Amy

Narrator is tremendous!

Reviewed: 03-17-18

Interesting story, does not stand out from many other WWII tales. Enjoyed the varied characters' personalities. Perspective of D-Day invasion was the most engrossing part of the book. Cassandra Campbell brought the book to life, with her wonderful accents and melodic descriptions.

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Just...ok.

Reviewed: 10-29-17

The narrator was excellent, her voice expressed emotions and accents very well. She saved the book because the story was just ok. The book made me feel empathy for the frustration and longing the slaves felt, the Jewish history added interest, and relationships between characters were well drawn. The ending, though happy, was not very plausible. What bothered me most was the lackluster writing. Frequent phrasing repetition made it very dry. For example, "Rachel said..." "Adelaide said..." "Rachel said..." "Adelaide said..." "Rachel said..." "Adelaide said..." ... and so on. The author could have thrown in the occasional sighed, thought, shouted, exclaimed; the story would have been much more enjoyable had the writing been more creative.

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Another Royal SPyness Winner!

Reviewed: 09-15-17

The Spyness books by Rhys Bowen are light, funny, and entertaining. Wonderfully narrated with each character given their own distinctive voice, and a variety of accents. Characters are quirky and fun, the story though mostly predictable has a few unexpected turns. Great read! “Audible 20 Review Sweepstakes Entry”

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Pleasant Nora Roberts story

Reviewed: 09-07-17

Would you listen to The Next Always again? Why?

Maybe. Liked the characters, and the children. A little heavy on the building and decorating descriptions, got dry. Ghost interesting but a little too interactive to be believable.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Murphy. Rambunctious and sweet.

What about MacLeod Andrews’s performance did you like?

Loved his voice, reminded me of Matthew McConaughey.

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Awesome Performance!

Reviewed: 01-28-17

What did you love best about The Unknown Ajax?

This narrator did an absolutely amazing job with different character voices and emotions!! He's one of few I've checked for other books and was disappointed he has not done many in my preferred genres. His calm Hugo, lively Anthea, sarcastic Vincent, fluttery Elvira, stormy Lord Darracott, Claud the dandy, upper-class Aurelia, youthful Richmond; all of them were unique and easily recognizable. I would whole-heartedly recommend this book in auditory format. Even women's voices were done well, uncommon for a male narrator. Philpott put me in mind of Davina Porter, he's that good!

What other book might you compare The Unknown Ajax to and why?

Love most of Georgette Heyer's books.

Which character – as performed by Daniel Philpott – was your favorite?

Hugo is one of my all-time favorite characters. Sense of humor, gentle patience, kindness.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The final scenes with Richmond and Claud were humorously entertaining!

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Jane Austen Fan

Reviewed: 12-26-16

Any additional comments?

The works of Jane Austen are universally acknowledged as truly great. This audiobook version of Persuasion is worth the low purchase price, but I would not recommend using a membership credit for it. My quibble is with the narrator, whose accent sounded more American than British, and in particular her dreadful mispronunciation of the word "oblige" made me cringe every time. Find a better narrator for a first impression, but for readers familiar with Anne and Captain Wentworth this is an economical way to re-read this classic.

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Sappy Storyline

Reviewed: 12-01-16

What disappointed you about When You're Ready [Soundtrack Edition]?

The narration was fine, sound effects were good, but the background elevator-style music was annoying and put me in mind of a soap opera. Storyline was predictable and way too sappy for me. Logan was not a realistic character, to go from unfeeling to madly in love was not a believable transition. Clare and Maddie were too good, no flaws at all, also unrealistic characters.

Would you ever listen to anything by J. L. Berg again?

I don't think so.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes, though I did not like the super long pauses between chapters.

Any additional comments?

I'm not sure if I like the soundtrack edition. The sound effects were interesting, but the music just did not work for me. If an author's words are not powerful enough to move you, then adding music is not going to help. I hope Audible continues to offer regular editions, and that prices will not increase to produce these type of audiobooks.

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Just OK

Reviewed: 10-16-16

What was most disappointing about Catherine Ryan Hyde’s story?

The male narrator. He sounded monotone, no inflection, no difference between characters, and made no effort with accents.

Did Chris Chappell and Cassandra Morris do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Cassandra Morris did. She gave different voices, her child's voice was spot-on, and Felipe's accent was well-done.

Was Don't Let Me Go worth the listening time?

I finished it, but it was just OK. A bit too long. Grace's character was a little too perceptive to be believable. I can see a child growing up faster than usual in her circumstances, but to be that aware of others' feelings at age 9 is a bit unrealistic. Her mom was frustrating, although I get that this was on purpose. I am not especially familiar with the foster system, but hope that it is not so bad as to remove a child from a situation that is safe and supportive in favor of a place completely unfamiliar to the child. I did appreciate the description of addiction as being unable to resist immediate gratification at the cost of future needs. I hoped Jessie would have been interested in Billy rather than Rayleen, as a more interesting connection. And I thought Billy should have kept the cat.

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2 people found this helpful

The Devil is in the Details

Reviewed: 08-15-16

Would you try another book from Richard K. Morgan and/or Todd McLaren?

I don't think so. Not that I didn't like this book, but it's not my favorite genre and I didn't like it enough to re-visit Morgan's futuristic world. As for the narrator, depends on the book. His narration was fine, except for the female voices - they were awful! Reminded me of a man trying to insult a woman with a nasty imitation of her voice.

Would you recommend Altered Carbon to your friends? Why or why not?

To friends who liked sci-fi perhaps. Violence was a bit over the top, especially torture scenes.

Could you see Altered Carbon being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

It already is, from what I hear, on Netflix.

Any additional comments?

The best and worst part of this book for me was Morgan's detailed descriptions of his future world. The details were interesting but also overwhelming.

I appreciated little things like seating that molded to fit each individual, the Hendrix Hotel being a character - my personal favorite character!, and scenery making office spaces feel like relaxing outdoor locales, for example. Also the many effects of switching bodies - the ultra wealthy's clones, storing of prisoners, emotional impact of waking in a strange body, adjusting to another body's strengths and weaknesses, religious implications, political jostling - basically stealing the more attractive body of someone less fortunate, travel across the globe or universe by sending the mind into a temporary body, the devaluation of the human body as just another thing to be tossed when old or broken. I think travel would be most appealing, able to visit anywhere instantaneously just by renting a synthetic body for a day or two and uploading into it! No lines at airports, jet lag, etc.

On the other hand, the detailed descriptions also confused me when reading and I often had to rewind and re-listen to a section to try to understand it. Many, many references to unfamiliar technologies and objects and systems, with minute descriptions that made me tune out after a bit with boredom or just being overwhelmed trying to make sense of it all. Perhaps if I were more interested in this genre I might have been more intrigued than bored with this much technical detail, but not for me.

The plot moved along too slowly, and made no sense until he wrapped it up at the end. I never did understand why Takeshi and Sarah were arrested at the beginning, though, and was disappointed to never really meet Sarah after the brief beginning scene, given all of the references to her. She's probably in the sequels but I'm not terribly motivated to read more. And finally, the unending SIMILES. Some were good, but the book may have been half as long without them! Too many.

Overall, the details both added to and distracted from the book. A solid 3 stars from me.

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Narrators were great choice!

Reviewed: 06-08-16

What was one of the most memorable moments of Five Ways to Fall?

Paintball! Reece's last meeting with her ex. Phone singing. To name a few.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There were some laugh-out-loud moments. The dialog is well-done in K A Tucker's books. I also like her characters, they are well-drawn. The secondary characters in this one were great as well as the leads - Ben's mama and Reece's ASD step-brother, in particular!

Any additional comments?

This is the last book in this series, and my favorite. The characters were not as tormented, story not as violent or dark as some of the others. Ben was a wonderful character, I really liked him! Reading this one just after "Four Ways", I was at first disappointed that the male narrator was not Sebastian York again. After a few minutes I realized the brilliance of choosing Deacon Lee for this, as he sounded just like I imagined Ben would, with a smile or laughter in his voice! Elizabeth Louis was also enjoyable to listen to. I was glad to have this book in the audio version.

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