The Enchantment Emporium

By: Tanya Huff

Narrated by: Teri Clark Linden

Length: 14 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

The Gale family can change the world with the charms they cast, and they like to keep this in the family. Alysha Gale is tired of having all her aunts try to run her life, both personally and magically. So when the letter from her Gran arrives willing her a "junk" shop in Calgary, Alysha jumps at the chance. It isn't until she gets there that she realizes her customers are fey. And no one told her there's trouble brewing in Calgary - trouble so big that even calling in the family may not save the day.

©2009 Tanya Huff (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Fantasy buffs will find plenty of humor, thrills and original mythology to chew on, along with refreshingly three-dimensional women in an original, fully realized world." ( Publishers Weekly)

A good fun listen, but an uneven reader

I've enjoyed Tanya Huff's work for years, and as usual, this was a fun urban fantasy story with quirky characters that frequently made me laugh out loud.

There are two big objections I saw in the other reviews that made me hesitant to buy that I wanted to respond to:

1.) The narrator: I'm sorry to agree, but I really wish there were another reader. There are some things she does wonderfully. She voices the Aunties beautifully, but she's uneven. Many other aspects of the pacing & narration were just flat, leaving me a bit confused as to what was going on. Several times something big had happened & I had no clue & had to back up a bit because there were absolutely no vocal cues.

That said, it wasn't enough to stop my enjoyment of the book, but enough to bug me from time to time.

2.) The Gale Family relations/incest: This gave me pause before buying, and I was leery going in, but in the context of the story it makes sense & isn't actually disturbing. (And believe me, I get wigged pretty easily by the topic - it's hard to read the word incest without an assumption of sexual assault and THAT is not my idea of fun reading.)

The Gale family is different. Alien. (Not as in they landed from outer space, but for all I know...) Not entirely human, with different rules and codes governing their behaviour that strikes me as reminiscent of some kind of wolf pack or minor fey court. If you're familiar with Tanya Huff's other work, then you can rest assured that the incest theme isn't like those in Fifth Quarter, in which it did thoroughly skeeve me out & kept me from enjoying the story. If it was a purely human family, it might've bothered me more, but the way their family is run reminds me a fair bit of royal dynasties - cousins marrying cousins to keep the blood pure. Only with inhuman pheromones & different standards. Really different standards.

Which is to say that if you're usually squeamish about such things, you don't need to let the other reviewer put you off.

the canadian accents are ok but

Narrator uses a really racist fake accent for the Japanese coffee shop owner. Fortunately he's a very minor character.

Enjoyable enough

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, although I found some of it a bit uncomfortable (the relationships between everyone - although, maybe if you go with the theory that the Gales aren't human, it works a bit better.) Nothing really complicated or twisty about the plot, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Get a better narrator

I loved this series when I read it so when I got into listening to audiobooks, I decided to listen to it while knitting (this is my latest addiction: knitting/doing chores while listening to audiobooks). This narrator is horrible! Her acting skills are abysmal! she can't seem to correctly emphasize the areas that need emphasis and the voices are way too similar. I'm tempted to narrate the book myself and send it to them for free just to have a better narration available. I can't listen to this anymore so I'll switch to Tanys's "Valor" series and pray for a better narrator. This one has been ruined by Ms. Linden!

Have to Monkey-pile on the narrator

Any additional comments?

Someone mentioned the "Canadian" accent and that is exactly what is wrong here. No idea if the narrator actually is Canadian but she sure is trying hard to sound like she is. "About" comes out "Aboot" and the emphasis on the pronunciation is *obvious. I'll add the corollary too that I AM Canadian and I don't say "aboot".

awful reading

this reader makes the choice early on to use a very racist accent for an Asian man. offensive.

Narrator Kills Book

What disappointed you about The Enchantment Emporium?

I could not get over the reader. Her delivery would sometimes be good, but mostly bad. There was is a constant struggle distinguishing between the narrator and the character that is speaking.
The sole reason I listen to audible books is so that I could multitask while listening. This book demands that I do nothing but stay still and really focus on what the narrator is saying.
For instance while driving and listing, you will find yourself with a distracting choice drive on muscle memory to your destination, or become dismissive of your safety because you realized you blanked out on the last 10 minutes and need to rewind. The book becomes too much work!
The story sounds great but the reader kills it.

Would you recommend The Enchantment Emporium to your friends? Why or why not?

no

How did the narrator detract from the book?

little distinction between characters. It felt like I was being read to by my fourth grade teacher. Not a bad thing but terrible for a multi-tasker.

Dumpster fire of Inbreeding and Weird Eugenics

The Narrator makes some clumsy tone choices and accents but overall does an ok job. Tough material to do a reading for.

Having read the Valor series of novels by Huff I had high hopes for this book. Turns out I should have read the low reviews first. To say I am disappointed is a gross understatement. I would ask for my money back but that isn't going to happen. Avoid this book at all costs.

It is almost like Huff forgot how to write. We get a snippet of something right at the start then we are whipsawed to the disgusting and weird toxic eugenic family scene in the very beginning. The tone of the family towards uncooperative men makes the "Aunties" commentary come across as a cluster of inbred backwoods hicks with a penchant for toxic and abusive behavior towards anyone who doesn't want to be a broodmare/stud.

This includes the implications of forcefully changing a gay man into not being gay. Seriously? Magical conversion therapy for a family Eugenics project? Can just call this group Kentucky Death Eaters and get to something better.

The casual mention of family inbreeding is gross. The lazy romance attempts are worse. They could honestly cut out the bad romance and Eugenic Inbreeding and focused on the magic shop and its weirdness and we would have a way better story.

Even the main character is unlikeable and gross for going along with the "aunties" schemes in one form or another.

Seriously, what the hell happened? We know you are a way better writer than this.

Waste of money and time

How on earth did this get published? The voice acting is very good, I'll give it that much. The accents are recognizable and understandable. That's the only good thing about it though. The main characters are nothing but a family of manipulative, amoral, incestous Mary Sues. "The Aunties" opinion is that since Aly failed to use magic to "change Michael's mind" about being gay, her heartbreak is her own fault. They want his blood in their family and might just change his mind for him anyway if they get the chance. And these are the good guys! The "romance" between Aly and Graham (a most unfortunate name for the love interest given that she's in Calgary to investigate the disappearance of her "Gran." I can't tell you how many times I had to rewind mentally while listening to this.) is the most ludicrously superficial I've seen since reading book one of "Twilight." She was devestated over Michael and told her father he was The One for her but then snaps up Graham without ever a FIRST thought, let alone a second. I'm really wishing Audible had a return policy. I really enjoyed Tanya Huff's first couple of Valor books; I'm very disappointed in this one though. I can't finish this book or recommend it.

Couldn’t finish the introduction

This book is extremely confusing. The main character jumps around into different settings and I can’t keep track of what is happening. At first I thought it was just me not paying attention and then I thought I must have it on shuffle. I wanted to like this book but i find it so choppy that I have zero interest on spending any more time on it.