Rebirth

Birds of Change, Volume 1

By: A. J. Wharton

Narrated by: Melody Muzljakovich

Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

In a world divided between those who are talented and those who aren't, Vici is a city governed by an egotistical Praetor driven by his hatred for the gifted individuals - the Tallents - who he considers a plague. Tallents are forced into the shadows, for fear that they will be caught and executed.

An explosion rocks the city to its very foundation; the sole survivor a young woman with no memories of her past. Her only tie to her previous life is a silver necklace with the name Asylia inscribed. Risen from the ashes, she pieces herself together while taking control of her emerging fire talent. She must be careful; one mistake and she will end up like all the other Tallents who have faced the Praetor's wrath.

Harbored by a mysterious group called Revival, the young woman discovers that the people of Vici are disappearing at an alarming rate. Together with her new friends, she must rally against the Praetor's tyranny, racing to free the city in hopes that she isn't too late to bring peace to this world in turmoil.

©2018 Angela Jordan Wharton (P)2019 Angela Jordan Wharton

Interesting plot, but often forced

First, the narration was well done. The naïvety of the main character was well voice acted and other characters voices were clearly distinct.

The universe and plot presented an interesting setting. The story contained a diverse array of characters, but the characters often suffered from a lack of depth. Motivations were incredibly simplistic and the plot was often predictable. This really tore away from the realism for me and I found myself desiring complexity of some form. It was a good story, but the telling could use some work.

Interesting and Intriguing

Great read with a few interesting twists here and there. Was going to finish it in a week or so, but couldn't help - done in barely 3 days.

Good job, Mrs. Wharton. And, of course, the narration was fantastic.

Loved it!

Interesting and so well written! I totally enjoyed this book. Can't wait to see what else this author will offer!!!

This book was okay (spoilers) 3 Stars

You had me at Greek mythology. The story was good the narration was good. But I still hesitate to give it 4 stars. one of my biggest problems with the story is the character reactions.

One example is a point in the book that I think should have been a big turning point in our character. (Spoiler) our main character finds out that in her transformation she killed her daughter. When the realization happens it takes her all of two seconds to get over it. And when she confronts the other parent it only takes another two seconds. I'm obviously just a little, but not much. by the end of the story the two characters are buddy buddy without mentioning the problem again.

I didn't notice at least 3 audio glitches. It repeated the same sentence twice on 3 separate occasions.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

It was okay...

As always, I have to state that this book was given to me for free in exchange for a review.
I always like to state that this does not impact my review or my opinion of the book. My reviews are honest and my own opinion of the story, performance, and overall thoughts on the book.

There are a couple of sections of the novel that I thought was convenient for the story or could be completely omitted. Overall, the characters were compelling, sometimes more so that Asylia, but secrecy or an incomplete storyline is not a bad thing. Plenty of novels have found success with that same formula. This novel makes for a fun read that skims over the surface of some major themes but still provides a great stepping stone for the sequel.

Very good

I thought this was a very good listen. It has a lot of suspense, action and drama. The narrator does a perfect job of reading this book.

Rebirth Indeed

Let me start out by saying this book just grabs you and pulls you in right from the start! I loved that I had all these questions about what was going on, and from the writing I was able to naturally come to conclusions on the story on my own.

I loved the narrator at first, but then I began to get annoyed with the main characters voice. It was a little too whiny for me.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story with amazing characters!

*Disclosure* I did receive this book for free in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

Middle of the road with some bright spots.

I was gifted this audiobook in exchange for a review.

This story has a great deal of potential and I was far more engaged than I expected to be, despite the story starting off a oddly for me . The dialog was a bit rough at times and I struggled with the main character's amnesia and how it made her "stupid". There are certainly enough bright spots within the story though to give this a shot. The narrator was a pleasant surprise with a good voice and solid range of character voices.

I LIKED IT!

I liked it! This book is very interesting because it's not your ordinary fantasy. The narration is great and will keep you entertained. This author does an excellent job with the character builds and plot. I look forward to reading more books from this author. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A solid debut

I received a token for this audiobook in exchange for an honest review- so here goes (my first full review on the website). Overall, Wharton's debut novel is an entertaining listen. You can definitely see the scuffs and bruises of early work but in some aspects these bits can be as endearing as they are blemishing. The prose can be rather rough in some parts, doing a fair bit of "showing" instead of "telling", and often times repeats the subject to the reader as if we forgot what was talked about only a sentence prior (A glaring example of this is a section about eating pasta about halfway-2/3 through the book). My solution to getting through this without too much frustration was to just read this as a popcorn-fantasy novel written for a YA audience, not taking the prose or diction too seriously and just sitting back and enjoying the journey through the scenes. The biggest thing I enjoyed was the characters probably, they each had their own distinct feel (not to mention their Talents, of course) and each had endearing qualities (even the villains). The Greek mythos attributes of the narrative were also fairly intriguing and I kept itching to find out more and more as we dug deeper into the plot. The narrator, Melody Muzljakovich, did a great job giving the characters each distinct voices, really bringing them to life (especially Nyx's rippling fairy tone and the healer lady whose name I just blanked on).

All in all I enjoyed the novel for what it was and would read (and pay for) a sequel.