Gather Her Round

By: Alex Bledsoe, Claire Bloom - director

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

Love and tragedy are not strange bedfellows among the Tufa. Young Kera Rogers disappears while hiking in the woods by Needsville. When her half-eaten remains are discovered, the blame falls upon a herd of wild hogs, a serious threat in this rural community. In response, the county's best trackers, including game warden Jack Cates and ex-military Tufa Bronwyn Chess, are assembled to hunt them down.

Kara's boyfriend Duncan Gowen mourns her death, until he finds evidence she cheated on him with his best friend, Adam Procure. Seeking revenge, Duncan entices Adam to participate in their own boar hunt. Later, Bronwyn and Jack stumble across a devastated Duncan, who claims a giant boar impaled Adam and dragged him off. As this second death rocks the town, people begin to wonder who is really responsible.

Determined hunters pursue the ravenous horde through the Appalachians as other Tufa seek their own answers. Between literal beasts in the woods and figurative wolves in sheep's clothing, what truths will arise come spring?

©2017 Alex Bledsoe (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Hear the Nightwinds...

This is another powerful addition to the Tufa saga...  I love the way Alex weaves his story together, combining music, magic, locale, and fae, with love and tragedy... Mandalay, still trying to fill the shoes that she was born into, has her work cut out for her in trying to resolve the conflict and fear created by the deaths of two of Cloud County's residents...
Will the nightwinds accept the song played on the one, perfect instrument?  You're gonna need to read the book to find out! 
This work is reminiscent of Charles de Lint's stories, but also of Alex's own delightful little series of the Firefly Witch stories...
Some of the new creatures introduced in this story even made me think about Princess Mononoke... There's  an injured/possessed pig, and a Forest King... Amazing Stuff!   Now, I must needs wait for the next book ( Sad-face)...

I love ALL of the Tuffa stories

This story had it all! Love, death, drama, sex. You name it, it’s got it! Alex Bledsoe keeps you locked in and wanting more about these characters in every book!

Not my favorite

This is another difficult one as I really did not like the characters. The first person covered in the story only cared about herself and how she could use the guys that she was with. The main H was a worm and a coward. I did like the main investigator but he got a bit aggressive with his h (although she seemed to crave it). Half of the Tufas are willing to rape and kill in order to get what they want and the other half are happily brutal. Even with all if the above, I do like the series and will read the last book shortly.

Worst possible narrator

I tried to see if my love for the series could outweigh the terrible horrible awful and inapropriate choice of a narrator. It did not.

I'm adding the director and the narrator to my "hell never" lists. The choice of Rudnicki is just baffling, ruinously bad.

Great addition to one of my favourite series

This is a series that I go back and listen to once a year.

Bonus points for sneaking in a Buckaroo Banzai comment.

Bronwyn back, more Mandalay at last

If you could sum up Gather Her Round in three words, what would they be?

Strong entry in Tufa series

Any additional comments?

It was good to have a story where Bronwyn played a larger role again, and I was happy to see more Mandalay present.

Not as good as the others... but..

I don't know if it was just me, perhaps I need to listen to the ending again, but my impression was that the end came quite suddenly and I had some questions about what the heck it was all about! Not exactly about what it was about, that was simple enough, but there was a comment near the end about "his part in it" which unless I missed it, wasn't explained! Perhaps a lead to the next book, which wouldn't be a bad thing as I do enjoy this series - quite different to other fantasy themes. Overall, even with this book, I'd definitely recommend this series.