OYENTE

Kate McMurry

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  • votos útiles
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Entertaining, "fish out of water," YA novel

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-25-25


The audiobook version of this novel was produced by Recorded Books Repertory Company with eight viewpoint characters, each performed by a different narrator. The characters include:

Capricorn (Cap) Anderson
Flora Donnelly
Sophie Donnelly
Zach Powers
Naomi Erlanger
Hugh Winkleman
Darryl Pennyfield
Principal Kasigi

Cap is 13 years old. Born in 1994, he lives in 2007 on a remote farm called Garland, once a hippie commune founded by his grandmother, Rain, in 1967. By the time of the story, the commune is deserted except for Cap and Rain. His parents died while serving in the Peace Corps, and Cap has been raised in isolation, with no TV, internet, or phone. Rain homeschooled him and taught him to drive, meditate, practice tai chi, play the guitar, cook, clean, and manage a working farm. Their only entertainment is 1960s vinyl records, especially the Beatles.

The story opens when Rain falls from a tree while harvesting plums and breaks her hip. With no phone, Cap drives her to the hospital himself. She requires surgery and an extended stay in rehab. Since he can’t return to Garland alone, Cap is assigned to Flora, a social worker who, by coincidence, lived at Garland as a child. She relates deeply to Cap’s situation and takes him into her home rather than placing him with another foster family.

Flora’s teenage daughter, Sophie, treats Cap cruelly, mocking his appearance and beliefs. Despite Flora’s professional training, she never effectively intervenes. Cap begins attending a large middle school with 1,100 students. Though Rain’s homeschooling meets county standards and Cap is intellectually gifted, he is socially unprepared and visibly different, with waist-length hair, tie-dyed shirts, corn-husk sandals, and zero familiarity with pop culture.

Cap soon meets the school’s eighth-grade bullies, including Zach and Naomi, who, like Sophie, repeatedly mock him. Another eighth grader, Hugh, has been Zach’s longtime target and becomes Cap’s reluctant friend. He knows that Cap has been set up for a cruel prank: the popular kids annually elect the most socially vulnerable student as eighth-grade class president. The role is a trap meant to humiliate, and past victims have had breakdowns. Hugh, relieved not to be the target this year, fails to warn Cap. Principal Kasigi is fully aware of this sadistic tradition but has never stopped it.

Although advertised as a comedy, the novel didn’t strike me as humorous, either in print or audio. Instead, it highlights a now-familiar trope: public school environments that tolerate or enable unchecked bullying, especially of those who don’t conform. Like many YA novels influenced by the John Hughes films of the 1980s, this story portrays cruel social hierarchies and absent or ineffectual adult authority figures.

Cap, however, is portrayed as almost saintly. Raised with ideals of nonviolence, empathy, and spiritual mindfulness, he responds to cruelty with kindness and becomes a quiet catalyst for transformation. Despite knowing nothing about handling money, navigating school politics, or even driving legally, his gentle, generous nature ultimately wins over the student body. By the end, even the worst bullies begin to change for the better.

Cap’s journey is more fairy tale than gritty realism. His influence inspires growth arcs in every teenage viewpoint character. While older readers may find the plot unrealistically idealized, this G-rated novel will likely resonate with its intended audience, middle-grade readers aged 10 to 12, who may be especially receptive to the story’s clear moral lessons and wish-fulfillment tone.

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More fun

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-21-25

In this story, Ava and Luc are separated almost the whole of the novel, as each goes off on separate adventures. Luc's home country is being invaded, and Ava is kidnapped, via magical means, by the evil leader of the government of her home country.

I absolutely adore Ava and Luc, and I could barely stand to stop reading for a minute while racing through this novel. I purchased the Kindle version and, via Amazon's Whispersync, I obtained the audiobook version as well. So every time I had to stop reading the Kindle version to do some task that required me to actually look at it, I could keep going with my journey through this fabulous story by listening to the audiobook. It's a terrific system when reading an "unputdownable" novel like this one (which is the case every novel I've ever read by this utterly amazing author).

There is one major throughline of this series, the villainous head of Ava's home country, the Speaker, who keeps trying to kidnap her, and has not received his just desserts by the end of this novel. That will not fully occur until the fourth book of this series.

Ava is not the FMC in the third or fourth book in this series, but she and Luc are both POV characters in these novels and play an important part.

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Excellent sword-and-sorcery romantasy

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
2 out of 5 stars
Historia
2 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-20-25

I don't typically read sword-and-sorcery fantasy, but I am a fan of paranormal romance and a fan of Michelle Diener's science fiction romance, which is why I gave this romantasy novel a chance. It is definitely well written. The world building is convincingly drawn. The two main characters, Ava and Luc, are both honorable, dynamic, well matched, co-equal warriors. Most importantly, for this type of story, there is plenty of exciting action.

This book and its sequel exist basically as one long, two-part novel. I normally don't read novels with cliffhangers, but for novels by MD, I am willing to make an exception.

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More Rose, Dav and Sazo!!

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-14-25

Rose McKenzie is traveling with her husband, Dav Jallan, who is captain of the spaceship, Barrist, as they head for a planet inhabited by advanced sentients, the Fisone. Sazo’s Class 5 is always right next to Dav's ship. Rose stays on Sazo’s ship except when she needs to come to the Barrist for prenatal care from the medical staff. She is currently eight months pregnant, and she and Dav are very excited, as they anticipate the imminent birth of their baby girl. Dav works all day on the Barrist and spends the nights on Sazo’s ship with Rose. They are the only ones that Sazo allows on his ship.

The evening before they approach the Fisone planet, when Rose is taking a shuttle from the Barrist to Sazo's Class 5, the shuttle is sucked into a Fisone ship, and she is taken prisoner.

I highly recommend reading, at the very least, Dark Horse, Book 1 of this series, before reading this novel. Better yet, read the whole series, in order, because it is absolutely fantastic. This book is absolutely wonderful! I love everything about it, and I am so grateful that MD wrote it. Any book in this series she chooses to write, I will be snatching up immediately. MD provided for free to her fans a wonderful bonus epilogue to this novel that was not available in the Kindle edition. I am happy to report that it is included with this audiobook.

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Fabulous story & terrific narrator!

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-13-25

This novella is a fantastic opportunity to get more time with Rose, Dav and Sazo. MD Also introduces a intrepid little scene stealer in the form of an adorable baby animal that looks like a flying squirrel from Earth, that Rose christens Sweetpea.

Sweetpea struck me as a quirky homage to Rocky the Flying Squirrel, from the delightful cartoon series of the 1960s, Rocky and Bullwinkle.

For fans of this series, this terrific little story is not to be missed!

The audiobook narrator is wonderful!

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Fabulous space opera romance

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-13-25

I love every book in this series, but it's a toss-up for me between this book and Book 1 for first place in my heart. Ellie is an absolutely wonderful FMC, and I love her relationship with the AI AKA "thinking system" named Paxe--especially given the fact that I was enormously relieved that he is alive and thriving, because we were told in a previous book that he had been destroyed in an explosion. We are also introduced in this novel to another AI entity toward the middle of the book, whom I really liked. But most of all, the little drones, that Ellie names and are evolving into sentience, won my heart completely. I adored them.

As is the case throughout this series, this book offers the dual POV of the FMC and the MMC. Similar to the MMCs of Books 1-3, the MMC, Renn, is a spaceship captain and, similar to all of the MMCs in this series, he is one of the Grih, an alien species who look exactly like humans from Earth except for pointed elf ears and that they are, on average, about 20% bigger than human beings.

There is lots and lots of exciting action in every one of the books of this series, but it is particularly nail-biting in this novel. I enjoyed the romance in this novel a great deal as well. As is the case in all of the books in this series, there is no sexual activity onstage in this story beyond kissing, with the consummation of the slowburn romantic relationship presented as "closed bedroom door" at the end of the novel. In spite of this PG choice of the author, she does a great job at providing a thrilling amount of emotional and physical sparks between these two extraordinarily brave and honorable MCs.

This audiobook novel is narrated by the very talented voice actor, Christina Delaine. She does a terrific job in both her dramatic performance and her quite effective rendition of both male and female voices, as well as the voices of the AI characters. I was happy to discover that, unlike the Kindle version of this book, the audiobook version includes an extended epilogue for the entire series that is extremely satisfying.

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Fantastic third book

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-09-25

Imogen is as strong an FMC as Rose from Book 1, and Fiona of Book 2, and I love her friendship with the AI AKA "thinking system" named Oris. As is the case throughout this series, this book offers the dual POV of the FMC and the MMC. Similar to the MMCs of Book 1 and 2, the MMC Camlar is a spaceship captain and one of the Grih, an alien species who look exactly like humans from Earth except for pointed elf ears and that they are, on average, about 20% bigger than human beings.

Once again, as in all of the books in this series, there is plenty of thrilling action in this novel, and the romance is lovely. Also, as is the case throughout this series, there is no sexual activity onstage beyond kissing, with the consummation of the slowburn romantic relationship presented as "closed bedroom door" at the end of the novel. In spite of this PG choice of the author, she provides a satisfying amount of emotional and physical sparks between these two highly sympathetic, extremely brave and honorable MCs.

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Outstanding romantic comedy

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-02-25


It’s the middle of the night and the (unnamed) heroine receives a voice-recorded text from Eliot Hoffman, a man she’s been daydreaming about for the past two months. It soon becomes apparent he meant to contact his sister, but accidentally contacted the heroine instead. On a whim, the lonely heroine follows her heart and voice-texts him back. He replies immediately and, from then on, the relationship continues to develop. Hours of voice-texting moves into hours of phone conversations, day after day. They talk about anything and everything—except who the heroine is. Eliot knows he has connected with her in person at some point, because he has an entry for her in his contacts list in his smartphone. But unfortunately, because he is dyslexic, the entry is gibberish, which tells him nothing about who she is and how he met her. For important, well-motivated reasons, the heroine does not want to tell him who she is.

This novel is told from the dual point of view of both Eliot and the unnamed heroine (he eventually gives her a nickname, JD, with her agreement, because she won’t tell him her real name). Eliot is 36, and she is probably around 30. We never get a description of her from her perspective. There is a hint given about who she might be several times during her conversations with Eliot, but it is so subtly done, I was completely taken by surprise when toward the very end of the book it is finally revealed who she is. It was so moving, I shed tears.

The way this novel is structured is really unique. I’ve never seen a romance novel plotted this way, other than the first novel in this series. The romantic protagonists do not meet in person until the very last paragraph of the book. Naturally enough, because of that choice, this book is completely free of sex—there is only a single kiss in the epilogue. But there is such intense emotional connection between these two amazing people, I didn’t miss the physical contact, because I was totally convinced they are soulmates.

Even though this novel only provides a Happy For Now (HFN) ending, rather than the Happily Ever After (HEA) ending all romances are expected to provide, I was completely convinced that these two sensitive, caring individuals will go the distance as a committed couple.

I experienced this novel in audiobook format. I received access to it for free, as a perk of my Audible Premium Plus Annual Membership. It is an Audible Original recording, and its studio-production quality is absolutely the next level in audiobook experience. It is like listening to the dialogue of a movie without the picture for most of the book, including sound effects such as street noise, text notification whooshes, and background noises of people passing by on the street or in a room. This is the same manner in which GraphicAudio does all of their productions. The two voice talents, Lidia Dornet and Chris Brinkley, do a fabulous job throughout the book’s narration, but most especially in the scenes where the two protagonists are on stage together (not in the flesh but verbally), and they are reading their lines of dialogue back and forth. In my not so humble opinion, this is the way *all* romance audiobooks ought to be done, but they are, unfortunately, only very, very rarely produced this way. It brings out so much more intensity and excitement in the performance.

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PG novella, not recommended for young teens

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-01-25

As is the case in all of the books in the Mediator series, this novella includes a paranormal-adventure plot in which Susannah (Suze) Simon attempts to thwart a homicidal ghost. In this case the ghost is a young man who is hellbent on avenging himself on the person who murdered him and his fiancé. Cabot puts primary emphasis on that plot by beginning the book with it, rather than immediately focusing on what the title implies will be this novella’s main event, an overdue marriage proposal from Jesse de Silva.

Suze is currently almost 21 years old, and she and her boyfriend, Jesse, who was formerly a ghost for 150 years, have been together in the flesh for four years, ever since he regained his living body when she was 17, during the middle of her junior year in high school. Unfortunately for Suze, Jesse is in no hurry to cast off his state of eternal celibacy. He has been a virgin for over 174 years (beating out sparkly vampire Edward Cullen, of Twilight fame, for the longest span of virginity for a YA-romance hero). Because of both his sexist, nineteenth-century attitudes and strong adherence to the view of his Catholic faith that fornication is immoral, Jesse believes that making love with Suze outside of marriage would dishonor her. The problem is, he has unilaterally refused to get married until he can make an unspecified amount of income as a doctor, which he, and he alone, will determine is sufficient to support a wife and any potential offspring.

It is also rather irritating that Suze clearly hasn't emotionally matured very much during the past four years since the events of Book 6 of this series, Twilight. Her primary character flaws, which are evident throughout this entire series, are bullheaded overconfidence combined with a hazardous lack of common sense and self-knowledge. These are the typical traits of slapstick comedy characters.

This audiobook is performed by the same voice talent, Johanna Parker, who narrates the entire series. She does an excellent job.


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Terrific, romcom short story

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 12-24-24

On Valentine's Day, 25-year-old Rosie goes to a fancy health spa for the day with her older sister and gets trapped in a float tank. When the staff at the spa cannot get the door of the tank unlocked, the fire department is called. Leo, a 27-year-old firefighter, sticks with Rosie during the hours it takes to finally get her out of the float tank, and they have a wonderful, extended conversation.

Given that this is a short story, it is not surprising that it ends with an HFN, but the FMC and MMC are so fantastic and so well matched, I was fully convinced that they will ultimately reach an HEA together.

The narration is well done.

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