Natural Consequences

By: Elliott Kay

Narrated by: Tess Irondale

Length: 22 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

The exciting sequel to Good Intentions! Alex Carlisle has enough to deal with even on quiet days. Living with an angel and a succubus is no easy feat. One has divine responsibilities she can't explain, and the other tempts him toward a decadent lifestyle he's not sure he can manage. Add to that the stresses of college and trying to hold down a job, and it's lucky Alex can even keep his head on straight.

Yet the complications keep on coming. An amorous (and terrifying) werewolf won't take no for an answer. Vampires from across the country want to know what happened to their allies in Seattle. To top it all off, events in the city have drawn the attention of federal agents who know far too much about the supernatural, and they have no patience for the chaos that Alex and his friends leave in their wake.

©2013 Elliot Kay (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Great Narration, terrible story

How do you write a book that uses trust, being truthful to partners, and everyone knowing who their partners are with, as main themes, but also slip in a main character blatantly cheating, and knowing it’s cheating, while another of the triad watches?
Way to destroy the storyline and flow in a single moment

alex.....

alex gets demoted to secondary character in this episode.. Lorelei pretty taking over eveything yet treating him like a servant and a third wheel in almost all of relationships. She says she wants the best for him but it is clearly she still is a succubus playing her games. While alex is dealing with his personal dealings. All the girls that even seem to want a steady relationship with alex they end up sleeping with Lorelei and change their directions to her with destorys alexes chances, he is only human and cant compete with a sex demon. Being a good guy that he is he expects it as his dues and lets Lorelei roll all over him making excuses why its ok. His "lovers" treat him like a puppy only when they want sex with him they hang around other than that he pretty much all alone. With Lorelei's abilities as a sex demon and her uses to ramp up lust. even and angel was converted to her control its no wonder why he can keep a serious relationship so by her own deeds makes him alone. Lorelei and rachel prefer each other more than him its probably because they are both immortals

I would like to listen to more

I would like to listen to more books about alex and the supernatural world he lives in

Dissapointment with high and very very low points

What did you like best about Natural Consequences? What did you like least?

ILL DO MY BEST TO AVOID AS MUCH SPOILER AS I CAN BUT BE WARNED!

Will not lie the sex scenes are the highlight of this book as is the relationship between Alex,Rachel and Lorele. Jason and the new character Amber are also fun, though how there relationship eventually plays out is predictable and thus boring at the end. Drew and Wade are sorta put on the back burner for most of the story to focus on Jason, but they are still given enough screen time for character growth and have some of the best none sex scenes in the book. Sadly this makes the absence of Taylor all the more damning. Diana ends up being the most compelling enemy that the cast has face thus far though she does end up falling kinda short at the end. This book is at its best when it just lets the characters be natural and does not try and make some sorta point.

What was most disappointing about Elliott Kay’s story?

The overall story is it tell is good but has serious issues and does not pick up as a whole until the 2 thirds into the story. They we reset a good chunk of Alex's charter and his relationship with Molly and Onyx which is the main cause for the problems with the 1st third of the book.The second is they Completely ignore and through out Taylor for no real reason and the reason they give end up hurting her character and the story and thus the series as a whole. The final issue is the political and social views that don't have anything to really do with the ones that are the core of the story and sometimes just come out of nowhere. It seem to just be tossed in because the author is on some sorta SJW high. Sometimes there just annoying and interrupt the flow of the story and characters at worst it condescending.

The first issue is that some of Alex's growth and relationship/understanding with other characters from the first book has been reset or ignored for the simple sake of drawing out drama that was addressed at the end of the first book. This ultimately makes a good chunk of the 1st third of the book a slosh through things that where already addressed. Alex eventually becomes the character we know from the ending of the first book by the 2nd act but still it is annoying to have to go through so much crap we have already addressed just to get to the character Alex became at the end of the first book.

The second issue i have is the fact they just thrown away Taylor. She is only mentioned in passing in one conversation that is only a few sentences. Supposedly she has a new boyfriend which does not match up with what here character wanted at the end of fist book, that was to have fun with a few guys and not settle down just yet. That was not the deal breaker though as i thought she would still appear in the book and it would be explained and give some new drama other than rehashing the old. However during the Halloween party that also served as a small birthday party for one of her closes friends, Drew, and her best/sex friend Alex, that she claimed he was at the end of the first book, she does not make a appearance at all. Not only does this damage her entire character but also the entire previous book. I still had hope however that she would appear latter in the book to help everyone when shit hit the fan, spoiler she does not. My real hope was that she would appear and give a reason that mad sense for her absence. For instance maybe she fell hard for her new boyfriend and did not want to be around the temptation that is Alex and Lorele. That would have been far better drama and side story than going through so much already covered in the first book for good chunks of the entire first act.

The third and final issue with this book is the blunt and force political and social views and points that author hamfisted into the story even when they are not need or do not make a lick of sense. Now yes the story and theme at the heart of the series deal with many cultural and social taboos but in the first book I thought they were expertly handled with a few exceptions for the most part. Those exceptions in the first book happened to deal with social and political themes that were not even really apart of the story and seemed to just be thrown in by the author, even so they were not numerous enough or forced enough to hurt the story or characters. In this book however they are increased in number and are so blunt and force that it breaks the narrative flow of the story, taking you out of the story and making characters not seem like real or sensible people. The longer the story goes on the worst they get. The one that stood out the most for me was int the 3rd act when one of the charcter is talking to one of Alex's friends asking how they know Lorele is not messing with there minds and how Alex is able to truly trust a literal succubus demon from Hell. These are of occurs sensible questions to ask. Which Alex's friend responded with, "the same reason he can be friends with a redneck hick, a black guy, and a jew"; and the character asking the question shut up and coincided as if that was remotely the same thing as a LITERAL DEMON FROM HELL and answered the question! By the end it clear that these where just points the author wanted to make and just tossed them in the story simply because he was already talking about social and political issue so why not.

What does Tess Irondale bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She makes this entire thing work. She is able to do multiple voices for this large cast and make them all feel distinct enough so you never get confused by who is talking. Where she really shines however is in the sex scenes. She is not shy about them and gives a expert performance. If it had been done by anyone else these scenes would have come off as awkward at best or have been some of the most cringe worthy stuff imaginable at worst. She gives a 110% however and as a result the sex scenes are and actual treat, something i never thought possible.

Do you think Natural Consequences needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

YES if only to fix a few characters and give a proper conclusion to these characters and the story.

Any additional comments?

This is a really good series lets hope the next book is better and does not devolve into a condescending political and social jerk off.

Exactly What I Wanted

What I wanted was Lewdness, hotness, fantasy and fun. Got that and a foul mouth horny Angel. Thank you Elliot Kay.... and Jesus for being a standup dude and allowing a sex demon and a horny angel to fuck like monkies.

Ugggghhhh

Alex the meat-sack is put to sleep, so the true lovers can have Adult talk, while the meat-sack(Alex) is placed in suspension until needed again.
The entire series continues this way...the meat-sack(Alex) is treated better by his lesbian side girlfriends. They want and express the truth to him every chance they get. Lorelei and Rachel hide nearly everything thing from him, but bring him around when they need their special “damsel-in-distress” meat-sack.

In addition, the series now has major preachy overtones about how this wouldn’t hurt anyone...unless they weren’t controlled by a succubus and would actually realize how selfish and unloving both his shitty “girlfriends” are to him.
Alex is nothing but a meat-sack, “damsel-in-distress,” Viking, warrior, Marty Stu of jealousy, that can’t help himself from getting captured every book....haha. I feel so bad for him, his “girlfriends” Lorelei and Rachel that actually do seem to love each other...keep him around more because of the magical bond than because of true care for him.

loved it

great follow up to good intentions, and Tess Irondale knocked it out of the park again with her narration

Great series!

Great book, love the storyline I usually read fiction and found this to be a wonderful combination of sci-fi and fantasy with a great plot! to top it off, definitely one of the best narrators I've had the pleasure of listening to!

Less sex more talking

As with the last book, there was a lot of sex but not nearly as much. There were more heartfelt discussions in the beginning but there was plenty of non sexual action too. I enjoy the characters and the story is well written. I would read another book by this author.

Nice Brain Candy

What made the experience of listening to Natural Consequences the most enjoyable?

Likeable characters. Snarky Angels and Demons.

What three words best describe Tess Irondale’s voice?

While Tess' voice was up to the effort...Please, please, PLEASE have readers review names of people and places for accurate pronunciation. NGUYEN is not pronounced NaGOOyen. Many place names in the northwest are Inuit or other native American tongue in origin. She also mangled several city names. This really had me gnashing my teeth to the point that I put the recording down several times.

Best episode out of the 3

As with the other episode, it took me a short while to get used to the voice of Tess Irondale speaking for all characters. After a few minutes though, it is almost naturally easy to listen to. Excellent story-telling voice. The story itself, well, I read the book, before I listened to it, so following the story with it's flashbacks comes easy to me. I find this book the best out of the 3, because of a couple of things; - the relationship between Alex, Lorelei and Rachel deepens and blossoms to full bloom - The action scenes are good (and there's more than just one big one) - The undercover/ betrayal really gets under my skin - The history of Lorelei almost made me weep, such a tragic, sad story Really good story and excellent story-telling!

Angels & demons with attitude. Just good fun.

No spoilers here, if this is how the afterlife is with Angels and demons it could be fun.

My preference when getting my head down at night, knowing that it will probably not be long before I nod off, is something that leaves me with a genuine feel good factor. No downers, just makes me smile a little; then when I wake up it is no problem finding somewhere to pick it all up from again the next night. Even if this means re-listening to 15 minutes or more of what I have already heard, due to the story trundling on all the way to the end whilst I slept e.g. Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, Old Harrys game, Revolting people.... even Lord of the rings can all still fit the bill for me in this respect; if I have not listened to them for quite some time.

On starting to listen to this I thought I had made a mistake and I had bought the male version of fifty shades of grey for frustrated teenage adolescent boys (not read/listened to 50 shades myself as yet but hey...only going by the hype it received at the time honest)
Even though the sex descriptions were not too graphic and were amusing at times, I initially thought this is not for me. But I do hate to give up on anything once purchased and seldom stay alert enough to realise it is time to roll over and hit the stop button. I found myself loving the characters more and more as the stories went on and the relationships gradually developed and then subsequently changed. The females were much more interesting than the males as the males seemed to be rather one dimensional and wooden in comparison, except for perhaps Jason but it does not spoil anything in the listening. All the female characters are quite different and I could actually picture certain actresses playing and developing the various characters in a film version. Charlize Theron & Sigourney Weaver would make great Demons in any of the main demon characters and the foul mouthed Angel with attitude, Rachael would I suspect be a part to die for.

I have now listened to all 5 books (says it all) and found them light hearted fun and would not put anybody off trying them for themselves. I thought the stories got better as it went on from book to book, with the sex interludes & descriptions becoming shorter and less often; balance was about right over the 4 main books; after all you can only describe a boy on girl, girl on girl, threesomes etc so many times without it becoming repetitive and boring.
No orgies included so perhaps there will be one more book to allow for the inclusion of one with the Angel, Demons, Witches, Vampires, Werewolves and of course the people all being able to participate in some minor way before the inevitable flight or fight to end it all.

The narration was excellent but Tess Irondale had to work very hard with so many voices to do and the one small improvement I would liked to have heard would have been a male voice play the male characters. Not surprised Tess muddled the voices of the witches in the 2.5 short stories book with so many characters to remember and even though OK I would probably say this book is the poorest of the 5 and the gaps it was trying to fill did not really need plugging.

Often hear actresses complaining that there are no good parts for woman in films these days but I think it would be fun to get a host of the best actresses in the world to have a free hand to develop and ad lib all these characters in a film. Obviously they would not be up for the sex scenes as written but with an all female director, film crew etc "it could all be done in the best possible taste" to quote a once famous DJ.

Would add Michael Sheen as the Angel Daniel and possibly Anna Kendrick as Taylor in my film version of the books but suspect others will be able to come up with some good suggestions for the multitude of characters.

Fun fantasy for "adults,"

Fun fantasy for "adults," demons, angels, and witches with some erotica mixed in for good measure

Entirely engrossing

Most men are more romantic than women give credit, and this series is about ultimate romance and total commitment regardless anything else. It is the discovery and rediscovery of true love, albeit in exciting and stressful situations. Tess’ soft and intimate whispers binds the story and makes it real.

This is the only series of audible books I fully intend to listen to again.

good but not gteat

was'nt as keen on it as the first. i found the swiching to so many characters off-putting. some of thos chapters could be skipped without any impact upon the story and i've found that the vampires and werewolves are severely underdeveloped as races. though more time was spent on then in this book, i found them far to cardboard to care much about their history or impact. alex grew to a new level of awsome though, so i can't say i regret reading this one. all in all it was a bit to convoluted and housed a few too many plot points for me. i may listen to it again but i'd end up skipping to the good parts.