Posted in audio books, Book Review

Rivals

Rivals Frenemies who Changed the World by Scott McCormick

Narrated by Prentice Onayemi, Samantha Turret, Khristine Hvam, Gabriel Vaughan and Josh Hurley

An Audible Original

I found this to be both interesting and entertaining. I love history and science, well, the history of science and invention. This is a collection of short stories about people in history who were both friends and competitors. The competitions often became quite violent, even deadly. They were also rather ridiculous, at least in retrospect, and costly.

Cope or Marsh, the jerks (I’d use another word, but I’ll keep it pg) who discovered many of America’s dinosaurs. It’s a wonder we have anything correct with the two of them inventing things just to one-up the other.

Hamilton and Burr, who political rivalry was rather bizarre and truly could have been more beneficial if they’d remained friends. It’s funny how Burr is often portrayed as the bad guy when the facts are somewhat different.

Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots, oh what a bloody mess that was.

Adidas and Puma, brothers battling over shoes and dividing a town as well as a family.

This is a side of history we’ve not seen before and I found it fun and interesting. There were definitely stories that will stay with me for years to come and others I’ll want to research further.

If you like history with a little twist, check out Rivals.

Posted in audio books, Book Review

Review of Audible Original

Even Tree Nymphs Get the Blues

By Molly Harper, Narrated by Amanda Ronconi and Jonathan Davis

This fast paced, fun novella is an otherworldly tale of the perils of dating, especially the perils of dating a magical being.

Ingrid Asher is a loner. Long ago she decided that being lonely was preferable to trusting the wrong person.

A Norwegian tree nymph newly arrived in Mystic Bayou. The place that calls to magic due to the rift between worlds. It is also the experimental town where normal people and magical creatures can cohabitate.

With plans to start a dairy farm and creamery, Ingrid knows she must learn to be friendly. When she attracts the amorous attentions of Dr. Rob Aspern, she returns his affections only to become disillusioned that he is only after her magic.

After a few false starts and the help of their friends, Rob and Ingrid try again. Can his career and her past be overcome so they can be together or is the mistrust too great to conquer. You will definitely want to listen to this novella, it was a lot of fun with interesting characters.

The narrators, Amanda Ronconi and Jonathan Davis did an excellent job of bringing the story to life. Their understanding of Molly Harper’s characters added another texture to this already fabulous story.

An Audible Original only available on Audible