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Excellent narrator, mediocre author

Reviewed: 06-16-24

I love Joe Arden as a narrator, and I guess that after having narrated a million romance novels he thought writing one would be a piece of cake. He was wrong.

The level of cringe I felt listening to William/Liam wax poetical about how hot he was, how sinewy his forearms, oh my god. I think maybe this came out of the thing in romance novels where the women are thinking about how hot the guy is that they are interested in, but it’s one thing to see that through their eyes and it’s another thing to see it through the guys eyes, like, women in romance novels do not talk about how hot they are. We get that from the man’s perspective, you know?

His six-year-old niece speaks like a college sophomore.

His relationship with Raven was unrealistic in almost every aspect. And it was a little bit creepy I guess hearing her thoughts about how amazingly hot he was because it just seemed like this weird massive ego stroking, towards either the character or himself I’m not sure. Just very cringe.

I gave this three stars because I got the audiobook. The narration was good even though the story was bad so I’ll give them three stars on narration, but I will never ever buy another book written by Joe Arden again. I will however happily listen to his narrations, which are wonderful.

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Love Brynne Weaver, only liked this book

Reviewed: 06-07-24

I have to say, I was a little disappointed.

I am fully aware that my love of B&B probably set unrealistic expectations for Leather & Lark, I totally own that.

First, regarding the audio part of the book - I thought the narrators were wonderful. I would have preferred the B&B narrators, but these guys were quite good. The thing is, there were certain things in the narration which I don’t think were the narrator’s fault, I think it was production? But the laughing drove me crazy - Lark endlessly giggles about everything and not only do I listen to her giggle I hear the dialogue “as she laughed” followed by “tee he he he he he he he” and it soon became fingernails on a blackboard. Again, I think this was probably a production thing, and the narrators should not be blamed for it. Other than the laughter thing, I loved Larks narration. Samantha Brentmoor was a delight. Eric Nolan did a very good Lachlan but his voice lacked the charm of Joe Arden, That said, it’s entirely possible that Lachlan himself lacked the charm and so he was portrayed as he should have been.

Regarding the book itself, it was good but there didn’t seem to be the same kind of chemistry that we had in B&B. I liked Lachlan a lot, but he was a bit more one note than Rowan was in B&B. Lark was fine, I guess, but a little too cutsie for me (and again, all the giggling, ugh.) The bad guy was so clearly the bad guy in every possible way that it’s really hard for me to understand how they did not see him coming.

There is a level of joyfulness in Brynne Weaver’s writing that is kind of a constant. It was not exactly there in this book. Like it seemed almost forced, like she was trying to get a mood and atmosphere that she’s had in her earlier works, but it seemed forced somehow.

All in all, this was a very decent book and certainly worth a listen. It just wasn’t a great book. It was good, you know? I’m rating it here as four stars but honestly, I think it’s a 3.5. If I had started the series with this book, I very much doubt I would have gone for the second book. That said, when book 3 comes out I will snatch it up.

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Brilliant short story collection, but they are not titles in the chapter list

Reviewed: 05-16-24

I love Angela Carter’s short stories. I cannot tell you the level of thrilled I was when they became available on Audible. The stories are great, the performances are excellent. That said, this is a book of short stories, each story a chapter. Do they show the chapter titles? No, no they don’t. Which is just ridiculous. Her short story books are not meant to be read straight through. It is so irritating that it takes this wonderful book and brings the rating down. It’s like having a cookbook without listing the names of the recipes. A couple of her short story collections here on Audible are like this. The Bloody Chamber is not.

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Brilliant collection of short stories

Reviewed: 05-16-24

I love Angela Carter’s short stories. I cannot tell you the level of thrilled I was when they became available on Audible. The stories are great, the performances are excellent. The Tiger’s Bride and Puss-in-Boots and The Cmoanynof Wolves are just amazing.

My adoration aside, it should be said that her descriptors are adjective upon adjective. The language is lush. No one just walks anywhere. I do not like her novels for just that reason, but it work beautifully, for me, in her short stories.

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Brilliant book, BUT they don’t name the short stories in the chapter list

Reviewed: 05-16-24

I love Angela Carter’s short stories. I cannot tell you the level of thrilled I was when they became available on Audible. The stories are great, the performances are excellent. That said, this is a book of short stories, each story a chapter. Do they show the chapter titles? No, no they don’t. Which is just ridiculous. Her short story books are not meant to be read straight through. It is so irritating that it takes this wonderful book and brings the rating down. It’s like having a cookbook without listing the names of the recipes. A couple of her short story collections here on Audible are like this. The Bloody Chamber is not.

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The best 1984 ever

Reviewed: 04-06-24

I’ve read the book, I’ve seen the movie, I’ve listened to the Simon Prebble audiobook. Nothing comes close to this production. It was 3 1/2 hours of total immersion. I can’t count the times I sat here saying Oh. My. God, Andrews Garfield and Scott are amazing. I am blown away by this.

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3 people found this helpful

I Wanted to Love This So Much

Reviewed: 12-23-23

This was so disappointing. I was so excited when I saw this was happening, couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Maybe I built it up too much in my head, and there was no way that any book could match it, but I don’t think that’s really the case. I just don’t think it was very good. And I feel really bad about it because I so wanted it to be great.

Hearing the actors voices was wonderful, hearing Spike at the very beginning I almost got chills. I mean, he's great with the Dresden books, but the voice of Spike is magical. Thing is, just because the voices were good, just because the acting was good, it doesn’t make this a good book.

It needed some narration. And it lacked a lot of consistency in the characters. Like, I get we’re in some alt universe stuff, but between the lack of very basic descriptives in narration and the aforementioned character weirdness, the whole feel of the Buffyverse was wrong.

I was not able to get through the whole thing. I tried, I really did. I instead opted for keeping my love of the series.

I am a huge fan. I was there at the beginning. I own both the Buffy and Angel TV shows. I can’t even count all times I have rewatched them. The Slayer let me down. And it makes me sad.

That said, the performances were excellent. I totally get why people might love this. I’m just not one of them.

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3 people found this helpful

Great story, horrific narration

Reviewed: 09-30-23

The actual story is delightful and fun, as attested by all these other reviews. But, it's an audiobook, so the audio part is very relevant. The narrator is just awful. She reads in this sing-songy voice with weirdly placed stressed words. The only thing I can think is that maybe she was going for how one might read a fairy tale to a small child or something.

I didn’t finish the audiobook. I couldn’t. That voice, the way she reads, it's like fingernails on a blackboard.

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2 people found this helpful

This was really pretty bad

Reviewed: 11-26-22

There was no mystery in this mystery. Within the first half hour of this book you pretty much knew who that all the bad guys were and how the story was going to end.

With the narration I don’t know, like maybe it was just bad because the writing was bad or it was bad because it was bad I honestly can’t tell.

I went through the entire book just to see if it would continue being as awful as it was, it was kind of
like a hate read for me.

I’m really glad I got this as part of the plus catalog and not some thing I paid for.

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This is the best audiobook I have ever listened to

Reviewed: 08-25-20

Honestly, this is probably the best audiobook I have ever heard. I reviewed this when it first came out, filled with whoo-hoo, thrilled at the production and star power, which was awesome. But I think the initial thrill almost tainted just how amazing it actually was. Decided to relisten before hitting Sandman II. OMG. Y’all, this is insanely good, and dark, and brilliant. Way better this go-round because I listened without the newness thrill. The cast is brilliant, the music is brilliant, the story hits home way harder than the books. I mean, yeah, they were great, but there's a huge difference between a black and white comic (sorry to those who hate that word) and an actual production done in such an amazing way. I like anything Gaiman does, but this is a whole new level of great.

And right now it's free!!! Just realize that the first chapter will not be riveting, but everything else will be.

This is, for me, the gold standard of what an audiobook can be.

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