R. Pettijohn

The Narrator Jessica Almasy did just as well with this as with the first.

The Story/Plot was actually a bit better imho then the first book. The chars grow and you see it by their actions, thoughts, coming to understandings about themselves, etc. It was a good sequel to the first book. I will likely get another in this series if Gena Showalter writes another.

If you enjoyed the first, then you will very likely enjoy this one as well.

I loved this book – Khristine Hvam is on my list of A+ Narrators

If you are checking out this book and have not read the other books from the Jane

Yellowrock Series, I strongly suggest starting with Book 1 – Skinwalker!

If you have read the other books, then you will likely already own this book because you have been waiting to read/listen to it.

My opinion – loved it!

Spoilers below (hopefully not too many as I ramble)

In Blood Trade Jane is still depressed, suffering from the aftermath of the last book. I must say I was glad to see some of the emotions playing out in this book from the forced binding in the last book. The section where Jane has a conversation with Bruiser was very good. I really liked the way that played out. I do still hope to see more follow in this relationship.

Jane takes a job cleaning up some of the mess that was left behind at the end of the last book. We have witches, evil vamps, Rick and company (Loved the sections with Sol and Pia). Actually, I just loved the interaction in this entire book, a good deal of interaction that just adds layers of interest and depth to the relationships. And I really am looking forward to the time when Sol and Jane actually talk more. I would like to see these two become friends. Jane is in need of female friends.

Other note-worthy events include

Rick and Jane in which Rick claims he will kill Bruiser if he every lays a hand on Jane then drag Jane off.

Bruiser explaining what has happened to him, Bruiser kicking major ass

Beast knocking the tar out of the white wolf

Jane knocking the tar out of the white wolf

Beast nuzzling/scent marking Rick again

Pia knocking the stuffing out of Rick (a few times)

Sol – love to know more about this character for sure. Hope to see more of her
Oh I just loved the whole thing. Read it/listen to it if you haven’t already!

I recently finished reading the kindle versions of book 1 and 2 – As I started book 3 I got sick. I was pleased to see the audio version of the book available at a reduced cost because I owned the kindle version already.

The first 3 books in this series are entertaining with an interesting world setting that mixes sci fi, steam punk and mystery together to make a wonderfully enjoyable read.
If you want to start this series, book 1, The Emperor’s Edge is available free for down load for your kindle or other popular e-readers. Start there for best results

In this book, our unlikely set of heroes are looking into the disappearance of men and women in the Emperor’s games. As things are likely to do, matters go from bad to worse before everything works out in the end. I must say the last chap is my fav – the entire garden scene is breath taking, such a tease but it will make me buy the next book to see what happens next.

Regarding the Narrator - I wasn't sure I was going to like Starla Huchton's reading of the story - mainly because I had voices in my head already for the characters from reading the e-versions of the first two books, but it didn't take long for me to really enjoy listening to Starla's work.

The series is nearly finished, I started listening to these books a few weeks ago and so I have been listening to one after another with little break between.

I was concerned going into this book because of all the reviews that claimed it was so horrible. Oddly I think I liked this book better than nearly all save the one with Eric losing his memory.

There was a lot more working things out emotionally, mentally, etc in this book. This book is huge on showing some of the inner workings of all the main characters and does a wonderful job of providing depth where it had been lacking before. Massive insight into Eric as a person. More insight to nearly all the main characters.

At this point in the story, if you are looking at this book, you should get it, it you haven’t read the others, start at the start :)

Narrators: Both Kramer and Reading did a lovely job again – I really do enjoy their work, more so when they work as a team for a book.

If you are a fan of the Wheel of Time, you won’t likely need a review to convince you to listen to this book; you likely already have it or at least the hard back of it.

This book is filled with so much, so many things going on it might take a couple of listens to really understand everything little detail of what is happening.

I like many would love to see an eBook on this, just because it’s far easier to search back in a book, even an eBook than it is on an audio book.

But, having the hardback too – I can say I do read faster than I listen, but there is no way I could have drug the hardback of this book along with me everywhere and read it. I love audio books for this reason.

There are no endings to the turning of the wheel of time, but this was an amazing ending to something that will live on for ages to come!

I really love this series! I want the next one (Cast in Sorrow) now :)

Narrator - as always - wonderful job!

Story - I was really hoping to actually get to the West March but we don't in this book - though we do get to find out what is in the egg (I so want one). We get some really good back ground info on a couple people but alas we only get part way to the West March.

If you are this far along in the series you, like most everyone will enjoy the story as much as I did.

I was introduced to Sanderson’s work when he took over the Wheel of Time books. Since then, I have read his works in the Mistborn and Stormlight series and enjoyed those titles immensely.

This is a really, really, really, short story compared to the epic works I’m use to from Sanderson, but it was a fun short read. I originally purchased the e-book and when the audio version was marketed as Free I snatched up a copy and listened on my commute home tonight.

Narrator – I don’t believe I’ve heard this narrator before and he did a good job. While not one of my favs, he will certainly not put me off from purchasing other titles he does.

Story – it was fun, there were a couple spots where I was more interested in the aspects as characters rather than the camera plot. The plot (without hopefully any spoilers), I have worked around groups that do reverse engineering, the ‘item’ that was caused the trouble would have been found/caught, something like that would have been considered. Just a pet peeve on my part but it did trip my “WTF were they thinking” meter - Other than that, I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the commentary by the “Aspects” that imho made the book.

Narration: Spencer and Elijah take turns doing the narrations; it appears every other chapter is in first person but 1 the sister, the other the brother. There is also some radio theater type musical in the background. It’s all nicely done.

So this is an excerpt from Book One of the Witch & Wizard series – It was free, and I’m pretty certain I would never purchase the book based on the cover jacket alone. If anything was going to change that fact would be this free excerpt – but all it did was prove to me that this series just wasn’t for me.

It’s not really bad, it sounds interesting, the concept is scary to the point it’s not really an enjoyable topic for reading for relaxing. The “new order” has taken over and they are rounding up anyone that might be going against the new world order and killing them, this includes all people of faith, artists, and those that practice the “foul” arts such as witchcraft. All in the name of the great good, etc.

In this book, we get the back and forth first person perspective of a brother and sister who have been arrested for being a wizard and witch. They are taken from their home in the middle of the night. They are allowed to take one item each and their parents give one a book that appears blank and the other a drum stick.

(Pardon the pet peeve type rant below)
Side note on this taking one item with them – I can see, as a government attempting to round up those that might cause problems and in this case suspected of being a witch/wizard(should really be warlock but hey, whatever) – allow them that 1 item since they are likely to take something of power with them. Then don’t allow them to have it. But these kids are allowed to keep the item. Say What?!?

Also, their parents manage to get away and appear to have known their kids were powerful, but didn’t actually manage to explain to them who/what they were. How stupid can we get? They can see what is happening with this new order growing in power until people are killed in public hangings, but they don’t teach/tell their children what to do if the government ever comes for them? The whole lot of them deserves to die just for being stupid.

Have a listen if you have considered purchasing it – it might give you that extra push to purchase – it was however enough for me to realize that I wouldn’t like the story, there isn’t anything that could come after this excerpt to make me want to listen or read the entire book or series.

The Becoming: Anna Strong
I got this book during the 4.95 sale. I had just finished off the entire Mercy Thompson Series followed by the Alpha and Omega Series (in less than a week, I highly recommend them) and I needed something new to listen to. I went prowling for something new and came across this title.

The idea for this book sounded interesting, so did the characters but compared to the books I had just finished this come across as slow and boring most of the time. It wasn’t until the last 45 minutes of the recording that I was actually interested in what was happening.

This book is written in a present tense first person and I’m not overly fond of that style. The narrator seemed too even to really add any life to the text either. She wasn’t bad, just not up to the bar set by say Lorelei King, Tavia Gilbert or Holter Graham (the last few narrators I’ve really enjoyed).

I am not sure if I’ll get book two or not right now – I might because I’m interested in finding out a few things that we find out in the last say hour of the book, but I’m not overly tempted either to rush out and get it.

Rating: NOT G-Rated. Some others have stated this book is G rated, it is not – the sex is not in your face but there is enough there to give this at least a PG or PG13 rating in my book. Nothing is graphically spelled out, but there is enough there to know what has happened/is happening, including but not limited to rape.

All and all it was ‘okay’ nothing I would recommend very highly – Maybe it gets better in book 2 – not sure I’m willing to find out right now though. Try Jeaniene Frost – Night Huntress (much more entertaining imho)

Possible Spoilers below:
The Story itself sounded so cool – strong female bounty hunter gets turned into vampire during a brutal attack/rape (not overly graphically, enough so you know what’s happening/happened but not a blow by blow so to speak).

She wakes up in the hospital and it’s not until she gets home later that day that she finds out what she is becoming. Now at this point, I don’t know about anyone else, but I would certainly have a ton of questions of the guy that tells me what I’m becoming. Abilities, limits, etc and if he isn’t going to tell me, well I’m going to do some exploring on my own. How does my new “family” work – she isn’t supposed to be stupid, she was a bounty hunter and good at her job. You don’t get good at that type of job by making stupid mistakes. And certainly you trust your partner more than this lady does.
I did see the ‘bad’ guy from a mile away, I was really hoping that it would be a case of all the signs are point here, but it’s really.. but it was who you think it is from the get go. No surprise there at all.

I got this on the 4.95 sale and two good books for 5 bucks is a great deal.

The only problem is, there are two other books in this series - I really hope Audible gets the other two books soon.

The really nice thing about both stories is that each down load is 1 story. So it's easy to listen to one or the other.

Narration: Dick Hill, while not the worst is certainly not the best by any means. He range of voices is limited and it sounds like his lips are right up next to the mic so you can hear every little slup or smack as he speaks. I really enjoyed Sally Darlings reading of a few of the books - she had a grandmotherly way about her voice, as if you were listening to Anne McCaffrey reading to you. You get a good example of Dick Hill's reading, slupping and all in the example listen. So have a listen and then thing of hours upon hours of that.

Story - Very nicely written, a classic in every sense of the word. If you haven't read any of the Dragon Riders of Pern books, start with Dragon Flight and skip anything by Todd McCaffrey (Anne's son - he can't write to save his soul).

I am always amazed when reading these books, I seem to pick up new things with each reading. And I do read this series more than listen. Dick Hill was very annoying and I'm not likely to relisten to him.

Have a listen to the Harper Hall Series by Anne McCaffrey - Same world as The White Dragon (and others in the Dragonriders of Pern Series) but with imho a better narrator!

Or start another great series by Anne McCaffrey and pick up "The Rowan" another great listen/book and very good narrator.