Stolen

Women of the Otherworld, Book 2

By: Kelley Armstrong

Narrated by: Nell Canning

Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

It was in Bitten, Kelley Armstrong's debut novel, that 30-year-old Elena Michaels came to terms with her feral appetites and claimed the proud identity of a beautiful, successful woman - and the only living female werewolf.

In Stolen, on a mission for her own elite pack, she is lured into the net of ruthless Internet billionaire Tyrone Winsloe, who has funded a bogus scientific investigation of the "other races" and their supernatural powers. Kidnapped and studied in his underground lab deep in the Maine woods, these paranormals - witches, vampires, shamans, werewolves - are then released and hunted to the death in a real-world video game. But when Winsloe captures Elena, he finally meets his match.

©2004 Kelley Armstrong (P)2009 Penguin

Poor choice of narrator.

The story is good, the narrator is not suited to this series, it takes away from the story. The narrator for Bitten is much better.

Such poor narration

Nell Canning has a very limited range of voices and levels, sometimes nearly speaking in a monotone. She really, really takes away from the story, which I've read before and enjoyed. I am sad that as popular and talented an author as Kelley Armstrong has been so poorly served by her audiobook publishers.

I don't think I'll be re-listening to this. I'll re-read the book instead.

Great story, but poor narrator voice

I really loved the first book in this series, and the cool, clear voice of Elena. All other voices were very good, very distinctive.

I was really looking forward to this book. And then I heard the narrator. Her voice is very... butch. It has an unpleasant adenoidal quality to it that is making it hard for me to continue (I'm only 2 hours in right now). Her interpretation of the other voices is also very, very poor. I often have a hard time telling who is saying what.

I will continue listening, because I really want to find out how the story ends. And I am desperately hoping that the rest of the series (which has a different narrator, thank God!) will be a much happier listen.

This one gets pretty painful

I suppose I should start this review off by saying that this is the third time that I have read these books however it's the first time listening to them on audio so my review might be slightly biased. The books are amazing, Kelley Armstrong is a wonderful writer and this series is one of my absolute favorites. I picked up the first book in a secondhand bookstore around 2003 and have been a fan ever since. The first book, Bitten, was performed beautifully. This one however, well let's just say her interpretation of the voices was like fingernails crossing on a chalkboard. There is a HUGE difference between a southern twang and a Louisianan drawl. Clayton is from Louisiana and has a drawl, this is emphasized repeatedly throughout the books. A twang is not a drawl, and this narrator used a twang entwined with a Neanderthal type muffled low octave tone that one assumes meant she was trying to sound masculine, when really it sounded exactly like it sounds when women make fun of men and use a masculine tone to make them sound dumb. I realize she's not a dude and that she was just trying to sound like one, but it came out sounding forced and completely fake to the point of ruining the story, as did all of her male character voices. The psychologist sounded like Sigman Freud and so did the sorcerer. Her interpretation of the characters voices was almost too much for me to bear, she even managed to make Elena sound masculine most of the time, it was just painful. She also mispronounced so many words I was beginning to wonder if she was just winging it. Where the heck was the director during all this? She pronounced phenobarbital like Pinotbarbital. (She must have forgot what ph sounds like.) There were countless others, that one just sticks out the most. I stuck it out though, like a diehard fan I grinned and bared it, but I don't think I'll ever do that again. There was one voice that I truly believe she nailed, Ruth Winterbourne, I think she was born to perform that voice. If you want my advice though, and you must if you're reading this review, read the book yourself. If this is your first time, just read it yourself don't listen to the audio. The greatness of the story and the characters will be lost in the gut wrenchingly painful performance of this narrator.

Book was good narrator sucks

The narrator forgets the main character is a woman when she switches to a male character. All other female voices sound perfectly fine. The main character Sounds more like a teenage boy going through puberty. Kills the whole vibe.

Love the story, not the narrator

Any additional comments?

The studio really should have taken the story into account before choosing their narrator. She isn't a bad narrator, she was just bad for this story. Elena is a 31 year old urban woman who just happens to be a badass werewolf. Nell Canning sounds like she should be voicing grandma's on the family farm. It's just not a good match.

Great Story - Wrong Choice in Narrator

I loved this story; however, the narrator was the completely wrong choice! She sounds a lot like the older woman in NCIS Los Angeles, not a young woman. The previous narrator was great, why did they switch? I literally almost couldn't finish listening to the book.

Reader from Bitten so much better.

Disliked narrator. Should've stuck with Bitten narrator voice is too brash same voice all characters

Bad voice acting

I HATE that they changed the voice actress in the 2nd book. The first audiobook had the best voice actress, the perfect Elena, this one is low and dorky. Hard to listen to this one after the first audiobook.

Loved the book but didn’t care for the narration!

I have to agree with the others who rated this book: that the narration wasn’t good. The story was good but not the story telling. I feel bad saying this but I was disappointed.