Surreal Estate

By: Jesi Ryan

Narrated by: TJ Clark

Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Sasha Michaels is a psychic with an affinity for houses. And he’s homeless. Go figure. After months of sleeping rough, he stumbles upon an abandoned house, and the lonely place beckons him inside. He’s finally safe...until someone comes blundering in to his hideaway.

House flipper Nick Cooper lost everything in the recession. Desperate to revive his business, he turns to a loan shark to fund his comeback project: flipping an abandoned house full of potential. But it turns out the house has an unexpected occupant.

Nick and Sasha make a deal: Sasha can stay, in exchange for helping with the renovation. To both of their surprise, the closer they get to the loan shark’s due date, the stronger grows their feelings for each other. Problem is, Nick isn’t the only one with feelings for Sasha, and now, the house doesn’t want to let Sasha go.

©2018 Jesi Lea Ryan (P)2020 Riptide Publishing

Loved the concept and the narration

I’ve read numerous of books with various types of psychics before, I’m partial to the trope. But this take on it was new and really interesting.

Sasha has an affinity for houses. They speak to him – in a way. They show him memories, good and bad. But they also affect him on a physical level. His life used to be solid, but trusting the wrong people caused him to not only lose his money and the band he played in, it also cost him going to college and even having a place to stay. So when an abandoned house beckons him inside, he listens. Little did he know that the house had plans for him. Not in any nefarious way, it had just made up its mind about the next resident and it did not include being sold first chance the new owner and house-flipper Nick Cooper got.

At times I felt like the story and the ideas behind certain things were underdeveloped. The ideas were great and I really wanted to know more. Do this deep dive into the thick of things. Most ideas were explained and explored to a certain point, it wasn’t shallow by any means, but it also wasn’t quite cohesive. We jumped from one thing to the next, without really finishing it. Take Sasha’s gift as an example, I loved this take on psychic ability. That houses had memories and feelings. And I really wanted to know more about it. I think the author could have done so much more with Sasha’s gift, exploring it more.

The pacing of this book didn’t feel quite right, there was no real flow to the book. It almost felt like many separate events thrown together in he hopes of forming a story. They were only loosely connected and many left open ended. Now, normally this would be the perfect premise for the beginning of a series. But it wasn’t those kinds of loose ends – for the most part. And while I do think this was interesting world Ryan created, and I’m very fascinated by the whole house psychic thing, I’m also very satisfied with reading this one book.

There was this strange mix of never ending drama unfolding one after the next. But the way this book was written it never felt overly dramatic, which I greatly appreciate. I am not a fan of drama for the sake of it. On the other hand there was no consequences for what happened either, no real impact, for the characters or me as a listener. Things that should have some kind of reaction or repercussion never had. Once the scene ended, the topic was closed never to be brought up again. That works for some things, but there were some major events here that I felt should have impacted a lot more. Every ingredient is there for a great story, it was just slightly off

Surreal Estate was narrated by TJ Clark, another first for me. His narration was my second favourite thing about this book, the first one being Sasha’s affinity of houses. He was widely talented and his narration held a good pacing and his various voices enhanced the story. He captured the different personalities of the characters, from Sasha and Nicky to the more slimy Frank Diamond. I loved the concept and narration of this story and I’m glad I gave it a try – for nothing else to explore Sasha’s talent and finding a new narrator to look out for.

A copy of this book was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes.

Enjoyed It a Lot

This was a very enjoyable listen. I really liked Sasha's psychic talent, the way he communicated with houses and how he was able to use his ability to help Nick. Narrator did a good job and made this story an entertaining listening experience. This was new to me author and narrator and I will look for more audiobooks they release.

An Interesting Premise...

An interesting premise, one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Super natural antics as the backdrop to a unique development of a love story between Sasha and Nick. I thought I might be but probably aint but maybe perhaps. Tie that up in a intrigue, drug abuse, 'why are the ones' that are supposed to, but don't and you have a delightful little story that leaves one with a smile and hope for a better tomorrow.

Excellent Narration and a Sweet Romance

Let's begin with the narration, such a huge and important part of any audio book : I loved it.
TJ Clark has done an excellent job, letting you be fully immersed in the story.
It's always a treat to listen to a good narrator.

I loved the romance and the paranormal aspects of the story.
The money trouble en addiction problems were less my thing.

MINOR SPOILER ALERT
One of the Main Characters barrows money from a sketchy person and get into trouble because of it.
If you borrow money to make more money it's a gamble. No one complains when they win and get rich.
I have trouble sympathizing with the person/ situation when the gamble might not pan out.
If you can't afford to lose, you shouldn't gamble.
And I think it's pretty naive and not smart in the first place to do business with/ be indebted to a sketchy person and not expect any negative consequences.
Regrettably my way of thinking prevented me from fully enjoying the story.

I got this Audio Book for free (thanks!). I'm voluntarily leaving this review.
Opinions and ratings are my own and not influenced by how I got the Audio Book.

Interesting & fun

Was far better than I expected. I highly recommend it. Excellent narrator. Story had more detailed plot than expected and wasn’t burdened by too much explicit spice, like most similar books these days. This is just the right balance of mystery, suspense & romance. Would love to see a sequel some day.

Very good!

This is a VERY good Romance novel! The paranormal aspect is very unique (in the best way), and it adds to the plot of the story quite well. The narrator's performance really puts you into the story, and is quite honestly one of the best narrators ive listened too so far!

Im partial to paranormal romances, and am a big fan of this book. The author write very natural chatacters that are interesting. The romance aspect has little to no cheesiness. it seems like a very natural romance and the characters are very likeable and engaging.

If you like romance, definitely get this. If you like paranormal romance, DEFINITELY get this! The paranormal part is not cheesy and doesn't take too much of a forefront in the story. The "lore" behind the specific abilities the main character has is explained nicely and forwards the plot well.

I highly recommend this!

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the narrator in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and are not influenced by the means of recieving the book.

House Empath, Who Knew?

When I first go t this book I had never heard of the author or the narrator, but I ended up really loving this story. The writing was well done and the narrator hit it out of the park.

Nick has been down on his luck and makes a deal with the devil (not a real one, but a loan shark that might as well be one). He needs this house flip to work. He has no other option.

Sasha has been down on his luck and he's running from the devil (again not a real one, his is his addict of a mother). He needs to stay in this house. He has no other options.

Together they seem to make quite the team. As the story progresses so do there feelings for each other. Sasha figures out where Nick got his money and Nick finds out what Sasha's been avoiding. They help each other out and support one another, even through their stupid choices. They find out that they're stronger together than they are on their own. That's saying something because they're both strong individuals, all-be-it strong in different ways.

I loved these characters and the narration so much, I wish there were a sequel. I would listen/read it again.

enjoyed it - solid 4 stars

Would I listen to it again: yes ✔
Did the story keep me engaged: yes ✔
Was I invested in the characters: yes ✔

📖 Story comment: easy pace, likeable characters, nice flow.
I went into this with no expectations, having only read the publishers summary and without having read any reviews and I really enjoyed it. It was an interesting twist on the usual "psychic/empath" story that I though was clever. I liked both the MC's characters and enjoyed the slow build of their relationship.

🎧 Narrator comment: TJ Clark is a new narrator to me and I enjoyed his narration of Surreal Estate. He suited the characters, has good cadence, inflections and intonations and it was easy to distinguish the characters from each other. Overall an enjoyable performance and he bought the book to life.

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📌 Where does it fall on my personal scale? 8
• 1 not my thing • 2 didn't like the narration • 3 didn't keep my attention • 4 was good, but once was enough • 5 enjoyed it • 6 will listen again if i'm in the mood for the narrator • 7 goes on the "re-listen" list • 8 kept me up past bed-time • 9 recommended to family/friends • 10 own it in multiple formats • 11 keep a copy with me at all times
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Great read with a high quality romance.

I wasn’t sure what I expected when I picked up this book but it blew those expectations away. The main two characters feel like real people. The story is so immersive. I couldn’t put this book down. I got misty eyed more than once. The romance in this book feels so real. None of the phrases distract from the scene or made me roll my eyes. A+

The narrator really helps the book flow. The chapters switch between the two main characters but it was so easy to tell who was who. It was interesting to hear how the the two main characters "heard" people differently. I really like the way the narrator did the onomatopoeia words. The one with the amp was my favorite. The attention to detail was amazing. Off to find more by this narrator, just want to listen to them read all day.

Loved it!

It took me a while to pick this audiobook out of my list as the blurb would draw me in and turn me away at the sametime but once I did I was hooked and finished the book in one day. Don't hesitate just enjoy!