Category: audiobooks (Page 9 of 93)

May Round Up

June 7, 2022 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

Solar Fury by EA Chance, narrated by Eva Kaminsky – C+ I came across this book recently and saw it was available via Audible Plus with a trusted narrator so I decided to give it a try. The premise was really fascinating; a solar flare causes society to falter and suddenly nothing works anymore. No satellites, no GPS, no phones, no internet. The lead character is Dr. Riley Poole. She’s an orthopaedic surgeon who’s at a conference in Washington DC with her young teenage daughter, Julia, when the solar flare occurs. Riley is a widow with 3 children – that’s right -3. The other two were left at home in Colorado with her parents. The other two children don’t feature strongly in the book, apart from being the motivation for Riley to get home to them. It was also unclear exactly why Riley took Julia with her given that poor Julia had to spend her days in the hotel room while Riley was the conference. They did eat meals together and did some sightseeing after hours but as holidays for a teenager go, it wasn’t ideal. At the conference. Riley meets Dr. Neil Cooper (“Coop”), a respected heart surgeon and they strike up a flirtation. After the solar flare, Riley, Julia and Coop, together with a young girl whose parents are missing, go on the road trying to make it to Riley’s family in Colorado. Over the course of the book, Coop and Riley become closer and there is a romantic HEA for them by the end. (That’s not really a spoiler – there are 2 other books in the series and the blurb for book 2 makes it obvious.)

I’m not an expert on solar flares but the setup seemed authentic to me and made for an interesting post-apocalyptic premise. But from there, things fell down a bit. Continue reading

When Blood Lies by CS Harris, narrated by Jenny Sterlin

May 24, 2022 / Kaetrin

When Blood Lies by CS Harris, narrated by Jenny Sterlin. Great story but I did not like the narrator’s Sebastian voice.

The annual Sebastian St. Cyr mystery is always a cause for celebration but my anticipation this year for When Blood Lies was tempered a little by the news that Davina Porter, the narrator of all prior 16 books had retired and a new performer, Jenny Sterlin, was taking over.

Let’s face it, Davina Porter is a hard act to follow. And for listeners like me who have consumed the entire series to date via audiobook, her depiction of the characters is the benchmark by which any other will be measured.

The good news is that Jenny Sterlin sounds in many ways very like Davina Porter. In fact, there were times during the listen when I could believe they were one and the same (they’re not). However there was one important – and for me, crucial – difference and it made me wonder whether I will continue on audio for the next book or take up the series in print instead. That difference was Sebastian’s voice. For 16 books and something like 190ish hours I have heard Sebastian’s deep tones and it was with shock and dismay that I heard Ms. Sterlin’s version of him. He did not sound at all like Sebastian. He did not often sound much like a he to be frank. Ms. Sterlin is clearly capable of deepening her voice for male characters – there were plenty of secondary and side characters in the book for whom she did just that – but not for Sebastian. Almost every time he spoke I was disappointed because his voice was… well it was almost high (Some men have higher-pitched voices and for some characters that would be entirely appropriate but it did not work for me here at all). Even had I not previously heard Davina Porter’s version of Sebastian I would not have liked it but contrasted with what I have been gifted with previously it was that much more disappointing.

Sebastian is the backbone of the series. Had it been, for example, Jarvis’ voice or even Hendon’s, I’d have been able to move past it far more easily. As it was, I struggled with the listen. Frustratingly, there were times when Sebastian’s voice did sound deeper, most often when he was angry or frustrated, but when he was speaking normally, the pitch was too high and too soft and not at all Sebastian-like for me. It’s not that I needed him to sound the same as with Davina Porter’s depiction – of course he would not. Every narrator will bring something different to a performance. I was prepared for that. But Hero’s voice was deeper than his most of the time.

Usually in our reviews we talk about the story first and the narration last but in this case, I decided to switch it up because I had far more to say about the latter than the former.

As to the story, well, as usual it’s fairly hard to go into any detail without giving away spoilers. Sebastian, Hero and their family are in Paris looking for Sebastian’s mother. He does find her but she has been stabbed and thrown off a bridge and dies shortly after he discovers (in Chapter 1) her broken at the foot of the Pont Neuf. He is of course distraught and determined to find out who killed her and why.

As Sebastian and Hero investigate, Napoleon prepares to and then actually does escape from Elba and the St. Cyrs wonder how much, if anything, Sophie Hendon had to do with it. The whereabouts of a mysterious talisman becomes key to solving the mystery and their various enquiries lead the pair to encounter Marie-Therese of Angouleme, Hortense Bonaparte and the notorious police minister Joseph Fouche – to name only a few of the real-life historical characters in the book.

Unlike in previous books, Hero is not writing an article about the poor of London (or, in this case, Paris) but she is active in the investigation and a stalwart pillar for Sebastian as he grieves the loss of his mother and what could have been. There are also tantalising hints about the possible identity of Sebastian’s father so I expect more to come on that topic in the future.

At the end of the previous novel, Sebastian and Hero took in Jamie Knox’s son, Patrick. Predictably, Hero is not at all phased by raising him as her own and clearly both Sebastian and Hero love him but it was never explained in the book how others saw him. Patrick looks enough like Sebastian to be his biological son. Is this a scandal? What does Hendon or Jarvis have to say? There was a curious absence of conversation or explanation about this which felt strange in the circumstances. What story did Sebastian and Hero put out to explain Patrick’s presence in their lives?

As usual the history is meticulous and fascinating. I fell down a bit of a Wikipedia rabbit hole looking up information about the Reign of Terror and the return of the Bourbons and what happened after Napoleon’s escape from Elba. I enjoyed the different setting and “exploring” Paris in 1815. The detail about torture and executions was compelling if a little gruesome at times. Sebastian and Hero are still happy, in love and devoted to one another and their sons. It’s a recipe for a great book.

I struggled with the grade for the narration. There were a few stumbles which weren’t fixed in editing where the words were all correct but Ms. Sterlin tripped over them a little but no major errors. The characterisation was good and consistent with prior books. Had Sebastian’s voice been (consistently) deeper I would have rated it as a B+ at least. The narration wasn’t bad so I could not rate poorly. But Ms. Sterlin’s Sebastian voice did not impress me. However, with really only a small tweak it could be fantastic – maybe next time?

Grade: B/B-

The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa, narrated by Rebecca Mozo & Alastair Haynesbridge

May 19, 2022 / Kaetrin

The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa, narrated by Rebecca Mozo & Alastair Haynesbridge. A lot of fun and great narration.

The follow up to 2020’s The Worst Best Man, The Wedding Crasher features Lina’s cousin, Solange Pereira, and Max’s best friend, Dean Chapman.

The story is bookended by weddings – but I’m not going to say whose is at the end – you’ll have to listen to know. The wedding at the beginning is Dean’s – to Ella. Solange, roped in to helping out her makeup artist cousin, Natalia, at the wedding, overhears the bride-to-be professing her love to someone other than the groom. She’s not to know that Dean and Ella’s marriage was supposed to be a modern marriage of convenience. Still, exactly why Solange thinks it’s her place to stop the wedding remained a little unclear to me.

Because the marriage was based on friendship and mutual ambition, not ending up married didn’t crush Dean into dust – which does help him (and me, in the sense of believing him) when he falls into love with Solange only a few weeks later.

Dean is a lawyer for a big corporate firm on the partner track. He’s been working hard toward this goal for 8 years and it is within reach at last. A potential new hire (Kimberley) at the firm could bring with her a lucrative client (her father’s media business) and she has asked to spend time with some of the associates of the firms she’s interviewing with to get a feel for not just New York but the places where she might be working.

While the non-wedding didn’t damage Dean emotionally, it didn’t do him any favours professionally. An assumption is made that he’s crushed and therefore not the best person to show Kimberley and her partner around. If he can help lure Kimberley to the firm he’s a shoo-in for partner. His biggest rival (a jerk by the name of Peter) has also volunteered for the task. Peter is married so he’s likely to get the gig – until Dean concocts a story on the spot of he and Solange being old friends who realised they were far more to one another after the wedding-that-wasn’t. Now he just has to get Solange on board, keep up the lie to a suspicious Peter (they both get the chaperoning gig), lure the lawyer and win the partnership. Piece of cake.

Solange has a need for a fake relationship of her own as it happens. Her aunt and cousins from Brazil are coming into town soon and, following some peer pressure and family competitiveness, Solange’s mother has told them that Solange is at last in a happily committed relationship. No bother; Solange’s best friend is Brandon, her roommate. They can pretend to date while the cousins are in town. All good.

Okay, so the premise is pretty thin. But, if you can get past that (and I did) the rest of the story is fun, sexy and engaging. Dean has sworn off love for family reasons. Solange has vowed to never settle for anything less than true love for family reasons. Their chemistry is off the charts. Bingo bango bongo.

Peter tries hard to trip them up and set them up – which leads to some surprising engagements and steamy scenes which I won’t go into here. Again, fairly improbable but I liked it anyway.

The narration was great. Alastair Haynesbridge is a performer I’ve listened to before in a Cindy Gerard book and I was impressed by him then. Nothing in this listen changed that view. He has a touch of the Teddy Hamilton’s about him – he doesn’t have the same accent but there’s a similarity nonetheless.

Both narrators are called upon to say some Portuguese in the book. I’m no expert but the accent seemed pretty good to me from Mr. Haynesbridge. Ms. Mozo’s was better – likely from personal experience – but both were authentic.

The character voices of the various cast members were all very good, with the exception of one of Solange’s aunts who sounded (from Ms. Mozo) more like one of Marge Simpson’s sisters than I’d have liked. Otherwise, both performers gave a convincing depiction of the emotion on the page and brought their A-game when it came to Dean and Solange’s chemistry. There were perhaps a few too many improbabilities in the book but the strength of the narration easily overcame those issues.

Grade: B

April Round Up

May 2, 2022 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

Seatmate by Cara Bastone, narrated by Amanda Ronconi, Zachary Webber, Josh Hurley, Carol Monda, Corey Allen, Allyson Johnson, Eric Yves Garcia, Dina Pearlman & Tanya Eby – C I enjoyed the first two audio novellas in the Love Lines series – Call Me Maybe and Sweet Talk – so I was keen to listen to book 3, Seatmate. Unfortunately I didn’t find it as charming or engaging as the earlier two novellas which both were about the B+ range for me. Seatmate is a different story altogether. Rather than most of the relationship being on the phone as is the case with the earlier two books, this time, most of the plot takes place over about 5-ish hours during a journey between Boston and New York – first by bus and then by other means of transport. This time there is also a full cast rather than just the dual narration of the first two novellas. Seatmate was an almost real-time novella, whereas the other books take place over a greater period. For me, this meant that the boring bits were skipped in the first two books but not so much in the third one. Continue reading

Go Hex Yourself by Jessica Clare, narrated by Holly Linneman & Andrew Eiden

April 26, 2022 / Kaetrin

Go Hex Yourself by Jessica Clare, narrated by Holly Linneman & Andrew Eiden. Interesting take on magic, good narration, romance a bit of a mixed bag.

I haven’t read or listened to a Jessica Clare book in what feels like ages. When I saw Go Hex Yourself, read the blurb and also saw that Andrew Eiden was co-narrating, I decided to pick it up.

Regina (Reggie) Johnson answers an ad in the paper for a personal assistant/familiar for spellcraft. She mistakes it as being related to a card game “Spellcraft: The Magicking” (which I imagine to be something akin to Magic: The Gathering) and applies. She’s had trouble keeping jobs in the past because she’s very particular about being tidy and organised. Some people don’t like her rearranging their things just so whether she’s been asked to do it or not.

It quickly becomes clear that Reggie is wrong about the card game but it takes her a long while to admit the magic that her new employer (yes, she gets the job and it pays a simply RIDICULOUS – high that is – amount of money), Drucilla (Dru) Magnus tells her they both have.

In this world magic comes from the Roman Gods (in particular Jupiter) sexing up the local populace way back in the day. From there various bloodlines of magic began. Familiars are usually sought from the Society of Familiars. Reggie, as a complete outsider and one who doesn’t even know about magic let alone believe in it, is a “mongrel”. But Dru is a 2000+ year old witch and very much not inclined to do things the way she’s supposed to. No, Reggie is who she wants and Reggie is who she’ll have.

Familiars wear a cuff on their wrist which binds them to their witch or warlock who then use the power of the familiar to amplify spells. No Reggie, that tiredness you’re feeling is not just low blood sugar.

Dru’s 500-year-old great nephew, Ben Magnus, a powerful warlock in his own right, disapproves of Reggie’s lineage and wants Dru to fire Reggie as soon as possible. So Ben and Reggie don’t get off to a good start.

However, they do seem to be thrown together regularly and over time they become friends. Ben even learns to play Spellcraft: The Magicking so he can spend time with Reggie doing something she loves.

When Dru is cursed, Reggie and Ben work together to find out who’s done the cursing and to break the spell before Dru dies.

And along the way, they fall in love.

There’s more to it; Ben and Reggie both have complicated feelings about their mutually terrible parents (the only difference being that Reggie’s are alive); it appears that all of Dru’s familiars have been cursed in the past and it seems Reggie might be next, Reggie’s BFF, Nick, starts a new relationship with hot military guy, Diego – and sends Reggie too many NSFW pictures and texts about it, Reggie makes a new friend in Penny who has been waiting for years for her chance to finally be a familiar.

The witches and warlocks in this world are, for the most part, morally grey. Sure there are healing potions and good luck charms but, for example, most of Ben’s work is in the corporate arena where he curses the competitors so the stock prices of his clients’ business goes up. Many of the warlocks are old white guys who are set in their ways and misogynistic. Ben is not a misogynist fortunately and he’s also very progressive -which often sets him at odds with Aunt Dru and his fellow warlocks. He uses his smartphone for scrying; Aunt Dru still uses entrails and a crystal ball.

I enjoyed the magic and the way the author mixed the modern experience with eye of newt and ear of bat and the like. I liked Reggie and Ben very much. But the part when the pair slid from friendly to in love passed me by a little. I think it happened in the space of a couple of lines of text which mentioned “two months later”. Unfortunately I didn’t hear much about those crucial two months and that meant the romance felt sudden and undeveloped to me.

The next thing I knew, Ben and Reggie were kissing and then they were haring off to find a cure for the curse that suddenly befell Dru.

There were at least two good options I could see for the culprit and the author did keep me guessing until right near the end as to the identity of the curser.

The narration from both performers was very good. Although, I did have a mental disconnect hearing Andrew Eiden’s voice for a character who was supposed to be a bit stiff and starchy and who was 500 years old. I do not associate Mr. Eiden with “stiff and starchy”. No he’s more warm honey and smooth charm. Ben’s not really that – although he is a sweetie. As much as I decided to listen to this book partly because Mr. Eiden was narrating, I don’t think he was the best choice for the character. Someone like Shane East may have been a better choice. Still, leaving that aside, the rest of Andrew Eiden’s performance was very good.

Holly Linneman sounded familiar to my ears but I haven’t listened to her before. She put me in mind of Amy McFadden a little (but with fewer tics) so for those who have enjoyed Ms. McFadden’s work before, Ms. Linneman will be a good fit. I liked her cast differentiation. My biggest criticism of her performance is that Dru didn’t sound old and even in witch years she was very old indeed.

Go Hex Yourself was a different take on the witch romance subgenre which seems to be very in right now and overall was an enjoyable listen.

Grade: B-

A Duke Worth Falling For by Sarah MacLean, narrated by Penelope Ann Rose

April 20, 2022 / Kaetrin

A Duke Worth Falling For by Sarah MacLean, narrated by Penelope Ann Rose. Entertaining with solid narration – though some issues with the English accent here and there.

Originally published as part of the Naughty Brits anthology, A Duke Worth Falling For is now out separately on audio and via ebook. It’s novella length at just over four hours of listening and so isn’t a big time investment. The story is necessarily fairly contained but nonetheless complete.

Lilah Rose was on her way to being the world’s best portrait photographer, a kind of up-and-coming Annie Leibovitz. But then she “turned down the wrong man” and he blacklisted her. She lost her career and for the past 18 months, has been travelling around the world finding her place in it again. She has been working on a project photographing various sustainable farms and their owners in various countries. She hopes the project will relaunch her career. She has a 10 day break before the launch in London and, based on a recommendation from a friend who knows the duke’s sister, is renting a small cottage on the estate of the Duke of Weston for some R&R until then.

When she meets “Max” on the estate after he rescues her from a marauding ewe, she believes him to be a land steward. And he is. What he doesn’t tell her is that he is also Rupert Maximillian Ardern, 14th Duke of Weston. Max has been burned by people wanting pieces of him for what he is and not who he is – or perhaps for wanting him for the “duke” part and not the “Max” part. So when he meets Lilah he is delighted when she treats him like a normal person and he can be sure she isn’t after anything more from him than his company.

After an initial poor start – Max isn’t a fan of photographers due to his own experience with celebrity – he makes a neat apology and he and Lilah share a friendly game of darts at the local pub (where she kicks his ass). The attraction between them is mutual and powerful and before long they are in a full-fledged fling for the remaining 9 days of Lilah’s stay. Neither thinks there can be anything else.

Max, for his part, understands that Lilah wants to go back to her life as a celebrity/portrait photographer which will mean a spotlight he eschews. Lilah thinks Max is the land steward and tied to the Salterton estate.

But over the next few days, they fall deeper and deeper and each begins to think of a possible future.

Of course the big conflict between them is the glaring omission of Max’s true identity and so the path to a HEA is not smooth. There is a “me too” moment too and a confrontation with the Harvey Weinstein-esque character responsible for blacklisting Lilah all those months ago.

The narration was pretty good. It’s clear that Ms. Rose is American but her British accent was mostly creditable. There were a few mispronunciations. Some of them made me laugh. (Cornish pasties are foodstuffs and not things you put on your nipples to cover them when stripping.) The British accent dipped in and out on occasion but overall it was fairly believable. There were various brands of English accent displayed too – some from locals and some from the upper echelons of society. I did wonder a little at the toffy English accent given to Arty (or maybe that is Artie? – I don’t have the print version) who I had though was from India? But maybe I was wrong about her heritage.

Lilah, of course, is American, so Ms. Rose’s natural accent worked just fine here.

She had a pleasing depth to her tone for Max as well.

Max was a little clueless about a few things but loyal and loving and Lilah was fierce and brave. Together they made a formidable and rather delightful pair.

Grade: B