Good book, terrible narration

I’m a big fan of the Kincaid series, so while I’m waiting for the next novel I thought I’d try Charish’s other series. The narration is weird - in a BAD way: strange articulation, wrong emphasis on words, sentences broken in the wrong place, destroying the meaning, dialogue read in the wrong voice, even mispronouncing main character names (Ryan constantly called ‘Rhine’). Some of the accents attempted are borderline offensive. Just a mess. If I had the time to switch to the written book, I’d have switched after the first chapter. However, I don’t, so I struggled through. I enjoyed the story, I don’t like this series as much as Kincaid, but it’s still fun if you can decipher the narration errors.

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Good book

Interesting start to finish - even though small things sorta ruined it a bit for me...
Such as the language: "XX said something in Russian" doesn't really have the same effect as writing what they said in actual Russian... Maybe that's just me.
Great story though, interesting characters and humour throughout. Will buy the rest to see where it leads.

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Very enjoyable.

I bought this title not really knowing what to expect, but I have to say I really enjoyed it. The story is quirky and funny, and the characters are well thought out. There were moments that had me rolling my eyes and the main characters use of the same saying over and over did get a bit annoying towards the end, but despite that it was still a very good listen. In fact I enjoyed it so much I have now bought the next in the series and very much look forward to listening to it.

The narrator has a pleasant voice and her accents aren't too bad. She is well spoken and her voice is very clear and easy to understand. I would happily listen to another book narrated by her.

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2 people found this helpful

Avoid this book. It is not "Indiana Jane".

This was a terrible, terrible book for many reasons:

1) The protagonist is called "Owl" rather than her birth name "Alix" (not Alex, everyone in this book has slightly quirky name spelling). The problem is no-one can call a person "Owl" seriously so half of the time whenever she is having a serious moment people call her Alix. The author must have realised that "Owl" is just too dumb to be used in a serious dialogue.

2) Alix is meant to be a badass, strong, independent, female protagonist yet she just isn't. In every dangerous situation she gets into she is a damsel in distress screaming for her tall, hunky, blond, ex-mercenary boyfriend to rescue her or sometimes her un-catlike cat. I tried to recall all of the dangerous situations but this list isn't full:

Vampire attack, rescued by cat then by bf; temple attack, rescued by bf; Hotel attack, rescued by bf; library attack, rescued by cat; museum attack, rescued by bf; second hotel attack, rescued by bf; first bad guy fight, rescued by bf; second bad guy fight, rescued by bf; third bad guy fight, rescued by cat but bf is badly wounded and when they go to escape she GIVES HIM A HEAVY BACKPACK because she "doesn't like carrying explosives", even though he's wounded. Throughtout almost all of the situations her thoughts weren't of how to escape/defeat her enemies but instead how to stall for time so she could be rescued.

3) Then there is the other problem that she is a complete pacifist who runs away from any problem and won't even kill mobs/npcs in the dungeon raiding WoW style video game she plays when all her other friends are pulling all nighters working for her benefit. There's no supernatural police so when someone captures her and horrifically tortures her cat before she is rescued she decides to... give them a sleeping drug and run away. Then when she is captured and they say they'll flay her skin off she is rescued and they are unconcious so she... runs away. Then when her nemesis is defeated and vulnerable she... runs away. Then, surprise, surprise the same villains come back again and again.

That was particularly painful. It was like reading James Bond from Blofeld's point of view where it's like "Should I shoot him now or bury him in a pipe in the desert and hope for the best?? Hmmm... definitely desert." It was just so fucking stupid. Even the hunky mercenary bf who white knights to her rescue endlessly does so with tranquiliser darts.

4) She's meant to be a genius. Apparently can read 10 languages fluently (inc. 2 dead) but speaks not a single word of any of them. I don't believe that's possible. How could you read and write fluent French but not manage "Bonjour". On top of that she gets her translation work done by one guy, other work done by another and her research done by her friend who she has pulled out of her role managing a successful bar in order to help her. Her friend even works so hard one night she gets bags under her eyes yet comes in the next morning to find Owl has spent the night playing "World Quest" rather than working because it "helps her think".

She has maybe one original thought in the entire book to try to justify this laziness.

5) Apparently her friends lives revolve around her and they come to assist her with her work with absolutely no regard for their own lives/jobs. She also lies and doesn't tell her friends things yet reacts badly when they do the same to her.

6) Pet names. The two romantic leads develop cutesy pet names for each other and they are "Trainwreck" and "Whore". Maybe I'm too old for this shit but calling someone "whore" as a pet name just seemed wrong to me. Not to mention the fact they say "Trainwreck." "Whore." To each other like fifty times in the book. I was so done with that by the end.

7) Lack of communication skills. There are bits where I shit you not two characters are talking and one says "I've got to tell you something, urgently." Then they say they'll be back in ten minutes, they go to their hotel room, get attacked in the hotel room and phone the other character to say "Check your pocket." Where when they left they put a note that said "I know exactly what we've been getting wrong." No-one would do that... ever. Not in a million years. You would just say it. The fact that a failure to communicate causes the half of her problems that aren't due to her insane pacifism does nothing to endear me to the characters.

Some of the narration was a bit off too with some weird word pronounciations but with the characters voices were generally ok.

End rant. This was a terrible book with a flimsy plot held together by plot armour and stupidity. The characters are 2D and the main character never once demonstrates any of the traits we're repeatedly told she has. Screw "Indiana Jane", this is more like Princess Peach tries supernatural thievery.

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