Audio Review: Flesh and Blood by Kristen Painter

Flesh and Blood

by Kristen Painter

House of Camarre #2
Narrated by Abby Craden

Source: Purchased from Audible.com

With the ring of sorrows still missing, and the covenant between othernaturals and mortals broken, Chrysabelle and Malkolm's problems are just beginning. Chrysabelle still owes Malkolm for his help, but fulfilling that debt means returning to Corvinestri, the hidden vampire city neither of them is welcome in.The discovery that Chrysabelle has a brother could mean reneging on her promise to Malkolm, something that might make him angry enough to loose the beast living inside him. And fulfilling her vow could prove devastating for Chrysabelle-especially when you throw in power hungry witches, dead fringe vampires, and the Kubai Mata.

Normally I save my thoughts about the narration of the audiobook to the end of the review. But since I almost gave Flesh and Blood a 3 star rating based on the narration I going to talk about it first.

Abby Craden's narration of the main characters was pretty good and her "reading" voice (non dialogue narration) was good. Where I had a problem with the narration was her choices for A LOT of the secondary characters more to the point the minority characters. For example Katsumi is an Asian vampire and Craden's narration of her sounded like siamese cats from Lady and the Tramp. I had that song "We are Siamese if You Please" stuck in my head whenever Katsumi can on scene.

Doc

Another character I had problem with was Doc. I read the first book, Blood Rights and I didn't either remember or picked up on the fact that he is Africain American but listing to Carden's voice for him I thought, is Doc black? So I asked my two read along co-hosts that recently read Blood Rights and they were not sure either. I looked him up on the House of Comarre website and saw a picture of the character. Yep, he's Africain American. But I didn't enjoy the stereo-type voice that the narrator gave him; she made him sound like a street thug mixed with a white raper (Vanilla Ice). I thought he would say Yo-Yo at any moment.

I was so focused on how much I disliked the narration of the minority characters that it took me out of the story many times. But I thought it was unfair to lower my rating of the writing that Kristen Painter brought to life. It's just a case where I will read the rest of the series instead of listening. It happens.

Ok now that my rant about the narration of the audiobook is over I'll talk about the book.




Despite my bitching about the narration I did enjoy Flesh and Blood (points to the 4 Mac Halos).

It has been a year and half since I read Blood Rights and I forgot some of the finer points of the characters and world so it took me a little while to get back into the swing of things. Normally it's not a problem to pick up a series after that time frame but the House of Comarre series is a very detailed and complex world that I recommend you reading the books close together.

Kristen Painter has written a very rich world with complex characters. I had a clue it would be on of those series when I saw the glossary at the front Blood Rights. With the melting pot of supernatural creatures; Fae, Fallen Angles, Varcolai (shifters), ghosts, Comarré and vampires you won't get bored.

Chrysabelle is still trying to fit into a world where she is not a part of the Comarré lifestyle. She's out on her own working with Mal, a vampire. Which is unheard of. Comarré are pretty much vampire's in-live blood servants, they are not equals. But after the events in Blood Rights the two are working toward a common goal. Kill the wicked, bitch vamp of the west, Tatiana.

Well doing so, Chrysabelle and Mal's feelings for each other hit a new level. But things get even more complicated when Creek, a human that is part of a secret supe hunting group called the Kubai Mata. But Creek and Mal are sworn to protect Chrysabelle while fighting over who gets her personal attention.

Then there's Doc's storyline. He is working towards bring Fiona the ghost back. Fiona has been Doc's friend and slowly turned into his love interest and just when things were looking up for the two in the last book, something rips them apart. So Doc is working to fix things and also find a way to break his curse. You see he's a Varcolai (shifter). His true animal form is a black jaguar but because of his curse he can only shift into a house cat. Which we get more back ground into Doc's past that lets us know why/how he was cursed.

I feel like I'm rambling with this review so I'm going to stop and sum up that I really enjoyed this 2nd installment in the House of Comarré series by Kristen Painter and I look forward to READING this next one, Bad Blood. I want to see how the gang deals with the minor cliff hanger at the end of this one.

Disclaimer: I'm part of Kristen Painter's House of Pain Street team. But that in no way influenced my review of this book or the future ones. I purchased these books before joining the Street Team. I also decided to host the read along before joining the street team.

Part of:

Check out the discussion over at Little Read Riding Hood.

and make sure you check out Readers Confession's review.