Pretty When She Dies

A Vampire Novel

By: Rhiannon Frater

Narrated by: Kristin Allison

Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Amaliya wakes under the forest floor, disoriented, famished and confused. She digs out of the shallow grave and realizes she is hungry... ... in a new, horrific, unimaginable way... Sating her great hunger, she discovers that she is now a vampire, the bloodthirsty creature of legend. She has no choice but to flee from her old life and travels across Texas. Her new hunger spurs her to leave a wake of death and blood behind her as she struggles with her new nature. All the while, her creator is watching. He is ancient, he is powerful, and what's worse is that he's a necromancer. He has the power to force the dead to do his bidding.

Amaliya realizes she is but a pawn in a twisted game, and her only hope for survival is to seek out one of her own kind. But if Amaliya finds another vampire, will it mean her salvation... or her death?

©2008 Rhiannon Frater (P)2012 Rhiannon Frater

A light read that will entertain

What did you love best about Pretty When She Dies?

The story is a fun and fast listen. It is not too serious, and the characters are generally believable. I thought I would try one of the vampire books, as I usually listen to post-apocalyptic, Z, or mysteries. This book was no Twilight, which means it was more like a Trublood type of vamp book, and these two traits made it palatable.

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

I am not sure the story could have been. It was about right for the plot.

Excellent Vampire book!

Pretty when She Dies is great, even better I found this in a BOGO! I could't find anything else so I took a chance. I am glad I did. We are finely back to the basics of vampires. No eating, NO sunlight and NO entering without permission! Its nice to go back to the older rules.

We follow the main character as she tried to find her way in her new life and at the same time stay alive... or stay undead....as she is being followed by her mean and board creator.

The story is perfectly timed. Not rushed and kept my attention through out!!

I tend to like some "loven" with my vampires. This book gave that as well although there could have been more. :)

All around great listen.

Even if you can't get on a BOGO or sale. It's well worth a credit.
I will be checking Ms. Frater's book list. I think I may have another author to follow.

Had me from the Start

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, It start with a bang and had me through out the entire book.

Any additional comments?

I loved this series. Like some of my Zombie books, it keep my attention the whole time at work. I couldn't wait to get back to work the next day just so i could get back to my book. Get this book, you won't regret it. Please keep going with the series. I'm ordering two as soon as i'm done writing my review. lol.

Good Story!

I like the book, the narration was ok, the only problem I had was the author kept using the word the word "slowly".... "He smiled slowly" "she did this slowly" "he did that slowly" .... speed up everyone! lol I had to pretend like she didn't just say slowly again, other than everyone doing things slowly it was a good book :)

Captivating

It was an interesting take on being a vampire. I was kinda into it at first, then found that I could not stop listening and had to finish the book! currently on book 2 of the series and am really liking that author.

Pretty Awful

Move along folks, there's nothing new to see here. Same old same old and boring. The only thing new here is the amount of sex the main character has. I couldn't finish it.

Bought on sale, not worth finishing

Coming in as a fantasy fan, I wanted to see what the vampire fuss was about. This one has good reviews on Audible so I picked it up.

Gave it five hours. Can't stomach another. It's all trope, I see no attempt at originality, unless you count the fact it takes place in Texas and I guess good old southern vampires ain't too common. But honestly, I've never read a vampire novel before and I could predict each awful scene more easily than the last. Is that what fans of the genre enjoy? It's not for me. Attempts at humor, if that's what they were, felt cheap and masturbatory.

Characters are weak and make predictably bad choices to drive the uncompelling story forward through mediocre sex scenes. Vocabulary apparently targets an elementary school audience with an out-of-place GRE term hacked in to make sure your immersion in the already tenuous plot is never too deep. Writing technique is just nauseating, I'm going to guess that no editor ever laid eyes, much less pen, to this manuscript. The prose is so bad in places I'm frankly surprised any quality control agent allowed this to be released at all.

Performance is awkward, halting, and adds nothing to the experience for me. Constantly distracting with an over-the-top, sultry flair of brooding drama that doesn't fit the actual tone of the book. Every syllable is pronounced as a separate word with commas between.

Every hour was worse than the last, but I kept listening, hoping I'd find some value somewhere down the line. In the end I have up. This was a waste of time and money.

Maybe it's me?

What disappointed you about Pretty When She Dies?

Listen to the sample before purchasing this book. I have tried to listen to this book four times, but I can't seem to get past the first 20 minutes. I thought it was the narrator's voice that was rubbed me wrong, but this time I paid close attention to the author's words and I realized that part of the problem is that the beginning of this book is boring. Maybe the story gets better, but I doubt I'll give it a 5th try.

What could Rhiannon Frater have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

A different narrator.

Would you be willing to try another one of Kristin Allison’s performances?

Highly doubtful.

I Couldn't listen to this for more than 15 minutes

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A different narrator would have made this book much better. She sounded very robotic - not unlike my car's GPS voice. Very choppy. I felt like listening to finger nails going down a chalk board.

Would you be willing to try another one of Kristin Allison’s performances?

I think I will avoid them from now on, based on this experience.