Vinity

I grabbed this as a lark on one of the sales. I couldn't even finish. The plot struck me as very contrived and the reader's voice didn't have a lot of elasticity to me.

I liked this story but I think it's best to go in not thinking of it as a Jennifer Cruise book. It's got lots of action. Very little romance. It's witty and fun but it has less laugh out loud moments I've come to expect from this author.

As a general rule, I love this author. I felt this one missed the mark. I didn't laugh out loud once which I don't think has ever happened with a Cruise book. All the usual quirky pieces were there in the story but it felt muted. None of the characters ever sparked to life.

If you want just a pleasant adequate read/listen, this will serve but it's nothing special.

If you want just a feel good story with decent plot, this is it. I laughed out loud several times. I liked the light supernatural element. Even if you aren't a fan of that kind of thing I don't think it would bother you.

I have to say this was a total waste of time. I had gotten it for $1.99 after I downloaded the ebook for free, it's not even worth that. Those are hours I can't get back. The hero redemption was very unbelievable, the lady was also a pretty strong contradiction. Why would she have been so weak in the event that caused the "problem" then so outrageously ridiculously in her plan to see justice? The entire plot is just one too stupid to live moment after another. I get that it's a set up for the son's book but after this poor introduction I'm totally not interested. Please do not waste money on this.

As a general rule, I just don't write a review on a book I dislike but I think this one needs a warning.

First off, thank you for dropping the price of this series to 1 credit {I know this was publisher setting the price, not audible's fault}. It should never have been a 2 credit series.

Next, I have to admit, I've dropped this series twice in the past only to be sucked back in. Surprisingly I think this is the best of the series. Rachel actually had some growth. Little to no inappropriate lusting of *many* other characters during battle scenes. No strong *too stupid to live* moments for Rachel. Some wonderful growth in the secondary characters. A lot of new angles to explore in the world with the reveal of some information on the war between the demons and the elves. And also BLESSEDLY little Ivy time. Angsty Vamp plots are LONG over. Please let Ivy go. One of the best things about this book was so little Ivy time.

Characters that had some really good and informative page time, Trent, Quen, Biz {and other Gargoyles!} Jenks, Al, and Newt.

For the first time I had no problems with Marguerite Gavin's performance. In the past she had a odd way of emphasizing certain words in sentences. It worked for Jenks but not with the other characters. That seems to have stopped.

I had several people ask me as I was listening how I felt? For the first 2/3 of the audio I said, "I don't hate it yet" Finally, by the end, I could actually say I liked it.

This book started out well. I enjoyed and was engaged with the concept but then the meta kept folding back on itself and in the end, I think it went too far. The bright spot was Wil Wheaten did a great job of reading.

I had hoped with this series wrapping in one more book that the tendency to meander and just be really disorganized plot wise would be better. It was not, it was worse. It's really time for Sookie to grow up, get out of her head, stop feeling sorry for herself and get a life. I rarely regret my credits but I do this one.

On the bright side, Johanna Parker does her usual competent job.

First I should say I'm barely holding on in this series. I do not like the POV character, I do not like Ivy, however, I love the world building and basically all the other characters. I just wish we'd see more growth in Rachel. She's still pretty whiny and I get very tired of her constant lust thoughts about every character male or female during pretty intense action scenes, or just anytime.

Second, I really don't like the reader. She surges the accents in a sentence in a way that really bothers me. The only character I feel that style works with is Jenks. I have the last few of these books as audio only because I can manage thru the reader and I prefer audio format over reading as I can continue to do other things while listening.

Thirdly, this is NOT worth 2 credits. I get WELL over 150 audios a year minimum using the Platinum Annual 24 packs of credits at a time {which totally rocks!} so 2 credits is less than buying outright with the audible member discount. This is the first time I can say I regret the credits I used. I can see a LONG audio with a super reader being two credits {I have no problems with Songs of Fire and Ice being two credits} but not a mediocre reader and a 16 hour book. I only took the chance cause I actually LIKE the last book in this series, Pale Demon and had hopes this one would be as good. I would also like to say I know the two credit deal is the publisher NOT Audible.

Basically, I hope this series wraps up soon, get some character growth really happening. I will not buy the next book in audio with this reader for 2 credits no matter how much everyone says it's great.

I really enjoyed the Fever series but I couldn't finish this one. It's a formulaic highlander romance, which isn't my thing. Too much smex, light on plot. While I liked Phil Gigante doing the male voices in Fever, his doing all the voices just didn't work for me. The kicker that I just couldn't get past was the mispronouncing over and over again of the word Sam Hain. If it was just mentioned in passing I could have gotten past it but it's mentioned a lot.

I am a Discworld fan. For me this isn't the best one. Not quite as funny as the City Watch books or many others but even so any Discworld book is better than 90% of the other books out there. Steven Briggs is, as always fabulous.