Monday, May 18, 2015

Audiobook Review: Captivated by Nicole Edwards

Book: Captivated (Club Destiny #4.5) - Unabridged
By: Nicole Edwards
Narration: Mark Chesterfield and Lily Savage
Published: March 17, 2015
Published By: Blackstone Audio
Length: 4.1 hours

My Thoughts: Finally after hearing of the story between Lucie and Kane in the background of all the others, we get to read it for ourselves

The Story: Lucie lied to Kane, not telling him that he was the father of her daughter, or that anything even transpired between them. Now, she has finally told him the truth, and she's sure he wants nothing to do with her besides being in his daughter's life. Kane, on the other hand, has always liked Lucie, and despite being supremely pissed at her for keeping something like this from him, wants to make everything right, beginning with a family trip to Hawaii.

Narration: The Narration of this one was okay. Both characters did a good job of bringing the story to life. Lily's voice was slightly husky which brought a seductive edge to the story that I liked. Mark, too, did a good job.

Verdict: This is a novella, so it was short. In the past, Nicole filled her novellas with lots and lots of intimacy and sex but not much else. Thankfully, this one had more storyline, and I appreciated it. It was a good read. I think I will stop this series at this book. I'm just not interested enough in the characters in this or any of the other stories to care how they end up. I give it 3 stars.

Monday, May 11, 2015

Audiobook Review: Infatuation by Nicole Edwards

Book: Infatuation (Club Destiny #4) - Unabridged
By: Nicole Edwards
Narration: Florence Luptak and C. J. Mills
Published: March 17, 2015
Published By: Blackstone Audio
Length: 9.6 hours

My Thoughts: Nicole Edwards brings us deeper into the world of Club Destiny with this installment, showing us that though we think we know everything about it, we don't.

The Story: We met Tag Murphy a few books ago. He's the lawyer for Club Destiny and he was recently "hired" as the "third" in the relationship between Samantha and Logan. Unfortunately, because it doesn't constitute an actual relationship, he feels like something is missing from his life. Enter McKenna Thorne, the owner of an internet magazine that focuses on kink. She's about to do a story on Club Destiny, and Tag Murphy is just the guy to show her around. Unfortunately, old issues with the club have not yet disappeared, and new issues quickly arise bringing McKenna into the inner workings of the Club's inner circle. Soon, she must fight not just for a relationship with Tag, but also to save the Club, and to protect herself.

Narration: Florence was great at narrating this story. She seemed to really get into the scenes and portrayed them, and the various accents beautifully. C.J. on the other hand was okay. His narration of the hot and heavy scenes were decidedly un-hot, but his narration of the various accents was pretty great. Still, I find that due to the change in narration with each story, the various carryover character personalities become a bit skewed with each story. It's a bit unsettling, but I got over it.

Verdict: This story had a bit less heat than the other's, but it made up for that missing piece with more story, a fact I found refreshing. I also loved the inclusion of McKenna's posts. After a while of the excessive sex scenes, it's nice to see more story that has a bit more substance. This book was much better than the others. I give it 3.5 stars.

Monday, May 4, 2015

Audiobook Review: Seduction by Nicole Edwards

Book: Seduction (Club Destiny #3)
By: Nicole Edwards
Narrated by: Ava Erickson and Patrick Leigh
Published: February 24, 2015
Published by: Blackstone Audio - Unabridged
Length: 8.8 hours

**This audiobook was received from Audiobook jukebox in exchange for an honest review**

My Thoughts: First things first, the abs on that cover model are gorgeous.... *sigh*. Okay so we have another book from Nicole Edwards that I like so much better than all the others.

The Story: This book picks up right where Temptation left off, and overlaps a few events in Addicted. It follows Ashleigh, a friend of Samantha and Sierra from the previous books, and Alex, a friend of Logan, Luke, and Cole from the previous books. We saw him on the sidelines in the previous books, but never had much interaction with him. Now, he gets his own story.

Alex has been into Ashleigh for a long time, but as she is 12 years younger than him, he had stayed away for a while. Now though, they're both grown up, she's moved back to town, and he can't stay away. He has secrets though, ones that she may not like, and she has some as well, ones that may make him look differently at her if he knew. This story is so much better than all the others because there are more challenges to overcome, more storyline, and there's more buildup.

Narration: Ava Erickson and Patrick Leigh were the best narrators of this series so far. They seemed to get into the moods of the story, though I liked Patrick a bit more because Ava sounded a bit strange when she was trying to make the male voices. Still, the pacing was good, and I really liked them as narrators.

Verdict: I give this one 3.5 stars. I really liked that though it was definitely erotica, there was more to the story than just the sex, at least at the beginning, and all the side stories were actually needed for this storyline. I do believe the story itself was a bit too long. There was a point where practically all the challenges were overcome, but there was still a ton of story left, and it seemed the author couldn't help but give us more heated scenes. Then an issue came back around and it made the story seem a little unbalanced. Still, the story was good. I was thinking about stopping after the previous novella, but decided to give this one a chance. I liked this one more than all the others in the series, and it gave me more hope to continue the series.