Cryptic Blend

A Paramour Bay Cozy Paranormal Mystery, Book 7

By: Kennedy Layne

Narrated by: Annalyse McCoy

Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Ghosts, goblins, and ghouls go bump in the night in the latest installment of the Paramour Bay Mysteries by USA Today bestselling author Kennedy Layne . . .

The residents in the small coastal town of Paramour Bay are sorting through their unwanted belongings and setting up card tables in their driveways in order to get ready for their annual community garage sale.

Raven Marigold hasn't lived in town long enough to contribute to the garage sale, but she sure is ready to find some basement bargains. Armed with a small reserve of cash and a large tote for her treasure trove, she wasn't prepared for her familiar to make a shocking discovery of an authentic sapphire pendant. You see, the disturbing part of such a find was that the pendant belonged to a resident . . . one who'd been buried with it.

A haunted cemetery, an empty crypt, and a rather curious raccoon are all cryptic clues in another magical mystery that will leave you gasping for breath until the very end!

©2019 Kennedy Layne (P)2022 Tantor

New narrator

I couldn’t tell who was talking. The characters in the previous stories had their distinct personalities and voices which made the book come alive for me.

New Narrator

Warning to those who have made it this far in the series, the new narrator changes the listening experience completely. Characters don’t feel the same, nor does the story. If the previous narrator came back I would listen to the rest of these super adorable books, but alas this is where the series ends for me.

Hollie Jackson Please

I love this series! I j would haves loved if the author could kept Hollie Jackson as the narrator for the whole story. Hollie has away of capturing the essence of the character in this series. I feel I’m so used to Hollie that this new narrator is lacking for this series. Her execution of the LOL moments falls flat. Sorry, but I wish authors would stick with one narrator unless the original receives complaints.

More Meh Than Magic

I want to start by saying that the narrator switch did not ruin anything that I wasn't already struggling with. Annalyse has a slightly higher younger more robotic sound but both she and the previous narrator are not my favorites mostly because they do not have very easy to distinguish voices for different characters. This series just kind of continues. I am not as feeling pulled in and delighted as I was at the beginning. There is no character development and there is no progression. Granted we are in book seven and it seems that she has been in Paramour Bay less than a year. Her descriptions of weather suggest it is summer and she says she arrived here last October, it is not clear but this is my best guess. What is also unclear is any growth. Raven's hand tingles with magic and she still has no idea how to hone in on what this means. There is really no focus on her learning or crafting magic which had been my favorite aspect of these stories. Leo is still written off as an unreliable narrator due to the necromancy used to keep him here and the never ending jokes about his being high all the time. Honestly the joke feels played out, yes we get it your cat is literally always high and discussing how he is always getting new strains of catnip that get him even more high. In terms of relationships with the main cast they also aren't developing. Heidi lives in town now but I have no sense of growth and change. Sheriff Liam is still dating Raven and they are often dancing around issues as Raven is trying to keep her witch identity under wraps but nothing truly new. Everything is just feeling more of the same which means when there is cliff hanger endings or moments that are supposed to elicit emotion I don't feel anything because I don't feel emotionally invested in characters that are beginning to feel more meh than magic. Which really bums me out because these characters and these concepts were very interesting but I want to see that grow into something not simply repeat itself. I had already purchased the next two audibles in this series but I am really losing steam for these stories.

Too much repetition - but fun story

Ok the whole concept of this series has so much potential - i have tried to hang in there to see if things improved - but its starting to feel like a large portion of the books are now recaps of the previous books! They’re short, people can go and read them to catch up - why don’t we move on and stick to the new content, without diluting and losing focus.
I don’t mind the new narrator - as another reviewer pointed out, both don’t distinguish characters that well, so you have to pay attention - which is becoming more laborious with the recaps of past stories.
If you can look past the back & forth, and repetitions, this is a fun series - albeit a little slow on development.

Cute

Cute story but shouldn’t have changed narrator she has a nice voice but after being so used to the other this didn’t work!

Change in Narrator

The change in narrator really matters, at least for me. Especially when you're 6 books in. I liked the story, but struggled to listen due to the new narrator as she was so different from the original.

Love this series.

But … the cat - Leo and Ted’s voices are not right in this one book. Made it confusing

But the story line goes smoothly and well read.

New Narrator

I’ve been enjoying this series for quite a while now. A new narrator was used for this particular book. I prefer the other one, though. The previous one gave better nuances to each character. Also, the story is getting pretty redundant with backlog. 

Narrator Change Ruined It

I’m not sure why authors switch narrators midway through a series, and to make such a drastic change as this one ruined the series for me.

You can’t go from a high-energy narrator to one who is better suited for non-paranormal, dull-as-dishwater stories about the dangers of knitting.

Sometimes a boring cozy is needed to lull you to sleep, but I listened to this series because it was fun. It’s really not anymore.