The Stroke of Thirteen

By: Carrie Gessner

Narrated by: Kristin Price

Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

When Grace Pembleton inherited her grandfather's business in rural Pennsylvania, she had no idea what else she was in for. She thought life as a bed-and-breakfast owner would be a quiet one, that the only trouble she'd encounter would be making enough coffee for guests. What she gets instead is a violent gnome, a resident ghost, a secret society, and continuous brushes with the supernatural. Even with new friends at her side, she struggles to fulfill her family's legacy of protecting the town. Then a new threat arises, and it wants Grace.

©2017 Carrie Gessner (P)2018 Carrie Gessner

Hope there is a sequel!!!

I really enjoyed the book. It had me interested from the beginning to the end. The narrator was great as well...

“I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review”

A Modern Twist of a Witch’s Tale and then some

Disclosure: I received a free download without any expectation of a review. While I do know the author, this is an unbiased review. This is not your average tale of a witch curse. It’s so much more. The plot follows a young woman’s struggle to find her place in a town that’s plagued by supernatural occurrences and murders that are linked to her family history. Grace must unearth the secrets of the past and restore balance in the town, but the clock is ticking and the death toll is rising. The beginning of the story has a number of characters to keep track of and a style that plays on the use of social media that may take the listener a chapter or two to get used to but it’s well worth continuing with the story. As events unfold, the characters become even more engaging, each with their own problems to resolve. The narration is top-notch and really brings the story to life. I’d love to see more from these characters in future stories.

fun, quirky romp

Fun, quirky romp through the supernatural. All the tropes are present, and the plot is a bit predictable, but the characters are unique and spout great dialogue: pithy, charming and lovable. I laughed out loud a few times. Very talented Voice Artist.

Good book, excellent narration

Interesting story about a 20-something with a family obligation to protect a town from supernatural baddies. The violence of her family history doesn't sit well with our protagonist. I liked that she was a proud feminist. There were a few things about the book that I found annoying - the cutesy non-swear swear words, the lack of back story (I felt like I missed a prequel novella), and the repetition of "I am about to die; my friends are so important to me" moments (seriously, we could have done with 1/2 the number of both).

For all that bit of criticism, the excellent narration soothed those things over. I felt it was treat every time I got into my car to listen to this narrator.

I received this audiobook for free from audiobookboom.com

Fun monster catch and release story!

I don’t know what all the bad reviews are about. I really enjoyed this story. Grace is the latest descendent in a family of monster hunters. She inherited her grandfathers B&B and hunting business however Grace doesn’t like her family’s methods. She prefers to catch and release the creatures rather than kill them. In an attempt to repair animosity between mystical creatures and her hunter family she finds herself in the crosshairs of revenge killing. Armed with her sarcasm and bffs they try to find a middle ground with these creatures. Absolutely loved the narration! I received a free review copy of this book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

The stroke of Thirteen

I liked this story,though it was sometimes confusing.Once I gave u trying to make sense of some things it went better.It seems Grace has inherited more than an inn from her grandfather.Ghosts,gnomes,etc exist in this Pa town.Fun story.Kristen Price was a very good narrator.I was given this book by the narrator,author or publisher free for an honest review.

Confused by the Execution of this Story

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

This book is a little hard to review as I really wanted to like it but ended up feeling a bit confused. The blurb indicates that the MC Grace has inherited her grandfather's B&B and certainly implies that this is something that just happened or will happen during the reading of the book. However, it seems like this is something that happened quite some time ago. Although nothing indicates that it is a series, it reads like there are prior books related to these characters. I felt like I was missing out on some information as the characters, especially the MC Grace is completely comfortable with the paranormal events and seems to be very close friends with the people who are living in the B&B for someone who has just moved there. If there was some sort of novella or story prior to this book, the author should have taken the time to summarize those events/characters so readers would not feel so confused and left out. There are social media hashtags sprinkled throughout the story, which I thought were distracting. Overall, it is well written, the characters are likeable and the premise was interesting but I just wish it was executed better.

The narrator, Kristin Wilson, did a good job. She created different voices for all of the creatures/ghosts and characters.

Interesting if somewhat confusing read............

The Stroke of Thirteen is an interesting combination of mystery, science fiction and drama. My biggest complaint with the story is that it seemed to start in the middle without any introduction of the characters or their backgrounds. I later found out that this book has a prequel, but I think the author should have reiterated some of the basics before diving into the story. If I look past the continual lack of background, I actually enjoyed this story. Grace comes from a family of hunters of super natural creatures in a small Pennsylvania town. When her grandfather dies, she inherits both his bed and breakfast and his role as hunter/protector with seemingly no experience in either. With the help of her best friends Rosie and Phee, she admirably tries to make the role of hunter her own by fighting the creatures without killing them. Throughout the story, the author sprinkles in rumbles with various paranormal creatures, including ghosts, gnomes, werewolves, shape shifters, etc. as well as with various townsfolk, both supportive and difficult. All in all, this is a fun story with some great interactions between Grace and her friends as they fight to keep Grace alive and to keep their home safe.

Kristin Price's narration is superb. She has a beautiful, flowing voice, and I especially enjoyed the accents that she gave to foreign characters. Her delivery is flawless, and she kept the story moving with the perfect pitch and tone. I would definitely listen to another audiobook with her narration in the future.

I received a copy of this audiobook at my request in exchange for this honest review.

Makes you feel confused while listening...

I really needed a day or two to think over what I was going to write about the book... so finally here it is:)

It's a confusing book, even more so when you listen to it, I think.
On the one hand, it has quite a unique, intriguing and really engaging story, with the Pembleton family being the centre of all that is going on in the town and the magic/paranormal occurances that happen. It also has a bunch of interesting characters, both positive and negative. The imagery is rich, the plot fast, the ending rather surprising... and yet I felt confused almost all the time.
Why? There are several reasons for that (some of them already mentioned by other reviewers), like the hash tag blah blah - I did not follow fully even one of those exchanges - or the fact that Grace talks too much (that inner constant comment/monologue made my brain go totally blank... ) My biggest problem with the book though was that I constantly felt as if I was missing some parts of the story - I caught myself wondering several times what was going on, why Grace was doing what she was doing and what (and to whom) she was talking about... It's as if my brain did not register some important pieces of information - and I have no idea whether it was the result of the way the book was written or the way it was narrated - or maybe it was my wavering focus that made me "sleep" over some parts of the story... Which in itself means that the pace was uneven and the story less engaging than it might have been. I don't usually lose focus when listening to a story whose pace is right and plot intense... Somehow I didn't feel any real danger, any 'race against time' kind of tension in this story... Pity, because the premise sounded really great.

As for the narration, it's quite good, but again uneven. Ms Price does narrative parts really well, but some of the voices she gives particular characters just don't ring right for me, and the 'hash tag' parts were read so fast that I just couldn't follow them at all. But I would listen to another book read by her with pleasure.

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

Not Good...

This story was just flat out not good. It had potential but the main character was depressing and just never rose to the occasion. I tried twice to listen and each time fell asleep. Hopefully the author can bounce back from this mistake as a story.

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