Drea and I are recent audiobook junkies and are excited to share our favorites with you that we listened to in 2014.
Drea's Favorites
5) The Duchess War - Courtney Milan
I'd signed up for the historical romance challenge over on Herding Cats & Burning Soup. About halfway through the year I freaked out because I hadn't finished many historical romances. So I upgraded this freebie to an audiobook using the Audible Kindle match (or whatever it's called). For a whole $1.99 I got to have a lovely Englishwoman read me this entire book, and I loved it! I'm now officially a fan of both historical romance audiobooks and Courtney Milan.
The Duchess War features a seriously intelligent heroine and a swoon worthy, super sweet Duke. If you're a fan of any of that keep an eye out for this deal, because the ebook is often free.
4) Splintered & Unhinged - A.G. Howard
Melissa is the Alice in Wonderland fan, but I'm a ridiculous cover whore. And these covers are beautiful!
The premise of a darker, gothic Alice in Wonderland with an older heroine (she's a senior in high school) appealed to me. And I dig love triangles, and this one has a doozie of a triangle. The narrator took a bit of getting used to, but now I love her, and looked for others she's done.
I'm currently listening to the last in the series, Ensnared, and can't wait to see how it ends!
3) Reckless - Skye Jordan
This is another freebie I upgraded to audio for a mere $1.99. And wow! What a deal! This is definitely an erotic romance, and it's steamy! Don't listen to this one with the kids around, but do listen! This features a dressmaker and a former Hollywood star turned stuntman, plus some sex in the dark. Hot.
2) Cinder & Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles 1&2) - Marissa Meyer
Fairytale retellings were big in the last few years, and these were on my TBR for a while. Mostly because of the covers. I managed get Cinder on sale and was able to upgrade it to audio for cheap. Of course, as you're probably gathering from most of my blurbs above, I was hooked on the series pretty quickly. I scored the second book from the library (if you're not using Overdrive, you need to!).
These two are futuristic retellings of Cinderella and Red Riding Hood that are so super cool. I'm not into futuristic things, but there's just enough romance in these to keep my attention...and bring me back for more. I'll, of course, already grabbed the third one (a Rapunzel retelling I think?). It's next up after I finish Ensnared.
1) Daughter of Smoke & Bone Trilogy - Laini Taylor
From Wikipedia:
The trilogy follows Karou, a seventeen-year-old Prague art student who was raised by creatures called chimaera that she has to go on tasks for: namely, collecting teeth for her foster father Brimstone. Karou has no idea what the teeth are used for. Furthermore, a man with fiery eyes and wings who has spent his time scorching handprints on doors across the world is about to kill Karou until she turns around and he sees something in her that causes him to falter.
This series was like nothing else I've read/listened to and that's why it ended up grabbing my #1 spot. After the seriously slow start of book 1, I was totally hooked on this clever take on angels and demons. If you're looking for something different to get into, grab this series. The writing is amazing, the characters are great, the narrator is
talented, and the subject matter is completely fresh. But be prepared to listen for a
long time, because these aren't quick books.
Melissa's Favorites
I listened to 3 series and loved each and every one of them, I'm going to have to recommend the first book of each since it started out great and made me continue with the series.
3) Guild Hunter Series - Nalini Singh
Elena the vampire hunter! This series is pretty good, one of the best angel series I've read to date. Elena tracks down vampires for the angels, and takes on some big bad guys. There are several lust worthy male characters too, my main one is Raphael (he's an archangel).
2) Kate Daniels Series - Ilona Andrews
Kate Daniels is a mercenary that isn't afraid to rush head first into danger with her sword. She's always getting into sticky situations where her life will be on the line. And Curran the sexy alpha shifter, ahhh I need to read the next book now to get my fix.
1) Elemental Assassin Series - Jennifer Estep
Gin Blanco is one of my favorite characters in Urban Fantasy. She kicks some serious ass. She's an assassin, each book tells about her current mission and the big bad villain she is facing. I haven't gotten bored yet and I listened to 12 of the books in this series in 2014 alone!
Giveaway
Prize: (1) $10 Amazon Gift Card
(Loupe @ HotListens gave me a great tip that if you snag the kindle book sometimes it has the whispersync for a cheap upgrade. Check that to see if it's cheaper than getting the audio by itself!)
Rules: Giveaway will start on 01/25/2015 and will close on 01/31/2015 at 11:59PM. Winner will be chosen and contacted (via email) on 02/01/2015. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.
Enter via the Rafflecopter below and good luck! Don't forget to check out the other stops in the blog hop.
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