Thursday, June 1, 2017

Audio Book Review: Hound's Bite

Hound's Bite

By:  E.J. Stevens

Publish Date:  July 12, 2016, Audiobook Release May 4, 2017

Format:  Audiobook - 7 hrs
Narrated By:  Melanie A Mason & Anthony A. Bowlin

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Series:  5th in Ivy Granger series; 1st Book ~ Shadow Sight, 1.5 Novella ~ Blood and Mistletoe, 2nd Book ~ Ghost Light, 2.5 Novella ~ Club Nexus, 3rd Book ~ Burning Bright, 4th Book ~ Birthright

Impression:  Ivy returns home with hounds on her heels.

Synopsis:
Ivy Granger thought she left the worst of Mab's creations behind when she escaped Faerie. She thought wrong.

In a cruel twist of fate, Ivy has unleashed a powerful horde of Unseelie beasts upon her city, turning her homecoming into a potential slaughter of innocents. Now Ivy must gather her allies to fight a reputedly unstoppable force—The Wild Hunt.

Will the training Ivy received in her father's court be enough to save her city, or will Harborsmouth be forced to kneel before the Lord of the Hunt? She is willing to risk her own life, but some sacrifices come at a cost worse than death. When an ally is bitten by one of The Wild Hunt's hounds, Ivy must face the possibility that winning this battle may mean killing the one person she has come to love most.

Hound's Bite is the fifth full-length novel in the bestselling Ivy Granger urban fantasy series by E.J. Stevens. The Ivy Granger series has won numerous awards, including the BTS Red Carpet Award for Best Novel, the PRG Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Paranormal Fantasy Novel, Best Urban Fantasy Novel, and finalist for Best Urban Fantasy Series.

First Sentence:
The night was broken by howls that sent icy claws skittering down my spine.

Purchase At:
Amazon  /  Barnes & Nobles  /  Book Depository

Audible

My Thoughts and Summary:
*I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Ivy, Ceff, and Torn have returned from Faerie, with the Wild Hunt on their heels. Opening the door and going to Faerie has it's consequences, and the Wild Hunt is one for Ivy.

By now you know I'm a sucker for the extras in audio. The first thing we hear are the howls that Ivy hears as she speaks, questioning what the howls are. This has me liking the audio from the first moment. We get a female and male voice team for this book. All feminine voices are performed by Melanie and all male by Anthony. It adds a nice flavor and contrast to the characters as we listen. I like the sound that they give to Herne's voice.


The refresher was shorter in this book, thankfully. Though when we meet someone we get their back story as of now. I'm one for working this into the story not just giving it to me at seeing the person in the beginning of the book. But that's my preference, not everyone's.

At times I found sentences that were more poetic than others. There are also sentences that made the story feel as though it was for a young adult crowd (which it's really not) because it told what was implied the sentence before, instead of letting the impression for the reader be all that was needed. I like how the writing has improved as well. Ivy doesn't just point something out about herself, the events and others guide to that moment of a bigger feeling.

Ivy has grown into a strong woman. She has to do the things that are hard, and stop someone that's dangerous. She's written more in what she's doing than just telling us how she is. Ivy also has to face consequences of what's been done in the past.

This book feels to be deeper in the plot. There is more reason to the Wild Hunt being here than originally thought. And I like the connections to the reasons. They feel on the larger scale than the previous books. There is more to come and more going on outside of Ivy's little world than we knew.

Jinx has her own drive in this book. She's working to free the streets of the dangerous drug Ice. It was something that was used on her and killed another, but that story can be found in Club Nexus. This is a wonderful tie in and building of the character that we've seen through the stories.

I very much enjoyed this story. It felt to tie a bunch of strings from the previous books together here. Everything leads up to something. What the characters have lived through and why the events have happened. I like this connection as the story feels to have a great depth to it.



****If you found my thoughts helpful, please click Yes at Amazon and/or Audible. Thank you.

4 comments:

  1. I still have not tried her books

    ReplyDelete
  2. Omg I still need to read book one, it's sitting on my kindle >.<

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds good, I'll have to check the first book in the series!

    ReplyDelete

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