Flight by Alyssa Rose Ivy 

FlightNarrated by Amy Rubinate

Flight, the first book in the Crescent Chronicles, is a Young Adult paranormal romance. As is typical of Young Adult romances, the intimate scenes are very tame and could easily be appropriate for listeners of junior high age on up. Additionally, the plot is mostly focused on the paranormal world and coming of age of issues, once again making this title suitable for almost all ages of romance readers.

One area that I found lacking, however, was the romance. While I’m used to the passionate descriptions in this sub-genre being generally glossed over (or avoided altogether) the romance is usually epic. In that regard, images of Bella and Edward from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight or Katniss and Peeta from Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games comes instantly to mind. In Flight, however, I felt the romance was superficial and rushed, thereby leading to my dissatisfaction with the one element of YA romance that I have come to count on and highly enjoy. The paranormal world building was also brief in nature, perhaps due to the short-length (only about 5 and a half hours) or to the fact that this is just the first in a series of five books and novellas. Fortunately Amy Rubinate does render her typical talented performance, thereby at least ensuring the narration is a plus for this title.

Allie, a New York resident, just graduated from high school. In an effort to do something different and enlightening over the summer before she starts college at Princeton, Allie decides to work for her father at the hotel he owns in New Orleans. Having recently sworn off boys due to past failures in this arena, Allie is determined to spend her summer learning and with her best friend, who also comes out to New Orleans to work at the hotel.

There Allie meets Levi. Levi is ultra-self assured, and others seem to follow his lead in all matters. Levi has set his sight on Allie, and doesn’t seem to be swayed by her rebuffs. Soon, however, Allie seems swept up in his entourage and everything that is Levi. So it’s no surprise when she starts questioning her “no relationships” policy.

However, Allie has been warned that there is something dangerous and unnatural about Levi. Secrets also seem to lurk within her father’s hotel itself, where the basement seems to be strictly off limits to everyone, except for Levi and his friends. As Allie becomes swept up in the mysterious supernatural society – a society which she is coerced to join, she finds herself being forced to reevaluate her future priorities.

Having listened to Amy Rubinate in a number of prior audiobooks, including Kiera Cass’ Young Adult dystopian Selection series (see my review for The One), I knew she would at the very least deliver an acceptable performance.  Ms. Rubinate did indeed perform to expectations and exceeded them. Not only does she create believable male and female characters, but she also differentiates among characters of the same gender by providing personality specific variances in their intonations, so they are easily distinguishable. Ms. Rubinate also does a good job of creating younger sounding characters, an essential trait for a Young Adult narrator.

Additionally, Ms. Rubinate conveys emotions and the mood of scenes well. In this book, which has a mix of action and adventure as well as some mild suspense, this attention to detail further enhanced my experience and allowed me to sit back and enjoy it without having to pay meticulous attention or requiring me to rewind any scenes.

Perhaps my favorite part of Ms. Rubinate’s rendition was her characterization of Levi. While I didn’t particularly care for his domineering, somewhat irrational, ways as a character, I did enjoy Ms. Rubinate’s voicing of his dialogue. In that regard, I have previously noted that Ms. Rubinate’s characterizations can, at times, sound remarkably similar to her prior books. Given her long running narration of the books in the Selection series, I have at times found myself distracted in unrelated titles when her portrayals of totally unrelated characters sound nearly identical to those. In Flight, however, we get to experience a whole new side to Ms. Rubinate, as she is tasked with enacting a Southern, New Orleans drawl with several of the characters, including most prominently Levi. This made her performance much more enjoyable overall.

Unfortunately, Flight does not measure up to some of the better Young Adult paranormal or dystopian romances. However, when you factor in the good narration and the fact that this is just the brief start to a much longer story, it may just be worth a listen, especially if you are looking for a quick, relatively uncomplicated listen and love the idea of potentially finding a new long running series.

BJ


Narration:  B+

Book Content:  C-

Steam Factor:  You can play it out loud

Violence:  Fighting

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher:  Tantor Audio

 

Flight was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for review.