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

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.

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

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

Weak MC

So in general I'm not the biggest fan of the The Hellequin Chronicles however I do enjoy the books and always seem read/listen to them along the way. They're good books when you looking for fast and dirty action and enjoy a MC that doesn't give a shit about killing a few bad people along the way and some decent urban fantasy and world building. This book however... Spent a lot of time with the MC hating herself, being upset about everything, not thinking and for some reason being afraid to hurt/kill really evil people. I don't want to spoil to much but the main antagonist is responsible for multiple murders, tortures, and who knows what else. He kills his own parents, kills his own comrades and is generally a all around shit guy. He also targets the MC's friends/coworkers as targets of his murder/torture. Yet somehow when the MC a literal gun to the said antagonist's head she doesn't pulled the trigger. Nor does she kill him when he is completely at her mercy again a a few moments later. She refuses, holding on to some vague idea that if she does "murder" him that she will turn evil just like him. That killing him will somehow destroy her humanity. Its shit. The human thing to do there after you find out someone is admitted murderer, torturer, and directly responsible for the murder of your mother... is to kill them with absolutely no mercy. In the end the MC does drive a sword into said bad guys chest but doesn't kill him and while a supporting character does from the HC books does it just feels off.

The other nail in the coffin of this being a weak MC is her constant fear and worry of her own power, and how since its "demon based" (not really) it will drive her to kill her friends and family. The MC is so worried that she might lose control that she doesn't even stop to think, if she does lose control there is a literal goddess a few feet away for most the book to stop her as well as the oldest werewolf in history. She is literally surrounded by people vastly more powerful than her with tons of experience and she is constantly worried about harming them. She even loses control and one point and basically doesn't do shit and gets helped out by one of these said powerful experienced people. Her hubris is huge and she is selfish. Maybe this is meant to show that she is inexperienced and young but in the end it just gets tiresome. Its not what I've come to expect from Mr. McHugh and overall this is honestly the worst book I've seen come from him.

TL;DR Weak selfish MC who doesn't use her brain enough and falls into everything instead of working to better herself. She is still pretty Marry Sue and is surrounded by a strong group of character so it doesn't matter in the end. Worst book I've ever listened from Mr. McHugh.

1 of 1 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

I wish I could give more stars!!!

Steve did a spectacular job of introducing a new line of heroes and heroines for me to goes crazy over!!!

Awesome Start, middle and End!!!<br />

Love the characters as well as story line. Perfect fit the Helliquin series. Thank you.

Brilliant

In the beginning I was concerned the main character wasn’t going to be tough enough. Then as things went along not only did Layla show her strength she also became even stronger than I expected.

I am so excited to have more Avalon stories to enjoy. Thanks to the author for another amazing story. Also kudos to the choice of narrator, great job all around.

Can’t wait for more!!

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.

5 of 5 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.

4 of 4 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

Storyline okay accents too much so couldn’t enjoy listening

Struggled with the audio book with the diverse change of accents to American, to southern etc constantly it irritated me to much to enjoy the book so I didn’t finish the story. Will read instead.

Brilliant

loved it ! read all of Steve's books All are Epic funny and you love the characters

Good book, not so good narrator.

I thought the story wad good the way it incorporated everything it gives me hope that the epic Nate Garrot will be back with a bang! narrator wasn't good in this book I found her a little boring.

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!

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 .