Review: Do What Godmother Says

Do What Godmother Says by L.S. Stratton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Narrated by Aure Nash, York Whitaker
Presented by Dreamscape Media

A slow start, but otherwise this was rather entertaining.

I enjoyed the dual timelines (not the narration of dual timelines, but I'll get to that later) and our two protagonists. I really loved Estelle - she seemed so switched on and I was quite sad for how things went down for her. Shanice bothered me a little, but I think a bit of that was to do with the narration. She's a strong character but I thought she was a little dense at times.

The narration was a real pain for me. I loved Estelle's narration - the voice was easy to listen to, it was expressive, and it was easy to tell characters apart. However, the narrator for Shanice was awful. She paused in weird places, added emphasis in strange spots, and often the way she expressed the words didn't match up with what the words were actually saying. She read slowly, with many pauses, and unfortunately had a slight speech impediment that became quite irritating to me by the end. I feel like a d*ck for mentioning it because it's not something I'd normally care about, but along with everything else from this narrator it just ended up pulling me out of the story.

I listened to Estelle's parts at 1.5x speed, but had to bump Shanice's parts up to x2. That was incredibly annoying, especially when my hands were busy with other tasks.

The story itself, though, was really fun. There's 'Godmother', who is the quietly menacing patron that is supposed to be looking after Estelle but is quite clearly swindling everyone. Both girls became acquainted with new fellas and I didn't really like either of them, but I also tuned out the relationship bits a little so that's probably on me. I was sucked into the mystery of what had happened to Estelle and how the painting came to be in Shanice's family.

The atmosphere is sufficiently creepy, and this progresses along with the story, leading to some decent chills towards the end. The historical parts shed some decent light on treatment of black women at this time.

I found the pacing a bit off, and my mind did wander at times. But I did enjoy the mystery and atmosphere.

An interesting, quietly creepy story that kept me entertained throughout.

With thanks to NetGalley for an audio ARC

View all my reviews

Review: The Arsenic Eater's Wife

The Arsenic Eater's Wife by Tonya Mitchell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Narrated by Penelope Rawlins
Presented by Dreamscape Media

A slow start for me but it did finally hook my interest.

Wasn't a huge fan of the narrator - her voice was quite soft making it hard to hear at times, even at a higher volume. That said, she still did a decent job filling the characters with life and differentiating between them.

The story jumps back and forth in time, which was a little confusing at first since I was tuning out some of it. But once it hooked my attention I followed it okay and appreciated the glimpses at the past as it related to the case in the present.

I was surprised by how long this went - it covered many more years than I anticipated and took a bit of an odd turn, I felt, towards the end. I started to lose interest again.

I think this is one I would have enjoyed more if I'd read it physically. The premise really interested me but the audio lost me early on, making it a little harder to commit to. But the mystery did eventually pull me in and I enjoyed listening along.

Historical fiction fans will no doubt take special delight in the arsenic angle, but on the whole this is still an interesting murder mystery tale.

With thanks to NetGalley for an audio ARC

View all my reviews

Review: NecroTek

NecroTek by Jonathan Maberry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Narrated by Ray Porter
Presented by Blackstone Publishing

BADASS.

My first ever audio 5-stars. Loved it from start to finish!

Wasn't sure how I'd go listening to this one, but it hooked me almost immediately and just refused to let go.

This does a decent character dive while dealing with the fallout of a catastrophic space incident. There are multiple layers to the story told through multiple parts and it progresses rapidly. The action is phenomenal and the moral implications and considerations added an extra depth.

I loved the characters - Bianca particularly stands out as a hero and I loved listening to her and her Lost Souls in action. Soren was quietly sympathetic, and even Lady Death played an intriguing part.

The story progression was well done, with time taken to do things well but not necessarily getting bogged down in detail. I was swept up easily and was always eager to get back to the story.

Narration was fantastic. He went above and beyond with the alien speech and conveyed some truly horrific moments with perfection. I had chills and thrills and even jumped a little at times. Brilliantly done.

I enjoyed this one so thoroughly that I'll be looking to buy a physical copy as soon as it releases. I feel like this would just get better with a second read, so I'm already looking forward to it.

Highly recommend for fans of science fiction.

With thanks to NetGalley for an audio ARC

View all my reviews

Review: City of Books

City of Books by Nicole Meier
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Narrated by: Cindy Kay
Presented by: Dreamscape Media

A disappointingly mediocre story, I'm afraid.

A misleading title, City of Books is set in a bookstore that is threatened by the decline in health of its owner. Jo, manager of the store, holes up with the employees in an effort to prevent the family from closing it down.

I found the whole thing to be a bit of a yawn fest, to be honest. As much as I love books, and books about books, there was just not a lot of story here.

Jo and the employees go about boxing up product, filling online orders, and dealing with the publicity their rebellion has stirred up. There's not really much drama or excitement, nor much to get invested in beyond the possible closure of a fictional bookstore.

Even the implied romance was bland, with nothing of note happening until the story is wrapping up.

The narrator was okay, but there were a lot of pauses and I was able to listen at 2.5x speed without much trouble.

Overall, just not a lot in this one to get excited about.

With thanks to NetGalley for an audio ARC

View all my reviews

Review: Hera

Hera by Jennifer Saint
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wanted badass but I got ... mopey. Not quite what I wanted, and sadly kind of dull.

When I think of Hera, Queen of the Gods, I think of petty vengeance and ferocity. I think of her as bold, brave, and confident.

I was excited for a book that would take these things and show us a villain in a new light, but instead this book tries to make her something of a beaten-down heroine? It really didn't work for me.

I didn't like Hera as a character here at all, and I felt the story really washed her out and turned her into a victim. It seemed to be fighting so hard to tell a feminist story that it forgot women can be villains, too. Hera is well-known for her wrath and it was so washed out, here.

The storytelling was also to blame, I feel. It takes all the big stories from Greek mythology and mostly glosses over them all in a sentence or two - as though it was essential to include all these things but the author didn't really want to. I would have preferred less references in lieu of further detail. As a consequence of the sparse detail, it feels like nothing really notable happens - it's just the bland passing of time.

I just wanted so much more story than what I got. It was disappointing to get to the end and feel that I hadn't really felt anything at all.

An ambitious goal, but I do feel it fell flat. Others may appreciate this more sympathetic take on the famous Queen, but it didn't quite meet my expectations.

With thanks to NetGalley for an e-ARC

View all my reviews

Review: Running Close to the Wind

Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Narrated by Casey Jones
Presented by RB Media

I honestly have absolutely no idea what happened in this book amongst all the d*ck jokes and sexual innuendo. Something to do with pirates which could have actually been cool but definitely wasn't.

Complete trash.

Unless you're into d*ck jokes, I guess.

I lost hope for this almost immediately, and if it hadn't been a NetGalley read I'd have DNF'd it on the spot.

The barrage of sex jokes is so off-putting that I found myself constantly rolling my eyes and tuning out. There are characters here that deserved better than what they were given, and I found it so disappointing.

Nothing really seemed to happen - there's a serpent at one stage and a ridiculous baking competition (??!) but not really much else beyond a bunch of boys wanting to f*ck each other etc. It got real old, real fast.

Honestly, I just ended up tuning so much of it out. I was actually listening at 3x speed at one stage just to try and get through it.

The only reason this gets a second star from me is for the narration, which was absolutely spectacular. Honestly, if you are into sassy boys who make a LOT of d*ck jokes then you should actually enjoy this immensely and I highly recommend the audio because the delivery was brilliant.

Story, though? Forget it.

With thanks to NetGalley for an audio ARC

View all my reviews

Review: This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances

This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances by Eric LaRocca
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This Skin Was Once Mine: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Narrated by Natalie Naudus

I should have known.

It started like a pretty standard story, but damn did it twist! I thought I knew where it was going but of course I had no idea.

Which just made me love it more. It was so tangled and messed up and it kept going. The downside to audio is you can't flick through and work out how many pages left, so you're just swept up and forced to suffer for as long as the story chooses to go. And I mean that as a compliment - after all, we horror lovers to enjoy suffering.

Narration was perfect - interesting and easy to follow characters, with believable performance when it was crucial.

An early standout.

Seedling: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Narrated by Andre Santana

Holy wow this was creepy. I got ICK.

A short but definitely not sweet story about things under the skin. The delivery here was perfect and had my skin crawling. Perfectly awful.

Narrator did a great job of conveying the horror of this one.

All the Parts of You That Won't Easily Burn: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Narrated by Michael Crouch

This took so many turns and I had no idea where it was going. It was twisted and odd and yet completely captivating. I spoke a few 'eww!'s out loud, and felt all kinds of uncomfortable sensations listening to this one. Another brilliant job by the narrator.

Prickle: ⭐⭐⭐
Narrated by Steven Crossley

WOW what a banger of a way to finish this collection. It's horrorific but it also made me laugh out loud. Nice.

I really enjoyed the way it escalated. Nasty, nasty lil piece, this one.

Decent narrator, adding believable voices to the characters.

Overall Thoughts
I liked this collection so much more than the author's last. Everything twisted so beautifully, but never so much as to reveal the end destination. Atmosphere was built exceptionally well and I became quickly invested in each story.

Fantastic writing with some excellent, disturbing ideas.

Also appreciated that there was a different narrator for each story - and each one did such a brilliant job bringing these disturbing characters to life.

View all my reviews