Chosen

The Chosen, Book 1

By: Denise Grover Swank

Narrated by: John Mierau

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Everything Emma Thompson owns fits in a suitcase. She moves from one roach infested motel to another. She and Jake, her five-year-old son, who can see the future, are running from the men intent on taking him. Emma will do anything to protect him, even when it means accepting the help of a stranger named Will. Jake insists she needs Will, but Emma's never needed help before. And even though she's learned to trust her son, it doesn't mean she trusts Will.

Mercenary Will Davenport lives in the moment. Hauling Emma to South Dakota should have been an easy job, but his employer neglected to tell him about Emma's freaky son and the gunmen hot on her trail. Instinct tells him this job is trouble, but nothing can prepare him for Jake's proclamation that Will is The Chosen One, who must protect Emma from the men hunting her power. A power she doesn't know she has.

Will protects Emma and Jake on a cross-country chase from the men pursuing them, while struggling with memories from his past, his apprehension of Jake, and his growing attraction to Emma. Will's overwhelming urge to protect Emma surprises him, especially since it has nothing to do with his paycheck and possibly everything to do with the tattoo Jake branded on his arm. Rich and powerful men are desperate to capture Emma, and Will must discover why before it's too late.

©2011 Denise Swank (P)2012 Denise Swank DBA Bramagioia Enterprisees

Bad narration

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No, the reader spoke so slowly & his pronunciations were kind of annoying.

Would you be willing to try another book from Denise Grover Swank? Why or why not?

Yes. The story wasn't bad, I think it could actually be pretty good if I read it myself instead of listening to it.

Would you be willing to try another one of John Mierau’s performances?

No, in fact, I had downloaded the 2nd book before really getting into this one & I plan to return it.

Could you see Chosen being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Possibly. Hadn't really thought of it...

Good vs Evil

The book was the basic good vs evil & Ok to listen to however, the narrator was stilted in his presentation. Each sentence spoken seemed to be broken into two stilted sentences or at least in places. There wasn't much inflection put into the books where if it had been done right it would have made the book a great listen. The only time there was any inflection was the arguements. Many times a narrator can make a mediocre book a great book. This time it didn't happen.

Overall, it was you get what you pay for & sadly, this one was on sale for a special price. Due to narrator, I WON'T be getting book 2 in the series.

great job

A very good book, kept my intrastate right from the beginning. the interaction with the characters, made it funny as well. A great job by the narrator , making the qwearky parts, very laughably. great job.

Honest and Constructive Feedback

I'm not going to take time to re-invent a way to explain what the story is about. Don't be lazy, read the summary of the book. I am going to take time to tell you what I think worked brilliantly and what felt a little unpolished.
I am going to separate the performance of the reader from the content of the book.
First the book:
There is always a need to suspend disbelief when you are dealing with fantasy or science fiction. That is also the case in this book. I purchased the kindle and the audible version of this book, and was intrigued enough with the plot premise and (let's face it) there was a sale, so I did purchase the kindle version of the other books.
I really found it fascinating that Jake (the son) channels information that saves their collective butts. I found the unfurling hints to his parentage intriguing enough to order the other books before I'd finished this one.
High notes included a bright and imaginative plot and plenty of action with a whollop of mystery. The thoughts character's were thinking added to the story in a positive way.
Low notes: This first book felt a little unpolished. It would have taken just a small number of words to establish the presence of Jake's gift(s) without it feeling silly or like she was a parent with crumbling boundaries who allowed her son to run their life. One well worded paragraph could have made us all a believer. As it was, it took some effort to suspend disbelief. Which, in turn made the growth of Jake's gifts feel out of place/disjointed.
Will's temper tantrums were the kind of childish we expected from Jake. They negatively effected the story and didn't establish a fear of intimacy. They just highlighted immaturity. There were other moments where I felt like there was a stereotyping - such as the "on the road" waitress that is brassy enough to give a man with a child and woman present her phone number. Really, junior high relationship drama. Badly done. and yet...
The dialogue was the weakest point. The dialogue outlining the attraction and then the romance between Emma and WIll was truly poorly done. It included cheesy pick up lines.
This book has good bones, but needs some refinement.

About the reader, John Mierau

Let me start by saying that I absolutely love the quality and the timbre of his voice. There are portions of this story where he really shines and delivers in a way that someone with a thinner, reedier voice never will. You can't teach what he has because it is a gift of nature. Nice, wonderful, rich, warm tones!

AND.... I would implore him to really engage in acting classes. Not only was the dialogue of the book a weak point, but John Mierau did not help it along by any means. He needs to work on his ability to emote. It was nearly impossible in some places to tell whether the five year old boy, the woman or the man was speaking. Same voice, same tone, same emotion to all three at times.

I would absolutely smack the producer around a little bit because there were a few occasions where Mr. Mierau made an error (hey, we're all human) and it should have been re-recorded in that spot. It wasn't.

Would this book have been better received with a different reader? Maybe. But there were some issues that simply took a brilliant book and made it an ok read. I would hate to see Mr. Mierau not do this. His voice is a gold mine. And like any gold that is mined, you need to put effort in to make sure the hard crusty crap is removed so the gold can shine. Mr. Mierau needs to free himself to act.

Will I purchase the second in this series in an audible version? Not at this time. Will I check back next year to see what new thing John Mierau has recorded? Yes, I will.

Exciting

This story is non stop action; An emotional roller coaster; thrilling. The narrator, on the other hand, had a nice voice but was slow and almost robotic.

good story. terrible narrator

narrator had weird pauses while reading. Canadian accent weird. whiny female voice acting. story was good.

Story was excellent, recording strange

This story was excellent and I will be getting the balance of this series. Good character development, and lots of action as the story unfolds but leaves you wanting more. The audio performance itself was questionable as the narrator sometimes sounded mechanical or stilted. I appreciate someone who tries to ennunciate words clearly but when it starts to sound mechanical it can detract from the story. Again, the story was excellent, and overall the recording was good.

Tense page turner that I could not put down.

Constantly on the run is no way for a Mom with a small child to live. Enter a stranger named Will who is both more and less than he appears. The continued running and the strange occurrences keep this moving. It was difficult to put down for any reason. Looking forward to reading the others in this series.

Great story

I like the story just had a problem with narrators. I can’t even give specifics except for a few mispronounced words.

Annoying pronunciations

The story was pretty good, but very slow in parts. The reader drove me, absolutely crazy. Was like he was trying to pronunciation words with too much emphasis and he was boring to listen to. I’m curious about the second book but if he’s the reader, I probably won’t listen to it.