Bit of a Letdown..

Once this Rachel Higginson story gets going, it reveals a gripping Civil War within the magical community. Higginson's vision involves four classes of "Immortals" - Titans, Shapechangers, Witches, and Mediums - who are battling for control of the direction their species should take.

The premise is fascinating.

Unfortunately, Higginson spoils the opportunity to deliver a captivating chronicle by spending fully a third of this book character-building a painfully clueless MC ('Eden Matthews').. the author really should have spent that effort on World-building instead of providing a character study for a genuinely annoying petulant/self-absorbed protagonist. Additionally, the confused teenage romantic feelings are taken to an extreme.. in fact, think of any YA cliché (e.g. misunderstood high-school misfit with remarkable powers that nobody knows about) and Higginson dials it to 11 - all the while exhibiting glaringly substandard vocabulary & prose.
[Note: Despite those deficiencies, Higginson describes an imaginative world and includes scenes of well-choreographed magical combat & plausible romantic feelings. The wasted opportunity is disheartening]

Bailey Carr's overenunciation and weak voice-acting are likewise unfortunate: She reads too slowly (consume this recording at 1.20X), but her timbre, cadence, and tone are creditable. The choice of reader for the series by Audible Studios Inc. was a defensible one.
Each sentence, sadly, ends with a James Hetfieldesque "Ah" (as in any early Metallica song) - and when coupled with perhaps the worst British accent I have ever heard (for Titan bodyguard 'Talbot') - the narration downgrades my assessment. If you are deadset on reading the 'Star Crossed' series and have the option of reading a text (paper or eBook) version, do that.

Altogether, this iteration of 'Reckless Magic' only rates 5 stars out of 10. Even disregarding the subpar delivery, it's "adequate" at best. You aren't crazy to give this book a listen if you can get it as a 'Plus' selection (included with your subscription).. but unless you are a rabid fan of YA Fantasy, spend your Credit elsewhere.

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Gets better

Narrations is kind of annoying. A bit too breathy and fantastical when it would be much more enjoyable if it was said more plainly.

I found the beginning of the story a little bothersome but found it got better later on. Perhaps I also didn't like that they kept her in the dark the way they did.

The fact that they keep saying "could care less" rather than "couldn't* care less" grinds my gears though. Not as bad but still notably annoying to me was saying "on accident" rather than "by accident", but they don't say it nearly as often as the former.

The end way good and makes me excited for what happens next.

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LOVE

Such a well written series with complex characters and a story line that continues on through all the books. Every book in this series was captivating. Wish there were more to read!! Buy it - you won't regret it if you love adventure and fantasy!

If you loved this you'll for sure want to read the Throne of Glass series by Sarah Maas!

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Fantastic series!!!

The reader did a wonderful job capturing the different emotions of each character. thank you for a captivating story

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Great narration. Tired story.

uses "gypsy" and "communist" to describe Romania and Roma people and homeless Romanians. "dirty" and "primative" also used to describe the Roma people. typical story line of elite rich kids with magic and money and privilege fighting against each other. good narration.

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1 person found this helpful

Worth a try

Worth the read but not my favourite lead characters. Eden was very whiny, but had a fun storyline.

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I'm absolutely addicted but have some grievances

For the most part, I do really really like this story, so positives first:

In Reckless Magic, there is a very fun universe with mostly fleshed out lore that you can fairly quickly lose yourself in. Many of the characters are loveable and although not generally realistic in their reactions and choices, they are fun to follow along with. The imagery is beautiful and majoridly well written. Some of the interworkings and rules between species' are pretty neat too. I also really enjoy that we get to travel with her!

Negatives:

What's not contrived, within the plot pages of this story, falls on the side of convenient. Eden, the protagonist of this novel (and I suspect, entire series) is not only ignorant of the world around her (which was on purpose) she's kind of just a complete idiot. She complains that people never tell her anything, but she rarely bothers to ask questions, let alone follow up questions. Most of the conflict could be avoided had she just talked to someone... ANYONE! She brings so much of her daily stress upon herself from this, her supposed stubborness (that is actually just her being unnecessarily difficult without reason), and her near superhuman inability to read a room. I understand that she is only just learning how this society works, but she gets so stuck on the dumbest things that it seems more like she only just landed on our planet. Their society doesn't exist in the real world, and even I picked up on things quicker than she did because I've ever heard of a Monarchy, or I didn't stick my head in the mud while people sat there telling her exactly the things she complains about not having known! I'm not sure I've ever even heard of a more clueless character in my entire life, and I LOVE Cher Horowitz! (80s/90s kids will get this reference ;)

Eden is probably the most "damsel in distress while being called a badass" character I've seen as well. She has all this magic she rarely uses, and well I don't want to give away this spoiler but I'll just say this: trust me, she can handle herself; yet she has an entire group of people nearly dedicated to basically only protecting her. WHY?! She is strong enough to not need literally 7+ people to protect her. Unless, of course, she has to use her brain. In that specific case, I can believe she would do herself some major damage.

Eden isn't the only one who suffers this insufferability. How and WHY everyone around her seemingly, absolutely insists on keeping her in the dark about nearly literally everything, then expects her to keep up is ridiculous.

Overall:

I'm not entirely sure how far I will get in the series but these frustrations did have me veer toward another series when I was finished with this particular novel. That said, I later couldn't stop thinking about it and now I am on chapter 34 in book 2. Equally frustrated, yet equally hooked and craving conclusions.

If you want a world you can fall into, characters you can love, hate, and love to hate, and a plot that keeps you riveted, thinking, and craving more, this isn't for you.

If you want all of those things, but replace "thinking" with "getting frustrated by their stupidity" it is. As long as you can handle a little less than stellar writing here and there, don't find clichés grating, and can handle the kind of plot where you can not only ride an elephant through the holes, but then don't feel like killing it just to let out the frustration you have building up from having to deal with Eden and nearly all of her interactions; this book is great!

Why I gave the preformance 3 stars:

The narrator's voice bothers me quite a bit, but I recognize that it's me problem. She is quite breathy, and I feel as though she overacts every line she delivers!

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1 person found this helpful

Very slow with unlikable main characters

I don’t usually like to leave bad reviews but this book is just painful. I’m probably not going to finish it. There were so many good reviews, I was excited to try this series. But chapter after chapter went by with the main character being whiny and clueless and no chemistry whatsoever with the guy I assume is her potential love interest. After 17 chapters (4 hours of listening) finally there was some action (the students are attacked by mysterious, powerful magicians), followed by an entire chapter of the fmc crying about it and then the adults explaining very poorly what was going on. Because apparently after she burned her last school to the ground by accidentally setting off her magic, they hadn’t thought that was reason enough to provide her some magical training. I just can’t keep going.

The narrator is sort of okay. It’s not like the author gave her a lot of good material to work with. I would give her another chance if I found another interesting looking book that she was narrating. But her “Spanish or Italian” accent for Talbot was very much Russian sounding. I just decided to change the story in my mind to make him Eastern European instead so it wouldn’t bother me so much.

Overall, I’m glad this was a free listen with my Audible Plus account and that I didn’t spend any credits on it.

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loved it

The story is above my expectations. The characters are interesting story is fast-paced. no boring parts so far.

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.......wow

This was so hard to listen to. typical drawn out stupidity of a dim whitted weak willled girl who refuses to open her mouth and explain sh!t , unutil problems occur that aren't needed. Spending way to much time describing the same thing 6 different ways with in minutes...WE GET THE POINT! the sheer lack of character intelligence is astounding.. it's like the author doesn't remember what they wrote in the past chapters, or even the past paragraph.

The sheer lack of common sense in the main character is more then annoying. Be prepared for constant re telling of the same thing over and over again, and the MC to maintain ignorant and oblivious even after being retold everything 294752847282 x times in EVERY CHAPTER

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5 people found this helpful