Charcoal Tears

Seraph Black, Book 1

By: Jane Washington

Narrated by: Laurel Schroeder

“You see, there is safety in simplicity… in a life of simple peace, where the electricity doesn’t dance across the backs of my eyelids, and the sparks don’t slither over my consciousness. Only asinine peace, where my paintings don’t seem to paint themselves, leaving me with terrible feelings of premonition and a chill beneath my fingernails.”

Seraph Black used to think that she was prepared for anything. She could last days without eating and she always walked away from the violent altercations with her father relatively unharmed. She survived working at the club and the drive to school every day in her mother’s rust-bucket of a car… but it all changed when Noah and Cabe came bulldozing into her life, careless of the precious secrets they picked apart in their quest to take over her world. She was even less prepared for the mysterious Miro and Silas, and nothing could have prepared her for the bond. The connection. The reason for it all.

Someone wanted her to stay away from her new friends, but she wasn’t willing to do that.

Everyone had secrets.

She wanted to know theirs. They wanted to own hers.

And the stalker?

He seemed to know everything already.

©2015 Jane Washington (P)2017 Jane Washington

Bad narration

I can’t get into this narrator. Her intonation is always the same and she breathes out each word. I think I’ll just read it.

Flat Narration and Stiff Writing -- But Good Story

Like the others, I had a hard time with the narration but managed to push through and get used to it. It's not her voice -- it's her inflection, tone, and pace; she's not acting, she's just reading.

The writing felt a little stiff too, like well-edited AI, so I don't think that helped. It wasn't bad enough that I DNF the 1st book (I strongly dislike AI written books), but I'm on book 2 and its getting to me. The lack of story and character development and is really annoying.

Narration

The narrator is not doing a great job. She ends every sentence on the same tone. If I could return the book and get a refund after the first chapter I would have. She spoiled the book for me