Love the series, dislike pronunciation

I appreciate the accents used, but pronunciation of the Italian is terrible.
Still love the series; this was my 3rd trip through it.

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On a Quest

Beatrice and Gio are on a quest to find her Father, Steven and the book of alchemy. It takes them to China where both are in safekeeping, or so they think, when Lorenzo makes yet another appearance to destroy everyone's peace of mind. Beatrice is wanting to change to become a vampire, Gio wants her to wait, while other allies have their own ideas for her. Another interesting installment of the elemental world.

2 people found this helpful

Fun series, interesting twists, but...

The main character is bright, well developed, and holds her own throughout. I really enjoyed her intelligence, cleverness, and strength. Premise and characters are the most important things in any series, so I recommend this one to those who enjoy a little history in their paranormal romance adventures. I enjoyed this series very much for what it is, but there are some annoyances with the writing and audio performance though the story is good enough that it managed to pull me in.
My problem with the writing was the author's need for a thesaurus so that, for example, a word like "face" doesn't show up a half dozen times in a single descriptive paragraph (ironic, when your lead character is a librarian, no?)
My biggest issue was the narrator's mispronunciations! These were, at least, consistent so once I got done seething over a newly mangled term I had to go back to listening, because in spite of everything, I really wanted to know what happened next! Steppes are not steppies, signor does not have a hard g, and the name of that wonderful Scotch, Laphroaig, does not sound like L'Afro-Igg. As long as you can grit your teeth and glaze over this type of issue (these 3 terms were the biggest offenders for me)
If you enjoy Patricia Briggs or Ilona Andrews I can say that Elizabeth Hunter deserves a look, we readers can always hope that the editing gets tighter in future works.

2 people found this helpful

series is going downhill

This was my least favorite of this series so far, but I still have one more volume to go. This book didn't feel like a very rounded story. It was just a minor plot point buffer, but overall very lackluster. Yes a few things transpired that were kind of big deals, but it felt more like a ridiculously long prologue for the next book with 2/3rds superfluous words just to fill the pages. There was also a lot more sexual stuff in this versus the other two books prior. It felt unnecessary and again just thrown in there to add more words.

1 person found this helpful

very good

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall

Narration still poor but story is good

3rd book in and Dina Pearlman still has not improved on the narration. Her voices are not distinct, accents horrible and transitions between scenes non-existent. I find I periodically have to back track to make sure I know who is supposed to be speaking (was it Beatrice or some male in her life) or make sure I did not accidentally skip ahead on my Apple Watch. If I could reread this wonderful series on my Kindle, I would instead of listening to Dina.

Elizabeth’s story is engaging and has a nice balance of suspense and love.

Character Voices and their Accents Ruins Story

Narrator awful. The male and the female voice characterizations are poorly executed and the accents for the Mandarin, Welsh, Scots, Spanish, English speaking players are even worse.
The mispronounced English words are just hard on ears and the narrator should take elocution lessons.

Poor narration

I enjoyed the story, but I couldn’t tolerate the poor narration…mispronounced words, bad accents…I had to return the Audible.

Great story, narration equally excellent

I've got the entire series of this book, collecting Audible now, thanks. Ms. Pearlman really can swing from American to Italian. Super enjoyed it.

So disappointing.

One minute I am reading a great series & this author moves to a completely different plot. Not a fan . I will give it 1 more book to see if she goes back. I will get my money back. Awful waste of time.