Nichole ~ Bookaholic

Title:  Dreamer’s Pool: Blackthorn & Grim, Book 1

Author:  Juliet Marillier

Narrators: Scott Aiello, Natalie Gold, Nick Sullivan

Publisher/Date:  Audible Studios, 11/04/14

Length: 17 hours 44 minutes

Copy Provided by Audiobook Jukebox

Book Blurb:

In exchange for help escaping her long and wrongful imprisonment, embittered magical healer Blackthorn has vowed to set aside her bid for vengeance against the man who destroyed all that she once held dear. Followed by a former prison mate, a silent hulk of a man named Grim, she travels north to Dalriada. There she'll live on the fringe of a mysterious forest, duty bound for seven years to assist anyone who asks for her help.

Oran, crown prince of Dalriada, has waited anxiously for the arrival of his future bride, Lady Flidais. He knows her only from a portrait and sweetly poetic correspondence that have convinced him Flidais is his destined true love. But Oran discovers letters can lie. For although his intended exactly resembles her portrait, her brutality upon arrival proves she is nothing like the sensitive woman of the letters.

With the strategic marriage imminent, Oran sees no way out of his dilemma. Word has spread that Blackthorn possesses a remarkable gift for solving knotty problems, so the prince asks her for help. To save Oran from his treacherous nuptials, Blackthorn and Grim will need all their resources: courage, ingenuity, leaps of deduction, and more than a little magic.

My Thoughts: 

I have to start with the narration,  usually one of my pet peeves is the alternating narration from POV’s (mostly with dual narration), I’ve ranted about it before, but this time with three narrators and maybe because it is three points of view’s instead of just two…it worked for me.  All three narrators did a fabulous job, even though we had to recall three sets of voices for each of the characters they were still very distinct and you knew which character was speaking regardless of who was narrating.  At the moment, the best thing about this book is the narration, and even that is not enough, I may DNF this with only about 4 hours left…….argh, very frustrating

I made it another hour and am just disgusted with Blackthorn…..I had figured out early on the problem with Lady Flidais.  While initially the story pulled me in I found myself getting board before I was 50% through.  The book is well written but for me just way to wordy.  There were a lot of details and descriptions that I could have done without and I found it quite frustrating to have so much foreshadowing to get to the freaking point….I listened for almost 13 hours before Blackthorn and Grim were asked to investigate.   If the rest of the story had been more engaging it would have helped, I kept waiting for something to happen. I listened to 14 ½ hours and while the issue that made me hit “pause” on the play most likely resolves itself, all I can say is that Blackthorn’s reaction at this point  just did me in, she should really know better….it has been over a week since I hit pause and I just can’t bring myself to hit the play button again…..I may finish those final three hours someday….but not today.

So for me the best thing about this book is the narration, as I said above, all three did a fabulous job.  Narration is a full 5 stars.  The Book for me is really only about 1½ to 2 Stars.

This book was provided by the Publisher via Audiobook Jukebox for an honest review