Understanding the Stars

By: Xela Culletto

Narrated by: Lori Prince

Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Between her father’s terminal disease, high school graduation, and a job delivering pizza, Alexandra Blackwood's life is complicated enough. But when she leaves on another routine delivery and meets Ronan, a handsome stranger with an alien-entangled past, life goes from complicated to perilous. He warns that she’s been the unwitting victim of an alien experiment gone wrong and sets out to help her escape looming abduction, and maybe win her heart.

©2017 Xela Culletto (P)2017 Xela Culletto

Interesting take on aliens

I have been a fan of sci fi, but more so fantasy for a long time I have seen many different takes on aliens and this one is quite interesting. What if they watched us through an implant, but ended up caring for us through this watching. They want to protect us from another set of aliens that wanted to use us for ill.

Good Pacing, Entertaining Read

Any additional comments?

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

I was surprised by the fast pace nature of the book. The pacing didn't take away from the enjoyment of the overall story. The narrator was spot on with the emotional side.

Mostly an YA romance story with Sci-Fi base.

I had received this book for free from the author / narrator / publisher and I'm providing an unbiased review for this book.

From the cover and synopsis provided for this book, it looked like an young adult romance book. And it mostly is. It just has a Sci-Fi base. That said, the story is fast paced and the narrator does a good job of expressing the emotions. The scenes between Alexandra and her father are specially emotional.

It needs polishing

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Xela Culletto. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Alexandra Blackwood is just a normal teenage girl on her last year of high school, and she works part time delivering pizzas. During one of her errands she meets a mysterious man who seems to eye her with what she interprets as fondness. Later on she discovers the he is a descendant of some ancient people taken from Earth by aliens thousands of years ago. They are doing some research on Earthlings, and this man has been watching Alex very closely for the last three years. But something goes wrong and both have to escape from an imminent danger.

I found the premises of this story very interesting, and I was decided to plunge into it right away. It is an easy listen and fast paced book. Sometimes too much. I missed some descriptions and introductions to new places. It was like 'Alex is here, and then she was there'. I think it would have helped to create the right atmosphere if this part would have been more polished.

The same happens with characters. They are not very developed, and what we know from them is very little. I also missed descriptions here, since I did not find out until I was half way through the book that Ronan was also eighteen. We get a couple of details when we first meet him, but from this brief description I would have guessed he was much older. He was described as a man, but I would have called him a boy, like Alex was a girl.

I was bothered by how perfect Alex was. It is not that we get a lot of information about her, but everything was so perfect that it was unrealistic. Alex's relationship with her parents did not ring true either. She came and went as she pleased and her mother did not have a lot to say about it. I just missed some of the family drama that we all have. Apart from this issues with the characters, I found the conversations forced and not mirroring real conversations. People just do not talk like that.

There is a second race of aliens in the story. They are evil, ugly and stinky. I think a story increases its value when there are nuances to the characters. The good ones are not so good, and the bad ones are not so bad. I just hate when writers simplify things and make the main character too perfect and the bad ones evil and ugly. Life does not work like this.

There is a bit of romance between Alex and Ronan. Not too much to make it annoying, but I think it is something almost mandatory in a YA book.

Lori Prince's narration was correct, and delivered a good interpretation for Alex. I missed some more voice range for the other characters, which spoiled the story a bit. I think Prince has great interpretation skills but she needs to work a bit more on her voice. There is a sentence repeated at 3:20:05, but no other audio production issues were found.

It was an okay story but, in my opinion, it should have been much more polished before releasing the book. Characters, places and events would have needed more work.

Outer-Space Comes Home

I loved the fast paced actiony feel to this story. Everything that Alexandra and Ronan experienced and the whirlwind feel to the story is great. I've always wondered what alien life forms are like and the way this shows them is really awesome, and yet they are complete jerks. I know when we finally meet them there will e some like this, but there's gotta be nice ones out there somewhere. Then there's Lori's performance and man did she do an amazing job. I loved listening to her narrate this story and all the different voices she used and all the emotions she conveyed was just pure genius.

A very good alien love story

Any additional comments?

I liked this listen right away. The narrator was the perfect choice for this material. The main character, Alex, is a teenager on the verge of adulthood. The narrator never lost that delicate balance throughout all of the alien storyline.

Speaking of, what a unique take on aliens and alien invasions. Alex started doing some dumb things, all for a good cause, but I kept rooting for her. Well, humans.

I liked the love story. Everybody should have a Ronan in their corner, alien or not. This listen is probably not for everybody but I enjoyed it.

Understanding the stars

What did you love best about Understanding the Stars?

The character was written well, This audiobook had a lot of action and so many twists and turns that it kept me interested and wanting to find out what was going to happen next.

A beautiful Tale for us YA enthusiasts

Would you consider the audio edition of Understanding the Stars to be better than the print version?

I have never read the print copy but I feel that what Lori prince brings to the table is truly invaluable in telling this story especially as she switches perspectives ,an unexpected but brilliant touch when she comes from the aliens perspective.She helps build the world we live in for 5 hrs and 59 mins .So Id say yes ;)

Who was your favorite character and why?

oo hard i liked Alex a lot .She had some seriously hard questions and problems she needed the answers to ASAP and it was a moral quandary at a twist and an ethical dilemma at the turn but she sorta finds a middle ground and goes with the the path that is the least evil and I enjoy her thought process as she works that out along with all the rest of the craziness. She made me laugh a lot throught the book.

Which scene was your favorite?

oddly I really enjoyed a section at the start of the book where Ronan explains his origin story.

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

Alex cracked me up her sense on humor is very much like mine ( granted she is probably a lot quicker lol) It' a romance as much as it is Sci fi and the depth and pull of emotion between Alex and Ronan was touching and quite entrancing.

Any additional comments?

I received this title for free in exchange for an unbiased review.I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Aliens are real in this fantasy adventure

**4.5 Out Of 5 Stars**

Alex has enough on her plate with graduation looming close, her job at the pizza place, and taking care of her father with terminal cancer. When she is told to deliver a pizza to the middle of nowhere, she never expected to have her customer be a very attractive guy who acts like he knows her. After a second night of delivering him pizza, Alex decides regardless of how he looks, he was a little crazy and a potential stalker. When he shows up out of nowhere to talk to her, she hesitantly listens to his story about how he watched her for the last three years for an advanced alien species he was raised by. Alex has no idea what to believe, but this is just the beginning of her own personal crazy.

This was a non-stop crazy ride. The story itself took place over a few weeks tops, but there was so much action, adventure and danger crammed into the pages that I was instantly caught up in the world right along with Alex. This was also fairly dark, with natural and unnatural death as well as loss a possibility for the characters. I have read my share of alien books and I can honestly say this was nothing like anything else I have read and I liked it even more so for being so different.

Sure there were moments that had the potential for romance, but Alex and Ronan were never really given the opportunity, what with running for their lives and all (not to mention the multiple escapes…). This I think would be better classified as a science fiction adventure with small hints of romantic tension added in for flavor. You do not know how many times I wanted Alex (or even Ronan for that matter) to just grab the other and kiss the bejesus out of the other. But, not that kind of book.

​I will admit that when I got to the last few chapters in the story I was about to through my ipod down and have a tantrum. The ending is not at all what I expected and I was ready to turn my 4.5 star rating into a 3 in my disappointment...but then the last chapter happened, all like 30 seconds of it and again I had hope. To say I was surprised by this book would be an understatement. I have no idea if this is a standalone story which it technically could be, or if this is the first in a series, but I really hope there will be more to come.

I was hoping this would be a romance, but I don't really think it could be classified as such. Sure there was moments of sweet romance here, but for the most part the book was an action adventure, full of danger and twists.

This review is for the audio version of the book which I listened to. The narrator did a great job in my opinion of bringing the book to life. Through her voice, the story unfolded like a movie in my mind, with all the characters being so unique and full of personality. She had the perfect inflections called for in each dangerous and awkward situation, as well as accents (such as Ronan who speaks completely different as well, and the narrator keeps it up the entire book). And the way she gave the alien species life was perfect, each species was different and specific, making sure I had no confusion as to who (what?) was talking. The start of each chapter was a small tidbit into a random character's interaction with the plot, helping to create a more involved picture behind the scenes from what Alex saw, and the narrator kept the voices concise and consistent so as not to bleed into the chapter. I enjoyed what she was able to bring to this story.

It's ok.

I have to say that this had the potential to be very good, but I felt it lacked debt and character development. I felt like the pacing was fast but the overall story was way too fast and had no flesh on it. I didn't connect with the characters, nor the story. I felt like Alex was too perfect and absolutely hated that she took everything that was happening and didn't question it or didn't freak out! I mean if I found out that I was being monitored 24/7 by an alien race I think i would have freaked!! It was unrealistic and after that I just couldn't connect with her.

Lori Prince was OK. She had a good voice for Alex but she didn't really differentiate any of the other characters. Plus her voice for the evil aliens was a little hard to listen to. I still enjoyed listening to her and know she will become better with practice.

I was voluntarily provided this audiobook for free from the author, narrator, or publisher. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.