Shadow Ops: Control Point 1  

by Myke Cole

Release Date: Jan 12, 2015

Approximate Running Time: 7 Hours

Number of CDs: 7

ISBN # 978-1-62851-123-9

Content Rating: Ages 18+

Army Officer. Fugitive. Sorcerer.

Across the country and in every nation, people are waking up with magical talents. Untrained and panicked, they summon storms, raise the dead, and set everything they touch ablaze. 

Army officer Oscar Britton sees the worst of it. A lieutenant attached to the military's Supernatural Operations Corps, his mission is to bring order to a world gone mad. Then he abruptly manifests a rare and prohibited magical power, transforming him overnight from government agent to public enemy number one.

The SOC knows how to handle this kind of situation: hunt him down--and take him out. Driven into an underground shadow world, Britton is about to learn that magic has changed all the rules he's ever known, and that his life isn't the only thing he's fighting for.

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Reviewed for www.audiobookreviewer.com ,  you can see review here: http://audiobookreviewer.com/reviews/control-point-shadow-ops-book-1-by-myke-cole/ 

So I am going to start with the narration, this audio is the Graphic Audio Version which like their tag line says “A movie for your mind”.  You have a full cast narration with mood music, sound effects and all that good stuff.  I LOVE the Graphic Audios; while it can come off a bit cheesy at times it is a lot of fun to listen to.  The narration was great the voices fit the characters and the story.  5 Star narrations on this.

For the story, I have mixed feelings on this.  When it started it felt like there was to much of an information dump and at the same time not enough information.  There were a lot of military acronyms, enough to be distracted from the story trying to figure out what they stood for when they were not explained right away. I found this frustrating and ended taking quite a few breaks while listing.  I can usually finish an Audiobook in 2-4 days and this one took me 2 weeks to finish.

I liked the premise of the story, a future where people manifest magic and it is regulated by the government. It you are a latent and don’t turn yourself in when your magic manifests you are hunted down by the Supernatural Operations Corps.  The main character Oscar manifests a forbidden magic shortly after an operation to take down some latent’s that ran and ended up injuring/killing people and destroying a school before they are taken out.   And while I can suspend belief for the sake of world building and story telling…..I had a hard time buying how Oscar acted throughout, even the fear based actions/reactions did not fit with how his character is presented.  I found myself wavering between feeling bad for the hand he was dealt when he was finally caught and then thinking with all his military training can he really be that stupid.  In the end I think this one was just not for me.   

Audiobook provided by Graphic Audio via Audiobook Reviewer for an honest reveiw

Technical Details

Written by: Amira Rain

Narrated by: Meghan Kelly

Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins 

Unabridged Audiobook

Release Date:03-04-15

Publisher: BMB Digital Lt

Book Blurb

In a dystopian future, fertile women are so hard to come by that they are now bought and sold for huge sums of money across the world. You could say that women are now the new currency. Curvy Kira Southerly is one of the few remaining fertile women left on the planet and she has resigned herself to the fate of being sold.

However, she had no idea she would end up being sold to two young and handsome bachelors named Blake and Steven. They are both dragon shifters and they are intent on mating with her and producing a baby as soon as possible.

With not enough fertile women to go around the brothers have no choice but to share the curvy beauty among themselves. Something that allows Kira to fulfill her every sexual fantasy....

Being sold to dragons should not be this much fun, should it?

Story 

The story had a lot of potential, I liked the premise, it was just not executed very well.  Some of the issues I have with the story; there is no explanation for how the dragon shifters came about, just the world had some extreme weather heat and cold, women have become less fertile and then wow, suddenly there are dragons, so world building could have been a bit better.  When we first meet Kira she is very likeable but not so much further in, there were a few TSTL moments and then the whole “I’m not worthy to be a mother, to be with Steven or Blake, I have to prove myself” spiel had me rolling my eyes. The other issue that took away from the enjoyment of the story was the excessive use of so many clichés;  “my most sensitive spot” “my femininity/parts/folds, lips” (used 30ish times), “stiff/steel rod” “erect/stiffened/stiffening manhood”.  This is supposed to be erotica and be sexy and the use of all the cliché words just made me cringe and to me was not sexy at all.  I was also disappointed with how it ended/wrapped up 

Narration 

I thought the narrator sounded familiar so went back to my audible library to see if I had listened to her before, she narrated a short story I listened to last year.  I think her narration has improved from the issues I had previously and in this book I thought she did a good job.  My complaint is mostly Steven’s voice, while Blake and the other male characters seemed to have a “normal” tenor to the voice, the one she gave Steven made him seem smarmy, …on occasion she slipped into that same tone when speaking as Blake,

So all in all the story was not as good as I wanted it to be and for me is 1.5 Stars, the narration was good and for me averages a 2.5/3 stars.

Audiobook provided by Narrator for an honest review

Book Blurb

WARNING: May Contain Werewolves.

A pyramid predating all known cultures appears without warning. Its discovery throws into question everything we know about the origins of mankind.

Inside lies incredible technology, proof of a culture far more advanced than our own. Something dark lurks within, eager to resume a war as old as mankind. When it is unleashed it heralds the end of our species’ reign.

A plague of werewolves spreads across the world. A sunspot larger than anything in recorded history begins to grow. Yet both pale in comparison to the true threat, the evil the werewolves were created to fight.

My Thoughts

This was an awesome mix of adventure (think Indiana Jones), Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Mythology all in one action packed story.  While this one did start out a bit slow for me , it did really start to pick up once Blair is in Peru at the site with the rest of the scientific team.  From here I found the story very engaging and the story pulls you along on the wild ride that is “There are no Such Things as Werewolves”.  There is so much I want to say about this story but so far everything I start out typing is just full of spoilers…..I will say that in the beginning I was very happy with myself to have figured out what the ancient enemy was….only to have that turned upside down and realized about 60-70% in that I was very wrong (which is a good thing, I like a book that surprises me).   And the cliffhanger this ends on…..I mean really….how could you do that to us the listener/reader……that was just kinda mean.  I will now have to satisfy myself with the prequel  “The First Ark” and bide my time for the audio of the next book to be released.

~Narration~  Ryan Kennard Burke is a new to me narrator (although his voice is so familiar I’m wondering if he has narrated other books under another name……) and he did an amazing job telling this story.  A narrator can really make or break a book and in this case the narration just brings the characters to life.  I will definitely be looking at other books by RKB, and cannot wait to listen to the next book in this series.  My one complaint is the production quality (not sure if my review copy was a clean “edited” copy or not), at first it seemed like there was some static or echoing and this continued on throughout the story.  I don’t know anything about sound recording or production other then knowing something does not sound right, so I had my husband listen and he said what I was hearing sounded like sibilance overloading the recording or maxing out the compressor.

Other than that small issue I enjoyed the story and the narration and am looking forward to more.

Reviewed for www.audiobookreviewer.com, 

Audiobook was provided by Audiobook Reviewer for an honest review

Technical Details

Title:  The Bane Chronicles

Author: Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson & Sarah Rees Brennan

Narrators: Cecil Baldwin, Jamie Bamber, George Blagden, Gareth David-Lloyd, Jordan Gavaris, Stephen Lunsford, David Oyelowo, Andrew Scott, Michael Trevino, Jesse Williams, plus a bonus story read by Seth Numrich & Molly C. Quinn

Publisher/Date:  Simon & Schuster Audio 11/11/14

Format Listened to:  Audio CD

Book Blurb

Fans of The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices can get to know warlock Magnus Bane like never before in this collection of New York Times bestselling tales, on CD for the first time with an exclusive new story.

This collection of eleven short stories illuminates the life of the enigmatic Magnus Bane, whose alluring personality, flamboyant style, and sharp wit populate the pages of the #1 New York Times bestselling series, The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices.

Originally released one-by-one as e-only short stories by Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson, and Sarah Rees Brennan, this compilation presents all ten together on CD for the first time and includes a never-before-seen eleventh tale

My Thoughts

I enjoyed what I listened to of the Mortal Instrument Series, I listened to the first three books (If I recall it was supposed to be a trilogy originally) and was on the fence for the 4^th book as the narrator changed to have dual narration (to which I have a pet peeve when done by switching narrator with the change of POV instead of “the guy reading the guy parts and the girl reading the girl parts….I won’t get started on my rant) and I was seeing a lot of mixed reviews.  I was actually happy with where I left off at book 3.  One of my favorite characters was Magnus Bane so when I saw that there was an Audiobook for the short stories I was very excited to learn more about him and his adventures.  While I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this….they were really all “fluff” stories, good ones but still fluff.  I think my favorite story “What really happened in Peru.”

I did like that there were different narrators for the stories, some were better then others but all in all they were pretty good.

This audiobook was provided by the Author/Publisher via Audiobook Jukebox for an honest review

Title:  Talon

Author:  Julie Kagawa

Narrators: Caitlin Davies, MacLeod Andrews, Chris Patton

Length: 12 hours 32 minutes/Unabridged

Publisher/Date:  Blackstone Audio, 10/28/14

Audio provided by Author/Publisher via Audiobook Jukebox for an honest review.

Book Blurb

In Julie Kagawa s groundbreaking modern fantasy series, dragons walk among us in human form.

Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they re positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser.

Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George.

Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talon s newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his prey and nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Ember s bravery, confidence, and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the order has ingrained in him and what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons.

My Thoughts 

I was not sure what to expect with this one, I have not yet read/listened to anything by Julie Kagawa but I love Paranormal/Urban Fantasy with Dragon Shifters and while YA is not my favorite genre I really wanted to try something by this author.  I’m still somewhat undecided about this one…..

Here is what I liked:

• I liked that there were three narrators.  While Caitlin Davies narration got better as the book progressed it was still only so-so.  MacLeod Andrews did a fabulous job and enjoyed listening to his narration.  Chris Patton did a great job but he did not show up until the second part of the book.
• I liked the idea of the story, dragons still around in human guise, living with us, an ancient order in pursuit whose sole purpose is to kill all dragons.
• Garret and Riley were very interesting characters, Ember….initially I was not fond of her but I think the bulk of that was the voice the narrator gave her.  Dante was pretty much peripheral for most of the book and was a bigger part at the end of the book.

What I did not like:

• It was not as engaging as I wanted it to be, I wanted it to have me at the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened next.  It was very slow in the beginning and actually pretty boring.  I think I was expecting something more fantastical then we actually get.  It only really picked up for the last hour or so of the book when everything was “coming to a head”
• Not a fan of the whole “love triangle”
• It was very predictable….so far no surprises for anything that has happened
• While it would take away from the story…..i’m still not a fan of the brainwashing by both Talon and The Order of Saint George…..I realize that the hatred on both sides is needed to move the story….but I just really dislike that type of blind fanaticism….there are always shades of gray nothing is really black and white.

So this one gets 3½  stars....I will most likely listen to the second one when it comes out in April but it will be the “make or break” book for me.

 Simon Say's - the prequel to Guardians of the Dark Series.  A good quick read that gives you just a glimpse into this "smarter" zombie  infested reality

The Blurb

In the first entry in the Guild Hunter series, New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh introduces a world of beauty and bloodlust where angels hold sway over vampires.

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux knows she's the best—but she doesn't know if she's good enough for this job. Hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that no mortal wants his attention, only one thing is clear—failure is not an option...even if the task is impossible.

Because this time, it's not a wayward vamp she has to track. It's an archangel gone bad.

The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other…and pull her to the razor's edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn't destroy her, succumbing to Raphael's seductive touch just may. For when archangels play, mortals break…

My Thoughts

This book is such a great start to the series, Elena is pretty kick ass and while Raphael starts out being a bit of an ass, Elena makes him a better Archangel. After these two, my next favorite character is Illium and if memory serves correct I think later in the series there is a short story or Novella that features him.....

Nalini Singh does a great job with the world building without it being too much of an info dump.....and you will immediately want to jump into the next book. Justine Eye did a wonderful job with the narration

So far this is one of the better cookbooks for electric pressure cookers. It has (at least for me) much needed information that did not come with my cooker. My only real issue is it seems like the recipes are "cut & pasted" from other sources.....while not a huge issue.....some just seem to be missing information that is most likely shared in the blog/post but is not part of the recipe. This is available as a KU book..., but I ended up purchasing it....I felt it was worth the 3.99 for the " guide" part of the book alone

Wow.... I can't believe how much I mised the first time around.......well maybe I can........I remember listening at 2x speed so I clould qiuckly find out  

After so much time it almost felt like a new book. This was a great series that just got better and better with each book and while the narration was good with the original narrator, when they changed to the dual narration with Natalie Ross & Phil Gigante it was awesome, it took the the story from "a good listen" to a " spectacular listen