Audiobook catch up

I haven't had as much time to read audiobooks over the last couple of years, especially since I moved to NY last year.  Here are some I've read though in reverse chronological order...

Currently listening to :
  Nora Roberts : Whisky Beach
    Not my favorite, story or narrator but I need to finish it after investing so much time!

Nora Roberts : Black Hills
   I found this one pretty interesting, I liked the characters and the story.

Nora Roberts : The Wintess
   I really enjoyed this one!

Nora Roberts : Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy
 - Dark Witch
 - Shadow Spell
 - Blood Magick

I love Nora Robert's trilogies!  Set in ireland, using witchcraft - this was a favorite for sure!

Nora Roberts : Chesapeake Bay Saga
 - Sea Swept
 - Rising Tides
 - Inner Harbor
 - Chesapeake Blue

An interesting series of men who were adopted as young boys with troubled pasts.  I enjoyed the characters in these quite a bit.

Nora Roberts : Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy
 - The Next Always
 - The Last Boyfriend
 - The Perfect Hope

Set in a small town, a little mystery, 3 brothers and some fun romance.

Nora Roberts : Three Sisters Trilogy
 - Dance Upon the Air
 - Face the Fire
 - Heaven and Earth

This is one of the witchy trilogies so of course I loved it!

Diana Gabaldon
 - Outlander
 - Dragonfly in Amber
 - Voyager
 - Drums of Autumn

I loved the outlander series, I stopped after the 4th though, these are a real time commitment and I won't pick up more unless I start listening to books more often.

CE Murphy : Walker Papers
 - Mountain Echos book 8

Joanne has to face up to her past and the son she gave up - very interesting read!

Charlotte Featherstone
 - Pride & Passion
 - Temptation & Twilight
 - Seduction & Scandal
I don't remember these but gave them only 3 stars on audible so not my favorite.

Susanna Kearsley : The Winter Sea
I don't remember this one but it was historical, about the Jacobite rebellion and I gave it 5 stars, it was the second I read by this author and I really enjoyed it!

Audiobook catchup

I have been working from home a lot more so not as much to catch up on audiobook world but I have a few...

Raven Calls (Walker Papers book 7) by C.E. Murphy.
  This is the latest and follows the werewolf book, takes place in Ireland and I loved it.  I really love this series, it has so much to it and Joanne learns so much throughout. I've really enjoyed following along!

The Kingdom (book 2) and The Prophet (book 3) by Amanda Stevens
  I really really like this series.  In these books the main character starts to realize she must do something with her talent to see ghosts.  It's a darker type of book and the romance (if you can call it that) is not the focus.  The mystery and character building is definitely more the focus.

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsly.
  Wow - this book was great.  One of those stories where the main character travels back in time and falls in love.  Loved everything about it and look forward to reading more by this author (although this is not a series).

Born in Fire (book 1) by Nora Roberts
  Set in Ireland, I enjoyed the romance but haven't gotten pulled into reading the rest of the trilogy yet.

How to Seduce a Scoundrel (book 2) by Vicky Dreiling
  Sooo slowwww.  Enjoyable but the reader reads very slow and as before, Vicky Dreiling isn't my favorite author of period romances.  They are just a bit to strange/quirky for me.  All well, it passed the time.

Currently i'm listening to the Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks.  A little slow but I'm giving it a try.  I need to pause my audible membership I think, I have a ton of books to listen to and 9 credits sitting around waiting to be used!

Bossypants

by Tina Fey

My husband and I started this one back on July 4th weekend when we had a long car trip.  I finished it up last week and loved it.  It's very Tina Fey'ish and I laughed out loud multiple times.  I definitely recommend this as an audiobook because Tina Fey reads it herself and adds a bit to it.  It was delightful and passed the time quickly!

The Restorer (Graveyard Queen book 1)

by Amanda Stevens.

I really enjoyed this new series.  It's about Amelia, she can see ghosts but has a set of rules her father instilled in her - 1) do not acknowledge ghosts 2) do not get involved with those that are haunted etc.

She restores graveyards for a living and stumbles into a murder mystery with a handsome detective who is haunted by 2 ghosts.  Breaking her father's rules but trying to keep sane she helps to solve the mystery now that she has been sucked in full force.

I really enjoyed this one, it was a bit odd in parts.  Sometimes it felt like the author just jumped right into certain things without enough lead in so it felt forced and jumpy in places but all in all it was a great mystery and I look forward to more in the series.

Hounded (Druid book 1)

by Kevin Hearne.

This was an interesting new series.  It follows a 2100 year old Druid (the last) during modern times as he interacts with gods/goddesses, elementals, witches, vampires etc.  It's an action packed book with some great characters and was a fun read with a few laugh out loud moments.  I haven't gotten into the rest of the series yet but might come back to this at some point.  I have a lot of reading/catching up to do audio book wise for now.

Devil's Bride

by Stephanie Laurens.

I read this one a while back, it took a while because i wasn't commuting during my maternity leave.  I'm not sure how this one originally caught my eye, it was a new author but a historical romance.  I enjoyed it and thought the character development was good.  Honoria was a very strong female character as well which I liked a lot.

What Happens in London

by Julia Quinn.

I believe this is the 2rd in the Bevelstoke series, I only know of one other actual Bevelstoke book though, the   'third' is Sebastian's book - I guess since he's a cousin it counts.  Anyhow it's the last for me to read but it was a fun read.  It took me FOREVER to read this since I was listening to it and on maternity leave (which means I wasn't listening to it).  So I can't really say much about it, it was easy to pick up after a long period of time :)

The Secret Diary of Miss Miranda Cheever (Bevelstoke book 1)

by Julia Quinn.

Trying out another new author (although i've read one of hers previously -- 10 thinks I love about you).

This one is part of a trilogy that follows the Bevelstoke family (2 brothers and a sister). The eldest brother Turner has been widowed by a horrible woman and declares he will never marry again but he is attracted to Miss Miranda Cheever, a dear and close friend of his younger sister's. Miranda has been in love with Turner since she was 10 and he walked her home the day they met.

First - the reader was a bit strange (and slow) but not horrible. In general this was very good. I kind of wish the main character had done more with writing/diary entries, but she literally just wrote down what she ate/did that day - didn't become a writer or anything.

All in all a good one and I look forward to Olivia's story which is next. I guess the third one doesn't follow the other brother though, so I wonder what happens to him in Olivia's story. I already read 10 things I love about you - dont' know how it ties with the Bevelstoke's though.

How to Marry a Duke ( how to book 1)

by Vicky Dreiling.

This is a new historical romance author and this is the first in a series it seems. This one follows a Duke (Tristan) who needs to marry (to beget an heir) and a self proclaimed match maker (Tessa). Tessa and Tristan meet at a ball and the Duke later asks Tessa to become his matchmaker. She decides to do a little match making a' la The Bachelor and invites 24 young women (much to the Duke's horror) to her place to meet the Duke and find out about the 'competition'.

Of course throughout Tristan and Tessa fall in love (although he doesn't want to marry for love and she won't marry without love of course). I found the book interesting, I liked the characters a lot. The competition part was okay, didn't really add much to the story like I was hoping (some humor maybe?), but in general I enjoyed the book and always looked forward to listening to it. It was kind of an easy historical romance with the 'will they/won't they' get together element of course.

Blood Born (Vampire book 1)

by Linda Howard and Linda Winstead Jones.

This is the start of a new series, so far only the first book is out. I have mixed feelings on this one, now that it's finished I can say I REALLY liked it a lot and I can't wait for a second! However the first half was very slow with a lot of new stuff to 'learn'. I wasn't sure at the time if I was going to like it or not.

Another problem was that the first few chapters were from the perspective of different characters - who then died in that chapter. So it took a while to get to the main characters (there was a reason for all of that but it was confusing at first).

This is yet another Vampire story with a few small twists and some interesting concepts. In the end I really loved the characters and the story and the second half was quite gripping.

Sing You Home

by Jodi Piccoult.

What a horrible book to read when you're pregnant, at least the beginning. I don't want to give much away but the beginning is HARD to read. The basic premise of the book deals with infertility, and then later religion and alternative lifestyles (lesbian).

Honestly, parts of the book were hard to listen to, I think the author did an amazing job being as objective as she could but it's hard for me to listen to someone's point of view that is so closed minded. The religious parts were not bad, it's the hatred that underlies it that were hard for me to stomach.

In general though the book was great as usual and while I think the ending was kind of 'convenient', it was heart warming. While not a surprise, the characters acted more quickly than i would have thought based on the rest of the book so it didn't seem too realistic to me.

All in all I'm very glad I read it, even with the beginning being hard to get through. I really liked the song tracks at the start of each chapter and the very first song is SO touching as it's sung to her unborn child and brings tears to my eyes whenever I listen to it now!

Death Angel

by Linda Howard.

Parts of this one actually made Prey sound enjoyable. Again - the female character was annoying and constantly repeated herself. The story again was very interesting but parts were drawn out and at the end I wanted to just stop listening.

This one follows an assassin and a woman who rips off his employer (she was his girlfriend). She changes her identity and goes into hiding and the assassin is hired to find and kill her. She actually dies at one point (very strange) and as I said, the story itself is actually quite interesting but could have been done better with less chatter from the main female character.

Unfortunately can't really recommend this one either :(

Prey

by Linda Howard.

What a strange book - not one of my favorites of Linda Howard's. Parts of it were from a Bear's point of view which was very strange but the bad part was that so much of the dialog inside Angie's head was annoying and repeated constantly. It was very slow moving and while the overall story was interesting it was dragged out in many places. Even as an audiobook I was bored most of the time. I finally sped up the reader (love that feature on android) and that made it easier to get through the end.

Not sure I could really recommend this one although parts of it I was really glad to have read.

Ashes of Midnight (Midnight Breed book 6)

by Lara Adrian.

The 6th in the series follows Adreas Richen who the order thought dead in the last book but now we find out what really happened to him and his amazing pyrokinetic power. His long lost love Claire is blood bonded with his enemy Vilhem Roth and it's a twisty turvy story line that brings them together. Then we find out Roth is embroiled in the larger plot with Dragos and the order gets involved as well.

About halfway through I decided I was still loving the series so went ahead and bought the next 2 (7 and 8) which are about Kade and Brock, newer vampires to the order that we don't know much about. Looking forward to more detail on their histories.

Now that I'm working from home twice a week I'm definitely noticing that it takes longer to get through an audiobook than before! Might have to listen a bit at home to read all the books I have piled :)

Veil of Midnight (Midnight Breed book 5)

by Lara Adrian.

The 5th in the series and still a great series, this one follows Nikoli on a mission up to Montreal where he meets Renada who so far is the strongest/deadliest breedmate we've bet.  But she's in a tight spot and neither of them are up for trusting others so working together is difficult.  A few hitches here and there but otherwise they are a strong couple and the book was enjoyable, really moved the plot forward and made it clear where future books could go to finally resolve this overarching storyline.

Looking forward to the next one and I have a few new Linda Howards to read as well!

Spirit Dances (Walker Paper book 6)

by C.E. Murphy.

Ahhh.. a new urban shaman book finally!  And this one is much better than recent ones.  Finally some 'interactions' between Joanne and Morrison!  And she's got a much better grasp of magic, although that doesn't stop things from happening that throw her for a loop so she's out of control again.  She's learning about shape shifting (that seems to be the main theme of this book) and she's learning to ask for help occasionally.  Really growing as a person and it was enjoyable to follow along!

Shades of Twilight

by Linda Howard.

After enjoying her first book I decided to find some more, this one is also a southern romance with some mystery mixed in.  We follow the characters from youth through adulthood (jumping through years pretty quickly).  We get a great understanding about what drives the characters and their relationship to each other.

Roanna and Webb are cousins (second cousins which is okay i guess) and when Roanna loses her parents at age 7, Webb is the one constant in her life when she goes to live with her grandmother (where Webb also lives).  Webb is destined to be the heir (it's a very rich and influential family) and destined to marry Roanna's first cousin Jesse who is older than Roanna.
Jump a number of years and Jesse and Webb are married but unhappily so.  Jesse tortures Roanna when she can and Roanna is a tortured soul in general at 17.  Finally after circumstances leave the family torn apart we jump ahead another 10 years I think.

Now there's some mysteries to solve and a relationship between Webb and Roanna that has deteriorated and needs to be built back up.  A very twisty but interesting plot that kept me sucked in.  I really enjoyed this one too!

Midnight Rising (Midnight Breed book 4)

by Lara Adrian.

I couldn't stay away too long!  Back to the Midnight Breed series and we're following Rio (whom had a tragic loss in book 1 and has had a rough time recovering) and Dylan, a reporter who stumbles upon Rio.  This one was good, not as good as the other three, maybe because Dylan had to be abducted and wasn't trusted with the information up front because she was a reporter.  It made for a sketchy start to the book.  However it did get better and the overarching plotline that we've been trying to figure out really became much clearer in this book.  We know what's going on finally but no idea how they'll 'stop' it.

After the Night

by Linda Howard.

A new author to try, she writes southern romances with mysteries mixed in.  Her style seems to be that she follows the characters from a young age, highlighting important points in their lives and moving forward pretty quickly to the 'current' time but giving us a glimpse of what is really behind these characters. 

I found this book very intriguing and had trouble putting it down a few times.  Gray is from an uppercrust family and his father is promiscuous to say the least.  One of the women tied to Gray's father is Faith's mother.  Meanwhile Faith has a serious crush on Gray, idolizing him.  But she's a Devlin and Devlin's are 'garbage' from everyone's point of view.  No one cares that Faith isn't like the rest. 
Jump forward a few years, all of a sudden Gray's father and Faith's mother disappear the same night and their worlds get turned up side down.  The Devlin's get kicked out of town by Gray and Faith will never forget how he looked at her and what he said to her (she's trash).
Jump forward many years and Faith has built a life for herself and has decided she wants to solve the mystery so she goes back to town.  Gray tries to drive her away but she's stronger now and won't back down.  There's a lot of mystery in this one and it really moves along quickly with a few twists and turns.  Again a page turner and had me looking for more by Linda Howard for sure!

Midnight Awakening (Midnight Breed book 3)

by Lara Adrian.

Book 3 follows Tegan, and that's great because you're really wondering about him at this point. He's a tough guy to like from the outside but we get to see inside in this book and a new dimension is added.  Elise also has a past and the story is intriguing that brings them together.  The overall plot line/mystery really makes a lot of progress in this one as we get closer to the unknown evil and make a few resolutions in this one.