drive-by critic

Very similar to her Edge series

Reviewed: 03-18-25

No regrets in buying it. It was a decent listen. Not great, but decent. I found the theme to be too similar to her Edge books. You’ve got a female protagonist with a history of mistreatment who gets away from her captor but is pursued by same and is then befriended and defended by a strong, dangerous male. Very similar. Way too much so. Also like the Edge books, Book One has no ending. It just stops. Book Two’s Chapter One could just as easily been the next chapter after the end of Book One.

I didn’t understand how Ms Stone could possibly not know a Corvette has no backseat. Seriously? Worse than that, I assume she had somebody pre-read her manuscript, maybe several somebodies, and they didn’t know this either? I don’t get that. I also thought the description of the shotgun shell/nail boobytrap to be somewhat laughable in concept.

A lot of the story is quite good. Other parts weren’t. The ending of Book 5 is too soapy for my taste but that’s just me. Other listeners might like the long drawn out mushiness. I didn’t. I also found the conclusion highly improbable and unlikely.

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Very enjoyable

Reviewed: 02-04-25

Well written. I enjoyed the story. The characters were believable and the narration was top notch

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Alpha girl in the apocalypse

Reviewed: 01-30-25

The story is fairly dull and too slow. The author also stretches out the ending far too long. Like maybe two hours of listening too long. It has its moments, the story, but it just never overcomes the general dullness. Listening to it was like looking at a coloring book with stenciled pictures awaiting color. The story? There isn’t much color. Characters are not well defined. Scenes are not well described. There are also improbable breaks in logic here and there. By that, I mean there are actions by the two principle characters that just don’t seem probable. I think the author’s true motivation in the story was to describe two females falling in love with each other and oh yeah, throw in a little apocalypse every now and then.

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I liked it

Reviewed: 11-18-24

I liked pretty much all of it. Parts were a bit much but, not bad.

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Is this a book or an episode of Sooby-Do?

Reviewed: 11-08-24

Why? Why on earth would an author fill the pages of a manuscript with dog sounds? Look, I make an effort to read/listen to self published authors. Usually, the works fall somewhere between bad and good. This story has good legs under it but the author ruins it with all the dog grunts, growls, barks and rumbles. I swear, I’m thinking Hanna-Barberra might have some copyright issues here. She even makes the dog a Great Dane! It’s Scooby Do. Clean up the language and it would be a great book for an early teen reader. Which is my second issue. Is this a book for an immature adult or a mature kid? Third issue is the cover. I truly wish Amazon/Audible would crack down on authors proclaiming themselves as USA Today Best Selling Authors. I don’t believe that for a minute. I’d like to know the date when this author hit USA Today’s Top 100 list. I won’t be reading the rest of the series. So, trying to end on a positive note, I’ll say it is a mercifully short listen. Under six hours.

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Couldn’t finish it

Reviewed: 10-23-24

I listened to the first series of books written by this author and didn’t like it. Thinking that maybe it was just a bad example of his work, I tried the second set of stories set in the same “universe.” Look, there’s nothing wrong with an author who creates a world then in another book uses that created world to tell a different story. Which is my first complaint. This first book? It is basically the identical story, different characters, same theme, same plot as the previous first book. The character is stuck far from home. The character has to get home. The character has a hard time getting home. Why this guy thought he could write a believable female college student is just bizarre. Both versions of the same book are equally bad. The narrator might be the worst I have ever listened to before. I made it about halfway through Book 2 before telling Audible to mark it as finished.

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The book has the ring of authenticity

Reviewed: 10-23-24

I read/listen to so many would-be military storytellers writing books based on what they’ve seen in the movies and as a result, manage to create unrealistic crap. It was refreshing to listen to this one. I am pretty brutal in my reviews of those other authors. I knew nothing about this author but I knew right away this guy knew what it felt like to be haze gray and underway. It isn’t a perfect story. It drags in places and the ending went a bit long but for the most part, I enjoyed it.

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Nothing particularly good about it

Reviewed: 09-22-24

The reader did a very good job but listening to the story was like drinking decaf coffee. Why bother? For me, it was one of those books that I couldn’t wait for it to be over

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Great storytelling

Reviewed: 09-16-24

I don’t normally like alternate histories. I liked this one. Len Deighton has always been one of my most favorite “vintage” English authors. My only issue with the story was one, the very end when too many character’s part in the story was left unexplained. As in, what happened to so in so and two, the reader’s American accent wasn’t very American. That surprised me because usually, most English actors have no problem mimicking an American voice. Small stuff. The book was really very well done.

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1 person found this helpful

A slog to finish

Reviewed: 09-09-24

I didn’t really like it. It was a twenty hour slog that didn’t get interesting until about the twelfth hour. Honestly, I struggled to finish it. In fairness, I bought this audiobook because I enjoyed the video game that was supposed to be based on the novel. Yeah, I know. I shouldn’t compare the book to the video game but…I am. Or did. The two, story and game, have almost nothing in common. Having said that, my issues with the story are several. It’s repetitious being the biggest. It’s pretty much the same scene, same outcome repeated over and over hour after hour. The characters are all male with a handful of insignificant female appearances here and there. I won’t be listening to books two and three.

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