Game On by Gabra Zackman

Game OnNarrated by: Gabra Zackman, Therese Plummer, Lauren Fortgang, Piper Goodeve, LJ Ganser, Mark Boyett, Julia Motyka, Eileen Stevens, Peter Ganim, James Fouhey, Christopher Kipiniak and Allyson Johnson

Yes, you read that right: Game On has a full voice cast. Every main character is performed by a different narrator, as is the narrative section. It was different enough to be an attractive prospect to this listener.

Game On is billed as part Ocean’s Eleven-type caper, part romantic comedy. Susannah Carter works for FTP, a private investigations firm which specialises in white collar crime. Her mission in this book is to steal (hopefully incriminating) information from Charles “Chas” Oakley Palmer III, a man who is rumoured to be behind many art heists but who has been too slippery for the FBI or other law enforcement to catch. Susannah, aka “Legs” dresses to kill and attends one of Chas’s fancy New York parties. There is an instant connection between them and a deep attraction as they play a sensual game of cat and mouse. But he’s supposed to be a bad guy and she’s supposed to be hacking into his phone and hard drive. To say a relationship between them is “complicated” is a massive understatement.

There is a happy ending, eventually, and along the way, Susannah’s co-workers at FTP, John “Bossman” Collins, Jackson and Lisa Bee, as well as Susannah’s hacker genius BFF, AJ, all play major parts in solving the puzzle and saving the day. There’s also a couple other kickass women, one of whom is an assassin, and various nasty criminal types trying to spike the play.

I wondered sometimes if Game On always knew what it wanted to be. In places it was heavier than I expected – there was a lot of humour but I didn’t think it always sat well with some of the darker undertones of the story. It may well be that The Bod Squad series was, to some extent, finding its feet with this debut and the next books (there are two others out now) will be smoother.

Also, sometimes I wondered how FTP had managed to operate successfully for years because they didn’t seem to be quite as skilled as advertised – Susannah’s cover was so thin Chas saw through it straight away, for instance, and he seemed to be able to run rings around them fairly easily. Chas and AJ were much better at their respective professions IMO. I suppose Susannah may merely have been distracted by all that was Chas but even that made me vaguely uncomfortable because a pretty face and nice buns shouldn’t affect her ability to do her job so much.

There were however some very funny moments – the FTP crew at one point are (somewhat) unwilling audio voyeurs to some pretty vigorous sex between Chas and Susannah and the humour of that situation plays out over the rest of the story. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

The superpower advantage Game On has over audiobooks which are performed by one or two narrators is, of course, that no two characters sound alike. They’re all demonstrably different. It’s always easy to tell who’s talking.

My sense was that the entire cast had a blast recording this. I don’t actually know, of course, but in my imagination, they were all in the studio at the same time, like an old-timey radio play. The only thing missing (for which I am very thankful by the way) was the sound effects.

Lauren Fortgang was particularly impressive performing Susannah and I developed a soft spot for Jackson (voiced by James Fouhey) who has a huge crush on Lisa Bee (played by Piper Goodeve).

I didn’t love the French accents used, particularly by the male cast, when the action moved briefly to Paris but otherwise, the entire narration was well done. I did think the narrator (Gabra Zackman) was a little fast in terms of pace, but she also spoke crisply and clearly so it’s not like it was a huge barrier for me.

Therese Plummer’s depiction of Gabriella was perhaps the most I’ve enjoyed her narration ever and Mark Boyett (Chas) and LJ Ganser (Bossman) were also a lot of fun.

Game On is part caper, part farce, part romance and part crime story. While I didn’t think it always pulled off all aspects of what it wanted to be, it was definitely entertaining and the full cast was a fun way to bring the book to life. At just over five hours of listening, it’s probably the perfect length for such a recording. While it was a little uneven at times, Game On was sits in the win column for me.

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Kaetrin


AUDIOBOOK INFORMATION

TITLE: Game On

AUTHOR: Gabra Zackman

NARRATED BY: Full Cast: Gabra Zackman, Therese Plummer, Lauren Fortgang, Piper Goodeve, LJ Ganser, Mark Boyett, Julia Motyka, Eileen Stevens, Peter Ganim, James Fouhey, Christopher Kipiniak and Allyson Johnson

GENRE: Contemporary Adventure/Comedy Romance

STEAM FACTOR: Glad I had my earbuds in

REVIEWER: Kaetrin [button type=’link’ link=’http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013VPYT3O/?tag=audiogalsnet-20′ size=’btn-lg’ variation=’btn-default’ target=’blank’]Buy Game On by Gabra Zackman on Amazon[/button] [section label=’Excerpt’ anchor=’Excerpt’]EXCERPT:

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Romance Audiobook Review

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