ali

A new author and narrator for me, quite good

Revisado: 09-13-15

What made the experience of listening to His Wicked Reputation the most enjoyable?

Mary Jane Wells is a new narrator for me, but she did a fabulous job. She had different voices and accents for each character, and did a good job of making men's voices appropriately masculine without being comic. She conveyed emotion well, and all-in-all made a good book even better. I will be looking for other books she's narrated.

Any additional comments?

This is the first time I've read anything by Madeline Hunter. It's a sweet story about people who have good reasons why they're each afraid to trust fully and talk to each other. The mystery is sufficiently mysterious, without either overshadowing the romance or being too obvious. I especially appreciated that Hunter was able to make her characters sound like they lived in the era she described, instead of sounding like twenty-first century Americans. I will be looking for other things by Hunter as well, although there don't seem to be any others by the Hunter/Wells author/narrator combo yet.

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Not terrible, but not terribly engaging...

Revisado: 06-30-15

Any additional comments?

I think the author went in the wrong direction getting a male to read this book, as it's told form a female perspective. He did better than many (even most) male readers, but there's no getting around the very breathy falsetto that he uses to make his voice more feminine. Also, the production is pretty terrible. I had contact with the narrator, and he indicates that he did it on purpose, but most dialogue is pitched significantly softer than the rest of the narration, which makes listening in a car/subway/other noisy venues challenging. I was constantly turning the volume up to hear the dialogue, only to turn it down when the narrator came back to avoid being blasted. He was quite proud of his work because it makes each voice sound like it's coming from somewhere different....except that effect doesn't really carry to a noisy car or set of crappy headphones. Instead, it just became unlistenable and I gave up about 1/4 of the way in.

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Absolutely gripping

Revisado: 01-13-15

What about Edward Herrmann’s performance did you like?

Exactly the right tone for the book. It's grim, and he conveyed the seriousness and levity BOTH, perfectly.

Any additional comments?

I'm not usually one for nonfiction, but this was incredibly gripping. Louie is a charismatic leading man, and Hillenbrand did a fabulous job making the story come to life.

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Frustrating

Revisado: 01-01-15

Not sure why these people's behavior is considered "romantic"...the hero's responses to people abusing his wife was pretty underwhelming.

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Grab it on sale, probably not worth a credit.

Revisado: 09-22-14

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I tried to like it, but in the end I grabbed the text version and skimmed it. I was invested enough to want to know what happened, but not enough to sit through the recording.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Sue Pitkin?

Her accents weren't terrible, but she spoke just about every sentence, whether declarative or otherwise, with roughly the same inflection. I'm guessing her accent was fake, as that seems to be a common problem of narrators putting on a non-natural accent: they spend so much effort trying to sound accurate that they don't sound natural.

Any additional comments?

The book itself was pretty slow. There's a lot of backstory and historical accuracy, but there are also a lot of scenes that don't move the plot forward very much. The slow pace combined with the mediocre narrator, and I just gave up.

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Are these the same characters from the first book?

Revisado: 09-20-14

If you’ve listened to books by Deborah Harkness before, how does this one compare?

I liked Discovery of Witches a lot better, because it had so much potential and asked so many questions. I'm glad this story answered some of them, but I didn't like the answers as much as I thought I would.

What does Jennifer Ikeda bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I really liked Ikeda, and she saved the experience for me. She's good with accents, and each character has a separate "voice". She's one of those narrators who truly performs the work, not just reads it.

Any additional comments?

In terms of the story, this wasn't terrible, but I felt like I was listening to a story about very *different* people (and not in the "they grew" kind of way) comparatively. In Discovery of Witches, Matthew is suave and confident, Diana is in denial and has no idea about her true powers. In this book, Diana has grown into herself in a good way, but Matthew is just a brat. He's not possessive, he's controlling in an abusive way. There's a lot of talk in the style of "don't make me hurt you", where both characters put the blame on *Diana* if Matthew loses control.

There also seemed like a couple of weird plot holes that didn't get addressed. Vampire clans/families are a big deal, except Matthew has sired multiple generations (his kids, his grandkids, etc) that we don't hear or care about until uniting the family becomes a central plot point.

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Meh. Not terrible, not good.

Revisado: 06-22-14

Would you try another book from Jasper Fforde and/or Susan Duerdan?

Duerdan does a pretty decent job of reading. Most of the men sound alike, but not so much when they're talking to each other, so it's not hard to figure out what's going on.

Would you be willing to try another book from Jasper Fforde? Why or why not?

It's weird. The story makes a pretty important point about Jane Eyre being written in the first person, so action that happens away from her makes no sense. THIS book is also written in the first person, and yet there is CONSTANTLY action happening away from the narrator that we know about. Even if it was done to intentionally be ironic, it's stupid. There is no purpose that this book is written in 1st person when the author is going to mind-jump and tell us all sorts of things that would be FINE from a 3rd-person point of view.

Seriously, at one point the narrator is giving info to a character via radio, and still reporting on facial expressions and thought processes of OTHER people she can't see. Really, it's stuff an editor should have fixed. I don't care if the author was trying to do it to make a literary point/joke. It's dumb.

Was The Eyre Affair worth the listening time?

Eh....sort of. I wouldn't spend actual money on this, but for a discount it wasn't a waste of my 3-for-2 (or whatever) credits. I can't say I'll listen again.

Any additional comments?

There's a whole series. I may try another to see if the author gets better as he develops, but I haven't decided for sure.

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Good story, weak narrator

Revisado: 04-05-14

What didn’t you like about Bernadette Quigley’s performance?

The narrator really didn't do well with this book. Every sentence, be it spoken by a character, exposition, or exciting action, was read in the exact same tone of voice. She uses a bizarre cadence for most of her readings, and seems to be channeling William Shatner as she. Regularly ends. Sentences in weird. Places.

I'm probably in the minority, but I didn't think her character voices were terrible. Many of the men sounded similar, but that's a common flaw with female narrators reading male characters (and vice versa).

Any additional comments?

The story is light and cute. Typical Nora fare--romance and mystery and family. Paced well, not too taxing on the brain and not boring. The story is good enough that I'm continuing despite a lackluster narrator. I grabbed this book on sale, so it's worth it to me. Think carefully (or listen to the preview!) before spending a credit or paying full price.

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Not terrible, not great.

Revisado: 06-20-13

What did you like best about Secrets of a Wedding Night? What did you like least?

Relatively cute story, not much thinking involved. Light read, good for when your brain needs a break.

Would you be willing to try another book from Valerie Bowman? Why or why not?

Maybe. This one had a number of plot holes. The hero spends a lot of time and energy masquerading as poor and addicted to gambling, then is offended when the heroine believes it. They spend a whole lot of time and energy not communicating, in extra stupid ways.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

She did fine, not great. She only had one "masculine" and one "feminine" voice, with the exception of the servants, so it was hard to tell who was talking. I'm not convinced her British accent was real, but whatevs.

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Pretty decent

Revisado: 05-25-13

What did you love best about Jacob?

Nice world building, good story overall.

What does Xe Sands bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She does a good job overall with different accents, and is definitely one of the better narrators I've heard. Several of the males had almost indistinguishable voices, so if they were talking to each other, it was a bit hard to keep track of the conversation. However, this wasn't a huge issue overall.

Any additional comments?

The story line was good overall, but it felt like there were holes. There are some little details that weren't a huge issue, but made the story a bit harder to follow. How old is Bella? She seems to have the archivist skills of a PhD librarian....or not. She suddenly can read and speak another language? Why? Sometimes it seems that several days have gone by somewhat unexpectedly.

Nothing that created huge plot holes, just things that made me skip back to make sure I hadn't missed an important detail. (I hadn't; the info just didn't seem to be there.)

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