All the Blue-Eyed Angels

By: Ms. Jen Blood

Narrated by: Melissa Redmond

Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Jonestown. The Solar Temple. Heaven's Gate. On August 22, 1990, on a small island off the coast of Maine, the Payson Church of Tomorrow joins the ranks of those infamous cult suicides when 34 members burn to death inside their old chapel. At 10 years old, Payson member Erin Solomon watches helplessly as the church and its congregation are reduced to ash and embers.

More than 20 years later, Erin Solomon is an accomplished investigative journalist when she receives word that she has inherited Payson Isle...and all its ghosts. She returns to Maine to learn the truth behind the tragedy that has haunted her since childhood, aided by the rakish mentor who's stood by her side since she was a teenager; her trusty mutt, Einstein; and a mysterious stranger with his own dark past.

Soon Erin is enmeshed in a decades-old conspiracy rooted in lust, delusion, and betrayal as she fights to unearth the secrets of the Payson Church of Tomorrow - secrets someone will kill to keep buried.

©2012 Jen Blood (P)2015 Jen Blood

good story, annoying recording

the story was great, and the actual performance of the narrator was great. But the sound editing was terrible; each time there was a line(s) overlayed, the volume was significantly louder. it made it hard to listen to with headphones

Sarcasm, mystery, romance

Story is fun. Mystery is intriguing. Love triangle entertains. Could do without some of the swearing. But that's just me...don't like lots of swearing. This is a little more than I prefer. The Kindle ebook has a few weird typos that can make you stumble over a sentence, but I hope that doesn't turn a reader away because the story is good. I'm not sure about the Audible performance. I didn't like how fast the actor reads. Also, sometimes the actor reads so fast that she sounds a little muffled, and at times the audio rose significantly in volume and it sounded strange. None of these technical issues messed up the story for me. I hope it wouldn't bother anyone else so much that they wouldn't get to the end, which isn't fully wrapped up. So, I'll want to move on to book two and get to a resolution...it is a good read.

Glad I stuck with it

At first I thought I had set the audio to read faster than the normal pace, then I was just frustrated by the narrator for reading so quickly and with almost zero affect, but by that time the story was drawing me in. I'm not sure if the narrator ever actually slowed down or I just got used to it but what I initially was irritated by became more an aspect of a first person voice of an investigative reporter and fit the story overall.
I do plan on spending my next two credits on the sequels but I'm very disappointed to find that the last two books in the series as well as the prequel are not available as audiobooks now. Especially because the series I was listening to before this has the same problem. It's extremely frustrating to find a likable series and then find that some but not all of the series on Audible.

Great atmospheric mystery

I received this audio book in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I thought that the mystery was well played out and the characters interesting. I really liked Erin as a character, she was brave, down to earth and likable. I enjoyed her friendship with Diggs and her less than stellar relationship with her mother was interesting. The story finished at a satisfying point but still had me crying out for the next installment.

The author did a great job with the atmospherics throughout and I found the town to be gloriously creepy.

I liked the narrator, however the quality of the audio wasn't fantastic with sudden changes in volume and the sound of the narrator's breathing clearly audible. Initially this was distracting, however the breathing reduced significantly after a while. Don't let this put you off as the quality of the story and the pleasant voice of the narrator more than made up for these audio niggles.

fun exhibition of Maine life wrapped in a mystery

my one criticism of the story was that I felt dissatisfied with the ending and the next book is not available on audible yet.

the performance was an excellent noir dead pan. though I sometimes found it difficult to distinguish the flashbacks from the present narrative.

Interesting and Captivating

I read a lot of mysteries, and I'm pretty good at telling where something is going, but this book seriously kept me guessing. The characters are strong, and Redmond's narration was clear and easy to listen to. I'm used to narrators trying to make the characters' voices sound different, so I was surprised to notice that Redmond didn't really do that. In this case, though, it didn't take away from the overall experience. It really sounded like Erin Solomon just telling her story.

This book also developed a great set-up for the next in the series. I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to hearing the next one.

A huge mystery with no solution.

Any additional comments?

I read the reviews for this before starting and I was still sorely disappointed with the ending (or non-ending). It does seem a shame that have to read the sequels to get the entire story. The characters were not as fleshed out as I would have hoped. Erin's obsession seems to limit the rest of her personality. The staccato wording of the writing and dialogue was pretty irritating and took me out of the story many times.

The narrator was really good at keeping up the speed. She did a good job distinguishing the character voices as well. However, the character dialogue was a bit monotone.

A huge mystery with no solution.

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

Great plot

I love Jen Blood. This story definitely keeps you going to the next book. I enjoyed it very much.

Slow Start but Worth the Read

I was surprised how much I ended up enjoying this book! It started off a little slow and the narration was a bit monotone. However, as I continued reading, I found I enjoyed the author's pace of delivering information and kept needing to know what was going to happen next. Even the narration seemed to improve as I progressed through the audio.

I really liked Erin as a character as, she was brave, smart, and down-to-earth. I enjoyed her friendship with Diggs and found her strained relationship with her mother interesting. The mystery kept me guessing until the end. Since it is a first in series, at the end of the book there were a lot of questions answered ~ but not all of them!

Although the rest of the series is not yet available on audio, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will be as I'd like to continue on with the next book.

Thanks to Audiobook Blast, audiobook received free in exchange for an honest review.

this story is really excellent

I will almost certainly buy the next one, it is a mystery story with lots of romantic drama thrown in very interesting characters.

However, this audio book is oddly quiet, I had to turn it up quite a bit to hear it at all. and one chapter was randomly at normal volume and nearly burst my ears.