Audio Book Review: Earth Girls Are Difficult

Earth Girls Are Difficult

By:  Frances Pauli

Publish Date:  July 22, 2013

Format:  Audiobook, 2hrs and 57mins
Narrated by:  Francesca Townes

Genre:  Fantasy

Series:  Companion of short stories to A Little Short for an Alien

Recommendation:  Ha ha, for fun yes.

Synopsis:
Eight tales of wily women from author, Frances Pauli...

Whether they are causing trouble or just getting into it, they've got what it takes to get the job done. Need a little bacon to domesticate a hell hound? Looking to seduce an Italian vampire? You need look no further. From vengeful goddesses to mythical tattooists, from train robbery to the local spelling bee, these women are well prepared and fully armed for adventure. They have the tools. They have the attitude. They're tough, tricky, and possibly just a teeny bit wicked.

Table of Contents:

Idol Games
Offerings
Bad Dog
El Emperador
Forbidden
Silent Partner
Priceless
Promises

Purchase At:
Amazon  /  Barnes & Nobles  /  Book Depository

Listen At:
Audible

*I listened to this story for my own enjoyment.

My Thoughts and Summary:
Overall thoughts:
I enjoyed listening to these short stories. On several of these stories I felt Frances turns short stories into a poetry feel with amazing word choices. I love the impact of each word to draw the images and short stories to a full size. The words grow the scene around us with each word. The image's come into focus from the center to around it.

Francesca, the narrator, does an amazing job of growing with the stories. Several of the stories I felt the narrator was the story. She seemed to take them on and her voice and accenting worked perfectly to grow the stories with what Frances had created in words.

Bad Dog
First Sentence:
The hellhounds were born in the witching hour under the dark of the moon.

Thoughts:
Hellhounds are born at the stroke of witching hour. Thirty-five seconds afterthe top of witching hour, she had another. He has a white spot on his head and he whined - that doesn't happen.

Hatach fought his way through life to age with his pack. He is different, and they don't let him forget it. He's not like all the other hellhounds, and they know it. Then one day a woman comes to his home that he guards to steal. She calls him a 'Bad Dog' and Hatach has a reaction to it.

This story will attract pet lovers. This is very short and through the hellhound, Hatach's, eyes. I found it cute and really liked it. There is a connection between the female and Hatach, and I felt it.


Idol Games
First Sentence:
Candice took her bearing from the slapping of the sea against stone.

Thoughts:
Candace is on her way, by sea, to a hidden cave with a bundle she can not get away from. For years beyond years she's cared for this bundle. Will this day be any different?

Now this one I liked. Really liked. There was a deeper feel to what Candace is doing, you feel it the further you go with the short story. I even found I was hoping for one turn out, but loved the true ending. The setting and creation of the long history with the perfect word choices is fantastic.


El Emperador
First Sentence:
Jessie squinted at the dusty corral and shook her head.

Thoughts:
Jessie needs a horse. A fast horse. She has a train to catch and the right horse to do the job. El Emperador performs for her and seems to be suitable to the task, though a tad shabby. Will he live up to his traders word?

This is another I think animal lovers will enjoy. I chuckled at the relationship between Jessie and El Emperador. I like the horses reaction to Jessie, but felt in the end I  wanted more of their train chase.

This short was more about the connection between the horse and his new owner.


Offerings
First Sentence:
They fed her to the maze.

Thoughts:
She finds her way from her dark prison to the outside world. She finds herself in a maze and relics of a god at a temple. And learns of herself.

Wow. The phrasing and words used really made a strong feeling of the maze for me. This short sounded like a poetic short story. So beautiful by words and narrator. The narrator felt so comfortable in this story to me, that she brought it out more.


Forbidden
First Sentence:
Lorenzo pulled the black cloth tighter around his shoulders and closed his eyes.

Thoughts:
Lorenzo, a vampire of old, wants something more than blood tonight. He wants the days of old on the night of his birth. She searches out the same scent each year, for a taste.

LOL! I loved this story. The humor in it. Oh, the play on the new curious youth looking for love with a vampire, the want of fear for vampires, and more. I really enjoyed the twist to this story and his desire for the night.

The story made me curious, then laugh, curious again, and happy. Really a fun read.


Silent Partner
First Sentence:
"Charles!" His significant other's high-pitched voice drifted through the glass building at a volume that made the conservatory walls vibrate dangerouly.

Thoughts:
Charles is with his wife at the flower festival she does. He's to be the good husband that listens. Then he leaves to go to the restroom, and surprised by what he finds in the garden.

This seemed like a short vision quest for the husband, who loves his wife even if she is a bit of a...nag. It wasn't really my favorite of the selections, but worked for the husband and his quest to learn what he wants and is to his wife.


Priceless
First Sentence:
Unan never meant to steal it - at least, not at first.

Thoughts:
Unan is cleaning her sword when she hears the two men, one fat and one a sorcerer, talking. The sorcerer is selling something to the fat man, and Unan knows a treasure when she hears about it. She has to have it! And once she does, the places she goes and her interpretation of what she sees is beyond her world.

Mmm, not sure if this one was for me. Okay and good, but I got a tad bored with it. I laughed at the speed dating moment though. You will recognize where Unan is when she walks through scenes of the world though.


Promises
First Sentence:
The frog had stars in its eyes.

Thoughts:
A princess is playing with her favorite treasure, a ball. She throws it to a frog and it falls into the Dark Well. Her favorite toy and it is gone. She wants it back! The frog talks to her and can help her get the ball back for a promise - to take him home with her, comfort him, feed him, and give him a kiss.

Now this I like! Twisted fairy tale and dark. I like, like. Wonderful end. I like the tale weaved here with the frog and the princess. This is my kind of tale. Honor and Deception both found in one place. Nicely done.