Creature Feature

By: Mary Calmes, Poppy Dennison

Narrated by: Jeff Gelder

Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's Summary

"Diagnosis: Wolf by Poppy Dennison"

Thanks to his good-for-nothing brother, Andrew Hughes is up to his eyeballs in debt and needs a job fast. When a nursing position opens up in Myerson, Arizona, Andrew has no choice but to take it, despite a warning about how difficult a patient Caleb DiMartino can be. Andrew can deal with a little trouble-but Caleb's strange family, the armed guards, and the unknown cause of Caleb's mysterious illness may be beyond his skill set.

"Landslide by Mary Calmes"

For three years, paranormal courier Frank Corrigan has been working for incubus demon Cael Berith. Cael knows Frank is his mate, but Frank is pretty sure Cael doesn't even like him, never mind want to spend the rest of his life with him, so their personal relationship is at an impasse. When Frank's sister, Lindsey, gets bitten by a werewolf she's sleeping with-and possibly witnesses a murder-Frank rides to her rescue. If he's lucky, he might just save his love life too.

©2013 Mary Calmes and Poppy Dennison (P)2014 Dreamspinner Press

2 awesome stories in 1 book!

DO NOT LET THE BOOK'S COVER FOOL YOU!

This book has two awesome m/m romance paranormal stories hidden under that crazy looking cover....

Story 1: Dennison write some of the best mm shifter books.... this story was so cute about a nurse who becomes the mate of a sickly wolf shifter....he is only stick b/c he was poisoned by silver....but the story is fast paced, funny, and sweet with...oh yeah... nice sexy time!

Story 2: It's a Calmes story....enough said! Great paranormal incubus story, with crazy family drama and awesome secondary character in an awesome world with demons, vamps, shifters and such... it was so enjoyable...

Both stories are well worth a credit, sale or buy...

Narration was good... no complaints here!

Narration makes this suffer

Wow, the narration on this is truly awful. Fortunately, I've also been reading the print version when I can't listen. The stories, as written, are a lot of fun. None of that emotion is present in the narration. I've listened to this narrator before and liked his work. He definitely has a great voice, but he really missed the boat on the emotions within these stories.

Surprisingly worth the credit

Normally i dont by short stories or books with more than one story since i mostly find that the stories are to short to get a feel for the charaters and - probably like everybody else - i have a tendency to skip books where i dont like the cover - and i really dont like this one. BUT since the stories are by Mary Calmes and Poppy Dennison, i thought i would try it anyway.
The best story is - in my oppinion - PDs, which is the first in the book, but the story by MC is also worth a listen. And i love Jeff Gelder - very good narrator. And its a pleasure to hear one of PDs stories told as it should be, since her other books have an mediocre narrator.

poor recording

I would have liked the stories. they sounded like fun. but I was so put off by the recording quality,,...............

Narration lacking

Both stories were awesome, I greatly enjoyed, but narration was sadly lacking. I was disappointed.

I tried

But the quality of the narration had an odd echo and the narration monotone and uninspired, I’m sorry to say. Although I listened to the whole thing, I couldn’t do it one sitting. Definitely not worth a credit.

Sometimes family is just toxic..

OK so first off sound quality was AWFUL!!! There was a constant echo that would bring you out of the book and as soon as you got back in you would pop out from it... Stories were a good way to have back ground noise as I cleaned at my old job. The narrator did a decent job of doing voices but when he wasn't he was mostly monotone and had no enthusiasm in what he was saying...


I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Disappointing

My first from Dennison, an okay story. I've read and listened to a number of Calmes stories, and this was a disappointment. It almost felt as if it had been written by someone else. As to the narration, truly disappointing

Great short stories, off narration

I really did like these 2 stories they where really cute and a great way to spend an evening all snuggled up. Don't let the weird cover turn you away. It really gives off the wrong vibes for these romances. The cover feels more horror, when they're really not that scary. Of course my complaint being I wish both where longer and their own novels. That way they could both be fleshed out and the worlds explored fully and more satisfactorily. However I feel like they where both really good short stories. So it is what it is.

BUT I did have an issue with the sound quality of the tract. Not so much the narrator who did a decent job. Though I did think he did a better job in the second story. No it was the echo tinyish sound coming from the narrator's speech. Not sure if it was on purpose to play up the horror feel they where getting at, but it drove me a little crazy. Not enough to not listen, but it would yank me out of the story at points.

So for the whispersync price definitely give it a go. Though listen to the sample to make sure you're all good with the sound.

Two books in one!

The first is Diagnosis Wolf by Poppy Dennison.

Andrew, a male nurse with an almost constant inner monologue that often escapes into an outer monologue is an appealing character and his role as a nurse makes for a sympathetic insta-relationship with Caleb, the seriously ill scion of a powerful and wealthy shifter family.

Andrew's early naming of Scowly and Scowlier was quite fun as are a good number of his musings. Though it does seem odd that an established and wealthy family of shifters wouldn't have a doctor on-call... or a shaman/medicine woman, or maybe a vet!

This tale doesn't expand upon or use much shifter lore, and its attempt at the thriller aspects of the story were only tepid and the romance parts weren't particularly well motivated.

Dennison's tale felt a bit perfunctory, like a rounding the bases after an out of the park home run. Sure it touches all the bases but doesn't feel very in-depth or exciting. No new insights, no characters that we identify with and/or really grow to care about, but a satisfactory way to spend some time.

In this tale Jeff Gelder's narration felt like it could have been practiced more. His voice was appealing enough, and for the most part, his narration was good if not great, but at several spots throughout the story I felt myself pulled out of the tale by thoughts like "I'd have read that differently."

Landslide by Mary Calmes is the second piece.

Landslide is in some ways the opposite of its companion piece. The tale is chock full of lore related to demons like Cael, the protagonist's employer. It's also refreshing to see a protagonist that's not a perfect physical specimen. Though this one's told in first person with ex-marine Frank as the protagonist/narrator, its really Cael, the incubus demon that I identified with most strongly. Both Frank and the demon do get a bit more character development than in the first tale and I connected more strongly with the romance as a result.

In Landslide, Gelder's narration felt more natural. The first person perspective and the more plentiful dialogue may have helped. There were still instances of odd emphasis and timing but it seemed less jarring than in the first piece. Of course it may just have been familiarity.

Co-incidentally, both stories are set in Arizona. Who knew that that state was such a hotbed of paranormal characters?