Gundar

Mate the Stars, Book 1

By: Loretta Johns

Narrated by: Audrey Lusk

Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Newly re-edited.

The Mylos came for genetic trade, offering a chance for the women of Earth to meet and marry their perfect other halves as well as advances in technology and education for all.

Darla Levin isn't looking for a husband. She is, however, looking for money for college. Falling short of her needs using financial aid, she decides to take a gamble and apply for the Bride Registry Scholarship.

It seems simple: You don't get matched unless you're a perfect genetic and psychological fit, and for the scholarship, the pool is limited to Mylos currently in orbit. Matches are so rare, she's never known anyone who has known anyone else who has been matched.

After her best friend Angie registers and received her scholarship funds immediately, Darla takes the plunge. Only the unthinkable happens, and she finds she is now the mate to Gundar, the commander of the Bride Fleet itself.

Romance with a happily ever after and no cliff-hanger. For mature listeners only!

©2017 Loretta Johns (P)2018 Loretta Johns

Not a fan of narrator

Story is good but Lusk is awful. She does not have a voice for romance books.

wow

sexy.. hott.. wow.. lol the narrator kept their emotions.. their personalities and everything very well done.. the author is awesome an this story was so much fun.. this was also one of those that made me blush to listen to haha.. very erotic and well done.

Good sequel to Tellan, Brides of Mylos BK. #1!

Minor Spoilers Alert

My tags for this Sci-Fi Romance: Great world building / Entertaining / Happily Ever After / Easy to Read / Funny / Whimsical

Format Collected / Read: Unabridged Audiobook courtesy of a free redemption code

Series: Mate the Stars, Book 1 / Brides of Mylos, Book 2

Ratings:

Story - 4 stars!
This is my second novel by this author. From what I understand, Gundar is actually the first novel in the original series entitled Mate the Stars which technically predates Tellan, Brides of Mylos, Book 1. I recommend reading Tellan first since remains my favorite story in this universe so far.

If read as a sequel to the novel Tellan (Bridges of Mylos, Book 1), Gundar further introduces the reader to the cultural challenges of human women being matched to alien Mylos men. We learned that there will also be the future possibility of human males being paired up with Mylos men which was a necessary and nice plot point discussion to include in my opinion. Of course, since alien female Mylos are rare, the reverse pairing is unlikely to happen but not impossible I'm guessing.

There was a lot of well-timed and charming humor sprinkled in with the steamier moments and with the low drama anti-alien and human mating plot points. That humor mostly centered around Gundar learning the nuances of English idioms and Darla discovering the technological advances of the Mylos engineered space ship and the customs of the Mylos alien species.

Performance: 3.5 stars!
I felt very conflicted while listening to Audrey Lusk's vocal acting. Overall, I enjoyed her very enthusiastic delivery. Additionally, she was dedicated to giving each character a very distinct vocal personality. The conflict for me was that I simply loved Ashley Taylor's performance on Tellan so much more that Audrey Lusk's style of narrating couldn't compete as favorably and win me over 100%.

Still, I wouldn't hesitate to read / listen to the next audiobook in the Mate the Stars series which is Junrig, also narrated by Audrey Lusk.

Overall - 4 stars!
This series has a very cool premise to me. I enjoyed experiencing Gundar and Darla's adjustment to each other, and I appreciated the fact that the sinister plot wasn't too over the top dramatic.

Final thought:
I would love to re-listen to Gundar with Ashley Taylor replacing Audrey Lusk as the narrator to see how that change would impact my reading experience. Since the Tellan audiobook was produced / published by Pahoa Paradise, I'm hopeful that maybe Gundar and eventually Junrig will be re-published with Ashley Taylor as the new narrator.

Gundar

I love listen to this book. It’s funny, loving, family oriented and will draw you in every step of the way. As for Darla and Gundar, they are very passionate to those they love and very proud of their culture. She is more fun loving, where Gundar is more by the book crating a perfect balance.

Fun and fast paced, but thin. Bad narrator.

Fun story that actually fits a fair amount into a shorter length book. Not spectacular but fun for a quick listen (at 2x speed). Descriptions of surroundings and other sensory details are limited, which makes it a bit thin and is why the book is so fast paced.

I really don’t care for this narrator though (any book she does). Although her voices are distinctly different for each character, they’re all twinged with a lower class southern accent, including her neutral narration portions, which I find distracting, personally. And her foreign accents need a lot of work (there is a part where she uses Australian accents, but they just sound awful and not really Australian at all).

Loved the story

I loved the story and how the characters interacted with each other.

I will agree with others in that the narrator was a bit much with the accent, but I still enjoyed the book.

I did receive this audiobook for free for my honest review.

Hated the narrator

Narration messed up this book I hated the country bumpkin voice and just the way she made her sound. I brought this title because I started to read it and it was good. Will read the second book

Fun book to listen to!

I asked to receive this Audible book and voluntarily wrote this unbiased review. I know several of the reviewers were not happy with the narrator but I really did not have any problems listening to her. Several of the reasons they cited would be ones that would bother me. The author wrote a very enjoyable story. Although Gundar was a dominant warrior, he went out of his way to please and support Darla. Darla never intended on being matched but she gave Gundar a chance and fell in love with him. I loved the comical moments that were created by trying to understand the idioms used on earth. There was a tense moment towards the end.

Enjoyable story

Militaristic and orderly aliens looking for mates for life came to Earth and get matched to an unsuspecting human female. It's a well-written sci-fi fantasy romance that's of course wish fulfillment as well. I enjoyed the story overall though the narrator's overall joyful southern voice was a bit off putting at times but not a deal breaker as such.

Very cool story!

This is an original idea that is very well written and accompanied by fantastic narration. I'm looking forward to the next installment.