Playing with Monsters

By: Amelia Hutchins

Narrated by: Aiden Snow, Eva Amar

Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's Summary

My coven has remained hidden in the shadows for centuries.

We’ve avoided the ‘real world’ altogether - hiding from monsters and other creatures we share this planet with.

We found protection in the Colville National Forest, nestled in a town protected by magical barriers.

Our powers are locked by an ancient curse, one meant to protect us from being found.

Until now.

The past has a way of repeating itself. A new game is beginning. No one is safe.

He’s coming for me.

He’s hunting.

The monster we’ve run from for centuries has found us.

How far will this deadly game go?

How far will I be able to take it, or will he destroy me and everything I care about?

Will the one thing I can’t live without be the key to destroying and undoing the past?

Or will the past destroy me before I can save the people I love from what I’ve done?

Warning: Intended for listeners 18 and older.

About the hero: Chances are you may not fall instantly in love with him, that’s because I don’t write men you instantly love; you grow to love them. I don’t believe in instant love. I write flawed, raw, caveman-like assholes who eventually let you see their redeeming qualities. They are aggressive, assholes, and one step above a caveman when we meet them. You may not even like him by the time you finish this audiobook, but I promise you will love him by the end of this series. 

About the heroine: There is a chance that you might think she’s a bit naïve, or weak, but then again who starts out as a badass? 

Badasses are a product of growth and I am going to put her through hell, and you get to watch her come up swinging every time I knock her on her ass. That’s just how I do things. How she reacts to the set of circumstances she is put through may not be how you, as the listener, or I, as the author, would react to that same situation. Everyone reacts differently to circumstances and how Magdalena responds to her challenges is how I see her as a character and as a person. I don’t write love stories: I write fast-paced, knock you down, make you sit on the edge of your seat wondering what happens next books. If you’re looking for cookie-cutter romance, this isn’t for you. If you can’t handle the ride, unbuckle your seat belt and get out of the roller-coaster car now. If not, you’ve been warned. If nothing outlined above bothers you, carry on and enjoy the ride!

©2016 Amelia Hutchins (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Two words: “Hot Damn!”

I have been ernestly waiting for an Amelia Hutchins story in audiobook form, and these 2 narrators did not disappoint.

Eva Amar and Aiden Snow are very easy to listen to as they tell the story of Magdalena and Lucian. Eva portrays Lena as I imagined she would sound when I read the books. And, oh boy, does Aiden Snow’s deep and raspy voice really give anyone the tingles.

Playing with Monsters is witty, hot, and dirty. Lucian and his crew are all raw, primal, and purely badass. They don’t sugar coat anything. So if you’re looking for the sweet, romantic, and cute style of romance, where a good girl falls for a bad boy, this book is not for you. The dynamic between Lena and Lucian’s strong personalities, is a constant battle field. They don’t see eye to eye on almost anything, and the sexual dynamic between these two characters is blazing hot. With these talented narrators, you can feel the sexual tension that is brewing between Lena and Lucian at every interaction. I highly recommend this rollercoaster story. Your emotions with range from heart wrenching sadness to anger to horny, all within one book.

I have fallen head over heels for all of Amelia’s books! I have read them over and over again, and they never get old. The Monsters series, is a branch off of her original series, “The Fae Chronicles”. You meet some of the her original characters in this series, however I recommend, if you want to experience the full world she has created, read the Fae Chronicles first and continue with the Monsters series to experience the world from every angle.

Dumb

I'll have to file this book under DNF. The forced sexual tension and lame sexual innuendos reached unbearable levels. The main character never owns up to her actions and most the narration is her asking herself "why did I say that?" and calling her body traitorous. Just.. own up to it. There were too many "oopsies, I didn't mean that" moments. Furthermore, the plot seems hollow. Lucian only talks about what a badass he is and how he's not a good person. Just. Ugh. I want to read a good kinky story. Where have all the good books gone?

Good story but different female narrator

I started writing this review not having good things to say about this book. I began picking apart the way it was written and how it didn’t flow when the characters were speaking to one another. They were too mechanic and emotionless with their words when interacting with each other. But then I realized it wasn’t the way the book was written but how it was narrated.
The female narrator, Eva Amar, definitely needs more work. I looked up to see what other books she narrated but I guess this spin off series of The Fae Chronicles was her first. She didn’t bring the characters to life and didn’t change her voice to match other characters personalities. She used the same monotone voice throughout the whole book. Most times I couldn’t tell which person was talking and it was also hard to tell the difference of the musings of the main character from when she is speaking. She literally just “read” the book to us and didn’t bring it to life.
However the male narrator, Aiden Snow, was good. I would rather him narrate the whole book. He had a lot more emotion and you can feel the connections and chemistry between the characters. It flowed 10 times better when he spoke. I looked forward to his parts even though it was few and far between.
The story as a whole was interesting and kept me intrigued. However, I would like to know Lena and Lucien ages. I’m thinking she’s at least 21ish and he probably looks mid 35ish (even though he’s immortal). It would help to get a better idea of how they look.

So good

The story Caught my attention right away, tho I wish there was more chapters for Lucian(aiden snow). Starting the second book right away to see what happens next

Narration Issues for this Listener

This is a hard review for me.

I did enjoy the storyline, although I was warned that the female main character wouldn’t be “bad ass.” Well, that is certainly the truth. I’m guessing she’ll come into her own in the second book, especially given how this one ended. I can’t wait for her to give Lucian hell. I know that’s coming.

The reason I just couldn’t give this 4 stars like I wanted to was because of the female narrator, Eva Amar (this is my first time listening to her narration). Sometimes I couldn’t even distinguish between the voices - whether she was reading a male or female part. Um, that ain’t good!

The male narrator, Aiden Snow, was perfect. He’s been perfect in all of the audiobooks I’ve had the pleasure of hearing him narrate. As most of this book was told from the main female’s POV, Aiden didn’t have nearly enough narration time for me.

So, this loses one whole star for me. It makes me pause on the second installment, although I really do want to know what happens next. Hmmmm.....

Please, oh please let the second book be read by a different female narrator (fingers AND TOES crossed)!

Good story, terrible female narrator

I could only listen to the halfway point of the book then had to skip to the end because the female narrator was SO BAD! Monotone, with no voice difference in any of the characters. Ugh. Liked the story, but not enough to continue with her terrible narration.

Good start to the series

Playing with Monsters is book one of the series by the same name. I found it difficult to put this book down. I was totally hooked. The story was really interesting and had some twists and turns. As this is just the first part of an ongoing storyline, we are left with some unanswered questions that we will need to keep reading to find out. This book ended with a mild cliffhanger. Nothing super maddening or urgent, so I am okay not reading book 2 right away.

This book had some really HOTT adult scenes in it. As much as the main characters wanted to hate each other, their chemistry was off the charts.

The audible was fairly good. Both narrators were easy to understand. I wasn't a big fan of the female narrator though because she didn't use clearly distinguishable voices which was especially bad when the dialogue was between two females. Several times, the sisters were speaking to each other and I had to try to figure out which was which. That brought me out of the story each time so that was a bit of a bummer.

Ugh

It’s hard to get over this narrator. But I push through. And the story is all over the place. I tried. I can’t finish it.

couldn't finish, needs new narration and editing

I'm all for romance, sexual tension, and even alpha males but I had to return this book halfway through because I was extremely frustrated with the character development and above all the narration. This is a dual narration but is 75% Eva Amar who uses a monotone voice throughout that sounds much too young and flippant for this book. She uses zero inflection in her voice to differentiate the characters so I found myself constantly flipping back to make sure I understood who was talking and if they were male or female. I initially kept listening because there was some mystery interwoven between choppy scenes and I thought I could tough it out. Unfortunately, nothing flowed and the vocabulary that was chosen to describe characters, sex scenes and environment repeated constantly. When Aiden Snow took over with his pleasant deep voice it was just a repeat almost to the exact of what Eva Amar had just said in her previous scene or such a vastly different personality that didn't make any sense without any of his history. There is never a true look into Lucien's mind or backstory and a whole lot of repetitive cringeworthy nonsense (stereotypical "oh I'm just not this kind of girl") with Magdelena (the main female) . Overall the concept is a more violent 50 shades with little to no history of the main male or outlying players and very shallow character development.

Hot Hot Hot

5 Hot Hot Hot Stars

This book was 100% worth $3. What a steal! I can’t believe the ebook was only $1 and the audio was only $1.99.

Playing with Monsters is a spin-off of The Fae Chronicles, I highly suggest you read The Fae Chronicles because a lot is given away. Also it’s an awesome series and I like the order I read them in. As much as I want to jump into Sleeping with Monsters, I need to read Unraveling Destiny next, too bad it’s not in audio.

So the audio was fabulous. I kind of wished there was more male parts only because I LOVED the male narrator. He was so deep and so masculine, it fit Lucian completely. Gah, I want to listen to his voice all day long.

As for the female narrator, she was okay. I found it a bit too deep for me, but I love a high-pitch girl voice, so that’s a personal thing. It didn’t hinder my listening experience, but I’m not sure I will do the audio version for Playing with Monsters.

There’s a lot that goes on in Playing with Monsters and I felt like the author did a great job in character and plot development. We start out the story of Lucian going through many lives and each life he has to find a girl and kill her. We are not sure what’s that all about but that’s how the story starts.

I will admit at some parts I was trying to follow along and I know if I read this verse listened to it, I probably could have done a better job, but I feel like I got 95% of the story. I liked Lena. She’s that strong Heroine you want to get sucked into. She’s all about family and doing what is right for her people.

Lena is a witch and I have no idea what Lucian is. I hope it wasn’t revealed in the story because I didn’t get it. I guess it’s not that important.

Anyhow what makes this book so great is the tension and chemistry between Lena and Lucian. Oh my goodness, it will make you mad but a happy mad. I found myself trying to listen to the book when I usually don’t listen to books because I wanted to know what was going to happen.

Oh and the steam. I love a PNR book that is steamy and kinky and there’s not insta-anything. I loved the buildup. Gah.

The book leaves you very satisfied when you are done, but the series goes on just FYI.

Phenominal!!!!

What a wonderfully written story! it was full of so much angst, bravado, inuendo's and sweet good loving and damn right explosive sex!!! love the character of Lucien, he is mysterious and bold, fearless and a total sexy beast! Madelina is so feisty, and gutsy, yet with an air of vunerability, love her character too. A must read!!!

Jumbled mess of a book

I got halfway through this book then gave up. I didn’t feel remotely emotionally invested, and it was so clumsily written that I kept getting distracted and I just can’t be bothered to carry on. Shame as I was looking forward to it from reading the synopsis.

Excellent

One of my favourite books, iv read and listened to them, brilliant imagination amelia has

Very steamy paranormal demon romance

Well, I think I used a lot of adjectives in that title.

Very steamy: The story takes awhile to get going, a slow start, but once the steam picks up, it is 'destroy the house' type of steam. With a well-endowed, possessive, alpha male lead. And despite her lack of experience, our main female character does catch up. A good part of the storyline involves trying to eliminate the concept of 'all right' or 'it was ok' and replace it with more steamy versions of life experiences. There's a LOT of swapping between hate and love as everyone tries to understand their emotions.

Paranormal: Taking place in the same world as Synthia and Ryder's Destiny storyline, we've got fae, vampires, demons, Lucifer, witches, mages, rebirth of souls, and who knows what else.

Performance: I neither hate nor love the narrators. They aren't at the 'OMG, best ever!' but they are pleasant to listen to with (mostly) the right emotions at the right places. The recordings were done with professional sounding equipment without echoes or other issues. One problem I have is keeping track of what is said 'out loud' and what is said within their heads,

World-building: I love Amelia Hutchins' world building. There are multiple characters, factions, types of whatever going on... and honestly, this story makes more sense within the world and avoids spoilers for other books, if you follow Amelia Hutchins' suggested reading order, this would be book 6:
Fighting Destiny - Ryder and Synthia
Taunting Destiny - Ryder and Synthia
Escaping Destiny - Ryder and Synthia
Seducing Destiny - Ryder and Synthia
A Demon’s Dark Embrace - Ristan and Olivia
Playing with Monsters - Lucian and Lena

Warnings: Bad things happen in this book, including, but not limited to non-consensual sex, death, murder, sex, destruction. This is not a light and feel good romance. It ends on a cliffhanger.

story of finding herself but finding love instead

found that not everything was as it seemed but being drawn to a forbidden love

A major mistake to list the series book 2 as nbr 1

A really excellent audio but the publishers scored a damning own goal because they did not tell the reader that this was BOOK TWO so the the suspense was entirely lost because readers were listening to the end! Very, Very annoying. And then book two (I perserverd) was a total let down because I realised the frustration I felt at book 2 was entirely preventable!.
But I loved the voice of Lucian, sexy as hell but not the voice of Magadlene in book 2 - it lacked soul.
Overall because of the confusion this was not an enjoyable series, way too much work for listeners struggling to work out who was who and back stories eg Grandmother, Tabitha. Lots of interesting stories just ignored.
DISAPPOINTED.