King’s by Mimi Pamfiloff 

Narrated by Helen Wick

Being a huge fan of Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to review King’s by Mimi Pamfiloff, which many have hailed as being on the same level with KMM’s unique, paranormal/urban fantasy romance series. Of course there is a whole other camp of reviewers who have complained that this book, and in fact the entire King’s series, too closely resembles the Fever series to be considered an original work. Interestingly, while I can definitely see some parallels and similarities, King’s originality didn’t present as large of an issue for me as the fact that I just plain failed to feel much of a connection to either the story line or the heroine. Instead, I was left with a feeling that most of the book was dedicated to the building of a whole lot of drama, focused on the heroine’s near paralyzing fear of the hero who she, no surprise, repetitively compares to the devil, without much provocation or other justification. The fact that I also had a few issues with the narration perhaps also negatively influenced my perspective. Nonetheless, giving this series the benefit of the doubt, and the fact that the premise certainly has potential, it may just be that to get the full effect of Ms. Pamfiloff’s story, and character development, you must experience the entire trilogy.

Mia Turner is finally leading the life of her dreams. She is a twenty-six-year-old advertising executive, has a beautiful, expensive apartment and doesn’t lack for any material possessions. Then her brother, an archeologist working in Mexico, goes missing. Mia quickly finds that she ill prepared to find him as she hits one dead end after another. Afraid to tell her parents and get more people involved, and possibly in danger, she embarks on a mission to convince the one man who can “find anything or anyone. For a price” to find her brother.

King is a secret and dangerous, wealthy man. From what Mia can tell, he is feared by all, though she doesn’t quite know why. When he presents her with an ultimatum: her complete and total surrender to him for her brother, Mia, although clearly anxious, determines she has no choice. So she quits her job, moves out of her apartment and goes to King.

It doesn’t take very long of adhering to King’s monopolistic demands that she begins to suspect that there is something unnatural and darkly menacing about King. Still she continues on, though she is extremely tormented by her chosen path, one which soon is charged with an equally confusing sexual tension.

Will Mia ever find her brother? If so, what will a life owned by King be like? Could there possibly be a HEA in her future?

This was my first experience with Helen Wick. Ms. Wick has a soothing voice and a generally good mode of delivery. However, as it relates to this particular title, I’m not sure she was the best casting choice. In that regard, she has a youthful, and somewhat snarky twang to her voice, which caused her enactment of the heroine, in particular, to sound somewhat like an angst-ridden, over-dramatized adolescent (though arguably some of this tension was definitely built into the story), rather than the twenty-something professional she is supposed to be.

Ms. Wick does, however, vary her intonation slightly to provide a distinguishable characterization for King, allowing the listener to enjoy the story without having to overly rely on dialogue tags. She also created nuanced variations in each of the other roles allowing for easy differentiation among the numerous secondary characters.

However, I think the dark and mysterious persona of King would have benefited from a male narrator with a deep voice. Therefore, while I had no trouble understanding the dialogue and who was speaking at what point, Ms. Wick’s performance didn’t aid in setting the tone for King’s animalistic, devilish characterization.

All in all, if you’re a big fan of paranormal and urban fantasy romances, then listening to at least the first book in the King’s series may be worth exploring. But be prepared to listen to the entire trilogy if you are eager for any plot resolution, as very little is resolved or revealed in King’s. Moreover, you may want to sample the audiobook before determining what format to experience this story in. (Editor’s Note: The e-book version is free right now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.)

BJ

Narration: C+

Book Content: C+

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: Minimal

Genre: Paranormal/UF Romance

Publisher: Tantor Audio

King’s was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.