Living with the Dead

Women of the Otherworld, Book 9

By: Kelley Armstrong

Narrated by: Jen Taylor

Length: 13 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

They're smart, sexy, and supernatural: they're the men and women of the Otherworld - a realm of witches, ghosts, and werewolves who live unseen among us. Only now a reckless killer has torn down the wall, trapping one very human woman in the supernatural cross fire.

Robyn Peltier moved to Los Angeles after her young husband's sudden death. Though she's still grieving, the challenges of her new life as the PR consultant to Portia Kane - the world's most famous celebutante wannabe - can sometimes be amusing, even distracting. But when her client is gunned down in a nightclub, Robyn is suddenly on the run as the prime suspect in the murder. And as more bodies pile up around her, it seems like only Hope Adams, Robyn's best friend, and Hope's somewhat spooky boyfriend Karl are on Robyn's side. But it's not the police Hope is worried about, and the only way Hope can keep her friend alive is by letting her enter a world she's safer knowing nothing about.

©2008 KLA Fricke, Inc. (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America

It's JAY-ME

I enjoy this series thoroughly and have read them myself before listening to them here. But I wish the few times JAY-ME Vegas was mentioned, her name wasn't mispronounced to HI-meh. It's not a Mexican name. That really ruined the flow for me.

Horrible Narration!!

I’m sorry but the male’s voice sounds like a sloth with a severe cold. I’ve listened to all previous books in the series and though most of the female narrators have had trouble with male voices this is by far the worst. Since Karl is a main character it makes finishing the book daunting. I keep trying to continue to listen

Great story, not so great narration

I was totally disappointed while listening to this story, because the narrator did not do her homework at all. There were mispronunciations, and characters had different accents from previous stories. The narrator also sounded too ... young and whiny.

Great Story brought down by terrible naration

I have been burning through this series enjoy each one more then the last, until now. This isn't the fault of the author, but the terrible narrator. This woman tried so hard to make male voices that all she did was destroy the narration, taking you out of the story. Her male voices sounded either drunk, mentally challenged, or like they smoked 4 packs of cigarettes every day. Add on to that the fact that she repeatedly miss-pronounced the name of Jamie Vegas. I have no idea how she got "Hamie" from Jamie, but she did. As I look forward to the rest of the series I am only filled with trepidation noticing that she is the narrator for the next few books also. I just wish a series could keep one narrator for the entire series.
As for the story. It was another great installment in this series with all the twists and turns that Kelley Armstrong is so great at creating. I love how she is able to give her characters depth and a well roundness that many authors lack. I feel like I know these characters as people. With faults, hopes and dreams. I would highly recommend this entire series to anybody.
In short, if you are debating reading or listening and don't care either way, Then read this book. Don't skip this one either way...just be forewarned.

Good book, horrible narrator.

The book itself is good, just as I expected from Kelley Armstrong. However, the narrator was just awful. In my opinion, she made Karl sound like some old pervert, Hope sound like an annoying teenage valley girl, and Robyn sounds pretty close to Hope, giving me problems telling them apart at times. I did enjoy the book, but I was very tempted to stop listening and deleting it from my Zune simply because of the choice of narrator.

~le sigh~

Much like the others I was irritated by the mispronunciation of Jaime Vegas’s name, if the narrator had read some of the previous stories then she would know the lineage of Jaime Vegas and how she got her name and that it is DEFINITELY not pronounced with an H like the Spanish name for Jimmy. Since Jamie Vegas is my favorite character in the Otherworld it really went against my grain, it was like fingernails on a chalkboard every time she said it. Also, like the other reviewer’s I too felt as though all of the voices were like valley girl bimbos. I guess that because the story was placed in LA that the narrator thought that this was how they were supposed to sound even tho NONE of them were actually from LA. Its also very true that she did make Karl Marston sound like an old pervert, I couldn’t put my finger on it until I read another review and that sums it up perfectly. I understand that she was trying to do a male voice but when you think of Karl you think of anything but an old pervert, except when you’re listening to Jen Taylor’s narration. However the actual story is another amazing one by Kelley Armstrong and absolutely worth reading. It has as many twists and turns and mystery that all of her other books have. She started doing multiple first person narration’s in Haunted, I actually really enjoy reading in another persons point of view and I think it kind of adds to the mystery, and the frustration because you know what that person’s intentions are but your heroine doesn’t always find out right away, and you’re so relieved when they finally do, it makes you feel like you’re an insider to the action. Kelley Armstrong is a gifted writer, I really wish the television show haven’t sucked so bad, just my two cents

Truly enjoyable!

A calm relaxing read with sensual moments, moments of pure strength and a love story most only dream of.

Not the Right Narrator and Story is So-So

This is my least favorite of the series so far, for various reasons.

First off, the Narrator: This seems to be what most reviews agree on. She has to go. I bought ''Frostbitten'' before I noticed that she also narrated that one but fortunately that's the last book. Her normal narrating voice isn't that bad and I can relax when she's just telling the story. But every time she tries to do a male voice or a voice with an accent, I tense up. Her males sound wimpy or like high school boys with their voices cracking. The girls all sound like valley girls or naive 12 year olds. And none of her attempts at accents are correct. The only voice I halfway enjoyed was that of the rival werewolf which was supposed to be some sort of English accent. And he was only there for maybe 3 scenes.

I was particularly disappointed in Hope's voice. The last few books were narrated by Laurel Merlington who has a very mature voice and made the all the girls, including Hope, sound like take-charge heroines even when their lives were crap or they were struggling. With Jen Taylor I cringed every time I heard Hope sound like a whiny damsel in distress or valley girl. She just wasn't the character I remembered from ''Personal Demon.''

Also, Jen Taylor apparently didn't bother listening to the other books or speaking to the author to see what not only the characters were made of but how to pronounce their names. The female name of ''Jaime'' can be pronounced the Ango-Saxon way and the same way as the male version or the Spanish way of ''High Me'.' The choice had already been made in earlier narrations and should not have been changed. Jen Taylor chose to say it as ''High Me'' which it took me three re-winds to figure out who she was talking about. A narrator can make or break a novel, and while I know it's never easy to like a new narrator it can be done if the narrator is good. This narrator was barely competent and not a good choice!

The Story: It was okay but there was a lot of aspects I didn't like. To start with the positive, I really liked the character of Finn, hopefully he will get a short story or be in another book. I liked the conversation Hope and Karl had about changing her into a werewolf. I loved the description of Robyn's marriage to Damian and empathized with her pain and struggle at his loss. I also enjoyed the pace of the book which was a very fast adrenaline rush with crisis after crisis. But then there were also odd, disjointed points to the book and parts I thought didn't need to be included.

First off, I didn't like how Hope treated Robyn after she ''discovered'' the Supernatural world. I understand and agree with the Supernatural world staying separate from the normal one. Humans as a whole tend to have ''mob mentality'' and have a skewed moral compass. However, individuals that can be trusted should be, especially when the Supernatural world keeps trying to kill them. Hope and Karl talking patronizingly to her about how humans can't be trusted (including her) and she really didn't and shouldn't want to know about their world really rubbed me the wrong way. And I didn't like how Robyn just accepted it. This was Hope's friend from high school, the one who stood by her when she ''went crazy'' and had to be institutionalized and she couldn't even be bothered to afford her the courtesy of the truth? I was really disappointed with Hope and Robyn here.

Also I didn't like how Hope and Karl immediately thought that Finn was a bad guy or at the very least reporting to the Cabal. The things they later accused humans of, jumping to conclusions, racism/prejudice, etc they were just as guilty of. Yes Finn had a supernatural talent but everything pointed to him being a good trustworthy cop doing his job. To just assume that he was ''evil'' because he was a cop in a Cabal city was just as prejudice as the humans they were claiming to be better then.

Also the bad guys. Some sort of cult, that was so interested in breeding talents that they believed in incest and arranged marriages. I don't mind reading about it, I know it happens; but I also don't want the sex scenes with the mentally challenged half-told to me. One simple sentence would have explained the situation without getting my ire up.

I came away with the impression that for Kelley Armstrong that this was her ''soap box'' book but I don't appreciate ''moral lessons'' being shoved down my throat, especially when the dangers the Supernatural world face from both without and within have already been expressed and with much better scenarios and in a less preachy way in her earlier books. Such as the research facility that held Elena, Paige and Savannah hostage. This showed the danger of a large group of humans finding out about Supernaturals without coming across as condescending.

Great Book

My only complaint was that this performance really could have used a pronunciation sheet from the previous books. For example Jamie Vegas from the was pronounced “Hi-May” not “Jay-me” as in previous books though me for a bit of a loop until I figured out whah they were referring to.

Worst narrator!

What did you like best about Living with the Dead? What did you like least?

The story was great, probably much better if you read the book instead of listening
The worst part was the narrator...everyone sounded like a teenage girl so at times it got confusing as to who was talking and the men's voices? They didn't sound male I'm not sure what they sounded like but either way they were not good

How could the performance have been better?

Different narrator

Any additional comments?

Do the author of the books actually listen to the audible versions before they are released? I'm not sure how it works but after finally getting used to the narrator of the last few books (who was ok) she then switched to this person. Like other reviewers said everyone sounds like a 16 year old valley girl...hope sometimes has a New Jersey accent the voices are hard to distinguish from each other even the males the only reason I know who was who was because it said "hope" or "Robyn" before each chapter.,.and the worst most annoying part of it was calling Jamie Vegas "hamie" where does that even come from? This is why I question if the author actually listens to the books ...I love this series and will buy the next book on audible because I dnt have time to read it. I see its the same narrator so hopefully these problems will b fixed and I can enjoy the story more because i know its about the pack and jamie will be in it....but I would recommend if u have the time read the book you will prob like it better