Audible Original: The Summer Melt by Emily March
The Summer Melt
Author: Emily March
Narrators:
Andi Arndt
Dave Gilles
Published: June 23, 2022
Audiobook: 2 hours 52 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: June 16-17, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars
Audiobook Description:
It’s peak tourist season in Eternity Springs, and Dana Delaney has her hands full running her ice cream parlor, Scoops. The last thing she needs is for her star employee to fall sick, but she’s in luck when a newcomer to town offers to fill in…and the fact that he’s sinfully handsome with a sexy Scottish accent is an added treat.
A-list sports agent Cal Buchanan is visiting Eternity Springs to scout marriage proposal locations for a client, not get distracted by the beautiful owner of the local ice cream parlor. But when she’s short staffed, he can’t resist the opportunity to dip in and help. If he plays it right, she might even return the favor and give him a tour of the town’s most romantic destinations. Will their attraction lead to a romance more decadent than Scoops’ Double Chocolate Toffee Crunch—or will it melt away by summer’s end?
Jessica’s Review:
This was a cute, little novella that was a quick listen that I enjoyed it up until the end. I liked the story and the fact that we had hot Scottish brothers both working in Scoops and their competition. I even enjoyed the touring the town for a proposal bit of the story. Then came the ending. It just came extremely fast for me. Between the ending and the cursing by saying ice cream flavors I had to knock half a star off. The cursing by flavors was cute at first, but after the third time I was over that.
There were two narrators and one would have sufficed. The female narrator was able to pull both male and female voices off, but the male narrator… Between that accent and his terrible narration of the female character… Nope!
This is a great read for summer that deals with the heat and all the different flavors were leaving me wanting some ice cream or something cold at least! I’d say skip the audio version and just read this novella.
Book Review: Dead Inside by Chandler Morrison
Dead Inside
Author: Chandler Morrison
Published: January 1, 2015
166 Pages
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 3.5 stars
Book Description:
In this bleak and disturbingly erotic debut novel, iconoclast Chandler Morrison provides readers with a dark exploration of the nature of death, individuality, and generational identity. Along the way, lines will be crossed, taboos will be violated, and common decency will take an extended leave of absence. This is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. Or anyone who enjoyed Fifty Shades of Grey.
A young hospital security guard with a disturbingly unique taste in women. A maternity doctor with a horrifically unusual appetite. When the two of them meet, they embark on a journey of self-discovery as they shatter societal norms while engaging in destructive and abhorrent behavior. As they unwittingly help each other understand a world in which neither of them seems to belong, they begin to realize what it truly means to be alive…and that it might not always be a good thing.
Kim’s Review:
I just … don’t know what to say. This one was absolutely ridiculous! It was nasty, nauseating, gross, inappropriate, etc. It definitely kept my attention but I can’t really say that I enjoyed it. I read it at the totally wrong time too; not a good one for a pregnant lady to read! I can usually handle gross horror, but there has to be some kind of plot justification for excessive gore. This one felt like gore for gore’s sake and not just any gore but depraved gore. I’m not sure I can even say that I’m glad I read it cuz I felt pretty horrible after I finished it. I absolutely cannot recommend it to just anyone; there are select few I would cautiously recommend it to.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Audiobook Review: Travel by Bullet by John Scalzi (The Dispatcher #3)
Travel by Bullet
Series: The Dispatcher #3
Author: John Scalzi
Narrator: Zachary Quinto
Published: September 1, 2022
Audiobook: 3 hours 43 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: October 13-15, 2022
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
The world has changed. Now, when someone is murdered, they almost always come back to life—and there are professionals, called “dispatchers,” who kill in order to save lives, to give those near the end a second chance. Tony Valdez is a dispatcher, and he has never been busier.
But for as much as the world has changed, some things have stayed the same. Greed, corruption and avarice are still in full swing. When Tony is called to a Chicago emergency room by an old friend and fellow dispatcher, he is suddenly and unwillingly thrown into a whirlpool of schemes and plots involving billions of dollars, with vast caches of wealth ranging from real estate to cryptocurrency up for grabs.
All Tony wants to do is keep his friend safe. But it’s hard to do when friends keep secrets, enemies offer seductive deals, and nothing is ever what it seems. The world has changed… but the stakes are still life and death.
Jessica’s Review:
Scalzi is back with a third Dispatcher novel and Quinto narrates again! And this one is a recent release too! This new novella seems even more real because the pandemic is brought into play and affected this world as well as ours! It affected a dispatcher’s job too, and we get to see this mentioned. And wearing a mask is commonplace in this world as it can be in our world, with people choosing to wear masks whenever they are out.
The world is much darker too with the rich/elite/villains taking advantage of ‘murder’ and the 99.9% chance of coming back by ‘traveling by bullet’, hence the title of this new novella. This world has so much more greed, corruption, and death manipulation than what we have now and if this actually happened I can see our world becoming like Tony’s world.
These novellas are fast paced, and enjoyable! You like Tony, but is he as good as we think? Quinto is the perfect Tony and I really want to see these stories play on tv with him starring!
I hope Scalzi gives us more Dispatcher novellas! This series is one to make you think a lot about this world, and Scalzi has done a brilliant job of bringing us into it.
Purchase Links:
Please Note: This new release is only currently available as an Audible original.
Amazon US
Amazon UK