Close Liaisons

The Krinar Chronicles, Volume 1

By: Anna Zaires, Dima Zales

Narrated by: Kathleen Godwin

Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

A dark and edgy romance that will appeal to fans of erotic and turbulent relationships....

In the near future, the Krinar rule the Earth. An advanced race from another galaxy, they are still a mystery to us - and we are completely at their mercy.

Shy and innocent, Mia Stalis is a college student in New York City who has led a very normal life. Like most people, she's never had any interactions with the invaders - until one fateful day in the park changes everything. Having caught Korum's eye, she must now contend with a powerful, dangerously seductive Krinar who wants to possess her and will stop at nothing to make her his own.

How far would you go to regain your freedom? How much would you sacrifice to help your people? What choice will you make when you begin to fall for your enemy?

WARNING: This book contains strong sexual content and explicit language and is not suitable for listeners under 18.

©2013 Anna Zaires (P)2013 Anna Zaires

Critic reviews

"If you're looking for some sexy summer reads, you'll want to check out the new book series, Krinar Chronicles. Author Anna Zaires brings you a kind of 50 Shades of Grey meets Star Trek tale...." (Marie Claire)

"For diehard fans of the paranormal romance genre, author Anna Zaires's risqué new book could be your next guilty pleasure. Zaires's most recent read, Close Liaisons, combines a love story with science fiction in the tale of Mia, an unassuming college student whose life gets suddenly entangled in a dangerous, otherworldly affair." (Woman's Day)

GREAT STORY!!

Where does Close Liaisons rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The story is great but the narrator brings the experience down!! Story rank 5 stars, Narrator performance 1 star!

What other book might you compare Close Liaisons to and why?

The Kindred by Evangeline Anderson.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Kathleen Godwin?

Not sure??

Any additional comments?

Great Story!!

too much like Stockholm syndrome

There are interesting parts to the story but the 'relationship' is just wrong to me.

Good listen

What made the experience of listening to Close Liaisons the most enjoyable?

The narration was good, Ms. Godwin did a great job with both male and female voices. The storyline was plausible, for fantasy, and I liked the conflict the main character went through the love/hate dichotomy. Looking forward to book #2.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

...it's for our own good.

Horrible narration!

How could the performance have been better?

A new narrator would make a huge difference. I liked the story but the narrator almost put me to sleep.

I'm not sure...

What did you like about this audiobook?

This story line was fun and I like the idea but the dialogue and character believability are off for me. The lead female character doesn't tell her best friend anything that's going on in her life.. and she doesn't trust the lead guy at all?? He has proven to be a wonderful man and she burns him over and over and then has mind blowing sex with the guy?? How does a woman fall in love with someone and open up her body completely for him and then immediately want to destroy him? It just made me not like her...

How has the book increased your interest in the subject matter?

I really like the storyline. I'm an ancient aliens fan and this barks right up that alley. Makes you think about the possibility that a superior species co-habituating with humans and fixing our planet for the future. I love it! It's why I kept listening and why I will probably finish the series. I like where the author is going with the story I just hope the next book has better dialogue between the characters and better narration.

What did you find wrong about the narrator's performance?

Uhg, there is nothing worse than a great story with bad narration!! She has little distinction between male and female voices. The only real difference is she makes the lead male sound like a robot (which doesn't fit his character description) and her intonation is absurd. Some performers can perform the story and some just read it... this one just reads it with ridiculous up and down, drawn out intonation like she is reading to 1st graders.

Get a Thesaurus!

I was constantly bothered by the over use of the words penis and vagina. There are far too many synonyms for these words for it to be acceptable for an author to have such a lack of creativity!

Started out great...

I was skeptical to buy this one because the alien/sci-fi species wasn't really my type of book, but decided to go for because I had some credits built up.

I was very surprised when I started listening - I got interested very fast and enjoyed the story.

The narrator could have given more pause between each character, but I got over that eventually.

The male is definitely domineering and in real life, would be a totally unhealthy relationship. But let's all face the facts, in our romance books, we like a little domineering in our men! I found the book very sexy with the exception of Mia and how childish she was at points. I connected with some things she felt as I am similar to her description of being a petite brunette woman, but her reactions were a bit annoying.

If you have the credits and don't mind risking 1 - I say go for it and check it out! It's sexy enough to keep you interested for most of it. I think the last hour is when I chimed out and really already knew the outcome.

Worth a shot...

Ok, but lots of room for improvement

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Eh. I liked the overall idea of the world the author created and these not-vampire alien creatures, but I had a hard time connecting to the main character so I didn't feel as engaged as I would have liked. Mia is a 21 year-old college student who is terribly naive both emotionally and about the world in general. That would be fine, but after she makes some major rookie mistakes, Korum is just like, 'oh, it's okay because we have mad crazy chemistry but cuz you're young n dumb you just don't know so it's all good.' Huh? Really? I dunno. If you're going to have a young woman show a serious lack in judgment and common sense I guess I'd like to at least see her learn something from it. Maybe that's what's happening in the second part (it's not a cliffhanger but clearly their story continues in Book 2) but I'm not sure I really care to read anymore.

Would you recommend Close Liaisons to your friends? Why or why not?

Probably not. I'd have to read the second book to see how it continues but right now I'm not feeling it.

What three words best describe Kathleen Godwin’s performance?

Uneven. Acceptable. Appropriate? It sounds like the narrator is not a native English speaker so everyone has a slight accent. That's neither here nor there, just FYI. One little irk I had is that sometimes Godwin kind of runs into a sentence after finishing another and it makes the narration uneven, or off-tempo, sometimes putting the wrong inflection in the wrong word. Overall it was ok, if not a little cheesy at times. I can't really say if it was her performance, or the story itself, but it almost felt like she was reading to a young audience, using a 'story hour at the library' voice. If that makes any sense. With Mia's younger age, made the book sound more like YA than adult.

Any additional comments?

This book and this world definitely have potential, but I just have a hard time connecting to characters that show such a glaring lack of common sense, regardless of their age. I could see where this whole thing was going, more or less, pretty early on into the story, and it was obvious the entire plot hinged on her simple inability to really think things through. By the end it's all spelled out in alphabet block letters for her, but because there appears to be a second part to this story, I didn't feel like I really saw her learn from any of her mistakes. And since I didn't feel any connection to her, and as such wasn't connected to the love story, I doubt I will get the next book if it becomes available.

Meh

i gave this 4 stars but really it should be 3 & a half. It was good but something about it just didn't connect with me. I LOVED Twist me so I thought I'd give this a shot but it just somewhat fell flat for some reason. I love the idea of the aliens and the plot

Enjoyable but stupid.

The potential here WAS IMMENSE. It was soooooo, potentially, awesome. But the minute she mentioned the resistance, I knew it would go down the exact way it did, and it left me staggered because how could MIA BE SO STUPID? This potential grad student, with the smarts to get help with school without having to work so she's on a scholarship, was such an utter imbecile the minute Khorum appeared. Innocent I can handle. Naïve, okay. But idiotic? No. Just NO. She said it herself at the beginning. There was no fighting the Ks because they knew everything, could do anything to smudge out the resistance. In our technology, there are ways of sensing if someone has snooped on our laptops. You're telling me the Ks don't have that kind of technology? The guy implanted nano tech in her to follow her around, why wouldn't he have put cameras in her apartment too? HOW WOULDN'T HE HAVE KNOWN FROM THE VERY BEGINNING THAT SHE WAS DOING WHAT SHE WAS DOING? I'm 40 mins from the end, but I just had to write this now because I'm so irritated. It's lucky to get three stars tbh. The narrator is okay. She emphasizes certain words in a way that's irksome. But apart from that, she's okay. I think I'm going to listen to book two but it depends on how it's about to end. I know it's weird to review before it ends, but the most stupid thing just happened and I had to vent. LOL. Also, one thing that persisted in concerning me throughout was how the Ks helping the Resistance... she had no idea that they were on the human's side. It could have been BS that they wanted to reign over humanity as Gods. They could have been the Ks enemy as well as human enemies. It was shortsighted to just believe John because he said all was well. Khorum wasn't particularly likeable, and though I've seen reviews saying there's too much sex, the reason for this is there is no development in their relationship whatsoever. Mia is bitter and angry no matter how Khorum treats her. On the face of it, he actually treats her well though. He certainly cares for her, even if he is autocratic. I can understand her rebellion, even empathize. She was induced into a situation that was against her will, however, the sex wasn't. If we're to believe the sex was good enough to make her fall in love with him, why she did what she did was beyond me. I don't know why he put up with her. I wonder if Charls are fated mates or something, but so far that hasn't been mentioned. Would I recommend? I guess. If you don't mind too stupid to live heroines. And heroes that expect heroines to ask, 'How high?' when they tell them to jump.