Jacey Bedford's Journal

Narrated by Alex Wyndham

Sadly, I couldn’t get on with this, though I got about halfway through it before I gave it up.  It mixes the traditional Scottish ballads of Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin with aliens instead of the fae being the bad guys. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a sucker for these two ballads in particular, but this didn’t hit the mark for me. I also didn’t get on well with the narrator who seemed to be reading it all with a kind of sneer in his voice. I’ve listened to other samples of his work and when reading non-fiction, I don’t hear that at all.

Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden

Edith Worms, secret writer of detective fiction, is the oldest daughter of a Victorian clergyman who learns he has inherited Wormwood Abbey, in Ormsdale, Yorkshire, currently inhabited by his two nieces after the sudden and tragic deaths of their father and brother. The family travels to the Abbey to view it and make provision for the two orphaned girls, not intending to stay there, but there are obvious secrets that Edith begins to unravel. Who is the clingy neighbour, Drake, and why is he always hanging around? What is the lawyer who comes up from Londoin looking for? And what is the salamander-like creature that Edith makes into a pet? Ye clue is in the family name, Worm, or should that be Wyrm? The reader is very plummy, which probably suits the character of Edith perfectly, but after a while it was a bit wearing on the ear, but at a few seconds under five and a half hours, it works. I probably won’t read on in the series.

Audiobook narrated by Carl Prekopp,

Nathan Byrn is half Blood Witch and half Fairborn. His father is the world's most dangerous Blood Witch and has always been absent from Nathan's life. After the death of his mother, Nathan has been raised by his gran along with three half-siblings. The council of Fairborn witches wants to use Nathan to trap and kill his father, and as a result they make Nathan's life a misery. He ends up fostered out to a council witch, kept in a cage  while being 'educated.' If Nathan doesn't receive three gifts on his 17th birthday he won't come into his powers, and will likely go mad and die. He must escape and find the Blood Witch Mercury, but her price for helping him might be more than he's willing to pay. Carl Prekopp reads this well, and voices Nathan vry realistically. Unfortunately much of this is Nathan being beaten, tortured or otherwise made miserable, and there's a bit too much of that before he finally makes his escape. Even so life is not easy. This is the first in a trilogy. It was an interesting listen but I probably won't seek out the other two books.