Craved

Gwen Sparks, Book 1

By: Stephanie Nelson

Narrated by: Sonja Field

Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Gwen Sparks just wants to live a peaceful life in the supernatural town of Flora, but from the moment she read about the first murdered witch, all hope of peace was abandoned. Possessing the rare ability to read the memories of dead, she volunteers to help catch the culprit behind the string of drained witches. Gwen has to team up with the one man who broke her heart, deal with a ghost who pulls her into the deathly realm at will, and fight off the advances of a sexy but frustrating vampire who not only craves what runs through her veins - he wants her heart.

This is a full-length novel and contains adult content, not recommended for listeners under 18 years old.

©2011 Stephanie Nelson (P)2014 Stephanie Nelson

Good Book, but like other books

If you could sum up Craved in three words, what would they be?

Good YA Book

Any additional comments?

I think the only problem with this is she should have been bonded to her boy friend not the bad vampire. If she fed her boy friend to save another witch and then goes to get help with addiction and has to suck his blood , she should have bonded with him. There are certain aspects if you are paying attention that should not be.

Too explicit four my taste.

Stephanie Nelson did a great job with her story telling. And in truth was the reason I listened to the story to the end.
The graphic and very explicit sexual scenes were not needed and there ere far to many of them. so yes it was difficult for me to finish.
Still I realize that there is a market for these paranormal bodice ripper stories.
Again for me Too Much Information.

A bit different witch and vampire book

Vampires have found that by drinking witches and warlocks dry they can steal their magical powers. Gwen is a rare spirit walker in the world of witches and is a strong magic user. She has three men interested in her. Micah who is a type of magic enforcer. Aiden is a vampire who loves her for herself. Ian is a vampire who wants to control her for her powers. She and Aiden are lovers and want to be together. Ian is doing all he can to own her.

Predictable

This is the first in a series.. All the elements were there. witches, Warlocks, shifters and vampires. It was a veritable stew for world building. The Heroine makes such obvious bad choices for all the wrong reasons, although the Author would have us think otherwise. Actually I can't think of one character that made a smart choice. it was an average book. It fell short. It was weak. I won't be purchasing the second book. 3 stars because there was potential that sadly never came to fruition.

It was a great book!

What did you like about this audiobook?

It's a great listen altogether. I will be anxiously awaiting the next book in the series. The one thing I don't like is that AUDIBLE ONLY HAS BOOK ONE! There are 5 books or more in this series! The only thing I don't like is tI at Audible gives us the first in the series and none of the rest. I would have really liked to move seamlessly to the following books :( lol

How has the book increased your interest in the subject matter?

It's not that kind of book but I do enjoy these fun kind of paranormal books :)

Does the author present information in a way that is interesting and insightful, and if so, how does he achieve this?

You can tell that the author is a bit new in the first book but it's written very well anyways. I'm sure the author will just keep on improving too!

What did you find wrong about the narrator's performance?

I actually liked the narrator and that is really saying something because I'm very very picky about narrators. I enjoyed this narrator even though the voices she has sound somewhat similar at times. I also think she can improve too. I hope she narrates the future books.

Do you have any additional comments?

Worth a credit for sure. There's a world where "otherworldly" creatures (vamps, witches, werewolfs and some hybrids) live amongst humans. Theres romance, the paranormal, great characters and it's just a really great book. I might have to just buy book 2 on my Kindle :)

Too many inconsistencies

This book wasn't bad. "Did they have the same experience I experienced?" pretty much sums up the mediocre writing. It wasn't so bad that I stopped listening but she should fire her editor.

The plot inconsistencies were what really bothered me. Obviously, vampires and witches would have known about the affect witches blood has on vampires for millennia. It's not like in all of history a vampire never once fed on a witch until a couple years ago. It would have more sense for there to have been a war fought long ago that ended in a bloody stalemate and both parties decided to outlaw drinking from witches. Otherwise, you'd have vampires accidentally draining their new GF/BF because they didn't know they'd instantly become addicted to their blood.

Another reviewer pointed out something I missed. Gwen drank Aiden's blood before she drank Ian's. She should have been bonded to him or the author should have come up with a reason for why they weren't bonded.

Gwen's lack of control when it comes to men is offputting. She's supposedly in love with Aiden but makes out with two other guys anyway. Basically anything turns her on to a point where she loses all reason. The sex/kissing happened in really weird moments. We just found a warehouse where women could potentially be dying, makeout session! We're staking out a potential murderers house, let's do the dirty! They just didn't make any sense.

The narrator was decent. Nothing spectacular.

There's more that bugged me about Craved but this review is getting long. It's worth a listen with the escape package but not worth a credit. I think the author has potential and maybe the series improves but I'm not willing to spend credits to find out.

I couldn't put it down

I was surprised that this book was so good. The world that Stephanie Nelson created was unique and believable. The characters were well developed and realistic. The pace was fast and engaging. I haven't liked a new series this much in a while. I highly recommend this book.

SO FREAK'N GOOD!!

Would you listen to Craved again? Why?

Absolutely! I'm going to save it to share with friends

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the Whole series

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I thought A lot of the story was funny, I had quite a few laughs :)

Any additional comments?

totally worth the read and the credit.

I like the story but hate the narrator

So this story got off on a rocky start to me at the beginning Gwen seemed like such a brat to Aiden and she was pissing me off but I kept listening and it finally got better I really think this narrator does a horrible male impersonation, Aiden I picture him as a deep voice masculine guy when she reads his part she makes him sound like a freaking drag queen {nothing against them}, but yeah the voice doesn’t match up to the Image of the male characters. I wonder if a lot of authors don’t have a choice of who narrates their book because there are good books ruined by horrible people who should not be narrating books for a living.

Meh

Who even thinks about sex knowing their best friend just went off with the murderer?! Even the sex scenes were poorly written and badly placed within the plot.