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Fantastic follow up

Revisado: 09-26-23

I might love this even more than the first one. And I didn’t think that was actually going to happen. I am fascinated by the world of Romney Marsh and the Doomsday family and this story is just as exciting, suspenseful, romantic, fascinating, as one could ever possibly hope for.

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Clever, snarky, romantic story, FANTASTIC narrator

Revisado: 03-09-23

I can't even say how much I love this book. I'm a big Meghan Maslow fan to begin with - her signature combination of funny, snarky, wildly creative world building, paranormal fantastical wonderment, found family, and romance is my catnip - and this one is absolutely one of her best. You might want to listen to Demon's in the Details first for some backstory. You certainly won't be sorry. Greg Boudreaux is at his absolute best, which is very, very good, here. Carter is one complex cat, badass and fearless and curious (naturally) and then suddenly vulnerable and then entirely loyal and loving and then sexy as sin, and you are never entirely sure which cat you'll get, and Greg makes him a fully 360 Siamese with every dimension. Bengal is all that ramped up times ten. And then you've got Tommy in the background and the craziness of Charm City and what we are beginning to see might be an unfolding plot....I loved this so much I listened to it and then immediately read it and kind of can't wait to listen again. Just excellent. More Charm City, Meghan, please.

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Outstanding performance, stellar steampunk romance

Revisado: 11-17-22

This is one of my favorite books, and Gary Furlong's performance of it is absolutely spectacular. Rafe Lancaster is a hero to fall in love with, and Furlong brings his his wry, insouciant voice to life so much more effectively than I expected. It's a great book - steampunk romance and adventure (gets even better as the trilogy goes on; please to all the audiobook gods that the rest are recorded, too) in a British Imperium several steps removed from actual late-Victorian Britain in both technology and society. It's a world of complicated political intrigue that is highly creative; I wish Butler would write more in this world, because it's fascinating. I just can't say enough good things about both book and performance.

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Original magic, great story

Revisado: 10-31-22

Everything about this book is so well done. Strong characters, good, bad, and secondary, interesting magic, and a tense, brilliant premise. Joel Leslie weaves his own astonishing magic. His characters are so distinct and individual that I forget there is a single narrator. All the tension of the book lives in his voice. There is a particular scene near the end of the book that is so mournful and lonely I found it hard to listen to. One of his best.

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Series gets better and better

Revisado: 10-08-22

Excellent second entry to a great, quintessentially EJ Russell series. By turns funny, adorable, exciting and always fun and engaging. Really strong performance by Kirt Graves.

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A knockout, both book and audio performance

Revisado: 05-13-22

Two world-weary men from worlds as unlike as possible, guarded and grumpy and distrustful, caught up in the most unlikely chain of events imaginable: it's unusual for a romance to focus on two men in their 40s and even less usual for fantasy, and it's both incredibly refreshing and deeply poignant. Inventive and interesting, heartfelt, and beautifully told in Fenn's wry, honest, countryman's voice, Seducing the Sorcerer is absolutely captivating.

And then Joel Leslie reads it, and it takes off and soars. He is note perfect: beautifully capturing the humor, suspense, drama, magic, romance, and pathos and giving them depth and life. This is a favorite book - head and shoulders above so much of what I read - and this audio performance takes it to an even higher level.

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Intense book, brilliant performance

Revisado: 05-06-22

I am not OK.

I've spent the last 14 hours listening to Vespertine. (OK, I broke to sleep. Briefly.) JesusMaryandJoseph, that is the most harrowing, ultimately cathartic experience I've had in a long time. I've relistened to the last hour twice now. And my heart is still fluttering and I'm still not breathing right. I think I spent most of that 14 hours with tears in my eyes.

And this right here is what audio does, in the hands of someone as talented as Michael Ferraiuolo. I would've found reading Vespertine intense. And I could've listened to it read by any number of narrators who would have...well, they'd have read it aloud, and that would've been fine. But there are a very few narrators who are gifted actors, and when they read a book, it lives. In Michael's hands Vespertine freaking rocketed to life.

It's going to be a while before I stop thinking about this book, and hearing Michael's voice in my mind, Nicky's low pained gravel and Jazz's smooth sweet tenor. I read so, so much and listen to so, so, SO much and every once in a while, rarely, a book and a performance are so outsized, so unusually good, so memorable that everything else seems pastel and plain in comparison. This is one of those.

It's not a perfect book. In particular, Jasper's calling to the priesthood and his ultimate questioning of that calling, which drive much of the conflict in both the past and present, are ambiguous and inconsistent. His intense sense of being called as a teen changes in a way I found unsatisfying and poorly resolved, and his later choices seem, in contrast, too easy for a man whose life has been so defined and shaped by joining a priesthood he seemingly loves.

That said, it's an extraordinary tour de force of passionate writing. Nicky will break your heart a hundred times. His addiction is harrowing to watch play out, though I will say for readers like me who find it extremely painful to read about active addiction that if you can live through chapter two you at least aren't going to encounter it quite that vividly again. His raw pain and rage pour off the page. His inner sweetness, which you come to see gradually, is a balm.

I find it interesting that many people have trouble with Jasper's character. I can see why, though I don't share that reaction. His calmness when he first reencounters Nicky is almost startling, and as I said above, there are inconsistencies in the way he is depicted that are frustrating. He is a deeply good man and a compassionate, passionate man who I came to love. His commitment to the children he is trying to give a good life to is so strong and so pure. And his love for Nicky is beautiful and informed by his pastoral role; he is determined to love and care for Nicky not simply as a romantic partner.

Vespertine is an experience. I highly recommend it, and strongly suggest any reader consider their feelings about drug addiction and the Catholic Church before diving in, as the former is intense and painful and the latter, well, it's a hell of a complication, and how you feel about religion and the Catholic hierarchy in particular will affect how you perceive the entire story.

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Fun series, avoid the audio

Revisado: 04-07-22

This a fun series that is developing well, with interesting world building, a great protagonist who has all the combined gravitas and insecurity of a woman at midlife, banter and action and great secondary characters. It's also one of the few audiobooks I've bailed on to go back to print. The narrator is nails-on-a-chalkboard awful with the French, Yiddish-inflected New York, British, and other accents. Her narration is mediocre otherwise, with odd choices of emphasis and inflection that are jarring but not unlistenable, but my god, when she has to do an accent, it's like she's being tortured, and she has a lot of difficulty maintaining the voice she's going for - her Brit is especially weird, as from sentence to sentence she has one character going from something close to RP to workingclass London and back. I kept trying, because I love audiobooks and am always delighted to choose audio over print, but I give up.

I do recommend the series, though. It's refreshing to meet a 42-year-old heroine, busily reclaiming herself and choosing to reinvent as a badass (her former husband's coming out is an obvious parallel to her own journey), negotiating a loving but not romanticized relationship with her teenager, wryly and rather pragmatically considering the possibilities of a romance with her friend and colleague and letting friendship develop first. There's a lot to like here and I'm looking forward to more.

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Excellent and unusual story of love and life amidst challenges

Revisado: 04-06-22

This book is not like other books. It is a uniquely excellent presentation of living with autism, living with major depressive disorder, and making a meaningful, love filled, deeply good life both with and despite those disabilities. It is beautifully done. It was absolutely fascinating to get inside both Emmett and Jeremy’s heads and hearts. I’m particularly pleased that I chose to listen to audio rather than read it first because Iggy Toma’s performance adds a dimension that makes this book shine even more brightly. I fell in love with both main characters and I’m really looking forward to the next book. I highly recommend this.

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Great entry in a very funny, very sweet series

Revisado: 03-15-22

I love this world - interconnected with other of this author’s series, it is replete with every variety of supernatural creature, all with elaborate politics and interspecies relations and prejudices as well as unique cultures. EJ Russell is always hilarious, and creates great, sometimes madcap, always engaging plots. This entry sees a jaded vampire and a beleaguered beaver discover love in the unlikeliest of places while trying to escape the severest of censures from their respective governing councils. And as always, Greg Boudreaux kicks it up a level with a detailed and lively performance - good lord that man can act.

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