audiobookaddict

Spectacularly well-written

Revisado: 04-10-25

This book has everything I love. Amazing character development, a strong plot, and a great slow burn romance. It’s the second time I’ve read this book (the first was a read, the second was audiobook) and I enjoyed it as much the second time as the first and I’m a picky reader.

Highly recommend. Carissa Broadbent is a true talent.

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Spectacular narration

Revisado: 10-20-24

This book was a surprise to me. The “spooky” stuff was a bit out of my usual genre, but I was drawn in by a clip of the audiobook on social media and the good reviews. From the very first sentence, I could not walk away from this story. It was lush and beautiful and sometimes horrifying. The author’s use of language was gorgeous. This is also one of those times when the narration elevates the book to make it even better than it would have been had I simply read it. This is rare for me, as I usually find a narrator doesn’t usually match my perception of how characters sound in my head. In this case, it was still true. She didn’t match my perception. She was SO much better. She took lines that would have sounded boring or bland in my head and imbued them with layers of meaning. I didn’t hear a single error from this narrator. This is absolutely the best audiobook I’ve listened to. No. But the combination of narrator with story? Absolutely.

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Fantastic story

Revisado: 09-24-24

This is a fantastic story. Mad Rogan is equal parts arrogant jerk and swoony hero. Nevada is strong and funny. The plot is solid and full of those moments I call glimmers. My husband and I listened to this together and constantly looked over at each other to grin at what we heard. The only criticism I have is regarding the narrator. Though Nevada is 25, the narrator sounds around 60. She constantly whistles her “s” sounds like the beaver in Lady and the Tramp and she had a tendency to be over dramatic in a way that didn’t fit the words. For example (one of many) when the book said: “‘Let her rip,’ she murmured.” The narrator yelled “let her rip” even though the book clearly said the character murmured. She made them (male and female) whine when they were supposed to just be making statements, etc. Even so, it’s worth ignoring the less than great narration if audiobooks are the main way you consume your books because this one is so good it’s worth dealing with the disappointment. A lot of Ilona Andrews’ books have gotten full-cast audiobooks, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that one day they’ll re-do these.

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Enthralled by this series

Revisado: 09-21-24

I’m truly enjoying this series. It’s full of intrigue and romance. I’ve been binging this series in a matter of a week. This one starts straight off with action where the first book easily spent five chapters on world building, so it was easy to get into this story and the characters right away.

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Heart-Sweeping Romance

Revisado: 01-20-24

This is a tension-filled slow burn, and I love it. This one delivers all the pangs, along with a romance that, at the end, you actually believe in their HEA. I laughed and cried. I loved that these two were never disloyal, and liked each other as much as they loved each other, even as they struggled through their challenges. Clarissa starts out sheltered and immature, then grows into her strength. I felt so proud of her, as we listened to her get braver and braver and stand up for herself. This book is just so *romantic*. The narrators were awesome. Aiden Snow can do no wrong in my opinion. 😍 I’d give this two to three peppers for spice. Ends on a really heart-warming note.

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Very “fluffy”

Revisado: 03-18-23

The romance portion of this story was cute. The hero was actually a good guy, which was nice.

The instalove was blatant and ridiculous. I actually LIKE instalove trope usually. But this one was a little hard for me to accept because it just made her look stupid and him look desperate. Her because she supposedly has been so burned by abusive relationships in the past. So she wasn’t given a reasonable backstory of someone who would lack caution. And him because he just kept going on and on about wanting a “woman”, but he’s in the middle of nowhere. So when she shows up, he’s instantly in love. And… it just felt like he’d have been in love with ANY woman. Literally, any woman of child bearing age would do. However, if you decide to just roll with it and “convince yourself” their feelings are real, you’ll probably be fine.

The sex scenes made me cringe. It wasn’t that they were too spicy. I’ve read plenty that were more spicy. But the language had me alternating between 🤮 and 😂. She used phrases like “glove up” to describe using a condom and all those words that regularly make those “top five words that give ick” lists on TikTok.

But the kicker was when they are in the middle of the “act” and he starts thinking about how much he’d like to get her pregnant. I was okay with that. Him picturing her pregnant? Ok. Then, WHILE he’s still in the act, he starts imagining these children, older and running around the cabin. Then he starts thinking about the renovations he’ll do on the cabin to enlarge it. The man is only snapped back to awareness that he’s having sex when she “finishes”. Before that, he’s drawing up floor plans in his head for these supposed future children. Stuff like this happened through the whole book. Little things that constantly made me go “What??” Weird overreactions…or underreactions. Or just out of place things that constantly reminded me that these are definitely not real people.

The thriller portion is where this really fell apart. Plot holes everywhere. Weird crap like a character having a bullet in her shoulder and feeling a “twinge” in her shoulder when she moves. A TWINGE with a bleeding gunshot wound.

You’ll know who the stalker is almost immediately. But the fmc won’t know…even when she has a gun pointed at her. The fmc is saved by coincidence over and over again. Both mc’s are honestly some of the dumbest characters I have ever read.

And then the final nail in the coffin. At the end, when they look into the stalker’s “hidden past”, we discover they had a history of mental health hospitalizations. That’s right. Though they managed to look completely normal for years and live completely normally, this person went off their meds and therefore became a murderous villain.

We don’t even get a diagnosis. Just a random toss in that the stalker was “crazy”. And, frankly, I’m sick to death of writers doing this. It’s lazy, for one. To take a character that has no motive or reason to be “evil” and then just say “well, they’re crazy”. And for another, this is an incredibly harmful stereotype. Having a mental illness doesn’t make someone evil. If the writer didn’t want to do the work to create a believable villain, then maybe she shouldn’t write thrillers.

She KNEW she didn’t give any context or reason for the stalker to BE a stalker or for the fmc not to have any clue. So she just said “They’re crazy and off their meds. Surprise!”

I wasn’t going to write a review at all. Instalove? Cringe sex scenes? Plot holes? Whatever. But that last pushed my final button from just not being impressed—to being angry.

If you’re going to write characters with a mental illness, research it, make it real, and don’t use mental illness to “explain” someone being evil.

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Great and comprehensive

Revisado: 01-12-23

This is a fantastic resource — one I intend to return to .

In the marketing section near the end it is ever so slightly out of date. This was obviously produced pre-TikTok. But the TikTok marketing explosion of booktok and IG reels is really only about a year old. And technology and social media are constantly evolving.

The content here is incredibly comprehensive. And the author’s voice is easy to listen to with a style of presentation that is very easy to follow and not dry.

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Great

Revisado: 01-05-23

I read and/or listen to a lot of “on writing” reference books. Often I find a small piece of inspiration here and there within it.

This one? My brain was “on” the entire time with real, practical ways to go back in and add depth to my stories. It sparked concrete ideas about creating characters (and even places) which feel real. It gave tools to create emotional impact.

In other words, it was invaluable. Any time I am feeling a story is shallow, I’ll be coming back to this book for ideas on how to give it layers.

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Great story but narrator is irritating

Revisado: 01-01-23

This is a sci fi romance, not pure sci fi. And I loved the story. But the narration almost made me stop listening numerous times. She uses this crying/whining tone for everything. Proximity Alarm? Gasping crying voice. Hair is a mess, and she needs to put it in a braid? Definitely use a gasping crying voice. Make a dry witty joke? Definitely don’t tell it like a joke. Cry about it.

It was a struggle to get through.

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One of my favorites

Revisado: 12-02-22

This isn’t really a standalone book. You need to have read the series to get the full impact of this one. But it’s my favorite of the entire series. Which says a lot, since I love most of them.

This one is based on the “morality chain” trope, which, at its core means without Sahara, Kaleb would have been the villain. In his case, not just “the” villain— a supervillain capable of destroying the entire planet.

I’ve read or listened to this book now at least ten times. It’s a comfort read for me. When I’m in a certain mood where I just want something unutterably ROMANTIC, this is in my top three.

It also has a very cinematic feel to the action scenes for me. Exploding helicopters as a telekinetic teleports into a circle of flame, punching into the ground with power as the world burns kind of visuals that I always love. I can always visualize Singh’s action scenes like a movie in my mind, and I love that.

At the same time, she doesn’t shy away from introspection, yearning, etc. That’s not always an easy combination to find. It’s usually one or the other, not both.

As far as the narrator, she’s fine. There are other books where I feel like she’s a better fit.

For whatever reason, I think she had dry mouth while recording this because there are distinct scenes where I could hear mouth sounds like a dry tongue as she spoke. It was a little off-putting. I wish they would re-do this one with a male narrator. Most of this book takes place from Kaleb’s point of view. It felt strange to have this poor female narrator struggling to use a male tone for the majority of the book. Not to mention that most of the side characters are also male. I can only recall three female characters in the entire thing. And two of them are minor and only have a few lines of dialogue.

Nothing against the narrator…but this book should have been narrated by a man, imo.

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