Distant Echoes

Aloha Reef Series, Book 1

By: Colleen Coble

Narrated by: Rachel Botchan

Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

It feels like paradise, but deadly secrets lie beneath the waves off the coast of Kauai.

Sometimes, Kaia Oana thinks her dolphins are more humane than humans. As a mammal intelligence researcher, Kaia has learned a thing or two about the goodness and intelligence of dolphins - and as a natural scientist in close proximity to weapons developers, she's learned a thing or two about humans as well.

When a tourist catamaran explodes off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, Kaia and her trained dolphin, Nani, rush to aid the search and rescue effort. After hours of searching, an exhausted Kaia is pulled from the water by Lieutenant Commander Jesse Matthews of the US Navy.

Lieutenant Matthews is accustomed to following protocol - and a civilian-dolphin rescue is not typical operating procedure. But when his colleagues ignore the possibility that missile research had something to do with the sunken catamaran, Jesse recruits Kaia and her dolphin to help him conduct his own investigation. The olive-skinned mermaid had impressed him - in more ways than one.

As their rogue investigation takes them into the waters surrounding the sunken boat - and their personal chemistry takes them into other uncharted territory - Kaia and Jesse discover that they have become targets themselves. Someone doesn't want them snooping around that wreckage...someone desperate enough to kill.

©2014 Colleen Coble (P)2019 Recorded Books

Great story- narrator almost 5 ⭐️

What a great book! It was nice to get away from grisly murder scenes found in some of the inspirational fiction! Just a great mystery! I enjoyed the Hawaiian words to a point- but something about the narrator made the words seem very childish- she was a bit too much that way sometimes but otherwise she did well....the part of the dolphins actually communicating with words seems a reach but then I haven’t researched that! Most of these books seem to be based on some research so that’s why I questioned it but a quick google search would probably answer that!

MAHALO!!!

Having been to Hawaii, I love reading about the various familiar names and places! The story was excellent (read fast-paced), the characters were interesting and the narration was wonderful! I've already downloaded the next book in the series - Black Sands!

Pleasant story with a Hawaiian background

I skeptically got this book because it had a Hawaiian background. Many attempts of mainland authors to write a story with a Hawaiian background or culture always ended up being so disappointing and at times insulting. I found this story surprisingly interesting since I was born an raised on Oahu and eventually worked at Pt. Mugu Missile Test Center in California. I had the opportunity to go on work trips to Barking Sands in Kauai. This story did not disappoint or insult me of it’s contents. However, I did have to speed up the voice a bit to 1.1 because I thought the story was dragging and realized that the voice was speaking a bit slowly. After that, it became easier to listen to and keep track of the story. The story was everything that I hoped I would find. It also brought back a lot of memories and how I miss my Ohana, especially during this pandemic shutdown. Living on the mainland, I still call Hawaii home. At 74, I cannot go home. E Colleen, mahalo nui loa!

Forgiveness

I disliked the bad guys when she fell out of the tree because of the spider

My heart danced with Distant Echos!

Colleen Coble writes wonderful Christian books. Her romances are sweet. Her mysteries are exciting and hard to guess. Her plots are my cup of tea!

Distant Echos reads well, and the plot thickens excitedly.

I highly recommend Distant Echoes, a five star Audible book!!!

Slow start

I have listened to a bunch of Colleen Coble books but this is the 1st one I did not enjoy until I was two-thirds into it. Still good but didn’t grab me like her books usually.

Another Great book

Loved it, especially the rescues with dolphin & finally cameo appearance of the dog .

Overall, a good story that kept me hooked

I really like Rachel Bachchan, as a narrator for most audiobooks, but she had a hard time with this one. She was constantly stumbling over the words, plus the editor had a hard time getting the repeats out. I enjoyed the complicated plot, but several of the points seemed rushed. I don’t mind things being unrealistic if they’re done well, and don’t draw you out of the story, but some of the events unfolded in a way that I just couldn’t picture happening, so it made it feel unbelievable.

Hard to follow

To many Hawaiian names and phrases. Some were explained most were not. They got confusing and took away from the story!

Not a good book

This was boring and predictable. I couldn't even listen to the entire thing. I tried a few times to get into it and then just gave up.