Audible Book Review: The Werewolf's 15 Minutes by Jonathan Maberry

This is a perfect, quick, fit for October and #Fraterfest.
#FRATERFEST-2
The Werewolf's 15 Minutes
By: Jonathan Maberry
Narrated by: Ray Porter, Dina Pearlman

Series: Audible Original Stories
Length: 1 hr and 42 mins
Release date: 10-28-21
Publisher: Audible Originals
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Werewolf
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.0; Narration 4.0.

About This Audible Original
Gary Bruce is a slacker of epic loserness. Can’t keep a job. His friends are as bad as he is. No girlfriend. No direction.
Gary Bruce is also a werewolf.
Desperate for any kind of success, Gary decides to out himself on YouTube. The moment this ordinary guy goes full-on fur, fangs, and claws, the world can’t get enough of him. He’s the biggest thing on social media, he’s on every talk show, book and movie deals fall in his lap, and for the first time in his life he gets invited to all the best parties.
But celebrity is a special kind of voracious monster. And when Gary’s star begins to lose its luster, he has to decide how far he’ll go to stay relevant in a world that discards has-beens in favor of the next big thing.
Fortunately, Gary has a plan....
The Werewolf’s 15 Minutes is a brand-new short story by New York Times best-seller and five-time Bram Stoker Award winner Jonathan Maberry, author of Bewilderness and V-Wars (Netflix).
©2021 Jonathan Maberry Productions, LLC (P)2021 Audible Originals, LLC.

Review:
Gary and his friends are not particularly impressive young men. They struggle to keep a job, much less a girlfriend, or a sense of career direction. Gary has decided to take drastic steps to get attention, so he outs himself as a werewolf on YouTube. Gary gets his 15 minutes of fame but for the wrong reasons. The audience wants to know the secret to his excellent make-up. It takes another step to really be taken seriously and get an agent with all the star hype.

Of course, that only lasts for a limited time. As his star dims, Gary formulates a plan to renew the interest. But he might carry things a bit too far.

I enjoyed this quick story with an appropriately ironic twist that brings a chuckle at the end. There is a bit of lazy-side male banter that wasn’t my favorite but certainly fit the characters. I recommend this as a good, quick Halloween read.

Audio Notes: Ray Porter and Dina Pearlman share the narration on this. I like Porter’s straightforward narration with good pausing and emphasis. Dina also has fitting energy, and I enjoyed the shared segments. The audio enhanced my enjoyment of the quick story.

10/27-30/2021 Audible Plus Catalog. This qualifies for 2022TBR and 2022Audiobook goals.

Audible Book Review: Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn

I love this narrator and like the series.
Kitty Takes a Holiday
Kitty Norville, Book 3
By: Carrie Vaughn
Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin

Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
Release date: 10-05-09
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Werewolf
My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.25; Narration 4.5.

Publisher's Summary
After getting caught turning wolf on national television, Kitty retreats to a mountain cabin to recover and write her memoirs. But this is Kitty, so trouble is never far behind, and instead of Walden Pond, she gets Evil Dead.
When werewolf hunter Cormac shows up with an injured Ben O'Farrell, Kitty's lawyer, slung over his shoulder, and a wolf-like creature with glowing red eyes starts sniffing around the cabin, Kitty wonders if any of them will get out of these woods alive.
©2007 Carrie Vaughn, LLC (P)2009 Tantor

Review:
Kitty has retreated to a mountain cabin to ‘hide’ from her exposed nature as a werewolf and to, maybe wrote a book. Someone in the nearby community begins to harass her by leaving dead animals on her porch and in her yard. The local police chief inspects but clearly isn’t too favorable to Kitty and is willing to blame her for the ‘pranks’.

While Kitty is struggling with the harassment, her ‘friend’ Cormac arrives with her attorney, Ben, who is injured. Cormac brought Ben to Kitty to help him through the injury. Cormac is upset by the increasing ugliness of the harassment and the sudden appearance of a killing beast like the one he was hunting when Ben got hurt.

Kitty and Cormac are on the edge of changing their friendship until an incident with Ben makes that unlikely. Feeling like a third wheel, Cormac takes off. But Cormac has sent a strange Native American to investigate the harassment which appears to be some type of attempt to curse Kitty. The perpetrators are exposed but they all face mauling when the red-eyed beast shows up.

Cormac reappears but runs into trouble while trying to protect his friends. Ben and Kitty do some serious investigation trying to get more information and witnesses, but it may be impossible to solve the problem that Cormac now faces.

It has been a while since I listened to the previous book in this series, and I was glad to continue with this one. I like the characters and the magic elements. Kitty struggles listening to a competitive radio host but the interaction results in allow Kitty to grow as a character. I also liked how she begins to find the benefits of having a pack. There is plenty of action and mystery that keeps the story moving. I recommend the series to fans of good (rather than evil) werewolves. .

Audio Notes: Marguerite Gavin is a wonderful narrator and I have picked up audios because she narrates them. She does a great job with this series, providing distinct voices and clear energy for the characters. The narration enhances my enjoyment of the story.

Source: March 2022 Audible Sale Purchase at $3.67. This qualifies for 2022TBR, 2022Audiobook, and 2022Alphabet goals.

eBook Book Review: Bad Wolf (Bad Wolf Chronicles Book 1) by Tim McGregor

A gripping mix of Cop and Wolf.
Bad Wolf (Bad Wolf Chronicles Book 1)
by Tim McGregor

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004YR8F2A
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 29, 2011 File size ‏ : ‎ 657 KB
Print length ‏ : ‎ 267 pages
Genre: Crime Thriller, Paranormal, Werewolf
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.0; Narration 4.0.

Detective Lara Mendes’s hard work pays off when she finally gets to join the homicide detail. There’s only one catch; she has to partner up with a cop no one wants to work with.
John Gallagher is a veteran homicide detective who wants nothing more than to work alone. When the Lieutenant partners him with Lara Mendes, his first reaction is to ditch her but a call comes in about a body on the river bank and the rotation says they’re up.
What they find are human remains, mutilated and partially devoured. Their investigation reveals a killer stalking the city with a pack of vicious, feral dogs.
And the suspect believes he is a werewolf.
But this is Portland, where crazy bastards outnumber normal ones ten to one. Except there’s another catch. The crazy werewolf guy? He isn’t crazy...

Review:
Detective Lara Mendes has been working hard to be assigned to the homicide detail. When one of the current detectives is injured, Lara is glad to move onto the team even if she is paired with a difficult partner, John Gallagher. Their first call together takes them to a mutilated and partially devoured body. They soon learn that the killer was accompanied by a pack of feral dogs.

They manage to track the suspect to his home where they confiscate a group of journals. John says they are illegible, but Lara digs in to read the journals. What she learns is that the suspect believes he is a werewolf. Lara, and especially John, think this is all in the guy’s head, until Lara gets trapped with the beast and is bitten.

This book kept my interest. I liked the police procedure aspect and it's mix with werewolf legend. There is danger, action, horror, and sorrow. It is not for the squeamish as the story is gritty and gory in parts.

This is a scary, not cuddly, werewolf, although the author does a good job creating some sympathy through the creature’s history and emotional turmoil. This book has a conclusion but continues with a new wolf. I wouldn’t mind reading the sequels although it probably won’t happen soon. I recommend this to readers who would like the mix of police procedure and wolf savagery.

Source: Kindle Free May 12, 2012. This qualifies for 2022TBR, ebook, and 2022Alphabet goals.

Audible Book Review: How to Flirt With a Naked Werewolf

This is a fun listen with quirky characters, some mystery and a sexy romance.

How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf

• UNABRIDGED
• by Molly Harper
• Narrated by Amanda Ronconi

Gerne:  Paranormal Romance, Comedy
My Rating:  4.5 of 5.0

Publisher's Summary

Even in Grundy, Alaska, its unusual to find a naked guy with a bear trap clamped to his ankle on your porch. But when said guy turns into a wolf, recent southern transplant Mo Wenstein has no difficulty identifying the problem. Her surly neighbor Cooper Graham,who has been openly critical of Mo's ability to adapt to life in Alaska, has trouble of his own. Werewolf trouble.

For Cooper, an Alpha in self-imposed exile from his dysfunctional pack, its love at first sniff when it comes to Mo. But Cooper has an even more pressing concern on his mind. Several people around Grundy have been the victims of wolf attacks, and since Cooper has no memory of what he gets up to while in werewolf form, hes worried that he might be the violent canine in question.

If a wolf cries wolf, it makes sense to listen, yet Mo is convinced that Cooper is not the culprit. Except if hes not responsible, then who is? And when a werewolf falls head over haunches in love with you, what are you supposed to do anyway? The rules of dating just got a whole lot more complicated.

Review:
Mo is a girl after my own heart. She is strong and determined. She has moved to Alaska to make a break from a broken engagement and her very hippy and controlling parents. She didn’t plan to work right away but somehow steps right into working as a short order cook at the local gathering diner.

Mo is attracted to the sulky, quite guy in the place, Cooper, even though he makes it clear he doesn’t think she’ll make it past the first winter. Since Cooper wants to remain sullen and stand-offish, Mo goes out with  Park Ranger, Alan, who is a really nice guy but doesn’t give her shivers like Cooper. As Mo puts it ‘Cooper was caramel triple chocolate cheesecake deep fired on a stick. Alan was angel food cake, sweet and wholesome and nothing you’d regret.’

Mo suspects there is something really different about Cooper and then she learns it for sure when he shows up on her porch naked with a bear trap around his ankle.  Cooper takes Mo home to meet his pack when he is summoned because his grandfather is so ill.  The pack is at odds because Cooper is the Alpha but he is running from the responsibility. His sister is furious with him and attacks him whenever they are near to each other.

There is trouble in town because several people have been injured or killed by a wolf. Mo is sure that Cooper is not the wolf who is attacking people but he isn’t sure of himself so again he backs away from her rather than risk hurting her.

I really enjoyed the push, pull of the romance between Cooper and Mo with the added tension of conflict from Alan’s interest in Mo. The author gives good development of the characters and interesting wolf-pack dynamic as a family struggling under traditional rules. There is plenty of fun dialog and phrasing that had me chuckling out loud. This isn’t fast paced action but it moves along well with a good mix of romance and mystery.

The narrator did a really nice job of catching the quirkiness of the characters and I would enjoy more from both the author and the narrator.  I recommend this if you want a light fun read or  listen.

 I selected this on Audible because it looked like fun and also because it was on the Recommended Reading Challenge list.  I will link it to Alaska for Where are you Reading Map, and on the Recommended Reading and New Author Challenges.