Dark Grace

By: M. Lauryl Lewis

Narrated by: Kate Tyler

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

Now months into the zombie plague, a group of survivors are dealing with broken trusts, evolution of the living dead, and the horrors of the evil side of humanity.

The group becomes separated and struggles to reunite. The infection is spreading. The death toll is tragically high.

Book three of The Grace Series

©2014 M. Lauryl Lewis (P)2017 M. Lauryl Lewis

Just love this book (series)

I just can not get enough of this series! I have read all the books and can’t wait to hear it all from the narrator! I look forward to more! Thank you again for coming up with this story line!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Yet another gem in the world of zombie books.

I have read the first 3 books in this series and have loved all of them, so I decided to listen to a narrated copy of Dark Grace to see if it would be a good experience. This is my first audio book and I loved it! The storyline was captivating and drew me in. The narrator did a fantastic job, and I could tell that she rehearsed before recording this book. I can’t wait for book 4 to be recorded!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

It was okay.

Heads up, this is not a stand-alone book. Unfortunately, the author didn't provide much in the way of backstory either. My fault though. I did receive it for free through the publisher. I chose it because I love anything relating to zombies. Now I'm guessing the great ratings I see from other reviewers are from those who started the series at book one because I'm not really sure why this book as such great reviews in all honesty.

On that note, this was an okay listen. While there were a few zombies here and there, none of them really took center stage, so to speak. Most of the time it was like, oh, there goes a zombie, and that was it. I wasn't a fan of the love triangle at all. It seemed like the story was more about the relationship between Zoe, Gus, and Bogg and them moving from one location to another. I wasn't a fan of the writing style that much either. There was a lot of redundancy/repetition and sentences/phrases that didn't flow very smoothly, in my opinion. One such example: "He looked as red as the crabs we had boiled had turned." Or "The fresh air was refreshing." Stuff like that really sticks out like a sore thumb to me.

I'm not really sure if I liked any of the characters. I can say that I felt bad for Boggs though, he definitely deserved someone better even though in a prior book he hit Zoe (not sure why). I wouldn't describe Zoe, the female lead, as a strong female character. She came across as clueless (lacking a common sense) very emotional, especially in the whiny area and always seemed to need help with everything (usually from Gus or Boggs). And Gus...while he came across as a nice guy overall, he was sending out the weirdo vibes (the bad ones). I felt like he interacted with Zoe like she was a little kid, even though that's how I felt she acted. Their relationship was just questionable.

I liked the narrator; she provided a variety of voices and made it easy to understand which character was talking. Unfortunately, there were many times when it seemed like she moved away from the microphone or got closer. She did a lot of random pausing between words that I couldn't figure out as to why, and there were other times when I could hear her swallow her spit. Overall, she did a pretty good job.

Questions/Comments:

So the group is on an island, hiding away from the zombies. I found it questionable what their dinner consisted of the first night (the first meal at the beginning of the story). First, chili is made, and everyone eats it. Then someone decides it's time to make the fish they caught before they go bad. Why wouldn't they have just made that and save the chili for another night? Does anyone want dessert? Let's eat as much food as possible because we have a limited supply of food, right? Here's some canned fruit then. Who eats dessert when there's a zombie apocalypse going on around you? No one. It's all about food conservation. Yet, even though there's mention of having a limited food supply, the conservation part doesn't seem to matter.

Obviously, I should have read/listened to books 1 and 2 prior to listening to book 3. On that note, Zoe loves both Gus and Boggs it seems, although she's pregnant with Boggs' baby. I didn't understand how she could keep going back and forth between the two guys.

What year is this story taking place in? I ask because I question why Gus is so eager to find a hand-held heart monitor for the baby when it would probably be easier to find a stethoscope.

Before Zoe is introduced to Sadie and her friend (the little guy) that they later kill, she takes note that she can't tell if they're human. Yet, she takes note that they react in a human way when she and Bogg call to them, and they were talking, but she couldn't hear what they were saying.

So, Zoe and Emily are supposedly best friends. Yet, Zoe seems to have no problem sleeping (repeatedly) with Emily's man, Gus. Then when Emily is killed...personally, I felt Zoe overdid it with all her crying and wanting people to feel sorry for her.

Why did they bother to remove the dead/zombie dog from the vet office? I couldn't figure that part out.

With Gus' injuries, Nathan suggests they give him more meds every six hours. So he's given his medicine then they head over to the camping store for supplies. They meet the siblings that have been hanging out in the store, then head back to the vet office where the rest of the group is. When someone asks when Gus was last given his medicine, Nathan or Susan say it was six hours. How did they take eight hours in the camping store? Did they take a long nap and that part was just left out?

Zoe and Gus find a bag of Doritos. Yay! But, seriously...who in the world would wipe their cheesy Doritos fingers on the blanket they're sitting on? Why didn't she lick the cheese off? That was pure craziness!

Obviously, I've missed out on a lot of background information/storyline, but who would get pregnant during the zombie apocalypse?

How is Zoe surprised that Boggs is still mad at her? I mean seriously? You'd think she'd have some common sense and at least get her own room once arriving at the motel, but nope. She decides to sleep with Gus in his room. That will make things better.

How did the zombies know where they were? And if they knew that they were in the safe room, why didn't they hang around longer?

The final love/sex scene between Gus and Zoe was disgusting. Picture a twenty-something girl with a twice-her-age man. He did something medically-related in his prior life, or so I assume and wanted to help Zoe expel her breastmilk. Now, I know you can massage it out, but obviously, Gus wanted to make the situation weird at least for the reader. Now it's one thing to drink her breastmilk (barf), but it's whole 'nother story to masturbate her while doing so and then responding with "Good girl" right after she orgasms (gross). Sorry, but no.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Keeps getting better

Zoe is still going strong. Gus is becoming an even bigger part of the story. We have a few new character to look forward to getting to know. Boggs is being an even bigger ass...

Great series and it just keeps getting better starting the next book now.

Great narration & I’m glad to see the rest of the series is he same narrator.

I was voluntarily provided this review copy at no charge by the author, publisher and or narrator.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Dark Grace

This is a great series. It's another Zombie series, but it's different than other zombie books. The narrator did an amazing job with bringing the characters and story line to live.

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

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Better than book 2 but just ok

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Like the first two books, this one is just OK too. Sadly, the same complaint with the stereotypical male and female characters still applies. The narrator was much better, though. All in all, it wasn't too bad, definitely much better than the last book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Zombies and Drama

Dark Grace was a bit hard for me to get in to. I did not realize until I'd already signed up that it was book 3 in a series. I would most definitely recommend starting with book 1 as to not be lost, I was hoping that like some books this one would have a bit of a recap or mention things that had happened previously but no luck.
Dark Grace seemed fairly well written but some of the characters seemed a little immature and whiny. I also didn't enjoy the cheating & sex scenes, it kind of made the book feel like a zombie soap opera.
The narration by Kate Tyler was good, very enjoyable voice to listen to. The different voices were easy to tell apart and the accents weren't over done.
I received a copy of this audiobook at my request and this is my voluntary honest review.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great Zombie Thriller! Strong characters & plot

What made the experience of listening to Dark Grace the most enjoyable?

Fun to listen to on a car ride. I can't wait for the next one! When is it out?

What was one of the most memorable moments of Dark Grace?

No spoilers here! You'll have to get it yourself!

What about Kate Tyler’s performance did you like?

Kate has a really engaging voice and I like the way Gus sounds in this one. Just enough of an accent and consistent through the whole book.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Gus is my favorite character. Looking forward to seeing what happens in the next book!

Any additional comments?

Hurry and release the next one!!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Drama Filled Zombie Saga

This was a pretty good book set in a world enduring a Zombie apocalypse. The story was fast paced and quite a lot happened in the nine or so hours book duration. Unfortunately for me, I didn't initially realise that this was part of an ongoing series (this is the third book) and it the author only did subtle flashback / recaps in order to bring the uninitiated up to speed (which to be honest is the way it should be!).

I am sure I would have gotten more out of the book if I had read the previous two titles, despite that I did enjoy the book, which was a drama filled read revolving around a small group of survivors, who must endure heartbreak, betryal, and savagery as much from each other as from the Zombie hordes.

I though that narrator Kate Tyler did an admirable job with the book narration, was steady and evenly toned and not over the top. I would recommend this book, but moreso the series and it's important due to the way this is written to read the books in order.


**I received this book from the author in return for an unbiased and honest review.

Really should read the first two books first...

Dark Grace: The Grace Series, Book 3 by M. Lauryl Lewis was okay. Now, if you've read the first two books in the series, I think that you'll likely fall into this book with no problem. Unfortunately, I hadn't had the opportunity to read the first two and I honestly figured it wouldn't be a problem, as books in a series usually have some sort of recap or explanation in the beginning that allows readers that may have missed the previous story(s) to catch up. Well, be warned, this book doesn't have any of that. So it was difficult to figure out what in the world was going on in the story for a while. I really liked the premise of the story and think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I 1. had been able to get caught up to speed quickly in the beginning and 2. if the sex scenes would have been left out of this book. Now, I'm not a prude and you can see from my profile that I listen to plenty of books with sex in the them, but this just felt out of place in a zombiepocalypse type story.

Kate Tyler's narration was good, though there were some issues with the recording/playback of it here and there. It's like she had to re-record some parts and when they were put into the initial recording, they weren't matched to the rest of the the initial recording. Not a huge deal, but it was a little annoying. In addition, I highly recommend listening to this audiobook at either 1.25x or 1.5x, as the narration seemed super slow to me at 1.0x. I would still listen to her performances in the future though, as speeding up the recording isn't a big deal and the few recording issues should be an easy fix and weren't a huge deal to me. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher for an honest review.

Did you find this review helpful? If so, would you please take a moment and select the 'helpful' button below? Thanks so much!