Finder's Keeper (Dreamspun Beyond)

By: Shira Anthony

Narrated by: Kenneth Obi

Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

A Heart's Gate Story

The truth might ruin his dreams - or make them come true.

When Zane moves into an old gothic brownstone, he discovers the house comes equipped with a caretaker - Kit, who lives in the basement. Zane is immediately drawn to the charming and attractive Kit. But Kit is much more than he seems. He is a 200-year-old half-human, half-red-fox spirit who guards a Gate between the mortal and spirit worlds - a fact Zane should recognize, but doesn't.

Orphaned at a young age, Zane never learned he comes from a long line of mystical Keepers. Kit needs Zane's help to protect the Gate, but how can he tell Zane of his legacy when that will crush Zane's dreams of traveling the world? If he takes up the mantle, Zane will be bound to the Gate, unable to leave it. But when Zane realizes Kit's true nature, and his own, he'll have to make a choice - fight to protect Kit and the Gate, or deny his destiny and any chance of a future with Kit.

©2017 Shira Anthony (P)2017 Dreamspinner Press

Awesome World, ok Plot

I Love the world Shira Anthony has created here! The characters and types of beings have SO much potential. Unfortunately, the 1st half of the story depends entirely on lack of/mis- communication. By the time things Actually start happening, there is no time left to explain all the interesting people/details/events. I feel like this is one good rewrite away from being the amazing start to a wonderful series, there is so much more story to tell! As it stands, it is a quick, fun, slightly frustrating little book.

Fascinating!

This was really, really, really good.

I’m a sucker for a lot of magic and make believe in my science fiction and this has it in spades! First, we have the magic holder who doesn’t know how special he is, then we find out his mentor is another “undervalued” magic holder and the situation seems to unmanageable but with only a bit of imagination – it’s all managed!

The world building is fantastic and I hope we get to see more from this world as there was so much time spent creating it. We also get to meet a lot of interesting people and I hope to re-visit them in the future as well.

The chemistry is very sweet between Kit and Zane and while I wasn’t always super keen on all the tails, for the most part, it really works!

Highly enjoyable fated mate romance with a lot of great world-building and creativity!

5 of 5 stars

Audio

Kenneth Obi is a new to me narrator and he does a pretty good job. That’s what I kept thinking as I was listening to this audiobook. He does a nice enough job, but there was SO MUCH he could have done that I was a bit disappointed with the relative lack of drama. The voices he chose for Kit and Zane were opposite of how I’d pictured them and that kept me off balance for a bit as well.

He nicely differentiates all the many characters and he does give them unique voices, but he didn’t do as much as he could have with all the wildly creative members of this cast.

It was a nice way to enjoy the story however and recommended overall.

4 of 5 stars

Overall 4.5 of 5 stars

headline optional. headline required

the exorcist guy 100% unnecessary character. Otherwise ok. (15 word word word word word word minimum)

Story wasn't for me, but good narration

I'm sorry to say that this book and I were not meant to be. I liked the premise of the book, I do think there was potential in it. It just...didn't go anywhere.

I might go a bit against the grain when I say that the book didn't make any sense. It felt a little bit like random scenes were put together without a natural progression of events. And at the same time I also felt like the book didn't ever really go anywhere, nothing happened. Half way in, I was still looking for a plot, for something to happen other than the monologues relating to what you read in the blurb.

So moving along to Zane and Kit. I felt like they were a bit one dimensional and flat. I would've loved to see them more fleshed out, a bit more flawed, more personality - and one that didn't change with the flip of a coin. But that might just be me. I never connected to either of them, or felt the chemistry between the two of them. And they had this strange combination of insta-love and slow-burn, I couldn't really get a grip on it.

A pet peeve of mine is unnecessary drama. Where scenes are drawn out for dramatic effect only- think soap opera and melodrama. Add some martyrdom, and non-communicating to the mix and the book is in a whole lot of trouble. It's just to unnecessary, and frankly gets on my nerves. I mean it is one thing to hint at something, to keep the readers guessing, build a suspense, and quite another to add those things for dramatic effect only.

The one thing that actually did work for me was the narrator. Kenneth Obi did a really good job narrating this book and well worth 4 hearts for his effort, but sadly the story itself was not. I will be happy to listen to other works of Obi’s in the future. Just not this one.

This book and I wasn't a match made in the bookish heavens, so it's time we part ways. Hopefully the next book by Ms Anthony will be a better match for me.

A copy of this book was generously provided in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes Reviews.