In Search of Unicorns

By: Youlanda Brewster

Narrated by: Christa Lewis

Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Romance is in the air, and its heartbeat sounds of laughter.

If you or anyone you've known has ever enjoyed a Harlequin romance novel or a Hallmark card, you will fall in love with this collection of tales. Fall into "The Bag's...a Lady" and watch a sweet but persistent bag lady find a young New Yorker the perfect mate, whether she likes it or not. Sample "No Greater Love" and laugh over the exploding turkey as Silicy Tucker finds herself caring for her ex-husband with cancer and serving as guardian of his new wife. Hold your breath as a young woman fights to keep from falling in love with her ex-husband in "Love Can Build". I dare you not to laugh at "Nappy & Me" as a young woman recounts her life with a very special friend who has a habit of coming out of nowhere and returning there. See if you can withold the laughter...and a few tears when a young woman loses her fiance to another woman on her wedding day, but they make it up to her by giving her their daughter in "The Gift".

©2013 Youlanda Brewster (P)2014 Youlanda Brewster

Great Performance-But Not the Right Book For Me

This was described as a modern take on fairy tales. Perhaps I am not as up-to-date on my fairy tales as I thought I was because I could not find any obvious parallels. I did enjoy the last two chapters/stories a lot.

The writing style is good, but most of the subject matter matter did not hold my attention, this is probably because I don't particularly care for fantasy. *I received this book in exchange for my review. Again, if you enjoy fantasy, you'll probably enjoy this.

Christa Lewis' narration was exceptional, professional and spot on for the different characters – especially as there were new ones introduced almost continually however, Lewis gave them each their own voice and unique personality. Great job!

Notes: There are some risqué situations to warn you of – nothing too far out, but be prepared. Other than that, I did not notice any strong language and/or violence just speak of

Rating PG-13
Overall 3 stars, narration 4 stars, overall 3.75 stars.

I think the author gave me this book in addition to one I had to agree to review. The other novel pulled me in and kept me going the entire time. I believe I gave four stars in every category. Please don't let my review dismiss you from listening to the book if you like the description on the website or by publisher's summary.


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Women's Fiction Short Stories

This collection of short stories had less of a magical fairytale feel than I was expecting, more general women's fiction. I enjoyed some of the shorter quirky ones the most, though none in particular stood out to me.

I listened to the audiobook edition of this book, which I received free in exchange for an honest review. The narrator was fantastic, enhancing my enjoyment of the stories.

Great Concept...Mediocre Execution

I LOVE the idea of adult fairy tales. But by the term 'adult' I expected something steamy or possibly violent. When I hear fairy tale, I expect romance. Not even physical romance so much as emotional romance. I'm not sure what about these stories is really like a fairy tale, though; they seem like mildly romantic short stories that you can assume all have 'happily ever afters' because of the use of the term fairy tale to describe the book. I think 'fables for young adults' might have been be a better subtitle.

The first story didn't follow any sort of timeline which made it extremely confusing. Which is unfortunate, because I feel like this story had a lot of potential (more than any of the others in the book). The way it was done, though; leaves a lot of holes in the story that were possibly filled, but I may have missed them with the skipping around with no segue.

There were a couple of stories that I did like and that made sense for the most part. Interestingly enough, they both contained people who were significantly older than the other characters in the story and I'm not even sure if one of them would even qualify as a 'romance' so much as a fable.

While the narrator did a good job, I don't think this book is appropriate for listening without a bit of editing to put some notes in the stories to give you an idea of the timeline of the story...I hope the physical book has some sort of differentiation between flashbacks and now. Also, with the audio format, its more difficult to go back just a paragraph so you can more easily correct the 'Wait, what just happened?' get a sense of what happened that is causing the confusion and hopefully clear it up.

Overall, there is potential here, but I don't think I would purchase this despite the enticing subtitle. There just isn't enough feeling behind the writing. Many of the characters lack depth and emotion.

I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review.

A Variety of Short Tales

Narration - Christa Lewis - Pretty Good. She covers some accents and dialects, has a good narrative voice, a good sexy or sultry voice along with solid male characterizations.

The book is a compilation of eight romantic short stories by the same author.
I liked it, BUT, I guess short stories must leave me wanting. I wanted more details for each of the stories. I wanted to know more, I wanted longer tales. So I guess that's a good thing. The stories were engaging enough that I wanted more, not less, but with that said, I did find myself confused on multiple occasions because of the nature of the short story. I felt that at times important details had to be sacrificed in exchange for brevity. Almost like taking an hour long serial and only having a half an hour of air time to get your point across. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't

There are spiritual elements, or maybe spiritual interventions in some of the stories. There are some steamy bits in a couple of them. And there were a couple that revolved around a longing for children.

I thought Christa did a great job of narration with each story containing a different mood and setting requiring a great deal of versatility on her part.

Honestly, a couple of these stories have potential to be developed into full length novels that I would definitely read.

I received a copy of this audiobook free of charge from Audiobookblast in exchange for an unbiased review.

Unique Grasping Read

If you could sum up In Search of Unicorns in three words, what would they be?

Unique, Endearing, Enjoyable

What did you like best about this story?

The second story was slanted with almost humor and depth in all the stories in the read. Each story in this book was unique and gave you tears, laughter, curiosity,and mindfulness.

Which character – as performed by Christa Lewis – was your favorite?

They were all great characters but all the ones in the second story were my favs.

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

Expect the unexpected.

Dizzying

Would you try another book from Youlanda Brewster and/or Christa Lewis?

I have heard other stories narrated by Christa Lewis. I enjoy her performances. I may preview another book by Ms. Brewster. I'd like to read this book on my own. See where I became lost in the audiobook version.

What could Youlanda Brewster have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Excellent question. The author left me lost for most of the narration in each story. The first story left me wondering if I was in the present time or in the past. The second story jumped forward a little too fast and totally lost me at the end. The third story was a nice story about an unexpected friendship. The fourth story moved too quickly after setup and left me confused. The fifth story would have left me saying "huh" if I hadn't been previously setup to expect an imaginary friend. I'm still listening, but I have to wonder, is it the written text that has me confused or the pace of the narration? I'm not sure. I am trying to listen to each story as a new beginning. But, for now,....I'm still whirling in confusion.

Did Christa Lewis do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Some stories were better than others. Ms. Lewis has a nice variety (southern, snarky, britsh,...). I also like her male dialog narration.

Any additional comments?

I received a copy of this audiobook via audiobookblast in exchange for an unbiased review.

great book

"I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com".

loved the book. its a great read.