Teri-K

The Hero Brought this Down

Revisado: 08-06-19

I applaud the author for trying something different with her main characters in this novella. They live in a Dickensian London where the poor struggle daily and the rich exist only to grind them down further. I think Milan's strength as a Regency writer are that her characters are different from the usual and she makes them come alive for you. Unfortunately here the "hero" is a man I can't respect, as he blackmails the (virgin) heroine to have sex with him. I don't think it matters what was going on in her head, that was his intention and he follows through, which is about as low as a man can go in my eyes.

After that I expected to see a story of redemption, which could have been great. However, this hero is severely depressed and spends the first 90% of the book telling himself what a blackguard he is and how he deserves all the nasty things that are happening to him. It was very hard not to agree with that estimation. Add in the fact that the couple decided to have sex before they've spoken more than two sentences to each other, and there were just too many obstacles in my mind to overcome.

I recommend that you don't bother with this story unless you're a genuine fan of the author. For a great novella by her with less-than-typical MCs that really works try A Kiss for Midwinter instead.

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Narrator Let Story Down

Revisado: 11-11-18

I wasn't crazy about the narrator - when she attempted accents they were pretty bad. The London taxi driver sounded like he was from NE United States to me. Fortunately she mostly dropped attempting accents as the book progressed, so it became easier to listen to. Still, she didn't add anything to the book and I'll try to avoid her in the future. (FWIW I've listened to 2 other narrators for this series, and while neither was amazing I thought they were both better than this one.)

As for the story - it was pretty good, with a fun British setting and interesting cast of characters. The mystery had plenty of red herrings and possible suspects. Overall this is a good book for fans of English Country House mysteries. And it's always fun to see George Sutherland and Jessica together, though I got a little tired of the number of times she pointed out hwy they weren't together.

So all in all not one of the best in the series, especially in audio form, but still worth reading for fans.

#AmateurDetective #ScotlandYard #BritishCountryHouse #WriterMC #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

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Surprisingly Good!

Revisado: 11-11-18

This was my introduction to the author and narrators, and frankly I wasn't expecting much. The paranormal romances I've read so far ranged from not-so-great to embarrassingly-bad. But I'm always willing to take changes with books, so I decided to give this one a try. I'm delighted that I did! I laughed or giggled through most of the first half of the book. After that it got more serious, but there were still bits of humor to delight me. I ended up surprised at how much I liked this story - the title is somewhat misleading; there's much more to the story than I expected.

A lot may be due to the narrators, both of whom were new to me, but their voices worked perfectly for the bayou accents the book needed. (I'm no expert on accents but I have couple of friends who are Cajun and grew up in the bayous and still have strong accents, plus I've lived over 20 years in the South, so bad accents grate on my nerves. These were good enough to satisfy me.) The humor is mostly in the byplay between various characters, especially the sheriff and mayor of the small town where our heroine has gone to study how the supernaturals and humans have managed to coexist well.

The bad guy was obvious to me, but I don't consider that a problem. I did struggle with how clueless our heroine was at first, mostly about the identity of the sheriff, but also some other things she should have understood given her level of education in her field. I was worried she was going to be dense throughout the book, but fortunately she wasn't. I really cared about the people who were being hurt and wanted to see justice for them, and I liked the community the author created.

All in all this book was a winner for me, and I've become a fan of Ronconi's narration, too.
#SmallTown #Funny #Magical #Witty #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

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Disappointing Follow Up

Revisado: 11-09-18

I'd never read anything by Molly Harper before I listened to How to Date Your Dragon - and I really liked it. It was funny, and the community of Mystic Bayou was interesting and unique. I also thought the narrators voices were awesome - they added so much to the story. Unfortunately this second book doesn't measure up.

First, there's almost no humor here. The clever dialogue is missing, and Zed's personality disappeared. He was my favorite character in the first book, but here I just found him embarrassing. As far as the community goes, it's an exact repeat of the first book, from the crawfish boil to 'Why can't I choose my own pie?' Worst of all, there's no plot. At the 30% mark literally nothing had happened. At all. Oh, there's lust from Zed and angst from Dani, and lots of talk about pie, but that's not plot.

Finally, I had to look and see if the male narrator had changed. He hasn't, but Zed's warm drawl is completely gone. I don't know what happened but it sounds like a different, less talented reader.

I'm so sad about this book. I'll just have to re-listen to the first one whenever I want to visit Mystic Bayou again.

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How Not to Narrate a Book

Revisado: 11-07-18

I couldn't get past the narrator. She sounded bored with the entire thing. It's too bad because Crusie's book can be fun, but I prefer a narrator who sounds like they're enjoying the story.

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A Bit Disappointing

Revisado: 08-27-18

There was a lot to like in this story about a single Mom barely getting by and the town's bad boy - now a twice divorced attorney - coming home to restore the family ranch and name. But at times it really seemed to drag. And though I liked and understood Logan, Briana never became a real person; at times she didn't make sense to me, other times she just reacted to things and felt like a blank. And all the kerfuffle at the end didn't fit the rest of the story. So 2 stars.

Though I do like the narrator's voice a lot. He has a rather slow drawl that makes me feel like I'm listening to a cowboy tell stories. :)

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Light Magical Fun

Revisado: 08-06-18

This is the first in a light, fun, modern fantasy series. Katie Chandler moves from small town Texas to NYC and starts seeing things - things like people with wings or pointy ears, even moving gargoyles. She chalks it up to the big city, but it turns out that magic is real, and only a few special people, like Katie, can see what's really there, behind the magic.

I like a lot of things about this series, including the idea that Katie is special because she's absolutely normal. There's a lot of fun with her roommates, various bad dates - including a couple of real frogs - and her boss, who turns out to be Merlin. Yeah, that guy. Throw in a magical duel and a love interest that develops slowly over the series and you have a good book. Think of it as fantasy chick lit, the kind you could happily share with your great-grandmother or young teenage relative.

My adult daughter really likes these books, too. They're clean and fun and the characters make you want to keep reading to see how their lives will turn out. There are seven books in the series, so plenty of fun reading or listening ahead.

NB- I usually read these, but the audio books are good, too. The narrator does an excellent job, and she sounds young enough to be Katie. I'm not sure how accurate her Texas accent is - it sounds a lot like people I know from Tennessee, but she keeps the accent light, too, so it doesn't bother me. I've introduced several people to these audio books and they've all enjoyed them a lot.

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No Virgins here

Revisado: 07-18-18

Wow. This was so much not what I expected. I thought I was getting one of those sweet small-town romances with which to while away some boring hours driving. Instead I got way too much profanity, a 14 year old girl who is over-sexualized and nobody seems to care, a whiny nurse who has tons of unprotected sex and a "hero" who has casual sex with one woman while being very attracted to another. No thanks. These people are oddly flat, boring and offensive at the same time. Suffice it to say I'm staying out of Virgin River from now on.

NB - I rated the narrator down because I didn't like the voices she gave the characters, not because I didn't like the book. The "hero" sounds odd and it's hard for me to tell him apart from the old lady.

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It's a Mess

Revisado: 03-18-18

I have to admit that my experience of this book was colored by the narrator. I've read and enjoyed books from this line though I've never listened to one before, but I love audiobooks in general, so when I had the chance to hear this one essentially free, I gave it a try. The book takes place in Texas, and the narrator used such thick accents for some of the main characters that they sounded like hillbillies - not educated professionals. Also, one of the men sounds exactly like a woman I know from West Tennessee, so I suspect the accent isn't very Texan. Really, it would be better if narrators just added a little twang here and there and didn't try to layer it on so thick.

Allowing for that I tried very hard to like this book anyway. But I ended up finding it highly amusing rather than exciting or puzzling. The problem is that all the cops, Texas Rangers and other "professionals" were like the old Keystone Cops. Everything they tried went wrong. Prisoners escaped, witnesses disappeared, safe houses got attacked - they were plainly incompetent. It didn't help that most of them were related to our heroine/victim. If they cared about her they did a lousy job of taking care of her; bullets and bombs flew around her in just about every chapter.

Then there's the problem of the bad guy. For one thing, there are too many potential killers running around for such a short book and it just made things confusing. Worse, the villains motivation was really weak, for all the trouble he caused. I don't want to go into detail and give spoilers, but once he was caught he proved he wasn't very smart, so how did he manage to find out everything and cause all this trouble? We never find out.

If you're reading this for the MCs relationship, don't bother. It's dry and dull; even though they hop into bed a couple of times I never felt they had any attachment. And be warned, reader, you don't find out about Addie's past or the identity of the Midnight Strangler till book 6. If for some reason you want to hang on that long.

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Entertaining Look at Western Literary Characters

Revisado: 10-11-14

First, let me say that the professor is a very entertaining speaker, easy to listen to, with a pleasant voice. (He could easily be Gandalf or Dumbledore, I think.) Each segment is about 30 minutes long, so they never drag, and he spends some time recapping story lines and pivotal scenes for those who aren't familiar with the characters. How effectively that works for someone truly ignorant of them I can't say, as I knew all of them, and so will many listeners who have read the Westernized classics. This is basically a survey of Western Lit through it's memorable characters, with the lecturer examining why each one has so captured our imaginations and, in some cases, survived for centuries.

In the course of the lectures he often mentions other books that have taken off from these classics, so the listener has a good chance of finding some new ideas for their To-Be-Read pile. (He doesn't scorn to mention television, movies, or comics, either.) Another plus is that each character is given a separate chapter in the recording, so it's easy to jump around and pick out your favorites for a repeat listen.

I recommend this survey. If you're an avid classic reader you might not learn too much that is new, but you'll probably pick up a few interesting tidbits, and I suspect you'll enjoy revisiting so many fascinating characters, as I did.

One thing I would have liked before I purchased was a listing of the characters that are included, so here it is, in order:
Bilbo Baggins/ Odysseus/ Aeneas/ Guinevere/ The Wife of Bath/ Cressida/ Beowulf/ Thor/
Robin Hood/ Don Quixote/ Robinson Crusoe/ Elizabeth Bennet/ Natty Bumppo and Woodrow Call/ Uncle Tom/ Huckleberry Finn/ Sherlock Holmes/ Dracula/ Mowgli/ Celie (from The Color Purple)/ Winston Smith/ James Bond/ Fairy Tale Heroines/ Lisbeth Salandar/ Harry Potter

(Note - He pronounces Quixote as QUICKS-ut. You'll just have to put up with it if it annoys you.)

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