not your typical holiday story

This is not your typical holiday story as Ivy is told of fae being murdered, which of course she must help stop. Once again EJ Stevens creates a great story bridging the gap between book 1 and 2. Great development of Jinx, Ivy, and the other minor characters as well as telling a very interesting story. The narration is great and having 2 narrators allows for more diversity in voices allowing for more variation for the various characters. Ivy is a strong brave heroine in these books and is very loyal to her friends sometimes to a fault.
I received a free copy of the audiobook and am voluntarily leaving my honest review of the production of this book.

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2 people found this helpful

An interesting story, read well.

I do like stories with multiple narrators so the women don't have to sound like men and vice versa. The narrators did a good jobs with the characters. It was a well-written story too.

I received a free copy from the author under no obligation to write this review. I just wanted to do it.

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1 person found this helpful

Good but not her best

I was a bit disappointed with this story it was good but no where near her other Ivy Granger stories.

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Good story but subpar narration

I received a copy of this book in audio format from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Ivy is decided to spend a normal Christmas now that she has a boyfriend. But he is called to resolve a problem, and the shortly after, Ivy will get a new case to solve. Five fae have been recently killed in Harborsmouth, leaving behind a piece of mistletoe in a pool of the victim's blood.

After listening to book one, I have to say that I have enjoyed this one more. We are not drowned in interminable monologues and explanations like at the beginning of the series, which makes things flow more smoothly. The rhythm does not feel completely okay though, having some parts very slow and others very fast like Stevens is skipping things and not giving the grade of detail she should. I think she should find a balance to make stories more enjoyable. One tends to zone out on the slow parts and them, bam! we are somewhere else.

I had issues again connecting to the characters and feeling the urgency of the search for the murderer. I think this is due to the issues previously described. It is true that it is a bit better compared with book one, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

What I did not enjoy at all this time was the narration. It was mostly done by Melanie A. Mason. Although her interpretation skills are quite good, I missed some different voices for the different characters. All sounded the same. David Wilson Brown had a few lines corresponding to some characters, but his interpretation felt out of place, and it did not make sense that a male narrator was used for female characters when there was already a female narrator. This confused me a lot, since at first it seemed Brown's voice was used for male characters, as it should have been. I wonder who made this decision and why. The audio production had several issues too. There are several very noticeable audio edits on Melanie A. Mason's part. So noticeable that for those bits it seems she was using the unedited audio. Brown's parts sounded louder than the rest, which felt quite abrupt and broke the rhythm of the narration.

Also, it could be a personal preference, but I preferred Tracy Odom as Ivy Granger. This is one of those series where we get a change of narrator. Books one and two are narrated by Tracy Odom, while the rest are narrated by Melanie A. Mason and a male narrator. I guess this is due to Mason's limited voice range.

I am curious as to where this series will go, so expect more reviews in the next weeks.

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Great short story

Ivy and Jinx are adorable. It’s the holidays and they are hunting down a fae killer. The book is fast moving. Each character is well developed. The story flows well. I recommend this book to anyone who likes magical characters and investigative stories. I enjoyed the book and look forward to reading , listening to more in the Ivy Granger series.

The narrator was great. She is enthusiastic and a joy to listen to.

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2 people found this helpful

Love this author

I just love this author. She always has the most unique take. I really like how she mixes paranormal with mystery.

The narrator was wonderful. I can’t wait to see what comes next from either of these two.

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2 people found this helpful

Great short story. Well worth it

This is a cute short story that is set during Christmas, but isn’t really a Christmas story. Yes, it takes place during the holidays. Yes, there are gifts exchanged. That is pretty much where the holidays end.

Our demon lawyer friend (that sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it, it kinda is), Forneus returns with another case for Ivy and Jinx. Something is killing fae. The only thing that is in common, is that the victims are fae. Ivy needs to figure out who and why these deaths are happening. Ivy takes on the case as she doesn’t want people killing a bunch of fae in her town.

This is a short story, at a little over two hours, but it is a full story. We get to spend some time with some of my favorite characters in Kaye the witch, Marvin the teenage bridge troll and Hob the Brownie. There is even some appearances by Ceff, the Kelpie king and Ivy’s boyfriend. It was a great listen to fit in between some of my other listens. I do think you can go on to book two if you aren’t a fan of novellas, but this is a fun read that adds some depth to the secondary characters.

Blood and Mistletoe is the first book that I’ve listened to with different narrators the way this one was done. I have listened to different narrators that changed with chapters, but this one changed with sentences. That was a little jarring to me. The narrators were great, but everytime a male characters spoke, we went from a female to a male narrating. This was completely new to me and I don’t think it is something I would search out for. I did eventually get used to it, but I wouldn’t say that I’m a fan. I would be willing to listen to either narrator if they read the entire book. I would also mention that I like the narrator who does the full length books better for this series. This is a case of just not my style of narration.

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1 person found this helpful

Great book

As always E.J. Stevens has written another great book and even better book to listen to.

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2 people found this helpful

Holidays are Hell!

I really enjoyed this story. I actually messed up and ended up listening to this story first before listening to Shadow Sight, which is book #1. Once I realized what I had done I went back to listen to the first story. In all honesty I think this story was better than the first one. I think author E. J. Stevens has created a great series. I loved the characters in this series and they all have important parts to play in each story. This story is packed with excitement, action, mystery, and a unique twist. This story has folklore and Stevens uses different and various reference to mythology. The creatures and myths are perfectly written in this story. I recommend if you've read/listened to Shadow Sight, then make sure you get this novella book #1.5. and it's well worth the purchase.

Melanie A. Mason and David Wilson Brown did a great job as they team up to tell this story. They made a great duo as they bring this story to life.

I received this audio at no charge from the author/narrator in exchange for an honest and unbiased review through Audiobook Blast.

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2 people found this helpful

just okay

Audio Version Review
I was gifted this book in exchange for an honest review. Ivy is a psychic detective on the path of a killer. She is strong, resilient and Fae. Her supporting cast is well developed in this novella. The story-tellers David and Melanie definitely get the job done. This is the first book that I have "read" that has a dual narration and that was a bit distracting to me. I almost felt as though Melanie was not able to create individual characters through her voice, so I suspected that David was brought in to fill that gap. The story was just okay for me, I am partial to a little more romance. This would be highly recommended to a YA audience who is all about a little mystery. Three fangs.

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