Anya C.

Absolutely love this series

Revisado: 09-08-23

First and foremost: the narrators do a great job on this. My one and only “complaint” is that when the male narrator does Quinn’s voice, it tends to be a little quieter than I can easily hear. Otherwise, excellent jobs by both narrators.

I read this story first on my Kindle, loved it so much I ran through the entire series, came back and bought the audiobooks, and immediately started listening to them. These stories feel familiar and good in a way I haven’t found in many books. And, I loved the first two books so much that I assumed the second two wouldn’t compare, but I was shocked when I not only loved them, but that they added to my overall love of the first two books because of the trail of breadcrumbs I didn’t realize had been dropped the first time around.

All I do is read romance novels, and I’ve got the patterns of every trope memorized, including time travel. This one is so, so good. Everything I hate in a typical romance novel is handled SO well here. No character is ever pathetic in a way that doesn’t immediately make sense, which makes it tolerable when they make choices I disagree with.

This is a cliffhanger, but I recommend simply treating books 1 & 2 as one story and then books 3 & 4 as a separate (but extremely related) story.

Worth the credits!!

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Love this series

Revisado: 04-25-21

I absolutely loved both “Sweet Talk” and “Call Me Maybe.” Great narration, they both had the sweetest storylines (and I adored the interweaving of both plots, what a fun bonus), and this new conversational format is simply fabulous for audiobooks. It’s made me realize how powerful two people having a conversation can be, which—compared to the way many traditional books spend hours describing every rock and tree in a forest scene—is refreshing. I thought I’d be disappointed by the relative shortness of the audiobooks (I often prefer longer books because I love to stay inside a world as long as possible), but with the majority of the book being a natural, back & forth dialogue between the main characters, it felt like an evening hearing two friends tell me a fabulous story. LOVED this.

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Can’t believe how much I loved this story

Revisado: 10-28-20

About to go search for anything else Cara Bastone has written. LOVED this audiobook.

Pros:
-The characters are not idiots.
-The perfect amount of romantic tension without being ridiculous.
-It’s believable. Every single part is 100% believable from start to finish. This is SO RARE in a romance novel.
-Both narrators had the *perfect* voice for their characters. Kal’s voice...mmm...I wanted to date him myself (VERY happily married over here, so that’s impressive). Vera’s voice...I wanted her to be my bestie.
-The story ended and I wanted to cry because I want to listen to 20 more hours of these characters.
-Every author has to leave clues in a story for it to make sense, but normally these clues are glaringly obvious, especially to someone who listens to audiobooks as often as I do. I genuinely can say that I didn’t connect several of the dots for a sizable chunk of the book (and at the end I was actually surprised by a few details I hadn’t put together). It was really well done and I *loved* not instantly knowing how the entire plot would roll out from the first minute.

Cons:
-There is an audio glitch early in the book where the audio jumped to a different section and then repeated itself. At first I thought I had hit a button but it was definitely the recording itself. Unfortunately, it’s hard to pinpoint if you didn’t look at a time stamp (I was working at the time) so I’m sorry this info isn’t more helpful.
-I want more! But honestly, that’s a pro. :-)

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Changed how I viewed the entire Twilight series

Revisado: 08-08-20

First, the positives. The narrator did a really nice job, and listening at 1.1x speed helped move the story along. There were a handful of enjoyable parts, particularly at the beginning when the romance first begins, and close to the end (the Alice mental scene in particular I *loved*).

Note: I will continue to eagerly look forward to new Stephenie Meyer books regardless of my thoughts about this story. In fact, a sequel to "The Host" would be amazing.

Now, the not-so-positives.

When I first read Twilight, it was clear that Edward had some character flaws, but I always thought he “got” Bella. I believed they were soulmates, well-matched and compatible, and Edward was only conflicted by the unfortunate fact that his life/very existence is super dangerous for the girl he truly loves. I was very much "Team Edward".

In this book, though....woof.

I learned that Edward does NOT “get” Bella. In fact, he literally does not understand her at all, nor does he mesh with her. He’s fascinated by her and she’s entranced by him, but this relationship is 100% chemistry and 0% compatibility.

Bella is defensive and never quite herself around Edward. Edward is awkward/uncomfortable/false around Bella. Every conversation is a dance around saying what they truly think or feel. That was sad for me, as I was historically Team Edward. Now, I am...not. Even soulmates need to communicate.

The other thing that made this book tough for me was that it was a SLOG. It took NINETEEN HOURS of listening to get to the baseball scene. What happened during those 19 hours? Angst, 1% happiness, 99% obsessively self-loathing angsty thinking.

What I gathered from this retelling is, Edward hates himself. He lowkey hates Bella for *not* hating him. He hates Rosalie. He hates the kids at school. The book is 85% a list of what Edward hates, which is a shame, since the other 15% was great (learning about his history a bit more, watching Alice do her plot-the-future thing through his eyes, etc). I might have loved this book had it been edited differently, even with the now-obvious incompatibility between Bella and Edward.

However, I’m genuinely glad to see so many people enjoying this book. I remember being heartbroken when its initial release was spoiled. Even if I didn’t love this book, it’s nice to know I’ve got all the sides of the story now. I hope the author is doing well and living her best life, and I’m looking forward to seeing what she creates in the future. Maybe I’ll revisit Twilight to see how these new insights change the story for me.

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Loved the story, could NOT hear the whispered/lowered voice parts

Revisado: 07-21-20

Haven’t read any of the other reviews so not sure if this has been mentioned already: I listened to all 3 of the books in this series on audiobook, and this is the only one where I literally could not hear the narrator do any whispering/lowered voices (she is otherwise fantastic). I would have to rewind, turn the volume up, listen super hard, and hope I got what she was saying. I also listened to the other 2 books on Hoopla, so not sure if this is an Audible-only issue.

With that said, I loved this series. I don’t want to give spoilers or discourage anyone from reading this series, so I’ll just say this: I really liked how, throughout the entire series, there was always a small twist on the normal “everything is terrible!” or “happily ever after” themes most books use. It was very balanced, and surprisingly relatable. Also, there are zero sex scenes, in case anyone cares about that, but there are a few nice smooches and a wide variety of often unexpected sexual tension, which was a fun change of pace.

I also liked that the books had some meat on their bones. They weren’t unnecessarily long, in my opinion, but I also like longer books so take that with a grain of salt; they moved fast for the length they were.

This series is sort of “action-adventure” meets “girl power!” (literally) meets “Genies!!!” meets “magical powers” meets “pirates!” meets “water monsters” while also being completely set in an “everyday life” kind of setting. As a reader, you don’t bat an eye at any of these situations as they occur.

Really looking forward to reading more of this author’s work.

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Wish I had enjoyed this more

Revisado: 04-08-15

I liked the story well enough. However, I found it to be too drawn out for the amount of plot there actually was, and the "teenager-isms" were grating on my nerves the majority of the time. In all honesty, while I feel the author did a good job of portraying a teenage boy, she portrayed a whiny, defensive, annoying teenage boy and that's not something I care to read or listen to.

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Loved everything except Marg

Revisado: 03-13-15

I was thrilled to realize The Persimmon Tree had a sequel, and settled in to listen. To keep my review brief (and avoid spoilers), I loved every part of the story that involved Anna and disliked nearly every part of the story that involved Marg. Even allowing for that personal opinion, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend it.

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There is a sequel, thank goodness!

Revisado: 03-04-15

Overall thoughts: a great story, great narration, and I'm looking forward to starting on the sequel. I highly recommend this audiobook.

When I reached the end of this audiobook, I was initially aggravated by the seemingly abrupt ending, until I realized there was a sequel (Fishing For Stars). That realization also cleared up my one spot of annoyance at the story, which was the constant reference of the narrator stating, "I was to learn that..____".

At first it seemed like a way to throw in details without explanations, and now I get that it literally meant "I was to learn more about this at a later time, which you will learn in a later book." Phew! Crisis averted.

Narrator Humphrey Bower is amazing as usual. I was *delighted* to finally hear a crack in his normally impeccable accents -- while he has a good "general American" accent, he is lousy at individual city accents. His Chicago and Boston accents were jarring at first, though they do somewhat improve. Other than that, his narration is wonderful.

The story is excellent, as I always expect from the late, great Bryce Courtenay. There's the usual shocking treatment of women in this story, so be prepared. While it's certainly not gratuitous, and is nowhere near as bad as how the character Tandia is treated in "Tandia", it's still jarring at times.

Looking forward to continuing the story!

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Wonderful, wish there had been more written.

Revisado: 12-30-14

This book left me torn. It was excellently written, which I expect from anything touched by the magnificent, sadly late Bryce Courtenay, and superbly narrated by Humphrey Bower, who is a narrating genius.

Let me start out by saying that overall, I highly recommend the book. I believe Tandia and The Power of One should be read by every human being in the entire world, as a complete book set and in their proper order.

The first reason Tandia left me torn is because unlike The Power of One, which stretched a long story into a readable yet complete story, major sections of Tandia were fine until they were concluded -- the plot and sub-plots consisted of perfect build-ups, then wrapped up with surprising brevity, including during the big ending.

The second reason Tandia left me torn was the ending itself. No spoilers -- the ending just left me hoping for a third book, which obviously can't happen. The story line felt like there was more to tell, in a way that The Power of One didn't.

Overall, this book is excellent. Superb, even. Any downsides stem from the fact that The Power of One is, in my opinion, one of the most perfectly written stories of all time. Following perfection with *near* perfection left me wanting more.

Courtenay was one of the best authors I've been fortunate enough to find. Worth every penny/credit.

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Same story, different characters, new ending

Revisado: 12-30-14

This book would get a solid 4.5 from me in the overall category if half stars were an option. Performance was excellent.

**NOTE** This is NOT a continuation of the original Beauty with her Beast, it's another retelling of the same story, from scratch. Think: a parallel universe where things are similar, yet also vastly different. Despite having the same name, Beauty is definitely a new main character.

What I liked:
-The alternate ending. Very cool. No spoilers here, I'm just glad I listened til the end.
-The sisters are also completely different characters, and I enjoyed their sassy personalities. Again, no spoilers, just know that these girls aren't Hope and Grace rinsed and recycled.
-Really funny little blooper they didn't catch toward the mid-end/end of the book -- "How are we doing on time?" Those always crack me up.

What I didn't like:
-While the original Beauty and "Rose Daughter" Beauty are cut from a similar cloth, I preferred the original Beauty from "Beauty" over this version. If I didn't know how much I loved the original, however, I believe I'd appreciate this Beauty a lot more.
-Another commenter pointed this out, and I agree: in audiobooks, the amount I skim past overly detailed descriptions of location when I'm enthralled with a book becomes very obvious. Robin McKinley is almost as descriptive as Diana Gabaldon, and unlike the Outlander books, which give enough meat due to their length to make up for all the dressing, this book felt slightly too short on character development for all the flowery descriptions.

Overall opinion:
Worth a listen! I'm happy with my purchase, and looking into more Robin McKinley books.

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