The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow

By: Alexie Aaron

Narrated by: Emily Beresford

Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Little Mia Cooper's ability to see the dead made her an outcast in her hometown. Several years later, she has finally managed to blend in, but her hard-won peace is threatened by the arrival of a bumbling team of paranormal investigators. Mia is drawn in reluctantly as an advisor on what, at first, seems to be a fairly straightforward case, only to discover that the Hollow has much more in store for her. An ancient evil is rising in Cold Creek Hollow. What begins as a ghost hunt will become a fight for survival.

©2012 Diane L Fitch (P)2014 Diane L Fitch

Easy listen

I read this book and got it on Audible as well for the drive home.
With this story, I didn't need to do any deep thinking. I didn't forget any of the characters and the story was amusing. I found the main character, Mia, a bit saccharin-ish and the some of the other characters were a bit hard to believe, but this, for me, was purely an escape, which it managed to do.
The performance, by Emily Beresford, left something to be desired. Almost all her "male" voices sounded alike so you couldn't determine who was speaking in the book until you heard the "said Burt" part. A good reader is able to give each character a distinctive voice and tone. Not all of us can do it, but neither can Emily. She has a very pleasant voice and enunciates very well, but it was at times almost wooden.
I doubt, if Alexie Aaron's other books are made available with Audible, that I'll get another one, especially with Emily doing the narration.

Creepy, yet fun story!

If you could sum up The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow in three words, what would they be?

Entertaining with a great twist. Enjoyable to listen to.

What did you like best about this story?

I really like Mia's character. She was a strong person despite her affinity to seeing the dead.

Have you listened to any of Emily Beresford’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, I haven't

If you could rename The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow, what would you call it?

The Dark Hollow

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed this immensely!

Some good parts...some not so good parts.

What did you like best about The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow? What did you like least?

I did enjoy the narrator Emily Beresford...although I don't know if this was the right book for her to read. There were parts that did confuse me. I don't think the story went from scene to scene in several cases smoothly. Although that could be the authors fault. I did enjoy many parts of the book, especially the last 3 hours.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The ghost farmer.

Did Emily Beresford do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

She did a very good job with the reading and making a difference in the tone of her voice. I know being a person of the opposite sex it is difficult to do a male voice if you are female. I don't like the way she portrayed Whitney I guess is my issue. For that matter...I didn't like the character of Whitney.

Was The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow worth the listening time?

In the beginning I didn't think so al all. But when I was about to give up on it, I became interested again.

Any additional comments?

All in all I enjoyed the book. As I said the last 3 hours kept me glued to the story.

plesently surprised

having gotten a few books lately thinking i was in for a paranormal thriller with a romantic subplot only to be given a romance novel with paranormal trappings, i almost passed this one by, think it was more of the same.
in the end, i'm glad i gave mia a chance.
the first two books in the series are the weakest, in my opinion, but it keeps you interested enough to keep on reading (the series had 15 novels and a few novellas so far). i hope they end up on audible sooner rather than later. I love the peeps as a whole and all the characters experience a lot of growth throughout the series (mostly in good ways, a couple not so much).
while there is a bit more focus on romance than i like in my ghostly mystery stories, there is also heroine that gets stronger rather than weaker as the series progresses and that balances it out for me.
one of my biggest problems with this type of series is that the mc (always female) starts out strong and independent and by the end of the series is weak and needs to constantly be rescued and taken care of. as soon as she is paired up the the male lead she regresses to a child-like mentality and has to be told what she should do, or to be saved from her (almost always) bad choices if she is foolish enough not to listen to or consult with the male before hand.
mia doesn't regress like that even after the romance kicks in and i love her for it.
i think the last time i met a female mc i liked this much it was harper blaine from the greywalker series and that was a couple of years ago. the series isn't quite up to the same standards as kat richardsons series but it is miles above most of the pack.

Disappointing, juvenile

This one didn't do it for me. I muscled through because I needed something to listen to, but it was tough. An OK story, mediocre writing, and a narrator that sounded like a teenager. Also, not scary...but, on the bright side for me, not gory. I have listened to worse, though.

narration killed it

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

expected it to be a horror ghost story. It seemed the author was confused with this theme by putting in so much humor that lessened the scary effect. The narrator was perfect for the humor part with her light cute tone inflection but inappropriate for scary. Voice never became serious or even paused for effect. Never heard any fear. Just continued on in the same cheery inflection the whole story and I never got any feeling of scary at all. The ghost part of the story about how it came to be haunted and wrapped up was good but there was so much humor and light voice delivery this could be a children's book.

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

disappointment that I did not get a haunted ghost story that I expected

meh

bad puns. story seemed more aimed at pre teens. hard to get through but I hate wasting money on books and not finishing them.

Story drags, narrator is annoying

What disappointed you about The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow?

The basic plot premise was interesting but the characters where shallow and even detracted from the story. The main characters came across as stilted and stereotyped and I was not able to feel empathy toward any of them.
The story dragged and I gave up listening halfway through. I am mildly curious as to what is the mystery behind the paranormal activities at Cold Creek Hollow, so, since I also have this in book form on my tablet I will probably skim the ending to find out.

Has The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, I have liked this genre for years and will continue to read books by other authors.

What didn’t you like about Emily Beresford’s performance?

Everything! Her voice sounds awful when she does male voices. Her inflections while reading the dialog make me want to slap the characters lol!

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow?

It is hard to say; there only a few I would keep as is. Most would be a total rewrite.

Any additional comments?

I feel badly about being unkind to the author and narrator but would feel worse about not putting out my opinion for potential listeners. I rely on reviews to a certain extant and purchased this because the description sounded good and other people seemed to like it.
But do keep in mind that this review is written about my experience with the book and I am not trying to produce a professional critique.

Just Awful!

Any additional comments?

I'm not sure which was worse, the narration or the story.

I want my credit back. :(

Really, really bad

The *only* reason I listened to this all the way through was because I spent a credit on it, and figured I'd suffer through it. The narrator was awful. Downright awful. Every single male character was read the same; forced, low and gruff. All non-dialogue had the same speech pattern, too.

As for the story itself, it wasn't any better than the narrator. There were a lot of unnecessary characters and unnecessary scenes.

I just wanted to find a fun, spooky book to read before Halloween. The only thing spooky about this audiobook was, well, everything.