Audiobook Review Roundup

Ever since I started listening to audiobooks last year, I've been collecting them like crazy. As is my usual MO, I'm falling into a bad habit of starting them but not finishing them.

I'm working on that.

However, I have gotten through several and have been meaning to talk a bit about them here for a while now. What better time than now, right? So, here's three mini-reviews about three audiobooks I liked.

First up: Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. No surprise - I LOVED it! I've had a paperback of this book sitting on my shelves for months but when I saw it at the library, I knew that this was how I was meant to experience this book and I was right. No doubt that the usual reading experience for Garden Spells would have been fabulous (it IS a Sarah Addison Allen book after all) but Susan Ericksen's narration made this book come alive for me. Ericksen is superb. Her characters all have distinct voices, not just different versions of one voice, and I loved that. I can't wait for The Peach Keeper.

Next: The Host by Stephenie Meyer. Caught up as I was in the Meyer craze of 2008, I had preordered way in advance my copy of The Host. It then was summarily ignored in my disgust of Breaking Dawn but I recently decided to give it a shot on audiobook. (I'll listen to just about anything when I'm doing laundry or scrubbing the floor.) What a wonderful story The Host turned out to be! There was nothing juvenile here; the story of a member of a race of interplanetary travelers who take over planets by implanting their teeny, centipede-like bodies into the indigenous inhabitants, who forges a bond with her host and other humans who are rebelling against the invasion completely captivated me, much to my to my husband's consternation. (I was listening to this fairly long audiobook whenever I had the time and my earbuds kept him out.) Kate Reading's narration was pitch-perfect and I am sure that I would not have enjoyed this book quite as much if I had sat down and read it page after page.

And last but not certainly least: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews. This was a reread (of sorts) for me. This series is one of my all-time faves and and I thought it might be nice to have a different "picture" of it in my head. I also expected to just enjoy the story during a time when I'm needing some entertainment. (Stupid laundry.) The narration is by Renee Raudman and I am happy to know that she is the one doing the rest of the books (it bothers me when the production companies aren't consistent and don't have the same person complete the series). Her voicing of Kate meshed well with my mental image and I really enjoyed seeing Kate and Curran meet and begin their relationship. I will certainly be looking to add the rest in this series to my audiobook collection.

That is all.

Review: "A Questionable Client" by Ilona Andrews in Dark and Stormy Knights

If you are an Ilona Andrews fan in need of a Kate Daniels fix, you're in luck. In this impressive anthology, we finally get to see how Kate met Saiman. YES! Ever since Saiman was first introduced, and I can't remember exactly which book it was (Burns? Strikes?), I have wanted to know more about him and why he's so fixated on Kate. Not that it's that big a surprise, right?

The plot of this short story feels like a secret to me, one that I'm just dying to tell. All I'll say is that Kate is sent to him to be a bodyguard. What she finds when she gets there is something that is a stretch, even for the dynamic duo of Ilona Andrews. It's a typical Kate story and even though there's no Curran and it's too short it is still a treat.

Review: Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews

Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren't for the magic. When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose.

Kate Daniels works for the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid, officially, as a liaison with the mercenary guild. Unofficially, cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wants to handle - especially if they involve Atlanta's shapeshifting community.

When she's called in to investigate a fight at the Steel Horse, a bar on the border between the territories of the shapeshifters and the necromancers, Kate quickly discovers there's a new player in town. One who's been around for thousands of years - and rode to war at the side of Kate's father.

>This foe may be too much even for Kate and Curran, the Beast Lord, to handle. Because this time Kate will be taking on family...

Hot damn! I loved this book! I just finished it so I'm still in that post-awesome book shock mode and all so please forgive all the exclamation points, okay? Bleeds is the best of the four Kate Daniels novels, I do believe, and that's certainly high praise since all four are astoundingly good. Great plot with an even better payoff at the end, Magic Bleeds is urban fantasy at its best.

To finish...The best line in the book comes a little early, page 114:

"Who's diving for clams now, bitch?"

So good.

The Obvious Post

Today has certainly been the day for book release day posts, hasn't it? About a certain book in particular that I, too, am excited about. I know I've certainly been looking forward to this day. I was so excited that I got to B&N before Magic Bleeds was even on their shelves and as a result made the bookstore people hunt for it in "the back". What surprised me even more was that the woman I spoke to, a woman who is in my age bracket of the prime childbearing years and works in a bookstore, wasn't familiar with Ilona Andrews. For shame! Have you ever heard of such a thing? Here, enjoy the marvelousness of what I bought:

I've had my eye on The Sweet Scent of Blood for-freaking-ever but it was impossible to catch anywhere. I guess they've rereleased it or something here in the US and I snatched that sucker up when I saw it today.

Another awesome aspect of the Kate Daniels series - each book is getting progressively longer. Magic Bleeds tops out at a whopping 347 pages! Magic Strikes was 320 pages, Magic Burns and Magic Bites were both 272 pages and I am all for more Kate and Curran. Give me as much as I can take :)

Now, I'll try to start Magic Bleeds tonight after dinner. I've had The Demon's Covenant in my hot little hands for several days now but haven't even managed to crack it open yet, if you can believe that. It's definitely not for lack of wanting either. Here's the deal: we brought home a new member of our family on Friday, a little girl kitten, and she has taken over our household. Our sleeping schedules have been out of whack and today I finally managed to regain a semblance of normalcy which is such a relief. I did get a little reading in, however, and hope to review some more of those books this week. I also want to talk a little about my experiences with a borrowed Sony eReader. I've started the first part of "Stopping Time," the short stories by Melissa Marr, on the little machine. The story is, of course, wonderful but do I like reading it that way? I guess we'll find out.

Review: Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews

When magic strikes and Atlanta goes to pieces, it's a job for Kate Daniels...

Drafted to work for the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid, mercenary Kate Daniels has more paranormal problems these days than she knows what to do with. And in Atlanta, where magic comes and goes like the tide, that's saying a lot.

But when Kate's werewolf friend Derek is discovered nearly dead, she must confront her greatest challenge yet. As her investigation leads here to the Midnight Games - an invitation-only, no-holds-barred, ultimate preternatural fighting tournament - she and Curran, the Beast Lord, uncover a dark plot that may forever alter the face of Atlanta's shapeshifting community...

The last time I read an Ilona Andrews book, it was before I started this blog in August of 2008. I had to look it up it had been so long ago. Now I know why I couldn't remember some things. I did, however, read the anthology Must Love Hellhounds in February that had a Kate Daniels-verse story featuring Raphael and Andrea. Here's what I thought:

"Magic Mourns" by Ilona Andrews pairs up Kate's hyena shifter friend Raphael and Andrea, Kate's replacement at work and hyena beastkin, a hyena-human hybrid that is not welcome in most shifter societies. Raphael and Andrea have a connection and while Raphael has been pursuing her without success, Andrea wants him. BAD. This was a great part of this anthology; it had the feel of its series, an interesting storyline, an even more interesting romance, and a giant hellhound. All-in-all, awesome. A

With Magic Bleeds looming on the book horizon for release on May 25, I figured I would catch up on Kate and Curran. I loved it, of course. I should really go back and reread Magic Burns and Magic Bites though. I couldn't remember Roland being that much in the forefront of Kate's mind. In Magic Strikes, she almost obsessive about him and I didn't know why. Ilona and Andrews have set up this whole Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker thing with Kate and it will make for good stuff in Magic Bleeds.

As for Kate and Curran, I'm not sure what to say about them. On one hand, I want to tell Kate to s**t or get off the pot already! She wants him, worries about him, trusts him. He's strong enough to handle what she is and can do and vice versa. On the other hand, if I was her, I might run. She would be the mate of the BEAST LORD. Talk about a headache, having to be the female alpha. As you can see, I'm undecided - but I'm leaning toward to the first scenario :) That's been the whole point of these books, right? Kate and Curran have been doing this little dance of theirs for three books and with all the bad stuff coming up in Magic Bleeds, they'll both need each other. It's going to be time for them to put up or shut up. I'm definitely not going to wait before I read it either.