Extreme Exposure by Pamela Clare

Extreme ExposureNarrated by Kaleo Griffith

Kara McMillian is a single mother with a fast paced job as a high profile reporter. Her mind is telling her she doesn’t have time to get involved with the devastatingly handsome Senator Reece Sheridan. Then there’s the whole conflict of interest issue with their jobs. But Kara’s heart can’t resist Reece’s persistent pursuit even with danger stalking her as she investigates who is behind the serious environmental pollution brought to her attention by a whistleblower.

Okay, you want the dirt on my full Extreme Exposure listening experience? Completely honest? It took me the first hour and forty-five minutes to loosen up and go with Kaleo Griffith all the way.  I loved his Kara (he had promised us here at AudioGals there would be no falsetto and he came through!) – he had the perfect inflection and feeling for each word spoken. The byplay between Holly and Kara was just right and the conversation between Kara and her mother about the Tantric workshop for singles had me laughing out loud – perfect.

But Reece’s voice took me a little longer. Granted there wasn’t a lot of Reece to hear as the story got off the ground so it was the one-hour mark as Reese and Kara talked on the phone that my ears really began to hear him. And when Reece showed up for his date with Kara, meeting Mr. Jiggle Stick, speaking with her son Connor, and interacting further with Kara, I knew Kaleo had found his groove. It all clicked into place as he became Reece in both voice and personality – I was totally smitten. I had no further reservations as he continued to build his narration into audio bliss as the rest of Extreme Exposure unfolded.

As a long time audio fan, I approach a book I’ve loved in print with a bit of hesitation nowadays. We’ve been spoiled beyond belief with some top of the line narrators in recent years and our expectations are high. Add to that a few painful experiences of favorite titles in print turning into audio disasters and you have one leery listener when a new unknown narrator is involved. Thoughts like “Oh no. What will the narrator do to my book?” come to mind. With that mindset I purchased Clare’s highly anticipated Extreme Exposure three days before the official release date at Tantor – without even hearing a sound clip.

I immersed myself for an entire weekend listening to this first of Pamela Clare’s I-Team series. Given the full listen, I have to say that we’ve hit narrator gold as romance listeners with Kaleo Griffith. He brings us every vibe, every emotion, and every voice.  I can’t wait to delve deeper into this new strike. And since the rest of the I-Team series is scheduled to be released in audio by year’s end, I won’t be waiting long.

Being an audiobook snob I haven’t read past Extreme Exposure despite my enjoyment of it. My friends all assure me the series only gets better from here. I can’t imagine – awesome narration to go with great storylines added to my series addiction – that’s listening heaven coming right up for these ears.

Brenda


Narration:  A

Book Content:  A-

Steam Factor:  For your burning ears only

Violence:  Minimal

Genre:  Romantic Suspense

Publisher:  Tantor Audio

 

 

13 thoughts on “Extreme Exposure by Pamela Clare

  1. Thanks so much for the wonderful review. I really appreciate it!

    I was actually pretty nervous when I heard the audiobook rights had sold. It’s something I’d wanted for a long time, but when it becomes reality I worried. I’ve seen bad narration adversely impact audiobooks before, and didn’t want that. I had personally hoped for a male narrator, though I know a lot of romance readers prefer women. But my reasoning for that was this — the heroes are the stars of these books, not the women. If the men’s voices are right, the books are going to click.

    I was THRILLED when I listened to Extreme Exposure because I felt that Kaleo not only did a brilliant job of voicing the characters, he also put so much sensitivity into “interpreting” the story and all the little story moments between characters. I found that listening to the book created an entirely new experience for me as its author.

    I am so happy that you enjoyed it, too. The only problem I have now is waiting between books… Patience is not one of my virtues. ;-)

    Thanks again, Brenda and AudioGals!

    1. The whole experience was a delight Pamela!

      My own lack of patience is what had me haunting Tantor knowing that every once in a while a download appears early. ;)

      And this “he also put so much sensitivity into “interpreting” the story and all the little story moments between characters.” is what carried the narration over the top and into – this will be a favorite re-listen – territory.

      Then there were the accents – all of them excellent but I have to say – I wasn’t aware that hearing food ordered in Italian could make a person melt into a puddle. :D

  2. I finished listening to Extreme Exposure this morning, so the timing of this review couldn’t be better. I prefer male narrators mostly, although I have some favorite female narrators as well. One of the reasons I like male narrators is that I agree with Pamela, the heroes are the focus for me, especially in romantic suspense books and I want them to sound right. That actually might be why it took me a while to settle into EE. Kaleo has a wonderful voice, beautiful in fact, but I’ve been listening to Viktor Slezak (Sandra Brown books) and Grover Gardner (Bujold’s Vokosigan books) and I was prepared for a gruffer voice. Kaleo’s voice is softer and that took a little getting used to.

    After a bit I decided that the Kaleo’s voicing of Reece was more smooth than gruff, but also very sexy. ;-) Reece had a “bedroom” voice and because of it, I totally bought Kara swooning over him. I also felt he did a good job on the sex scenes. Kaleo seemed to hit a good balance of intensity and subtlety in his delivery. The scenes were very sexy in print, and more so on audio.

    Occasionally, especially in action scenes or scenes with tense dialogue, the voices of Kara and Reece would sound similar, making me pay close attention to what was being said in order to tell who was talking, but that didn’t happen often.

    1. Carrie *smooth* is the perfect word – what it came down to for me was realizing Kaleo “knew” Reece much better than I did – so ultimately he was perfectly voiced. :)

  3. You already know what I think Brenda! :) I can’t wait to hear Kaleo reading Julian Darcangelo or Marc Hunter – there may be swooning…

      1. OMG! I didn’t know they had an audio sample out! Julian is one of my personal faves. So now I’m off to find my earphones so I don’t wake anyone up. MUST! LISTEN!

      2. The clip wasn’t long, but I think it gives enough of Julian’s voice to know it sounds good. I was hoping it would sound different from Reece, and from the short clip it seems to. Where Reece sounds sophisticated and smooth, Julian needs to sound a little dangerous. I’m looking forward to listening to the whole thing!

        1. Yes, it sounds deeper, a pitch darker and gruffer than Reece. Reece had to sound very GQ. I thought he was perfect. Julian lives in the shadows and does a job none of us would want to do. His life hasn’t been easy and he’s a rough person because of it. And it’s nice to HEAR those differences. :-)

  4. Great review Brenda! I have been very vocal about wanting these books on audio and remember Tantor responding some time ago that they were going to pass on it at that time. I was so happy to hear that they decided to pursue the audio rights. I agree with you on being a bit leery on the new to us narrator and worried about how the audio would turn out. I am so happy that I enjoyed it so well and am now anxiously awaiting all the books of the series to come out and ESP the new book in March! I know these will be on my list of audios that I will come back to over and over.

    1. Thanks Vic – it’s such a kick to have Tantor paying attention to romance audiobook fans wishes despite having to hold our breath over narrator choice at times. ;)

      And because I’m oddly obsessed with details I had to go back to our Goodreads group and check out the first requests for Pamela Clare’s I-Team books:

      Yours was the first request under the Missing Favorite Authors in Audio – March 29th 2011

      Lea had requested Pamela Clare in Feb 2011 in the same thread but specified her Historicals

      Then Kaetrin requested the I-Team in the New from Tantor thread April 25th 2011.

      At which time the two of you were on a mission with requests to Tantor via Twitter etc and encouraging others to make the same request. And look were we are now! :)

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