Review: The Courier

The Courier by Gerald Brandt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Poor orphan courier Kris Ballard barely ekes out a living and after a hard day of work she just wants to go home to her small flat and take a nice shower before the water’s cut off, when she gets a call from dispatch asking her to deliver just one more small package, with her job on the line Kris reluctantly agrees to the assignment, but “the corporation” wants that package and Kris dead.

So begins the cat and mouse chase set in the dystopian megalopolis of San Angeles a 7 level city, level one relegated to those in abject poverty and the most elite on level seven where the sun still shines.

What I enjoyed most about this cyberpunk, science fiction based story is the non-stop action, Kris is on the run from Quincy her nemesis and she’s thrown into one situation after another, escaping each time, but not totally unscathed. The suspense level in this book is high and many times I was holding my breath right along with the characters! When Kris meets her savior Miller her odds of surviving increase exponentially, but will it be enough?

This audiobook employs dual narration from Ali Ahn and James Colby and they both do an excellent job, the voicing of the characters is appropriate to the age of the characters in the book. Recorded Books is the publisher, so you know the production quality is on point.

This audiobook was gifted to me exchange for an unbiased review.

View all my reviews

Review: Into the Storm

Into the Storm by Melanie Moreland
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this romantic thriller! The story begins with a badly beaten Elizabeth on the run from her abusive husband, her bad luck is compounded when she heads straight into the worst snow storm of the season. Lost and in pain, she loses control of her car in the storm and ends up crashing headlong into a tree.

Author, Joshua Bennett lives in a self-imposed exile, refusing to leave his remote property since a vicious attack almost ended his life, when he hears the crash his dog Bear races off towards the car, Joshua reluctantly follows and begrudgingly rescues Elizabeth.

I really enjoyed this audiobook, which is almost 12 hours in length and the time flew by, this story never, ever lagged and was filled with suspense, heartbreak, and is a tender love story.

Into The Storm is a dual narration production by John Lane and Tatiana Sokolov, it's mostly narrated from Joshua's point of view and John Lane did a wonderful job fully voicing all the characters in this audiobook and of course, Tatiana Sokolov always does and awesome job, she's one of my favorite narrators and does an amazing job voicing male characters.

View all my reviews

Review: Ruined Wings

Ruined Wings by Ashley Fontainne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

17-Year old track star Callie Novak has been living a charmed life until reality comes crashing down when her twin brother Colton and her father are both killed in an auto accident. When it’s determined that Colton was the driver and under the influence of drugs, Callie goes in search of answers, but the answers just bring further heartbreak.

Soon Callie finds herself on the very same path that led to her brother’s death as she begins to self-medicate as a means to cope, this begins a devastating downward spiral that Callie is helpless to stop. Callie has to dig down deep to find the strength that her brother lacked to turn her life around.

This book is suitable older young adults because it deals with the gritty realities of drug addiction and contains violence, strong language, and sexual exploitation. Ashley Fontainne packs a lot of story into this relatively short, but well-written book. The audiobook is over 3 hours in length and the fully voiced, expressive narration by Andrea Emmes was perfectly suited for the age of the main character and the genre. The sound quality was clear throughout the production.

I look forward to seeing what’s in store for both this author and narrator! This audiobook was gifted to me exchange for an unbiased review!


View all my reviews

Review: SEAL Brotherhood: Lucas

SEAL Brotherhood: Lucas by Sharon Hamilton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love a good SEAL romance and on the whole, I enjoyed this one! Lucas Shipley may be an ace SEAL able to make the correct decision when it can mean the difference between life or death, but when it comes to women he definitely skipped reading the book.
Lucas’ current situation consist of living in the equivalent of a SEAL frat house, sleeping on a couch and expecting a phone call any moment from his estranged wife Connie begging him to come back home, instead he gets served divorce paper and a call from his wife’s realtor Marcy Gelland who's tasked with liquidating their real estate, Marcy coolly requests his John Hancock on the dotted line.

When Marcy gets to know Lucas she discovers he’s nothing like the picture that Connie painted of him and when she and Lucas head up to Northern California, they end up in an ill-advised and poorly timed relationship.

When Lucas is summoned back to San Diego, he asks Marcy to retrieve some of his belongings from his remote cabin and a wrong turn close to a nearby terrorist training camp puts Marcy in the crosshairs of the terrorist organization. I really enjoyed the terrorist plotline in this story it was suspenseful, tense and kept my interest in the story high and that helped push this book to a 4-star rating.

What I didn’t like about the story was Lucas' soon to be ex-wife Connie’s character, she’s slightly unhinged and borderline abusive towards their child and it’s never adequately addressed by either Lucas or Marcy, in fact, I don’t recall there being any interaction in this story at all between Lucas and his child.

The production of Sharon Hamilton's audiobooks are always high-quality and J.D. Hart does an awesome job narrating, he really brings character and emotion to the story and his delivery is engaging in this 8-hour audiobook.


View all my reviews

Review: Meet Me in the Dark

Meet Me in the Dark by J.A. Huss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On the cover of this book, it says a dark suspense, and that's what it is and it's not an understatement! The story centers around Sydney and Merc, they first meet up when Sydney is seventeen, begging Merc to save her from bad guy boyfriend Garrett, but Merc is no hero and after roughing her up, he serves her up to Garrett on a silver platter, but he leaves an ominous message with her that he will be back, when she least expects it to finish her off.

Several years later, engaged to be married to a man named Brett, happiness is within her reach, but a feeling of dread overcomes her and she decides to run, unfortunately for her right into Merc’s clutches. Kidnapping her, Merc sets about breaking down Sydney and attempting to extract information from her about Garrett, who disappeared from her life without a trace years ago.

This book is a difficult listen and if you have triggers you’ll want to stay far away from this book, it’s a terrifying tale and there’s extreme violence, degradation, dubious consent, and explicit sexual content, this is more of a thriller/suspense novel but it does have romantic elements and an HEA, but you feel like you’ve been through war to get there!

The dual narration by Troy Duran and Anna Riordan was flawless, what they do really is acting and they both did a wonderful job. The audio production quality was first class and I look forward to listening to more from these narrators!


View all my reviews

Review: Outbreak

Outbreak by Timothy W. Long
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Buckle up because there's no slowing down with this story! Navy machinist Jackson Creed has been floating through his Navy career doing the bare minimum, that comes to an abrupt end when a virus quickly overtakes the crew onboard the USS McClusky. Jackson has the good fortune to run across Marine Sergeant Joel Kelly and together they manage to make it off the ship only to discover San Diego hasn't been spared the outbreak either.

Their only mission is to find supplies and stay alive, and try to make it north, they meet many characters good and bad along the way, this book has it all humor, heartbreak, suspense, in other words, it's perfect!

Todd Menesses narrates and I'm still in awe of his ability to voice so many different characters. He definitely has a part in making this a 5-star read!



View all my reviews

Review: Cara's Twelve

Cara's Twelve by Chantel Seabrook
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cara is destined to be queen if she can survive! Lucky for her she has 12 champions who have sworn allegiance to her, but not all of those sworn to protect, have her best interest at heart. This is a medieval fantasy if you're expecting a romance forget it! I didn't find Cara a sympathetic character at all, while she rightfully expects fealty from her champions, she's pretty free with her own fidelity, bedding whomever she chooses and sometimes out of spite!

Cara flits mainly between Finn, the all-around good guy who is completely devoted to her and Tahdaon, the moody, angry warrior who reluctantly pledges to protect the very reign that has destroyed his family.

Admirably, Cara goes out of the way to aid and protect the men, who are sworn to protect her, but a few sharp words spoken in the aftermath of battle and she falls apart.

Beware! There are violence and blood galore, but the writing is very good. What takes this audiobook over the top, in my opinion, is the narration by Anne Flosnik, there are so many characters to keep straight in this epic story and you never lose track of who is speaking, all because of the subtle nuances in the tone that Anne employs.

Yes, I recommend this story, flawed characters and all, just don't expect to feel warm and fuzzy when it's all said and done!

You can buy the audiobook here: http://amzn.to/2dv7tnj

Buy the book here: http://amzn.to/2cxEyN2

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookDigest/ 

Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/audioaudits

Instagram: https://instagram.com/AudioAudits

Tumblr: https://AudioAudit.tumblr.com

View all my reviews

Review: The Nightmare Pearl

The Nightmare Pearl by G. Lippert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that defies categorizing, it's part mystery, part ghost story but above all it's a love story. It's two stories told several years apart and intersects at the end.

Adolescent boy David befriends Becca a black girl living in an abandoned culvert in the early seventies, even though she's aloof they almost immediately form a close bond to one another.

Meanwhile in future Sheila an aspiring writer loses her literary agent husband in the collapse of the twin towers during the 2001 terrorist attacks, and she cannot accept the fact that her husband has perished.

How these two stories are told is done so beautifully and with such tenderness. You can't help but be touched by the conclusion.

The only weak part of this book is in the narration, Steve White does an awesome job and I could listen to him read any book! He's just that good. But the production quality of the portion read by Kimberly Meciti is poor and it jarring, especially after the smooth delivery by Steve. Kimberly is a decent narrator, it's just the production that's bad.

Overall though the book still rates 4 stars.


View all my reviews

Jurassic Dead

Jurassic Dead

By David Sakmyster & Rick Chesler

Narrated by Andrew Tell

Just when you thought you've heard every conceivable zombie story, along comes Jurassic Dead! This book puts the pedal to the metal from the start and never ever lets up!

Environmental activist Alex Ramirez the bane of his paleontologist father Marcus Ramirez's existence follows unsuspecting dad to the Antarctic determined to save rare organisms. Alas, some organisms were meant to die out and when you awaken them from a 65 million year slumber... Well to say all hell breaks loose is an understatement!

You have it all in this book, zealous researchers, a soulless corporate big wig and an undercover CIA agent, and then add in zombies! Okay now you have utter chaos, but no-o-o authors David Sakmyster and Rick Chesler aren't satisfied with that, they have to toss in dinosaurs, but regular dinosaurs are so last season, lets make them zombie dinosaurs! Chaos shake hands with pandemonium!

When Alex meets research facility doctor Veronica Winters he immediately senses she’s hiding something and it becomes glaring obvious she’s no doctor, rather she’s an undercover CIA agent and to be honest she’s pretty green at that too!

Teaming up with Veronica, Alex becomes a somewhat reluctant hero and honestly, it’s a toss up if anyone makes it out of this FUBAR situation alive! This whirlwind of a book is a gory, bloody, adrenaline fueled fun ride.

I'm half afraid to download book 2 in the series, where can you go after the first book? I don't know, but looking at the cover I’m assuming some of these creatures make it off the island, yeah I'm a glutton for punishment so download it I shall!

This is the first narration I've listened to by Andrew Tell but I doubt it will be my last! I thought he did an outstanding job.

If you’re looking for something different this is it.

You can buy the audio-book here: http://amzn.to/2d6wzZl

Buy the book here: http://amzn.to/2cgW8K5

Like Me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookDigest/

Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/audioaudits

Instagram: https://instagram.com/AudioAudits

Tumblr: https://AudioAudit.tumblr.com

Review: The Borrowed World

The Borrowed World by Franklin Horton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've tried to analyze myself, why a girly girl like me loves apocalyptic novels. Alas, I have no answers, but with my voracious appetite for dystopian type stories, this book really hits the spot!

Jim Powell, devoted husband, father and doomsday prepper, gets caught out far from home, when a coordinated terrorist attack takes out vital parts of the US infrastructure in one felled swoop.

Trying to make his way back home from a business trip, he and his co-workers witness the frighteningly quick descent from civility to lawlessness as the government, in an attempt maintain control cuts off the supply of gas, leaving many people stranded. On a side note, if you have to go to the bathroom during the apocalypse, skip the gas station and pee on the go! Trust me you'll thank me.

Law enforcement tries to convince every one to head toward the FEMA camps, but who in their right mind would want go there! Certainly not Jim, he saw what happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and he's no fool.

Meanwhile back on the farm, (literally) Jim's wife and children are fighting a battle every bit as dangerous as the one Jim is fighting.

Warning this book has a cliffhanger, but the story is so engaging I didn't mind and I look forward to the next installment!

Now, can I just say that whenever I see Kevin Pierce is narrating, I know that my chances of enjoying an apocalyptic story go up significantly. His tone and delivery suit this genre so well and any post-apocalyptic author is very lucky to get him!

You can buy the audio-book here: http://amzn.to/2d7DNvW
Buy the book here: http://amzn.to/2cmvkGQ
Like Me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookDigest/
Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/audioaudits
Instagram: https://instagram.com/AudioAudits

Tumblr: https://AudioAudit.tumblr.com



View all my reviews

Review: Locker Nine

Locker Nine by Franklin Horton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ah... how nice to finally have a story about a competent woman!

College freshman Grace Hardwick has been taught from a young child how to fend for herself by her prepper dad, and after a large scale terrorist attack destroys the US infrastructure, everything she's learned from dear ole dad will be put to the test. Each decision she makes can mean the difference between life and death as she and her best friend leave the college campus and try desperately to make it home. Luckily her father has made plans for the inconceivable and stockpiled supplies and weapons off campus, where? you guessed it, locker #9.

On a different arc to this story, life long gamer, druggie and slacker Ray and his friends are heading back home after a road trip, when to their chagrin they get wind of the attacks as they are making their way back home. The ensuing stress causes Ray behavior to become increasingly erratic and when he finally snaps, the monster he becomes is horrifying!

If there's any criticism it's that I could have done without the political pandering at the beginning. It truly added nothing to the story and could have been left out.

The narration by Kevin Pierce was stellar as usual, he rarely makes a misstep!

I listened to the audiobook version of this book. Overall if you're a post apocalyptic junkie like me you'll love this audiobook too.

This audiobook was given to me at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review, thanks Audiobook Boom.

You can buy the audiobook here: http://amzn.to/2czC0kA

Buy the book here: http://amzn.to/2cTdmeu

Like Me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookDigest

Follow on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/audioaudits

View all my reviews

Dinosaur Four By Geoff Jones

DINOSAUR FOUR

Written By: Geoff Jones

Narrated By: Nick Podehl

Ah I love good romantic time travel story.

This ain’t it!

This audiobook starts off with a bang and never lets up! Struggling Denver coffee shop owner, Lisa, hears this strange ticking noise, what the hell is that?? In short order she along with the nine other people in the coffee shop are sent back in time, how far back? You guessed it to prehistoric times. This novel has a diverse group of characters including William, the UPS driver and all around good guy.  Tim, who simply wanted to meet his girlfriend for a morning cup of joe. Patricia, the obnoxious, know it all  corporate big wig. Al, your smarmy Lothario who’s jonesing (no pun intended Geoff)  

after our coffee shop owner, Lisa and will literally stop at nothing to get the girl. After all nothing says loving like being chased by a T-Rex with a really big teeth! And we can’t forget Helen, the feisty grandma who has a couple of handy dandy survival skills up her sleeve.

It’s clear as these time travelers look out beyond the coffee shop and see a vast tropical landscape, that they’re not in Kansas anymore, um... er... I mean Denver. Chaos soon follows as our beleaguered group tries to figure out what the hell happened. You have your prerequisite idiot who thinks they’re the dinosaur whisperer only to find out that, to a dinosaur, a human is like a big scary ugly spider and, well... we all knows what happens to them!

Be warned there are a lot of violent, gruesome deaths throughout this book, and dammit if only the annoying people got their comeuppance that would be fine with me, but why, oh why do the good have to die too? People that totally do not deserve the spectacularly hideous way they went out, that made me grumpy! I mean I totally blame Game of Thrones for starting this good guy gets the shaft crap, is no one safe anymore! OK I’ll step off my soap box now.  I guess you can tell I took some scenes very personally!

The suspense factor in this book is high, and I had to put this audiobook on pause a couple of times just to compose myself after some particularly nerve wrecking parts.

It’s no spoiler to tell you that only four make it back, ergo the name of this book. But the unique way they get there and back home is pure genius and I enjoyed every minute of this thrill seeking ride.

The narration by Nick Podehl is top notch and I’m hoping that more of Geoff’s books make it to audio format.

On the Elsie Meter Rating Scale I give this book 8 out of 10!

You can buy the audio-book here: http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/The-Dinosaur-Four-Audiobook/B018Y2C4Q8

Buy the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Dinosaur-Four-Geoff-Jones-ebook/dp/B00KK1SU9W

Like Me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookDigest/
Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/audioaudits
Instagram: https://instagram.com/AudioAudits
Tumblr: https://AudioAudit.tumblr.com