4/5 Stars Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon: A Minnesota Mystery by Larry Millett

August 31, 2021August 11, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, mystery Larry Millett, mystery, Sherlock Holmes

Series: Sherlock Holmes & Shadwell, Book 1

Narrated by Steve Hendrickson

Run Time 9 hrs and 35 mins

Summary:

Sherlock Holmes and Watson get called in to investigate a series of threats made to a railroad mogul.

Additional Comments:

The case kind of meanders all over the place. I almost stopped in the first 25 minutes when it was nothing but babbling about the authenticity of the case.
The beloved characters are true to form.
Although the book dragged in many places, I would read more by this author.
The narration works. This isn’t the best or worst narrator I’ve ever heard, and I would certainly listen to more of him as well.
The conclusion is predictable yet satisfying. That sort of pattern is typical of mysteries. I’ve been watching a lot of Criminal Minds lately and many episodes have that sort of pattern where the tragedy leads to more tragedies.

Conclusion:

If you’re a Sherlock Holmes fan, yet have exhausted all of the official tales, this may satisfy your need for more of the famous detective.

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Many of my 50 audible titles are listed on Audiobooks Unleashed.
Whether you’re looking for mystery or suspense or fantasy, I’ve got a title for you. Free codes are probably on audiobooks unleashed.
Normal links go to audible. *The Amazon labeled links are affiliate links. That means I get a very small payment from Amazon if you go through with a purchase.*
Note: Filter by US if you’re looking for those codes as many titles are out.
Ones I think may still have US codes: Reshner’s Royal Ranger, Never Again, Innova, The Golden City Captives, The Holy War, Reclaim the Darklands, Eagle Eyes, Treachery Makes it Tense, Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts, The Dark Side of Science, Ashlynn’s Dreams, Nadia’s Tears, Malia’s Miracles, and Varick’s Quest
There are plenty of UK codes, but not many US ones left.

Redeemer Chronicles (Fantasy)

Awakening – Redeemer Chronicles Book 1, MG fantasy (Amazon) (free codes)
The Holy War – Redeemer Chronicles Book 2, MG fantasy (Amazon) (free codes)
Reclaim the Darklands – Redeemer Chronicles Book 3, MG fantasy (Amazon) (free codes)
River’s Edge Ransom – Prequel to Redeemer Chronicles (Amazon) (email devyaschildren @ gmail.com for free codes)

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Devya’s Children Series Links:

Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts – short stories featuring Jillian. (Amazon) (free codes)
The Dark Side of Science – official prequel to Devya’s Children; Genetically altered kids fight for the right to live. (Amazon) (Please email devyaschildren @ gmail.com for free codes)
Ashlynn’s Dreams – Genetically altered Dream Shaper learns her gift. (Amazon) (free codes)
Nadia’s Tears – Jillian tries to awaken her sister, Nadia, from a coma. (Amazon) (free codes)
Malia’s Miracles – Jillian and her siblings try to save a friend’s mother. (Amazon) (free codes)
Varick’s Quest – Jillian and Danielle get kidnapped. Nadia’s also in trouble. (Amazon) (free codes)
More Scifi:
Reshner’s Royal Ranger (epic sci-fi) just made it there. (Amazon) (free codes)

Guardian Angel Files:

Spirit’s Bane – Allister and Mina are training to be Guardians. Satan’s out to get them. (Amazon) (free codes)
Kindred Spirits – Mina’s exiled to Earth. Allister’s stuck in the Heavens. (Amazon) (free codes)

Beyond Broken Pencils by Julie C. Gilbert

August 30, 2021August 23, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, literature, suspense Curt Bonnem, Julie C. Gilbert, school shooting, tragedy

Narrated by Curt Bonnem

Run Time: 5 hrs and 56 mins

Summary:

Ian Colt strolls into his high school with a deadly plan to take out as many people as he can. It’s a strangely familiar American tale of a kid unleashing his inner demons on his classmates and teachers. Who are the heroes? Who is the villain? How do people react?

Additional Comments:

I’ve worked in suburban high schools for about 15 years now. Thankfully, this story isn’t drawn from personal experience, but hopefully, it has enough truth to help bring up the topic in a safe environment for discussion.
By far, this isn’t my cheeriest tale. I usually feel weird saying I hope people enjoy it because “enjoy” isn’t really the right word.
The book has a rather large cast because schools have a lot of people. If you have the ebook version, you’ll see the list of friends and fans who had their names added to the roll call as it were.
Generally, words come quickly for me, but I remember this story fighting me a bit. Several stories since the pandemic have fought me, but this one was always different and finished well before the pandemic.
Although Ian plays video games and even makes a miniature game of shooting certain people for “bonus points” he awards himself, I’m not blaming video games for gun violence. A lot of people—including me—play games without turning into gun-toting psychos who shoot up their schools. Over the years, the games change, but kids are mostly the same. It would be unrealistic to think Ian doesn’t have some interaction with video games.
What causes gun violence? Oh, probably many things. Bandying around blame won’t fix society’s failures.
What’s the solution? There’s probably not one solution, but it can help to talk to kids and people in general. People have to learn better coping mechanisms than bury your pain until you explode.
Curt Bonnem’s performance worked out well for the story.

Conclusion:

I don’t usually write tragic tales, but here, I made an exception. If you want a happy ending, this isn’t the correct title for you right now. If you want as close a peek into this sort of tragedy that I can give you, give it a go.

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3.45/5 stars Murder at Black Lake by Anne Patrick

August 29, 2021August 23, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, Christian, mystery Anne Patrick, Christian romance, Leonor A Woodworth

Narrated by Leonor A. Woodworth

Run Time 6 hrs and 45 mins

Summary:

A Hollywood actress returns to her roots to solve a mystery and face some past trauma. Jamie Riedel witnessed her father’s murder. Years later, she returns to figure out what really happened and close out her mother’s estate.

Additional Comments:

The danger never seemed real.
The bad guy had about a zillion chances to off the leading lady, but it’s not that kind of book.
Gage played the perfect hero well enough.
Jamie’s somebody you can root for. Her mommy issues were an interesting twist, but the conclusion to that thread was ho-hum.
The entire mystery builds and builds at molasses in January speeds and then concludes in about 4 seconds.
It’s a fine Christian mystery.
This is my second experience with Anne Patrick’s writing. It’s par for Christian romantic suspense. I liked the other story I heard better, but I’d definitely give her stuff another go. Everybody misses sometimes. This one’s a near miss to me.
Some of the side plots were interesting to watch unfold. I think several threads were laid just in case the author wanted to write a second in the series with Gage’s sister and the other cop.
As a mystery, it’s all right. The conclusion’s satisfying even if it’s predictable. Jamie’s life choices are also predictable. She basically has everything at the beginning and has everything at the end, plus the handsome hero.
There’s no real substance to the romance. They kiss a few times but everything seems to hinge on what they had in the past.
I do like that not every character was a saint. That lends credence to the credibility angles.

Conclusion:

You know essentially what you’re going to get with these stories. Handsome hero. Damsel in distress who can handle herself and everybody else but still likes a hero.

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3.5/5 stars Singapore Secrets by Irene Onorato

August 28, 2021August 11, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, Christian, romance Christian romance, Irene Onorato, Kathleen Li

Narrated by Kathleen Li

Run Time: 3 hrs and 45 mins

Genre: Christian romance, suspense

Performance 4 stars. Story 3 stars.

Summary:

When her father proposes to his sweet, much younger, beautiful actress girlfriend, a spoiled little rich girl pitches a fit and runs away to Singapore. The father sends an ex-soldier, who happens to be tall, handsome, physically fit, etc after her, just to make sure she’s okay. The usual ensues. Toss in a few Christian references and the kid sort of sees the error of her ways and you pretty much have this story.

Additional Comments:

Highly predictable. There wasn’t much investigating going on. Julia wasn’t exactly hiding. One check of her cell phone would have had her pinned down. She didn’t strike me as the type to be carefully covering her tracks. Heck, I think she even used her credit card to pay for the hotel and such. Pretty sure daddy could get a hold of that record if he wanted to. If he was that worried, I see no reason he wouldn’t have hopped on a plane to drag her behind back from the other end of the world. But then, Julia wouldn’t have had the chance to fall in love with the devastatingly handsome ex-soldier boy.
Has a few mammoth plot holes, especially where the danger factor is concerned.
Performance is fine. The senator, Gabe, Julia, and the famous actress fiancée are all distinguishable. I’ve said it before and stand by the assessment that the narrator has nice reading instincts. Her pauses are natural. Her accents are decent and believable. She doesn’t have a huge range of characters (10+), but you don’t need that for this story anyway.
The title has very little to do with the story, except that it mentions where most of the scenes take place.
The cover has zip to do with the story, except that it might get the genre right.
Story’s okay.
Characters: Gabe’s a decent love interest, but I have a very hard time liking Julia because she goes from a stupid, super selfish little rich brat to contrite semi-selfish, slightly less dumb little rich girl to damsel in distress to semi-tolerable little rich girl who’s got a hot boyfriend. There is a smidgen of hope for her at the end when she fights back. She’s probably the most realistic character but still annoying.
Romance angle is fine.
The Christian angle didn’t bother me, but it wasn’t subtle in any sense. It was also a tad unrealistic. The story wouldn’t have changed one iota if it hadn’t been there at all, just a few lines of dialogue would change. That tells me it wasn’t integrated well.
Suspense angle fell flat, but it made the last quarter of the book better than the first three quarters.
Book is clean as far as curse words go and adult scenes. There’s one scene that might trigger some people, but I thought it was fine and I’m picky about such things.

Conclusion:

It’s not a bad story, just highly predictable with little that makes it stand out.

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4/5 Stars Shadow of Shame by Barbara Goss

August 27, 2021August 23, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, Christian, historical, romance Barbara Goss, Tom Jordan

The Shadow Series Book 1

Narrated by Tom Jordan

Run Time: 4 hrs and 30 mins

Genre: Christian romance, historical fic

Summary:

Ivy Jeffries falls hard for Jonas Armstrong, but he doesn’t want to taint her with his past. He married at 18 because a woman said she was carrying his child. Falsely, by the way.

Additional Comments:

Besides the bad guys, all the characters are saints.
I’d listened to book 3 before 1 accidentally, so I knew some of the names. It was probably more interesting this round, knowing their pasts.
It’s not exactly a deep-thinking series, but then again, none of these are.
They’ve got a general good message of letting go of your past regrets because God forgives sins.
They follow the historical romance pattern right down to the characters not feeling good enough for the other person, so they try to drive the other way, see the error of their ways, and finally let themselves be loved and love the other person.
As with others in the series, there’s talk of sex as part of marriage (good) or outside of marriage (bad), but it’s still a clean read.
It’s not exactly a Western, though this does include a smidge of danger and action, which is a nice change of pace between the she loves me, she loves me not routine.

Conclusion:

Intriguing Christian historical romance.

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Audibook Rev The Quinn Case by Julie C. Gilbert

August 26, 2021August 11, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, Christian, mystery Heartfelt Cases, Julie C. Gilbert, L.W. Salinas

Series: Heartfelt Cases (prequel)

Narrated by L. W. Salinas

Run Time: 1 hr and 3 mins

Summary:

On the heels of closing a rough case with a highly unsatisfactory conclusion, FBI Special Agent Ann Davidson must tackle a new case involving a similar victim. Young Josiah Quinn gets caught up in a custody kidnapping. Ann and Patrick need to find the kid fast.

Additional Comments:

Most Heartfelt Cases stories are around 30,000 words. That would be a 3.5 ish hour audiobook.
L.W. Salinas did a decent job with the narration. This is the only book I’ve produced through Findaway Voices. I’ve distributed a few with them but not produced. It costs more since you have to pay them to find you a narrator. I would work with her again, but I never really got in touch with her at all since there was always a middleman.
There isn’t exactly a lot of time for grand character development here, but it’s a nice intro to Ann and Patrick.
Some readers have likened it to a TV show, a short spot of clean drama.
I get most of my character names from baby name lists.

Conclusion:

If you’re looking for a very short Christian mystery, check this out. If you’re looking for slightly longer, try The Collins Case or the rest of the Heartfelt Cases stories.

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5/5 Stars Field of Redemption by Lori Bates Wright

August 25, 2021July 30, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, Christian, historical Austenne Grey, Lori Bates Wright, Saberton

Series: The Saberton Legacy 2

Run Time: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Genre: Christian historical fiction

Narrated by Austenne Grey

Summary:

The back cover copy pretty much outlines the entire story. Abigail McFadden travels down South then gets stuck there in the middle of the Civil War. The womenfolk of Macon sort of take her in.

Colonel Ian Saberton has orders to prep the cities and towns for Sherman’s march through Georgia.

Additional Comments:

Disclaimer: I really like Civil War tales, so that is in this book’s favor.
As with book 1, Austenne Grey did a lovely job with the narration. She has credible male, female, British, Southern, and normal American accents. Some scenes weren’t easy because they had several Southern ladies and gents present, but the narrator handled these well.
Stayed up late to finish. That’s always a great sign for a book’s quality.
The title doesn’t quite fit. Oh it nails the genre swell, but as far as I can tell, has zip to do with the book itself. That’s a fairly minor complaint.
I don’t think it’s meant to be a funny book, but there are plenty of hilarious situations. One of my favorite little parts is when Cora, pretty much the queen in that town, tells this poor soldier kid he’ll let them by or she’ll have a word with his momma.
Bad guy’s a little over the top evil, but it fits the book well.
Even though parts of the book are small town drama, I never felt like nothing was happening, which is a rarity.
4/5 Characters: Abby and Ian are both paragons of good, but it works. Cora and the townswomen are deliciously meddlesome. Abby’s flaws of not being able to cook or sew make sense given her background.
End twist was a nice touch.

Conclusion:

A near picture-perfect Christian historical fiction novel.

Audiobook Promotions …

Many of my 44 audible titles are listed on Audiobooks Unleashed.
Whether you’re looking for mystery or suspense or fantasy, I’ve got a title for you. Free codes are probably on audiobooks unleashed.
Normal links go to audible. *The Amazon labeled links are affiliate links. That means I get a very small payment from Amazon if you go through with a purchase.*
Note: Filter by US if you’re looking for those codes as many titles are out.
Ones I think may still have US codes: Reshner’s Royal Ranger, Never Again, Innova, The Golden City Captives, The Holy War, Reclaim the Darklands, Eagle Eyes, Treachery Makes it Tense, Ashlynn’s Dreams Shorts, The Dark Side of Science, Ashlynn’s Dreams, Nadia’s Tears, Malia’s Miracles, and Varick’s Quest
There are plenty of UK codes, but not many US ones left.

Redeemer Chronicles (Fantasy)

Devya’s Children Series Links:

Guardian Angel Files:

Cyber League Crimes Books 1-3 by Julie C. Gilbert

August 24, 2021August 23, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, mystery, thriller Cyber League Crimes, Julie C. Gilbert, Liz Brand, Megan Luchek

Individual Titles: The Popularity Contest, The Hero Contest, The Criminal Contest

Narrated by Liz Brand

Run Time: 10 hrs and 4 mins

Genre: Mystery/ Thriller

Summary:

This is the third series featuring FBI Special Agent Megan Luchek. If you haven’t experienced Shadow Council and Eagle Eyes, you may wish to start there. That said, it should stand on its own.

Megan’s back from a harrowing vacation on the continental US. She’s looking forward to getting back to her day job as an FBI agent. Then, things go awry. Somebody kidnaps Megan’s sister, Tara.

Additional Comments:

Megan’s a fun character to write. She’s got a great sense of herself, but she’s not perfect. She’s made some significant mistakes in her past that comes back to haunt her now and then. Then there’s that knack for getting neck-deep into trouble.
The series is high action, light humor.
Gatton and Cassandra Mirren are recurring characters from previous series. They’re also a lot of fun to write.
Content notes: This falls on the lighter scale for my mysteries. Scratched Off is much darker. Even Never Again is much darker. I guess I’d place it on par with the Heartfelt Cases series. Cyber League Crimes is clean fiction but not Christian.
Tie ins to other stories: Special Agent Samuel Kerman from Scratched Off has a brief part in the third novella. I’m intrigued by Cassandra’s backstory. Since Vella launched recently, I decided to make her backstory one of my new series. I’ve barely scratched the surface of that with Assassin School Season One, but I intend to return to that when I get the time.

Conclusion:

If you’re in the mood for a quick mystery, this just might fit the bill. It’s 3 stories that should be read one right after the other, but there’s also enough closure at the end of each that you can pause for the day.

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4/5 Stars Gertrude Gumshoe: Murder at Goodwill by Robin Merrill

August 23, 2021August 11, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, cozyish, mystery Darlene Allen, Gertrude Gumshoe, Robin Merrill

Narrated by Darlene Allen

Run Time: 3 hrs and 32 mins

Summary:

Gertrude wants to be a gumshoe, ancient name for a detective. She’s basically your harmless, nosy cat lady, who happens to be a stellar amateur PI. She finds plenty of trouble and always gets her man. Eh, you know what I mean.

Additional Comments:

This time, the walker-wielding PI is wandering around Goodwill when she stumbles across a murder.
It’s a light-hearted whodunnit filled with mishaps and geriatric adventure.
If you’re in the mood for a serious book, you are definitely barking up the wrong tree.
Calvin, her elderly neighbor, is her ticket to a car. Norman is the bus driver who happens to be her unwitting accomplice.
Gertrude gets a job this round. Lady’s got a heart of gold and a hankering for yardsaling and collecting junk from Goodwill.

Conclusion:

If you don’t want to think too hard, but still want a quintessential cozy mystery to fill some time, this is an excellent series.

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3.75/5 Stars How I Magically Messed Up My Life in Four Freakin’ Days by Megan O’Russell

August 22, 2021July 30, 2021 Julie Gilbert Audiobooks, Fantasy, Young Adult Bryant Adams, Jacob McNatt

Narrated by Jacob McNatt

Summary:

Bryant Adams finds a phone that helps unlock his latent abilities as a wizard. It does not go smoothly.

Additional Comments:

First person narration lets the character voice come through very strongly. So, if you like the voice, which I mostly did, you’ll likely enjoy the book. If the voice gets annoying for you, parts can get tedious. It did but not to an overwhelming point.
The style is very flippant, which can be funny, but it also makes it come across like a superhero fluff piece. There’s no sense of danger. Just a ho-hum, well, that was bad sort of attitude taken throughout. For example, the MC and company manage to blow up or destroy about 3 structures. At one point, a character laments that people only ever remember the structural damage, which is an amusing point. However, the other 3 central characters don’t seem to care one whit about the structural damage to any of the places. That seems callous, even for teenagers.
The main character and company do spend much of the book clueless.
Part seemed geared toward a MG audience. That’s not necessarily bad, just not expected.
End battle’s cool.
Romance angle was okay but seemed there just to be there.
Characters are likable. Devon and Elizabeth are decent sidekicks. Eric turns out to be interesting too.
Nitpicky things: The word chortled is way overused. Snarked is an odd dialogue tag. Not sure a 17-year-old boy would use it.
Better than okay but not quite great.
Narration: Fitting and decent throughout.
Content warnings: Some casual cursing.

Conclusion:

There are interesting, funny characters caught up in a chaotic plot that zigzags wherever the heck it pleases. The title sort of sets the tone you’ll get throughout. Definitely not serious. If that’s your thing, give this a shot.

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