Phantom Embrace

By: Dianne Duvall

Narrated by: Arika Rapson

Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Across dimensions....

A gifted one, Yuri Sokolov was born with the ability to see spirits, but he knows better than to make contact with them. Yet he's never seen one as lovely as Cat Seddon, the woman who haunts his home and his dreams. But amid their star-crossed love, a new danger may have Yuri facing a different kind of eternity.

Contains mature themes.

©2015 Dianne Duvall (P)2021 Tantor

A unique HEA

What a creative storyline! Loved both the characters story and the narration! Bravo On to the next book

The usual excellence from Dianne Duvall.

Of course, the quality of the writing is Diane duvall's usual excellence. But the narration falls far short of what we've come to expect from these books. This reader did absolutely no research on each character's previous characterization and has failed to continue with the style and personalization of Kirsten Potter. which takes A LOT away from the depth and imagery. Too many of her characters who are British or ancient immortals have lost their accents and depth. This NEEDS TO BE REREAD by Kirsten Potter. End of story.

Wraps up a sidestory nicely

First, the book review: Really cute short romance story. It ties into the overarching plot of the series nicely without delving too much into it. You feel almost separate from it as the female character (a ghost) would probably feel. It worked nicely for the side plot that is this book. You don't need to have read the other books to follow this, but it would certainly make a little more sense when they describe parts of the main series plot points. Some nice steamy scenes, but nothing too descriptive (could be good or bad depending on your preference). Overall, the writing style, plot style, etc., are all in line with the way the other books are written. This is just a nice short jaunt slightly away from the main thread. A little less violence, a little faster pace romance - sometimes that's a needed reprieve if you're like me, and like to binge listen. This series definitely has me doing that.

As for the narrator, as many have complained, the narrator is different from the usual one who reads the longer books. I actually skipped In Still Darkness (Richart's story) due to reviews of the same narrator. So it took a few minutes to get past it. But because I really wanted to know what happened in this storyline I mentally moved on from it and tried to act like it was a new book I was listening to. It kind of worked. Obviously the characters we know and love sounded way off, but since the majority of the book is between the two main characters, it wasn't that bad and I was able to get into it.

On another note about the narrator: I don't think this narrator is bad. A lot of people complaining are upset with the narrator. I don't know how much control the narrators have over their job choices and research they can do in the limited time I imagine they're given to record the books. I actually wouldn't mind listening to her in another series. She wasn't bad at doing a male voice when she did. I wished she would have used the male voice when speaking from the male thought perspective, but other than that, she's far better than some narrators, and a million miles better than the dumb virtual voice readers they're using so much of now.

Note to Audible: if you're listening, those virtual voice books are just awful. They can turn a masterpiece into the ugly remnants of paint on a painter's palette that have all melded into a shade that can only be called lifeless brown/grey. Lifeless because there is no life in those voices. The inflections are all wrong, the pauses are either missing, in the wrong places, or not needed. Too often when listening to those books, you have to stop and mentally correct the sentence that was read to figure out how the author wrote it, because it didn't get translated correctly by the AI program. Please stop being cheap and keep the narrators working. No matter how bad any of them are critiqued, they're all 10x better than any of the virtual voices. Your listeners pay a lot of money and deserve to have a book read to them by a person that understands what is happening in the story. If you want to give us half-ass narrators, then you will have to charge less than half of your already exorbitant prices.

Enjoyable

I really enjoyed this book. It was short in length but it made up for that fact in the quality and enjoyment I had on the book. Sweet love story full of surprises!

Alternate view

But another immortal guardian finds love. Just not where you would think. BRings the past and the present both to happy ever after

Great book, so so narrator.

Love this backstory about Yuri, but when the narrator mispronounces words and cannot do accents properly it gets annoying.

Love the book, but too short

The book was great, but too short the narrator was awful. Still waiting on David story..

excellent

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall

Story great narration eh

Really need Kristin Potter narrating these. The name mispronouncements is infuriating.

The story as always is fantastic

Unexpected

Didn't think I would like it, but I lived thus story. It was good to get a follow up on Uri.