Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Audiobook Review: Torn by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Series:     Wicked Saga #2
Pub. Date:Sept. 13, 2016
Publisher:Tantor Audio
Narrator:Amy Landon
Length:10 hrs 17 min
Source:Publisher

Torn picks up where Wicked left off. The fae prince made it through the door from the Otherworld and will now be seeking out a Halfling to birth his apocalypse baby and doom the humans to a horrible existence. With The Order's decimation during the Equinox, and all the information that seems to fall in Ivy's lap, it really seems to be Ivy and Ren against the entirety of the Fae in New Orleans.

Ivy must cope with several different obstacles in this book... she must come to terms with being a Halfling, the betrayal by her best friend (Val), relationship drama with Ren, and being targeted by the Fae. The one thing that bothers me about Ivy is that she is a bit slow on the uptake sometimes... the reader was able to see Val's betrayal coming in the last book, and we saw through the Fae tricks in this book. While Ivy eventually figured it out... I found myself yelling at her a few times.  Otherwise, I like Ivy and she is fairly mature for a 22 year-old heroine. I think that overcoming the obstacles in this book will make her a stronger heroine as the series progresses. 

Ren definitely has his own obstacles to face as well - even though they are a bit separate from Ivy. As a member of the Elite, who hunt Halflings, Ivy's revelation means something totally different to Ren. Having lost a best friend to Halfling hunters as a teen, does he really want to go through that again? Then when a callous female Fae takes a shine to Ren, things go from bad to worse. I really hated hearing what he went through... but I couldn't imagine the decision Ivy had to make choosing between the fate of Ren and all of humankind. 

Tink continues to be my favorite character, and he has even more surprises in store for Ivy Divey. He brings the perfect amount of levity to the story, but knows when to be serious as well. I totally think that we need a love interest for Tink, now that he has a little cute and cuddly in his life. I also continue to enjoy Armentrout's version of a fae-infested New Orleans. This installment again leaves us with more questions than answers... but not in a bad way. After Wicked, I expected this book to have that to be continued feel at the end. I do feel like the intent of this book was to go to a darker place... but it missed the mark somewhat. The Fae Prince is a good villain, but I think he needs to be a little more dark and gritty and scary. He needs to be more of a terrible beauty... because so far I have felt pretty blasé about the things he has done.

As I am listening to this series in audio, let me say that Amy Landon does a great job with the narration. She has a great inflection for each character, male or female, big or small. When a story has an abundance of characters, its sometimes hard for a narrator to make each one unique, but this narrator has a great range and seems to juggle everyone quite well.

I received a copy of this audiobook at no cost from Tantor Audio in exchange for an honest review. 

Wicked Saga


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