The Mirror
Nov. 29th, 2024 04:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI listened to the first in the Lost Bride trilogy by Nora Roberts last month and was planning to wait six months before listening to the second instalment - The Mirror - so that it would then only be six months until the last part came out in November 2025.
But - after a cosy fantasy in between - the only audiobook I wanted to listen to was this one, so I did.
And it was really fun!
There was a bit of recapping included (which I didn't need, having only just listened to the first part), which I thought was done well, interweaving it into the new narrative so it wasn't clunky.
And I just love this set of characters and animals and ghosts and setting and family members and community!
It helps that the audiobook narrator is excellent - especially in characterising Sonya's best friend Cleo, and the two men who are now fully embroiled in the adventure - Trey and Owen.
I read complaints about the first one that there's too much mundane, extraneous detail about cooking and deciding what to wear and looking after the pets and freelance business building - and I agree that the three books of the trilogy could probably be condensed into one, much more tightly plotted story - but I love all that stuff in this series!
I was actually much more invested in Sonya preparing for her big pitch presentation and her and Cleo putting together the big party than I was in the threat from the evil ghost - but then they spend a lot more time working on those things than they do on trying break the curse!
One thing that did start to drag a little bit was how often characters relayed the details of incidents they'd experience on their own, multiple times to different other characters who turned up later - it did get a bit repetitive and it happened so often as to take up quite a lot of the narrative in telling the reader stuff they already knew.
But it all ramped up quite a bit at the very end - and, overall, I absolutely loved it! I can't believe I've created a situation where I have to wait a whole year for the conclusion! Ah well...
But - after a cosy fantasy in between - the only audiobook I wanted to listen to was this one, so I did.
And it was really fun!
There was a bit of recapping included (which I didn't need, having only just listened to the first part), which I thought was done well, interweaving it into the new narrative so it wasn't clunky.
And I just love this set of characters and animals and ghosts and setting and family members and community!
It helps that the audiobook narrator is excellent - especially in characterising Sonya's best friend Cleo, and the two men who are now fully embroiled in the adventure - Trey and Owen.
I read complaints about the first one that there's too much mundane, extraneous detail about cooking and deciding what to wear and looking after the pets and freelance business building - and I agree that the three books of the trilogy could probably be condensed into one, much more tightly plotted story - but I love all that stuff in this series!
I was actually much more invested in Sonya preparing for her big pitch presentation and her and Cleo putting together the big party than I was in the threat from the evil ghost - but then they spend a lot more time working on those things than they do on trying break the curse!
One thing that did start to drag a little bit was how often characters relayed the details of incidents they'd experience on their own, multiple times to different other characters who turned up later - it did get a bit repetitive and it happened so often as to take up quite a lot of the narrative in telling the reader stuff they already knew.
But it all ramped up quite a bit at the very end - and, overall, I absolutely loved it! I can't believe I've created a situation where I have to wait a whole year for the conclusion! Ah well...
