Death and Relaxation [Dramatized Adaptation]

Ordinary Magic, Book 1

By: Devon Monk

Narrated by: full cast, Colleen Delany, Henry Kramer, Amanda Forstrom, Karen Novack, Nick DePinto, Matthew Bassett, Terence Aselford, Richard Rohan, Jason B. McIntosh, Holly Vagley, Lolita Horne

Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Monsters, gods, and mayhem....

Police Chief Delaney Reed can handle the Valkyries, werewolves, gill-men and other paranormal creatures who call the small beach town of Ordinary, Oregon their home. It’s the vacationing gods who keep her up at night. 

With the famous rhubarb festival right around the corner, small-town tensions, tempers, and godly tantrums are at an all-time high. The last thing Delaney needs is her ex-boyfriend reappearing just when she's finally caught the attention of Ryder Bailey, the one man she should never love. 

No, scratch that. The actual last thing she needs is a dead body washing ashore, especially since the dead body is a god. 

Catching a murderer, wrestling a god power, and re-scheduling the apocalypse? Just another day on the job in Ordinary. Falling in love with her childhood friend while trying to keep the secrets of her town secret? That’s gonna take some work.

Performed by Colleen Delany, Henry Kramer, Amanda Forstrom, Karen Novack, Nick DePinto, Matthew Bassett, Terence Aselford, Richard Rohan, Jason B McIntosh, Holly Vagley, Lolita Horne, Michael Glenn, Chris Genebach, Jessica Lauren Ball, Faith Potts, David Jourdan, Kimberly Gilbert, Michael John Casey, Joy Jones, Scott McCormick, Tony Nam, Eleanor Todd, Jonathon Church, Ken Jackson, Lise Bruneau, Zeke Alton, Chris Stinson, Elizabeth Jernigan, Bradley Smith.

©2016 Devon Monk (P)2019 Graphic Audio, LLC

Definitely interesting…

If not a little predictable, but still fun! All of the narrators were fantastic. The only negative thing I would say about the graphic audio is that the music was so distracting. It was loud and reminded me of Halloweentown on the Disney Channel. Other than that, it was a fun listen and I look forward to the next installments.

a lot better than I thought it would be

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would because I want to Andrews team on my top favorites but this one had quite a bit of sarcastic humor and a lot more action than I was expecting
you can take a chance on this one strong female leads a good cast performing it, I just got the second one and I'm going to start on it after I get done God bless have a great day.

Great story

Loved the story line. Narrative was great. I can't wait to read the next book.

Fun!

Below is my review from 2016 and it still stands. this is a re-read but as a listen on Audible and it's done as a radio play. I started listening to stories on cassette released old radio programs and radio plays. I loved listening to them and this was just like that. Background sounds, footsteps, doors shutting, all that fun stuff.
I can absolutely recommend this book, series and author.
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I love reading any book by Devon Monk. Each series has a distinct voice. I have my favorites of her series and this has been added to that list.
A much more lighthearted book than her others, practically a paranormal cozy. Great setting in a small town along the Oregon coast, a place I'd love to visit, especially now that I know its secret. Deities and non-humans need a place to have fun too, escape their workload, so they come to Ordinary. They leave their powers at the door in the care of the Reeds. Specifically Delaney Reed, chief of police and leader of the Reed family now that her father has passed on.
Such a superb premise, exactly what I have come to expect from Devon Monk. Only the Reeds and the other vacationing deities and non-humans know the secret. There are human residents and many visitors to the town but they are kept in the dark.
Great characters, especially the town cranky-pants. What has made him so bitter? I hope Devon delves into that in future.
The interactions between the vampires, weres, and vacationing deities is great. Rules must be followed and keeping the town running looks to be a handful.
There's a mysterious love interest, Ryder Bailey, who is back in town. Made for some interesting dreams on my part since I read this book each night just before sleep. Apparently my subconscious thinks Ryder looks like Matthew McConaghey.
A definite recommend for this and I look forward to the rest of the series.

LOVE LOVE

I love this series. I just discovered it not to long ago and I have been binge listening.

I love dramatisations but…

I love listening to dramatisations. They are, as the saying goes, “like a movie in your mind”. Unless the “background noises” get too distracting. This one I found the noises, like footsteps, a little too loud or irregular and it took me out of the story instead of adding to the ambience.

The actors were great! The story was absorbing and fun. I loved it. I may get book two with Kristine Vham narrating as she is always good.

Graphic Audio is the Bomb 💣😎💜❤️

This is My first graphic audio book, full cast, and it's amazing, truly amazing. It's like listening 🎧 to a movie in my head . Just have to add that Ryder s a real Ass ,.

More please!

This is one of my all time favorite series. It was so much fun to listen to this graphic audio. Highly recommend and beg for more books like this on the series!

This was a lot of fun!

The Graphic Audio versions of the books are so good! The banter between Delaney and Ryder is great, the story is weird and fun, and the whole experience is going to make me addicted to those books. The gods on vacation trope is better than I expected too, and I'm definitely going to continue the series.

Good story, but adaptation had some issues

I had listened to another Graphic Audio series (Ilona Andrews' Innkeeper series) and really enjoyed it. I like the Ordinary Magic series a lot, so I decided to try the GA version. The performances were fine, but the background sounds were frequently so loud that they distracted from the story. It's fine to have normal sounds (doors closing, etc.) but constant grating noise was very unpleasant, plus so loud that at parts I couldn't hear the dialog clearly.