Desolation

Lawless Saga, Book 0

By: Tarah Benner

Narrated by: Jennifer O'Donnell

Length: 1 hr and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

How far would you go to avenge your mother’s death?

Six months ago, Bernie was just an average college student. She spent her weekends staging campus protests and gorging on burritos at El Taco Loco. But when her mother died after a long battle with cancer, Bernie became convinced that the oil refinery near their home was responsible. The company is facing a major lawsuit, and at the epicenter of the scandal is Brian Bodetski - the wealthy, charismatic CEO. Bernie is determined to avenge her mother’s death, but that determination quickly morphs into an obsession with ruining Mr. Bodetski’s life. To make him pay, she’ll have to get close to his family, break the law, and cross lines she never even imagined.

©2017 Tarah Benner (P)2021 Podium Audio

More cliches than you can shake a stick at

The writing was a bit sophomoric. For starters, there were lots of superlative situations and they were usually described with overused cliches. When driving they're either moving at a snails pace, or they are squealing tires with the pedal to the floor or spewing gravel; that sort of thing.

There's also some logical inconsistantsies that I got caught up on. If you can let them go, you'll enjoy this more than I did. For example, the main character is trying to track someone down. She goes to a hacker friend of hers for help in this matter and is disgusted by the fact that he's mildly crude. The guy is written as a geeky, awkward hacker but she's somehow offended that he's awkward when it comes to girls and women?

What help did she need from her hacker buddy? He gave her this incredible bit of advice that apparently no one knows but hackers: all web sites are required to have a mailing address on file and that information is public and easy to access. So right off the bat you have to assume that this main character is pretty incompetent about computers if she was unable to find an address before this. But just minutes later she demonstrates that she's incredibly resourseful and relentless when trying to find the location of a specific beauty salon, so I was left wondering why she didn't apply that dedication to the job of getting the first address. Why was the hacker even introduced as a character? Only to show that she's not above asking for help when it comes to technology? Except within a few minutes she's using modified GPS tracking technology so we're to assume that she's actually something of an electronics buff herself.

I admit that I get hung up on inconsistencies like this and they drive me crazy. If you can let them go, then you will probably like this more than I did. It's certainly fast-paced and at under 2 hours, doesn't take that long to finish.

Enjoyed the prequel

This is a short prequel but interesting, and with plenty of action. It was fun and interesting to see how Bernie got into trouble before being locked up, how a perfectly law-abiding citizen can unravel and turn to drastic measures. Made me want to re-read the whole series (which I read a few years ago and really enjoyed).

Glad it was free

I would have been disappointed if I paid actual money for this. It’s only about a chapter long and confusing as can be.

I personally didn’t care for it.

Hippy enviro chick turned crazed.
I listed to the end but I was wondered why?

snooze fest

totally glad it was free. couldn't really get into it tbh. narrator wasn't great. I only finished it so I can legitimately say I did.