Narrated by Alan Smyth
Part of my love for romantic fiction, strong women prototypes and aspects of the paranormal is founded in a long history of loving Nora Roberts. Even as I recycle or give away my printed books, I retain a shelf for her works because of an unbreakable ribbon of sentimental memories. As I get older, her books are beginning to feel less of a surprise and more of a comfort, and yet I really looked forward to the supernatural, Celtic setting of this trilogy. I read (listened) and enjoyed the first book, Dark Witch, narrated by Katherine Kellgren, one of my favorite narrators. I wasn’t totally captured with the story, but I was still looking forward to the second. And so I read and then listened to Book Two, Shadow Spell.
The trilogy follows the paths of three “cursed” Irish relatives: Connor O’Dwyer, his sister Branna, and their cousin Iona Sheehan. Each has his or her own mystical powers and his/her own animal connection – Connor to his hawk, Brianna to her hound, and Iona to her horse. They are the descendants of three siblings, all witches, whose mother sacrificed herself to battle a powerful evil nemesis, Cabhan. They were fated to come together and battle this ageless malevolent being, and they can only do it together: the three cousins and their three friends and lovers. This second book in the trilogy matches the story of Connor, an easy-going charmer of a witch, to the story of Meara Quinn, Branna’s best friend, a sword-carrying warrior in a modern world.
In many ways, Connor is the most gifted of any in the group. As he says when he faces a weakened Cabhan on the moors,
“I have fire.” He threw his right hand out, held a swirling ball of fire. “And I have air.” Stabbed a finger up, twirled it, and created a small, whirling cyclone. “Earth,” he said as the ground trembled. “Water.” Rain spilled down, hot enough to sizzle on the ground. “And hawk.” Roibeard dived with a piercing call, and landed soft as a feather on Connor’s shoulder.
Most of this book deals with the growing attraction between Connor (why did he never see what a jewel he had right before him?) and Moira (how could she take a chance on love when her family is so screwed up?), and how they deal with their own confusion while trying to battle Cabhan. And that evil devil is using every bit of their own doubt and confusion to cut the lovers away from the group and tempt them to the dark side, weakening the collective power of the six friends and family.
The narrator, Alan Smyth, is a new one for me. I am assuming that because so much of this story is Connor’s, the decision was made to switch narrators to a male. Not a bad decision; his Irish accent seems just right to me, natural and not over-the-top. However I was really disappointed in his inability to distinguish the various characters with different tones or personalities; they totally blended together. The print version makes this trait so much more apparent by having a lot of back-and-forth dialogue – in the book itself, it is obvious who is speaking; in the audio version, it is damn confusing. Making matters worse, the first three chapters are set in 1268 with the original maternal witch, Sorcha, and her three children, Eamon, Brannaugh and Teagan. This book’s long preface thus adds many more voices to differentiate. An audiobook listener who has not first read the printed version is often trying to set the tones and unfamiliar (Celtic) names in their brains during the first hour; in this case, only to find that the characters all switch with new names after the first three chapters. And yet the tones and voices by Smyth stay similar, across centuries and characters.
Besides the narration, this book seemed weaker to me than the first in the trilogy. I found it harder to get invested in Connor and Meara, and impatient for the next story of Fin and Brenna. Clever Nora Roberts though – I will still buy the next one to find out their story and to witness the final battle with Cabhan. However only the print version, if they use the same narrator.
Victoria
Narration: D
Book Content: B-
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Fighting
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Shadow Spell was provided to AudioGals by Brilliance Audio for review.
I just finished listening to this book and had the same impressions. While I enjoyed hearing the Celtic names pronounced correctly and the voices accented, I could only distinguish between gender. The characters within gender all sounded the same and it was REALLY confusing. There wasn’t a difference between any of them. I lowered my rating accordingly.