Guiselle

First of all that beaver thing, and calling Blue(!) 'The Beave'... it was just wrong.
That being said: I don't know what she does or how she does it, but SEP does it well. I just kept nodding off, lulled to sleep by the narrator's voice, and then waking up and rewinding the thing so I wouldn't miss one bit of the story.. A very weird experience. The story just felt like it was reaaally long, and slooow in it's development, but it didn't seem to bother me(?!)
You just get sucked into the SEP world and don't want to leave.
And it totally got me hooked on her Chicago Stars series.. That's some weird talent, ms Phillips..
(The narrator did lull me to sleep, but that was because her voice was very pleasant. In all honesty I think she did a great job!)

I'm happy to report that I've finally joined the throngs of Norah Robert fans. Ok, I'm still not an avid fan, but I did like the book, and that's good enough for me.
After decades of feeling like a pariah and thinking: Is this it?, this novel finally made me think: Ok, I think I get it. Kinda.
Certainly a good listen. Well. Let's get to it, shall we?

Premise:
So, this guy, Nate, an ex cop, is pretty depressed after an incident in which his partner got killed. So he quits his job and moves to Alaska. ...Ok.
So he gets there and becomes chief of police in this town called Lunacy. (Lunacy, get it? The townspeople are pretty weird and they are called Lunatics. Mrs Roberts seems to have an excellent although not very subtle sense of humor. It's funny, though, isn't it? Lunatics? LOL).
Nate meets and falls in love with this awesome bush pilot woman Meg. Then a body is discovered on a mountain. The rest of the plot circles around this murder. Who'd done it?! :-O

The excitement in this books comes mainly from the murder, and the search for the killer. The love between Meg and Nate seems almost placid. Maybe I'm getting mellow in my old age, but I liked that. Nice, kinda calm love. No real drama there.
Very pleasant.
While on the one hand, the pace seemed slow and nothing much happened with regards to Meg and Nate, on the other hand, the abundance of Lunatic (lol) characters made me feel as if a lot was going on in the overall story. I need to confess, though that most of the characters (including the main characters) seemed a bit 'flat' to me. Take Nate for example, although he was supposed to be tormented, I wasn't really convinced. The scenes in which his depression was discussed, seemed spaced out and didn't seem to tie into the whole.

All in all, I liked the book. It wasn't spectacular, but certainly a solid suspense/ romance novel. If you're looking for a novel with a romance/ murder plot. This one's as good as any and better than quite a few. Nice descriptions of the surroundings are included. I would say the romance aspect was pleasantly there, but the murder investigative side of it was more prevalent.

The narrator has a very nice voice, by the way. My only problem, and that's one of my pet peeves, so please indulge me, is that male narrators sometimes tend to 'overdo' female voices or intonations. I found that mr. Littman's (narrator) rendition of Meg (and of her mother) sometimes tended a bit towards a caricaturization.

I actually really liked this book for three main reasons:

First of all: the book is both written and narrated in a very close up, witty and informal manner which really drew me in from the start. It felt like I was sitting in a coffee shop on a Saturday afternoon with one of my funnier girlfriends, listening to her dish about her unfortunate love life. (This setup could either go very well or go terribly wrong, mind you...).

However, secondly and thankfully: Klausner is funny! No dramatic accounts, but what the Dutch like to call sweet/sour stories. Stories that make you see the absurd and comical in "common", sometimes sad, situations. Klausner delivers these stories with a great sense of comedic timing which made me both cringe and laugh out loud.

Third and most important of all, Klausner really knows how to juggle with words. I love it when books have (for lack of a better description) a balanced sequence of both words and sentences. This book felt a lot like that. Nice sentences, nice rhythm. Makes you want to read it on paper after you've heard it. Since I'm no writer, that's the best I can explain it. Nicely written.

So you're sitting over a latte with you're pal Klausner and she tells you all about these guys she's dated.. Sometimes she's pretty harsh and she tends to be a bit heavy handed with the gay and lesbian references (not in a negative way)... but she's funny, so you're laughing.

However, it is a pretty one sided conversation and Klausner's cleverly phrased stories may prompt you to hit the pause more than once or to go back 'cause you just missed on of the many jokes she's able to fit in a single sentence, but heck... You asked to be entertained and if that's what you're after, this will be a credit well spent!

One quick word of warning: her fast pace will keep you on your toes and sometimes it might tend to the frantic.

Four stars! Yay!

For the sake of transparency (so you know what your spending your credit on) I lined up 5 things I think you should know before you buy this book.

1. The main character Abby Abernathy (nicknamed 'Pigeon' by her love interest Travis 'Mad Dog' Maddox) is eighteen going on nineteen. She's just started out college with her best friend America (Mer).

2. The story is set in college but the dynamics between the students (and also between the main characters) seems more like high school. In other words: it's juvenile. If you're not a (very) young adult, you might end up rolling your eyes even more than Abby Abernathy does.

3. Travis Maddox has a temper (he's quite volatile) and is physically violent. Not against his 'Pigeon' or their friends, mind you. But pretty much against everyone else. Blood splatters quite often in this book.

4. Spoiler alert!: Somewhere past midway the book takes a turn and the cast goes to Vegas.

5. I should have stopped at the Vegas turn, but really I can't not mention this:
Travis, the hero, sports tribal art tattoo's.
And later he adds a new tattoo that declares his love for 'Pigeon'. In Hebrew.
I'm not saying anything else. Zip.

I didn't hate it. This novel is quite entertaining at times. But the storyline is all over the place (see 4) and overall it's very, very young adult.

If you read all of the above and you're curious. Go ahead. Buy it. I dare you. Just don't say I didn't warn you!

So, I hate to be the bearer of bad news and I can only imagine the hours the Mrs. Harris put into this one! I love the southern vampire (sookie) series, but for some reason I can't really relate to Sookie in this one.
Reading this is seeming more and more like homework.

(!Spoiler alert!)

The way Mrs. Harris is laying the foundation for the Sookie-Sam relationship felt forced to me. So much so, that I still can't finish the book! The book begins with constant references to how good Sam is, how Sookie would like to brush his hair, how he defends her, helps her... I don't know, it's making Sam seem even more boring (maybe she should just keep him as a pet). I suppose Sookie will eventually see the light and realize that she has been in love with Sam the whole time. Snore.

I put down 3 stars as a start. As I read I'm taking away or adding stars. Don't hold your breath, though. It's taking me longer than usual to finish this one.

Ah well... I guess I should press play...

BTW. Miss Parker did well, as always.

Not much to it, it's just a love story. I liked it.
You may notice my lack of enthusiasm, it's because although the premise was nice, the story sounded a bit tired.
- The main characters lacked consistency.. Out of the blue Wren and (what's her name..) Marguerite would for example make a joke that was out of character. Facts would conveniently pop up along the way.. stuff like that.
One problem arising from having such an extensive series where all the men are perfect is that when they meet one another (as happened in this story) the other hunks will interfere with our perception of our hero (Wren) as the hunkyist of them all (in Marguerites eyes).
Ah well..

Anyways, no regrets here. If you want a taste of the darkhunter/ were world you'll get your fill here..
An enjoyable read.

Although it was nice seeing the storyline developed during Nicholas and Jo's adventure come to a satisfying conclusion, this novel was nothing to write home about. The love between Eshe and Armand lacked depth. They had no almost no conversations except a few about their dead mates. They did not seem to have anything in common. The only thing binding them together was the fact that they were lifemates. Eshe especially was quite one-dimensional. I liked having a black (mixed race) heroine, however I missed the physical descriptions you usually have in this type of novels. The narrator was ok.. Except for his dreadful renditions of Lucian Argeneau and of Eshe. (I know it's not easy for men to adopt a credible female voice, but Eshe's voice in this one had me cringing..) All in all: I usually love Lynsay Sands and I remain optimistic so, I'm still looking forward (if a bit more cautious than before) to the next installment... I'll say three stars because I'm in a good mood. The book was worth 2,5.

The narrator is awful. After 10 minutes I just had to turn it off.. A pitty really, because the story seems lighthearted and fun.

I really liked this book. Nice uncomplicated story. The two main characters had good chemistry. The narrator did a great job! Credit well spent.

It took quite some effort on my part to finish this audio-book. I did like the premise but was disappointed by the novel itself. It felt like the writer was trying too hard, the romance between the main characters just was not there.. and the narrator was bad.. The main character, Melody, was quite annoying and honestly, she seemed a bit daft.