At nine years old, Tessa and Callie were the prime witnesses in the trial of a serial killer (the Ohio River Monster). Now a teenager, Tessa returns to her hometown to confront her past and find out the truth.

This book was just okay for me. I didn't care for any of the characters and I didn't enjoy the narration. The main plot was okay, but the end felt contrived and unbelievable. The subplot involving Tessa's mother and sister was unnecessary and distracting.

Bottom line: Take out the subplot, make the characters a bit likable or relatable, and this story would be better. As it is, there are better thrillers to spend your time on.

An MG Contemporary Fantasy that wasn't too much for this non-horror fan.

BOOK DETAILS:

The Poe Estate by Polly Shulman, read by Jorjeana Marie, published by Listening Library (2015) / Length: 6 hrs 46 min

SERIES INFO:

This is book #3 in the "The Grimm Legacy" trilogy (also known as "The Repository" series). The books can be read as standalones, but some characters do carry over. The author is not currently planning to write any additional books in this series.

SUMMARY:

I almost didn't read this book, which would have been a shame. I hadn't liked the previous book in this series and am decidedly not a horror fan; but I did like the first one, and was able to get this one from the library, so I gave it a chance. Turns out that it's my favorite one of the three.

While there are some spooky parts, and they learn about the murder of  a young child in the past, the book didn't strike me as scary at all (and I'm a wimp).

Aside from the story itself, I love the whole cast of characters. We get some from the first book and some great new ones.

CHARACTERS:

Sukie: A seemingly typical bookish middle schooler, openly set apart by her grief at the death of her sister and further isolated by the felt, but not understood, presence of the sister's ghost watching over her.

Her family has had to move in with an elderly cousin due to financial difficulties after her sister's long illness and a downturn in the economy. She understands that her parents are doing their best, but still just wants to go home. Her family is close, and although her parents don't know about the ghosts and other strange stuff, the cousin does and is a great support for Sukie & Cole.

Cole: In the past, he teased Elizabeth; but now he's being helpful. Too bad, Kitty's not big on forgiveness.

Elizabeth (the main character from Book #1) is now all grown up and working at The Repository full time. And Andre (Mark's little brother) is now a page. They make a great working pair, and it is fun that he still calls her Libbet (he couldn't pronounce her name when he met her as a small child).

WORLDBUILDING:

This series posits a world where the lines between fiction & reality are seriously blurred. There is fiction written about real magical objects and real objects whose origins are in fiction. This particular book focuses on the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edger Allen Poe, and other classic horror writers. There are haunted houses, ghosts, witches brooms, etc.

PLOT:

The beginning skillfully introduced Sukie & her family and the changes that have taken place in their lives.

The ending was emotionally satisfying regarding the current book. Knowing it was the final book in the series, however, I would have liked to know about more about some of the other previous characters.

HIGHLIGHTS / CAUTIONS:

• The scene where Sukie first meets Andre & Elizabeth.
• I like the concept that Sukie is continuing to grow & change but Kitty isn't, so Sukie is outgrowing her.
• The resolution of Sukie & Kitty's relationship.

NARRATION:

Character voices differentiated = Yes / Opposite sex voices acceptable = Yes / Accents good = no one seemed to have one, not even the New Yorkers - although they were in Manhattan so maybe they weren't supposed to / Phrasing, Pacing & Pronunciation = Good / Emoting = Good / Speed = Slow. I listened on 1.5 speed, rather than my usual 1.25, and it  was just a touch fast

BOOK DETAILS:

The Poe Estate (The Grimm Legacy #3) by Polly Shulman, read by Jorjeana Marie, published by Listening Library (2015) / Length: 6 hrs 46 min Buy Now | +Goodreads

Talk to Me (pretty please)

• What's your favorite non scary ghost book/series?
• Do you ever give a series a second chance? Has it paid off for you?

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My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

This is a series that I started many years ago and have been a huge fan of. I started reading the first book back in 2009 and there were three books out at that time. They were also considerably shorter and less complex back then. When the books first started our, Cassie was just a clairvoyant who was running from vampires. As she becomes Pythia, her life becomes a lot more complicated and she spends more and more time in the past.

Lately with this series, there isn’t time for breath in the story. Cassie is taken from one whirlwind to another throughout the book. She is trying desperately to go back in time to reunite Pritkin with his soul. She is taking his father, Lord Rosier, the demonic lord with her. There are adventures with Rosier, with Pritkin, and just Cassie and her run ins with past Pythias.

Cassie spends a lot of the time fighting to convince the Circle to let her do her job. No one seems to trust her do her job. She is untrained, but yet she has this uncanny ability to land on her feet. She does have the power of a demi-goddess running through her veins, so that has to count for something. Tell that to the Silver Circle.

One thing I love about Cassie is that she keeps fighting on no matter what is thrown at her. The hardest thing in her path are the different groups refusing to work together. If she could get the demons, vampires and mages to all back her play together, she would be in a much better place. They all want to help her, but don’t want the other groups to be involved. They keep telling Cassie she can’t do this on her own, but they won’t work together to help her. It seems like an impossible situation for her.

This has been a good story. I can’t even go into everything that has happen or this review will be the size of a novella because so much happens. Almost too much happens. I feel like so much happens and nothing at the same time. I don’t know if the overall story arc has really moved forward or not. I love this series and I will continue to read it, but I feel like we need to have the story arc make movement forward. Only four months have passed since this series started, it seems like we just aren’t getting much progress. I think part of that is so much time is spent in the past.

Narration

Jorjeana Marie did a okay job with the narration of this book. This is the first book I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to her. I thought she really brought out the chaos of Cassie’s life, probably more so that the previous two narrators of the series. I didn’t have any real issues with any of the voices, though it did take me a little bit to get used to them. This being the seventh book in the series and the third narrator in the past three books make it a little hard. I don’t know if the amount of time between each book makes it hard to schedule a narrator, but I prefer to have the same narrator for an entire series, especially a first person urban fantasy like this one. I thought she did a good job, I just don’t like changes in narrators in the middle of a series.