Kindle Customer

Not bad but the same 'ol thing

Revisado: 07-06-17

It's so similar to the Kate Daniels series I consistently forgot what I was listening to. Detective/PI female lead? check. Magic that's apart of the world and not something kept secret? check. Although this is a good thing. Female lead with magical capabilities she doesn't reveal the extent of? check. Domineering alpha male who is a total jackwagon but he's cute and rich enough to be alluring instead? check. Renee Raudman's typical character voices? check. Kate and Nevada sound exactly the same. Mad Rogan sounds like a mix of Doolittle and Curran...it goes back and forth. Teenage boy who sounds similar to Derek? yep. Teenage girls who sound more like 8 year olds then 15? yep. What teenagers does Raudman see in her daily life who sound like that?

Overall I did enjoy it. I just wish she changed the voices. I think it would work better for me if this story was in the same world as Kate Daniels.

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Nice Dragon Not so Nice Anymore

Revisado: 10-20-16

Have I said before how much I absolutely love this story, especially as an audiobook? I have. And I still do despite how ridiculously long this book is in comparison to the previous. The length isn't the problem, although I do like to listen to stories I can start and finish during work, but it was extra hours of words. By words I mean:

Marci is the queen of exposition. She exists just so things can be explained to us readers/listeners through her. And that made me want to skip over some of her very long scenes. There was just too much talking, too much unnecessary explaining. Julius is just as bad. "No. We can't keep killing each other. We have love and sing campfire songs and be one big happy family..." or something along those lines. We've listened to him preach in book one. We listened even more in book 2. Now, I'm tired of hearing it. I'm so tired of hearing it. It was very annoying.

Now the good parts:

Chelsea. Chelsea. Chelsea. I've adored her since she first stepped out of the shadows in book 1, I adore her even more now. And her secret? Oh her secret! Mannnnnn!!! That is a secret I can't WAIT to be revealed. And Bob and Amelia T_T. And Chelsea. I knew the ending was going to happen from the very beginning. What I wanted was for Julius to connect those dots. But he didn't. He's too nice to pry. And too blinded in a rage that was all things glorious and draconic and wonderful that brought tears to my eyes and damn you Chelsea from stepping in.

Again, Vikas does a great job, especially with the new characters. 5 stars for him
3 stars for the story. Too much exposition and Julius repeating the same thing. And to be perfectly honest, everything was predictable. The secret. The ending. Marci. What the new characters would do. All predictable.
4 stars overall, because the next book is gonna be awesome!!!!!
And Chelsea.

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Better as an Audiobook

Revisado: 08-25-16

This is one of those stories I tried to read months ago, but something about it just didn't call to me. In fact, I found Dillion's sudden defense of his Wise Women, who has been in his service for 7+ years now, so out of the blue it felt unrealistic. So I gave up trying to read this. And then I heard Kirsten Potter.

You have to understand that I generally dislike female authors. They're often so over the top they kill the story for me. But not Kirsten. She made the dialogue and banter, and other things that I would have rolled my eyes at if I read the story, so cute and believable, never too much emotion for scenes that didn't require it. I had no problem distinguishing the characters by voice, which is something I've never been able to say about any other female narrator. Kudos to you Potter. If she's narrating the second story, I'm definitely listening no matter how much I hate time-travel regency stories.

The story was okay. Just okay. It never went too far in any direction. The sex scenes, which are few and far between thankfully, weren't distasteful. I can't say much happened or that there was much character development. The antagonist is your everyday, average, whiny villain who's hardly there. The conflict between the couple was more about society's perception, not contrived issues that usually litter these type of stories. I actually liked Dillion and Alyssa together. They were good for one another. So, overall I enjoyed this story as an audiobook.

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Interesting

Revisado: 08-04-16

I didn't find this story nearly as weird as I expected after reading some reviews on various sites. I had absolutely no trouble imagining what the Oankali looked like. And because of this I can only rate the story as "okay". I enjoyed Lilith's story more when she was with the Oankali. Once other humans were added the story became super predictable.

It didn't make me think deep philosophical thoughts about race, war, and gender identity as it did some people. The most thought I gave to this story was comparing the physical and mental capabilities the Oankali bring out in Lilith to some articles I've read before.

As for Aldrich Barrett, she did a good job. Her ability the make the genderless sound sex neutral was convincing enough. They still sounded like females, but neutral.

I'm not sure I'll read the rest of this series. This book didn't do a good job in convincing me to care enough about the other humans besides Lilith. I do like the Onakali and I may listen to the next one just for them and to see the development and growth of the halflings.

By the way, "head tentacles" cracked me up each time.

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Belladone

Revisado: 07-13-16

It was okay. I was so excited for this book while reading Sebastian, but this felt so long, not in a good way. I can honestly say my low ratings for this story is in part to the switch of narrator. It wasn't that Hoffman did a bad job, but her voice wasn't right for this series. Most of that has to do with Graham narrating the first book of the series.

Besides the change of narrator, Michael just didn't 'resonate' with me at all. I tried to find some sort of connection with him but I just couldn't. He lacked something that Sebastian, and even Lee, had. This entire story could have happened without him. When a character who is supposed to be an essential player can easily be plucked out, his role easily filled by other characters already there, it is not a strong character.

However, I never thought Bishop could make me feel sorry for The Eater, but I kinda did.

I give it a 3 at best.

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More than an Ephemera

Revisado: 07-12-16

I usually listen to audiobooks at work. There are very few that I want to continue listening to until I finish once I clock out. I knew very early that Ephemera would be one of the books that kept me up all night.

I really enjoyed this story. I absolutely love the world/world building, and Sebastian's analogy of it to puzzle pieces. Sebastian was an interesting character with internal and external struggles, but even at his bleakest moments he remained true to his heart. Which is a big part of the story. The girl, whose name I can't spell (bad part about listening to a story), started very meek and I would have liked for her to remain that way a bit longer while Sebastian got to know her better, I like that she grew strength and courage while still maintaining that innocence she started with. The best part of this story had to be Belladonna. How Bishop builds her story and slowly reviews her character was what kept me listening to this story. I wanted more Belladonna scenes. Looking forward to her story.

Overall, Ephemera is a story I will also buy in paperback to read over and over.

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I Can't Lie

Revisado: 06-20-16

I can't lie and say I liked this. I didn't. It had the most contrived issue ever. Nothing that a bit of honesty wouldn't have solved. Who walks into a marriage to a stranger and not confess things that concern him. There was too much focus on the sex and not enough focus on the character development, or world building.

Michelle Howard started off well. I was interested in the epidemic that depleted the Earth population, specifically the male population, and how that effected male-female relationships. I loved the idea of an intergalactic match making company. That is awesome, so much fodder there with that idea. I even like Torkel's dilemma of not being chosen because of his ancestors and how the sins of our fathers can affect us even on a different planet. But that's it. There was nothing else to this story. It became so boring and such a sex-a-ton that I skipped parts just to see if it got better later. It didn't.

Yet another story that confuses sex with courtship and development.
I may give the next story a try just to see if it improves, but I doubt it. Will just be more sex and not experiencing this new world and culture or having a real plot.

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Trapped in Confusion

Revisado: 06-20-16

This story was definitely an improvement over the last few stories. While I did enjoy it, I found much more wrong with it. (Spoilers...kinda).

To start, I was quite disappointed that we didn't get to see any of Granuaile's training. None. And that was the biggest problem with this story. Everything else I found lacking in this novel wouldn't be an issue if we were able to see Granuaile's training. 12 years later and training complete, I find it very unbelievable that she would react the way she did in certain situations, or she would ask questions that should have been asked and answered a decade again. And, seriously? You want me to believe that she and Atticus were able to go 12 years of physical contact/marital arts training without caving to the crazy sexual chemistry?

Another issue I have is Atticus suddenly displaying their traits or quirks that only last for the duration its usefulness and never to show up again. Back in Book 3 while he was in the Norse plane he had Spock and Kirk debates in his head. Very Angel-Devil on the shoulder style. That never showed up. This time he mentally holds conversations with the figment Archdruid mentor in his head. Now, these traits wouldn't be a problem if comments similar to "I do this when I'm bored or stressed" weren't tagged along with those traits. But they never show up again. It's nitpicky, I know, but it really bothered me.

Anyway, I did enjoy this story. I loved Granuaile saving Atticus, although I would still love to see her training. I enjoy the direction Atticus's relationship with Leif is. He should just give in. Stop fighting it. Embrace the vampire. And I look forward to this next few stories. As long as Oberon is around, I'll still be here.

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The What King?

Revisado: 06-20-16

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

To make this book a 4-5 star listening experience the author must throw out 85% of this story and rewrite it with NO sex scenes. There was no story to this novel at all.

This is the second intergalactic-ish story I've read this month. Much to my surprise. I thought this would be just your average run of the mill fantasy novel with Dragons. Instead, we get something of an intergalactic CIA story where I main character finds her mission aborted/terminated at the very beginning of the story and ends up stranded on the planet for 3 months. She's then kidnapped by the King who dies and ends up with the King's son. We then spend the next 80% of this book listening to them have sex. They don't know each other, they never get to know each other. There may have been one conversation where they tried to learn about one another, I don't remember, because all I remember is one person always becoming distracted and then off with the sex-a-ton again.

Nothing was as it seemed with this story. We start off under the impression that Ulyssa is this badass, independent, and strong agent, but she quickly succumbs to whimpering and near crying the first time she encounters a shifter. All will to fight and defend herself goes out the window. She basically spends the rest of the novel a slave to her own sexual desires. Now Kirill wasn't so bad. He certainty wasn't a savage, so I don't know why the title is Savage King. He also isn't a Dragon Lord. He isn't a Dragon at all. We meet 4 dragon lords later in the story. They were there for about the last 20% of the story, never as dragons and all mated already, so I don't see a story for them coming in the near future. And to make matters worse, Kirill didn't even pick her to begin with. The attraction was there, but he originally chose another women.

Here's the thing, if Pillow would have focused on Ulyssa's mission from start to finish instead of the last 20% of the story, as well as introduce us to how the Human Intelligence Agency was founded, the different nuances of these intergalactic alliances, etc...that would have been better. There's so much to work with when it comes to intergalactic travel. You can probably much do anything within reason and no one can say it's wrong. You can build new worlds, cultures and customs. Ulyssa and Kirill could have worked together and let that sexual chemistry build as they teased and taunted and fought. And, if Pillow introduced that old Lord and his son as antagonist, they should have been Antagonist. They showed up 1 time, simply for the Ulyssa and Kirill could have something to fight about.

I really hated this story. I sat at work all day very annoyed. The only time I was interested in this story was when it looked like Ulyssa was finally going to focus on her mission, but when it turned back into a soap opera, I gave up and stewed in annoyance for the remainder of the story

Michael Ferriuolo didn't do too bad. But I'm pretty sure Kirill's accent changed quite a few times.

1 star.

Would you ever listen to anything by Michelle M. Pillow again?

I want to say no, but I'm a bit of a masochist when it comes to books. I want to read a good intergalactic story.

How could the performance have been better?

Maybe Ferriuolo shouldn't have choose that very distinct accent for Kirill. He and his brothers all sounded different. No two were similar, which is strange considering they grew up in the same castle.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Savage King: A Dragon Lords Story?

All of it. Just cut all of it.

Any additional comments?

If you like stereotypical sex scenes that won't even give you a blip, read this. If you like books that confuse sex with courtship and romance, read this. If you like stories with no plots, read this. If you like a story with your story, don't read this.

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Waiting for the Hammer...still waiting

Revisado: 05-27-16

So far this is the slowest and most boring book in the series. Regular characters are set to the side for some newer ones, who should have been interesting but I found rather boring. Atticus acquires new "friends" and reunites with old "friends".

I can't even pretend like I wasn't bored with this book. The problem is, I still feel like I don't KNOW Atticus. He's the main character and yet I have a better grasp of Oberon than Atticus. Oberon isn't in this much, but his Bacon tangent has to be the best rant ever.

Overall, a very boring story.

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