Short Story Collection: Mystery, Romance, Fantasy, and Horror

By: Daphne Haydens

Narrated by: Ashton Haugen

Length: 31 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

This book contains six books that spread over five genres. The descriptions are below:

Romance: I wouldn't say these short stories are steamy hot in a sexual sense, but the romantic scenes are definitely filled with some flirting, sexual tension, and suggestive, humorous comments. As the author tried to keep it all clean to target a specific audience, you'll find that even the most trivial circumstances can create the most interesting and fun love stories. Fighting, miscommunication, awkwardness, and status add to the mixture, as the characters mingle and sometimes remain single.

Mystery: Be ready for some action, humor, and mystery in this anthology with short stories. You’ll hear about gangsters, witches, magic potions, interrogations, werewolves, and murder. Several stories have a murder victim, while others are all about theft or robberies. But in many cases, they spark the imagination and make up for a great way to sit back, relax, and listen to stories from a completely different world. Most have some kind of unrealistic or supernatural element to it, which adds a little flavor to them.

Horror: You will begin to hear all kinds of stories, from zombie-killing individuals to spooky warnings from ghosts. Most of these are not heavy, gory horror stories, but lightly-sprinkled humoristic and casual plot twists that most people will enjoy. Murder is definitely one of the main themes, as is survival in a post-apocalyptic era. Ghosts and beasts in different forms will adorn the elements of these psychological and action-packed stories.

Fantasy 1: Aside from the political unrest in many of the stories, extra tension is evident when looked at the complicated buildup of the characters’ character, and their continuous need to develop into something more. These fantasy stories are short but powerful. They heavily focus on complex structures that deal with moral dilemmas in a world of magic, supernatural powers, and unrealistic appearances of creatures that are only fictitious to the unbeliever. Rebellion, betrayal and bravery are frequent themes in medieval settings and imaginative decors that make the tales in this anthology precious and entertaining.

Fantasy 2: As you hear about infectious diseases, deadly plants, complicated mazes, and strange elements, you’ll be able to escape to your own world. This anthology full of entertaining stories gives you insights into the protagonists’ struggles and victories, their hopes, joys, and fears, and their complex relationship with friends and foes. As these heroes and anti-heroes descent to the depths of hell, the outback of the woods, and the distant lands full of dangers, you’ll get a grasp of what it would be like to live in a magical realm of zombies, dragons, and other deformed creatures.

Contemporary: 1 - Hear about a guy who wishes he had everything. He switches off between sexiness, intelligence, wealth, health, and fame, but he can never find what he is looking for. Compare it to your own life and question what you want as you hear about the humorous ways in which this man gets disappointed.

2 - A somewhat tragic story at first, with a happy ending and a magical twist at the end, the story of a purple-haired girl will capture the imagination, as she rocks her gothic side and deals with nagging critics until she finds the one she is looking for.

3 - A young entrepreneur struggles with hyper activity, but manages to channel it into an endeavor to help the local town.

4 - Talking about bottling everything up inside, the main character in the fourth story is led by a pet bird to figure out his past and the things he refused to face for so long.

©2019 Daphne Haydens (P)2020 Daphne Haydens

Great voice actor

I typically tend to look at books that have an interesting retail sample, because I think that no matter how good the ebook might be, it is the voice actor that makes all the difference in whether or not it's pleasant to listen to the audio book version. This one did not disappoint. Thank you, Ashton Haugen, for making this an enjoyable experience.

Whoa

Whoa. This is a long book. This is a great deal for a credit. Finally, something worth listening to. Okay, so apart from the length of the book, which is obvious, this book contains dozens of short stories which were all very enjoyable to listen to. I thought the author was talented and narrator sounded professional. I haven't finished listening to all the stories yet, but I was satisfied with what was happening so far.

Children’s lit

This collection should have some sort of statement explaining the stories are for children . I was hoping for tales aimed at adults.

Liked it

No complaints on my end. Lots of stories. Lots and lots of stories. How many were there? Like 50 or something? I lost count. Anyway, good value for my credit.

Fun

Fun collection of stories. I liked some more than others, of course, because the genres were kind of mixed and matched into one big book. Some were more thrilling, but most were not that scary. And there was definitely some romance in there. In a nutshell, I would say this book hops so fast from genre to genre to that if you're that allround person like me who enjoys a bit of each, this is the book for you. If you're stuck on one genre, then don't get it. But to me, it was what I was looking for. I hope that makes sense.

The narrator was professional and engaging. I liked the narrator's voice, voices for the characters, and tone. That made it all worth it to me.

Bad Narrator, Worse Stories

The writing is stilted, clumsy, and dull. I've read YA books, and think this book could fit that category but would fail miserably as even younger readers would be bored.

The reader over-pronounces words. Her tone in nerve grating.

I regret this purchase and quit after the 1st story. It doesn't get better.

very disappointed !!!!!!!

I can't believe all the positive reviews this book has. Firstly, the book is composed of about 20 stories. its seems endless because each story has chapters. The stories aren't titled on the app display, so you don't know what you're listening to, nor can you sort through titles. There's not even a brief description of each story. The writing is VERY lacking in important details and the narrations sound like a child reading an essay. If this book were written by a middle school student, I'd be somewhat impressed (although I can hear an English teacher screaming, "more details!"). A LOT of the characters are pretty shallow and for lack of a better word "cheezy". For example, in one story a man get upset over a turned down marriage proposal so he turns into a skeleton riding a spider holding a bow and arrow, but has bad aim. This was a waste of a credit. If anything it'll only be good for helping me fall asleep at night.