STAR WITCH

Star Witch by Helen Harper
Book 2 of the The Lazy Girl's Guide To Magic series
Read by Tanya Eby
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Star Witch:

Lights. Camera. Inaction.

Ivy Wilde, the laziest witch in the West, is still entangled with the Hallowed Order of Magical Enlightenment. That's not a bad thing, however, because it gives her plenty of excuses to spend more time with sapphire eyed Raphael Winter, her supposed nemesis. And when he comes knocking because he needs her to spy on the latest series of Enchantment, she jumps at the chance. Hanging around a film set can't be hard ... or dangerous ... right?

Source: Info in the About Star Witch was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35123171-star-witch on 03/09/2017.

My Thoughts:

Why in god's name did Ivy suddenly look like a drag queen in the cover of this book? Sure, the over-glittered barbie look is not my favourite, but it was preferable to the drag queen!!! Anyway, Brutus is getting a bit of action in this book and for the first time ever, I get to read him talk in real sentences and hold a conversation! How's that for fun! Ok, ok... I so need to get a life... on the other hand... nah, I'll just read a book :) ..So, I wondered why the title of this book is Star Witch, then it made sense as I read on. The cover might not be the best, but, one thing you can say about this series is that the titles are always apropos! And as usual, the narration is wonderful!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4
Cover art = 3
Pace = (8 hours & 9 minutes)
Plot = 4.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Lazy Girl's Guide To Magic:

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

Meet The Author

About Helen Harper:

After teaching English literature in the UK, Japan and Malaysia, Helen Harper left behind the world of education following the worldwide success of her Blood Destiny series of books. She is a professional member of the Alliance of Independent Authors and writes full time although she still fits in creative writing workshops with schools along with volunteering to teach reading to a group of young Myanmar refugees. That’s not to mention the procession of stray cats which seem to find their way to her door! Helen has always been a book lover, devouring science fiction and fantasy tales when she was a child growing up in Scotland.

helenharper.co.uk | twitter | facebook | pinterest | goodreads

Meet The Narrator

About Tanya Eby:

Tanya is a starving artist without the starving part. Maybe, then, she's a snacking artist. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with her two kids and tiki-obssessed husband and writes quirky fiction.

In 2009, she published her romantic comedy "Easy Does It" available on Amazon.

Champagne Books published her second romantic comedy "Blunder Woman" in July 2010 with ebook versions on Amazon and Allromanceebooks.com as well as http://www.champagnebooks.com.

In February 2011, Champagne Books released her romantic comedy mystery "Pepper Wellington and the Case of the Missing Sausage".

Tanya is currently working on a historical gothic suspense. She likes to keep things interesting.

www.tanyaeby.com | pinterest | twitter | facebook narrator page | facebook | goodreads | instagram | google+ | audible | linked in | soundcloud

FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

SLOUCH WITCH

Slouch Witch by Helen Harper
Book 1 of the The Lazy Girl's Guide To Magic series
Read by Tanya Eby
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Slouch Witch:

Let's get one thing straight — Ivy Wilde is not a heroine. In fact, she's probably the last witch in the world who you'd call if you needed a magical helping hand, regardless of her actual abilities. If it were down to Ivy, she'd spend all day every day on her sofa where she could watch TV, munch junk food and talk to her feline familiar to her heart's content.

However, when a bureaucratic disaster ends up with Ivy as the victim of a case of mistaken identity, she's yanked very unwillingly into Arcane Branch, the investigative department of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Her problems are quadrupled when a valuable object is stolen right from under the Order's noses. It doesn't exactly help that she's been magically bound to Adeptus Exemptus Raphael Winter. He might have piercing sapphire eyes and a body which a cover model would be proud of but, as far as Ivy's concerned, he's a walking advertisement for the joyless perils of too much witch-work.

And if he makes her go to the gym again, she's definitely going to turn him into a frog.

Source: Info in the About Slouch Witch was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34670747-slouch-witch on 31/08/2017.

My Thoughts:

A promising start to a new-to-me series.

I like the sassy and spontaneous heroine. Sure, she tends to be stupid sometimes but it is in line with her character so it didn't annoy me, as opposed to a stark deviation from the character that some authors tend to do to create a dilemma in their plot. Now that really annoys me! And I also like that the hero is the opposite of the heroine. He's a stickler for propriety and rules. That formula is usually a sure fire way to yield sparks. And it did! It was just a bit formulaic though... However, I think it is more about how the story is told than just the formula itself and this author kinda did pull it off. And the book turned out to be a fun read! Maybe if I wasn't a bit too jaded, I would enjoy the book more...

This is not the first Tanya Eby book that I've listened to, but this one is the most enjoyable thus far. Kudos to this book!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4
Cover art = 4
Pace = (8 hours & 9 minutes)
Plot = 4.5
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Lazy Girl's Guide To Magic:

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

Meet The Author

About Helen Harper:

After teaching English literature in the UK, Japan and Malaysia, Helen Harper left behind the world of education following the worldwide success of her Blood Destiny series of books. She is a professional member of the Alliance of Independent Authors and writes full time although she still fits in creative writing workshops with schools along with volunteering to teach reading to a group of young Myanmar refugees. That’s not to mention the procession of stray cats which seem to find their way to her door! Helen has always been a book lover, devouring science fiction and fantasy tales when she was a child growing up in Scotland.

helenharper.co.uk | twitter | facebook | pinterest | goodreads

Meet The Narrator

About Tanya Eby:

Tanya is a starving artist without the starving part. Maybe, then, she's a snacking artist. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with her two kids and tiki-obssessed husband and writes quirky fiction.

In 2009, she published her romantic comedy "Easy Does It" available on Amazon.

Champagne Books published her second romantic comedy "Blunder Woman" in July 2010 with ebook versions on Amazon and Allromanceebooks.com as well as http://www.champagnebooks.com.

In February 2011, Champagne Books released her romantic comedy mystery "Pepper Wellington and the Case of the Missing Sausage".

Tanya is currently working on a historical gothic suspense. She likes to keep things interesting.

www.tanyaeby.com | pinterest | twitter | facebook narrator page | facebook | goodreads | instagram | google+ | audible | linked in | soundcloud

FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

Review: COPPER BEACH

Copper Beach by Jayne Ann Krentz
Book 1 of the Dark Legacy series
Read by Tanya Eby
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Copper Beach:

A rare book. An ancient code. An all-new novel from the New York Times-bestselling master of passion and the paranormal.

Within the pages of very rare books some centuries old lie the secrets of the paranormal. Abby Radwell's unusual psychic talent has made her an expert in such volumes-and sometimes taken her into dangerous territory. After a deadly incident in the private library of an obsessive collector, Abby receives a blackmail threat, and rumors swirl that an old alchemical text known as The Key has reappeared on the black market.

Convinced that she needs an investigator who can also play bodyguard, she hires Sam Coppersmith, a specialist in paranormal crystals and amber-"hot rocks." Passion flares immediately between them, but neither entirely trusts the other. When it comes to dealing with a killer who has paranormal abilities, and a blackmailer who will stop at nothing to obtain an ancient alchemical code, no one is safe.

Source: Info in the About Copper Beach was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10889249-copper-beach?ac=1 on 26/03/2013.

Review:

I am already an old Jayne Ann Krentz or Jayne Castle fan and I really like this author's voice so I keep coming back for more despite her ups and downs. I was therefore very happy to hear that she has started a new contemporary paranormal series! Of course this book got read! Whatcha think?

Being an old fan of this author maybe was not so advantageous after all... for some reason this book did not read as compelling as I seem to remember her previous work seemed to be. Maybe being an old fan of hers my expectation has gone up a bit too high and so I got a bit disappointed... maybe... Anyway, it took a bit of time for me to finish this book even with the convenience of the audiobook format which is strange for me with this author. Usually her books are fast reads. Not this one though. Don't get me wrong, it was still an enjoyable read, it was just not as compelling as I expected a Jayne Ann Krentz book to be. The plot was quite straight forward. Not much twists involved. I am hoping that the next books would have a more convoluted plot seeing that this series seems to be an investigative suspense as well as paranormal. All in all, this book gave off the vibe of a so so book. Not too bad but not great either. Having said that, for a first book, it's a promising start to a new series!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 3
Ending = 3.5
World building = 4
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = (8hrs & 58mins listening time)
Plot = 3.5
Narrator = 4.5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Dark Legacy series:

Review: SEVEN UP

Seven Up by Janet Evanovich
Book 7 of the Stephanie Plum series
Narrated by Tanya Eby
Format: audiobook
Genre: crime fiction chicklit

About Seven Up:

In SEVEN UP, Stephanie Plum is dropped into a smorgasbord of murder, kidnapping, and extortion - a magnificent buffet of fast cars, fast men and fast food. Stephanie Plum think she's going after an easy FTA: a senior citizen charged with smuggling contraband cigarettes. But when she and Lula show up at his house, they get more than they bargained for - a corpse in the woodshed and an old man on the lam. Stephanie's mind is on other matters, however, because she has two proposals to consider: vice cop Joe Morelli is proposing marriage, and fellow bounty hunter Ranger is proposing a single perfect night . . .

Source: Info in the About Seven Up was taken from at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15459067-seven-up on 01/10/2012.

Review:

Tanya Eby is a new narrator to me and it took a bit of getting used to after having listened to CJ Critt for the last six books.

Like the previous books in this series, Seven Up also started off slow but picked up halfway through and speeded up all the way to the end. I already knew this pattern from previous books so I persevered for the first half of the book knowing that I would have a rocking good time towards the end and this book, in a way, did.

This series has never failed to give me "laugh-out-loud" moments except this book. That was a bit of a downer! This series lost a lot of brownie points because of that. Because the humour between the pages is this series' greatest asset and that failed in this book.

The cover art though, both on the audiobook and print, remained obnoxiously boring!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 2
Ending = 3
World building = 3.5
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A
Plot = 3.5
Narrator = 3.5

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 cherries