Category: B reviews (Page 1 of 74)

What Cannot Be Said by CS Harris, narrated by Amy Scanlon

May 30, 2024 / Kaetrin / 0 Comments

What Cannot Be Said by CS Harris, narrated by Amy Scanlon. I still miss Davina Porter’s narration but Amy Scanlon did pretty well.

Every year I await with excited anticipation for the newest release in the Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries. This year’s offering, What Cannot Be Said, did not disappoint. While it wasn’t the best entry into the series, it was nonetheless solidly entertaining. I enjoyed spending time in Sebastian’s world, even though much of the story itself was pretty dark.

What Cannot Be Said takes place shortly after the British victory at Waterloo. The government and the Palace are deciding what they will do with Napoleon. Hero is now 6 months’ pregnant with their second child and is writing an article about children in foundling homes being essentially sold to small business owners (such as a chimney sweep or cheesemonger) for their labour, often with disastrous and tragic results. These sections of the book were especially heartbreaking, based as they are on real events. I knew being a chimney boy was grim but I didn’t realise just how bad it was.

When the bodies of an aristocratic mother and her 16-year-old daughter are discovered in Richmond Park, posed after having been shot, Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is called in by Bow Street to assist with the investigation. The case brings up painful memories and revelations for Magistrate Lovejoy; 14 years before, another mother and daughter were shot in Richmond Park and posed in the same way. They were Lovejoy’s wife and daughter. He still grieves.

Sebastian’s investigation, as it always does, goes to places Hero’s article covers, as well as implicating a by-blow of the Prince Regent – which of course bring the renewed antipathy of Lord Jarvis and the displeasure of the Palace. Hero assists with the investigation (I really like her increasing involvement in solving these crimes) as well. There are a number of suspects, including the widower and various others.

Was the killer the same one who killed Lovejoy’s family or is it a copycat? Was the man who was hanged for the murders 14 years ago innocent after all?

Meanwhile, Gibson continues to struggle with his demons but there is some light at the end of the tunnel there at last.

The killer was revealed a little earlier than usual and was not even on my list of suspects initially. It all made sense though. The crimes in the Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries are all quite dark and What Cannot Be Said is no different in that regard so be ye warned.

I was pleased that my wonderings about Patrick were – to a degree at least – finally addressed in the text. I had wondered what society thought of him – looking so much like Sebastian. What was society thinking had occurred? What were the Devlins telling people? It seems Hendon accepts him (this was more implied than observed), Jarvis does not and society at large is rife with speculation. However, the story the Devlins tell is the truth (albeit not the whole of it): Patrick is the son of a man who save Sebastian’s life and they are raising him with Simon. It was nearly (but not quite) enough of a much needed clarification.

Amy Scanlon has big shoes to fill. Davina Porter narrated the first 16 books in the series but then retired (alas but good on her, I wish I could) and so a new narrator was needed. Anyone who’s ever listened to a book narrated by Davina Porter knows she is extremely hard to replace. Jenny Sterlin narrated books 17 and 18 – When Blood Lies and Who Cries For the Lost respectively. Personally, I did not much care for Ms Sterlin’s narration in When Blood Lies (mainly because Sebastian’s voice was just too high in pitch and inconsistent) and so I skipped the audiobook last year and read the ebook of Who Cries For the Lost instead. What Cannot Be Said has a new narrator again. I’m not sure why but in any event, I was willing to give Amy Scanlon a go. She’s not Davina Porter of course. No-one could be. (#notoverit) but she did a pretty good job of it. I liked her narration better than Jenny Sterlin’s and enough to continue with the series in audio (availability allowing). Ms Scanlon has a wide range of character voices. She doesn’t get Lovejoy right – he’s described in the books as having a peculiarly high-pitched voice for a man – and Hero is softer and not quite as formidable at Davina Porter makes her. Sebastian, who is, after all, the main character, is much closer to the mark; his voice is not as deep as the OG but it was not a disappointment.

Otherwise, the emotion, tone and pacing of Ms Scanlon’s performance is very good and kept me engaged in the story. (To be fair, Jenny Sterlin did very well with these aspect too.)

Truthfully, the mysteries themselves are the least interesting parts of the books for me; as others probably know by now, I’m all about the HEA and the best parts of the book are when I’m learning more about the successful relationship between Sebastian and Hero, their friends and their family. I enjoy the mysteries too but they’re not the big draw for me. The mystery here was personal because of the connection to Lovejoy and possibly a little sensational in the circumstance. What Cannot Be Said could have used a titch (I’ll take as much as I can get of course) more romance/affection between the Devlins but regardless, I was engrossed and entertained as I expected to be.

Grade: B

Avenging Angel by Kristen Ashley, narrated by Stella Bloom

May 2, 2024 / Kaetrin / 0 Comments

Avenging Angel by Kristen Ashley, narrated by Stella Bloom. Fans of the Rock Chick series will love this one. I did.

So much fun* and excellent narration.

*there is a very sad part regarding Raye’s background and it involves violence to children (not super graphic but still) so content warning.
Narrated by Stella Bloom

In excellent news for fans of the Rock Chick series, Kristen Ashley has started writing the second generation in the Avenging Angel series. Avenging Angel pairs Julian “Cap” Jackson (formerly known as Sniff; yes – he’s all grown up and no longer scrawny) and Rachel “Raye” Armstrong. Cap works for Nightingale Investigation & Security and has moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to assist Mace to open NI&S’s new branch.

Mace and Stella have moved to Phoenix from LA and there are cameos from most of the Hot Bunch in Avenging Angel. Alas, not much from the Rock Chicks but I think there will be more coming up in future books. I hold out hope. However, in a not-at-all consolation prize, there is the return of Tex! Hurray and huzzah! Oh Tex, I have missed you.

Listeners should note that Raye has a backstory which will be a dealbreaker for some: her little sister, Macey, was abducted when Raye was 8 and Macey was 6. Macey was never seen again. There are some sad moments in the story around this. It’s not graphic but still, it’s a very sensitive topic and for some, it will be too much. The book also starts with Raye (being the “avenging angel” of the title) locating a little girl who had been taken and there is a subplot with missing strippers and sex workers as well.

Apart from that, the book is very Rock Chick – lots of shenanigans (alas, not all that much use of stun guns) and the kind of instalove fans of the OG series enjoy. When Cap and Raye first meet, Cap knows almost immediately that Raye is “it” for him. Of course, he shows this by breaking into her apartment (if this sounds familiar it’s because it is – isn’t it great?) and then he pretty much never leaves. The Hot Bunch do things differently but it works for them! (Caveat: obviously not endorsing this in real life but it’s definitely fun to read about in fiction.)

Raye works at Surf Club which is the Phoenix version of Fortnum’s. The owner of Surf Club is Tito who reminded me a bit of Smithy, although Tito is far more mysterious. If Raye is the “Indy” in this scenario, then Luna, her BFF, is Ally (though Ally and Luna are not that much alike both Raye and Luna do get into Indy/Ally-like scrapes). Other servers at Surf Club are Harlow and Jessie, Raye and Indy’s other BFFs. We will get books for all of them. Liam Tucker (Darius and Melea’s son) is one of the Phoenix crew, Roam will also get a story, there’s a Stark son and others who work for NI&S as well so there are plenty of hot guys and girls to be paired up in future books. According to the author’s Instagram there are currently 7 books planned in the series but that may change.

The story is different but it has very much the look and feel of the Rock Chick series. There are the strong female friendships, the male bonding, the found family and extended family and family family as well as some suspense and loads of the romantic good stuff.

Stella Bloom, who has narrated all of the Rock Chick books, returns to narrate the Avenging Angel series and, as I expected, she nails the brief. She just gets the humour, she understands the author and the characters, and her delivery of Raye and Luna is top notch. There were some lines in particular which were delivered so well I took a little time to marvel as I was listening. One is just Raye thinking to herself “oh Lord” when looking at the various members of the Hot Bunch and the catch in her voice as the line was said was just *chef’s kiss*.

Ms Bloom is very familiar with the OG cast and the style of book and this only adds to the new-but-familiar feel of the story. I enjoy her narration so much – audio is definitely the best way to take in Avenging Angel. (That said, I do hear Ms Bloom’s voice in my head when I read Rock Chick and now Avenging Angel books in print, so there’s that). Apart from the content warning I referenced earlier, Avenging Angel is pretty much a hoot and anyone who enjoyed Rock Chick and wants more of the same (in the best way) will likely enjoy.

B+

Walk of Shame by Avery Flynn, narrated by Robert Hatchet & Savannah Peachwood

April 9, 2024 / Kaetrin / 0 Comments

Walk of Shame by Avery Flynn, narrated by Robert Hatchet & Savannah Peachwood. Fun, sexy, sports romance.

Reviewed for AudioGals.

Narrated by Savannah Peachwood & Robert Hatchet

Astrid O’Malley was dumped on her wedding day when her hockey-goalie fiancé face-timed her from the airport to tell her he’d accepted a contract with another team and therefore wouldn’t be attending their nuptials. Humiliated and devastated by both the loss of the relationship and the ensuing media storm, Astrid swore off hockey and men. Walk of Shame picks up five years later, when she meets a hot guy in the bar where she works occasionally.

Astrid has been on something of a “world sex tour”, having strict rules around acceptable interactions with men. One night only, no-one who knows where she lives, no-one who knows where she works. With Cal Matsen she finds herself breaking all her rules – repeatedly. It’s the best sex of her life and he lives right upstairs from her in the same building as the bar. Worse, she finds out he’s just been hired to coach her ex-fiancé (who has the “yips”) for the same team where her father is the head coach. The same team her father has begged her to come back to help for one final year before he retires.

Astrid has a personal organising business (more about psychology than storage) but her dad asks her to come and help the team do its best for his last season. I admit I was a little sketchy on exactly what she did for the team but she’d done the same job with the previous team (also coached by her dad) and they’d apparently worked well together. Now, her ex, Tig, is pulling the entire team down because he suddenly can’t stop easy goals. Cal has been brought in to coach Tig back to being the star he can be.

Cal played in the goalie position himself until an on-ice accident left him permanently unable to play at the elite level. He loves hockey and has done ever since he was four years old. Hockey is what he knows and loves and he’s desperate to be a part of the game somehow.

After Cal and Astrid realise who the other is in relation to the team, each resolves that they can never have sex with each other again. And each is very very bad at maintaining that resolution. Basically they can’t keep their hands off each other.

Astrid is very wary of getting into a relationship at all and the fact that Cal is associated not only with hockey but also her dad and her ex are powerful motivators. But none of those things can compete with her attraction to Cal. For his part, Cal is deeply smitten from the first and even though he knows he shouldn’t, he just can’t stay away. They think they’re hiding it but they’re pretty bad at that also.

There are some quirky characters in the cast, including a crotchety old lady who, if I understood correctly, has mafia connections, and an assistant coach who has four ex-wives and gets on well with them all. There are also cameos (or more) from characters from the Hartigans series which will be nice Easter eggs for fans. I enjoyed the tea party scene especially.

Walk of Shame was my first experience with Robert Hatchet. I enjoyed his performance very much, a little better than Savannah Peachwood’s actually. Both narrators have good character differentiation, tone and pacing. Both were solid when it came to the intimate scenes and also with emotion and humour of the book. Ms Peachwood has a good “hero voice” but I didn’t like as much, her other male character voices. Her depiction of Astrid’s dad and the other coaches weren’t as enjoyable for me as when they were voiced by Mr Hatchet. Otherwise, there wasn’t much to separate them in terms of performance or skill.

Walk of Shame was enjoyable and fun – and very sexy. Definitely not one to listen to with kids in the car! I did have some questions about how things ended up. For me, some of the textual links in the story were absent so I didn’t quite get how Cal came to the decision he did and I was surprised by the epilogue on a number of levels but overall, the audiobook ends in the win column.

Grade: B-

Better Hate Than Never by Chloe Liese, narrated by Charlotte North & Stephen Dexter

February 29, 2024 / Kaetrin

Better Hate Than Never by Chloe Liese, narrated by Charlotte North & Stephen Dexter. Enjoyable, modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew.

Better Hate Than Never is the second book in the Wilmot Sisters trilogy and is a modern day retelling of The Taming of the Shrew.

Naturally, given its inspiration, our main character is Katarina (aka Kate) Wilmot, the sister who returned from Ireland at the end of Two Wrongs Make a Right, allowing the other Wilmot sister, Juliet, to take over her Irish cottage rental after Jules’ relationship went bad.

(Aside: I assume the next book be based on Romeo & Juliet – except with adults and a HEA? That will be interesting.)

Christopher Petrucio grew up next door to the Wilmot family. His parents and Kate’s parents were best friends. When Christopher’s parents were killed in an accident when he was a young teenager, the Wilmot’s became his second family and he was raised by his grandmother who moved in to his family home. He left for college but got so lonely for family he ended up moving back into his old house six years later, by which time his grandmother had passed away.

Christopher has known Kate all her life. He used to babysit her – even changed nappies (aka diapers) for her when she was really little. But after he returned home, Kate was all grown up and he looked at her differently. Because Christopher feared losing more loved ones he wouldn’t let himself fall for Kate and so their vibe became antagonistic rather than romantic.

Kate, for her part, has never felt like she fit into the family. She’s the youngest, Beatrice and Juliet, twins, being a little older than she. She has ADHD and knows that her brain is a bit chaotic. Her family love her and she loves them but she’s tended to love them from a distance.

Kate is a photographer with a passion for social justice. She’s been to a lot of dangerous places in the world in pursuit of her vocation and isn’t home often. This drives Christopher crazy. He hates that Kate puts herself in danger and is resentful that Kate doesn’t stay. Partly this is also because Christopher has his own issues and is afraid to leave.

When Kate comes back home to give Juliet a place to stay in Ireland, she finds herself being drawn in to a friend group and belonging in a way she’s never felt before. Except, Christopher is still his mean, grumpy self and they clash at every opportunity.

After a particularly mean argument at Thanksgiving, Kate’s dad asks Christopher to make an effort to make peace with her; it’s uncomfortable for the family for them to be fighting and Christopher had been out of line. Also, asking Kate to make peace would be like a red rag to a bull so her dad thinks this is the best approach.

Christopher’s immediate strategy is to stay away. Kate never hangs around long. But this time she does and he just can’t stay away any longer. Still, it’s not until a moment of vulnerability from Kate where she confesses that she believes he hates her, that Christopher decides to actively make things right.

Kate is suspicious at first. Why is Christopher being nice to her all of a sudden? If she believes him will he turn on a dime and hurt her even worse than before? Kate’s animus toward Christopher has largely been in self-defence – if she let down her guard, can he be trusted with her soft underbelly?

Once Kate and Christopher start spending time together not fighting, they find themselves giving into their latent attraction – although their intimacy develops slowly because Kate is demisexual and lacking in experience. She needs a high level of trust before she’s ready for much naked time. When they finally do the deed the scene is long – well over 30 minutes of listening time. Very detailed!

The conflict in the book is largely at the front; once each puts their guard down there is little keeping them apart. They’re really made for each other, in all the ways.

Charlotte North narrates Kate’s perspective and Stephen Dexter reads Christopher’s. I’m more familiar with Ms North (she’s a big draw for me) but both performances were very good. Christopher could have come across are more unkind than he was but Mr Dexter softened him a little. (Nothing Christopher said to Kate was unforgivable but there were times where an apology was more than needed.) I tend to dislike when characters are mean to one another so I think the nuance both voice actors brought to the book helped me here. Of course, the listener is aware of what’s going on under the surface from the text and that’s important too.

Both performers have great character differentiation and solid comedic timing, as well as the ability to deliver the emotion of some of the sadder aspects of the story (for example, when Christopher was thinking about the death of his parents).

The story is actually funnier than I’ve made it sound. Even when Kate and Christopher are loved up, their banter is snappy. Their dynamic is vibrant – when the pair work together instead of against each other, they are a formidable force.

I liked how there were no magical fixes to issues they had; both Kate and Christopher had to work with what they had and take leaps of faith from time to time (and in Christopher’s case, start therapy).

Better Hate Than Never was engaging and enjoyable – and made better by great narrators bringing their talent to a good story.

Grade: B

Random in Death by JD Robb, narrated by Susan Eriksen

February 7, 2024 / Kaetrin

Random in Death by JD Robb, narrated by Susan Eriksen. Solid entry into a series which is very like catching up with old friends – but with added murder.

Reviewed for AudioGals.

Narrated by Susan Ericksen

Random in Death is book 58 in the In Death series. 58. That’s a pretty amazing feat all in itself. I took a break from the series for a little while (at about book 53 I think) but then came back to it last year and binged the books I’d missed. Now I’m right back into it.

I suppose it’s theoretically possible to start with this book – it does cover a discrete police investigation – but I suspect most of the nuance would be lost. That said, I think one could skip quite a few of the middle books if one was inclined and be just fine with this one.

Eve and Roarke remain happily married and banging regularly; McNab and Peabody are still happy and together; Mavis and Leonardo (with Bella) join the story, as do Charles and Louise and Dr Charlotte Mira – along with more important roles for Nadine Furst and her lover, Jake Kinkade, lead singer from Avenue A – and the rest of the Murder Squad at Cop Central. Knowing who all these people are and watching how they’ve grown throughout the series is half the fun of it.

At an all-ages Avenue A gig, a 16-year-old girl is murdered. Given she dies in Jake Kinkade’s arms, Eve is called in straight away. It quickly becomes clear that the murderer is an incel type and he won’t stop at just one so it’s a race against the clock before more victims end up on Morris’s slab at the morgue.

I’ve always enjoyed how J.D. Robb can make me care about characters quickly and Random in Death is no different in that regard. The family of the murder victim and their devastation got to me straight away.

The In Death series has a romance in it but it is not a romance series as such, not anymore. Now it’s a police procedural set in the near future (with many cool things) with more than a small helping of “slice of life” scenes from Eve and Roarke and their increasingly broad found family. I’ve grown away from police main characters in romance to a large degree but I think that the In Death series is set in the future (albeit only 40 years or so into the future) helps me here; they’re even farther removed from real life.

There’s not a lot more I can say about Susan Eriksen’s narration. She is the voice of the In Death series for me. Even were I to read a book in the series, I would hear her voicing all the characters. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword; she’s so closely associated with In Death for me that I can’t listen to her narrating anything else without thinking of Eve and Roarke and everyone else. On the other hand, she’s just fantastic with this series. She has a large cast of characters of all ages to play with, plenty of accents and the opportunity to grow many of those characters as are they are recurring in the series. She manages to keep all the accents straight as well. Charles and Louise may not appear in all that many books, but when they’re there, their voices are the same from book to book.

Random In Death has an evil criminal, sympathetic victims, an engrossing (if sometimes extremely lucky and possibly quite improbable) investigation and fantastic characters. While it’s not the best entry into the series, it is very solid and is far from my least favourite. Audio is generally my preferred medium for In Death books because Susan Eriksen is so good and this one did not disappoint.

Grade: B

It’s a Date (Again) by Jeneva Rose, narrated by January LaVoy

December 19, 2023 / Kaetrin

It’s a Date (Again) by Jeneva Rose, narrated by January LaVoy. Entertaining story, excellent narration.

It’s a Date (Again) begins after Peyton Sanders has left an encounter with an unnamed man who had confessed his love for her. She told him she did not love him back but as she’s walking down the street, she’s devastated and crying. She meets an unhoused man, who offers her some advice and as a result, she realises that the only reason she’s so upset is that she does in fact love this man – she’s just terrified of things going wrong. Fresh with the realisation that she made a mistake and desperate to correct it, she’s running back toward her man when she’s hit by a car. She wakes up four days later in the hospital, with almost no memories. One of her BFFs, Mya, with whom she was on the phone at the time of the accident, knows she was in love with someone but Peyton had not yet shared his name.

When three men turn up to the hospital shortly after Peyton wakes, each claiming to be her boyfriend, Mya proposes that Peyton date each again to determine which one is her true love. (Peyton had been non-exclusively dating, each man knew this so there’s no cheating.) Is it Tyler, the construction worker, Sean, the business consultant, or Nash, the chef?

Peyton’s other BFF, Robbie, thinks she should wait until she’s better before putting this pressure on herself but he comes around to the notion after Peyton becomes aware of their “marriage pact” made when they were both 19 and in college. If neither were in a serious relationship by the time she turned 32 (which is in just two weeks), they would get together.

Experienced romance readers know exactly where this one is going of course.

A couple of few things:

Is the US health system so bad that someone waking up from the coma is discharged the same day with only a check of vital signs?
Peyton doesn’t have any broken bones and apart from some scratches on her hands and her memory loss, has no other injuries to speak of. There’s not much by way of even a headache. After she gets out of hospital there’s mention of the scratches on her hands and taking some medication but otherwise, she’s A-ok. I guess she was just lucky??
Why a marriage pact which matures on Peyton’s 32nd birthday? That seemed pretty random. (It was never explained in the book.)
The story takes place almost entirely over two weeks. I kept tripping over the fact that Peyton was in a coma only days before (in one instance the day before) and she was already going out and dating. It seemed too unbelievable.

I know “romance reasons” exist but these things did make me roll my eyes a bit.

Still, if one can overlook those pesky details, the story was otherwise fun. It’s the sort of book one can easily envisage as a movie actually. The episodic nature of it suits cinema. It has the heat level of a mainstream PG13 movie too. (That’s fine – it didn’t need more and I didn’t feel anything was lacking.)

One of the three guys turned out to be a real jerk (of course) but there was a bit of a mismatch with the way he was presented at first. It seemed like he’d suddenly had a personality transplant. I put it down to the author not wanting readers to feel sorry for him when he was not “the one”.

I knew who Peyton loved from the beginning but I nevertheless enjoyed the journey to her (second) realisation of it. I also enjoyed the friendship between Debbie (Peyton’s landlord and kind-of fairy godmother), Mya and Robbie. Mya is a stand-up comedian and there were more than a few laughs in the story as a result.

Listeners may wish to know that the story references prior death of both of Peyton’s parents in a car accident.

The narration was one of the main draws for me as I’d not read this author before. But January LaVoy is a fantastic narrator and I knew she would keep my ears entertained if nothing else. She has a great range of character voices and excellent acting skills which shine through in her performance. There’s a reason she’s one of my favourite narrators. I especially like her male character voices – though I sometimes wonder how she gets them so deep and/or rough/husky without hurting her voice.

With so many potential “heroes” Ms LaVoy had an opportunity to display multiple lead voices to (maybe) keep listeners guessing. Any one of them would have worked.

It’s A Date (Again) was entertaining and enjoyable, so long as you don’t think too much about some of the plot details – and paired with narration the calibre of January LaVoy’s, I count it a win.

Grade: B