Book 2 of the Harper Connelly series
Read by Alyssa Bresnahan
Format: audiobook CD
Genre: urban fantasy
About Grave Surprise:
Charlaine Harris is already a star and a New York Times bestseller with her vampire mysteries starring Sookie Stackhouse and her Lily Bard mysteries. This second installment to her new supernatural mystery series might just be her biggest hit yet. Grave Sight's Harper Connelly is back, and her ability to find the dead and see their last moments is in higher demand than ever...Source: Info in the About Grave Surprise was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/140078.Grave_Surprise on 03/02/2012.
A college class gets more than it bargained for when Harper gives a demonstration of her uncanny talent. Instead of just finding one body in an old grave, she finds two: the original occupant and a recently deceased girl whom Harper had tried, and failed, to find two years previously. To dispel suspicions about her own innocence, Harper and her stepbrother Tolliver undertake their own hunt to find the killer-only to find yet another body in the same grave.
This book is better than Grave Sight! It seems like Charlaine Harris is improving in her writing style as she writes more books!If this trend continues, this series could be more addictive than the Sookie Stackhouse ever was! And I almost did not listen to this audiobook because Harper Connelly, the main protagonist, was too stupid to live (TSTL) in Book 1. However, she was not TSTL in this book. There were hints but nothing out and out stupidity like Sookie does usually! I can readily forgive "hints of stupidity", given that this book has such wonderful story telling quality and world building!! Now, I am sooo glad that I have Books 3 and 4 borrowed from the library as well!
So be warned: this series is even more addictive than the Sookie Stackhouse series!!
I don't know whether I am just getting so used to Alyssa Bresnahan or that her narrating skills is actually good, but I find her voice not only easy to the ears but her reading is quite good. Diction is appropriate. Words distinct. And I was wondering how she and other narrators managed to change the timbre of their voice to make it sound male and female yet be the same reader. That must have been a real talent... unless they use a voice filter or something. Still, I like it. It makes listening easier. It makes distinguishing between characters easier. I would listen to other audiobooks by this narrator again.
Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 2
Pace = N/A (8-hour playing time)
Plot = 4
Narrator = 5
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries
Thank you to RCT Library for letting me borrow this audiobook!!
FTC Disclosure:
This audiobook was borrowed from the library. No money received for this review.
I've been wanting to try her work and I'm so over vamps, so maybe I should check this one out.
ReplyDeleteSo if I just make it through book 1 her tstl gets cured ;)
ReplyDeleteCool. glad to hear this series is better. And that the narrator is easy to listen to, that makes a huge difference. :) Thank you for the review. This is a series I've really not heard much about, so I enjoy hearing about it. :)
ReplyDeleteI have to get back to reading Charlaine Harris and really should give an audio book a try. I haven't tried an audio in ages. The last one I tried had such a cruddy narrator that there was no way, but I suppose that is a big factor. Great review.
ReplyDelete