Tag Archives: audiobook

fury

Book Review – Fury: The Awakening, by R.E. Sargent

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I picked up a freebie code for a copy of Fury: The Awakening (The Scorned, #1), by R.E. Sargent. I’m considering this a bonus Awakening. It doesn’t actually meet the specifications of my Awakening Challenge, since the name isn’t simply Awakening. But I had chores to do today and wanted to listen to an audio book, so I figured I might as well stay on theme.

Fury- The Awakening

Stephanie Duran hoped for the American dream – a husband, a family, a house with a white-picket fence – but every man she ever trusted betrayed her. Forsaken by her last lover, Stephanie finally understands that the American dream will never be her reality. Devastated and emotionally destroyed, she pours all her anger-fueled energy into remodeling her new house – the one part of her dream she could control – when an unexplained phenomenon bestows upon her the mysterious power to right wrongs before they happen. Suddenly empowered and in control of fate, Stephanie finds herself immersed in a world of strange events and discovers too late that she has unwittingly unleashed pure evil.

my review

Fury: The Awakening….or Fury: Birth Of a Failed Vigilante as I would rename it. Good lord, I was pretty much bored for the entirety of this audio book. By the end, I was listening to it at 1.5x normal speed, something that pretty much destroys the listening experience (which would have been fine otherwise) and also something I generally never do. But I just wanted to be done.

The book started strongly, with the main character finding out her fiance is cheating on her and responding appropriately. But after that it took a sharp left into blands-ville. She buys the house and the reader sits through chapter after chapter of her fixing everything up. *Yawn*

Then the Quantum-Leap style time/space hops start and the reader sits through the endless tedious details of her figuring everything else, going on hops, learning to shoot, fight, etc, and then going on one last big hop before everything comes to an end. There’s no over-arcing story line to make this interesting. It’s just a progression of this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened until the end.

And the reader never even learns the story behind the original owner of the house or how the house because the gateway (or whatever) it apparently is. It’s all just dropped. All in all, the writing is fine (though the author sucks at writing female-female dialogue) but I was, as I said, bored by the story.

fury sargent

 

prince of never

Book Review: Prince of Never, by Juno Heart

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Prince of Never

I won an Audio copy of Juno Heart‘s Prince of Never from the author.

about the book

A fae prince with a poisoned heart. A mortal girl with a magical voice. Neither one believes in fairy tales.

City waitress Lara has the voice of an angel and no idea she’s marked as the fated mate of a silver-eyed royal from another realm. When she falls into Faery and meets an obnoxious huntsman who mistakes her for a troll, she’s amazed to discover he’s the cursed Prince of Air in disguise. Ever’s mother, the queen, is less than impressed. The opposing court of techno-loving Unseelie wants her as their very own pet. And an evil air mage wishes her dead.

Held captive by Elemental fae in the Land of Five, she’s certainly hit rock bottom.

But songs wield power, and Lara happens to be a true diva. Now if only she can use her newfound magical skill to make the Prince of Never a little less attractive. The first thing she wants is to find a way back home, and the last is to fall in love.

Ever and Lara think they know what they want, but destiny and an age-old curse have other ideas.

Book 1, a standalone with a HEA in the Y.A. interconnected series, each one starring a different cruel prince and his human fated mate.

For lovers of Faery. Above all else, romance rules.

my review

Not bad at all, but also not anything too new and exciting. I liked Laura. I liked that the author showed her thought processes. Rather than having her just talk endlessly, for example, we know she’s made a conscious decision to make a point to irritate someone by talking. I liked Ever and enjoyed that the author did a good job showing his feelings change and his own confusion with them. The writing is clean and easy to listen to, and the narrators both did a good job.

However, I’m bummed that the villain and the plot hinge on the cliched spurned woman. *yawn* Laura’s personality mirrors so many other female YA character—kind and giving above all else—so, seen a hundred times before. And Laura seemed able to mouth off to authority without consequence, an irritating trait in YA heroines. Or rather, not in the heroines themselves, but of the authors and writings of such heroines. I always notice when heroines are allowed behaviors no one else is and want to know why. Especially when the hero then loves that same trait in them. Chicken and egg, anyone?

All in all, I enjoyed it and I’d be willing to read another of Heart’s books.

prince of never

 

A Cougar Among Wolves

Book Review: A Cougar Among Wolves, by Kali Willows

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A Cougar Among WolvesI picked up an Audible code for A Cougar Among Wolves (by Kali Willows) bouncing around the internet somewhere, probably Free Audiobook Codes. It was narrated by Ruby Rivers.

A sadistic attack leaves Klaya, a Puma Clan Cougar, critically injured and the last of her family ferociously slain. She stumbles into Black Hills wolf territory and collapses. Now under the protection of the pack, she finds herself whisked away to hide out in a cave until her old friend the alpha returns. Potentially the last of her shifter kind, she has nothing left to lose, but her life and a chance to avenge her brother.

After a dangerous rescue, on the edge of pack territory, Seth and Rogue take a woman on the brink of death back to the pack. Her identity and why she was brutalized is a mystery. The pieces soon fit together proving this assault was no coincidence. The Black Hills wolf pack faces a bigger threat than they could even imagine. The trio soon find themselves on a tumultuous journey of life and death and relentless lust.

my reviewMeh, not horrible (if you like this particular subset of erotic fantasy) but not great either. Honestly, I found a lot of it cheesy, ESPECIALLY THE VERY LONG SEX SCENE. I literally rolled my eyes and made gagging sounds. I was just so super cheesed out! But the brother-mates are sweet (which is a pleasant change from the alpha-asshole norm) and I appreciated the heroine’s independent streak. Just don’t go into this one expecting any depth or a complex plot and you’ll probably enjoy it well enough.