Grimelda

Spoilers ahead

Revisado: 06-14-24

Half way through this book and it's obvious that the author should have taken the whole series, edited it down to about 35% and released it as a single volume. The progress is extremely slow. The threat from the ex husband hinted at in the last book is dropped for now. The son shows up with a surprise baby that was left on his doorstep (really? ridiculous) and moves with baby in with the handyman (as if). And there's a contrived plot with a town bully who holds a grudge against dear dead Aunt Norma. Everyone hates the bully but somehow she always gets her way, and now she's trying to get the hotel project shut down so she can buy it and bulldoze it.

The stupidest thing is that the MC finds some compromising photos of the bully in her Aunt's things and uses them for blackmail. The bully splutters a bit and threatens to sue for libel, but doesn't state the obvious that blackmail is a serious crime and can result in a prison sentence. None of this book or the previous one makes any sense!

One hour left and I don't know that I care enough to keep listening.

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Bland romance

Revisado: 06-14-24

On the one hand it's nice to have a sweet romance involving middle aged protagonists. The narration is great. However, the story is somewhat dull and not a lot happens in the almost six hours this book runs.

Georgia, a fifty something mother in the midst of an ugly divorce, is gifted an inheritance from a great aunt she was apparently extremely close to, even though she hadn't called or visited her in years and didn't seem to know anything going on in her life. Every minor obstacle or set back is solved ridiculously easily, so there is no real tension. Eg the daughter is out of work but stumbles into a job while buying groceries. Mother needs help to renovate the hotel she inherited and hey, presto, her Aunt's handyman just happens to be living in one of the cottages. She needs money. Aunt has a bunch of designer clothes and jewelry she can sell. Plus money from the estate. Even the DIY projects are completed in a jiffy with no setbacks or issues.

There's some foreshadowing with the son potentially siding with his unfaithful father against Georgia and her daughter Mia, but this comes to nothing. And a brief chat with said ex trying to get his hands on the inheritance which doesn't go anywhere.

If I'd paid money for this book I would return it.

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sexist and dated

Revisado: 11-27-23

This is an old book and like most of JAKs earlier works, the male lead is an obnoxious, sexist jerk. Not fond of this narrator either.

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Did a teen boy write this?

Revisado: 07-17-23

Couldn't make it through to the end of book one. The characters are poorly drawn, one dimensional cliches including an obvious self insert by the author. No apparent plot apart from the obvious: Muslim terrorists bring down North American via EMP and it's up to our Joe Sixpack to save the day. The notes from grandma might have been an interesting plot device had grandma not been a half wit. Predictably the MC gets a harem of willing wimminfolk being as he's sitting on the only pile of food and ammo left. Unfortunately he's also dumb as a box of rocks, so they keep getting kidnapped and turned into sex slaves. The racism against Muslims was also way over the top.

Kevin Pierce is an incredibly popular narrator but I can't work out why. He sounds like a 90 year old who forgot to put in his dentures. There was no effort to inject emotion or character into the narration, he made a bad book unbearable. I was hoping the second narrator would improve things, but she is barely used. I wish Audible would employ some variety with their narrators in this genre.

Not much more to say. Wish I could return the book.

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Average

Revisado: 02-11-23

Performance was good. Story didn't grip me and I couldn't finish. Don't even remember enough about it to say what I didn't like. It was just boring.

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Not a new Jayne Ann Krentz title

Revisado: 02-11-23

I thought this was a new book based on the release date, but the novel was originally published in 1990 and like most of JAK's works from that period, this wasn't my favourite.
All characters, good and bad, are walking stereotypes. The main female lead puts up with being manhandled, stripped, interrogated, and bossed around without raising any serious objections. She talks like a bad cliche of an activist. The male lead is manipulative, overbearing and ice cold. There is no solid foundation for romance there. I gave up half way through and will be returning this one.

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Refreshing for a Post Apocalyptic novel

Revisado: 06-16-22

In a genre of fiction that tends to be as formulaic as any romance novel, this series stands out head and shoulders above the rest. For a start there are no zombies or EMPs. The end of the world is a bit more subtle, complex and interesting. Not just the initial computer virus that brings the US logistics system down, but the other threats such as climate change, corruption, food insecurity and the eventual retaliation by the USA. Seemed more real than 'Russian/Chinese baddies nuke North American back to the 1850s'.

The story shows disparate groups of people struggling to cope with the collapse of American civilisation.The characters are drawn from all sections of society: single mothers, alt-right podcaster, financial analyst, bodybuilder, photographer, chef, etc. As the plot develops, the groups meet each other and events unfold in some interesting ways culminating in a grand showdown at the end of Book 3.

The political message also isn't in your face conservative Christian like many in the field. I appreciated this a lot and I understand will make the series unpopular with many. I found the author's view of human nature more realistic than many of the prepper self insert authors out there. Maybe because I'm the same nationality as the author but my experience is that people tend to band together during a crisis rather than instantly turning on each other.

The narrator is amazing too. He did a great job with all of the voices, particularly Damo (which makes sense),

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Decent value for one credit

Revisado: 09-01-21

It's refreshing to read a post apocalyptic story where there are no EMPs, no zombies, and no bible thumping. For the novelty alone, it's worth a credit.

The story follows the adventures of married couple Rick and Dianne, separated when a mysterious event causes cars to explode and planes to fall out of the sky. Rick has just touched down on the west coast of the USA for a work trip, when his rental car explodes, and now needs to make his way back to his family in Virginia on foot. Meanwhile, his wife Diane, and three kids are left at home to fend for themselves. While Rick is diverted to help out a mission to solve the mystery of The Event and to counteract it, Dianne and a small band of neighbours must fight off regular onslaughts from a local gang of thugs led by a power crazed leader hell bent on taking their resources and turning them into slaves.

The story is predictable enough, but still enjoyable. My main problem is that the story stretches the limits of belief regularly. Rick is commandeered to help fight Damocles, for no discernible reason apart from that he asks too many questions. Most of the setbacks faced by the characters are solved by sheer dumb luck, particularly Dianne's group. At numerous points throughout the story, the characters are faced with almost certain doom only to be spared defeat by finding the right object (boat, medicine), meeting the right people (police officers, random group of Russians Spetsnaz) or having either the stupidest or unluckiest opponents in the history of post apocalyptic fiction.

My second problem is that the female characters, apart from Dianne, seem mostly to exist to ask stupid questions and give the male characters opportunities for exposition and heroics. I'm looking at you, Jane.

Apart from these minor quibbles, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the genre.

The narrator is not too bad, but has a terrible time doing accents and gives the MC a growling voice that's kind of annoying by a few chapters in. By far not the worst but also not great.

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ugh

Revisado: 08-04-21

I'd become invested in this story, but think this will be the last book in the series I bother with. There isn't a single female character in this book that isn't completely bloody useless. Not just useless but irrational, cowardly and actively hurting the group's chances for survival. Dialogue gets repeated with the characters saying the same thing over and over.like the author was trying to pad the story out without enough material for a full book.

Narration is uneven with frequent mispronunciations and often the character's voices blend together and the narrator doesn't always use the previously established accent/intonation.

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Heroine too stupid to live

Revisado: 01-02-21

I hate novels where the heroine repeatedly makes dumb decisions, especially when they put both herself and others in danger. In this case it's not even needed to push the story along so not sure why the author made that choice. Also the romance between the two main characters was not believable. It doesn't seem realistic to me that someone who has been terrorised, raped and assaulted in the past would get over such a huge deception and betrayal from the hero so fast, especially given the short time period they had known each other prior. It also made no sense that secondary characters not only didn't care about his actions but even seemed keen to push the two of them together.

The narrator was fine, but not ideal for this story. Would have benefited from someone with a bit more range.

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