The Heartbeat Thief

By: AJ Krafton, Ash Krafton

Narrated by: Leander David Flathers

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's Summary

It's a little bit Jane Austen, a little bit Edgar Allan Poe, and a whole lot of stealing heartbeats in order to stay young and beautiful forever....

Haunted by a crushing fear of death, a young Victorian woman discovers the secret of eternal youth - she must surrender her life to attain it, and steal heartbeats to keep it.

In 1860 Surrey, a young woman has only one occupation: to marry. Senza Fyne is beautiful, intelligent, and lacks neither wealth nor connections. Finding a husband shouldn't be difficult, not when she has her entire life before her. But it's not life that preoccupies her thoughts. It's death - and that shadowy spectre haunts her every step. 

So does Mr. Knell. Heart-thumpingly attractive, obviously eligible - he'd be her perfect match if only he wasn't so macabre. All his talk about death, all that teasing about knowing how to avoid it...

When her mother arranges a courtship with another man, Senza is desperate for escape from a dull prescripted destiny. Impulsively, she takes Knell up on his offer. He casts a spell that frees her from the cruelty of time and the threat of death - but at a steep price. In order to maintain eternal youth, she must feed on the heartbeats of others.

From the posh London season to the back alleys of Whitechapel, across the Channel, across the Pond, across the seas of Time...

How far will Senza Fyne go to avoid death?

©2015 Ash Krafton (P)2019 Ash Krafton

Compelling Story of Life and Death

I received this book for free. I am voluntarily posting this review and all opinions expressed herein are my own.

I really loved the premise of this book - a young woman who is afraid of death is given a gift of being able to live forever - but she has no idea of the consequences of this decision. She lives what ultimately becomes a very lonely existence until she meets a man who is dying. 

This is not a fast-moving or action-packed book. It moves slowly but methodically through the MC's life and isolation - allowing her to learn and develop the understanding that there's a point to both life and death. 

The narrator, Leander David, was a perfect compliment to this book. 

Nice love story without the romance story

This is the first book I’ve read/listened to by AJ Krafton, and second book by Ash Krafton. I would listen to another. This was a good book. There were parts when I was wondering when the story was going to get back on track because there was not much progression in her life towards finding her love. I guess this was necessary though to show the degree of monotony in her life. I had a good portion of the book figured out, but despite this, in the end, I enjoyed the journey.
I liked how we follow Senza through the decades to self-discovery. She went through many stages of mental well-being. She feared death and was willing to take a little life from other people, yet wavered between fear of taking a beat, to casually taking them even when not needed.

This is the first book I’ve listened to by this narrator ( Leander David Flathers ) and I would listen to another. He made great use of accents to define the characters. Each voice was distinct. He did well with the female voices. His enunciation and pace is good. He narrates that still makes me realize I’m being read to, yet the listen was still enjoyable.

There are no explicit sex scenes, excessive violence or swearing.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review.
Please feel free to comment on whether you found my review helpful.
I

The Heartbeat Thief

I absolutely LOVED this book!It had a unique storyline and wonderful characters.I did not want it to end! Leander David Flathers was the perfect narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.' 

The heartbeat thief

I was given this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Oh wow! Way better than expected. The writing was so... luxurious and the narrator only added to it. And the characters are structure were great too. Easy on the ears. A true pleasure.

Narrator is outstanding!

I could listen to the narrator's voice all day. I never want to stop listening. His diction is impeccable and he makes the story so interesting. He is so talented in changing character voices.

At first I wasn't sure of the story line, more because of the title. I'm not sure the title does the story justice. I absolutely loved it once I got into it. The author is an amazing writer. I give her a lot of credit for not getting into the usual cliches of a first sexual encounter which makes it unrealistic. The first encounter with Gehring was very well done and left a lot to the readers imagination and made the moment more romantic.

I look forward to more titles from this author and will definitely look for this narrator in the future.

The Heartbeat thief

I have to agree with a lot of the reviewers, the narrator was really good, one of the best that I have heard in a long while. The story was interesting and I did not really have any expections but the author surprised me with this one, however the cover does not do the book justice.

So much wasted potential

This story has a quite original premisse, the stealing of heartbeats like a vampire sucking a little bit of blood to survive for all eternity and the world building and descriptions are great but for me it end up lacking because the story can be resumed by it's beginning and end. All the rest (and there is a lot of it) is just like life itself, a serie of random moments and encounters.
Still, it was worth the wait because the ending is totally amazing. I can't believe I didn't see it coming as all the evidences were really there.
Still, I think there could be a better way to convey the same motto, as this story is a full ode to the fear of dying.
I think the narration was one of the factors for the low performance of the story. Not because Leander is a bad narrator (he is ok), but because it was simple a casting error. The story is from a female point of view, so having a male narrator is just plain odd, and was still odd at the end of the story. I would therefor recommend to read the story in ebook instead.

Well written, well read

Historical fiction is not usually my first choice but this story pulled me in from the beginning and didn’t let go. The descriptive writing and engaging reading made it so entertaining. Many characters to keep track of but the narrator’s different voices helped a lot. Definitely recommend.

Remarkeble Listening Experience!

The story is memorable and the narration is wonderful. What a joy to listen to. I was on the edge of my seat.

Good listen!

If you enjoy colorful language and emotional suspense you'll find this well performed audio book worth your time!