Richard

Different and I Appreciate That

Revisado: 05-04-23

What other reviewers have said about this book being different than Ms Rose's other books is true. Whether you will like that or not is going to depend on your own tastes. For myself, I appreciated that she tried something out of her normal formula. I also thought she did a much better job than some other books I've read that tried following this pattern. It felt much truer to life rather than forced conflict and romance. I thought the book was the right length for the story and look forward to reading more of the story of all of these characters in the future.

Narration is always a matter of preference. Ms Huber did well with the voices for the women characters. When a woman performs male voices, I just expect something reasonable and most importantly that I can distinguish between the characters. She accomplished that and more, so I give her 5 stars.

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Good Story

Revisado: 08-15-22

The story was well done, neither too long or short for the tale being told. A bittersweet ending. Each performer was excellent at their own part. Unfortunately, as with many dual performances, there was a big discrepancy in their voices, so it was somewhat grating to hear them try to do the other's lines. It would have been much better if they'd each been able to perform all of their character's lines.

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Less Modern Detective and More Family Drama

Revisado: 03-24-20

While the story opens with a murder, very little time is spent on the investigation. Most of the story revolves around the family drama and circle of friends. The story is still interesting, but the prose isn't great. As others have noted, there is way too much he said and she said. I've listened to this narrator for other books. She does well enough with this book, but it's not her best work. To be fair, I think she's doing the best she can with what she has to work with. Overall a decent book read well, but you might want to look elsewhere if you're really looking for a modern detective story.

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Too much like the first

Revisado: 08-04-17

Menagerie was a great book and ended in a way that looked like the second was going to be different and possibly ever better. Sadly *small spoiler* by the end of the first chapter, it becomes very much the same book as the first. The plot is not identical, but the situation is nearly the same... but missing much of the character interaction and development that made the first book a great listen. I would give the book a three, but once again it ended in such a way that the next book could be new and refreshing.

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A Little Disappointing

Revisado: 03-23-16

This series is one of my favorites and I've been waiting in great anticipation for this fourth book to be released. Perhaps my expectations were too high after the previous three and the wait for this one but it felt rather drawn out with not a lot happening. All of these books surprise me really because there's a lot of the day to day interactions between the characters going on with spurts of excitement. But this book dealt too much with broad strokes and big picture and very little was added about the personal relationships between the characters. Maybe this is needed for where the story is headed. I'm still looking forward to the next book (assuming there is one). I only wish this book had been shorter. With a bit tighter story telling it might not have seemed so slow.

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Better if sped up

Revisado: 03-09-16

The story kept me wondering until the very end, just as Claire did. The relationships between the characters felt very real. Jeff Cummings and Amy McFadden did well as Jeff and Tish, but as the other reviewers have said Angela Dawe's performance as Claire was flat. Sadly, I've had this problem with some of her performances in the past. On a whim I decided to try speeding up the playback. At 1.25 speed (something that's possible in the apps without making them sound like chipmunks) I discovered that not only was Ms Dawe's performance reasonable but that of Mr Cummings and Ms McFadden were actually improved as well. After that the listen became rather enjoyable. I recommend you try it.

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Fun YA Listen

Revisado: 12-05-15

The first chapter didn't impress me much but the second chapter was better and the story kept getting better from there so I'm glad I stuck with it. It's full of humor, light adventure and enough teen problems to be realistic for the characters without being annoying to me as an adult. I soon found myself looking for reasons to keep listening rather than doing something else. I wasn't paying attention so was surprised to find at the end that it was read by the author. While not my favorite narrator she did a good job with bringing life to the story and giving each character their own personality. Her one shortcoming was that there was no real difference in the sound of the voices, so you needed to pay attention in some places to keep up with who was talking at any given time. Overall a very entertaining listen.

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Another Winner

Revisado: 10-21-15

I love Rachel Vincent's books because even when she's writing urban fantasy it's different from what has become the standard vampire/werewolf stories that abound everywhere. Add the fact that she's excellent at telling these stories and I've been looking forward to this book since I first heard about it. This is not urban fantasy as defined anywhere, though it could be classified as contemporary fantasy. The synopsis does a good job of explaining the basic plot so I won't reiterate. But the story is more than just that of Delilah. Unlike the other books I've listened to by Ms Vincent, this book is written in both first person (Delilah's POV) and third person (when telling the stories of others). This mixed person style works well. Delilah's character is well developed in the first person narrative as is Gallagher's in the third person portions. Many of the other characters begin to be fleshed out in this way as well and I look forward to her use of more of this in future volumes. While the book stands alone, as her books usually do, there is more than enough open-endedness for plenty of storytelling to come.

Gabra Zackman is always wonderful as a narrator, though sometimes I find her inflections to be somewhat odd. For this book her performance was spot on and I can't imagine anyone else doing it.

Now I just need to be patient while waiting for the next book in the series. That and figure out what to listen to next that will hold up after listening to this one!

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Not "The Hollows"

Revisado: 09-20-15

If you're thinking of getting this book because you loved the Hollows series then I suggest you pause first. This is a totally different genre, style of storytelling, type of character, kind of story, etc. If you've listened to Sideswiped you'll have an idea of the basic premise of the book. If you have not you should listen to it first since it's both a prequel and lets you get used the the premise, style, and narrator before starting this book. I did listen to Sideswiped first and was still not prepared for the drastic change in tone from even that book. While I could not seem to put it down I also found it very frustrating. It's difficult to explain the frustration without giving too much away but the basic premise of the book is that Peri has the ability to rewrite small amounts of time but then forgets. How much she forgets depends on how drastic the change was. It may be only the amount of time she rewrote or much more of her past. This constant alternation between her making progress on figuring out what is happening and then forgetting everything she'd learned led to the frustration. In the end I wasn't sure I was satisfied with the story and it's ending until I happened on something the author wrote where she states that this book is (at least in part) her commentary on Alzheimer's. In this context the frustration makes perfect sense. I still have no idea how she will make this into a satisfying series but I look forward to the next book to find out.

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Excellent book just a touch too long

Revisado: 02-18-15

Karen Rose is one of my "must buy" authors and this story did not disappoint. I was concerned when I saw how long it was but I never grew bored or tired of listening. There were plenty of twists and turns to fill the time. Still I felt it could have been an even better book with a bit of trimming. By the time I was at hour 22 I was ready to head into the climax but knew I had 3 or 4 more hours to get to that point. I would also agree with another reviewer that some of the physical attraction seemed inappropriate for the circumstances at times. Hillary Huber did a good job but nothing outstanding. There were also more than the usual number of edits where the audio did not match well between the takes which is always a bit jarring.

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