 06-05-20

This is a nice little epistolary novella. It follows the correspondence of a cheating pair and their respective spouses who discover the cheating and correspond with each other to commiserate and discuss their own feelings about the things their cheating spouses have written in their letters.

It is narrated by four narrators, each giving the 'voice' to the letter they've written, so you can easily follow whose ;etter you are reading.

The running time is very short, only going about an hour and a half, but the story fills up the time. I found myself listening to these letters and these people in fascination and going through an entire range of emotions,

The conclusion is very satisfying and after having completed the story, I realize the title is quite clever.

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Excellent potential successor to Kate Daniels

Revisado: 08-06-18

There is a lot that happens in this book that happens really well --

1 - Hugh as a anti-hero with his own perceptions and feelings. In the Kate Daniels series, Andrews introduces Hugh and makes him an interesting character all on his own. But this book reminds us that the KD series is written from Kate's first person POV and first person POVs (written correctly) are not gospel truth. They are only the truth as that person sees things. In this book we get Hugh's perspective on how some things went down. They don't seek to excuse him or exonerate him, but it does give another view to incidents that help to make Hugh somewhat less monstrous.

2 - Roland isn't the only big bad in the world. And he might not even be the biggest and the baddest. This was a nice development

3 - Interpersonal dynamics between Hugh and Elara. They bite and snipe and snap at each other. It starts out antagonistic but becomes a comfortable groove in their relationship. We soon realize on some level that is how they communicate and create comfort with each other in their relationship.

4 - Elara's magic and her people. This is the nicest mystery. Still don't know what she is, what they do, how they work. It is fascinating and a little creepy.

5 - The supporting characters. To the person they are all fab. The remaining Iron Dogs who follow Hugh, not Roland. Elara's inner circle.... everyone was fascinating.

6- Humor. There are nice moments of humor sprinkled throughout. Elara's internal 'Ughs' when Hugh does something that gets on her last nerve (the narrator really makes me feel Elara's disgust), the gallows humor of the Iron Dogs, even Hugh's own dry humor.

7- Narration was excellent. Except I do have to ding him a little on giving Andrea a Spanish accent.

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Solid romance with believable conflict

Revisado: 08-06-18

I enjoyed listening to this book. The combo of this writer + her penchant for kids in her books + Johanna Parker narrating is a winning one.

I loved the heck out of the first third of this book. There is a great meet cute between the heroine and the hero, They spend time with each other and begin what is supposed to be an easy enough affair for the remaining days they are there, but they both catch feelings. However they get separated abruptly.

The second third of the book was the two of the being separated. The author did a great job, imo, in creating a very credible circumstance that stops them from reconnecting even though they both really want to. However, even though I thought she created a clever and credible series of obstacles I thought this middle part dragged on a bit for my taste.

The last third has the two of them reconnecting with two huge humdinger of a revelation on both their sides. The reader knows everything that has been going on so when the characters finally find out, we get a load of great soapy goodness,

All in all, though, I thought this was a really good contemporary romance that didn't feel like all the super smexy high octane contemporary romances that I can't tell apart from each other these days. It wasn't super sweet and it wasn't super angsty. It was just a good story about a couple in their early late 20s/early 30s that felt like their age and had age appropriate issues and attitudes with an interestingly crafted romantic conflict. And excellent narration.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Narrator not the best fit for the story.

Revisado: 11-06-17

This is a fantastic story. Lots of fun. it is also an Urban Fantasy with a badass protagonist named Rowan who had a big sword and is pretty fearless.

I read this i print first when it was first released and now, upon re-read decided to listen to it in audio. My biggest issue with the audio is that the narrator did not have the necessary connection with the material. When listening to what should have been epic Rowan verbal smackdowns, the narrator delivered them with all the fire and verve of a wet napkin. She sounded like she was reading an invitation to tea and crumpets. None of what should have been impactful dialogue landed with just the right punch.

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Good narrator. Bad everything else

Revisado: 11-03-17

The narrator was the only saving grace of thus story. The heroine was a juvenile idiot twit. The hero was only slightly better. The story was banal and dated.

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Great story, odd narration

Revisado: 09-04-17

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

No. Read the printed book. It is excellent. The audio is frustrating. The narrator has a nice voice, but her reading inflections were odd. Not sure if it were the performance or the engineering. But it was distracting to wait through long pauses to get to the next sentence. What was clearly supposed to be a pause (comma) in a sentence was read as a full stop. Then you had to wait for the next word. It felt like the audio was spliced together because you didn't get a natural breath, you got what felt like dead air until the next word.. Not a lot of great narrative flow. Very frustrating to listen to. I finally gave up after an hour of listening.

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esto le resultó útil a 18 personas

Great story , terrible audio

Revisado: 07-04-17

Any additional comments?

Fantastic story. Terrible listen. I have a hit or miss relationship with this narrator. Some of her stories are great. Others, like this one, the performance is terrible. Also there are these odd gaps between sentences like she's taking time to think. it makes the listening experience frustrating.

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This series just gets better with each installment

Revisado: 06-04-17

Would you listen to The Hanging Tree again? Why?

Yes. I love Peter Grant's world and his worldview. He is one of the best characters to hang around with and Kobna Holdbrook Smith brings him to life fabulously.

What did you like best about this story?

This was a fun, fast paced, installment in the series. It did everything a god installment in a progressing series should do. It moved some continuing story arcs forever. Added some character development. Showed growth in the various relationships and knowledge. Included a good police procedural case. And in order not to be too stagnant added a new charact who fit in seemlessly. It was also damned entertaining.

Have you listened to any of Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I've only ever listened to him narrating this series. I don't even bother buying these books in print because I love that extra something Holdbrook-Smith brings to the story. In just one scene he switches from the plummy, posh accent of Nightingale to the gruff, profanity-laden Seawoll, to the long suffering elongated nasally vowels of Stephanopolous and then to the cheeky, cleverness of Peter. And I could visualize how they all look just from his vocal inflections alone.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laugh out loud. All the time listening to this series.

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