Fairy Tale & Sci-Fi

I found this to be an entertaining and unusual tale. In some ways, it was like a fairy tale where a poor girl meets a prince that wants to marry her, but in other ways, it was a science fiction story as it described an alien race that watched over mankind. The characters were complex and had faults that each had to overcome. I enjoyed the tale. I liked the dual point of view presented in the story. Tia Sorensen's narration was fine, and her voice was pleasant. I was given a free copy of the audiobook, and I have voluntarily posted this review.

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Too Heartbreaking to Love

Real Rating = 3.5*

Source: I received this book free in return for an honest review.

BOOK DETAILS:
Fade Into Me by Charity Bradford, read by Tia Sorensen, published Independently (2015) / Length: 6hrs

SERIES INFO:
This book is standalone and no sequels are currently planned.

SUMMARY:
Some information about Ryanne's "secret" was given early in the book, and I really wanted to stop reading because of the callous way her "best friend" acted about it. But I kept reading, and I am not sorry I did.

The central romance was cute & sweet while, magical soulmates with extreme wealth aside, managing to not be too unrealistic.

More information about what happens to Ryanne comes at the end. I found it very devastating and won't be listening to any of the parts about it ever again.

CHARACTERS:
Ryanne: She has some serious issues, which are totally understandable. But she manages to find her strength.

Caedan: I don't like his habit of manipulating human emotions for his own convenience; even if he doesn't believe he is causing any harm, it isn't right. I also don't like that he didn't respect her refusal to dance. However, he is not a typical bad boy jerk. He wants to make their relationship work, he just doesn't have a clue how to do that.

HIGHLIGHTS / CAUTIONS:
--I love the realistic emphasize on the fact that just because you find your soulmate doesn’t guarantee an instant HEA. It is made clear that any relationship requires work, care, and openness.

--And Caedan's mother calls him out for behavior that is all too typical in YA literature:

"All you've done is tell her what to do. What do you know about her as a person?"


CAUTIONS: As stated above, Ryanne's "secret" is devastating. The incident itself is never fully described; but nevertheless I was disturbed for days, especially by the final revelation. As the author relates, in the bonus interview, this was based on a friends real life experience, which only makes it worse. Anyone who might have sexual assault triggers should approach this book with care.

NARRATION:
This audiobook has very long “chapters.” That can make it difficult to find something you are looking for. / Her voice is nice. She doesn’t do a lot of emoting or differentiating of voices, which doesn’t bother me but some people might be not like. A bit more problematic is the pacing of the non-dialogue parts which doesn’t vary much. / I listened on 1.25 speed (my usual)

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1 person found this helpful

Other dimensions

This was a good science fiction story about how humanity came to be and the people that created the humans. They live in another dimension. It is also a love story. There was quite a lot of adventure in the story that kept me entertained. I would have liked to see a few of the themes developed a bit more. This is a full length book but I could see it being a bit longer. The feelings that develop between Caeden and Ryanne seemed believable. But I would have liked to see more interaction between the two of them. Especially with Caeden helping Ryanne explore the magic. I liked both of their personalities. Ryanne was a bit stubborn but that is understandable based on her life experiences.
I listened to this in audiobook format. The narrator has a very pleasant voice which is important to me. However, despite it being announced from whose perspective the story was being told from it was difficult to determine who was saying what at times. And the story felt a little choppy. Despite this I enjoyed it and would recommend it. I would look forward to reading or listening to more like it.

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Fun story

It was a fun story! I enjoyed the alien world aspect and the whole seeing colors and the nods to myths we know as a way to explain the alien history. It was fun to envision magic and things we normally associate with fae in an alien perspective.
I did find Caeden to a bit presumptuous and just wanted him to back off at times haha and was glad Ryanne finally found her strength. The narration did make it a bit hard to follow as there wasn't much variation in characters tones but eventually was able to follow well enough. Overall, I enjoyed the story and the world Charity created.
***
No explicit language! Yay!
A few kisses and references to sexual desire but nothing explicit. It does get a bit intense with Ryanne's abduction and references to her rape and beating. One minor character is assumed to have gotten pregnant in high school.
Violence is minimal.
References to being drugged (though it was only magic and the affects of portal travel) and a few scenes involving alcohol.

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YA PNR sci-fic clean 16+ s, v. stand alone.

4* Warning: previous sexual (sadism) and other violence, kidnapping. Other issues: teen abandonment, personal self worth stemming from previous abuse, emotional manipulation and abuse. Love & honest communication can win over evil cruelty. Magical realism, mythology (light / dark Fae), alternate origins of mankind. Kindness & encouragement vs. force & viscious manipulation.

This is definately not a sweet, Disneyfied version of a fairy tale although there may be some plot similarities.What if the Fae from myth and legend were actually aliens? This story is one possibility combining concepts of scientific principles and magic. As in all fairy stories, there is quite a bit of struggle, hardship and the heroine goes through looses before getting her happy outcome. Ryanne looses her parents, her self respect, ability to trust most of those around her along with her joy in life and must learn to love and trust again to be healed from previous actions beyond her control.
The male lead must learn to look beyond himself and his personal conceptions to understand the one who is to be his destiny in love if they are to help save his and Earth's people from one who would be a cruel and distructive overlord who prefers using pain and other cruelties to bring out their "devine spark".
I would reccommend this to romance readers who like the original SG-1 series even though this is more a self exploration, not a military exploration story, fans of the series may recognise similarities like aliens previously viewed as dieties rasing humans to thier equals via benevolent guidance, seeded earth concept, magic-seeming technology and portals, beings from different planes of existance impacting our own, ascention of light beings and decention of dark ones. I would be interested to read if there are more stories in this universe.

I am not usually a fan of female voice -readers, but Ms. Sorenson simply narrated this work clearly, professionally, and with quiet confidence. She did not try to overly emote nor did she have irritating voice ticks. She simply read heading standard United States English practices for phrasing. This reader forgives her probable butchering of Celtic words as it is obvious she is not trying to read dilects or be a one-person-dramatic acting performance, rather to mimic a mental or head voice readers may have when reading to ourselves. If she were to be chosen as the Alexia voice, this would be an improvement over the current nasal irritant curently in use.

*This has been honest feedback of an audio version of this title aquired via STORY ORIGIN, read through AUDIBLE.

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Pretty Sad & Traumatic Memories *Trigger Warning*

Parents- PG13- really meant for 16+ readers
Language- I honestly don't remember any but there may have been a few but no f-bombs
Violence- violent beating and assault, kidnapping, torture, and attempted assault
Sexual Content- Group/Gang beating and sexual assault "you could have told us no" "I did", insinuations, PTSD

So overwhelming not a happy tale, but beautiful in it's own way. I really loved the mix of alien, Fae magic, and other dimensions... It was a weird mix but at the same time it really worked. The story bounces between Caedan's perspective and Ryanne's which I loved and found to be very helpful and frustrating at the time. Ryanne really has a tragic backstory and it's no wonder she's so untrusting and closed off to love- this is where the trigger warnings come in. If you can deal with a mostly sad atmosphere in story this is a really interesting and well told darker fairy tale romance with a very unique spin to it that I really did enjoy the story.

Narrator was pretty slow, better at 1.25x speed, good differentiations but some voices sound very similar.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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SUSPENCEFUL, INTRIGING & ETHERIALLY ENCHANTING

AN ETHERIALLY ENCHANTING ROMANCE ABOUT WORLDS APART STAR CROSSED LOVERS.

ACCEPTABLE FOR TEENS AND OLDER AGES.

NARRATOR IS GOOD AND EASY TO FOLLOW.

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Great Tale

This was an awesome story! Handsome man, beautiful woman different dimensions what more could you ask for. I love that magic draws them together, I hate that she does not have enough confidence in herself to go for it. She went thru horrible things and had faith in a man she should not have at all. In the end It takes her being kidnapped by an unscrupulous person for her to realized she loves someone and has the ability to do what needs to be done in order to be with him. It was a very sweet story and ends on a good note. Now what happens with her sister? I will hopefully see another book that will answer that question. The narrator did an ok job, she could have put a little more emotion into it and changed her voice more to cover the male portions.

I received a free copy of this audio book from Story Origin for an honest review.

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Hope Springs New

I enjoyed reading and listening to this book. All of us have feelings of low self esteem at times, but this book reminds us that we can be whoever we dream to be. Thanks, Dorothy

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It didn't really go anywhere.

The storyline has so much potential, but all the author circles around is the main character's inability to love herself. Through the entire book I keep on waiting for something epic to happen to make the love story to become believable, but there's nothing to show at the end of the story to even indicate that the couple have anything in common or share anything special that would allow them to share live together. I am quite disappointed.

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