Myrtha

Few books make me LOL. This one did, plus smiles and snorts
.
Besides being funny it also has substance, it is definitely more than the usual chick lit

Do not expect a literary novel, but something more than just fun silliness.

Most of all i think the perfect combination of author and reader does the trick.

Certainly reminded me of A Ronconi and M Harper books.

I strongly recommend it!

The story is less than average. I gave it 2 stars because maybe somehow somewhere it becomes interesting enough to listen. But what is really terrible is the narrator. The tone is flat. The voice is disagreeable! It makes it impossible to fallow the thread of the plot.
I could not finish the book, I did try like 3 times but I just could not.
So I am very sorry to say but it was an overall 0 star.

This little book is gold!
The story is simple but captivating. Fresh, funny. At the beginning I LOL, which I don't often do.
It is told from two different points of view (female-male) both young teenagers with different life experiences. Both are sensitive, smart, and kind.
The characters are real, And all of them are adorable!
The situations are possible. And they are not quite predictable.
The performance is GREAT! The exact voice for each of the two main characters: PERFECT MATCH.
And one more thing: It has poetry in one form or other in the midst.
Do listen to it.

I bought this title following Angela Dawe, who did a BRILLIANT job in MAYBE THIS TIME by J. Cruise. And also because I'm a sucker for nice covers and nice titles and the summary had potential.

Let me tell you what i found inside.
JUDGMENTAL AND CLICHE does not cover it.
It is so badly written, that even if you agree with the author's postulates you will agree that they are terribly expressed. There is no plot, there is some kind of weak story that comes and goes without much sense ( if any at all) to be a platform for Christian preaching. The many holes in said story are filled with quotations from the Bible. The metaphors seems to be written by a not very bright Sunday School teacher.
The characters are unreal, not comics but caricatures.
The preaching is everywhere, in almost every paragraph and to top it all the characters as dialogs sometimes say prayers! And oh, the dialogs, repetitive, plain, and sometimes are as if the author forgot to finish it or more probably did not know how so just left it.
The thing is I'm a believer, but I also believe in respect for the belief or not belief of others and when i encounter something like this i feel "verguenza ajena" which in spanish means to feel ashamed for someone else's actions.

The performance, i've learned with this audio that even a very good narrator can only do an average minus job if the material is no good.

Finally, to the Publishers I would say PLEASE DO WARN THAT THE BOOK IS CHRISTIAN OR CATHOLIC OR MUSLIM OR WITH STRONG RELIGIOUS OR POLITICAL BELIEFS, SO THE PEOPLE CAN DECIDE TO READ IT OR NOT.

If you didn't mind polite sparkling vampires, pious loving demons, you won't mind mean murderous angels that can be killed by bullets. So, safe in YA fantasy land we can discuss the story, which is at times gripping, at times violent and gory in a post apocalyptic world caused by avenging angels or at least creatures like angels but the cause of said attack is never told, at least not yet in this first installment. In the romantic scenario there is the usual prospect of the lead female, with a heart thorn in two between two guys who of course are madly in love with her but are enemies and oh yeah, there will be Raffe's and Obi's fans !
As I usually say when reviewing a light entertaining story we, you, are not looking for thought provoking books. So this is to me an entertaining very light fantasy which i did finish and that means that in spite of its lightness and its clashes with the stablished is fun. Hey, did the dishes, water my plants and even organized my closet, thanks to it!
One thing that help a lot to make these story fun was the very good performance. The narrator not only did a good job, but i believe have the right voice for the story,
So i would say, go for it without too much expectations.


PS: I wonder if it is only me but I really don't mind much nice vampires as I mind awful angels.

The story itself is flimsy. But it is fun enough, the dialogs are witty, and it has all the right ingredients: a love story, a tough hero, a wonderful heroine, the villain, moments of suspense, a bit of a thriller, a sweet child and all of these delivered in a very good performance, I especially liked R. Raudman's voice and performance. P. Lawlor also does a very good job.
You know what, it is like reading a comic. So i would recommended it as a light listening for chore or exercise times...

One of the best books i've ever listened to!
OK, first of all please note i'm not a native english speaker, so forgive my rudimentary words, since to say what this book made me feel and think i'll be short of the right expressions.Besides, i've read many of the reviews and there isn't much left to say!

So, first of all I think the form in which is arranged and the way it is written is brilliant. It goes from formal almost poetic to actual to kind of futuristic to slang and it takes you to such places and times leaving you mid-story hanging at times with the feeling of something terrible about to happen and unable to stop it. And then they start to link one with the other making sense and showing you (me, us) the consequences of our acts or lack of them....Here I leave you fellow listener hoping that you will be curious enough to go to this audio and discover it for yourself and thoroughly enjoy it !

One more very important thing: I STRONGLY BELIEVE it should be LISTEN TO more than read since the cast of narrators do a GREAT job. They impersonate the characters soooooo well is audio bliss! I just can not imagine without the voices, i confess there were more than one part i had to go back, over and over but of course, it is harder for me since it is not my native tongue.

The only fault to the hole production for me is the lack of a soundtrack.

The best of this audio is the performance, although not the best of the performances I had the pleasure to listen to, it is very well done and it highlights the story which it's a light romantic comedy.
Must say that said comedy, although fun enough to finish and enjoy it, it has a very, very simple story,is very predictable and at times the main female character confuses goodness with idiocy. But i'm being too hard, it is just that after listening to C.Alliot audio I can't but compare... Anyway, I think a 3 star overall is fair. NOT the best chick lit but certainly not the worst.

The mystery part is good, you won't be able to decipher until almost the end, just a little bit ahead of the protagonist and then revising the clues said "of course!" but that is the fun, right ?

The depression... I believe it is done in order to illustrate how a person suffering from endogenous depression feels and her interaction with the rest of the world: family, friends, job,etc. And I think M.Keyes does a good job, The symptoms, failures and / or successes of the treatment are textbook. Reminded me of some of J. Picoult's novels (house rules, my sister keeper, handle with care etc.)

So, to me the achievement of this listen is that going thru this little mystery the listener learns the suffering of a person with e. depression and by knowing and understanding this terrible disease one becomes more respectful and compassionate towards these patients, at least that is what I believe.

Also I should point out that it is a shock this dark version of M.Keyes. there is this black humor and kind of bitter wit towards the world as it is now (mostly the economy). But again it is the color of the glass through which the protagonist watches said world.

The performer is great.Very, very good !

As many post apocalyptic novels this one deals with loss and grief.

Is the story of one man and his journey back home. In his way back he'll have to deal with a world gone to hell, With its violence due to extreme desperation for survival and also because the loss of cultural boundaries.

One of the things I liked is that the story does not centers in the dark aspects of the setting (end of the civilization as we know it) nor in the gory details such as starvation rape etc. Oh, you know they are there! It is subtly mentioned in the middle of a conversation or as part of a nightmare and so on. But what i found most captivating is the male character being a true resilient soul. I also love the other characters, they seemed possible in spite of everything or maybe because of everything. You know what they say "disaster brings up the worst and the best of humans"

The performance is good, enjoyable.

OVERALL: Is one of those books that I did not want it to end, I missed it for some time after I finished it and went back for some other one of the same author... did not find it though.