Death Becomes Her

The Kurtherian Gambit, Book 1

By: Michael Anderle

Narrated by: Emily Beresford

Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's Summary

What you thought you knew about vampires and werewolves is wrong...so very, very, wrong.

A thousand years of effort to keep the Unknown World hidden is unraveling and the Patriarch is tired. He needs to find someone to take over.

He finds Bethany Anne.

Unknown, untested and untried, she sets out to accomplish the impossible while forging a new future. One that no one knew was in danger.

And she does it with an attitude that will make you stand up and cheer!

They say a dress can make a women, but in this case, the dress is Death, and Death Becomes Her very well indeed.

Please note, there is flagrantly foul language in these novels. The main character does not have a problem with cussing, just uninspired cussing.

©2016 Michael Anderle (P)2017 Michael Anderle

amazingly refreshing

vampire story without alot of sex? check
badass girl main character actually badass? check
potential for an amazing book series? check
when you finish the book you spend 30 min thinking "what the fu** do I read Now!!!!!!" check
what more can you ask for?

Vamp action at its' finest

Somebody gave turn Laura Croft into a vampire and left her without instructions on what to do. Oh, that is right, she knows what to do. Kick ass and keep on walking. Our heroin is not Croft but Bethany Anne and she has less patience than Croft.

Even as a human people ran when Bethany walked the halls. Now that her time is very limited and she has cases to solve. You better move when she comes your way.
This history of humans, vamps and werewolves have a new twist. You can say that it has an outer space twist. Have you heard, Out with the old and in with the new. That describes this story. Bethany begins to rewrite the play book with all the action that is possible when you have vampires involved.

She loves all action toys and designers’ shoes. Don’t make this woman wait to go shopping trip. She will seriously hurt you. I don’t want to give you spoilers. If you want those read some of the others reviews. This is a new urban fantasy with wonderful characters and with creative cuss words. Remember my Croft analogy and then decide to read it.

I have already downloaded the other books in the series.

Oh if reading cuss words like fuck offends you, this is not the fucking book for you

Enjoyable - Worth the Credit

I was lucky enough to purchase this as an Audible Daily Deal and it was SO worth paying a full credit. Anderle does a good job drawing you in and I don't remember a single instance where I was looking to skip past a section. I listened to this in one sitting! I wasn't sure about Beresford as narrator when the story started, but she so fit by the end. Her voice works for an adult woman, no-nonsense character. Don't let the idea of a woman main character or narrator stop you from checking out this series.

Addictive

I didn't want it to end. Having read the ebook version, I was not sure about the narrator at the beginning of the book. I had my own idea of the main characters voice. It didn't take long to believe no other narrator could have been as good. Anyone who has read these books knows that you don't want the book to end. I'm off to read the rest of the series again.

OK read and OK narration..

Not nearly as good as Justice is Calling or Claimed by Honor..

I’m giving this 3 stars for the last 40% of the book, because the first 60% was as boring as heck. There were so many characters and very, very little of the heroine Bethany Anne, until the last 40% of the book. That was a big disappointment. However, I’m hoping Queen Bitch will be a lot better.

This is a little sci-fi, since Michael takes Bethany Anne to Romania and leaves her there and she wakes up in a spaceship after seven months in stasis, and with a computer named T.O.M. attached to her spinal cord, and Michael nowhere to be found. She had to learn as much as she could from TOM before heading out to return to the town nearby, only to meet up with Nathan the werewolf, Alexi the brown bear and Ecaterina the human, in a battle with 5 or 6 other bad werewolves.

After the battle with the bad guys they went after Petre and his evil vamps and killed all of them. And then they were heading back to the United States. I can’t wait to see what trouble Bethany Anne starts there.

There was no sex but the F-bomb was used 31 times.

As to the narration: Emily Beresford was just ok for me. She did ok with the voices and ok with some of the emotions when she read. She just doesn't have a memorable voice. Several times the book said “someone laughed” and EB did not. Laughing and whispering is the two most important things for a narrator to do when reading, at least to me it is.

One of the best new series on Audio!

If you could sum up Death Becomes Her in three words, what would they be?

Fun, action packed adventure.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Death Becomes Her?

The whole freaking book! I love Bethany Ann, I really enjoy watching her interact with different people. She can be crazy mad one moment and protective the next. I have to admit that I actually begged Michael Anderle to bring BA to Audio, he chose the perfect voice for her and I am dancing in happiness at the prospect of listening to the entire series on Audio!

What about Emily Beresford’s performance did you like?

She has a very confident and powerful voice, she doesn't over exaggerate her characters voices and she has awesome pacing!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Of course! But it's like eating chocolate, you have to allow yourself to enjoy the moment, and not rush to the finish line. Of course this is a book I will be listening to again and again. Until the next one comes out!

Any additional comments?

Death Becomes Her Audiobook

I loved, loved, loved this audiobook! It has everything you can ask a writer for, humor, action, a fantastic storyline that you can enjoy. It is a beautiful mesh of paranormal and sci-fi that literally pulls you into his world. If you are looking for something different and addictive, look no further, this is the next generation of paranormal addiction.

Thank you Michael Anderle for giving us a new way to enjoy your writing creativity!

Good book, a little short

I think it is clear that this is a new author. Some of the comedic lines don't serve the story very well. The concept of the book is interesting and I like the characters. I feel that he leaves the story hanging at the end but I enjoyed this book enough that I want to get the next one.

I don't get it

Despite all of the favorable reviews, I just can't get into this. I have tried listening to it several times, but it just isn't catching my interest. I really wanted to like it, because, based on the description (as well as the descriptions of the subsequent books in the series), it seems interesting, but I haven't gotten that same spark of interest when I actually try listening. Does it get better? I'm afraid I don't have the will to find out.

please learn more about cussing

fuckidifuck... If I hear that again it will be too soon. it completely slaps me out of the story

warning! literary crack

It will draw you in and not let go until you have read the entire TKG Universe. Yeah folks, it is just that good! You've been warned.

Solid Start to a Long Series

At the time of writing I am onto the 5th book in the series and still undecided about how many more I will download.

This book - the first is a decent start, but it definitely has the feel of a setup book.

All the books are too short - its as if one much longer story has been chopped into segments fairly arbitrarily. A much longer story arc has been divided into books around 6 hours long. This is about half the length of similar books (and there are good books 4 or 5 times as long). So unless you have a lot of credits this will be an expensive series to get through.

Its not a typical urban fiction with Vampires and Werewolves. For sure it has both but the vampires in particular have a very distinct spin well away from the normal Dracula based type.

The early books are really adventure/military opps with a hint of sci fi - though it hints the sci fi will become more significant later.

The bad language is a feature of this series, not too bad in this book but if you don't feel comfortable with the c- word and lots of other inventive swearing it might not be a series for you. Personally I don't care but I think its overdone in the following books.

The writing is very unpolished - not necessarily a problem but it is a bit annoying at times
The narration is superb and I think without an excellent narrator such as Emily Beresford I would already have given up on the series

Now a fairly personal view and to explain my opening line. Even at book 5 I still haven't really got completely hooked, I almost don't care what happens to the characters.

This isn't a good sign - if I think about other book series I have read/listened to such as Mercy Thompson, Jane Yellowrock, Sookie Stackhouse, Anita Blake and quite a few more I really care for the characters - not just the leads but the whole team and get immersed in the series.

So far I dont really have the same affinity for Bethany Ann and her team. I am stuggling to really relate to the characters and hesitate to get the next book - rather than cant wait to read it. Clearly others don't feel the same as the series seems quite popular, but unless I can get more feelings for the main characters I doubt I will see the series through.

An interesting premise for a vampire story

I was enjoying this story and then all of a sudden it ended. First books are often shorter so I thought ‘never mind, lets look at the second book’. It’s short too. Maybe I am just greedy.

bitch of a series

I have read books 1 to 15 on kindle unlimited now I'm going to download the audible versions to keep. these are FUN...

great story

this is a great story with very interesting likable characters. the book is incredibly well performed. I'm moving straight on to the next instalment.

Every bit as good as I expected

I've heard just how devoted the fans of Michael Anderle are and now I know first hand why. Bethany is a great character, she reminds me of Anita Blake in the early books. Strong, no nonsense and not fazed by anything as simple as fighting werewolves and vampires.

I'm definitely about to use up another 20 credits :)

Worst

Appalling story appalling narration. Demon accord wipes the floor with this dross, how is this reviewed so well!!!!!

Great book but too short

I loved this book and it was very well narrated.....
But I felt that it was short just so the author could sell more books. I hope that a box set comes out otherwise I'll stop at book one.

seamless blend of genres

A story that had me spellbound from the first page. If you like sci-fi and shfters and vampires, then you will love this seamless blend of all three. Exceptionally brought to life by the fabulous narration of Emily Beresford.

Not worth a credit.

This book ticked a lot of my boxes. Aliens - check. Fantasy - check. Strong female lead - Tick. Vampires - half check. However, upon finishing it I had many, many criticisms:

The word "honour" gets used more often than any other. I got fed up of hearing "honour this" and "honour that" within the first hour. There's a lot of the typical "weren't things better in the good old days" shit that older people love.

It gets worse. If you thought James Clavell's Shogun banged on about stupid honour systems this book is that on steroids. There's genuinely a bit in the first part where the heroes effectively say "do exactly what we tell you or we will deem you and your unknowing staff dishonourable and kill you and all of them". That sort of 'honour' system pisses me off.

Lots of unnecessary military terminology was included to pad it out. Very much a "MURICA NUMBER WUN!!" attitude throughout which isn't common in fantasy.

The main character is a victim of endless show but don't tell writing. She graduated top of her high school class and was chased by all the top colleges and many major corporations. She was too good for the CIA. The patriarch decided after 10 minutes of chat that she was the only person in thousands of years to be worthy of access to the same incredible power that he can wield. I couldn't see why.

The dialogue is cringey. There are many things that no person would ever say and they just sound wrong. The flirting, if you can call it that, was pretty weird and stilted. You get bits like a guy is pissed off with pretty waitresses flirting with him and ten minutes later is head over heels for a random barmaid who flirts with him.

There are odd jumps in conversation too and the conincidences that are needed for this story to work are lottery win levels of unlikely.

The Slavic character is called Ivan Romanov. Seriously.

There are also location bits are the start of every chapter or scene change like Chapter 2 - London England. I think the author got confused between books and movies because (A) unless the scene changes we know where the characters are and (B) lines such as "-- Brasov, Romania -- Karl was presently in Brasov, Romania." were just silly.

Bethany ann is also a bit of a mouthful. I'm not a big fan of American double-names anyway and that one got tedious quickly. She is meant to be some kind of military wunderkind but instead just bitches and moans at people all the time. Colour me unimpressed.

There was no antagonist but there was some kind of major battle at the end. I couldn't work out who the enemy was nor why we should care. They were defeated as easily as your standard Marvel film baddy.

Then, as a strong female character, she decides to celebrate her victory with a "Mission for a new wardrobe. She spared a moment to pity any fool who managed to get in her way."

I have no idea how an entirely literary series with multiple authors was born out of this... thing. It was not worth a credit.

Fun read.

This has shades of all the vampire books i have read and although i see the influences they are weaved together beautifully to create a new world that works and has kept me smiling and laughing out loud. I am so going to be reading more.