Target

Vicky Peterwald, Book 1

By: Mike Shepherd

Narrated by: Dina Pearlman

Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Beauty and the battlefield

Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Victoria Maria Teresa Inez Smythe-Peterwald, daughter of wealth and power, was raised to do little except be attractive and marry well. Then everything changed - her brother, her father’s favorite and the heir apparent, was killed in battle by Lieutenant Kris Longknife, daughter of the Peterwald’s longtime enemies. Vicky vowed revenge, but her skill set was more suitable for seduction than assassination, and she failed. Angry and disappointed, her father decided she needed military training and forced her to join the Navy.

Now Ensign Vicky Peterwald is part of a whole new world, where use of her ample charms will not lead to advancement. But her father is the Emperor, and what he wants he gets. What he wants is for Vicky to learn to be efficiently ruthless and deadly.

Though the lessons are hard learned, Vicky masters them - with help from an unexpected source: Kris Longknife.

©2014 Mike Moscoe (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

smuttier than the longknife series.

struggled to finish, not a terrible plot but to many words wasted on banal sex scenes.

One Of Three Ways...

I started listening to the first book in the "Longknife" series early last year, and ended up listening to ALL of them, one after another, through the ENTIRE series! It's a Fantastic Series, which held my attention through 12 books AND several short stories! Listening to THAT many books in a series back to back AND having your attention held for that long, is hard for ANY Author to pull off, but the combination of Mike Shepherd's writing and Dina Pearlman's Narration, held me, and STILL left me wanting MORE!

I picked up THIS book when it became available, but put it in a holding orbit in my iPhone 4S's library while listening to some other GREAT books. Fast Forward 11+ Months and it was on my iPhone 6+, when I realized I STILL hadn't listened to it, mainly because I was thinking this book would go one of three ways:
1. "Vicky keeps being Vicky".
2. "Vicky is used as an 'intermission diversion story' while more ideas for Longknife were thought up",
or lastly,
3. "Vicky begins to reform and DO 'Something' on her own".

When the book started, I thought, "Ah... Option Number 3", and kept on listening... Then 'Vicky did what Vicky usually does', and I quickly changed to thinking, "OK, gonna be Option Number 1 instead!" But I kept on listening... I'm glad I did, because there was an "Option FOUR", AND an "Option FIVE"!

My employees get VERY tired of hearing me say, "Life is NOT 'Binary'! There is NEVER a 'One OR the other', NEVER a 'This OR That', NEVER a 'Black OR White'... Life is 'Analog', it's an entire spectrum of colors; there is ALWAYS a THIRD, FORTH, FIFTH, etc. Option! You just have to be smart enough to FIND the other options!"

Obviously Mr. Shepherd believes the same thing, because he found MANY different ways to craft Vicky's tale, and Thankfully, NONE of the options are "Option 2"! I just found (and grabbed) the Second Book in THIS series... It finished downloading and was ready to play when I hit the last four seconds of Book 1, and the familiar: "Audible Hopes You've Enjoyed This Program"... I tapped on Book 2, and it picks up exactly where Book 1 left off!

"Spare Batteries In My SleepPhone's BlueTooth Unit Fully Charged? Check!" ...Let's Go! ;)

Longknife universe from the other side

Vicki Peterwald is the equivalent of Kris Longknife in the Peterwald Empire. This is the introductory tail showing the development of Vicky from self centered to outward looking. good juvenile fiction. the action scenes are under written. The sex scenes are from the perspective of a 16 year old. The overall plotting is good. comes across as an Honor Harrington want to be

Is this part of a different series?

I felt like I started and ended in the middle of the story. There were lots of references to previous events and no clear climax or solution.

Reserving judgement

The story line is pretty good but the sex scenes were pretty awful. It seemed that either the author really wanted to be a romance novelist but only had sci-fi experience or he didn't have enough actual story line to fill a whole book so he crammed some sex scenes in there to take up space. The sexual banter was poorly written and there was far too much of it. I'm no prude but I kept thinking get on with the story this doesn't even have entertainment value. However, there was enough decent story content for me to give it another chance. We'll see if the next one is any better.

The narrator works better with Vicky

What did you like best about Target? What did you like least?

The Kris Longknife books have decent storylines, but the emotional and sexual side are quite staid. I find Dina's presentation of that series quite straightforward, and not particularly memorable.

In THIS book however Dina really get into the character(s), and somehow it suits her more. Her narration flows better than the Kris books, and somehow it suits both her style, and as a result my listening experience I'd like to see how she handles the next one in the series.

However the sex scenes, Mike, are pretty one dimensional, and Dina sounds embarrassed and halting getting through them.

Would you recommend Target to your friends? Why or why not?

I think reading some of the Kris books are a mandatory precursor.

Any additional comments?

Dina's dirty giggles and laughter were memorable.

Pornography not needed

The story was very good except for the explicit pornography which added nothing to the story line. It appears the porn was added only to expand a novella into a novel. Words are money!

It was good

I enjoy the author. Narrator was good. Felt the story lacked the fun of the kris longknife novels. But I will try the next book and see if the Vicky series takes its own.

For diehard fans but not standalone or standout!

If you REALLY want more of the series (which I did) then you may enjoy this book but don't expect a lot of substance. It was interesting to get the story from another character's perspective. As someone else mentioned, the multiple sex scenes seemed gratuitous. They were pretty tame & I'm not sure they added anything to the story line. I get that it was part of who she is & I don't have a problem w/sex scenes, they just were a little boring. Her character seemed to go from airhead to someone with a conscious a little too easily to me, but then again, I felt her brother's character went from good guy to psychopathic bad guy in what seemed like a heartbeat & very unrealistically too. I did find it satisfying when she took out the bad guys who kidnapped her & were going to rape her before her torture & murder.

Sexier and sexier

Far sexier than than the Longknife seies by the same authors. Longknife is general audience but this is an adults only book. Series still to be told.