awhit333

So great!

Reviewed: 02-08-18

I was a little reluctant to start this at first because of how much I loved His Dark Materials, and also how completely fantastic the audio performance of those books were. Turns out there was no reason to hesitate. This book was completely wonderful. It brought me right back into a world that I've missed ever since I finished The Amber Spyglass.

We get to meet great new characters in this book and also get to see some characters we already know, but years before. This book is exciting, and engaging, and I didn't want it to end.

The narration is absolutely perfect. I wasn't sure how one narrator would compete with the full-cast recording of His Dark Materials, but Michael Sheen was brilliant. If it were an option, I'd have him read all my books to me.

I can't wait for the next in this series to come out, and I can't believe how emotionally involved I became with a canoe.

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Everyone should listen!

Reviewed: 07-27-17

Everyone should read this, but really everyone should listen to this! Hearing the author narrate his own work with all the intended feeling and emphasis was completely wonderful. I especially loved hearing his poetry in his own voice. I was a big fan of this author before I experienced his memoir, but I think even those who haven't read other works by him will really find value in this experience.

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5 people found this helpful

Fans of the series will likely enjoy

Reviewed: 12-23-16

If you have read the Enthrall series, you will likely enjoy this installment. Here we get the back story for Scarlet. We get to learn about some of the formative events that lead her to be the successful dominatrix we met in the earlier books.

I was engaged in this story throughout, and there were definitely some very touching moments. However, I found myself rolling my eyes at times at some of the hyperbolic language and instant attachments formed by these characters. I tried to suspend my disbelief, and just enjoy the character's relationships to one another, but it was difficult at times.

I think fans of this series will enjoy spending more time with these characters and learning more about them. I don't know that knew readers would be hooked by starting with this one.

The narration was tough for me. With audiobooks, what I really want it to become engrossed in the story and forget about the narrator. I was aware of the narrator throughout this story. Her annunciation and inflection made me constantly aware that this was being read to me and I felt that her general tone and voice didn't match what I imagined for Scarlet. Oddly, I thought her best voice was that of Danton.

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1 person found this helpful

Beautifully written

Reviewed: 08-05-16

It took me a little while to really latch on Ursula's character, but then all of a sudden I just did. The writing is beautiful and the main thing I got from this book is a real feel for life in England before and during WWI and WWII. We get to see the Todd family, primarily Ursula, going through middle/upper-class English life. There is an element of "genre fiction" in this as Ursula dies repeatedly, but keeps getting to re-do her life.

One of the things I loved about this book was getting to see how one incident or event can take someone's life down a very specific path. While it was interesting getting to see Ursula's life go in a couple very different directions, I was also fascinated by the very small differences that occurred in lives of Ursula's that were very similar to others, but for small changes that were interesting to discover.

I enjoyed this book in a similar way to Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis. I felt that even though there were elements of both author's works that were fantastic in some way (time travel in the case of Willis' books, and repeated reincarnation in the case of Atkinson's) it was easy for the reader to get a strong idea of what it was like to live in that time period and in those places.

The narrator was a perfect fit for this book. From the beginning it felt like the exact right person was telling this story.

I will most definitely be seeking out more books by this author, and would gladly listen to this narrator read to me again.

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Nice return to what I liked about this series

Reviewed: 05-04-16

I'm a fan of this whole series, but I started feeling like it was fizzling out a little. This book got me hooked right back in. Seeing some of the relationship issues that are affecting many of these couples really makes them more dimensional and interesting. There are a lot of intriguing story lines going on here, and I'm feeling connected to these characters again. I will eagerly await the next in the series.

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Charming, sexy, addicting!

Reviewed: 04-11-16

Arizona and Carter have been best friends since 4th grade. For years they have been a support to one another through all their "firsts", and everything else. They have never considered crossing the friend line even through all of high school and college. Somewhat suddenly, they begin to view each other in a different light and after one night where they do cross the line things get tricky.

I've read a lot of friends-to-lovers books, and this one really stood out for me. I got hooked quickly and couldn't stop reading after I started. I loved that this wasn't one of those books where the characters have always been completely in love with one another or where one of the friends has been pining for the other in an unrequited fashion. Arizona and Carter are genuine friends, and I absolutely loved their friendship. The flashes back to their interactions throughout grade school and high school are really great, and it just made everything that followed between them even better. Arizona is a cool chick. She has her quirks, but is definitely someone I would enjoy being friends with. Carter is a sexy man, and that sexiness is only enhanced by the way he interacts with Arizona. The physical chemistry between them was completely sexy and intense. The tension and anxiety as they attempted to deal with their various feelings and the complexity of their situation added to my addiction to the story. This is one of those stories where I was thinking about the characters when I wasn't listening to the book, and couldn't wait to get back to it and continue the story. I will absolutely read more by this author in the future.

The narration was great! I thought both narrators really helped flesh out both Arizona and Carter and no matter which narrator was reading the book, I was completely engrossed in the story. I would absolutely recommend listening to the audio version of this book.

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A worthy read

Reviewed: 03-23-16

Despite the reading/listening of this book, at times, feeling like a series of punches to the throat and gut- I highly recommend it. Yanagahara is definitely an author whose work I will be seeking out in the future. The writing is beautiful and I was completely immersed and engaged throughout. I thought about these characters when I wasn't reading, and was eager to return to them as soon as I could.

This is a book that left me feeling like I had been through new experiences and had gained knowledge and insight that I didn't have before. It's beautiful, it's terrible, and I'm glad that I got to know all of these characters.

The narration is spectacular.

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1 person found this helpful

Brilliant follow-up to Me Before You

Reviewed: 10-18-15

This is a book that I never expected to be written, but was delighted to discover. I loved Me Before You, and while I didn't feel that book was incomplete, I was really glad to have the opportunity to spend more time with Louisa. It was easy to care about her in Me Before You, and it was easy to pick right back up with her in this novel. I read Me Before you quite a while back, and the thing that amazed me most about this book was how after such a long time I was able to reconnect with all the feelings I experienced reading that book pretty much as soon as I started listening to this one.

This book picks up about 18 months after the end of Me Before You. Louisa has done some traveling, but finds herself stuck trying to live the life that was desired for her, but feeling stuck and still experiencing a lot of grief. I think this story is best experienced without knowing much more than that going in. I would highly recommend that anyone who read and loved Me Before You get this right away.

The narration was absolutely wonderful! The narrator did a perfect job of bringing Louisa to life and did a wonderful job of voicing the other characters as well. I was completely immersed in this story from start to finish, and the narration made the experience feel all the more real.

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Everyone should read!

Reviewed: 10-09-15

David Mitchell is a writer I enjoy a lot, so I expected to like this. It exceeded my expectations and I not only loved it, I've already purchased it for several other people in my life.

Besides the magnificent writing, the narration is absolutely perfect! I feel like this is a book I would have enjoyed in written or audio form. That said, I'm glad I listened to it because the narrator bought the book to life for me in a way that I'm not sure I would have experienced reading it. I highly recommend it to everyone.

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3 people found this helpful

Another great installment in a fantastic series!

Reviewed: 08-19-15

Tanner Layne and Raquel Merrick were once young, in love, and happy. All of a Sudden Rocky leaves Layne with no explanation, leaving him devastated. He leaves The Burg, but returns years later to help raise the sons that live with his ex-wife, who has made some bad decisions about who she spends her time with. Layne manages to avoid Rocky, until he finds himself shot after getting too close to the truth while investigating a dirty cop. Rocky comes to visit him in the hospital, and nothing afterwards. Circumstances, feelings, and connected friends and family cause Rocky and Layne to face the feelings for one another (that have not dimmed over time), as well as the past and the ordeals both have had to face.

Yet again- Ashley writes a book that hooks me fast, and keeps me entirely engaged throughout. We not only get to know a bunch of new characters- Layne and his family, Rocky and hers, but revisit old friends from the previous two books in this series, and learn how everyone's lives intersect. The chemistry between Rocky and Layne is scorching hot and it is easy to decide that these are characters who should be together if they can just straighten out whatever mysterious force is keeping them apart. In addition to all the interpersonal drama going on, there are some very serious cases that the police, and Layne (a former cop and current PI) are working on with some urgency. Generally, it is the characters that make a Kristen Ashley story what it is, but this one also had me with the various and intertwining suspense elements. Basically, I loved all of it, and I can't wait to read more in this series. The epilogue was simply wonderful and connected me even deeper with many characters that I have come to really care about.

With the audiobook version: the narrator did a great job of not only bringing Layne's voice to life, but also bringing depth to the story and characters without distracting me or bringing me out of the story.

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9 people found this helpful