Very interesting story, not so great narration

I’m going to start off with a review of the story, because overall, I really did enjoy it quite a bit. It starts off at the end of a mission for Stassi and Gaige, and we get a feel for how they work as a team. Quickly moving into the next mission, things seem to slow down a bit, and we get a ton of detail of how the syndicate and the missions work, and it does tend to drag the story a bit. However, as the mysteries unfold, it sucks you in more and more.

There are three main plots circling each other in this book. The main being the mission to 1925 Paris to obtain a manuscript that has gone missing, and someone wealthy would like to get their hands on. It’s a lengthier mission than most, possibly lasting up to six weeks, and involves getting deeply embedded into the elite social circles of 1920s Paris, including with Ernest Hemingway and his wife. The second mystery that is tied in with this, is Stassi’s desire to learn more about her birth parents, since she was essentially orphaned at age 4, but a mysterious locket, and a picture that ties it to Paris in this time period, makes her want to pursue any possibly leads for more information. And the third main mystery revolves around a mysterious, seemingly undocumented serial killer terrorizing the area, who then turns his sights and obsessions onto Stassi. The three stories weave around each other nicely. We even get a sweet secondary romantic storyline that proves to be more than you think by the end. Definitely an interesting world, and very intriguing, the book itself really is quite good.

That said, the narration just isn’t up to par here. The narrator herself has a very clipped and robotic intonation, most of the time. There are actually times where she actually sounds natural, usually in spurts of dialogue here and there, but overall, it is very slow, and very robotic. I had the speed ratcheted up to 1.3x in order to get it to a pace that would allow me to continue to listen to the story that I was enjoying without being majorly distracted. She also mispronounced a number of things, including some historically important ones. Those were definitely a distraction. The audio quality here is also inconsistent. The volume and quality fluctuated quite a bit throughout the book, once again, causing a level of distraction to the story.

I’m not dinging the overall score of the review for the narration, but I do think this particular book in the series might be better if just read in ebook, or other written, form. The prequel was a different narrator, and it was good, and I see that the subsequent books in this series utilise a different narrator, so I’m hopeful that many of these issues will be resolved. I enjoyed the story, and I’m looking forward to the continuation of the series!

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Good book

Good time travel story with an interesting plot and well written, characters. I can't wait to see what happens next.

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Time Travel Mystery

I absolutely love Time travel novels and this is no exception . I have always wanted to go to Paris and this made me even more anxious to . The level of descriptions to detail is amazing . I didn't want it to end even after 20 hours . The narration was so so . Sometimes I felt it and sometimes I just didn't . I look forward to more from this author .

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A Wonderful Twist!

The Time Syndicate by Sophie Davis and narrated by Andrea Harbin is the first book in The Timewave Series. I absolutely loved the storyline about being from the future and going back in time. Stassi is the main female character, who has had a hard childhood but makes it to becoming a Runner in the Atlic Syndicate. They go back in time to procure various items that are lost in history. The main "run" of this book is to procure a book that was never published after the authors death. However, when Stassi and her partner, Gage, land in 1925 Paris, something is VERY wrong. Follow all the twists and turns, from meeting Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway and a cameo from Vincent Van Gogh, to outwitting a serial killer who isn't supposed to be there, and performing a jailbreak. All the while our heroine is losing her heart to someone who is a part of the past.
Would I listen to this book again? Probably not, simply because it is alot of information that you have to keep straight, and the narrators fumble of words was enough for one time. With that said, I absolutely LOVED the storyline and the way the author was able to stay true to historical facts and figures, while creating a totally unique story during and around such real people.
Would I recommend this book to others? Yes, because it is the beginning of what looks to be an amazing 5 book storyline, with a prequel that, while just a novella, gives you quite a bit of information about Stassi and just the tip of the iceberg on her boss, Cyrus Atlic. You get to know so much about our main characters in this book, and dip into Stassi's mind as she seeks out the truth.

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Time travel gold

I love time travel books. This one had a big mystery entwined in it. Stassi goes back in time to retrieve a book but there’s a murderer getting in her way. Stassi is so clever and witty and there’s a sweet love story or two in the story. The narrator was not my favorite as she has a weird cadence but she was great at various character voices! There was a nice cliffhanger at the end... can’t wait to hear book 2!

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Really good story - Audio quality needs work

Any additional comments?

An interesting, entertaining and enjoyable time travel murder mystery thriller. Unfortunately the audio errors take away from the overall enjoyment. It's hard to be completely pulled into a story when the audio quality/errors keep pulling you out.

The story itself is well written, creative, visually descriptive and very detailed. The possibilities for interesting new adventures are endless with the time travel aspect in the series. I really enjoyed the fact that this story stuck to one time period instead of skipping around.

While the story is full of mystery and intrigue with a bit of romance, the suspense builds very slowly as the story unfolds. The story does keep you guessing with plenty of twists. There are several different story-lines going on at the same time which should keep the story constantly moving forward but there were times especially in the beginning it felt like the story wasn't moving at all.

Great cast of well rounded and interesting characters. Gaige and Stassi are friends who act like brother and sister. Loved the humor, banter and true friendship between them. Really like that they are not love interests for each other. They are true platonic friends who trust and look out for each other on or off a mission. That could possibly change in the future but I hope not.

The Syndicate is a black market business specializing in retrieving any item from any time period. As long as someone can afford the price the syndicate will retrieve an item from it's last know whereabouts. Their job is to achieve their objective, retrieve the item and not affect the timeline in anyway. It can be a very dangerous job. Especially when things don't always go as planned. Gage and Stassi's latest mission isn't turning out as planned. Caught up in the middle of a murder investigation. Gage becomes the prime suspect. How far are they willing to go to finish their mission and insure the current timeline remains intact.

Andrea Harbin does the narration for this story. This is the first time I have heard her narrate a book. While there are several issues I will address below, her narration overall was very enjoyable. She has a pleasant voice. Easy to listen to for long periods of time. Clearly spoken with a nice even pace. Some really good character voices. There are times she needs to put a little more "life" into her narration. The way she narrates is very "soothing" which limits the amount of time you want to spend listening in one sitting. With just a few changes she could be a really great narrator. I would listen to her narrate other audiobooks.

Issues - The quality of the audio is inconsistent and changes throughout the story. There are many times it sounds "hollow". The introduction of each new chapter is at a different volume level. Some of the errors in the audio quality I was able to write down at the time were static in background of Chapter 7. Chapter 19 at little over 7 minutes in something is missing (a line)? in the narration the conversation changes abruptly. Chapter 20 repeated line close to the end. Chapter 23 repeated line. Several more times throughout the book words were repeated I couldn't always write them down.

Before an audio is released it should be checked. It is a huge disappointment when there are this many errors in a book. I would return the book based on this many errors.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher.

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Great story, bad editing.

This an amazing story. long but good. The writter is excellent at describing places, things, places, clothing and of course Paris. At some points she can actually get a little too winded. It could of been shaved off a bit.
The story line was very good. It something I've never heard before. It definitely keeps you interested. With lots of twists and turns. I actually jumped online to grab the second book and noticed it has not yet been released.
You can read this book all the way through. it doesn't have any cliffhangers or anything like that, but man I couldn't wait to hear the second book.
I do however wish that the narrator works on her Reading a bit and doing other voices better. The two main characters voices are great but some of the other ones need some work. Also there's a lot of volume going up and down and a bit of repeating.
I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

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3 people found this helpful

A fun ride through time...

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I am unfortunately drawn to stories involving time travel. I say that because in far too many movies and television shows, time travel is an abused plot device used by the author to make a story lacking imagination more interesting. 'The Syndicate' does not suffer from this problem.

The story was one longer than many books, the extra length dedicated to more background storytelling that I found refreshing. Too many books today are formula driven to tell a story quickly and align for a sequel. While it appears there may be a sequel to this book, and I'd like to see one, it didn't feel predestined from the first page like many books seem to.

Time travel is definitely an element of the story, but Paris of the past is the major part of the book. I wasn't quite sure what to expect until a quarter, or maybe a third of the way through the book when certain surprises popped up that turned this casual story about time travelers going to the past to collect certain works into a thriller I didn't want to put down.

The narrator was quite good. I always find it impressive when a single narrator is able to pull off several voices, male and female. I did notice some distracting mispronunciations such as "disheveled" and "Versailles" of note. In some chapters there was an annoying background noise (a fan maybe?) that made an otherwise really good narrator sound a bit low production.

I am looking forward to the next in the series.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

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story was good but,

Would you try another book from Sophie Davis and/or Andrea Harbin?

looking forward to the next book in the series.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

mispronounced words abound, I couldn't get past them.

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The Syndicate

This is a very good story with a few issues.First,the narrator is terrible with a touch of brilliance every so often.Andrea Harbin makes the 20 hours seem even longer.There should be a bit of back story as to why time travel is banned.Maybe cut a few hours of the silences and brooding and it would be better.That being said,I would like to read the next book in this series, should there be one.I was provided this book free by the author, narrator or publisher.

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