Karen R.

Humorous quest adventure

Revisado: 05-07-16

In many ways this is a "typical" quest story: a young man seeks his way in life, meeting allies along the way, until he comes to the object of his search and fulfills his quest. And some of the elements used in the story are well-known fairy tale tropes, such as the seventh son of a seventh son.

And yet this story didn't feel "typical." I found myself laughing at some of the situations Ayden got himself into, but I also felt sympathy toward him as he kept trying so hard to be the thing that he really isn't (and doesn't really want to be). The author was able to keep me wanting to read (listen) to the story and keep me interested in what happened to the character--but more importantly, I really cared about what happened to the characters.

As a coming of age story, Ayden finds himself caught between what his family wants for him and what he wants for himself (even though he doesn't know what that is yet). His quest doesn't end the way he expects, and his conflict is far from over (lots of room for the series to expand). I enjoyed meeting his companions along the way, and I look forward to reading even more adventures.

Note: I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.

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Light-hearted romance

Revisado: 05-07-16

If you're in the mood for a light story, this is definitely a book you should check out. It will make you smile and feel happy when you get to the end (and it won't take you very long to read). So taken as that light-hearted story, it scores high marks.

But I can't help feeling that I want a little more from this story. A little more depth, a little more of a slow build for the romance, a little more conflict (or perhaps not let the magic work quite so well as a means to fix everything). I really liked the characters, so I would have liked to spend more time with them.

As for the audiobook narrator, I really liked her voice in the Julie sections. However, I didn't care for her voice in the Horatio sections as much. I think it actually would have been really nice to have two narrators so a male voice could have been used for the Horatio sections.

Note: I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.

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A fun romp with a contemporary Darcy and Elizabeth

Revisado: 05-03-16

I admit that I didn't really look into what exactly this book was before I started to listen to it. I just saw "Mr. Darcy" and decided it must be a Pride and Prejudice spin-off and decided to give it a try. So I was a little surprised to find that this was a contemporary version rather than one from Jane Austen's day. But it was a pleasant surprise. I also didn't realize that this book was number 6 in the series. I figured I had missed at least one book before this one but hadn't realized how much!

So with those caveats in mind, I did enjoy this book for a light-hearted romp. And it was very light-hearted. Even though they find themselves in some rather dangerous situations, I never really felt that they were in any danger or that their mission (or rather, missions) wouldn't be fulfilled. In some ways that could be seen as a negative since there really wasn't very much suspense. But if you're in the mood for something lighter, then this definitely fits the bill. It does seem that the resolutions were a little too easy, though, so perhaps a bit more suspense would have been nice.

The audiobook narrator had a very pleasant voice that fit well with the mood of the book. In fact, the narrator's voice was so nice that it was easy to just slip right into the story and not be distracted by the storytelling itself (which happens sometimes with other audiobooks).

Note: I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.

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A rather flat mystery

Revisado: 05-01-16

I didn't overly care for this book. Perhaps it is a product of the time it was written, but I found it to be quite flat overall. The main character wasn't very well-rounded and seemed more like a plot device than an actual character. She took very little action herself and mostly just seemed to be someone who either overheard or was told different parts of the story. I really wanted to care for her plight and to care whether or not her fiance would be found innocent, but what I felt at the end of the story was just relief that it was over. (And yet, I did still find myself compelled to listen until the end, to find out what had really happened.)

The audiobook narrator was okay. At first I found her voice and inflection to also be rather flat, portraying little emotion even in the first scene when the character should have had some emotion. But the more I got into the book, I realized that the fault is with the book itself rather than the audiobook narrator. So she did a good job with what she had to work with.

Note: I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.

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A solid audiobook of a Darkover classic

Revisado: 04-27-16

It's been a while since I've read a Darkover book, but I've read about half of them. I had not read this one before, so it was nice to get a new-to-me Darkover story (even though this was one of the very first Darkover books written).

Although there is a quest element to this story, that part is achieved rather easily. But that's quite okay because that's not the real conflict of the story. The real conflict is an internal struggle in Jay/Jason over which personality is the "real" one and which should be dominant. As a psychological novel, it's still not very developed (even the internal struggle seems to resolve itself a bit too easily). But looking at the Darkover series and knowing that this is a first entry in that series, it serves as a starting point for a brief introduction to Darkover.

I will say that at first I was a bit taken aback by the female voice for a first person male narrator (I usually like to have the gender of the voice and character match, especially when the story is told in first person), but after a while, I just got into the story and didn't notice the voice as much. The only slight annoyance was the tendency to over enunciate some of the words so they seemed a bit grating to the ear, but it didn't happen too frequently to be a big issue.

Note: This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom dot com.

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A self-contained novella that hints at much more

Revisado: 08-16-15

Any additional comments?

I didn't know anything about the novella or the author going into this audiobook. Just now, in preparing to write this review, I looked up the author's information and discovered that this book (Ink: A Mermaid Romance) is part of the Falling in Deep Collection, which is apparently a collection of 15 mermaid tales by different authors, with one tale releasing each week from June 1. I'm not a huge mermaid fan so I probably won't go through the other stories, but if you are, this definitely looks like something you should check out.

As for this particular story, I really liked it. I found it a quick listen not just because it was short--I got through it quickly because I wanted to keep listening to the story to find out what happens next. Basically, Ink is a mermaid who is facing her year-long exile onto land (where she has to have a human body for a year), but before that can happen, she finds herself enmeshed in a political move by her uncle, who is the ruler of this part of the sea (the Atlantic). She is to marry the ruler of the Gulf mermaids. No love is lost between Ink and her uncle, and there's definitely a lot of history behind their stories. (That's something the author has done a really good job with--making the history seem rich and existent without being overly complicated. Great job with the back story.)

Eventually, Ink discovers this arranged marriage is all part of a larger plot by her uncle, but I don't want to give away too much about it. However, before she finds out she is to be married, she meets Hal, who is an alligator shifter imprisoned by her uncle. Ink sets Hal free and there seems to be a connection between them. Hal comes back into play later in the story and although his character is interesting, he and Ink immediately feel a connection and fall in love (although they don't completely realize that until a little later). This is the one part of the story that felt a little forced. Although I could see these two characters together, I'd prefer a slower build up of their relationship rather than the immediate connection angle.

But altogether, there's a lot that happens in this novella and although it's a self-contained story in itself, it's obviously setting the stage for a much larger story. I really hope the author is planning to write more.

I will warn you about the narrator. I found her male voices to be on the annoying side. Hal was slightly annoying, but the voice the narrator used for Manx was just painful.

Note: This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com.

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A solid story

Revisado: 08-13-15

What about Susannah Jones’s performance did you like?

Her voice was pleasant to listen to and was a backdrop the story, which is good as it makes the experience more about the story than about the narrator.

Any additional comments?

Note: This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com.

This book has a fairly large cast of characters, which makes it slightly difficult to listen to as an audiobook versus reading in print. Although I enjoy listening to audiobooks, I am very much a visual learner, so it took me a while before I was able to fully place each of the characters and remember from scene to scene who was who and how their stories were interconnected. (I probably should listed to the beginning again just to get the clarification once I got to know all the characters.) Therefore, I found that I really needed to concentrate on listening to the book to keep everything straight and follow along with the story, so you might want to keep that in mind depending on your own audiobook preferences (this obviously will matter less if you are reading the book in print--I don't think it's very confusing, so keeping the characters and details straight shouldn't be too much of a challenge).

The plot has a lot of politics involved, with different families plotting to gain power for their families or themselves as individuals. The church is also very much involved within the political scheme. A couple of characters do stand out from this plotting: Felix, whose actions are shaped by him wanting to save his family from downfall yet at the same time wanting to be with the woman he loves (and of whom his family does not approve); Amadeo, who serves the pope and seems to make choices that are much less self-serving than others--he truly seems to be the only really religious person in the mix; and Livia, the pope's daughter who finds a book that offers possibilities and danger.

The story is gritty. If you're looking for something happy and light, this is not the book for you. With the multiple points of view and the very real stakes the characters are playing for (not all of them make it out alive or unscathed), in many ways it resembles the Game of Thrones series. With lots of twists and turns, and especially toward the end as the many plot threads started to come together, it is a gripping story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. But if you find yourself fully invested in the story, you'd better have the next book (The Instruments of Control) available because all of the characters have been set up, ready for their action in the next book; very few story arcs are resolved (which is typical of this genre).

As for me, I enjoyed the book and am glad that I gave it a chance. And I will probably move forward with the series at some point, but for now I have a few other books that are calling to me that I'd like to read first. So since I am able to put this story and these characters aside for a while, as much as I liked the book, that means I'll give it 4/5 stars.

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