I'm torn between a three and a four star rating on this. For now I'll give it four stars. In the first few pages I found the book rather "normal". App...moreI'm torn between a three and a four star rating on this. For now I'll give it four stars. In the first few pages I found the book rather "normal". Apparently normal girl sees mysterious guy, learns she has special powers and you know that normal girl and mysterious guy will end up together and squeeze in a bit world-saving in their free time. No surprises there.
Still I liked the story and couldn't put it down. Ellie is a likable girl and while she has her difficulties and fears she stands her (wo)man in a fight. All the same the fighting scenes were always nagging at me some. Considering both Ellie and Will were usually supposed to be in the fights, I got the distinct impression that one just stood around while the other did the work and some of the confrontations would have been over much quicker if there had been more teamwork.
Will. Not sure yet what to make of him but I suppose I like him. In spite of his being a bit too perfect (his protectiveness is also very cute).
I loved how this book had also "secondary relationships", meaning Ellie's relations with her parents and friends. For once the minor characters had some depth. I loved Kate, felt for Landon and liked Ellie's mum. I hope that the next books deal more with Ellie's father, because I would really like to see more depth in that department and perhaps even learn how he got the way he is.
The ending is satisfying even though this is the first book in a series. Although there is a small cliffhanger to keep one interested, it isn't too bad to make the waiting time for the next book unendurable. I'm pretty sure I'll read the next volume in the series once it comes out next year.(less)
Gradually I seem to be developing a liking for (auto)biographies/memoirs. Previously I always avoided those because I feared that they would bore me t...moreGradually I seem to be developing a liking for (auto)biographies/memoirs. Previously I always avoided those because I feared that they would bore me too easily. With Chapters from My Autobiography by Mark Twain, I’ve read four autobiographies in the recent past. This book and John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley certainly convinced me how much fun autobiographies can be. Mark Twain has a way of presenting the facts in a funny way. I especially liked how he frequently cited from his daughter Susi’s biography of him. Those thow narrations (Twain’s own dictation and Susi’s biography of him) are combined to give a unique picture of the author. Once again I listened to the free audiobook from LibriVox, read by John Greenman. He knows how to give Twain his due and I think I wouldn’t have liked the book so much had I not listened to this narration. This is the second book by Mark Twain read by John Greenman I’ve enjoyed (the first was Twain’s retelling of the story of Joan of Arc) and Greenman has become my “voice of Twain” by now. He has done other Twain books as well and I’ll be certain to listen to those as well.(less)
Bound for Eternity by Sarah Wisseman and narrated by Priscilla Holbrook, published by Iambik in 2012 is one of the shorter audiobooks I have listened...moreBound for Eternity by Sarah Wisseman and narrated by Priscilla Holbrook, published by Iambik in 2012 is one of the shorter audiobooks I have listened to in the recent past with only 6 ½ hours. It is part of a series of mystery novels whose protagonist is Lisa Donahue. In Bound for Eternity Lisa is curator at a museum for historical/archaeological artefacts. Normal work routine is interrupted when one of the museum employee’s is found dead in the building. As things progress it becomes more and more obvious that one of the other employee’s must be the murderer. While trying to plan the next exhibit Lisa notices that some artefacts are not where they are supposed to be and even begins to suspect that some of the items might be forgeries. Are both incidents connected?
When I first began to listen to the audiobook I wasn’t too thrilled by the narrator’s performance. She seemed to read without much fervour and intonation. However, I soon discovered that the narrator’s way of reading the book suited me surprisingly well. I never had any problems in staying with the story and had a vivid picture of it in front of my mental eye. The only thing that was a bit annoying was the fact that sometimes the volume changed a bit. It was no big leap, just a small change that I noticed because it often happened within a sentence. It was not so dramatic that I needed to adjust my player’s volume level, so it’s actually no great deal, but it does take the attention away from the story for a moment.
Usually I’m a bit dubious about books by new author’s I’ve never read before, especially when I didn’t “choose” the book myself but got it for free, in this case as a review copy. So I was favorably surprised when I soon began to really like the story. The solution of the mystery is not too obvious. It’s obvious that the author has experience in archeology and the way a museum works and while this often leads to too much detail and boring explanations, it is woven into the story without disturbing it but giving it a believable and vivid background. The characters were round and I liked the protagonist and her love interest.
All in all I can really recommend this audiobook for mystery friends and everyone who has some interest in archeology. I’ll certainly read Sarah Wisseman’s other books featuring Lisa Donahue and would really enjoy to have those as audiobook as well (as far as I can see only Bound for Eternity is available as audiobook at present).(less)
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