Ashen Rayne

Shadowlands, Book 1

By: Skye Knizley

Narrated by: Sierra Kline

Young women are vanishing from Miami's club scene, most disappearing without a trace, others found suffocated in plastic bags, their battered corpses filled with a deadly cocktail of narcotics.

There are no suspects and few clues.

When exotic dancer Rayne is taken, her sister Blaze calls the ladies of Shadowlands to find her.

With only five days before Rayne is found dead or never found at all, Smoak and Ash dive into Miami's underworld of drugs, prostitution, and slavery, using every skill they have to find her before the clock runs out.

Alone?

Afraid?

Lost?

In trouble and have nowhere to turn?

Call Shadowlands. We're here to help.

©2016 Sarah Davis Brandon (P)2016 Sarah Davis Brandon

Who doesn't love a kick-ass, smoking hot stripper?

This book wasn't something I would normally choose for myself, but I am glad I gave it a shot. The good stuff: the main characters are smoking hot, kick-ass, females, which I love. Ash and Smoak are strong characters that you get to know on a very personal level. The narrator had great voices for all of the characters/accents that are presented in the book (although I thought that Smoak sounded so much like Ellen Degeneres that it was all I could think of when I heard her voice). The stuff that I wasn't thrilled about: If you are going to give your main character a distinctive and unique characteristic, fine, but don't keep bringing it up ad nauseam (ex: Her purple eyes flashed anger. She gazed with her purple eyes. Her red hair cascaded down her back. Her crimson tresses were styled to perfection, etc.). I think a mention once or twice is fine. We get it. Also, you will have to suspend reality just a bit to believe parts of this book. I believe that deaf people can accomplish amazing things, but Ash does things that I just find unbelievable, such as becoming a DJ or making her way into a special ops team in the military. It wasn't explained very well either. In addition, I find it hard to believe that anyone could kick a large man's ass with a punctured lung and broken ribs, but that's just me.

Overall, it was a good book. With some tweaking, I think it could be great though. I was provided this audio book at no cost by AudioBookBoom in exchange for my honest review.

Solid start to a new series

What made the experience of listening to Ashen Rayne the most enjoyable?

Skye Knizley is definitely a talented writer and the plot of the book is great

Which scene was your favorite?

all the scenes

Any additional comments?

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

MAKES YOU WANNA READ BOOK 2!

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Plot definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. Great ACTION read.

Which character – as performed by Sierra Kline – was your favorite?

I found myself loving Ash! She's the deaf best friend that is definitely a bad a$$ all on her own. No disability there!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Not so much moved me. I was a bit uncomfortable at times with the whole girl on girl action but if you like that or can look past that its a really great listen. The friendship, action and love story is all worth the listen.

Any additional comments?

"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Boom."

Sex Trade, Bad to the Bone, Hot chicks kick butts

Would you consider the audio edition of Ashen Rayne to be better than the print version?

Haven't read the ebook. But here's what made this so good. Sierra Kline's narration. At the beginning there is a conversation conducted in American Sign Language. The narration is structured as words are signed - NOT CHOPPY, but recognizable to anyone familiar with communication with hearing impaired people. THEN when the action sequences happened the narrator read at what I describe as an ACTION pace... clear but with excitement. To me that was a transition that I picked up the nuances of.

What did you like best about this story?

Bit sexy, bit violent. Reminded me of the Lisbeth Salander character in Stieg Larsson's Millennium series ie, Girl with Dragon Tattoo, et al. The two main characters combined.

Which character – as performed by Sierra Kline – was your favorite?

Smoak and Ashe.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Several sittings. I was anxious to start a new session of listening though.

Any additional comments?

Good action escapism listen. Enjoyable.

Thanks for making this available to review.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom dot com.

very entertaining

loved this book!!! bad ass women kicking ass! can't wait to read more by this author!

Intreguing...

This kept me interested start to finish. I would recommend it and just with the other books in the series had an audible option...

Strong Female Characters and Great Narrator

This audiobook was given by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.

The story had a good premise, and I liked that there were strong female characters! The writing was a little cheesy, but it was a good story. It also goes into a societal issue that is both relevant and not discussed enough.

The narrator, Sierra Kline, was great. She made the characters' dialogue sound believable and brought the story to life with emotion.

Unbelievable Main Character

Hot, kick ass, female lead characters. Hot strippers. Lesbian sex. Gun play and action scenes, oh my. This book should be right up my alley, but unfortunately it wasn’t. Ash and Smoke operate a private investigation firm called Shadowlands. Their client’s name is Blaze. With names like that, author Skye Knizley must be a comic book fan. Her main female character, Ash is certainly written like she’s a comic book hero. She’s James Bond and Wonder Woman rolled into one. She can slug it out toe to toe with men who out weigh her because she’s got fighting skills that exceed an Olympic gold medalist, martial artist. She’s a perfect shot, while all bad guys cant hit the side of a barn with a sawed off shot gun. She rides motor cycles, has stunt driver car skills. She even gets away with killing people indiscriminately as if the novel’s modern day setting were actually the old, wild, wild West. She routinely screws women without even knowing their name then allows her partner, Smoke, to wake them and unceremoniously kick them out with the threat of bodily harm. Ash has even been a DJ in spite of being deaf. Author Skye Knizley character is as repulsive to me as actor Michael Chicklis’ character was in the TV show, The Shield. There was obviously an appeal to that character since the show was on 4 or 5 seasons. I guess there must be a similar appeal to Ash since this is book one of a series of books. I personally just don’t see the appeal.

Skye Knizley is definitely a talented writer and the plot of the book is great. It just would have been nice if the main character was written as a kick ass woman of action who operates within the boundary of what is humanly possible. Instead, she is written so super human that no matter what happens in the story, I never believe she is in trouble. For me, the action scenes held no excitement or sense of tension because there’s no sense of peril when someone is unbeatable. When you have a character like that, action scenes are boring. Skye Knizley attempts to explain away Ash’s abilities by saying she was trained in the military to be something akin to a GI Jane, special forces, female soldier. Come on now! You can’t even get into the military if you’re deaf. If you don’t have perfect hearing, then you actually must have a specific percentage of hearing or better, in both ears.

Sierra Kline is the narrator for this novel. She has a very attractive voice, but I feel her performance sometimes lacked distinction in the voices of the characters. At times, everyone sounded the same.

If you are able to suspend your disbelief, then I think you will like “Ashen Rayne: Shadowlands, Book 1.” It’s otherwise, a good story. If, however, you lean more toward my point of view, then don’t spend your money on this one. Finally, this audio book was provided by the narrator at no cost in exchange for an honest review, courtesy of Audio Book Blast.

Not my cup of tea

Received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
This book failed to hold my attention. The narrator has a wonderful voice but I had issues distinguishing different characters at times.

Ashen Rayne

This book did not caught me right at first like I thought it would. The more I listened to the story and the characters the more I enjoyed it. I would love to read what happens next. Ash and Smoak are a great team. *This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom dot com.*