Vivatera

By: Candace J. Thomas

Narrated by: Alyson Grauer

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Not even Naomi's prophetic dreams prepare her for the mysterious wanderer who appears just in time to snatch her from danger, nor the upheaval he brings in his wake. No knight in shining armor, Reynolds once risked Naomi's life, and that dark secret again threatens it. When Naomi discovers the world of magic and of what she is capable, not even Reynolds can slow the fate barreling down upon them both.

©2013 Xchyler Publishing (P)2018 Candace J. Thomas

Enthralling

First time story from this author. Definitely not the last. The narrator definitely helped make the story even better.

Fun YA Fantasy

This was such a fun listen! Listeners young and old will enjoy this story with elements of magic, adventure and a little romance. Evil powers will stop at nothing to possess the magical stones and Naomi is caught in the middle, fighting for her survival.

The narration was very well done and enhanced my listening experience. This looks like the start to a great series and I would recommend it.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. This review is my honest opinion.

Orignal YA Fantasy

This is a fun and original start to a YA fantasy series. The magic system is very different from most that I have read (although it takes a while to get any explanation on how any of it works) and many of the characters are not necessarily what they seem. Many of the decisions the characters make along the way, including emotional reactions (both positive and negative) to others make little sense at the time they first occur, but most make sense in hindsight given later revelations. An overall enjoyable listen.

Disclaimer: I was given a free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Wow!

Great world building, great characters! The evil is very evil and scary at times but the sweet innocence of the good is wonderful. I love how the back story slowly unfolded until we knew the truth. My three stars for performance was not because of the narrator but the editing. There were more than 5 times where the story had a very long pause with muffled sounds and then jumped back into the story and at least twice where the same sentence was repeated.

I loved the story...

it was great once I got past the awful voicing. 😖 I could hear the reader kicking her lips. she paused in wood spaces. there were repeated partial lines. just really detracted from the amazing plot and vivid descriptions.

Please fix the audio!!

Narrator: ok differentiation, weird echo and you can hear adjustments or something in the background. Audio is subpar, you can hear air and the narrator coughs, turns a page, or cuts off the audio randomly... sometimes before a sentence has ended or a bit after the start of a sentence.
Language: G
Violence: G
Sexual Content: G
Story: the story is good, the audio quality detracts from how great this story is. I have hopes that the next book will be great as the stage was fully set in this book.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Not well written

I couldn’t get past the first few chapters. Nothing in the story made any sense. No back story. Nothing to bring anything together. Perhaps there is something that comes before to make this one make sense…?

Original series

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, I did enjoy this book. When it ended I realized that I was hooked and wanted to hear the rest. I'll look forward to purchasing the remainder of the audible series when it becomes available.

What other book might you compare Vivatera to and why?
It's a fantasy set in an earlier time. I could compare it to other magical novels in some respects. Even though it had some familiar elements, it was fresh and had plenty of original ideas.

Have you listened to any of Alyson Grauer’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I have not heard of her, or listened to Alyson narrate a story before. I liked her voice and I thought she did a very good job with all the characters, making each one sound different. I really liked the way Alyson read the book. She did an awesome job! I look forward to hearing her finish the series. I might see what else she's done. I think she is a great choice for the tone of this novel.

Any additional comments?
I did enjoy listening to this book. Some of the wording wasn't ideal, I would have chosen some different phrasing here and there. I could see where some of her ideas were progressing to, but there were some surprises. I think it was well done. Maybe could use a little more polish, but over all I thought it was very good.

Struggled

I did struggle thru this. I struggled to get into the characters and it had a tinny sound that irritated me.
So, not sure as to story or production that needs some tweaking. It does have potential.
This audio was given to me free and I voluntarily gave this review.