The Witch's Familiar

Familiar Mates Book 1

By: TJ Nichols

Narrated by: Matt Stephens

Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

He can hold lightning in his hand, but will love slip through his fingers?

Jude Sullivan has one more chance to prove he isn’t a danger to the paranormal community. If he fails, he’ll be stripped of his magic, a painful process to make a witch human.

As a test, the coven sends him to Mercy South, Colorado, to stop a creature that’s been mutilating cows and scaring the locals. Jude hates cows and small towns. The coven should’ve sent a nature witch.

Rob Mackenzie is the local mechanic and bear-shifter. If the locals knew his secret, they’d run him out of town. He wants someone to really know him and not be afraid. With several chewed-up cows and some other weird happenings, he’s wondering if he’s no longer the strangest creature in Mercy.

After meeting Mack, Jude thinks he’s found the cause of the trouble. But the trouble is only just getting started when Mack realizes he’s Jude’s fated mate. As the cow-mutilating creature starts hunting in town, Mack and Jude will have to quit fighting their attraction and each other, to stop the creature from killing again.

For listeners who love fated mates, bear-shifters, and small-town gay romance.

©2020 TJ Nichols (P)2020 TJ Nichols

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when I first viewed few chapters I decided to download, once started listening to it chapters messed up and jumbled out of order, not sure if I'll finish =(

Needs a better narrator

The story was good, but if the others have the same narrator, I won't be continuing. Like other reviewers have stated, the narrator is bland and emotionless. He has no inflection and doesn't give the right sauce to the saucy bits. Disappointed, honestly, and almost stopped listening after a half hour.

monotone

couldn't even get a half hour in, the narrator was so boring. I couldnt focus or understand anything with how plainly and emotionless he read.

Good story. Good narration.

I like Jude and Mack. They are interesting characters with an interesting dynamic. The subplots were entertaining. I am a bit bored with the 'unseen overlords controlling a character's destiny' scenario though. I have a bit of trouble empathizing with a character who is intimidated by the powers that be. Jude certainly thumbs his nose at them, but doesn't seem to have a plan for fighting back even though his incredible power is the source of his problems. Sigh..

I did enjoy the story, and I am curious about the rest of the series. I really appreciated the vivid descriptions of the creature and scenery. The action scenes were also nicely depicted.

The narration was well performed.

Liked the story but the reader has no personality.

The narrator made it very flat. His voice was very monotone. But it is a good story.

This was a good story with a bland narrator

As others have said, the chapters are not edited together correctly. The audio file goes: prologue, chapter 3, chapter 2, chapter 3 again, then goes okay from there. Listening to this narrator was like listening to a metronome when I was expecting music. There are no dramatic pauses, little change in inflection throughout, and no real voice acting. At times the two main characters are having conversation and it’s hard to follow because both characters sound the same. There are mid-chapter breaks that are given the same amount of pause as a period between two sentences. There is a battle scene and it took me a good 30 seconds to realize the fight was over because there was no pause, no change in urgency, nothing. It was like listening to a 6 hour run-on sentence. I hate leaving negative reviews in general, and not all narrators give the same level of performance, but the narration was so bland it honestly made the story itself hard to follow. Looking ahead, I see the same narrator is listed for book 2 and that’s going to be the reason I don’t go further in the series. Sorry TJ Nichols, you wrote a good book but need these re-recorded by someone else. Also, PSA to anyone who made it through and wants to continue, despite being an 11-book series there only seems to be audio for the first 4 books.

Monotone performance ruins fun story

One of my favorite series ruined by a dull monotonous narration. I’ve read all these books and bought all that are available on audio. I’m so disappointed by the narrator that I couldn’t finish the second and likely won’t bother with the third.

Profoundly boring narration

The story itself isn’t bad, but the emotionless, dry, and robotic narration made it an impossible read.

Bad Narrator

I kept going even though I wanted to stop...was this performed by a computer?...it was very hard to listen to...I wonder if I can get my money back?...