Cherry Blossom Girls

By: Harmon Cooper

Narrated by: Justin Thomas James, Annie Ellicott, Laurie Catherine Winkel, Jeff Hays

Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

I was a just normal guy until the night the cherry blossoms bloomed, the night that Grace appeared on my doorstep. A failed sci-fi writer, a gamer, but a normal guy nonetheless. Grace was everything I was not, a psychic shifter, beautiful beyond my wildest imagination, a government conspiracy
waiting to be unraveled. And that was before the second superpowered woman showed up to kill us both.                              

©2018 Harmon Cooper (P)2018 Harmon Cooper

Cherry Blossom Gals can'tcha come out tonight

Harmon Cooper sure knows how to improve a dark and stormy night. He throws in a naked girl! Ok, so that is not what the story is about, and the tale is a fun action packed mutant-fest, but the naked gal sure is one heck of a piece of bait to get you on his hook. And once you've bitten, he just reels you in with ease. The "hero" is a writer you might just recognize, with a friend that you might just recognize, who meets two hot ladies (you won't recognize tem, but if you somehow do you are very lucky) who are in danger. It seems they are living experiments raised by a top secret governental agency. And now they are obsolete. Grace and Veronique are fun little killers, ah, um, I mean wonderful maidens in need of a hand. Thankfully, Gideon is there to lend them one. The story takes off like a blend of Stranger Things and the X-men with Gideon playing the role of the leader in spite of his lack of powers. One thing I realy like is how Harmon Cooper plays this book as if it is autobiographical. It sort of reminded me of the Nightmare People by Lawrence Watt-Evans. He did the same thing with monsters, and that was great fun too. Harmon knows how to keep your attention, and pace his story. He never lets you get complacent, and sometimes it feels like the ground is rolling beneath you. Moving ahead without taking a step.

I do need to remark on the changes made by Soundbooth Theater. This book is a great mix of the whole team. I loved the way the ladies were mixed in with the narration by Justin James. Normally, this is the part that I would be praising Jeff Hays (who has a minor role in this production), and saying how he is my favorite narrator and how well he and Harmon mix together, but since we have an entire team I have to admit that although I missed Hays as a major contributor the team really brought their A-Game and crushed the whole project. I have to say that this was a total home run and anticipate seeing more projects like this in the future. Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. In fact, getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.

I would love to see more of Grace, Veronique, and Gideon in the future!


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A good performance but an awkward story

Please note I received this book free from the audiobook producers for review purposes.

What can I say? I finished listening to this so the "Cherry Blossom Girls" did entertain me. A large part of that entertainment came from the full cast narration but the story it self felt very quite awkward. It read like part embarrassing wish fulfillment or self insert erotica and part solid fun action.

The plot, in a nutshell, is that an unsuccessful self published author finds at his doorstep a naked girl with superpowers. Action and government conspiracies ensue. A second superpowered girl gets involved and some very awkward, detailed, and out of place sex scenes happen.

The motivations of the girls are not clear. Why do they like this guy? Why are they pretty much doing whatever he says? Why are they attracted to him? The answer seems to be just for this to be wish fulfillment fantasy for the reader. I don't have a problem with that as a concept but even in this kind of power fantasy you need to give some actual reasons for the characters to act the way they do. Some personality. That's really lacking in this story.

There are also some detailed descriptions of the self publishing world of Amazon and the life of a selfpublished author. These were actually pretty cool and I really enjoyed the minutia. Write what you know, I guess?

But still the story did entertain me and keep my attention. Trashy, but fun trashy. The uh... Fact that a self published author is writing a sex fantasy about a self published author does make it a bit of an embarrassing read. Think "Twilight" or "Fifty Shades of Gray" embarrassing...

The audiobook version has solid performances. Nothing really stand-out but also nothing grating. On a purely technical side the audio quality was fine but sometimes the relative volume between the different narrators was off. There were also like... Two places where they used sound effects which felt odd because those were the only places where that happened. When after an hour or two of pure narration get a voice effect for a shower, that really stands out. But overall good work that added to the book instead of subtracting from it.

Great Story but not even close to Erotica...

This is a unique science fiction story but I’m not sure why it is labeled as Romance Erotica. Other than language there is no reason for it to be labeled either. The sex was PG 13 at most. Even so the story was good.
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR EXPLICIT SEX THIS BOOK DOESN’T HAVE IT!

This book was..."flat"

Which is odd, looking at the cover. I'll admit that this purchase was just a nod at "I wanna hear something sexy and fun, and be brought back to my you boy mental harem fantasy-esqe self." I admit it, I like a few of these once in a while. I looked at it, said 'Well, it's only 6 hours long - below my normal limit for what I'll spend a credit on, but what the heck, it keeps popping up on my suggestions.' Should have listened to my gut.

I'm pretty sure I've listened to other books by the author. And I know a deciding factor was that I've listened to the narrator before and liked him...not so much in this book. The narration wasn't that great, but I don't know that he had much to work with. The 2 female narrators were great...but not much of them.

All told, this one was just...kinda dumb. D. U. M.

struggled to finish

I love the performance but that was where it ended for me the story was hard to get behind and dragged on way to often for me to like it

Hmm.

I'm a fan of Harmon's LitRPG books, especially Fantasy online. I think Fantasy Online is one of the best LitRPG series on Audiobook. With that being said, I couldn't get into this book. Main problem I think is I didn't like any of the main characters. They kill innocent people, use them without regard and it doesnt really faze the main character even though this is new to him. Some of their decisions seemed a little odd as well. The story feels forced, rushed and lacking. Very different from the rest of his books. The narration was good, but I am starting to notice that the female narrator sounds a little muted and doesnt seem to flow well. Instead of sounding like they are talking to each other, it sounds like their conversations are spliced together. There is seperate voices for each character, which is always great. Maybe the next one will be better, but i'm not a fan of the harem angle. I received the book for free for my honest review.

Bland Action Movie

I think my problem with this book is that im not invested in any of the characters. Subjects V and G have little in the way of personality. In a harem story each character needs to be very unique and add something to the group dynamic.

I would recommend Good Intentions by Elliott Kay as an alternative read.

The Mediocre Story With An Epic Narration

I'm not fond of such stories as this one. Well, I'm okay with any paranormal, romance, sex, dirty language, but this one made me cry just because it lost the reasons. You know, it could be really a good plot way to describe something or help the MC to take a decision through the conversations with his friend, but exactly in this book something was wrong, smth was totally absent. All the events were happening just because of... what? I even didn't understand why (stupid me, yeah).

So, what exactly was wrong?
- the motivation. All the characters don't have any true motivation. You know this "fun for fun".
- the logic. As a part of the motivation.
- the surrounding. And here are we again and the characters who live in their own little perfect world. Hey, guys! There are people out there! You can't just pass through them and even don't get it on your mind! What's wrong with you?
- why the hell these girls ever have escaped?!
- and, frankly speaking, why they haven't found somebody better than this one pretty-writer-guy?

But! This book is still well enough to be read fast and with a pleasure. It's funny.

What was really good is a narration. Guys and girls did their job incredibly good! I wonder how did they make it together? Actually, I think this tandem can rock any book when they work together.

There is no any regrets about this book. So, no matter what grab it and listen to it!

An Enjoyable Listen

For a book to be enjoyable, an author must have an engaging story, likeable characters, and appropriate pacing. With an audiobook, the additional element of the narration experience comes into play.

I will admit, after looking at the cover and reading the summary, I was incredibly skeptical that I was going to enjoy this book.

An hour into listening, and all of those doubts were put to rest. The protagonist is relatable, likeable, and it's easy for the listener to root for him. The other characters are well fleshed out and complex.

The actors playing each part did an excellent job of portraying their characters, and the different voices made for an incredibly immersive and engaging experience.

With plenty of lampshading, self-referential humor, and, of course, the action and sex that listeners love, Cherry Blossom Girls is definitely worth your time to listen to.

A new series is born.

With Cherry Blossom Girls Harmon Cooper kicks off a new series and adds a yet another genre to his already impressive catalog, my favorite of his being his Fantasy Online and Feedback Loop series. So what is the genre for this new series? umm.. shifter, superhero, mutant, gamelit, harem all rolled into one.

It all starts innocently enough for struggling self published writer Gideon when a naked woman shows up at his door. You know, a typical Saturday night, right? Who hasn't had that happened? From there things go crazy. It's one heck of a wild ride as Gideon meets not one but two gorgeous super-powered shifters and is asked as well as threatened into helping them overcome the mysterious organization behind the super-powered bombshells. Seriously the book touchs on every genre I listed above, as well as perhaps being semi-autobiographical as Harmon shares a look at the behind the scenes of being a self published author. The book ends with plenty of questions left hanging out there, which of course just makes the wait for book 2 that much harder.

The narration, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say performance, features the entire Soundbooth Theater cast, so of course it was awesome. If you haven't experienced a Soundbooth theater production then you are missing out. BIG TIME. Seriously with each product they put out they get more and more immersive, which is why I said that perhaps it would be better say performance over narration. Jeff Hays, who is a freaking rock star IMO (the Mel Blanc of audio books) actually takes a backseat in this production, and lets the rest of the cast show off their talent. And show off their talent they do! Each of them could carry the book on their own, but together they are a perfect storm of awesomeness.


I received a copy of this audio title for free in exchange for an unbiased review.

Unique and changing Audio forever for me

Not only was this a great story with some nifty twists as i have this on ebook already but the characters come to life properly.
As a regular listener of audio books i find myself often scrutinizing particular voices. ie they sound very simliar between them. Their isn't enough sound effects or male/ female narrators don't do well at the opposite sex.
Being familiar with some of the narrators previous works im mostly happy with them.
H. Cooper putting them together probably breaking the piggy bank in the process shows dedication to the story as the quality of writing shines through 10 fold when you have Soundbooths team of narrators on the case.
So hands up in the air that im so impressed im actually going to devote a few words to everyone involved in a in depth critque rather than a quick few lines review.
The Writing Being a fan of this Author i wasn't sure about this piece but i did like it even as an ebook so audio just pushes my appreciation through the roof.
Main Narration * Justin Thomas James although i found Gideon a bit of an idiot i actually came to accept him as the precise cultured voice used by JTJ (and with this being almost Gideons autobiography ) was extremely well done and i found myself with another narrator who sells me a audiobook just by adding their name to it.
Star Narrator*Annie Ellicott having head her work before i was of course familiar with her skill.
Nope she leveled it up like the LitRPG role she played as Grace ,amazing but her sex appeal comes across 100 times better with AE and well her saying Writer Gideon makes me want to be a writer ( few moments of gushing privately).
Vernonique*Laurie Catherine Winkel again someone i came across and someone who had a different role to their previous work i have came across. Her sultry moody (can i say dominatrix approach) was an excellent job as came across like the character with moments of oh oh to oh la la.
Luke/Angel*Jeff Hays the man who sells me an Audiobook with his name. Great job as always especially Luke although his was only a bit part role i would love him to do more Angel as i feel a lot of potential their for his mad skills ( Harmon Cooper take heed ) but not missed as much as i thought i would due to the performance by JTJ.

All i can say is hurry up with Book 2 Audio and I'm forever spolit as now we have had so many Skilled narrators it brings this to a Hollywood blockbuster level movie with the picture off, compared to a single narrator changing the way i view audiobooks forever and puts me in mind of big Radio play productions .
This is my own opinion of this audiobook that i asked for via gifting and see for yourself if you liked it as much as i did .. if not Quiet writer... sorry couldn't resist that small spoiler lol

Cherry Blossom Girls review by Albert Anness

I really enjoyed this book, the story, characters and effects were all really well done and kept me listening for more. The characters all felt really relatable and human and were ferry fun to listen to and they weren't square jawed high moral heroes per as they were actually very human anti heroes which is quite fresh even if their methods listed are morally questionable. I found it interesting how it goes into the future and gives ideas for very real feeling human advancements such as faster delivery and self driving cars, also the reference to different companies was interesting such as Ebamazon or McStarbucks which could suggest company mergers. The book to has an interesting moral message of corruption in society and government and the horrific events some go to to achieve their selfish goals and really expresses the pain the victims went through physically and mentally and the importance of leading your own path and how things could change your life forever so much so you don't think you can go back from there. The performance of the charters and voice actors were all very emotional and well done and it felt perfectly casted with the actors putting real heart into what they do. My only criticism would be that I wish they used the sound effects in more places in the book as it was a nice touch, the sex scenes were a little detailed but not that that's a bad thing just making a comment, I also went into more detail about the villains and the organisation for extra detail. Overall I really enjoyed this book and I would highly recommend it to anybody interested particularly in the superhero or sci fi genre.

Meh.

The performances and production quality were awesome, but the story was boring. It got to 8 chapters in and I nearly deleted it.

It was a dark and stormy night ...

Gideon Caldwell was a writer - still is - self published, not very successful and a bit of a nerd. So not the 'I - heard - a - sound - outside - better - go - investigate - type.' But investigate he does, opening his apartment door to a nude and beautiful blond who is about to change his life (and his ratings).
This really humorous parody of a science fiction, fantasy and super hero genre ( "Ah, the LitRPG element. Better put that in. People love that stuff." ) author caught up in a story wilder than his own immagination, is simply delicious. Great fun, quick and easy text read but even better in audio. Narrated by Justin Thomas James, whose reading was fully engaged with the story, a perfect becoming of writer Gideon, and with a full casting of other characters supplied by Soundbooth Theatre.
Exciting, delicious and funny. Superb.
"I like you, writer Gideon."
Definitely recommended.

Too meta

Far too meta and self referential. The genre isn't that old yet to need these deconstructions. 82 minutes in and it still doesn't kick off. Couldn't get into the story.