It’s been a while since I’ve had a review, but man, I love it when I get one, especially when it’s good. That means I get to share this five-star review for Caught from Cowan on Audible.
What a read!
Ho-ly Cow! What a great book to read. Intense with great twists. A wonderful and original take on the genre. Highly recommend!
It’s great because it’s five stars, and even though it’s short, it’s super kind.
If you’ve read any of my work, please consider leaving a rating and review on Amazon, Goodreads, Audible, or all three. They really do mean the world to me.
As always, I appreciate you all for supporting my silly dream. I’ll keep writing, and I will always thank you for reading.
I’m always happy to share reviews, so it’s with great joy that I present this four-star (sort of) review for Stealing Freedom. This was a review by Margaret for the Audible version of the story, so I have to copy-paste it below for you to access.
4/5 for narrators ability, 3/5 for having two
This is the first book I have read/listened to by this author. It is a very poignant, original book. It was written before 2020, but resonates now due to recent government and law enforcement actions. The book constantly reminded me of the recent excessive military responses to peaceful protesting and false, inconsistent and contradictory narratives provided to the public from governmental bodies. In this story, everyone over the age of seven must wear a collar that would punish people for speaking or publicly displaying emotions (hugging, smiling, negative facial expressions). Drones and cameras monitor everyone every moment of their day to ensure no one rests longer than allowed, spends more than allotted time in the bathroom, etc.. Everything was regulated. It was possible to purchase words, a cost that was prohibitive to most people to the point our main character purchased six words to say to her daughter and that is the first she had spoken to her in two years. Knowing this was no way for people to live and believing they had the ability to do something about it, the main character and a few other people attempt to shut down the servers that operate the collars. They do it at extreme risk to their lives. Their plan reminded me of the movies Ocean Eleven and Now You See Me. I really liked the ending part with the main monitor and his final moments.
This is the first book I have listened to by these narrators ( Lisa Negron, J.M. Needham ). They both do well narrating. She narrates the parts that have Laurie and Laurie’s conversations (even if it is with a male) and he narrates the parts from the perspectives of the male characters when they are not having a conversation but just re-counting their thoughts or actions. Since no one can speak, the narrative often switches perspectives many times within the same chapter. This meant the narrator switched many times throughout the chapter. Lisa did a fine job giving voice to both male and female characters and had very nice pacing and cadence. I think it was quite unnecessary to have a second narrator. I found it uncomfortable for the first half of the book until I got a little more used to it. The only reason it was not fully disruptive, was both narrators were good at what they were doing. There are no explicit sex scenes, excessive violence, or swearing. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review. Please feel free to comment on whether you found my review helpful.
As you can see, she would like feedback, so if you have the time and want to help a reviewer, please pop onto her link above and offer your thoughts. Just as I love feedback, some reviewers also seek and desire feedback.
I’m noticing a trend of reviewers be less happy about a team of narrators. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I love having a male for the male POVs and a female for the female POVs. What are your thoughts?
If you’ve read my work, please consider leaving a review on Amazon, Audible, Goodreads, or all three. It really means a lot.
This is a repost from when my blog was on a different website. I’m working to transition all of that blog over to here. This particular blog has a degree of priority for reasons you’ll understand in the future.
Cover provided for review purposes only under fair use doctrine
How it took me this long to listen to this book is a mystery. Redshirts by John Scalzi is sheer genius! First, it’s such a wonderful parody of a common science fiction series theme. It’s Galaxy Quest meets Stranger Than Fiction, only it’s funnier than both combined, and I LOVED both of those movies. So take a clever idea written by a hilarious author and add narration by none other than Wil Wheaton, and you have the recipe for a well-deserved Hugo winner.
I think the last two hours slow it down a bit. Had I not waited a few minutes before writing this review, I would have let that bring my opinion of it down a smidge, but what the last few hours did was close all the gaps, which is honestly something I get mad about other authors not doing. I’m pretty biased when it comes to the inspirational material, but that bias also makes me incredibly critical of those who screw it up. Here, Scalzi blends a perfect mix of comedy, drama, ridiculousness (oh so much ridiculousness), and heartwarming characters without being disrespectful of the source material. I understand a series adaptation is in the works, and I can’t wait to see it on TV. Heck, for the irony alone I’ll watch it.
Redshirts is an unashamed comedic salute to science fiction television and the characters we love to watch die in the most idiotic ways.
While surfing the internet, I found a very kind 3-star Review (She actually gave it 3.5 stars) for The Journals of Bob Drifter. There are a few reasons why this review is special.
First: Just read the review! She said some amazingly kind things, particularly about the ending. I took the most care in making sure the end of my book was satisfying. So every time someone mentions the ending in a good way is particularly rewarding in my eyes.
Second: This is a review for the auidobook. I found Jess through her blog The Audio Bookworm. I was thrilled to see someone dedicated to reviewing audiobooks, as I’m a HUGE fan of them. If you like audiobooks and want detailed, thoughtful reviews on a book before reading, see if she’s read it. You’ll thank me when you do.
If you’re an author, and you’ve written an audiobook, you should strongly consider sending your work to her because it’s hard enough to get reviews, getting an audiobook review is that much more difficult.
While surfing the internet, I found a very kind 
M.L.S. Weech 