Darlene Quinn

Irritating.
I finish this narrative with a sigh of relief, and while I hate leaving a negative review, my honest response to this audiobook was that it was hugely irritating to listen to on several fronts. Firstly, the narrator had a really annoying voice and was totally unable to do male voices, turning them into an awful screech. Secondly, the book itself was written in third person, but the characters kept announcing what they were thinking, which really didn't work for me. Either a book is in first person, or it isn't.

In brief, a large department store has taken over an old favourite and split the loyalties of the stores' shoppers. Viviana De Mornay has moved her up-market clothing brand from one store to the umbrella organisation, and she has both a closing sale and a grand opening.
Marnie Taylor, the kidnapped twin who we met in Twisted Webs, is now living with her true family, although she still has strong attachments to Erica, her 'mother' until she was eight. She suddenly has an identical twin and a younger sister, as well as a life of luxury, after being brought up in a trailer park. Her wealth, however, makes her a target for another kidnapping and the frightening issue of on-line grooming is tackled. The kidnapping itself is over dramatised, along with a lot of the aforementioned expression of thoughts by a large number of the characters involved.

Although this is the fourth book in the Webs series, I believe it is actually the second featuring this particular cast of characters and provides a sequel to book 2 in the series, Twisted Webs. I found the cast of thousands in Twisted Webs, very confusing, and had to create a 'family tree' to work out who was who and how everyone was interrelated. I would imagine this would be quite a problem if you were coming to this book without having read the prequel.

According to GoodReads, this book received the 2013 Beverly Hills Book Awards Best in Fiction and the International Readers' Favorite Gold Medal, and other readers have rated it highly. I would therefore suggest that before deciding against this book, based on my review, prospective readers take a look at other reviews and make their own judgments.

I promised to listen to this audiobook and leave an unbiased review, this I have done. Thanks to the publishers, the author and the narrator, for my audiobook copy. Also thanks to Audiobook Boom who provides the contact between authors/narrators, and readers.… (mais)

"What doesn't kill us makes us strong"

How would you cope if one of your identical twins was removed from the hospital at birth and appeared to disappear off the face of the earth? And, if you were reunited eight years later, how would you respond to the woman who had raised her - should the child be wrenched from all that she holds dear, to return to her birth parents?
These are the questions raised by Darlene Quinn in book 2 of the Webs Series.

There is a bit of a cast of thousands and I did eventually have to write myself a 'family' tree to explain who was who, but in brief: Ashley Taylor gives birth to Callie and Cassie, but only Callie returns home with them. Cassie is abducted by Mario Castanelli, to replace the baby his wife has recently lost. Although he knows this is totally wrong, he sees it as the only way to bring Erica out of her depression and back to him.

This book was very much sold as a kidnap story, so I wasn't prepared for all the corporate department store stuff. I tried very hard to get involved with this, I even re-wound a large chunk of the book to try and get a grasp on it, but a complete lack of experience with the corporate world, combined with a narrator who seemed to be in a race against time, I eventually gave up and concentrated on the characters and their social interactions.

I was given this audiobook through Audiobook Boom, in return for an honest review. I would have liked to have given a higher star rating, but I didn't enjoy the narrator, who was not only fast, but also rather strident and not good at male voices (her best voice was the sultry Vivianna). In addition, the business aspect of the narrative left me cold.… (mais)

This series just keeps getting better. The lives of the characters are as interesting as they were in the previous three books, and the addition of new characters continues to add depth to the story. In this book, Ashleigh’s twins are going through the typical teenage angst, but with so much added baggage it’s a wonder they’ve survived. But, the strength of their genes becomes apparent. I am intrigued by the resident cougar, Viviana; it appears that she has finally found love, but one never knows. Quinn does indeed weave Unpredictable Webs and only the next installment will answer my questions. It should be noted that while the Web series books are at their best read in order as a series, each one could easily be a standalone and enjoyed. And once again, the Author’s Notes are the equivalent of a history lesson of the retail industry. The added surprise is the Author Q & A, which provides deeper insight into Quinn’s writing.
~ Linda Thompson, Host of TheAuthorsShow.com… (mais)