Forever Black

By: Sandi Lynn

Narrated by: Felicity Munroe, David Benjamin Bliss

Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

When Ellery moved to New York with her boyfriend, she thought they’d live happily ever after in their small New York apartment. She never thought he’d pack his bags and leave because he “needed space”.

With her newfound single status and fear of being alone, Ellery buries herself in her artwork and paintings until one night she helps a mysterious intoxicated stranger get home safely. Little did she know the mysterious stranger is none other than CEO and millionaire Connor Black. After finding Ellery in his kitchen the next morning and assuming she broke his #1 rule about sleepovers, he becomes intrigued, not only by her stubbornness and defiance, but by her kindness.

Connor Black, emotionally dead and damaged, stemming from a personal tragedy, made a vow to never love or fall in love with a woman, until Ellery Lane walked into his life by accident. After she opens up and shows him her world, Connor starts to feel emotions and feelings he never knew existed. Despite the rumors and warnings regarding Connor Black and his use and misuse of women, Ellery finds herself being drawn into his world.

Ellery knows they can never be together because she is harboring a deep secret that could destroy Connor emotionally forever. Join Connor and Ellery as they embark on a journey of courage, love and strength. Will it be enough to save them?

©2013 Sandi Lynn (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

50 shades of gray now available in black...

Would you try another book from Sandi Lynn and/or Felicity Munroe and David Benjamin Bliss ?

Ugh. Agreed. Train wreck I couldnt not listen to. Get a life and forget this series. Girl needs rescue. Man steps in ego, money and all.

What could Sandi Lynn have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Not write it.

Not for me.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

The book might have had a decent story line but the female character was unbelievably childish in her actions and language. Hard to listen to unless you're 16.

So, so, so bad

What would have made Forever Black better?

This story had potential. The first 1/3 of the book would have been okay if the grammar and sentence structure issues weren't so distracting. Once the couple finally decided they loved each other, it just got ridiculous. They loved each other! They had a fight and broke up over something stupid! Wait, now they're back together! Whoops, another breakup! Someone was always storming out and swearing they were over. And don't even get me started on all the throwing of cell phones, vases, glasses -- the heroine was always shattering something and having to pick up the pieces, at which point the hero would swoop in out of nowhere (even if he had previously stormed out and slammed the door) and tell her not to pick that up because she was going to cut herself. After the breakups, they suddenly got back together without even discussing what caused the breakup to begin with.SPOILER ALERT:The cancer thing could have been a really interesting/challenging conflict in the book, but instead it's completely unrealistic. It was 3/4 of the way through the book that they finally mentioned what kind of cancer she had (seriously, who confides in their best friends that they have "cancer" without specifying? Is it breast cancer? Lymphoma? A brain tumor?), and once it was revealed, she was suddenly in a magical clinical trial with few side effects, and then she was cured.

Has Forever Black turned you off from other books in this genre?

No. But it's turned me off from other books by this author.

What three words best describe Felicity Munroe and David Benjamin Bliss ’s voice?

I can't do it in three words :) Felicity Munroe was fine on the women's voices. She's very perky sounding, which would annoy me on most books, but I thought it worked for this heroine and her best friend. I thought she made Connor sound a little robotic, especially during the love scenes, which I assume were supposed to be steamy but somehow weren't. David Benjamin Bliss only read one, very short chapter, which seemed kind of thrown in for no apparent reason. He did an okay job reading it, but the chapter itself didn't seem to advance the story at all.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Forever Black?

If I could play editor, the first thing I'd do would be to correct all of the atrocious grammar and sentence structure issues. I haven't read the book in print, thank goodness, but based on the Amazon reviews, the spelling and punctuation errors are just as bad as the grammar. Descriptions are simplistic and repetitive (drinking game: take a swig every time someone "lightly laughs" or "heavily sighs" -- you'll be drunk by the second chapter), and the author switches back and forth from past to present tense at random, often in the middle of a sentence. There are also word choices that just don't make sense. How do you touch someone "fluently"?After a thorough copy edit, I'd probably cut the random Connor chapter because it did nothing to advance the plot or even give any insight into Connor's character.

Any additional comments?

I could have ignored some of the weaknesses in the story, but when you can actually HEAR how badly a story is edited, that's a deal breaker for me.

Save your Credits

What disappointed you about Forever Black?

Lack of depth. I felt as if I was reading a creative writing assignment handed in by a high school student (minus the sex). Everything is literally spelt out you do not require thought or imagination to enjoy this story, you just wont enjoy it. He spread the blanket out, I put the picnic basket on the blanket, he opened the basket, we ate the picnic. This step by step process of every minuet moment is unnecessarily listed. There is no character development, no relationship development, and a lackluster story.

Would you ever listen to anything by Sandi Lynn again?

NO. I would have considered this book to be self publisher quality and worthy of a free kindle download that you delete 2 pages in. I can not believe that money was invested to turn this book into an audible copy.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Her inflection was fine, she read smoothly, pronounced well. She was okay and probably would have been enjoyed more if the story wasn't so awful!

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment, I can't believe the price of this book, what a waste of a credit.

Any additional comments?

This should be deeply discounted or removed from this site, this makes me doubt the quality of books to be found.

Had great potential...

Forever Black started out good. I liked how the characters met and enjoyed their different personalities. It wasn't the typical meeting that is so common with this type of book. Then the story took a turn for the worse.

I initially enjoyed Ellery I thought she was fun and I loved the banter between her and Connor. As far as not doing what he asked and making him try new things. But along with the story taking a turn so did the character. She's a 23/24 year old woman that acts like a self centered teenager! How many tantrums and objects can you throw before people want nothing to do with you!

I finished the story but it was difficult.

The narration was ok.Felicity has a different dialect for certain words (bag sounds more like beg) that got on my nerves and I felt some of the character voices were a bit over dramatic.

Not That Great

The story was predictable and the character's flat. If you are offended by F____ bombs then avoid this book as there are a lot of them and all completely unnecessary. The narrator was decent though. Overall, not a book I could recommend.

Rewrite and Revise

I finished listening to this book, but it was painful. At the halfway point, I began rewriting the awkward passages in my head. This book sounds like a rough draft, dictated into speech-to-text software and then never revisited. I will avoid this author in the future.

Eye roller

Unfortunately, I felt like I rolled my eyes way too much. I wouldn't waste my credit. I felt like author was trying to be like the Gray series.

Not my style

What disappointed you about Forever Black?

If you are looking for explicit sex scenes, this will be your book. I stopped listing after 5 minutes.

Would you ever listen to anything by Sandi Lynn again?

Nope

How did the narrator detract from the book?

no

Forever Black

Any additional comments?

Just over eight hours of listening, Forever Black is book one of a series. Forever Black was presented to me in an Audible.com member special of $4.95 books. Considering the blurb was an interesting premise … a beautiful young woman accidently meets a handsome CEO … was intriguing enough to jump into a series.

Throw realism out the window with character behavior and medical research. The female lead has the maturity of a child, the problems of an adult, the body of a woman. It’s pretty much representative of the the writing, i.e., very teenage-girl-like in prose, situations, character deportment … silly, contrived, and juvenile … especially the female lead.
Read by Felicity Munroe and David Benjamin Bliss … okay. The reader(s) did the best they could with the material they had. No trouble discerning who-says-what-to-who.

If you like sappy, girly, eye-rolling fantasy, have at it … but this type of make-believe-50-shadeish-stuff isn’t my cup ‘o tea. Fast-forwarded a lot … finally couldn't finish, and not interested in subsequent books in the series.