Michelle

Mind numbingly long

Revisado: 08-20-23

I absolutely love the television show and was very disappointed that they cheated us, once again, on the season length (I know they claim season seven is 16 episodes long, but what does that matter if they split it in half and we only get eight this year and have to wait another year for the second half? Just call it what it is: two separate seasons.) so I decided to purchase the books from the point "season seven" left off. I did some careful research so I didn't see any spoilers and decided book six was where I should start. FIFTY-EIGHT HOURS later and no, there was nothing new. Only the differences typically seen between books and movies/television shows.
This book is MIND NUMBINGLY LONG. Unnecessarily long. Soooo many parts that could have been shortened or simply left out. Was Diana attempting to get into the Guinness Book Of Records for the longest novel? Oh. My. Gosh. I really believe the story would have been 100 times better if she had been more to the point. I can't tell you how many times I fell asleep while listening. I will still forge on through the next book for the sake of the story, but I'm really, really hoping it's not as dragging as this one was.
Also, I've seen many complaints about breaking the story up into shorter sections, but mine was one loooonnnnggg recording that was too large to even download to my iPhone. That meant I could only listen on my computer and had to listen when no one else was home or they had gone to bed. It probably wouldn't have taken me a whole week to listen to if I had been able to download it to my phone.

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Not a cozy mystery

Revisado: 09-21-22

I made the mistake of "judging a book by its cover" and assumed this was a cozy mystery. While it's not as dark as many murder mysteries, it's definitely not a cozy mystery. I found the story itself to be interesting and the book is well written, but it's a little too crude for my taste. Perhaps if I had not expected a light-hearted, clean book it would not have left such a bad taste. If crude doesn't bother you, I recommend it.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Hard to listen to at first BUT it gets better.

Revisado: 09-20-22

This STORY is fantastic! I have been looking for a good mystery like this--one that is serious but not so dark that I feel an oppression in the room with me--for a long time. There are three women's stories being told, two of them intertwining with the main story. The writer knit them together seamlessly. This is the first book in a *very* long time that I have actually stayed up all night to listen to. I listened to the whole thing in one sitting (except for the little bit when I tried to return it, see below). If you have a hard time getting over bad narration, I suggest you read the book, because you don't want to miss it!

The narration... (sigh) It's almost unbearable at first. After reading a few reviews that were mostly about the narration I was a little concerned. I listened to the sample and thought that if it were sped up a little, it would be much better, and changing the playback speed to 1.1 helps a LOT. I'd rather the narration be a little overdone than be robotic and boring. This starts off far more than "a little overdone". One (female) character's voice sounds like an extremely angry man, and one sounds like a 15-year-old girl from the movie "Valley Girl", but the main character sounds nice and "normal". (The main character is British and so is the narrator. I admit I was a little "burnt" by her rendition of American women.) Most of the men's characters sound like a woman imitating her husband when she's mad at him. Add to that the fact that the narration is INCREDIBLY MELODRAMATIC and it's nearly impossible to tolerate. I actually attempted to return the book halfway through chapter two because I could not stand it, but I bought the book on sale and I guess there are no returns on sale items. I thought I would at least leave a review that I couldn't stand to listen to it, but was told I hadn't listened to enough of it, so I sucked it up and continued listening. Very shortly after that, the story had drawn me in enough that I was able to overlook the narration and carry on.
THANKFULLY, the narration gets better and better as the story progresses and I was able to actually enjoy it. So, despite the awfulness of it in the beginning, the story is worth the pain and I recommend this book.

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esto le resultó útil a 8 personas

Blah

Revisado: 08-29-22

This is an over-told story, and in my opinion, this particular one is completely pointless. It left me feeling... blah. Maybe if it hadn't been a short story and I was given enough time and info to actually care about the main character it would have been better. It would have had to have been superb, however, because as I mentioned, it's a very over-told story. A better ending would have helped. It was a waste of my time.

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PHENOMINAL narrating!!

Revisado: 01-08-22

I really loved the story. There were some aspects that were predictable, and some that weren't so predictable. Overall, the details of the story were definitely worth the listen, in my opinion. The narration was the absolute best I've heard so far (I've listened to 65 audiobooks so far.) and I will be looking for more books narrated by Daphne Kouma! I recommend the book and the narrator.

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Way too much, completely unnecessary profanity.

Revisado: 07-24-21

Seemed like a good story but by chapter five the profanity was just too much. I find it completely unnecessary 99% of the time and honestly, it just seems to be a crappy filler to meet a word number requirement. I guess I'll just have to read a spoiler to find out what happened.

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Narration a tiny bit better on this one.

Revisado: 07-08-21

Another cute, light-hearted murder mystery with only so-so narration.
The narration for Melanie has definitely improved, but Eliza still sounds like she's nearing 100 years old.
The story is good and I didn't figure out who the killer was right away, and that's always a plus. I like the way the characters are evolving, and the back-stories are getting more interesting.
I recommend the book if you're looking for a "cozy" murder mystery.

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Thumbs down on the narration

Revisado: 07-08-21

The story was good, but I struggled to get past the narration. First of all, it seemed as though everything Melanie said was super urgent or really stressful. Even if it were something as benign as "I made coffee".
Second, Eliza is supposed to be a vivacious, "I can't believe you're 70-something!" grandma, but the voice is done to make her sound like a 95-year-old woman. It was just really irritating because it didn't fit the character, at all.
If you can get past that, the story is cute and interesting.
I'm sure I would have enjoyed this book much more if I had read it myself, but I still recommend it for a cute, light-hearted mystery.

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One of the best!

Revisado: 03-29-20

I've loved all the books in the series that I've heard so far, but this is definitely one of my favorites. Love is a prominent theme throughout all the books, but this one was especially touching. I love it!

The only complaint I have is that Joss is described as a very large, strong man, but the narrator uses a whiny, almost childlike voice when speaking as him. Other than that, it's perfect!

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No show, all tell.

Revisado: 07-01-18

When I purchased the book I didn't notice it would take 20+ hours to listen to it. It shouldn't have. When it took a whole hour to hear the magazine article about the "happy couple" I about pulled my hair out. It was information that we, the listeners/readers were already privy to, and ridiculous to waste so much time on. That's pretty much how half, or more, of the book was. The sad thing is, there was great opportunity to go into further detail (to "show" more) and make the 20+ hours worth the time, but instead, repetition replaced depth.

Even so--mainly because I'm a sucker for a story and tend to suffer to the end of even the worst of them--it was interesting enough to keep me listening. As others have mentioned, it was really difficult to like Claire. Having been in an extremely abusive relationship, I understood her submission to "the rules", but I could not understand her "falling in love" with Tony. I guess that's the Stockholm Syndrome thing.

I think the worst thing about the audio book, though, was the narrating. Oh boy! Her voice was so annoying. Claire's voice was read as almost child-like, breathy and often sing-song, while Tony's "voice" was downright annoying! It always sounded the same, no matter the circumstance. Whether he was mad, cruel, tender, playful... it was all the same. It also reminded me of how a woman might mock a man when she's angry at him. To make matters worse, there were times when she read lines that were obviously Claire's in Tony's voice, and lines that were obviously Tony's in Claire's voice. Ugh!

The story is decent enough, and I'm curious to know how it all ends, but I don't want to spend another 100 hours listening to something that could be told in a tenth of that time. I'm just going to cut my losses, save myself the money, and hopefully find a summary of the book series online.

My advice: unless you like hearing unimportant details told over and over again, I would pass on this one.

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