Shadow Kissed

Witch's Rebels Series, Book 1

By: Sarah Piper

Narrated by: Aletha George, Tristan James

Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's Summary

A witch outrunning her past. Five smoldering-hot guardians. And the dark secret that could destroy them all....

Blackmoon Bay is a city of monsters. Surviving here means never leaving home without a sharp stake. It means keeping secrets, even from friends. And unless I want the Hunters finding me again, it means my witchcraft stays on permanent lockdown. Good policy - until the night I accidentally resurrect a dead girl, rekindling my magic and drawing the Bay's most dangerous men to my doorstep.

Asher, the bad-boy incubus. Darius, the cunning, oh-so-sexy vampire. Emilio, the wolf shifter with a big heart and a treacherous past. Ronan, the only demon I trust with my soul. And Death himself, bound to my magic for reasons I don't understand. Together they've sworn to protect me from the evil out there, but it's not the evil out there I'm worried about. 

A shadow lurks inside me, black and deadly as a bomb. And I'm pretty sure my magical mishap just lit the fuse. I'm Gray Desario. Witch. Survivor. Occasional bringer of chaos. And tonight? The darkness is coming....

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Sarah Piper (P)2018 Tantor

Shockingly good!!

I took a chance on this book, as it only had 3 reviews when I downloaded it. Absolutely worth it. the main character Grey is smart and funny and the romance is hot and sweet. Absolutely recommending to fans of Jaymine Eve, Jane Washington, Illona Andrew's, etc. Narrator did a great job.

This wasnt a good listen

the female narrator was good. The male narrator was horrible. Darius was support to be British.. and I think the character was more high British he didnt pull it of.


The lead character was way too whiny. She went over the same things perhaps to fill the needed word count. This one was a complete dud

Reverse Harem

This wasn’t for me and I am returning it. The writing was okay, I didn’t love the main character but also didn’t hate her - but I’m just not into reverse harem stories. And I hadn’t read between the lines of the description enough to understand that’s what this is. I didn’t know why they didn’t put it on the cover, since it’s the subtitle. It’s literally the first thing the narrator says after the title. That way, I wouldn’t have bought it.
I gave it a try anyways, but it’s just not my thing and I stopped after the first third. I’d prefer a polyamorous story to a (reverse or not) harem story. But that’s just me, so I feel like giving the book only one or two stars because of that wouldn’t be fair. Both the writing and the characters are okay but not interesting or unique enough for me to keep on listening despite the reverse harem theme. Hence, 3 stars.

Great story. Narrators needed to collaborate more.

Great story and very engaging. The main character is a bit whiny- bear with it and if you can get past this you will uncover an amazing story, I know it may be a little hard as I have to admit I almost gave up, but well worth the credit.

I have to say that the female narrator did an amazing job! I just wish the two narrators collaborated because when the male narrator took over he completely botched the voices for me... Honestly, the narrating job would have been better if it was just the female narrator. Don't get me wrong the male narrator has an amazing voice and did well but the two did not mesh very well together which at times was distracting.

Entertaining

This book was fun and exciting. Enjoyed from start to finish. Cannot wait for the next book. Narrator's do an excellent job.

Shadow Kissed Bk 1

Gray is a witch trying to outrun her past, by hiding from a hunter that killed her mother - Then one night she accidentally uses magic to save an innocent child that was hunted by a vampire - Gray's men - Asher, the incubus. Darius, the exquisitely handsome vampire. Emilio, a wolf shifter and. Ronan, the only demon Gray trusts (and remembers) rescue Gray and attempt to keep her safe from the dark depth of depraved hands of Death -

The hunter, a serial killer looking for Gray - while Death wants to claim Gray in a deal made before Gray was born, she and her men fight to save her and the city from the darkness that surrounds them.

I believe this book is setting the stage for a reverse haram story but is not the focal point of the story - it's definitely different, macabre at times - but a definite twist to a story about demons, witches, contracts and death.

Could have moved faster

The book could have moved faster. In several places I felt like "ok we've been over this aspect of your personality already, what's up next?"

It felt like the author was trying to decide what to do next so, had to reiterate some aspect of Gray's personality to convince herself what to do next. The book ended with some revaluation about Gray, but did not solve the mystery set up about 1/4 of the way through at all... I guess we have to read the next book to find out "who dunnit".

Good but not great

I did get through it well enough , easy listen. There is some mystery in the story that I wanted the answer to but ...... not enough make me desperate to get to book two. I thought the male narrator did a better job at the female voice with feeling and intonation than the female narrator did. So good story but for me not great.

Great start

I have seen this book on Audible and Kindle for quite some time, but had a slew of other books on my list. I do regret not starting this series earlier. It was a great start. And I brought book 2, in which I am about to start. BTW Aletha George if one of my absolute favs. And Tristan James is pretty good too

I don't know......

This is my first audio book...I'm not sure what I was expecting but I was slightly let down by the narrators' voices. I was hoping for different people narrating ALL the voices; not just the man & woman roles doing all. With that being said, I still found the story entertaining. I'm debating listening to the rest of the series.

Enjoyable series so far

I've listened to all three books that are currently available. So if you are wondering if this is worth your time I would say go for it.

I consider myself a casual listener/reader. I don't try to pull things apart too often or over analysis. So when reading my review take that into account.

Anyway to my review of this series so far. I think the first thing I should mention is the narrators. I agree with whoever said the lady could have voiced the whole book. When I read that at the time I didn't think it would be that bad. So fore warning when the guy takes over story telling it is jarring. My first thought was "I really hope he doesn't narrate any of the erotic sences"and I didn't feel his voice fit the genre. However you do get used to his voice and I felt his voice acting improved throughout the series. So don't let it put you off!

I really enjoyed the story overall. It's not just about romance and hot erotic sences. There is a whole world and plot driving these characters. As to why all these guys are after one girl and there's no real jealousy. I'm happy to just call it magic. Although there is a sense of realism to the relationships, while Grey explores her feelings and the guys do the same.

Lastly the characters. I found Grey to be relatable. She's a strong woman and always wants to do her best. Sometimes it's not enough/she lacks the resources or skills. She tries to get better at what she feels lacking in. As for the romance side of things, each one has it's own development and the erotic sences are great.

To summarise the guys, I think there's something for everyone. I do feel they need more character development individually, but bare in mind there are currently only three (short) books. You do start to get back story on all of them, but it's kinda brief. I hope they'll be more in future books as they are interesting stories as well.

Any whom I hope this helps anyone deciding if they should give this series a try.

This review is only of the voice actors

This review is only of the voice actors. Both the actors were good at their jobs, each of them were able to make their characters believable. My issue is that they divided up the book by chapter instead of each one voicing their own gender/character and narrating the point of view of their character. It took me out of focus on the story and as a result I'll read the book instead. I really enjoy when an audio book is properly narrated by two or more voice actors.

To reiterate, I consider both voice actors good. My issue is with the choice to narrate it this way.

Magic

There is a lot going on in this first book, a lot of it becomes very clear near the end of the book and the journey is well worth it. Gray is a witch that believes her magic has failed her in the past and has refused to practice magic for years until one night it overcomes her. Gray gains an unlikely group of friends, a shifter, a vampire, 2 demons and death himself. I look forward to seeing how their story unfolds. I really enjoyed they narrative and glad I decided to purchase this book.

Should come with a tackyness warning

The narration is great - It's such a pity they were given such pap to read.

Basically it's the story of a girl who is panting for intimacy with any good looking man she happens across with a background story to link the dreadfully overblown porn descriptions together.

The real shame is that the background story would be quite good if the author weren't so intent on throwing the main protagonist into sexually charged (and overdescribed) situations with stunningly good-looking men. I mean its so badly written that EVERY SITUATION she is in with any of the men (including a trip to the morgue), she's gets distracted by her lust for them. You could probably play bingo with each scene... Lost in his eyes - check. Wet knickers - check. Distracted by thoughts of him - check. Mind-blowing kiss - check.

I really tried (largely because I didn't have anything else downloaded to listen to) but by the time I got two-thirds of the way through I was no longer interested in the background story or the outcome of the book, I just wanted someone to appear with a job-lot of libido suppressant and force-feed it to everyone in sight.

Good book

A slow start and took me awhile to get into it but started to get better near the end, will be getting the second one just to see if I can continue, good narrator also.

Enjoyable

Good easy listening good plot good characters just a bit to much hormones yes sexual interests is all well and good and sexual tension but it seemed like the main character was on heat full on the whole time otherwise I enjoyed it a lot just good of done with out the reference to her sexual needs every two mins.

Interesting Start to a New Series

It took me a while to warm to this book and I think it might have been to do with the narrators. I just didn’t warm to them, sadly. They did a good job and their accents and character differences were good, but there was some quality to their voices that just didn’t quite click for me.

The book is about Gray, a witch in hiding. She lives on the fringes of the supernatural world without being engaged in it. She suppresses her desire to do magic after witnessing a loved one die at the hands of Hunters. She knows that Hunters will do anything in their power to kill all witches, so her only chance of avoiding death is by not performing magic and pretending to be purely human.

Gray lives with her best friend Sophie, who is also a witch who doesn’t practice, or a least that’s what Gray thinks, until Sophie reveals that she is thinking about joining the local coven. This is the start of Gray contemplating the role of magic in her life once more. Her other best friend Ronan is a demon, who has been Gray’s protector for as long as she has been in Blackmoon Bay. As she starts along a difficult path, Ronan tries his best to protect her once more, helped by his friends; Darius, a vampire, Emilio a werewolf and police detective and reluctantly by Asher another demon. When Death himself shows up to help, Gray has no idea how her life has changed so drastically in such a short space of time, and doesn’t know what to do about her complicated relationship with magic.

This Reverse Harem has a slow start as characters, histories and world building is established, but it is an interesting slow start. Things happen and the build of tempo is gradual but insistent, pulling the reader on to find out what happens next. It’s not a determined yank on the reader, but it is a gentle tug and that is what kept me reading. I will definitely be picking up the next book in the series, but I’ll probably just buy the Kindle version, because despite the slow start, I really want to know what happens to Gray and her supernatural men.

Poor male narrator

Wow, was enjoying the story right up until the male narrator started talking. so not the right voice. makes the story ver unenjoyable

Shadow Kissed

This is the first book I have listened to based on one character with five men protecting her who also happen to be in love with her, I am looking forward to seeing where this story goes with these characters