Inception

By: Bianca Scardoni

Narrated by: Bailey Carr

Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Be careful who you trust, for even the Devil was once an angel.

My name is Jemma Blackburn, and I have a secret. I know vampires are real. I watched one murder my father eight months ago, and even though they tried to convince me it didn't happen - that I'd lost touch with reality due to the trauma, I know what I saw was real. Hollow Hills is now the place I call home. It was supposed to be my chance at a normal life. My chance to bury my secret and start over. But everyone around me is keeping their own secrets, whispering lies into my ears like promises, and one of them is about to turn my entire world upside down.

I thought I had it all figured out. I thought I had the answers. I thought I knew who I was. The truth is, I didn't even know the half of it. There's a reason these vampires are still after me. There's a reason they will always hunt me. Because I'm not human. I'm the devil they fear and the angel they crave.

Only problem is, I don't know it yet.

Inception is the enthralling first installment in The Marked series. A YA paranormal romance full of atmosphere, supernatural adventure, and jaw-dropping twists that will keep you guessing until the very last minute.

©2015 Bianca Scardoni (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Please edit further

I’m so sorry, but there’s just so many disconnects from the author’s world building that I can’t recommend this story until it goes through a major editing. There’s plenty of creativity to start with, so I hope the author gets the honest support she needs, not smoke. I also couldn’t connect with the characters as there were too many TSTL moments.
I usually listen at 1.25 or 1.5 speed, but I had to speed up to 1.75 (thanks for adding that speed, Audible!). Ok, I also had to do some skipping.
Carr has a sufficiently young voice which fits the character.

Overall I enjoyed

The story is a little bit like "Twilight" and was engaging. The narrater's voice is very good and changes well between the characters but her cadence took me a bit to get used too. I'd recommend.

Slow narration, thesaurus words tossed in for fun

I really enjoyed the story! The narrator has a rather slow pace for me so I listened at 1.3X speed and it was perfect! I tend to think of myself as having a pretty large vocabulary but I was forced to look up a few words and then wondered why simpler ones couldn’t have been used instead… I guess I can now say I know of words like “analeptic”-which is a restorative drug- to add to my vocabulary. Can’t wait to keep listening, I think the story is engaging and I love the twists as they come.

awesome

I loved this book. I listened to it and read it on my Kindle cause I couldn't get enough. can't wait to read the next one.

Mixed

This is more a 3.5 book, or maybe a 4 if it weren’t for the narration. The narrator was so monotone, and spoke so slowly, it was hard to pay attention at times. From a character standpoint, Jemma is a bit of an idiot at times - you find yourself sort of yelling at her to notice what’s obvious - but I’ll still try to next book to see if it gets better.

Good story, but...

The story is wonderful. The narrator not so much. And the main character is an extreme Doubting Thomas and you want to kill her.

great book and different then your normal vampire

I like the different type of vampire books. this one stands out more to me as it is not your normal vampire book.

Speed up the play and it’s a lot better!

The story is great but the narrator speaks a bit slowly and somewhat overly dramatic. Like a female William Shatner without the odd pauses. She gives too much too drama to simplest of phrases like “I turned to leave” comes out like an epic battle of emotions spiked by betrayal but in slow motion. Bump the playback to 1.5 and it’s a major improvement. Overall it’s a great story one surprise I didn’t see coming and one surprise I saw from a mile away. Otherwise a very good read. Onto book 2 ...

TOO MUCH

I finally had to stop listening, something I almost never do. The teen "heroine" was too stupid, too insipid, too clueless. I could suspend disbelief over the backstory, the world building, the plot; but Gemma was just too much.

Set speed to 1.25x

Love the story and the concepts....makes me think of Buffy and so many others all wrapped in to one....has a lot of potential story lines and like a previous reviewer....set narration speed to 1.25x and it's perfect!