I originally read this book back in my early 20’s, back before I obsessively reviewed everything I read, and the only thing I could remember about it was an intense feeling of boredom. I later tried to read Mystery and Julia thinking it was me and not the writing. But I couldn’t get through either of those without wishing they’d end with every page I struggled through. At that point, I put Peter Straub down for good. Or so I thought. Back in December, I decided to use my Audible credit on Ghost Story to torture myself, it turns out.  Also, my book buddies were reading it and talked me into joining them but truly I only have myself to blame for thinking I’d matured enough to enjoy it now. Haha. Jokes on me! It was just as boring the second time around. Maybe even moreso . . . 

It was just as tedious as I’d remembered. It was so plodding, so slow to me, that I hadn’t realized I had sleep-read the last third. I had to rewind the entire seven hours of this audio because I was left so confused at the ending (who were these people and what the hell was going on?!). SEVEN HOURS. I want them all back and the previous seven too, ffs! What is the matter with me? At any rate, once I forced myself to listen again, this time with all of my faulty listening skills, the book made a lot more sense to me but it was still not very interesting. I tried, damn how I tried, but apparently not all books are made for every reader. Someday I will learn this about myself.

This book is not really a ghost story in the traditional sense. It’s about a group of elderly fellows who call themselves “The Chowder Society”. They spend nights sharing “ghost stories” with each other, smoking cigars, drinking spirits and keeping secrets as old fellows do, I suppose. I don’t really know as I’m not an old fellow. The old friends who tell the tale are most definitely haunted but they are haunted more by something that happened in their youth. Something they cannot escape, mwahaha. I don’t want to give the thing away so that’s all I’m saying about that. When the book begins one of the old fellows in the club has died and this stirs up a series of events and endless pages of tangents and memories in which the reader gets dragged along until the conclusion eventually happens. It’s easy to get lost and confused in this story so do yourself a favor and either DNF it or pay very close attention. Don’t be like me.

I found some of the stories interesting and there are some disturbing and pervy bits that I found rather comical but the book just went on and on and I felt like I had been reading/listening to it for my entire life. Eventually it did come to an end though and for that I am grateful. My two friends enjoyed this book very much while all I did was complain about the old coots, their roving eyes and their cheating ways and bitch about how confused I was about the time jumps and the plethora of unnecessary characters popping in and out of the story. This may be the last time I’m invited to a buddy read again, lol. So what I’m getting at here is don’t go by my opinion because my taste is atrocious. Also, don’t sleep read your way through this because it will not make any kind of sense.

Now I will leave you with my favorite quote courtesy of one of the many side characters whose name I have long since forgotten.

“There’s no teaching without beating.”

My first audio tale

Storming the Castle
by Eloisa James

audio book narrated by Nicola Barber

Fairy Tales #1.5 (novella)

This novella started strong, and truthfully, I had been thinking that I liked it more than I liked it's preceding book, A Kiss At Midnight.  Because, truthfully, A Kiss At Midnight was just riddled with romance plot clichés and over dramatic angst, even if the book itself was pretty enjoyable.

The conditions of which Phillipa leaves her family and her betrothal to pursue a life for herself was exciting.  In fact, it was the best part of the novella, because it helps establish Phillipa's character outside of just being a Romance Novel Heroine, where everything revolves around a man and her love life.  I loved that she has a self-revelation about not wanting to continue being told what she should feel, how she should think, what she should want with her life, or how lucky she was to have her future taken care of for her.

That she took the initiative to step out of that mold to find her own way in life drew me in, and made me intrigued at what was in store for her.

That she would find Jonas Berwick, majordomo extraordinaire, in her future was also a bonus for me since I absolutely loved him from the first book.

The insta-lust that took place as soon as she enters the castle to become a nursemaid was not surprising.  And I was actually looking forward to the potential love story between her and one of my favorite characters from A Kiss At Midnight, Prince Gabriel's half-brother, Jonas Berwick.  Since the first book, I had found Berwick's character to be much more attractive and interesting than the main male character and had secretly wanted Kate to fall for him instead.

I had hoped he'd get his own book.

But a novella will have to suffice, I suppose, though, to be honest, after finishing this novella, I feel like Berwick deserved a much better story.

The moment we get to the castle, the story kind of plateaus and stops being exciting.  The love story feels supremely lukewarm, and while I like that Phillipa and Berwick don't fall in love at first sight, I never felt the chemistry between them.  I felt more chemistry between Kate and Phillipa, or even the castle's French cook and Phillipa, than between our resident main couple.  Berwick was severely underused in this novella, and honestly, I repeat, he deserves a full length novel and a better story.

When we get to the concluding chapter and find out that Phillipa had, yet another reason for not wanting to marry her betrothed Rodney... I guess that was it for me.  Because simply wanting the freedom to make her own choices wasn't enough?  I couldn't fault her for that.  But she announces another, much more superficial reason to her father, barely even mentioning the fact that she was tired of being strung around like a puppet by the people in her life.  No, Phillipa's reasons for not wanting to marry Rodney had more to do with the fact that Rodney isn't exactly the most physically appealing person, despite the fact that he was never a bad person to begin with.

That conclusion severely set Phillipa's character development from the first couple chapters backwards, and I stopped feeling bad for her that her father kept trying to force her into a life she didn't want.

Anyway, I can't deny that despite everything I disliked about this novella, Eloisa's writing style for the Fairy Tales stories are written in a distinctly "Once Upon A Time" like whimsical way that I like.  It truly feels like I'm reading (or in this case listening to) a fairy tale being told.

***

Booklikes-opoly

Roll #4:  (A third double landed me in Jail.)
Read 138 pages to add onto my 300 page Jail sentence.

No increase in Bank.

See Also:  Fourth Roll Activities

Okinawa, 1974: the Reacher family is assigned to a miliatry base there and is going through their well-established routine of moving into their new home. Reacher's brother, Joe, isn't dealing well with the idea that he'll have to take a placement test to get into school; Reacher is dealing with a neighborhood bully; their mother is in France as her father dies; and his father is in the middle of a crisis of his own.

It's a short story (40 pages in text), but it contains all the hallmarks of a standard Reacher tale, just on a smaller scale. It's sort of cheating, taking a well-established character like Reacher and imagining the mini-version of him. But you know what? This was so fun, I didn't care.

Dick Hill gives a pretty good performance, but his little Reacher and Joe voices are unintentionally amusing and cartoonish. I bet he'd be fun listening to with a full Reacher novel (particularly if it didn't feature kids).

Not a great story, but satisfying. Not a great performance, but satisfying. Gets the job done.

Verlag:           Blue Panther Books
Format:          Hörbuch als CD, MP3 & Download
Länge:           66 Minuten
Sprecherin:   Nicole Oster


Inhalt: Die Geschichte spielt hinter den Kulissen einer Filmproduktion. Lynn kümmert sich um die Maske und die Kostüme und sie ist heimlich in ihren Boss verliebt. Doch eines Tages muss sie eine Schauspielerin ersetzen und dabei kommt sie ihm näher als sich sich zu hoffen wagte.

Meine Meinung:
Dieses Story stammt aus dem erotischen Kurzgeschichten-Sammlung "Ich will dich noch mehr" aus dem Jahr 2007. Dort ist sie unter dem Namen "Drehtag" zu finden.

Schade das diese Geschichte so kurz ist. Hier ist so viel Potential für mehr. Einen Eindruck von Lynn konnte man schon erhaschen, doch bei Daniel waren nicht mehr als ein paar Reaktionen. Hätte man der Geschichte etwas mehr Raum zu Entfaltung geben, dann wäre es sicher eine humorvolle und prickelnde Geschichte geworden. So sind die erotischen Szenen wie auch die humorvollen reichlich kurz und knackig. Aber für den ein oder anderen Schmunzler hat es auf alle Fälle gereicht. 
Die Sprecherin Nicola Oster war mir bisher noch kein Begriff. Zu diesem Buch hat die Stimme allerdings gut gepasst. Sie vertont die etwas romantisch, naive Art von Lynn perfekt und lässt sie so recht realistisch erscheinen.

Dieses Hörbuch habe ich auf der Leipziger Buchmesse als Lese/Hörexemplar bekommen. Wahrscheinlich weil ich mich nicht ganz so positiv über ein anderes Hörbuch des Verlages geäußert habe. Nun ja, so viel sei erwährt: In diesem Fall hat mir das Hörbuch ziemlich gut gefallen. 

Diese Story ist in Taschenbuchform erhältlich, als einzelnes eBook oder als Hörbuch.