Audiobook Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Fourth Wing
Series: The Empyrean #1
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Narrators:
Rebecca Soler
Teddy Hamilton
Published: May 2, 2023
Audiobook: 20 hours 43 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: November 15-27, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Audiobook Description:
Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros.
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.
Jessica’s Review:
Fourth Wing has been the book of the year, and it is outside of my normal genres, so I wasn’t really interested in reading it. I had also heard the narration was terrible, so it had two strikes against it. Then I heard that the narration was redone and well… there are dragons in it… so I decided to go for it, the second book in the series had been released so I was thinking that I wont have to wait for it then if I enjoyed this one! Big mistake: After I had started Fourth Wing, my dear fellow book friends informed me that there are supposed to be 5 books in this series! NOOOOO! I had thought it was just two! Oh well….
My main interest in listening to it was the dragons, and they were so worth it! I love these dragons!! It almost seems like the author didn’t really know what type of genre she wanted because the characters at time seemed like horny teenagers, but this is aimed for adults. I guess the horny teenagers part is because these candidates don’t know if they will even make it through school. And some don’t! We get lots of death.
There is a lot of chemistry between Violet and Xaden. Do they want each other or not? DO they hate each other or not? We do get some spicy scenes. A little bit too spicy for me! I apparently like the closed door/ fade to black romance/ sweet romance stories/ and don’t need much details. We do get details aplenty here!
We have lots of action and again: DRAGONS!! I also liked Violet. She starts out weak but does grow over the course of the novel. I can’t wait to see what happens with her next. And then we have that ending!
I had no issues with the narration, like I previously said they must have redone it and fixed all the previous issues. There are two narrators, but mainly it is Rebecca Soler doing her job. She portrayed Violet well.
I did enjoy Fourth Wing, but don’t see how people are going crazy over this book and paying extreme amounts of money for that rare first edition with the dragon sprayed edges. There are some gorgeous editions that are out there now with special book boxes. I’ll definitely listen to the second one sometime soon and then I guess I will have to wait for the next three books to be written and come out just like everyone else!
Audiobook Review: The Inmate by Freida McFadden
The Inmate
Author: Freida McFadden
Narrator: Leslie Howard
Published: June 13, 2022
Audiobook: 8 hours 5 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: November 28- December 1, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Audiobook Description:
There are three rules Brooke Sullivan must follow as a new nurse practitioner at a men’s maximum-security prison:
1) Treat all prisoners with respect.
2) Never reveal any personal information.
3) Never EVER become too friendly with the inmates.
But none of the staff at the prison knows Brooke has already broken the rules. Nobody knows about her intimate connection to Shane Nelson, one of the penitentiary’s most notorious and dangerous inmates.
And they certainly don’t know that Shane was Brooke’s high school sweetheart—the star quarterback who is now spending the rest of his life in prison for a series of grisly murders. Or that Brooke’s testimony was what put him there.
But Shane knows.
And he will never forget.
Jessica’s Review:
This is my fourth book by Frieda this year, and I can say I am enjoying them! The Inmate is definitely a book that could actually NOT happen: My college internship was at a men’s prison and it was so hard for me to let go of certain things. Another problem I had was with Brooke herself. How dumb can one FMC (female main character) be? She was a prime example of everything to not do! Once I was able to drop my previous experience and my annoyance of Brooke, I was able to enjoy this ride that McFadden took me on!
Her books all seem to have short chapters and just have something addicting to them that you just have to keep reading! Or in my case: Listening! I was so close to the ending that I just had to pull out my ear phones and finish it during my lunch break! And with typical Freida I was thinking the book was going in one way, so I knew I was going to be wrong! I was partially right, but still: I was wrong! And then we had a final twist in the ending that I wasn’t expecting!
The narrator was Leslie Howard and she did a good job. If you enjoy thrillers at all give all of McFadden’s books a try and if you like a couple of them, before you know it you will want to read all of hers! I will be working towards that for next year.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Audiobook Review: The Name Drop by Susan Lee
The Name Drop
Author: Susan Lee
Narrators:
Greta Jung
Keong Sim
Published: September 12, 2023
Audiobook: 8 hours 8 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: November 5-8, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Audiobook Description:
From the author of Seoulmates comes a story of mistaken identities, the summer of a lifetime, and a love to risk everything for.
When Elijah Ri arrives in New York City for an internship at his father’s massive tech company, Haneul Corporation, he expects the royal treatment that comes with being the future CEO—even if that’s the last thing he wants. But instead, he finds himself shuffled into a group of overworked, unpaid interns, all sharing a shoebox apartment for the summer.
When Jessica Lee arrives in New York City, she’s eager to make the most of her internship at Haneul Corporation, even if she’s at the bottom of the corporate ladder. But she’s shocked to be introduced as the new executive-in-training intern with a gorgeous brownstone all to herself.
It doesn’t take long for Elijah and Jessica to discover the source of the they share the same Korean name. But they decide to stay switched—so Elijah can have a relaxing summer away from his controlling dad while Jessica can make the connections she desperately needs for college recommendations.
As Elijah and Jessica work together to keep up the charade, a spark develops between them. Can they avoid discovery—and total disaster—with their feelings and futures on the line?
Jessica’s Review:
The Name Drop was such a sweet, cute, and fun read that was a pleasant surprise for me! The cover is so cute too! We have a rich/poor trope and mistaken identities tropes among others. Both Elijah and Jessica have the same Korean name and it causes confusion from the beginning! I don’t know how Korean names are, but know how common names for English are: My first and last names both being extremely common at my doctors, dentist, veterinarians having multiple people with the same name (and not getting them mixed up!) and also names that could be both genders: My husband’s name could be either gender. Once they realize the mix up, both Elijah and Jessica (See that’s my name too!) decide to keep it the way it is: Elijah is the rich son of the CEO and will one day be CEO while Jessica is far from rich and has worked hard to get where she is. Elijah can have anonymity and Jessica can get some connections to help her in her future. Of course things get out of hand and drama happens throughout the novel up to the end. Did they make the right choice by staying ‘switched’? You will just have to read this one and see! In reality this mix up just wouldn’t happen, but that’s what reading is: a break from reality. If by some chance a mix up like this happened, it would be found out and fixed. We had two narrators who did a good job mostly. When Greta Jung did male voices it just didn’t sound right for me. It seemed like she just lowered her voice and made a funny face as she was doing the male voices. Keong Sim really brought Elijah to life for me! Both Elijah and Jessica acted their age of young adults. There wasn’t any extreme drama that can happen in YA novels. If you like sweet and fun YA books with some drama and a little romance then give this one a shot. I am glad I did!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK