The Coven

The Crystal Coast Series, Book 1

By: Chrissy Lessey

Narrated by: Kaleigh Kirby

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

The future queen awakens....

Newly single mother Stevie Lewis divides her time between raising Charlie, running a store with her best friend, and avoiding the meetings of her mother’s Beaufort Historic Society. Although her life has its challenges, it’s altogether average. Just the way she likes it.

When Vanessa, a ruthless dark witch, launches an attack against young Charlie, Stevie’s simple life derails, and her long-dormant powers awaken. A 300-year-old secret is exposed, revealing her destiny to one day rule the clandestine community of witches who hide in plain sight.

Now she must master her own magical powers before it’s too late. Because Vanessa’s on the warpath, and only Stevie can stop her.

©2017 Tenacious Books Publishing (P)2020 Tenacious Books Publishing

The Coven does not disappoint!

This book came highly recommended to me, so I decided to give it a try. I thoroughly enjoyed the story line, and I appreciated the author’s attention to detail not only to historical facts, but to landmarks in Beaufort, NC. It is fun and a great escape. I can’t wait to see more from this author.

Action!

I loved the paperback versions and the whole series. This audiobook was a great way to pass the time while I do all my driving. Not as a big a fan of the narrator, she did some crazy over-the-top stuff with southern accents (I am from the book locale and she was alot even for me!) and trying to do male vs female voices was not easy for her. Regardless, the book did not disappoint, again!

Entertaining...

I absolutely loved the narration! Her voice was so familiar, it was as though I was a part of the story line listening to my best friend. I look forward to the next book.

Was surprisingly hooked...

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

Having noted that... This story was a nice change from my usual intensity. There was romance not overtly detailed but implied. There was drama but realistically woven into the story. The coven seemed like interesting everyday people. Loved it. Thanks for the audiobook!

It has potential...

There may be some spoilers, sorry...:)
It is a book with some good ideas that should probably be worked on a little bit - and then it could be a great story. But first things first...
The main idea of a coven hiding in plain sight is great; the idea of the main character being a single mother of an autistic child - even better; the idea of a powerful evil witch with revenge as the sole purpose of her life - greater still... But all that feels a bit flat for one reason: there's no real tension, no real danger anywhere in the plot at all. Ok, there is talk of the great menace, there's talk about how evil and powerful and dangerous Vanessa is, there's talk about.... you get it, right? But in the end, when we finally get to this supposedly epic confrontation - it feels just like another Sunday walk down a park lane for Stevie and her friends... No problems, no obstacles, it's all so smooth you kind of feel cheated...
But, with all that said, there are some things I really liked about the book. I think Charlie is a great character, definitely most complex of them all. I also liked the nice flow of dialogues in the book and those few scenes which evoked some stronger emotions (at least for a bit:)).
Narration by Ms Kirby is pretty good; she doesn't do much of voice differentiation but we still have no problem identifying the speakers. She also reads the narative parts quite nicely, adding enough emotions to her reading to sound natural and believable.
So on the whole, I'd give the book a 3.5 star rating - it's basically quite interesting, can give you some pleasure but be prepared for a few flaws...:)

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