Jeff Dougan

respectable follow-up

Revisado: 06-24-19 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Full disclosure: I received a promo code for this book from the narrator.

Black Arts, Tarts, and Gypsy Carts is a decent follow-up to the promise of the first book, though the story is perhaps slightly weaker than its predecessor. Imogen, Maple, and Iggy are still a delightful trio, and the latter gets some extra rounding out. The apparent romantic triangles that have appeared in the first two books seem to be (mostly) resolved, with at least one antagonist getting away and one puzzle remaining to be solved.

The issues that were present with the narrator's pacing and occasional hiccups with portions of chapters repeating are much improved, and the music that's incorporated into the narrative is catchy enough that I'm finding the tune running through my head about an hour later.

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Promising starts/debuts

Revisado: 06-22-19 El oyente recibió este título gratis

Full disclosure: I received a promo code for both this and Black Arts, Tarts, and Gypsy Carts (book 2 of the series) from the narrator as part of publicity for the book.

When the narrator extended her offer, my initial response to her read, "Cozy mystery crossed with urban fantasy should be up my alley." Overall, I was not wrong.

Strengths first: Imogen's introduction to Bijoux Mer and corresponding magic makes an excellent and realistic gateway for the audience. The assorted relationships are believable, and there's at least one well executed fake-out on the question of who and how the actual culprit is. It's a nice, light popcorn mystery that doesn't pretend to be anything else. The narrator does a nice job in making distinct voices for what is, as best I can tell, her debut voice work, and none of the voices are grating over long periods of time.

Weaknesses come in two categories. There are a couple of structural weaknesses in the story that are perhaps an issue of being very familiar with cozy mysteries and urban fantasy as separate fields, which let me predict a couple of plot developments well in advance of their happening. And in this particular book, there are places where the narrator's pace feels very rushed, with words nearly tumbling out of her mouth. (I did double-check my settings, and I was not playing the book at 1.25x.) This latter weakness is better in book 2 of the series, which I'm about halfway through as I write this review.

Will this be to your taste? It's definitely more in the vein of a cozy mystery than urban fantasy, with a similar feel to the coffee shop series by Cleo Coyle or the bakery series whose author escapes me at the moment than to any notable work of urban fantasy. If you've enjoyed those and don't mind the fantastic setting, it's worth checking out.

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disbelief comes crashing down

Revisado: 06-29-16

Full disclosure: I received a free copy from the narrator via the audiobook subreddit in exchange for a review.

I've read (or heard) other series in the "teen spy" young adult subgenre, principally the first 2/3 or so of the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz and all of Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls and Heist Society books. Between them, those series set a bar for quality that the story in Crisis fails to reach. At a couple different points in the listen, I remarked to people that I was reminded of the comment attributed to the late Roger Ebert that the best thing about being a movie critic was also the worst thing about being a movie critic: he saw ALL the movies, regardless of quality.

Let's start with the good: Mr. Ambler's performance is very well-done, including some audio effects both for adding "static" when certain characters are being heard over radios, and the inclusion of text message "sent" sounds when the teens are texting each other. Most of the voices are unique enough that it's easy to tell who's talking regardless of whether your attention has wandered out of focus briefly, which makes it easy to pick back up following what's happened in the story.

My issues are with the story. The success of the other teen spy books I mentioned hinge on the characters feeling like believable teens of the appropriate age, including their choice of diction. One of the first places that the story fell apart for me was the degree to which the POV character swears. Then there's the 17-year-old living alone in a house, even if just for the duration of the "mission." Then there's ignoring the fact that the CIA (which is the POV character's employer) has only very limited powers to operate domestically. Overall, the PoV character feels like a character a decade older whose age is just "rewound" to fit into the story.

The one place where Taz rings true is the awkwardness of teen romance.

I normally love heist/caper/spy stories, and went into this expecting to like it. My disappointments are entirely with the story and not the narration - I'd certainly listen to other things Mr. Ambler has narrated, but I'll be very hesitant to pick up something by Mr. Torres again.

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Adequate paranormal mystery; marginal narration

Revisado: 06-15-16

Disclosure: free copy received in exchange for review.

Story rating 3.5; not 4 (could not give 1/2-star rating)

Although not my first paranormal mystery, this was not as tightly plotted as I prefer, with some twists telegraphed early (although the biggest twist was nearly concealed until an appropriate time). It filled a four-hour drive adequately, although I may not actively seek out any subsequent installments.

As for the narrator, I found it difficult to distinguish several sets of character voices from each other. In addition, more than one female character was voiced artificially high and squeaky.

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