Collared

By: TA Moore

Narrated by: Greg Tremblay

When a demon recruits ex-priest Jack to find a murderous thief, he must dive deep into the underbelly of his town and face his own past.

©2020 TA Moore (P)2020 Dreamspinner Press

Epic tale that made me want more!

This was another hit for me – and not only because of the fabulous narration.

Making deals with the devil is detriment to your health, but that doesn’t stop people from making them. On the contrary, the allure of the forbidden could be irresistible. Over the years Jack has learned to take life in a stride. He knows what goes bump in the night, what monsters hide in the closet or under the bed. So when he finds a dead man in his bed he knows his trouble has only begun. When Math, his personal demon, and sometimes lover, recruits him to find what was stolen from him. But the task isn’t as easy as it might seem as the thieves have no problem killing anyone in their way. And their next victim is a little girl they’d kidnapped.

It’s not easy to create a good short story, and one that doesn’t feel rushed or incomplete, but TA Moore absolutely did that with Collared. There was great world-building, fleshed out characters and interesting plotline. I wouldn’t have minded this story to be a full length novel, but that’s because I’m greedy, not because anything was missing.

Greg Tremblay is a fantastic narrator and voice actor, and sadly it’s been a while since I’ve had the pleasure to enjoy one of his performances. I love how he makes the story come alive, and this time the listener feels the grittiness, harshness and horror of everything. He made you feel Tracey’s fear, but also her determination. What little we got to know about her was fascinating – and a little bit terrifying. Tremblay also perfected the push-pull, love/hate/resentment/longing with a bit of confusion and resignation between Jack and Math. To say feelings were mixed was an understatement. But Moore created that wonderful mess, and Tremblay made you feel it. I can’t say that I understand their relationship – I’m not sure they do (Jack and Math) but I think that’s also why I enjoyed it so much. I mean anything between a condemned ex-priest and a demon is sure to have complications. Anyway Tremblay is as magic as this story and I wish for many more stories to come.

Oh, and fair warning, this story is very well written and expertly narrated so the many gruesome scenes might evoke more than a little nausea, and a bit of an aversion to food.

A copy of this book was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes.

Strange.

This is a hard one to review, just under 4 hours so not long enough to really get into a good indepth and detailed story and yet we are giving a lot of information. Back story as well as current.
One main MC and his tale of how he trying to save, if not the World than one town from being taken over by evil. He has help from an unlikely source, a demon.

Although this one story has a conclusion, we are left with several loose ends. Even though I did enjoy this, I'm not sure how invested I am to see if their are any more.

Greg Tremblay did a superb job with the narration of this.

Excellent

This audio was better than expected. TA Moore is a new author for me but I love Greg Tremblay as the narrator
I hope this is the beginning of a series. I’d love to read more about these characters

Don't be put off by the very violent opening

I thought it would be too dark and almost quit, but it's okay. Jack was an interesting character, I wish there was a bit more world-building and detail for how he got to where he is. It's covered but I'm greedy and want more. It sounded like the demon's name was Math but I'm stumped what that might be short for. Greg Tremblay was brilliant. He is consistently one of my favorite readers.

Not my cup of tea

Well written, excellently performed, but boring for an atheist like myself. God/devil/sin is where fantasy goes to die.

Disjointed Mess

This is perhaps the second-worst listen I’ve ever encountered on Audible. The story is disjointed and poorly executed. Definitely won’t be finishing (quit about an hour in) or getting anything else by this author. After 25% through, I had no idea what the actual story is supposed to be other than uninteresting.