Emily Closson

Great narrator, but the story fell short for me.

Revisado: 02-21-20

I have to be 100% honest here so I will say that this book had great potential to be SO good. I love anything supernatural-related and this is actually a very original plot compared to some of the other RH books/series out there. BUT... this book was maddening right from the very beginning! I couldn't get past that part of it. I mean it literally made my blood boil CONSTANTLY. So much so that I was almost anxious while listening to the book. I don't like it when people hate me, so listening to a book where the main character is so hated and treated so poorly just made me so uncomfortable. I'm also just not a huge fan of books where the main character is disliked that much. I prefer books where the main character is almost worshipped for being so special. And perhaps she ends up getting more special and less hated in later chapters, but I stopped right at the part where she enters the new school and gets shoved out into a little cabin off campus by her childhood idol and doesn't say a word to stand up for herself. That's another thing - she barely EVER stands up for herself! I couldn't take it anymore. So this was just a big no for me unfortunately. I'm disappointed because like I said, I love how original the plot is. But it is what it is, I guess!

The narrator did a great job based on what I heard before I stopped listening though! That's why I didn't all around give this only 1 star.

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Absolutely OBSESSED with this!

Revisado: 10-29-19

I very rarely love an Audible book THIS much. Seriously. I’ve exchanged and returned so many books at this point that Audible won’t even let me manually exchange my own books... I have to chat with them to do it! I’m THAT picky. But this one... wow. I’m almost speechless (almost!).

First... if bad language is something you don’t like, I wouldn’t recommend this book. Second, if chauvinistic men are your kryptonite (meaning you can’t stand them), then this definitely is NOT for you! Most of the male characters in this series are pretty degrading towards the female characters. In fact, the majority of the female characters are portrayed as helpless sacks made only to please the men.

BUT! I’m in loooooove with Beck and “Butterfly”. Absolutely in love with their story and their love. I could not get enough. This book made me sad, happy, and angry all at once. Not many books can get me this invested in the character but these did! If you’re into hot sex scenes, get it. I found myself getting pretty anxious listening to this one at work because the sex was soooo intense! Side note: At one point, Beck asks Riley during sex if she’s ever done anal (I wasn’t kidding when I said the sex is INTENSE!), and he kind of insinuates that he’s going to eventually do it with her. And my mind being the dirty place it is went right to the fact that there would eventually be a scene like that. But there never was... not in all THREE books (I read the third one because it’s not on Audible yet). So maybe the author could consider that for her next series. It was kind of like offering candy and then never giving me any! LOL.

Anyway... I just love love love this. And I love the style of writing by the author(s). I’m so obsessed that I just started listening to another one of Jaymin’s series. So hereeee we go! Hopefully it’s as good as these were!

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So disappointed. Love the story, hate the narrator.

Revisado: 08-09-19

I thought I liked the narrator at first! I really did. But after a few chapters, I slowly started to HATE her style of narration. She raises her voice higher in EVERY sentence at the beginning before lowering it slowly over the course of the sentence. So basically, every sentence she says begins with a high pitch and ends with a low pitch. Imagine hearing someone speak that way for EVERY sentence for HOURS on end! I just couldn’t take it anymore after a while. And that’s super disappointing! I really wanted to force myself to deal with it because the story is great. I love supernatural stories like this one! So kudos to the author, but I’m sorry you got stuck with a bad narrator. I usually hate leaving negative reviews, but maybe the narrator will take this information into consideration for her next book and maybe she’ll try to be less “uniform”. Also, one of the male voices she did was just painfully bad. I’m not sure what she was trying to accomplish but it was like she was trying to make his voice sound low and instead, she made it sound like someone doing an impression of a monster voice for a child’s bedtime story.

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So, so good! I was bummed when I realized there’s only 1 book available!

Revisado: 08-06-19

Absolutely love this book. I love everything about it. The narrator was great, the character development was great, the little “not yet love” story between January and Justin, etc etc etc. It is definitely a must listen if you like vampire-related books. Highly recommend it!

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I'm not even halfway through and obsessed already!

Revisado: 05-16-19

Okay so THIS series is the type of series I've been waiting for from Bella Forrest for a long time! The series called "The Girl Who Dared" was one of my first Audible listens ever and I think I finished every single one on Audible in less than a week! They were all at least 8 hours long too. That series was narrated by Kristen Leigh and she was just as good as Amanda Ronconi. I admit, when I saw that there was a narrator I didn't recognize doing this series, I ALMOST turned away from it. But no joke, I listened to about 2 seconds of the sample and decided to take the leap, and boy am I glad I did! First of all, Bella Forrest tells amazing stories. They're all different too! Her character development isn't always absolutely amazing per say, but I'd still say it's amazing (just not absolutely amazing haha). She does such a great job of leading up to the climax of the story and such a good job of keeping me interested from the first sentence on to the last. If you're even slightly into books about magic, magical creatures, etc... then this is for you. I sort of lean more towards either dystopian or paranormal fantasy about vampires (I'm a little obsessed with vampire-related books/novels), but this one could almost be up there with my love for the Harry Potter series which I just finished listening to for the 2nd time on Audible (I highly suggest it if you haven't listened yet!). Now as for the narrator of this series. Amanda Ronconi sounds a LOT like Kristen Leigh when it comes to her manner of speaking and the way she pronounces certain words. I like that she takes her time reading each sentence and it doesn't feel like she's rushing me through the book, but at the same time, I love love LOVE that she doesn't go too slow! That's one of my biggest pet peeves about some Audible narrators. I cannot stand it when they narrate slowly and I feel the need to either stop listening altogether or speed up the narration speed. And having to speed it up just makes it worse most of the time. So yeah... Amanda is a great narrator in my opinion! And hey... just so ya'll know, I'm not the best "reviewer". I'm far from an expert reviewer and I don't know anything about "prose" or all of those fancy words people love to use in Audible reviews. BUT I can tell you that if you love Bella Forrest, if you love this narrator, or if you just love a good fantasy story, this series is bingeworthy. And like I said... I'm not even halfway through and I'm already completely hooked on it. I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND IT!

Also, if you're a dystopian lover like I am, I highly suggest The Girl Who Dared series as well. It's so original. I've been searching for months for something even remotely similar to that series that I could binge on and really get into, and I've yet to find another series like it. It's just so good. There's nothing else out there like it (that I've found, so far)! BONUS - Audible has almost the entire series on here whereas they only have 3 out of 9 Harley Merlin books! So that's a plus!

P.S. I apologize in advance for any spelling errors. I wanted to get this typed and submitted before I leave work tonight. Thanks!

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My FIRST completely 5-star review! LOVE IT!

Revisado: 03-28-19

I read some of the reviews about this prior to actually buying it (aka prior to using a credit on it), and I have to say that I'm so glad I didn't listen to any of the negative reviews.

I know most of the people who commented about the narrator still gave the book itself 5 stars, but I haven't found anything wrong with the narrator. Sure... I don't have very much to compare his narration to because I have never listened to the UK audiobook version by the other narrator (I forgot his name already, sorry!) that some people have mentioned in their reviews, but I still think Jim Dale does an amazing job narrating this book regardless of how well the other narrator does in the UK!

First of all... Jim Dale seems to get really into the story itself, and I like that about a narrator. Second, he does a good job changing his voice when a character is speaking versus when he is just reading the subtext. Third, I did NOT find his portrayal of Hermione's voice to be annoying or anything like that.

Please don't listen to any of the bad reviews about this! I promise you won't be disappointed. If you're worried, listen to the sample first. That's what I did. And I ended up deciding to use my credit on it after listening to about 20 seconds of the sample! If you are an Audible member, then I'm sure you know what you are listening for when you are trying to decide if you will like a narrator or not, and that's how it is for me. It didn't take me long to decide that I wouldn't mind Jim Dale's narration.

I am what most would consider a "Potterhead" because I've read all of the books many times and I've seen all of the movies more times than I can count, and I still loved this audiobook. Sometimes, if I am trying to listen to an audiobook after I've already read the book and/or seen the movie, I don't end up liking the narration because it doesn't fit my "idea" of what the character's voices should sound like or because the narrator doesn't pronounce something the way I imagined it to be pronounced. But I didn't find anything wrong like that in this audiobook. Jim Dale simply does a GREAT job. He should be commended.

And please also note that I am writing this when I'm still at the scene where Harry and Ron JUST met Hermione on the train to Hogwarts. So I'm not even that far into the book and I still wanted to write a glowing review! JUST BUY IT. You won't regret it. I can't wait to listen to the rest of the series!! I finally found a narrator that I don't mind listening to!

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HOLY MOLY.

Revisado: 03-18-19

Sooo... I read a few of the reviews about the sex in this book, but I was STILL NOT PREPARED! HOLY MOLY. It was a bad, bad choice to start listening to this while at work but now I can't stop listening. The story line is awesome, the sex is awesome, the narrator is awesome, the character development is great, and I hope it never ends! I won't hesitate to read more books by this author if there are any. I was literally hooked from the first chapter on. Johnny Mack's portrayal of Angel's voice is HOT HOT HOT!

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Well... I started out absolutely loving it...

Revisado: 03-11-19

As time went on and as I got further into the story, I stopped liking it so much. But it's not because of the story, the story is great and original, and I absolutely love books like this that basically have an alternate way of life. It reminds me a lot of The Hunger Games and Divergent with completely different story lines but still the same premise. However... the narrator really got on my nerves after a while and eventually I couldn't take it anymore so I had to stop listening. It's unfortunate because I was really looking forward to having a new series to get hooked on, but the narrator just got to be too much. At first, I was thinking... "Wow, she's great! I love how enthusiastic she is!". But.... as time went on, I noticed that she was a little TOO enthusiastic about certain things, and she gets way too intense about other things that don't really warrant the intensity she's giving. I realize that style is meant to give the listener those same intense feelings that the words are supposed to portray, but by the time I got halfway through the book, I didn't like the style anymore. Additionally, Alex's voice was too similar to Lena's and I eventually started to find it difficult to tell the difference unless the book said ahead of time that it would be Alex talking (i.e. "Alex said _________..."). I can see why so many people liked her narration, it's definitely a good performance. You can tell she really put a lot of work into knowing the right moments to act out certain emotions, but yeah... it just wasn't for me. I will say that I am pretty picky when it comes to narrators. I've been an Audible member for a long time now, and I still only found 3 or 4 narrators who I absolutely love. So don't take my review at face value... listen for yourself!

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Umm... what the heck!?

Revisado: 03-06-19

T. Ryder Smith was an awesome narrator. He is, by far, my favorite narrator that I’ve heard since I started listening to audiobooks a few years ago. And that’s saying A LOT coming from me! I’m super picky about narrators. Most of them either get the character voices all wrong, have the wrong type of accent for how I’m picturing the character, are too monotoned, or they just stink altogether. So I was very happy with T. Ryder Smith’s performance. Well done!


Now for the book itself. I gave the story 3 stars. At first, I would have been totally willing to give the story all 5 stars. But over time, I found myself getting more and more frustrated by it. For one, I didn’t see a point in the portion of the book where Vin goes into other people’s “bodies” and is essentially in their minds. The fact that it was a completely separate story EVERY TIME he did a “shot” bothered me. If the author had connected the stories somehow at the end, then fine. But I honestly found myself tuning those parts of the book out completely until Vin woke up from his shots. I mean really, they were quite pointless. The cannibal, the war and balloon guy, William, Winston Churchill... etc. I mean... maybe I just wasn’t understanding what they had to do with the rest of the story, but I didn’t find them to be interesting at all. If the author had focused more on the different realities and that part of the story line, then this book could have been absolutely epic. I was so excited to find a book about different/alternate realities at first. So I was really REALLY disappointed when this ended with next to no answers about anything. There was no real climax and there was no real “OHHH!” moment where I finally put everything together and realized the point of the story. It just sort of... ended. I think the author confused himself, honestly. I really do. I think he focused way too much on the story lines of the people whose bodies Vin went into and not enough on the story line of Vin himself. And SPOILER ALERT: YOU NEVER FIND OUT WHO NERDEAN IS!! Never. Not even an inkling. Vin’s story never comes together and you never really find out how Kim and his daughter were shot in that one reality. I could go on and on about my frustrations, but overall, the story just fell completely flat. Very disappointing.

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Great story, some issues with the narrator...

Revisado: 02-22-19

I bought this because I'm a HUGE fan of the TV series. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this series is literally completely different than the TV series. I kind of like that! It's almost like a bonus series because it has most of the same characters that I love, but it's a completely different story line.

I will say that there are a few things I dislike about the narrator's performance. One of them being that she pronounces "Salvatore" with a long "E" at the end. She pronounces it like "sal-va-tor-y" versus "sal-va-tor". The latter is how they actually pronounce it in the show. I'm not sure which one the author meant to be the correct pronunciation, but I much prefer the way they pronounce it in the TV show. So that's one downside... but it wasn't enough to make me dislike her performance altogether. I do feel myself cringing every time she says Stefan's and Damon's last name for any reason though. Second, I HATE the way she does Stefan's voice! It bugs the heck out of me! I'm definitely not a fan of the awful Italian accent she attempts to do and I'm hoping the different narrators in the next few books do a better job because that one thing did almost make me stop listening and return the book.

With that being said... the story itself is great. I have somewhat of a vampire obsession. I love Twilight, True Blood, or any other vampire-related TV show, movie, or book. So this series is just another bonus to add to my collection of favorite vampire-related things. I love this "universe" because the character story lines and the way they all connect somehow are my favorite compared to all other series (such as Twilight). And each vampire-related book, series, etc. always has a different set of skills that vampires possess. For example, in Twilight, they all have a different type of skill (i.e. Edward reads minds, Alice sees the future, etc.). But I just love Damon and Stefan's skills. And the love triangle between them and Elena is an added BONUS!!

If I had to say whether or not I would recommend this audible listen, I'd say go for it. It's definitely worth the $7 it costs if you choose not to use a credit. But I wouldn't recommend wasting a credit on such a short listen (since it's only about 6 and a 1/2 hours long). Save your credits for something that's at least 10 hours long! But if you can get past the way Rebecca Mozo pronounces "Salvatore" as well as the way she does Stefan's terrible accent... then go for it. But you will probably be pretty disappointed if you're like me and you watched the show FIRST. It was hard for me to picture Stefan's face in the show and put it together with the awful accent Rebecca does. And one other small thing... I am sort of missing some of my favorite characters from the TV series that aren't in the books, but I know that's not something I can complain about considering these were written well before the TV show was. :)

Anyway... happy listening!!

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