Donnie

Beautifully done! And... it has chapter titles!

Reviewed: 09-28-22

This has got to be one of the most beautifully recorded audio Bibles every produced! Kristyn Getty has a beautiful voice for this. I've usually always preferred hearing the Bible read with a male voice, but this is very well done.

And... it's usable! There is a HUGE table of contents and you can select individual chapters to listen to. I was a little fearful that it might only be broken down by book. Nope. Chapters. It is a lot to scroll through, though!

I primarily listen to this while going to sleep. I'll open up a book of the Bible, set the sleep timer for 30 minutes. Very relaxing.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

Loved it

Reviewed: 09-02-22 Listener received this title free

Another exciting story by Ian Gordon. Well worth the listen. I wouldn't mind more like this.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

I couldn't finish it. It had potential.

Reviewed: 07-11-22

(Spoilers below)

I really wanted to like this. It was supposed to check all my boxes... gothic, mystery, monsters...

The narrator does a good job. She really fits the part.

But there were so many things that overall made this hard to enjoy. I haven't finished the book yet. I'm half way through and I don't know if I can finish it. I've tried several times and the more I listen the worse it gets! (Update... I gave up - it's really awful!)

Firstly, the author kept putting his political views into it. Over and over. That was annoying.

Secondly (and probably the biggest problem) was all the flashbacks and flash forwards of the main character. It made the story hard to follow. It also kind of ruined some of the mystery. Example: (minor spoiler) when the narrator meets someone and you, the listener aren't sure where this person is going to fall - friend, enemy, ???, and in the next paragraph says "I later learned that was just her way of..." And so then you know that this person isn't just a minor character and they are also going to be friends with the main character.

Even more so is that sometimes these LENGTHY flashbacks come in the middle of an "action scene". Like ???? And sometimes it seems even these flashbacks (or sometimes flash forwards) have flash backs in them.

Thirdly was that some of the actions of the main character and others were just very unrealistic. The main character goes into someone else house (without them being home and without permission) with just a little curiosity. ?? There needed to have been a better reason. Then, the occupant ends up knowing it was her, and goes over to her house and politely asks for something that she may have took (or that "hopped a ride" with her) back, not seemingly upset at all that she was in his house. ??

And just as oddly, the main character goes into a rough part of town to use the library. Turns out the library is actually just an old Fedex truck loaded with books (nothing keeping them in as they fall all over every time the library is on the move), and the narrator just hops in the truck. The mobile library takes off because it's got to get the other patron to a dr appointment - and it's no big deal - "can you just make sure I get back here in time to get my truck to pick up my kid from school?" Really? Who does that?

Even more oddly, the main character and the librarian become fast friends - and wouldn't you know it, the mobile library's specialty is witches, just what the narrator was looking for.

Now you get some clearly dropped hints that the main character fled from an abusive relationship, and she is constantly worried that her ex is going to find her. So... she moves in with her elderly father who apparently really likes the guy. Like... did she think her ex wouldn't know where her father lived? It's also said he works with a governmental agency... so he could just look that up if he wanted. But anyway, she "borrowed" her father's truck to go to the library, left it there while the library takes them to the other guy's dr appointment, and turns out her ex happened to be driving by and saw the truck there and he was able to get keys for it and moved it... she finds it, and just willingly gets in the truck with him? The guy she said was a monster? She just hops right in with him?? Who does this? She manages to escape by throwing salt in his eyes, to which he screams that he's going to hurt her. And what does she do? She just returns back home and tells no one anything.

I really wanted to like this. And it didn't have that bad of a start. But on and on, the main character is unlikeable, her actions aren't that which a "normal" person would do, There's too many flashbacks - it's hard sometimes to remember where you were after the flashback is done - they are sometimes 5 or 10 minutes long.

Update:
I finally gave up on this book... so after escaping from her abusive ex she runs to the spooky house of the "monster" and he just regurgitates a human finger at her, and it's like, no big deal? And then you have to rewind the audio a few times because you keep thinking you missed something but the next scene is her, sitting in the chapel with the "monster" while he plays old monster films from decades ago, and she sits and watches telling him to keep bringing on the gore. There's like 5 or 10 minutes of that before it flashes backwards to try and explain how it got to that point. Made no sense. This book is very poorly written.

Also, let me just say... why in the world couldn't the author just have written the name of the guy just once? From the very beginning he was W. D. - simply because his full name was difficult for the main character to pronounce. Maybe it's revealed in the last 3rd of the book.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

Excellent historyof the Byzantine Empire!

Reviewed: 03-23-22

I absolutely loved this book!

The narration is perfect! I was actually a tad disappointed that the author didn't narrate his other books. He's very easy to listen to.

The writing is excellent. It's a fascinating history.

I listened to many chapters twice - there's a lot of information. I actually ended up purchasing the physical book as well simply to help me with the names - there's a lot of unfamiliar names and it's easy to mix them up without having something to look at (unavoidable with an audiobook).

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

One of my top 10 books I've ever listened to!

Reviewed: 02-26-22

This book was AMAZING!

I found this book after listening to Micah's mother's book on how her family came out of Mormonism. This book is a part 2 of sorts to that book (I would highly advise listening/reading to her book first, and it will make this book so much more climactic!). Her book is Unveiling Grace: The Story of How We Found Our Way Out of the Mormon Church.

Micah's book is incredibly well-written. His testimony is powerful. You will find yourself cheering for Micah. The biggest take away... Micah came to realized that God loved him, more than he could ever understand, and that Jesus is enough.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Alright.. not my favorite in the series.

Reviewed: 02-26-22

Narration by Scott Brick - well done, as usual.

This is really part 2 - for the full story you should read the previous book in the series.

A couple things about this book that I didn't really like:

- Quinn's emotions. He's usually so rational and intelligent, and here he's acting like an idiot and a jerk. Sure, the person he loves is in the hospital, but he verbally berates the doctors into making the doctors give answers that right then they can only really give a good guess on... really? I think these parts were really overplayed.

- way too many spy agencies. You'd almost think that 50% of the population belongs to these spy agencies. It begins to make it unrealistic.

Some of the plot was pretty easy to figure out.

Not my favorite book in the series, but still not bad.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Another excellent story

Reviewed: 02-26-22

Narration was excellent. I expected no less, of course, from Scott Brick.

This was a very interesting story. Brett Battles is quite a story teller, and he'll hook you in by revealing small bits of the plot as you go along, just enough to keep you interested to see what happens next, and what's going on with this...

My one complaint was about Orlando's actions... she's insisting on going after the bad guys while literally in the process of giving birth, and getting upset when the others try to tell her it's not a good idea? She's upset because she feels not so useful. I would certainly hope that in real life any mother would feel giving birth to her baby is much more important than chasing down criminals. I know this is a work of fiction but that really bothered me for some reason.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Amazing insight into the Mormon Church

Reviewed: 02-26-22

Though I am a Bible-believing Christian, I really didn't know much about Mormonism. I became very interested a few weeks ago and came across this book. I devoured it.

The narration is excellent. I couldn't have picked a better narrator. If you have ever listened to anything by Rosario Butterfield, it sounds similar and the writing style is very similar as well.

This book gave me a huge insight into the workings of the Mormon Church and answered a lot of my questions (and made a lot more!!).

In this book, she talks about her son, Micah, who was the catalyst for her and her family coming out of Mormonism. What she said about him sounded so interesting and I found myself wishing I could hear his story. Turns out... you can!! He published his own book which detailed so much of this 2 year mission trip that ended up changing his life! His book is Passport to Heaven by Micah Wilder, also available on Audible. You really must listen to that after listening to this!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

No chapter titles!!!! This book requires them!

Reviewed: 01-31-22

Another otherwise good collection of stories ruined because they didn't put any chapter titles in. It's all chapter 1, 2, etc. So you can't just pick a story, you have click and listen for 10 seconds to see if that's the one you were looking for.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

Excellent collection of stories of the macabre!

Reviewed: 12-28-21 Listener received this title free

I really enjoyed this collection.

A few of my favorites:

1. The Dalston Vampire. Set in the 14th century Scottish Highlands. Very well done.

4. The High Harrington Horror. This one is extremely well done. It's one of those stories that after it's over, you wish there was more! A kid goes to visit a well-to-do friend who's family lives in a run down mansion.

7. Dubmill Point. Set on the shore of the NW Corner of England, a painter looking for scenes to paint ends up getting much more than they bargained for. A little eerie at the end.

8. Eachy of Bassenthwaite. This was fantastic! I wish it had been longer. The ending was not what I expected. Kind of like a cross between the Loch Ness Monster, and Lovecraft's Cthulhu. This would have made a very good X-Files episode.

9. Bella Sheep Head. Not really a ghost story, but certainly held my attention.

Tony Walker is an excellent narrator. I've listened to his podcast (The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast - available here on Amazon) where he narrates (and then discusses) many of the older ghost stories. He also makes a very good writer as well.

The reader should be aware that not all of the stories involve ghosts. There are vampires, cryptids, humanoids, serial killers and more. A wide variety.

Many (most?) of the stories are set in the modern day. I'll be honest, at first I wasn't too excited about that. Many modern stories tend to be filled with a lot of foul language, sex, and lots of gore to the point where the story is gross, rather than scary or creepy. That's not an issue here. Walker writes very well and in language worthy of a fine ghost story.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful