Audiobook Blog Tour Review: Stray by Natasha Stories

Author: Natasha Stories

Narrators: Sierra Kline and Jeffrey Kafer

Length: 7 hours 32 minutes

Publisher: Ashton Publishing Group

Released: Feb. 15, 2018

Genre: Contemporary Romance

 

 

From best-selling author Natasha Stories.

Erin Timms took a new job as a veterinarian in Sunshine, Colorado, for two important reasons: to get away from her ex, and to give herself a chance at a new life. But when devastating news of her ex follows her there, she begins to think she has made a terrible mistake.

Tall, stunning-looking Jon Miles had only one goal: to save the mountain canyon where Sunshine is located from businessmen who want to exploit it. But how can he do that when he is already an outcast?

There was nothing to suggest they’d ever meet, much less strike a spark of red-hot romance. Except that Erin can never turn away a stray....

 

   

I'm Natasha, and I write romance and erotic romance stories. I love reading too, and some of my favourite novels are books like Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James, the Fade series by Kate Dawes, as well as the Crossfire series.

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Sierra Kline - Programmer by day, narrator by night, Sierra Kline has more than 300 titles available on Audible. True to her Midwestern roots, Sierra got her degree in theatre from Michigan State University which she has been fortunate to put to heavy use both on the stage and in the booth. When she's not recording in her home studio, she prefers the great outdoors and loves running, traveling, and backpacking.

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Jeffrey Kafer - Jeffrey Kafer is a full-time SAG-AFTRA audiobook narrator. He has narrated over 450 books in almost every genre for such authors Clive Barker, Steve Alten, Maya Banks, Gregg Olsen and many others. He has 2 degrees in cinema and broadcasting and spent the first part of his career as a video game tester for Microsoft before following his true passion of acting. He’s been on stage since he was 13 (his mom still has the bellhop costume she made) and currently lives in Los Angeles with his family and dog.

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  I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Sierra Kline. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.  

My rating:  4 stars

Overall, I really enjoyed the story.  I loved the things about the main character that I connected with, like the fact that she watched reruns of The Big Bang Theory to cheer herself up.   Then there was the part where she took care of her own needs, and we actually got that scene with her vibrator in more detail than we usually get in a book.  Not a bad thing, just not what you see in these types of books.  Usually you just find out that they used one, but it doesn't go into the detail as if it was a sex scene, which it basically is.  I was afraid the book would be one that made me cry, since it started with an injured dog, but after that first part, which is what led to our two characters meeting in the first place, everything else with the dogs was sweet and I loved it!

There was the usual part of the story where the two didn't actually talk to each other, which would have totally cleared up so many issues.  The fact that Jon was basically cheating, but not in how he felt, well I feel the way Erin handled that was realistic and not at all what is normally too quick to forgive and move past what he did.  But then the way that Jon went about trying to win her back was perfect in my book as well.  He didn't expect what he did to be perfect, but he did it because it was right, not just because it would hopefully win her back.  Especially since he didn't even get forgiveness from who he was trying to get it from.  In the end I loved the way the story went, I enjoyed the little epilogue, and I will probably read or listen to other books by this author if I get the chance.

 

Apr. 1st: Lisa Loves Literature Loves Great Reads  

Apr. 2nd: Lilly's Book World The Book Junkie Reads . . .  

Apr. 3rd: Lynn's Romance Enthusiasm Audiobook Romance  

Apr. 4th: Jazzy Book Reviews The Bookworm Lodge Next Book Review  

Apr. 5th: Book Addict London's Scribbles What Is That Book About  

Apr. 6th: Simply Kelina In Patti's Imagination  

Apr. 7th: Books A-Brewin' The Book Addict's Reviews 

 

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Review: Stray by Elissa Sussman

First, thanks to Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I have really been into fairy tale re-tellings, as well as just reimaginings or stories with the characters from those fairy tales.  And this story ended up not disappointing. 

The main character is Princess Aislynn.  In the world she lives in women have magic, but are not supposed to use it.  They are supposed to follow the "Path"  and prepare themselves for a life with their future husband and without magic.  Girls who fail at holding their magic in will get redirected to be fairy godmothers.  The fairy godmothers are allowed to use magic.  And every princess, or girl on her path to her future life with her husband, has their own fairy godmother.  Aislynn has always had a little trouble holding her magic in.  She has learned when it is seeming to bubble up that she can stop it by causing herself some kind of bodily harm.  And so she has cuts and scars all over her legs.  A place that is hidden with her tights and long dresses.  But right when it is time for her big Introduction Ball, one of the other girls there, a very hateful girl, upsets her so much that she can't control the magic.  And from that she is redirected to become a fairy godmother.  She now will lose her loving heart, and become the help for another princess.  This time it is a well-known princess, Linnea, and she is at a new school, far away from her family.  At this new school she makes new friends.  A maid named Brigid, a gardener named Thackery, as well as the carriage driver named Ford.  And she learns that maybe not all she was taught as a princess is true.  Maybe those that she was always taught were evil aren't necessarily the ones causing the problems.  And maybe those they've always thought they needed to follow their directions and rules are the ones that should be feared.

A great idea of who fairy godmothers are or might have been before they became as we know them.  Now, there doesn't list a sequel on Goodreads, but it does say this is the first in a collection of intertwined stories, and I don't know how long I can wait to read the next one!  Especially since this had a bit of a cliffhanger ending.  This one did start off a bit slow for me, but soon it picked up and I could barely put it down to work, to sleep, to do anything else.  There are still many questions I have about this world, and so as I said, I'm very eager for the next story to come out.  A definite recommendation for anyone who enjoys fairy tales reimagined.

Teaser Tuesday - September 30th, 2014

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can play along!  Just do the following:

• Grab your current read 
• Open to a random page
•  Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•  BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 My Teaser:

"Her magic gave a strange lurch, as if it was being pulled from inside her.  As if there was a hand sliding up through her ribs, stripping the magic away from her very core.  She felt as if she was being turned inside out and scraped clean." 
~p. 175, Stray by Elissa Sussman