Briar

Midnight's Crown Series, Book 1

By: Ripley Proserpina

Narrated by: Stephanie Wyles

Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

The sun is Briar Hale's enemy. All her life she's been in the shadows, sheltered and protected, warned and smothered. Not anymore.

Briar is ready to take control of her life, and step out into the sunlight for the first time. A newly enrolled graduate student at Boston College, she's determined to discover why her body betrays her. And she knows just the scientist to help her.

Professor Hudson Nors has secrets of his own - secrets he's kept for eternity, and which he never wants to see the light of day. No matter how wonderful Briar smells, and how important she feels, Hudson decides the best thing he can do for her is stay away.

Suddenly, Briar, with her strange condition and boundless curiosity, turns the world Hudson's spent centuries perfecting, upside down. But this pale, fragile girl has a spine of steel, and if Hudson won't help her, she'll find someone who will.

By a luck, or fate, Briar meets Hudson's brothers, Marcus, Valen, and Sylvain. Like Hudson, they can sense this human girl means something important to all of them. But what could four, vampire brothers possibly have to offer a human?

Unwittingly, Briar brings together these immortal brothers, and teaches them, eternity is too short to give up on hope.

Contains mature themes.

©2017 Ripley Proserpina (P)2018 Tantor

great book but....

I have audible escape. this and book 2 are in the escape area but then, the final book is full price. why would I want to buy book 3 if I don't get to have 1 and 2 permanently also.
I loved the 1st book, well made.
I would have liked to have heard the full series. I will not continue with the rest knowing that I can't finish 😤
Shame.

Interesting vampire series

3 Stars

Overall Rating ★★★
Plot ★★★★
Humor ★★
Characters & Character Development ★★★
Narration ★★★

Story: I felt like Briar was a bit naive and immature to be going out into the world on her own. I did not love her as a character. Maybe she'll improve for me in the next book. I liked the guys. Hudson, Marcus, Sylvain, Valen. I think I'm getting tired of this type of plot where the vampires cannot control themselves when it comes to humans and smelling their blood. It's been done too many times before. I literally cannot contemplate why Briar insisted on going out in daylight. Honestly, someone could accidentally bump into her, knock her hat off... Anything could happen. Also, she’s been dealing with this condition for so long, yet she got burned the first day of school. She also, didn’t charger her phone and got lost in the woods. Obviously she’s not responsible enough to be on her own yet. Overall the plot was okay but I hope that Briar will mature a bit in the 2nd book if I continue.

Narration: Stephanie Wyles - She did a pretty good job. She's not one of my absolute favorites but she's good.

A little slow but solid start

First I love the MFC Briar. She’s smart and just a really good person. This first book is a little bit slow. For me it didn’t get good until after the genetic test of Briars blood. That was towards the end. Like most first RH books, this is very low steam. PG and maybe 3 non-passionate kisses. The story premise is great and a very unique twist to a vampire genre. I also had no issues with the narration. I thought the narrator did a great job.

Interesting Vampire Concepts

First let me say that the narrator is definitely not my favorite. I had to listen to the book twice just to get past the mens' voices. They all sound the same and not good. Also, Briar's voice sounds like a computer animation in parts--very robotic. However, the concepts of vampirism and the scientific concepts are fresh and exciting. Overall, this is a good RH, slow burn, adult novel. If you have the time and capability it will be much more enjoyable read than listened too.

I love it

I love this series i bought all 3 book nice to see a good vampire pack romance fantasy series

Loved!

I almost passed on this book due to a bad review, but I’m so glad I didn’t! The story and narration was amazing, and set up the next book perfect.

Poor narration, insufferable main character

I REALLY wanted to like this audio book because I loved the premise. Unfortunately, there were two huge problems I had while listening that I could not get past. The first is the monotone and confusing narration. The narration was so monotone and boring it took away from the writing. No emotion or inflection to be found basically anywhere in this audiobook. And when there was emotion or inflection it sounded disingenuous and fake. I also found myself confused when the narrator would do the male chapters. It was difficult to tell if the male character was speaking or voicing a thought in their own head because the narrator would use her male voice for both occasions and even with context it was confusing.
The other issue I had with this book was how often the female protagonist would put down other women. She is often portrayed as a “not like other girls” type. I know this is a common thing in reverse harem books but it’s a tired perspective that only illustrates the internalized misogyny the author holds. The scene where the main character leaves her first lecture to find the professor/Hudson being swarmed by women who are “wearing eye makeup and batting their lashes” at him made me close the app completely. Since when does wearing eye makeup mean someone is flirting? That literally made me laugh out loud because of how ridiculous it sounds. Also, using “batting their eyelashes” to demonstrate flirting is an overused and inaccurate way of describing actual flirting.
Again, I really wanted to like this book. A young woman who is pursuing a graduate degree in a field of medicine and meeting her mates through that process intrigued me. It’s a fantastic idea for a paranormal reverse harem but the execution of the writing and narration was disappointing and frustrating.
I don’t care that they are fictional women, just please stop putting other women down to make your main character seem “better” or “different”. It actively takes away from the story and reinforces misogynist ideals.

Terrible narrator

I tried to give this book a chance, I really did. I listened to the first 2 hours of the book before I just couldn’t take it anymore.

I think the book itself might be good, but the narrator is terrible. She pauses constantly in weird spots and has such a monotone way of telling the story.

When she’s speaking as a character’s voice she’s actually pretty decent. But while she’s telling the story and not doing a voice, it’s so hard to follow. The weird pauses in the middle of sentences are killing me.

One of my Favorite Stories, kinda ruined

The narration sounds like it's a computer rather than an actual person. While the characters are given differentiating voices, the overall narration is stilted and the inflections and intonations are all wrong. There's even a mechanical sort of twang at the end of every sentence, making it sound more like your on hold for a business and asked to push one for English.
If I hadn't already read this story several times on my own, I would have found it impossible to enjoy in the least. As it was, it ended up white noise while I worked on something else.

couldn't finish the series

I had it sped up quite a bit because the narrator spoke so slowly. The books themselves are VERY mild and tame. Its like 90% filler. I got about ½ way through book 2 and I'm giving up. could be an interesting story & plot but it's more tedious than entertaining.