Blood Ties: The Bonds are Permanent

The Magnolia Series, Book 1

De: Ashley Fontainne, Lillian Hansen

Narrado por: Rebecca Roberts

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!

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.

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.

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