First Contact

Haunts for Sale Series, Book 1

By: Kat Green

Narrated by: Kate Tyler

Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Sloane Osborne is a paranormal real estate agent in the business of selling haunted houses, but, in truth, she’s only searching for one ghost. And her time is running out.

It’s the 366th day after her fiancé’s death. Michael used to like putting things off for “a year and a day” - so tonight’s the night. Sloane will do anything to make contact with him before the clock strikes midnight. When she gets a call to check out a home in Waukesha, Wisconsin, it’s the last place she thinks Michael would contact her.

Sloane is dead wrong.

©2016 Kat Green (P)2017 Kat Green

Narration Win!

I’d love to first talk about the narrator Kat Tyler! She was really awesome with this story. Everything felt right when she spoke. She had a clear voice and was good with all the emotions that needed to be evoked. Such as happy, love, and fear during the supernatural creepy bits. I loved the life she gave these characters and especially the villain! I give the audio a 5/5!

The story itself is also fun! You do have to just go with the flow on this one since it has a pretty odd premise. But I found myself really hooked into it by the first chapter. Green does a good job with the backstory and place setting. I do wish there was more on the villain as he is just such a cool character! And I also wish some of the characters would not be so easily misled lol. But overall it was a good story and I look forward to the next in the series!! I give the book a 4/5
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Kat Green. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

really good story.

Really liked the ending where the crust villan was pulled into the pit and second was draged to hell by and abused wife to give him what he really deserved.

Great horror story

Would you consider the audio edition of First Contact to be better than the print version?

First Contact is the first book in a series abut a realtor who tries to prove that houses are haunted for certain buyers. She uses this cover to explore and try to make contact with her dead fiance. On the final day, she ends up in a house that has more than just the ghost she is looking for.The premise of this series sounded unique and I was happy I gave the audio book a try. While the mystery aspect of the book wasn't too hard to figure out, I though the horror elements more than made up for figuring out the whodunit early on. The book is genuinely creepy and confirmed my reluctance to go into dark basements. The main character, Sloane was interesting and I wanted to know more about her. She seems like a character that would be able to carry a series. I won't tell any plot points as it would ruin the book. My only complaint was the random sex scene that showed up in the middle of the book. It was weird and seemed out of place. I think the book could have benefited from it being left out. The narrator did a great job of reading the book. Listening to it added to the creep factor. I definitely recommend it for ghost story fans.

This has such a freaky twist! I loved it!!!

Where does First Contact rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

our heroine is hoping to see her lost love one more time in fact 1 more time a year and day. She is has been searching haunted houses and even makes a business of finding haunted houses for people to purchase. Well she walks in with more then she can bargain for when yes, she sees her boyfriend one more time, but also hears woman crying out for thirst from the basement but no one is there at the house she is staying at. And it gets worse and worse from there. You have to read this book. I couldn't stop listening it to. It was one of the better books I've read this year. And boy wait til the twist. Your like what????

Ghost Hunter Lit

I really enjoyed First Contact. The characters were engaging and believable, the storyline a combination of murder mystery, the process of grieving, and snarky comebacks. I definitely want to read the next in the series!

Great Story, Great Narration!

First Contact by Kat Green pulled me in from the very beginning. I was so surprised by the twists in this haunted listen! Without giving away spoilers, I never saw the ending with its twist coming. The imagery in this book is so well done. Kate Tyler performed this book spectacularly. She brought the characters to life. I will definitely listen to more books by this author and narrator. This is a standalone listen and start of a new series.

Simple predictable ghost story.

The book is a little bit of a mess. It could have been better. It goes from first person to third person with out warning so your stuck trying to figure out who is speaking. I liked the basis for the story, the idea is good. The narrator did a decent job although sometimes it was like listeing to a b movie. Also, for a ghost's voice there is an echo effect and it is irritating and distracts from the story. A book is all about imagination and we can imagin the sound of her voice with out the sound effects. Sometimes less is more. The editing is a little off. I am not sure if this is the authors first book but she does show promise.

Fresh, unique storyline

This was an interesting story. It want exactly what I expected, but I still enjoyed it. I find the premise of the series intriguing and fresh take on the genre, so I will probably pick up the next book. Kate Tyler did great job with the narration. Each character had a unique voice, making it easy to follow. Overall, a great listen.

Ghosts in the House

This is one of those books that you just have to throw disbelief and credulity to the wind and enjoy the story for what it is. The good thing is it’s well-told and fun enough to keep me going.

Yes, it’s sadly true that the protagonist, Sloane, is TSTL and also driven by an obsesssion to see her fiance one last time before he leaves this dimension for the next because, you see, he died a year ago. To be more specific, he died 365 days, 21 hours and 36 minutes ago so she only has 2 hours and some minutes before his “year and a day” is up. This was my first hint that I was going to have some trouble with this book as obsession of any kind is a red flag for me. Add to that the location; Michael and Sloane didn’t live and he didn’t die in Wisconsin so why would his ghostly presence be there?

Sloane also is blind to all sorts of hints and clues that maybe, just maybe, she shouldn’t do certain things but, hey, that’s what TSTL is all about, right? Anyway, she stumbles into what could be a very dangerous situation when she discovers a house overflowing with ghosts and, at last, her obsession takes second place to trying to help these ghosts escape this mortal plane, hopefully before she becomes one of them. Oh, and there’s a potential romance in her future if her and Michael’s best friend, Jonah, can find her before it’s too late.

Seriously, I did enjoy this story and I especially liked the narrator, Kate Tyler. Her tone and cadence are really pleasing and she does different voices, male and female, quite well. The next book in the series, Second Sight, isn’t out in audio yet but I’ll be looking for it.

More than enough to pique a reader's interest

3.5 Stars. When I saw the cover of First Contact, the first book in a new series called Haunts for Sale, I was immediately interested in this book. CREEPY! Then I read the premise of the story revolving around a paranormal real-estate agent, and I was MORE interested. UNIQUE! Additionally, it is a short audio book, clocking-in at just under five and a half hours, which was all I needed to seal the deal, as it was only a one-day commitment. PERFECT.

The story has an excellent opening hook, and when main character Sloane Osborne uttered her first “Arrrrgh” in frustration, I laughed because you just gotta love a character who says “Arrrrgh.” And though First Contact is primarily a horror story (with the living often scarier than the dead), Sloane is sassy and there are more than a few humorous scenes sprinkled throughout the story.

Even though I connected with Sloane’s pirate-like utterings and sass, that was about my limit of connection. Overall, I didn’t particularly care for the character. She’s uneven – at times, she is smart, clever, quick-thinking, and resourceful; at most other times, she’s a twit who ignores the obvious and exhibits no common sense at all. And then there is this unnatural yearning for Michael, a man, when among the living, sounds like he was an overbearing a-hole, and with whom the relationship was full of red flags. (Umm, when I fella tells you to quit the job you love because he doesn’t like it, and if he speaks to you like a two-year-old, saying things like, “I said NO,” it’s time to kick him to the curb.) When a horribly misplaced and groan-worthy (not in a good way) sex scene shows up in the story, I decided that the mind-blowing sex had blinded Sloane to all the shortcomings in the relationship -- and it had made her a twit. It happens.

The other characters in the book are vastly more interesting than Sloane – there are some seriously pissed-off ghosts and some seriously evil (and slimy!) humans, who author team Kat Green bring to awful life. Talk about loathsome! It is in the ghosts and the bad guy(s?) where the authors’ characterization skills really shine and have readers begging for some comeuppance. Bad Guy? Guys? No spoilers, here, though this and other elements are abundantly obvious early-on. There is also the seriously fascinating and complex, Jonah. He is a sensitive in more ways than one, and he is who will be the biggest draw for me in the upcoming second book in this series. There are hints that we might see some growth in Sloane via Jonah, and I hope that the holes in their back-story are filled in there.

Speaking of holes…there are a lot of them, and the weight of suspending one’s disbelief is heavy. First Contact is a story that asks readers to just go with it and accept it as it is. Once I did that, the story was more fun and listening became easier when I wasn’t trying to make the pieces fit together. I also didn’t like the F-bomb dropping that begins about half-way through the story. Not necessary.

As far the audio book experience, regular speed was too slow and overly pause-y. (I bumped it up to 1.25x/1.5x.) Narrator Kate Tyler does a great job voicing the numerous characters and their wide range of personalities and emotions. There are three things that didn’t work for me, but these are completely subjective and examples of how a reader’s/listener’s own experiences make an impact: Jonah’s southern accent, the sudden echo-y thing in the voicing of ghostly Karen towards the end, and the overall lack of projecting fear. I haven’t read the print book, but it seems to me that it might be a better option if you want to up the scare factor – the scenes should have made my skin crawl and looking over my shoulder. They didn’t.

So, would I recommend First Contact? Yes. It isn’t a big time investment and there is more than enough there to tweak a reader’s interest. I am also operating under the assumption that more back-story will come out, tying-up the loose ends and puzzlers from book one.

Thank you to Audiobookworm Promotions for providing me a free download in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give.