Narrated by Paul Boehmer & Justine Eyre
If you love paranormal romance, and are looking for something different, then The Return may be a good choice for your next listen. It’s based on Greek mythology, so if you’re tired of listening to the typical vampire or shifter romance, it’s sure to wow you with its new, creative, and deeply complex world based on the Greek gods and their various progeny.
In this world, your power – and therefore your importance in the hierarchy – is based on how close of a blood relation you are to the Greek gods. The Greek gods and the Titans are at war, and as a contingency plan, the gods have created demigods (the offspring of a god and a mortal) to aid in the fight.
The heroine, Josie, is one of these demigods. Since her powers were bound at birth, she has no idea that her real father is Apollo. To ensure her safety, and bring her back to him, Apollo assigns Seth, the Apollyon, to find Josie and bring her back to the Covenant (a sort of school for the immortals, where she can learn how to use her powers).
Only one Apollyon is supposed to be born every generation. Apollyons are very powerful supernatural beings who can control the four basic elements: air, fire, water and earth, as well as the fifth element, akasha. Apollyons are also very dangerous; if two are born in one generation, they could also become god killers. That unfortunately happened to Seth in the past. He is now indentured to Apollo and has no choice but to follow his instructions to find and protect Josie. Of course, what no one including Apollo could have guessed, is that Seth and Josie would share an undeniable, even if forgiven, attraction.
A few words of caution though. Although The Return is officially categorized as New Adult, it reads more like a Young Adult title. The level of passion is very tame for the typical adult romance reader, and the book focuses on the heroine’s first experience with romance and intimate interactions. Think back to high school when each successive base was a big deal as passion slowly builds. Perhaps this is not surprising given that The Return is the first book in a spin-off from the Covenant – a Young Adult, paranormal series. It also appears to just be the beginning of Seth’s and Josie’s story as their story continues with Book 2 of the Titan series, The Power, scheduled for release in February 2016.
This leads me to my second warning – while not absolutely necessary, I think The Return would be best enjoyed after reading or listening to the Covenant series which contains five full-length books and two novellas. As a result (as you can imagine), over this large volume of works, the author has built a very detailed supernatural world – all which revolves around Greek mythology themes. As I did not read or listen to the Covenant series first, I definitely had the feeling that I was only getting a partial glance at the vast background of The Return. Making matters worse, Seth plays a prominent and crucial role in an epic love triangle in the prior series. Therefore, one can not fully understand Seth, without first reading or listening to the Covenant series.
My last message of caution involves the narration. While I enjoyed Justine Eyre’s performance, Paul Boehmer’s did not meet my expectations. In fact, I would say this was one of the worst casting decisions I’ve ever listened to in a mainstream publisher’s audiobook title. Mr. Boehmer’s portrayal of the hero was not only completely mismatched (in that he sounded about 30 years older than the young twenty-something year-old hero), but it was downright distracting (in that he gave the hero a very thick accent). This not only made it very difficult to understand him (a fact especially painful given the complexity of the world that I was trying to discern from the hero’s dialogue with the heroine) but also irritating in that it sounded like a bad imitation of Dracula (and Seth is not even a vampire or from Transylvania)! Additionally, a large part of the undercurrent of this story is a slapstick type of humor. Therefore, with all the difficulties that I was already experiencing with Mr. Boehmer’s performance, I missed the punchlines of many of the jokes, thereby making me also lose the effect of the intended humor.
Having previously listened to Justine Eyre in a number of other audiobooks (see my review of Gena Showalter’s Ecstasy in Darkness), I was not surprised to find that her performance was well done. Ms. Eyre’s portrayal of the characters was much closer to their descriptions. I enjoyed her voicing of both Josie and Seth, and each was easily distinguishable from the other. Also, Ms. Eyre’s timing of the plentiful jokes was much better delivered – aiding, rather than detracting from – the humor. Last, but certainly not least, I loved the youthful sound that Ms. Eyre gave Josie which I thought was a great fit with her naiveté when it came to both her intimate interactions with Seth and her general lack of familiarity regarding the supernatural world she is just beginning to discover.
All in all, I enjoyed Ms. Armentrout’s creative world based on Greek mythology. I just wish I had started with the Covenant series first. Not only is the prior series essential to understanding the underlying supernatural world, but it is crucial to understanding Seth who has been shaped by his complicated past history. Therefore, for those of you who have not yet read or listened to the Covenant series, I highly suggest you start there. Interestingly, that series is solely narrated by Justine Eyre, and therefore also likely a better bet to experience in audiobook format.
BJ
Narration: Paul Boehmer: D and Justine Eyre: B+
Book Content: B
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in (but about 90% of the book can be played out loud)
Violence: Fighting
Genre: Paranormal Romance/New Adult
Publisher: Tantor Audio
The Return was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for review.
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