Kelly R

Engaging story

Revisado: 10-26-22

While I enjoy mysteries, my main genre of late has been urban fantasy, but my mother really likes this series. Add the Minnesota setting (lifelong Minnesotan here), and strong Native American elements (a background I typically enjoy in my reading) and I had several reasons to give this a try.

I actually liked this a lot more than I expected, enough to pick up the next few books in the series before I even finished this one. It started a little slow for me as it took me a while to warm up to,Cork—I prefer stories where I like the main characters, because I want to be cheering them on—but I did get there eventually. The story was layered and, once beyond the first couple of chapters, the pace and action picked up and had me resenting interruptions and eager to get back to it. There are plenty of interesting, well-rounded characters, and the background of both the familiar Minnesota locations and the Native culture added a lot of richness to the story. I would have liked a little more conclusion, or maybe an epilogue to follow up with the characters, but I expect I’ll find what I’m looking for in the coming books.

I thought the narrator did a great job throughout. I don’t want to be paying attention to the narration instead of the story; if I don’t have to think about the narration and I don’t have trouble telling characters apart, that’s exactly what I’m looking for, and this narrator succeeded admirably. I did see a review criticizing the narrator’s accent—well, more the lack of a Minnesota accent, I think—but as a Minnesotan myself, it wasn’t something I noticed.

All in all, an entertaining story that gave me both Longmire and Tony Hillerman vibes, and I’ll definitely be continuing on with the series.

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Great characters, suspenseful story set in the intricate world of the Others

Revisado: 03-10-22

Book 3 in the the World of the Others series, I’d recommend reading at least Lake Silence (book 1 of the series) first as that is where many of the main characters here are introduced. Also reading Wild Country (book 2) as well as the original Others series books would help fill in on world building and additional characters.

I love the mix of suspense and sometimes dark humor that plays off the unique world and characters of the Others the author has created. The narrator does a good job creating different voices, and a great job telling the story, to the extent that l often forgot there even was a narrator—which is exactly what I’m looking for. Both the story and the narration ensured I stayed deeply engaged throughout, and I can guarantee this is a story I’ll be listening to again. In fact, I suspect I’ll be going back to start a re-listen of all the books in both series in the near future.

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Engaging story

Revisado: 05-09-21

I greatly enjoyed both The Martian and Artemis, so I was looking forward to this new story by the same author, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The story is told in scenes moving between the present, where the protagonist is working to fulfill his mission, and the past, as he slowly recalls just what that mission is and how it came to be. I’m not normally a fan of flashback style storytelling, as I find it often throws me out of the story, but that was never a problem here. The story was so engaging in both the past and the present, I just didn’t mind where in the timeline I was, I just knew it was going to be interesting and go in some places I didn’t expect.

I wasn’t sure about the narrator at first, but he quickly won me over, as I rarely even noticed the narration as I got involved in the story—exactly what I want from a narrator. For the most part, there weren’t many characters on stage at the same time, but when there were, differing nationalities and their corresponding accents made it easy to tell the characters apart.

Interesting premise, a protagonist that was easy to identify with, and a suspenseful plot with plenty of twists all made for a highly engaging story. It reminded me a lot of The Martian, so my guess is if you enjoyed that book you’ll enjoy this.

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Decent story with series potential; unsatisfying ending.

Revisado: 11-24-20

A new to me author, I didn’t know quite what to expect going in, but thought the blurb sounded interesting when the book showed up in my recommendations. The narrator did a good job; I rarely even remembered to notice the narration (no trouble telling characters apart, no distracting accents, etc.), which is exactly what I want from the narration.

Characters, world building, and plot were all interesting; I thought the author did a good job introducing the world building gradually by dropping in info as the story required it, rather than doing a large data dump. That does mean you learn a limited amount about the world, but it keeps the story moving by focusing more on the action. And there’s plenty of action to keep you engaged.

One downside for me was a main character I didn’t connect with as much as I’d like. She has a lot of potential, though, and I really liked some of the secondary characters. For perspective, I came into this off of an Ilona Andrews binge re-read—some of my favorite series—and almost anything is going to suffer in comparison after that. Or it may just be me needing time to warm up to the new series.

The larger issue was the book ended with far too many unanswered questions. I expect some things carrying over into the next book for the series storyline, but there was just too much here, which made for an unsatisfying ending for me. Luckily, there are several books in the series already out, plus they’re included in my Audible plan, so I plan to continue on at least through the next book.

I’d give the story 3.5 to 4 stars, 5 stars for the narration, with 4 stars overall.

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Thoroughly enjoyable

Revisado: 07-17-20

A latecomer to this series, I’ve slowly been catching up. Between the main Masters and Mercenaries books plus all the related series, there are a LOT of books—and a lot of characters available to play supporting roles. I admit I have trouble remembering everyone’s backstory, but the good news is you can easily enjoy this as standalone if you’re a newcomer, while existing fans (with good memories, lol) will enjoy the chance to catch up with familiar characters.

Second chance stories aren’t usually my favorite trope, but as one of my auto 1-click authors, I trusted this author could pull it off, and she came through in a big way. I particularly liked the way these characters grew throughout story, as they each needed to come to terms with everything that happened in the past, as well as what was needed for them to move forward.

I did enjoy all the secondary characters (even if I sometimes had trouble placing them), especially Ian Taggert himself, who is always a favorite ah who had a relatively large role here. The story moved along at good pace, and while I suspected the general shape of the final confrontation, I still found some of the details surprising.

The narrator did a great job; he’s done other books in the series and I consistently find him easy to listen to, to the point I can get lost in the story and never actually have to think about the narration at all. So exactly what I what from a narrator, lol.

All in all another thoroughly enjoyable story with the great characters and mixture of heat, humor and suspense I’ve come to expect from this series. 5+ stars

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Fun and funny

Revisado: 05-14-20

A fun take on shifters that had me laughing out loud more than once, and I thought both narrators did a nice job.

One of the things I like about shifter stories is how different authors incorporate animal traits into the human lives, and I highly enjoyed touches such as honey flavored lollipops for the secondary character and bear shifter, Zed. No fated mates here, but there was instant attraction both Jillian and Bael tried to ignore it at first. With a bit of an enemies to lovers storyline, I was surprised when the two were suddenly jumping into bed together—a little more build up first would have smoothed the story flow for me. The other quibble I had was the ending seemed a little abrupt; I would have liked to have seen a little more comeuppance for the love-to-hate character, for example.

Nothing too deep here, just a relatively short, fun listen, that I can see myself coming back to.

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Started strong, went downhill

Revisado: 05-11-20

I’ve been reading a lot of urban fantasy/paranormal reads lately, and I’d heard good things about this author, so even though vampires aren’t always my favorite, when I was looking for my next read/listen, I decided to give this a try (I got it through the Audible Escape program, so I didn’t actually spend a credit on it).

I thought the narrator did a good job giving the characters distinctive voices, making it easy to tell them apart. As for the book itself, it started off pretty well, with a story that caught my attention, and characters with a lot of potential. About halfway through, though, the heroine started getting on my nerves when she started pulling too stupid to live stuff, which I loathe with a fiery passion. As for the hero, I never connected with him (I was more interested in some of the secondary characters) so I just didn’t care that much what happened to the two of them. The storyline and dialogue started to feel over dramatic, and the only reason I kept listening was I wanted to give the author a fair chance. I ended up increasing the narration speed when I got closer to the end just to get it over with.

If you’re a vampire fan, odds are you probably would like this more than I did. As for me, while there’s a slim chance I might try the next book in the series if it’s about the couple I expect—like I said, I was more interested in some of the secondary characters—and if it’s also part of the audible escape program, I’m thinking probably not.

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Amazing performances; chemistry, laughs and love

Revisado: 07-02-19

I originally read (and reviewed) this as an ebook, so a lot of my comments on the book itself are a recap of that review, but listening to an audiobook is a different experience—at least for me—so I’m going to focus on that experience. I love using audiobooks for revisiting favorite books, and with the Harris Brothers being one of my favorite series, I’ve been slowly adding the audiobooks to my library, so I was VERY happy to get my hands on this latest listen.

I was a little bit apprehensive about the narration itself with multiple narrators (I find quality issues between the recording levels in duet narration extremely distracting, so I tend to prefer single or dual, where one narrator voices the entire scene or chapter). The quality was great here though, so I could get lost in the book, and the emotions of the story, always an important part with this author, were heightened by the performances. For example, the Harris shakedown was even funnier (poor Hayden trying to keep up with all those pro footballers) and I REALLY hated Rosalie in this version. In fact, I was a little surprised at how the performances really emphasized the emotions and at the same time, mitigated the main issue I had with the story (more on that in a moment). I’m not sure if this was due to increased empathy, and/or that I knew what was coming.

Aaron Shedlock’s performance in particular was a favorite as it was exactly how I imagined Roan’s voice (whew! *fans self*), but they all did a great job, and from a performance standpoint this is probably my favorite audiobook to date. Note that Erin Mallon voices Allie, Charlotte Cole does all supporting female characters while Will Watt voices all supporting male characters.

Regarding the story itself, a Harris Brothers spinoff, this book is about cousin Alice (Allie) and mostly takes place after the previous books. I thought this worked well as a standalone as the author does a great job sneaking in the information you need about the crossover characters along the way. Fans of the series won’t be disappointed, as we get quite a few glimpses of the Harris clan; while you don’t need the background from the earlier books, I definitely recommend reading them and you’ll have a richer experience here if you have.

An all around good guy, Roan Is a great character; I really liked that he came from South Africa (and that the author gives us a taste of that culture), and I especially loved his determination and his dedication to his family. I loved Allie’s bluntness and found her vulnerability touching. The London branch of the Harris family comes through for her in a major way, and between their craziness and her relationship with Roan, she sees what she’s had missing in her life. Tanner is his usual outrageous self and I loved the chance to catch up to the rest of the family. Freda and Mac were hilarious additions to the lineup as well, and I’m really hoping we get another spinoff just for them.

While I really loved most of the book, there were a couple of things I disliked in the original ebook read—and these were more personal taste than anything else. First, I really didn’t like Allie making the video recording without Roan’s consent (this is an auto 1-click author for me so I didn’t bother reading the blurb and hitting this section was a shock). It’s a major issue for me (the way some people feel about cheating in their romances), and with another author I didn’t love as much as this one, I would have been tempted to stop reading. I do love this author, though, and the Harris Brothers is a favorite series, so I kept going. And the genius of this author is, she made me like Allie anyway, lol. Add in the genius of Erin Mallon’s performance, and what was a major issue for me in the ebook just didn’t have the same impact here; while I didn’t like it, I didn’t hate it as much as I did in the ebook version.

My second issue was that near the end of the book, Allie is still trying to get her payback, and I still have a problem with it in the audio version (though again somewhat lessened). While I’m sure a lot of readers/listeners will be cheering her on (and in all honestly, there was a part of me cheering her on as well), I felt like the fact she was still even trying for payback meant she hadn’t really learned anything, when I would have liked to have seen more character growth. So while I really loved the part of the ending with Roan (it made me both laugh and cry) I sort of hated a part of it as well. But I unequivocally ADORED the epilogue!

At the end of the day, this book gives me all the feels, which the amazing performances in the audiobook really bring out, and that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Tons of chemistry, plenty of laughs and lots of love, not to forget the usual particular brand of Harris family crazy, all make this a great addition to the series. 5+ stars for the performances, 4.5 stars for the story, 5 stars overall.

B2B Kelly

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Great book, but darker and with more series setup

Revisado: 05-12-19

Note this review has also been left on Amazon

Book 11 in the Mercy Thompson series, while technically this could be read as a standalone, characters (Mercy in particular of course) and storylines carryover and evolve from book to book, so for the best reading experience, I recommend reading both this series and the intertwined Alpha and Omega series in order.

There’s a lot to unpack here; I’m in the middle of my second re-read as I’m writing this review and I’ll still picking up new bits and pieces. I loved the beginning with Larry, and that Sherwood Post, a relatively new character only introduced a couple of books ago, gets a big role. I also loved that Mercy’s own abilities continue to grow as she learns more about them.

This story felt darker to me overall than some of the earlier books, and with less of the humor that I love—maybe because I felt the villains of this one were particularly evil. Werewolves, vampires, even demons...a lot of what they do is driven by their nature, by what they are, but these villains (I’m trying to avoid spoilers, hence the lack of specifics)...they made a conscious choice to torture and kill innocents in order to increase their power. That’s about as evil as it gets in my book.

So, there were some parts that I found a little hard to read. Also, I thought this book seemed to be doing a lot of setup, and though it comes to a very definite conclusion, that conclusion seems less triumphant—or perhaps just more temporarily triumphant—than many of the earlier books, and I had a lot of unanswered questions at the end.

It’s still a great book; I didn’t want to put it down during my initial read and I’m sure I’ll be reading it time and time again, but the bar is set pretty high for this author. While it’s probably going to be one of my favorite reads for the year, I just don’t think this is going to be one of my favorite reads of the series. 5+ stars

Regarding the narration, Lorelei King always does a great job, with clearly distinguishable voices for different characters. I admit, she wasn’t how I heard Mercy in my head initially, but over time, she won me over, and now I can’t imagine anyone else doing it,

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You'll fall in love with Martha

Revisado: 11-17-18

Andi Arndt is one of my favorite narrators and does a fabulous job as always. As for the story, it was great to touch base with the Stage Dive crew and to see both Sam and Martha come into their own. I loved how protective Sam was of Martha, even managing to intimidate Mal, lol. And I love how much Martha's character has grown since we loved to hate her in Lick. That the whole band finds Martha a little scary is lol funny, and I have to admire her strength and determination.
Hilarious, hot and touching at times, if you love the series, you're going to love this. If you're new to the series, this will give you a taste of what it's like (though there are a number of spoilers in the story for previous books, and I'd really recommend reading the series in order).

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