Beyond

Crossroads Saga, Book 3

By: Mary Ting

Narrated by: Kerri McCann

Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Torn between the past she can't remember and a future she isn't ready for, Claudia feels at a loss. With unanswered questions, she is certain there is more to her past than just being a venator. Finding the missing pieces in her life won't be easy because duty calls. When mysterious dark shadows get released, an apocalypse sets in motion.

The venators and the alkins must work together once again. Knowing Claudia would be the key to destroying the demons that were released, a familiar stranger appears to protect her. Who is the angel assisting her and can he unravel the mysteries of the past in order to help save the world?

©2014 Mary Ting (P)2016 March 2, 2014

Someone PLEASE find Mary better narrators!

*Slight spoiler ahead*
The first 2 books in this series were narrated by Amanda Friday and she was horribly painful to listen to. When I saw this one had a new narrator, all I could think was that at least this would have to be better! I was sadly mistaken. Amanda's delivery made you feel as though Siri was reading to you. This narrator (Kerri McCann) was just as hard to listen to but for a different reason. I couldn't adequately put into words why her narration made me cringe so badly, so I had my 17 year old daughter listen to a little bit of the beginning of this book to get her opinion (in case I was being unfairly harsh in my personal assessment). She said she thought it sounded like a kindergarten teacher reading to her class - everything is so overly enunciated and with such an odd tone of voice that you forget what is even happening; your focus is on her incredibly odd delivery.
I always try to listen to a book all the way through no matter how bad the performance. So I'm towards the end when this happens:
Michael is by Claudia who is wounded (possibly dying) and his lines are as follows:
Michael: "No, no, no don't you leave me! We have a long life to live together. I just found you again. You can't! You can't! No! No! No!"
This should have been a sad and touching scene. Unfortunately, the lines are delivered so absolutely ridiculously that I ended up laughing so hard I was crying! Then I had my daughter listen to it too and she asked me if I was listening to a spoof version of a book, not the actual narrated version through Audible!
I actually like this series and have read all the books a few times but I'm in a position where reading isn't an option most of the time right now so audiobooks are my substitute for escape. I am generally pretty forgiving for not so good narration but this is just PAINFUL!!
Please, PLEASE someone get Mary better narrators - her stories are enjoyable, but her narrators are doing her some serious injustice and hurting her level of success.

Narrator was different, a tad better.

Definitely a teenager book series. I wish I could take back the time I invested but it's hard to do when I'm at work and cannot change my book. The narrator is different than the one who did books 1 and 2 but not much better. She sounded like a snob when doing the ladies voices. Just drama throughout and the dang love triangle she tried to write in was horrible and to be honest with you I skipped almost all the chapters of that. She sounded whinny and immature that I just wanted to slap her! If your older like me I would reccomend not wasting your time! It was awful! So boring!!