Rita

After about 8 hours of listening I could not stand this book! The author used repetition as if she were getting kickbacks for using certain words, e.g. “I’m a SEAL”, “I loved my SEAL”, “I’m the wife of a SEAL”, “Irish eyes”, “My Irish”, “Special Ops”, “Special Ops”, “Special Ops”. I cannot believe this book was written in 2008! It reads like a romance novel from 20 or 30 years ago…I couldn’t stand to hear about this guy’s “tight denim jeans encased in leather chaps” one more time. I enjoy romance and even the occasional erotica novel, but the sex scenes in this book went on FOREVER. “Wild Card” was entirely too long for the plot to have been so poorly developed…the actual story would have been okay, if the author put as much effort into plot as she did into the sex scenes. This book is almost 16 hours, of which maybe 2 hours were actual plot development. I won’t even say “if you like sex, you’ll like this book” because even the most sexually starved person will be like “get on with it already” or “not again". Halfway through, I started to fast forward through the sex scenes and there was nothing worse than hearing “she tasted like sunshine”, “he was throbbing with need” after like 6 or 7 minutes were already skipped. Oy vey, this book was simply dreadful. The narrator was okay…her males had similar sounding moments, but overall she did a fair job with the various accents.

The Elite had very little plot progression. The book felt like it was mostly filler; America vacillated between Maxon and Aspen for most of the 7 hours. There were points that I started to dislike both male characters because she went to extremes without ever really having justification. Also, I was confused at certain points because she would pledge to one that she would give their relationship her all, but the next scene with the other she doing the same for him. You finally get some info on the country’s origin, however, America bungles it with immature behaviors…she literally said “I did it because I was mad.” The last 42 minutes had the most “excitement”…it ended with her deciding to pursue Maxon, but I expect by the start of the next book that will have changed.

This is my 3rd and LAST Maya Banks book…the 2nd one I bought was also lacking (In Bed with a Highlander), but I hoped the "McCabe" series would improve because the 1st MB book I listened to (Never Seduce a Scot) was great. I guess this author must have improved with time as "Never Seduce a Scot" is from a later series, but I won’t be risking any more of my precious credits to find out.

The narrator was good…her talent was the only reason I got as far as I did with this book.

This book was bad....the plot was weak; marry the jilted bride seemed like it had some potential, but it never panned out in the parts of the book I listened to because admittedly I only got about half way through. Every time I went to listen to it I cringed…the “hero” (note the quotation marks) was simply rude and unyielding for no reason. At one point the heroine was attacked by an enemy clan and brutally assaulted while HE was away. After she was healed, he decided to chastise HER for not being more careful; when she became rightfully upset ALL he could think about was how he wanted to bed her because she was so lovely in her upset…this character sucked! The heroine was fairly a good character…she at least had some dimensions beyond just her beauty.

I sincerely tried to get through this unnecessarily detailed laden book, but it zaps my energy each time. The narration is slow and uninspiring - I switched to listening through the audible app and changed the narration speed to 1.25x which helped, but not much. How did this book garner such praise....it's so boring. The author managed to make easy A topics (historical romance and time travel) almost unendurable. I'll keep trying, but not while driving for fear of falling asleep at the wheel.

I listened to this book in one day! I usually save books for when I'm traveling for work, but I couldn't wait. I think the summary is deliberately vague because it's too easy to give spoilers or miss the mark when describing this book. You feel invested in the characters from the start...It manages some difficult topics without being over-the-top. The narrator was a good choice - she managed college-aged voices very well and her male voices were fairly good. I actually loved this book (and not only because it was so inexpensive)!

The premise of this book was new for historical romance. I've been reading HR for years and years and I'm not sure if the rest of the series will be as good, but this was an excellent start and a fully stand alone novel. Eveline and Graeme were likable throughout, which is rare as most HR main characters are rarely likeable throughout the entire book. The women have whiny moments and the men random stubbornness but these main characters were consistent and likable. The narrator is no novice...she was good. I liked her men and her Scottish accent sounded quite good.

I waited for this release like almost two years and I am so sorry to say that it was not worth the wait. Jessica's character was nervous and insecure throughout the book. The plot would have been decent had the foreshadowing not been sooo overt - I knew the who and why less than halfway through the book. The narration was excellent but not even that could earn this book more than 3 stars. Truth be told the shallow character, Mindy, was enough to knock off a whole star.

Despite a few good opening chapters, this booked sputtered through to a dull and predictable ending. Regarding the narration, the female performer was adequate (I could believe the teen character she was portraying), while the male performer sounded like a 60 year old man reading the part of a teen character. Also, it was hardly necessary to have each reader say “Jill” or “Tristan” each time there was a switch in narration – understood fairly quickly that when the female was talking it was from Jill’s perspective and when the aged-man was talking it was from Tristan’s perspective.

Unfortunately, Kate decided that making money on a book series was more important than writing a comprehensive book. Despite more than 7 hours of no action or plot development, I thought the ending of Fallen was truly enjoyable, enough so that I purchased Torment. Granted, Torment had more action and plot development, but there was no ending to the book – the alleged heroine simply runs away. Readers are pretty much left on tethered hooks until the next book comes out in a year. I get that Kate planned on making a series of Fallen, but each book should have the capacity to stand on its own as a good piece of fiction. At this point, I will not buy another book in the series until they are all written, but chances are by then I will have likely lost interest.

I was quite interested in Fallen's plot and once it began to actually unfold I found this book to be sort of thrilling. The downside is that the unfolding doesn't actually begin until about hour seven. The narrator was quite good; the stubtleties of her narration set a haunting tone which lent to my enjoyment once the plot actually unfolded. If you have real interest in supernatural teen angst, stick with this late bloomer.