Vows 1 & 2 Audiobook Review Roundup

All the reviews from the audiobook tour have posted (actually they’ve been up for a while, but I’ve been sidetracked), so it’s time for a roundup post!

As reviews tend to be, they’re a mixed bag, but mostly favorable. Here are all the links—the good, the bad, and the ugly (and some outstanding, too!):

At Sarah’s Reading Corner, Lora wasn’t a fan of the narration, but said: “I enjoyed the team effort that Henry, Garret, and Devon – even Buddy – made on the island. I thought it was well thought out and the storyline there really drove the story.”

At Rainbow Gold Reviews, Wendy loved both the narration and the story, saying: “Wow, just wow! I will start with the narration by David Gilmore. He is a new-to-me narrator and I was very impressed.”

…and “The story was very well written and had lots of angst and suspense filled moments. I honestly didn’t know how the author was going to deal with the big issue in this story, but in the end it was done flawlessly. I can’t see any other ending than the one it had.”

At The Geekery Book Review, Jenn had favorable opinions on both the story and the narration. She said: “I love the idea of the stranded on an island idea and Addison Albright really nailed this for me! It was fun and emotional and at times intense and I truly enjoyed this story!”

…and “I thought David Gilmore did a good job with the narration, especially in the first book, really bringing these characters to life!”

At Love Bites and Silk Ties, Maya liked it, but was saddened by the heartbreak of a certain side character at the end of book 1. I hope she’ll give book 3 a try, since that’s where that character gets a happily-ever-after of his very own.

She said this about the narration: “As for the audio production, the narration was good and helped to bring the story alive.”

At Making It Happen, Carra loved the story. She said: “Addison Albright totally sucked me in to this story from the very beginning, and holy cow she did not let me go for even a second until the very end.  I loved the characters, the storyline, and pretty much everything else about this book.”

She wasn’t a fan of the character voices, but did say, “This is the first audiobook I’ve listened to with David Gilmore as the narrator.  He does a good job with the mechanics of the narration, voicing an evenly paced, smooth story.”

At Bayou Book Junkie, Heather loved everything about them. She said: “I previously read this book but jumped at the chance to listen to the audio. When I had originally read it, I cried, a lot. But, I knew going in what to expect and let me tell you that didn’t make a difference at all! I cried while listening to this audio just as much, if not more than when I read it. And since I do most of my listening while driving, that’s a little awkward!”

…and “The narrator is David Gilmore and he did a fantastic job bringing this story to life! He had an easy to listen to voice, kept a good pace, expressed appropriate emotions. There were no weird pauses in his narration, which is important when listening to an audiobook (in my opinion). The narrator gave characters individual voices which made it easy to listen to, he wasn’t just reading a story.”

At Dog-eared Daydreams, the reviewer wasn’t initially a fan of the narration, but embraced it by the end. Her comments on the story include: “Talk about an intense story! I’ve read several stuck-on-an-island-after-a-plane-crash-slash-boat-sinking before, but what I found refreshing about this author’s take on the story line was that we had two different perspectives–that of the survivor on the island and the survivor back home, Henry and Sam, respectively.”

At Boy Meets Boy Reviews, A Reader Obsessed thought the narration was a “pleasant listen”, and said this about the story: “Full of tense situations as well as sad and emotional challenges, there were also some great instances of levity when it came to Henry being a surrogate father to an endearing 10 month old boy (seriously, too cute for words). I feared this would continuously be wrought with a lot of angst, but though it was heart wrenching at times, it was a totally tolerable turmoil for some reason – I guess because it was grounded in realism and mostly external forces and not due to some frustratingly stupid plot device.”

At BFD Book Blog, Christina thought the narration was “okay,” but admits she’s picky. Her opinion was middle of the road, saying it was overall a decent story.

At Gay Media Reviews, Dawn loved the stories. Here are a couple of her comments: “This is a new to me author and narrator, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure about this one – but I took the chance and was glad that I did.”

…and “I really did enjoy this audio, and I really liked this narrator too.  I haven’t heard any other audio by him, but I will be looking.”

At Joyfully Jay, let’s just say Michelle didn’t like much of anything about them and leave it at that. Follow the link if you want the gritty details. 😕

I console myself by remembering that Camille from the same blog waxed quite eloquently with her love of the story back when the ebook first came out. In fact, ’Til Death Do Us Part was listed in Joyfully Jay’s Monthly Favorite Books list for April, 2016. I’ll leave you a couple of quotes from Camille’s review of the ebook last year, instead:

“I haven’t turned pages so damn hard since Stanford shot Griffin and Alec chose Seregil!!”

“I recommend this book to everyone! Especially if you’re an angst fiend and love a long, slow burn of a veritable smorgasbord of will-he-or-won’t-he (be it all the survivors surviving, Sam making a choice, Sam making the same choice the reader would, who ends up with that KID?!).”