Falter

Faltering Souls, Book 1

By: Haven Cage

Narrated by: Lucy Zukaitis

Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Living on the streets with her father is tough, but Nevaeh Richards soon finds a life immersed in angels and demons is tougher than she could ever imagine.

When her father suddenly becomes ill, Nevaeh's eyes are opened to a world she never knew existed. A war is bleeding into the human realm, and Nev is developing strange new powers that has both sides eager to claim her soul's devotion.

The Devil wants what he wants, though. He commands a demon to take her father's soul hostage.

The cost to save him?

She'll have to surrender to darkness and become something far more evil than the hell chasing her.

As Nevaeh struggles to come up with a solution for saving her father's soul without damning herself...and the world, she is forced to rely on the guidance of a man she's not sure she can trust, and a rogue angel who's keeping secrets about her past.

A gritty, suspenseful story of spiritual warfare, the delicate line between good and evil, and love that might not be enough.

©2016 Haven Cage (P)2019 Haven Cage

Cliffhanger Alert!

4.5 Stars.
Falter is book 1 in the Faltering Souls series. The book is told in first person POV of the main character, Nevaeh. Notice that the name is Heaven spelled backward. I was wondering from the get go if that was meant to be foreshadowing. Very clever.

Falter was my first experience with this author. I really enjoyed the author's writing style and flow. The words she chooses are so pretty and thoughtfully put together. She has a very poetic way of explaining things. I really liked how the story kept building upon itself and evolving all the way through. I will absolutely read this author again.

This book is about 23-year-old, homeless woman, Nevaeh. When she was a young child and her parents had died, a homeless man named George found her under a bridge and took her in. He raised her and protected her and essentially became her father. The beginning of the book is really just showing them as a homeless family and what their daily life is. Soon, they both get a job at a cafe ran by a man named Gavyn who says he just wants to do something nice and help them out. Then everything takes a turn, Nevaeh starts to see, hear, and smell things that she cannot explain and then she sees George's soul get taken by a demon. This leads us into the story of angels and demons and religious discovery. Nevaeh learns that she is celata and is part demon and she needs to make the choice to join the light or the dark, God or the Devil. But before she can make the choice she has to figure out how to save George's soul and get him back from the demons. She has the help of Archard, her guardian angel.

Even though this book has a lot of discussion about angels, demons, faith, humanity, spirituality, heaven, hell, god, and redemption, it was done in a way that didn't feel like bible thumping. I am not religious and can get turned off by really preachy books, but this did not feel like preaching, just a fantasy story. I think atheists would be able to still enjoy this book just fine as the work of fiction that it is.

Ultimately this book is more of an urban fantasy type genre, but there was also mystery, suspense, horror, sexuality, and the start of a romantic interest/potential love triangle. I loved how much was included in this book.

The only real negative feedback that I have is about chapter 9. It confused the hell out of me (no pun intended) when it began, and I restarted it a couple of times, re-listening to the end of chapter 8 with it. It picked up in a totally different place and scene and I had no idea how Nevaeh got there. Then chapter 10 picked back up where 8 left off. As it turns out it was a premonition, which is actually the title of that chapter but since all of the chapters were titled, I didn't realize it was literally just a premonition. The whole thing felt out of place and pulled me out of the story. There needed to be an appropriate lead in to explain the premonition. The premonition finally made sense at the very end of the book but up until that point, I thought it was just a random chapter that didn't fit.

Fair warning, this book ends on a cliffhanger; a big one. Thankfully, the rest of the series has been released so it will be easy to just jump right in to book 2. It looks like this is the only one on audible right now though. The others are just in print.

The only other thing that I want to mention is a very brief scene involving animal cruelty, where Layla, the mean girl in the book, threw a cat against a tree. Animal cruelty is pretty much my only hard no when it comes to reading so I am mentioning it in case others like to be prepared for those scenes as well. If that is too much for you, just fast forward like 5 or 10 seconds once Layla takes off her shoes at the fountain and the cat walks up.

Let's talk about the narrator. She was INCREDIBLE! I absolutely loved this narrator. Her voices were fantastic, and she had several distinct voices. Her male voices sounded male and female sounded female. Her pacing was great and she spoke clearly. She also did sound effects and did them in a way that they didn't pull me out of the story at all. It all fit together very organically. Usually I'm not big on sound effects but I think they added so much to this story. It was perfect. I liked the narrator so much that I searched her to see what else she has done but it looks like this might be her only audiobook. Hopefully she continues as the narrator for the rest of this series and does more in the future because I hope to listen to her again with other books too.

I absolutely recommend this book. I am so happy to have found it and also found a new (to me) author to explore.

Nevaeah must fight to be good or evil

Navaha is a unique person she's part demon and part colada .She's fighting to be good or evil. she must make the decision of what side she is going to fight for. she wants to rescue George from hell, the man that was the closest thing to a father. But her guarding angel wants her to commit to God. there are so many conflicts waring in her. What to do? the author wrote a very interesting book. I liked it. the narrator was great in telling the story. an abrupt ending. A cliff hanger. waiting for book 2.

what a story

Lucy Zukatitis takes you on one hell of a ride when she is narrating the story. Got me feeling like I was living it.

What a ride@

I need a shot of whiskey and a holy blessing after that ride. Wowzers. Haven Cage delivered a heart stopping tale of Heaven vs Hell. Nevaeh's emotions emanated from the story. I feel like my heart has been shoved through a wringer. And that ending!

Lucy Zukaitus' sultry southern voice ensnared me from page one!

I enjoyed many things about this story.

I really enjoyed this story. I was co fused about the schooling she had beings she’s been homeless her whole life but other than that....wait there is also that pesky ending...or not ending :( Now other than those two items the actual story is wonderful. There is action, suspense, drama and some hotter than heck guys.

Each of the characters were put together nicely. They each have secrets That slowly come out helping to build the suspense. Archers friend adds some fun to the story as does Malachi. They do not at all like you think they should knowing what they are.

This is a new to me author. I like her ability to weave a story (But not the cliffhanger).

I did listen to this on audio. Lucy Zakiutis did a good job..even with the accents.

interesting twist on angels/demons

Falter is an paranormal romance tale that is written in a lush, almost poetic way. You can really tell that the author read her book out loud as she edited, so it translated very well to audio. The narration by Lucy Zukaitis is an excellent match to the character. Her voice lent itself to scenes of high emotion very well. The book builds tension slowly, and deftly insinuates in the otherworldly elements of the story in ways that kept me guessing. When the angel is finally revealed, I was completely surprised. The story twists our expectations of angels and demons in some unique ways, which made it interesting. There are a lot of switches of tension and emotional tone that made the book really compelling, and lots of characters that are a little mysterious so you don't know for sure if they are good or evil right off. There are some pretty steamy scenes in there along with the fantastical story. The cliffhanger ending made me want to dive right into the next book for the rest of the story! I got a free copy from the author in exchange for my honest review but it's definitely worth a read.

Good First In Series

Falter over all did the job of a first in series introducing the characters and laying the groundwork but I found it a bit slow and tedious at times. The narrator's pacing was good. The underlying story is an interesting concept so I will probably try book 2

Let this one carry you away!

Falter is book 1 of the faltering souls series. Haven Cage’s writing is highly skilled and more like poetry then anything I ever read and narrator Lucy Zukaitis Voice compliments this completely. I regularly listen to books while working but I couldn’t wait to get home put in my headphones lay back and let this story carry me away into this world. If Demons vs Angels and or urban fantasy is your jam pick this audiobook up now

Good Vs. Evil

I'll be honest, I'm not a huge paranormal or fantasy fan but do listen to them occasionally for something different then my usual. I loved how this one started and it kept me extremely glued to the pages as I had to know what was going to happen next with Nevaeh, George, Gavyn and Archard. Haven creates an amazing realm and extremely awesome characters, they are so well developed I feel like I actually know them! I can't believe how quickly I got sucked in and felt invested in this story. By the end I knew it was going to be a cliff hanger because there was so much still unresolved and not much left until I would be at the end. If you're not into cliff hangers, make sure you pick up the next book as well because you'll want to dive right into it to find out what happens. I do believe what this whole series will ultimately come down to is good vs. evil but I have to know who wins and what Nevaeh ultimately decides. I absolutely loved the narrator in this book, she was amazing at bringing Nevaeh to life as well as the rest of the characters....she was extremely smooth in her performance and had no trouble switching her voice up a little for the different characters. Lucy had me fully convinced that she was Nevaeh.

WOW WOW WOW!!!

Absolutely loved this book and can not wait for the next one! I wasn’t too sure at first with the narrators accent but, it blended in after the second chapter. The story is different from what I was expecting and has a lot of emotion in it. It really grabs ahold of you unexpectedly.

I was given a free copy in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.
(And boy am I glad I was)!

Fabulous

I really loved this storyline. It was something a little bit different to that I normally read/listen to. I found this book to be refreshing and I adored the characters lively personalities that made the storyline come alive. Definitely interested in finding out about more books from this author.

The narrator portrayed the personalities perfectly and her voice was clear and consistent. Would definitely listen to more of this narrator in the future.

Fantastic start to the series.

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

Fantastic book I couldn’t stop listening.I love the angel vs demons storyline and that Nevaeh has to choose her path.
The narrator was excellent voicing all the characters and I am looking forward to listening to the remainder of the series.

Great Start to A New Series

Demons vs. Angel is not a trope I come across very often and I am always intrigued by how authors portray each side when I do. This author does an excellent job world building and there is a lot of detail throughout. The whole story is deep and had me totally captivated, it is highly thought provoking. It does end in a super suspenseful cliffhanger and I am now eagerly awaiting the next book in the series. We are fed little bits and pieces throughout the book but I don't think we have been given enough information yet to fully understand the gravity of the situation we end upon. Well written plot and great characters that are easy to relate to.

I thought the narrator did an excellent job representing these characters and bringing us all the suspense intended by the author. Great performance!

I received a review copy at my request and have voluntarily left this unbiased review.