Escape from Zulaire

By: Veronica Scott

Narrated by: Mary Fegreus, Michael Riffle

Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

2014 SFR Galaxy Award Winner Andi Markriss hasn't exactly enjoyed being the houseguest of the planetary high-lord, but her company sent her to represent them at a political wedding. When hotshot Sectors Special Forces Captain Tom Deverane barges in on the night of the biggest social event of the summer, Andi isn't about to offend her high-ranking host on Deverane's say-so - no matter how sexy he is, or how much he believes they need to leave now.

Deverane was thinking about how to spend his retirement bonus when HQ assigned him one last mission: rescue a civilian woman stranded on a planet on the verge of civil war. Someone has pulled some serious strings to get her plucked out of the hot zone. Deverane's never met anyone so hard-headed-or so appealing. Suddenly his mission to protect this one woman has become more than just mere orders. That mission proves more dangerous than he expected when rebel fighters attack the village and raze it to the ground.

Deverane escapes with Andi, and on their hazardous journey through the wilderness, Andi finds herself fighting her uncomfortable attraction to the gallant and courageous captain. But Deverane's not the type to settle down, and running for one's life doesn't leave much time to explore a romance. Then Andi is captured by the rebel fighters, but Deverane has discovered that Zulaire's so-called civil war is part of a terrifying alien race's attempt to subjugate the entire Sector. If he pushes on to the capitol, Andi will die. Deverane must decide whether to save the woman he loves, or sacrifice her to save Zulaire.

©2013 Jean D Walker (P)2014 Jean D Walker

Good story, average narration

Narration could have been better. Michael Riffle great, Mary Fegreus hohum until final couple of chapters. Unfortunately, you can tell the two narrators either worked in different studios or the sound editor needs more practice as there were noticible differences in the background acoustics between them.

A light SFR adventure

I had enjoyed reading another book by this author, so looked forward to this one. The story has some fun adventure, real danger, and some romance. While some of the adventure was a bit out there, the romance didn't seem realistic. I can understand the characters meeting and having bells go off in their heads. But it wasn't that clear to them.

One review I read complained about Andi's interior dialogue. While I agree that it was excessive, and often obvious, it didn't bother me much. I think this is a place where the narration was weaker, though. While both narrators spoke clearly, there were many instances when the inflection was a bit off. The male narrator was better than the female, but both had little off moments.

On the positive, I liked both hero and heroine, and felt that both stayed in character. There were a couple of interesting supporting characters as well.

female narrator

The female narrator was flat.
No inflections in voice. She really took away from story.

First book was better.

Not as good as the first book. While the story line had lots of action, I didn't really care what happened to the main characters. I didn't hate them, but I just didn't get the connection with them that I would have liked. I blame the narration. Plus the difference between the races was a little bit harder to follow, who was who and why do I care about either one. Overall an okay book, it does give me pause on whether or not I will read the next book in the series, it will definitely have to be on sale. As state previously I wasn't a fan of how the narration was set up with duel narrators, which is not my preferred style to begin with. This set up didn't work because when the female narrator would talk it felt like it was interrupting every time the characters spoke or had an internal thought, which was hard to differentiate between the two. This also made the male narrator feel like he was the narrator for a story instead of making us believe in the characters. I blame the production for part of this books disconnection and making me not like the story well, because both narrators were good enough.

What an enjoyable listen

I could not stop listening to this story it grabbed me from the beginning and was almost through before my husband got home. just one more chapter one more chapter. I love the storyline I loved the characters I came to know them well definitely an author I would love to hear more from.

Loved this sci fi romance.

The story was a lot of fun to listen to. I particularly enjoyed the 2 readers. They interacted very well, bringing the characters to life. There were enough tense moments to keep me on the edge of my seat. Thank you!

Nope. Just nope

The female.narrator is so bad I didnt make it 5 minutes. Sorry, but this is a romance novel not a high school book report. Hire someone descent and redo it and maybe I'll give it another chance.