Undraland, Volume 1

De: Mary E. Twomey

Narrado por: Mary Abraham

Lucy Kincaid wants a simple life with a white picket fence, but after Jens crashes into her life, she knows that won't be in the cards.

Still reeling from the deaths of her family, Lucy Kincaid struggles to get her life back on track. But when the short-tempered Jens saves her from an attack, Lucy is swept away to a world that seems infinitely more perilous. Suddenly, fairytale creatures are no longer make-believe--and more dangerous than she ever imagined.

As Lucy delves deeper into this fantastical realm, she encounters oversized garden gnomes, warrior elves, Nøkken, Fossegrimens, and worst of all, sirens with a vendetta. When her life on earth is utterly destroyed, Lucy knows there is no going back. Lucy must hunt down the siren who is targeting everyone she loves, or all of Undraland will go up in flames.

This is the first book in the 9-part Undraland series, which features characters and creatures from Scandinavian folklore and fairytales. If you love Veronica Roth, Bella Forrest and Cassandra Clare, you'll devour this fast-paced paranormal romance series by USA Today bestselling author Mary E. Twomey.

©2015 Mary E. Twomey (P)2015 Mary E. Twomey

Too Fast Narration, Too Short a Story

I'm conflicted writing this review. I'd read the criticism that it has a terrible cliffhanger ending, but I thought I was okay with that. Many books end with strong "hooks," and her other books are out so ... no big deal. Well, this story doesn't just end with a cliffhanger, it ends in the middle of the story. And since it's only 7 hours long, it's not like the whole story couldn't have been told.

Then again, maybe the story really should have been 12 hours long because the narrator read it so fast she barely breathed between punctuation. I tried listening to it on .75x speed, but that was .... yeah, that didn't work.

All that being said, I did enjoy the story. Which is more the pity because now I'm not sure about reading the next book. I *liked* it ... so I want to read the next story. But ending in the middle of a story feels like a ploy to FORCE me to read the next book and I have no guarantee (or any encouragement at all) that the second book will satisfy the story arc at all. Plus, no way can I listen to that narration again. So I guess I might pick up the story, but just on Kindle, not on Audible.

Good story; poor narrator

Intriguing start to a multi volume alternate universe; however, the narrator is disappointing. No real difference between characters and she has the annoying Wisconsin ending "G" which is distracting. I recommend reading vs. listening

I got 10 minutes in and returned the book!!!

Awful, Awful, Awful... The narrator was so bad I couldn't get into the book bc I was messing with the speed the whole time. What I did hear sounded like an interesting story but the voice actor was so bad you couldn't get past it.
My fault, should have read the reviews on audible instead of just kindle. I looked at the other stories in the series and they are read by another so if you can get past this first narrator it looks like audible did better. I just couldn't do it.

Fantasy, action and fun

This first in the series has a feisty and smart heroine who gets literally thrown into a whole new world just when it seems like her life is finally her own to live how she pleases. Lots of really interesting characters to get to know as they start on an epic mission to save Undraland. There's action and a little PG romance and some biting wit too. The adventure has just begun and I'll definitely be getting the next one!

Skip the Audiobook

I’m not sure if this was the narrator’s first audiobook recording or what, but I had a really hard time listening to her read the book. I made it about four chapters before I canned the audio and just read the book.

1. The narrator was very “Valley Girl” in her performance. I didn’t know if that was her, or the character she was trying to portray, but unfortunately it made the main character seem really b*tchy and unlikable, which didn’t match the character description.

2. It was like the narrator was trying to stuff as many words in to a minute as possible. I tried slowing down the audio speed, but that didn’t do any good because of point 3.

3. She rarely paused, changed tone, or gave any audible cues when a scene transitioned, a character had an internal monologue, or a conversation occurred between characters. I had to hit rewind several times to make sure I was following the story.

Again, after about four chapters, I gave up and went back to the book.