A Glimmer of Hope

By: Steve McHugh

Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden

Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's Summary

From Steve McHugh, the bestselling author of The Hellequin Chronicles, comes a new urban fantasy series packed with mystery, action, and, above all, magic.

Layla Cassidy has always wanted a normal life, and the chance to put her father's brutal legacy behind her. And in her final year of university she's finally found it. Or so she thinks.

But when Layla accidentally activates an ancient scroll, she is bestowed with an incredible, inhuman power. She plunges into a dangerous new world, full of mythical creatures and menace - all while a group of fanatics will stop at nothing to turn her abilities to their cause.

To protect those she loves most, Layla must take control of her new powers...before they destroy her. All is not yet lost - there is a light shining, but Layla must survive long enough to see it.

©2018 Steve McHugh (P)2018 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Disappointed and STILL hopeful for BETTER to come

I stopped listening to the audio version several times. Each time I started back up, it was out of respect for all the characters and story lines that came before. It was not until more than half way in, that the story began to resemble the original storyline that I had come to enjoy. As it is an offshoot of the Hellequin Chronicles I think it is a reasonable expectation to "see" the prominent bones of that storyline. In addition, the voice actor has a lovely voice that eventually grew on me. However, her voice just did not match this story in my opinion. A female voice is a nice change for these badass adventures, but her tone was just not right for me. At times I thought I was listening to a Disney story and was often thrown out of the world Mr McHugh was creating in this new series. I am an avid fan of audible storytelling and the voices really make the adventure for me. Lastly, perhaps they are trying to appeal to a younger demographic (sweet!), but do not insult the intelligence of all the fans by making us have high school flashbacks. I honestly felt a bit like someone's favorite nice got to write this book (lucky girl!). Mr McHugh, if you are listening...please, please, please...let the heroes grow up a bit more in the subsequent books. I miss Nate, all of his amazing companions, and his adventures. It was the expectation of more of the former storytelling-to-come and the further development of the new characters that made this book worth while for this listener.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Back with the Hellequin gang!

Glimmer of Hope
The Avalon Chronicles, Book 1
By: Steve McHugh
Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
Oh, it was nice to see/hear the gang again! Even Nate made a brief appearance in the end! Yippee!! This has all the excitement and thrills of the Hellequin series but focused on a different direction. Same characters but adding some new ones that are really special! Wow, are they. I say, plural form because she has souls in her, she is more than just herself. She opened a scroll and she now has the powers of those souls that were trapped in the scrolls now in her. All their skills, knowledge, powers, etc. One is a demon, a warrior, an assassin, and it will that time to work things out. It is an exciting story with kidnapping, fighting, creatures like blood elves, ogres, and more!
Since the main character is the gal with the all the spirits, the narrator is female this series which makes sense and she does a fantastic job! She performs the voices for the ogres, men, and other such things and I never stopped and thought, "Oh, that is a woman", nope! Not once!. It was done so well, I didn't question, it just flowed nicely.
Great job!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Enjoyable

Really good start to this to this series, I feel that the story will keep the listener engaged and the characters have a good feel to them. If there’s one criticism that I have regarding this story it’s when a storyteller always seems have character becoming anger regarding not being told about a certain issue. I really wish that a character would at times accept that they couldn’t be told everything regarding an issue and move on accepting that it was the correct decision. However, I will leave that to the listener because it’s just my opinion. Beyond that this is a good buy.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Simply awful

Sophomoric - in the sense that this would have been cute if a high school sophomore wrote it as a creative writing exercise. Trite, ridiculous and boring. Apparently all the Ogres, elves, werewolves, demons, car crashes, infernos and serial killers in the world cannot make a story interesting. The narration in one word - over dramatic

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Overall 5 Stars

This book seems to kick off where the Helliquin series ended. Or has the series really ended? There are still some unanswered questions. What happened with Arthur, Gawain, Merlin, Herra and the rest? Did Merlin get his mind back? Did anyone finally kill Herra and that mash mob? Did Nate find his mom? Glad to see Chole, Tommy, Casey, Olivia, Remy, Diana and the mention of Elaine back in this one. Waiting for the next one. Would like a conclusion to the Helliquin series.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Dissapointing

The narration made me feel a million miles apart from the main characters and the story and thus quit reading after a few chapters. Maybe its the switch from 1st person view in Hellequin books to 3rd.. Maybe its the storyline or the childish simplicity of half the dialogs.. Maybe i just had higher standards after reading the Hellequin series..

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

It’s Okay

Interesting story line, but writing could be better. Too many filler words, like a “B” rated movie.

very entertaining from the start

I was hooked from the very start. it was easy to follow listening to one chapter a night and one hour in the morning.

great! nice to see the universe continue.

can not wait to see the rest of the stories. looking forward to part 2.

The best I can say is bleh.

We got this book after reading the entire Hellequin Chronicles series thinking that it would be similar to them, but I was wrong. The books starts out slow and it doesn't get any better from there, and to be honest we were Very disappointed with this book. It is very rare that I do not finish a book once I start reading/listening to it. I think that the author was trying to start a Young Adults series but failed miserably.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Continuing the ride

I loved the Hellequin series and this is a great spin off. There are a lot of returning characters who I loved - a smart mouthed fox being one - and some new ones who I am already attached to. I can’t wait for the next adventure.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Another great read from Steve McHugh

It was great to revisit some of the old characters. Nate was sorely missed, until the very endand, I hope he comes back in force soon. I found the Naration to be some what lacking in this book and not as good as the Helaquin saga hence the four stars. If you enjoyed the previous books then I'm sure you will enjoy this one.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great intro to a new story line

I absolutely love this author, his previous series got me completely hooked and had such a fantastic narrator.

A glimmer of hope took me a little while to get into with a combination of both new and old characters it kept me interested and the second half of the book has made me eager for more.

I found the narrator a bit more wooden but by the end of the book I couldn’t imagine anyone else.

P.s What happened to Remie’s fowl mouth I think the most obscene thing he said was arse very un-Remie like

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

outstanding

love all things related to Nate Garret. Although a spin off series you can see that it is likely to tie in to the next heliquin book. This is the 1st time I've tried an audio book in this series and I was especially impressed with the performance of narration. The story is outstanding as you would expect from McHugh.

Grate

Grate book grate fun just as good as the last series some of the same characters a few fan favourites

The performance it really good as well she has a good voice and keeps a relaxing and good flow especially when the action starts

Over all I would highly recommend this book to anyone even if you haven’t read the last series the girl knows nothing of the world so the explain it for everyone

A worthy follow on from The Helliquin chronicles!

I'll be honest I struggled right at the beginning whilst getting to know the new characters but I kept on and I'm so grateful I did, this book easily maintained the quality of Steve's Helliquin chronicles and takes the stories to both new and also familiar places !

I won't go into the story as I hate spoilers but I will say you'll kick yourself later if you don't read/listen to this book!

C

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This week

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This as just as
Great book can't wait to get the the next one

The fight of all fights

A “ Fabulous” story. Action from chapter one through to the end. Real “ kick ass” female characters made the story exciting and enjoyable and I just loved the magic and mayhem .

The beginning of a brilliant legacy to Hellequin!

I've been a huge fan of Steve McHugh's Hellequin Chronicles since the first book. When the final book in the series was released at the end of 2017 I really hoped that we'd get an opportunity to return to the same universe, and A Glimmer of Hope is a spectacular return!

The first book in The Avalon Chronicles incorporates characters that we've all grown to love throughout the Hellequin Chronicles while developing the expanded universe. Elizabeth Knowelden gives fantastic, immersive narration throughout.

I really can't wait for the next book in the series!

A Glimmer Of hope.

Congratulations Mr. McHugh what a fantastic book. Thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Great pace and so incredibly addicting. Can’t wait for the next 2 books. Love the whole Avalon world ( Hellequin Chronicles were outstanding- looking forward to hearing more about Nate too!).
Layla Chloe and Casey with the rest of Tommy’s team well just wonderful. And of course one of my favourite characters is Remy. Adorable reprobate!!
Thankyou

Well narrated too! Well done Elizabeth!