Shadow's Messenger

Aileen Travers Series #1

By: T. A. White

Narrated by: Natasha Soudek

Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

Life as Aileen knew it ended when she woke up in a morgue sporting a new set of fangs after a wild night out. Now, as a courier for the supernatural world, she balances figuring out this whole vampire thing with making enough to support her ice cream habit.

When a job goes disastrously awry and ends with a body on the ground, Aileen finds herself in over her head as she draws the attention of a powerful creature intent on her death.

Aileen will need to separate her allies from her enemies before it's too late. To survive, she'll work with a being she swore to avoid at all costs - a powerful vampire who may hold the key to her survival. Or the flame from which her world burns.

©2016 T.A. White (P)2020 Tantor

The story was great - narrator not so much

I had previously read the Aileen Travers series and really enjoyed it. So I was happy to see it come out in audio. However, I ended up returning it; The narrator sounds like a whiny teen and I finally gave up. If you like Natasha Soudek ignore this review. But if you don't care for her narration, don't give up on the series, try it in print.

I loved this book!

I wasn't sure about this book. I thought it was going to be one of those YA vampire romance books and that I would not like it. I have never read anything by this author and wow I really liked it. As soon as I finished this book I purchased the second book in the series. I hope the rest of the series will be availanble on Audible soon. I thought the nararrator was going to be terrible by someone elses review I read, but I actually really liked the narrarator. Just buy this book very entertaining.

my favorite series of all time

I have read and read this series so many times finally its on audible. I wish the narrator was Nicole poole then it would have been perfect!!!

Baby Vamp Adventures.

I’m becoming a huge fan of T.A. White. After reading Broken Lands and the Firebird Chronicles loving both of them, I figured I would give this series a try. Super glad I did I enjoyed the ride, while this wasn’t my favorite of the three, I know that I’m going to devour the next few books in the series. While there has been some bad reviews for this series, I don’t agree with them at all. This was a fun adventure with a snarky heroine (my favorite kind.) The narrator was good, but the first time I heard her I was unsure how I felt, but she grew on me.

Hmmmm

No problems with the narrator. The main character was different from the typical tough, no nonsense, speak her mind, kind of female lead. But, I didn’t like how clueless she was. She didn’t act/ think at all like someone with a military background. She just ran into danger and agreed to deals signing her life away. She has been lucky to survive this long. She really had no one on her side. Everyone needed her bc the information she could figure out that for some reason the werewolves and vampires with all their people, resources, connections couldn’t figure out. She somewhat had a backbone but her ignorance to not learn for the past two years was very annoying to listen/read about as it resulted in her being stupid and everyone using and bossing her around.

Torn on what to rate this series

I do not think there are any spoilers in this but I am on book 3 so read on at your own risk.

I like the main character. In general I like a woman that tries to make her own way in the world. I like that she can still be scared or sad and not a bad ass all the time. I do wish she would think things through a little more sometimes. She and the interesting mysteries in the books have kept me reading. Even when it is sometimes pretty clear to me who was at fault.
So here is my problem. The way the other vampires treat her is very wrong (to me). I understand there are supposed to be rules but it basically feels like abuse to me most of the time. She says no so they threaten. She says no so the kidnap. She says no so they make her ability to help someone contingent upon her bowing to them and giving up pieces of herself. It is rarely a compromise it is normally shoved down her throat one way or the other.

Then the whole you are just a dumb female newborn attitude drives me up the wall. You are insignificant and weak. How dare you have opinions of your own or want to lead your own life. Yes it is good to see her fight against this but most of the time they steamroll her or manipulate her. I have liked books with alpha guys in them (Kate Daniel series) but most of the time the heroine is able to stand her ground. I am about to go rant more in my review for book 3 if you want a little more detail but there will be spoilers in that for sure

The valley girl up talk got really annoying.

I normally don't pay that much attention to the narrator's voice choices, I'm just grateful that i can still "read" books without getting migraines anymore. Still I have never heard any speech pattern more annoying than up talk. (shudder) It made the Main characters snotty, petulant, and self absorbed attitude about ten times worse. Speaking of Aileen... For a chick who is supposed to be ex military she spends a lot of time acting like a spoiled brat who is in her first year outside her overbearing parents control. It's really annoying, and even though she acknowledges it, it is still really hard to listen to her go on and on about wanting to do things her OWN way. "Jesus, shut up and pull on your big girl pants and deal!!!!" I can't say that i liked this book all that much. Besides the narration and Aileen's crappy attitude, it has a pretty standard urban fantasy theme. Human turned "monster" wants to be normal. Most of the "monsters" seeming like pretty normal people if a bit odd do to their various cultures, but the main character still sees as monsters who are less deserving of existence than any human regardless of what the human might have done. Oh, and of course the main character doesn't have to suffer any of the consequences of being turned into said monster or breaking the monsters laws because she is sooo special. Also some random digs at other women for conforming to laws or social norms... sigh. Like i said not very good or original, buuut not entirely awful either. i think three stars is perfect for this book. middle of the road all the way through.

P.S. Where does Aileen get her blood? it's never explained and at some point despite losing everything else she just randomly has two bags of blood in a basement...how?

Entertaining!

This was pretty entertaining. It was slow to start as the story built, but once the action started I was enjoying it. There is no romance in this first book. I'm not sure if the whole series is that way or not. I will find out since I plan on reading the rest of the books.

It's mainly following our heroine who is only a 2 year old vampire. She has little knowledge of her world and you get to see her learn bits and pieces as she investigates a recent rash of killings of humans, vampires and werewolves.

I like Aileen's guts. She stood her ground no matter how much more powerful a being was she encountered. That's a big part of what made this so entertaining. I'm off to read book 2.

I dug it

I'm going to go download book 2 in the series now. Thumbs up from me👍

protagonist is a powerless ping pong ball

I admired the model from the cover because I'd seen her before, I admired the concept of the story in the summary and the thing about a vampire. Even the start was acceptable and easy enough to follow. I might return to finish, but frankly I'm just tired of the protagonist being utterly useless and the world being insanely illogical.