Blood Ties: The Bonds are Permanent

The Magnolia Series, Book 1

By: Ashley Fontainne, Lillian Hansen

Narrated by: Rebecca Roberts

Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

LiAnn Tuck and her daughter, Karina Summers, are settling into their new life, enjoying the small farming community of Sheridan, Arkansas. The slower pace, compared to the craziness of Los Angeles, is a welcome distraction for them both. Taking care of her aging parents and their small farm is just what LiAnn needs to forget her 25-year career as a detective. And Karina's new love interest brings back the smile she lost from years of undercover work and her cheating ex-boyfriend.

The bonds...

Their idyllic lifestyle changes the minute a family friend, Cecil Pickard, pays a visit. He lives at The Magnolia, an independent living facility in Hot Springs, and believes someone is stealing from him. LiAnn and Karina offer to investigate, and they suddenly find themselves inside a living nightmare.

...are permanent.

Theft isn't the only criminal activity taking place inside the historic, stately walls of The Magnolia. Organized crime has infiltrated Hot Springs, and what they're after is not only money but life itself. As LiAnn and Karina dig deeper, they might just be digging their own graves.

©2015 Ashley Fontainne (P)2015 Ashley Fontainne

Horrifying, yet gentle... In true southern fashion

Where does Blood Ties: The Bonds are Permanent rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Top five, for sure. It would have been first, but for some reason it took me about 20 minutes to warm up to the narrator. Don't get me wrong, she is completely awesome!!! But... The dichotomy of the initial chapters being read in a southern drawl, yet quickly as though a Yankee clipped accent, threw me off, initially. Now, I understand that if she had done this in a lackadaisical true south way, it would have been over 24 hours long, and I probably would have messed with the speed settings in Audible, anyway, so her delivery was perfect and appropriate. It just took me a second, as a new englander, to get used to it.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Blood Ties: The Bonds are Permanent?

The naming of a fan/fellow author as a character was pretty memorable. Also, the crematory scene and the scene immediately afterward, are indelibly stuck in my head.

Which scene was your favorite?

The tractor running out of gas!!!! Om nom!!!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There were tons of scenes that made me want to laugh and cry. I don't know if I can pick one. The mother/daughter drunken porch scene, where they talked about relationships, was pretty emotional.

Any additional comments?

This book is awesome ! You should read it!

Audio Drama Reviews: Blood Ties...

Book one of the Magnolia series is a thrill ride that doesn’t know how to sit still. The story changes focus throughout and does so at points where the story begins to drag. This makes interest in the text a foregone conclusion. It never decreases.

As for the characters, there are two main ones. The protagonist and her mother. All the other characters are side. You could make the argument that the male viewpoint of one of the subplots is a main character, but how that particular thing wrapped up felt more like a sidequest than an integral part of the plot.

The protagonist–Karina Summers–is a character with the same internal conflict Katniss Everdeen has in the Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Part 1. The general consensus is that if she’s supposed to be a strong female lead, why is she pining over someone. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, logically.

Thankfully once the inevitable sex scene happens between her and the younger man Beau, the story takes a turn for the better. The plot points from the different viewpoints begin to weave themselves together. But by the end, all the tension is gone and you’re waiting for the book to end.

All in all, the story starts off strong, loses some steam in the middle, and any hope of an awesome climax is gone after Karina and her mother find out who’s behind everything.

The narrator does a fantastic job of keeping interest in the story, even if the content itself is borderline predictable. For that I’d give this a perfect score, but you don’t see a movie based on a reviewers opinion of the special effects.

4/5 Stars

Narrator made the story

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The story line could have been tightened up

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The ending was very predictable.

What does Rebecca Roberts bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Her narration : very professional, she nailed the voices of ALL the different characters. It was easy to follow the story because of the quality narration

Could you see Blood Ties: The Bonds are Permanent being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No

Any additional comments?

Blood Ties is of a genre that I favor however I found the story predictable and slow. The quality of the narration was what kept me reading.

Wow! You won't be able to put it down!

Any additional comments?

Rating: 5 Stars
Title: Blood Ties: The Bonds Are Permanent
Series: The Magnolia Series – Book 1
Author: Ashley Fontainne & Lillian Hansen
Genre: Mystery/Thriller/a touch of Romance
Audio: 11 Hours 39 Minutes
Length: 446 Pages

I’d like to start this review out with the fact that this was my very first audio book. I’ve heard people talk about them before, but never really had an interest in listening to them. Hearing the author’s words come to life was really amazing. I’m hooked.

BLOOD TIES: THE BONDS ARE PERMANENT by ASHLEY FONTAINNE and LILLIAN HANSEN takes organized crime to an all new high. This book has a little bit of everything in it from loving mother/daughter relationship, friendships – both new and old, broken hearts, healing hearts and crazy knock-you-on-your-butt plot twists that you’ll never see coming.

This is a book that both men and women will enjoy. I know this for a fact because my husband is not a reader, but as soon as I started playing the audio version of BLOOD TIES while we were on a cross-country trip, he was hooked. The only thing I would have changed when it came to listening to BLOOD TIES on this trip was: I would have started listening to the book as soon as we turned the truck on to leave.

Listening to this book made the endless hours in the truck enjoyable for both of us. So much so that at the end of the travel day, rather than going to a nice restaurant and relaxing after thirteen hours cooped up in a truck, we picked up burgers and ate in the truck so we could continue listening. We had so much fun discussing BLOOD TIES as it was playing, trying to figure out what the next move was going to be and who was going to be the next victim in the twisted plot.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys adult thrillers and mysteries. BLOOD TIES is an excellent read and I can’t wait for Book 2 in this series to come out!

Interesting story.

Boy this one starts out gruesome and ended with a bang! LiAnn Tuck and her daughter, Karina Summers are moving to the country from the big city of Los Angeles. LiAnn is worried about her aging parents and both mother and daughter are in need of a new place to start over.

While there Karina meets her a nice country man though for one who is not sure about starting a relationship has no problems steaming things up. Even LiAnn goes on a date but her mind is on a former boyfriend.

Then they find out some bad things are going on at a senior facility and nothing bothers Karina more than someone messing with seniors as she worked undercover in a senior facility. They soon find out that something very sinister is going on and it involves organized crime. Karina ships her grandparents and Cecil along with her mother off to Branson while she checks into things and that is when things start to get a bit intense.

The beginning started out great with a lot of gruesome mob stuff and I thought this is going to be a great one but then it sort of slowed down and I knew they were suppose figure things out about the organized crime and I kept waiting and waiting. I think this one could have been cut down a bit in length as I started to get a bit bored waiting for something cool like the beginning to happen. Then the ending it was just bam, packed full of stuff and happens all very fast.

It was an interesting story and I loved the banner between LiAnn and Karina but I just thought it was to long. It hasn't stopped me from checking out book two so it's not that I didn't like it there was just parts I thought were a bit slow.

I thought the narrator did a great job with this one!

Frighteningly good

Southern Gothic horror thriller. Not my preferred style, but if it is yours, you will be riveted. The publisher's blurb is semi-adequate, and personally, I don't care for spoilers in a review. The writing is solid, the mystery aspect is good, and all flows along seamlessly and well.
For me, it was the narrator whose audio personifications really made the difference. A Southern drawl, but not the excessively slow cadence that just doesn't work well in an audiobook, nor the elides that can be difficult to relate to when not in print. A good work was done by all.

Blood ties

Any additional comments?

"Blood Ties" by Ashley Fontainne and Lillian Hansen is a creepy Southern thriller. Having read some of Ashley's other wonderful novels, I've come to expect an enthralling story from this this author. This book does not disappoint.

How does she write so many good books?

Another great book by Ashley Fontainne! How does she do it, one hit after another with each book keeping me on the edge of my seat?

This book is about a mother & Daughter moving back to Arkansas to be with family and the dangers they discover when they get there. It has a fantastic plot. There is mobsters and organ harvesting & tons of danger!!! There is so much excitement, it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole book! Sometimes life gives us more than we bargained for. I think the ladies in this book discovered that too!

The narrator, Rebecca Roberts did a fantastic job delivering this story to us with her narration. She sounded so real and so professional. She is really good & I love her voice! She had many different voices in this story and I felt all of them were spot on!

This book is definitely a good buy! I think I want to read this one again!

Crime, drama, action, and romance all in one book!

This book is about a mother and daughter who retire from jobs as a detective and a cop only to find themselves accidently getting in the way of some Mob business.

It's got a cute little side story of love for each of them. I cant help but love that for the daughter its an average girl with a super hot guy scenerio, its about time the roles were reversed right?

The story is told from different perspectives which has always been the best way in my opinion.

The narrorator was awesome- clear and easy to understand, no mistakes as far as I noticed and voice changes from character to character.

hmmm

I liked it.. it was a little odd for me cuz I live in Arkansas and some of the accents I heard just don't exist here! It was a good story.. I'm not sure why I struggled to get thru this one tho..