As stated in the update, the move has happened and but the hard part of putting everything where they are supposed to have just started. It is equally frustrating. Extended by the days I am not home.
But this is not the purpose of this post. Wednesdays were for reviews, despite my reading or listening to audiobooks. I haven’t been able to write any reviews. I apologize because, in previously written posts, I imply that reviews will be coming very soon. But real life inserts itself in my plans and some things are abandoned. My only escape was urban fantasy and contemporary romance.
The upside is that I will not give up on this endeavor. To keep in line with what I planned. I can briefly talk about the books I have read in the last three weeks. I am doing this without notes, so it won’t have all the information and there won’t be a lot of detail. I have mentioned before that I have been listening to and reading the Ordinary Magic series by Devon Monk. The story is about the quaint “normal” Northwest town of Ordinary Oregon, policed by Delaney Reed and her sister Myra and Jean. The Reeds are special, they maintain the peace between vacationing gods, supernatural creatures of every kind and oblivious humans, and few that know. The series is quirky, funny, and thrilling at times. All nine books were narrated by Khristine Hvam. However, many authors have been persuaded to make their stories graphic audiobooks. Instead of listening to one person use their voice for various characters, there is a cast of characters, and the story is narrated like a radio play. I started to listen to the series when the one narrator was available. I bought a book every other week. Audible is owned by Amazon. If you buy the book on Kindle for the price you get a somewhat discount on the audible book. I was able to get the first 3 audiobooks in the series, Death and Relaxation, Devil and Details, and Gods and Ends for less than $10 on audio, it equals out because I spent about $15.00 for all three Kindle books. For about two weeks, the recordings done by Kristine Hvam and the graphic audio were up side by side. The original audiobook was longer and on sale, the graphic audio implied that it might be abridged it was a no-brainer that one would be bought. Kristine Hvam is a great narrator. I have been listening to her for years. She is a veteran up, on the pedestal with Robin Miles and Renee Raudman. There were purchased every other week, then the recordings by Kristine Hvam were pulled. I could not find them anywhere. The graphic audios are also sold on Spotify. I was slightly annoyed since it was messing with my set. It also kind of worked out in a way. The first three books were narrated by Khristine Hvam, reading in the first person point of view of Delaney, the Chief of Police in Ordinary. The fourth book was an anthology, Rock Paper, Scissors. Each story was told by a sister, Jean, Delaney, and Myra. The fifth book, Dime a Demon, was narrated by Myra Reed.
My thoughts on the graphic audio version vs the single narrator need to be developed more before I say what I’m going to about it. There are pros and cons.
I was trying to not burn out on the series, so between each book, I listened to or read something else. Most of my readings were manhwas on the Tapas app. I would blast through a couple of newly released romance manhwas just to get the ink promised. Two of the series I like are on hiatus.
I also started to listen to A Blade So Black by L. L. McKinney. It is an interesting story. But it is also a YA story and I have to listen in doses. I have written about my issue with Young Adult books before.
I am waiting for Rogue Familiar and Beastly Kingdom to bring out their audiobooks. It may not happen, and I find that annoying. I am sure some fans are pestering the authors. But there might not be enough of us wanting an audiobook for the publisher or independent author to make one. I have faith that one or both will come eventually, I was able to listen to Fused by Lindsay Buroker and now waiting to see when Wanted the 7th book in the Legacy of Magic will be recorded. It may come out a few weeks before the next book in the series is released.
And finally, after waiting a year, Piper Rayne has put out The Problem with Second Chances: Lake Starlight Book 1. This is the Bailey Family series second generation, some of the children born in the first series are all grown up. The Problem with Second Chances is the much anticipated, heavily hinted romance between Calista Bailey and Rylan Greene. This book came out earlier this year, I don’t know how I missed it. However, this kind of works out book 2 will be available in a week. I won’t gush about it until book three comes out. Piper Rayne markets their romance series in 3’s. I don’t know the correct term, but they space them two months apart and insert short catch-up stories. They are also fun to read or listen to.
I didn’t expect to type so much. But those were my reads/listens. I did enjoy some craft books on writing and that is the topic of next week’s post. I hope you all are doing well.
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JC Henry Universe 