From Gods

Descendant Prophecies, Book 1

By: Mary Ting

Narrated by: Emma Lysy

Did you just see a flash of lightning across the sky on a clear sunny day? It's not from Mother Nature. It is most likely from Mason Grand: a swoon-worthy demigod and one of Zeus's descendants.

Skylar Rome is supposed to be having the best summer ever before she heads off to college. Little did she know that her whole life was about to change while visiting her cousin. One of the Grand brothers she'd, Mason, saves her life right after meeting her when she nearly drowns at the beach due to unknown forces. Cool, collected, mysterious, and dangerously good looking, Skylar is drawn to him from the start. Though she knows he is the type of guy good girls stayed away from, it seems he is always saving her life - and the attraction was inevitable.

Strange things begin to happen after she meets the brothers. When she accidentally kills one of the brothers, it throws her life into turmoil as they search to find the answers. Implausibly, she gets caught up in a world of the descendants of ancient gods who have super powers. Not only is her discovery difficult to accept, but evil beings are after her. Running out of time and running for her life, she must unravel a mystery. What do they want from her? Forced into a battle set into motion long before she was born, will she find the answers, or will she die trying?

©2013 Mary Ting (P)2015 Mary Ting

Promissing, but very, very YA

Would you try another book from Mary Ting and/or Emma Lysy?

Maybe, I don't know. For me, this book wasn't a good experience. Not bad, at all, but no exciting too.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

In my opinion, the final was suitable for the plot

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Emma Lysy?

Maybe Justin Eyre, Mae Whitman, Kate Schorr...

Any additional comments?

Although the story is promising, the plot is too childish for me.

is everyone drunk

every character in the story sounded like they were drunk. Everybody sounded slur their words. sound as if falling down

interesting blend of old and new supernatural

Any additional comments?

(I received a free audible copy in exchange for an honest review.)

Wanna know something interesting? This book was on my wish/to-be-read list for a while. And…then…came the exchange. That usually never happens. I mean, the first time I even hear about the books get for free in exchange for an honest review is when the opportunity comes to do the review. The normal ritual is to read only the summary, ignore any reviews and make up my own mind without influence.

That so did not happen here. I’d already read the summary, skimmed the reviews (good and bad) and made up my mind to read it “someday.” This one, I knew, was right up my alley from the start so it already had a tiny bias before I even pressed play.

So how to do an unbiased review…? I put it aside to listen to after a couple of other books so that nothing except the summary would be fresh in my mind. I curled up on my front porch after dark, which is my favorite time and place to listen. Then I pressed play.

Sometimes I think that characters are created to be perfectly oblivious, never able to connect the dots. So it’s with a bit of frustration that I listened to the first few chapters. I mean really, aside from those stories set in entirely different universes, we have such a broad range of movies, books and even songs that tell a story and teach a lesson. How can the main character of a book never put on her big girl panties and confront the questions she has in her head full on?

Skylar never seems to ask the right questions at the right time. She’s supposed to be strong and independent, but really she just kind of peters out…at various points of the story.

Now, having said that, there are moments where I just wanna cheer her on. And sometimes I have to set aside my assumptions. Just because I would react a certain way to certain circumstances, does not mean the character would react the same way. (This is something I sometimes have to smack into my head while I’m reading a particularly frustrating heroine. It would do others good to remember that sometimes, too. I understand it’s hard. Otherwise, the remembering wouldn’t be a smack!)

I do love the premise: Gods and Goddesses and their kids forced to hide like witches among humans. The mythology introduced in this first book will likely make me check out the second.

However, I’m not blown away by the writing. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only grammar Nazi out here in a world where passive voice has taken over. Otherwise highly impactful thoughts and actions become a melted mess when passive voice reigns. It is so much easier to overlook most grammar issues when listening.

So…on to narration.

Emma Lysy’s soft voice is pleasant. She could very easily fall into a whiny, obnoxious tone, but doesn’t. Her voice fits into that just right place where I can listen without zoning out while about my daily grind.

If you’re wanting a sweet, yet interesting diversion for a day, I do recommend this, the first book in the series.

Good story.

Great narration. Interesting ending. we both enjoyed this atory. The story moved at a good pace. Enjoyed the narration.

couldn't finish due to narrator

The story was fine but the narrator voice was irritating. There were moments in the story that made the main character very immature, needy, and whiny but the narrator's high pitched girly girl voice made those scenes even more annoying. Plus it didn't help that she sounded like she had a cold and was congested. The plot was intriguing but I just couldn't connect to the characters enough.
*spoilers*
The cousin seemed very shallow and promiscuous for being a virgin, the main character didn't bat an eye after killing, learning about the paranormal, or that some creature kept trying to kill her but the guy she likes has a possible date with another girl or he leaves her house during the night and she loses it. It was all preteenish drama. I listened to half of the book but just couldn't get through it unfortunately.

Narator a bit nasal

Interesting enough story but the narator got to me eventually that I kind of lost focus and interest in the story line.

this poor narrator...

Who is this books audio editor?! This poor narrator clearly has a cold through most of the book. There is a huge snot inhalation just past the middle of track 20 that didn't get edited out.
The book had a good concept, but it was poorly executed. I found it annoying how they literally met up with and escaped the same villian within the same few pages with no escalation of danger. The whole book was kind of flat...which is impressive in a way because the subject matter is demigods with superpowers and and a prophesied main character.

An electrifying read!

Forced into a battle set into motion long before she was born...
Will the MC find the answers she seeks...
Or will she die trying?

Whoa! An amazing and awesome read. Love the heroine and the hero.

A good start to this series.

Packed with demigods, powers, monsters, good/evil, vengeance, Oracle, another dimension, laugh out loud moments and an electric romance.

Perfect for readers of Greek mythology.

It was a good listen.

Good Story!

“From Gods” by Mary Ting, was a good story. I felt it was more for a younger teenage audience but I enjoyed it! The narrator was excellent and I Adored the characters.

A definite 4 STAR book!!

*I received this in exchange for an honest review
This book was great! To be honest, at first I wasn’t too sure how I was going to feel about it; but as I kept listening, I was drawn in more and more. I really liked Skylar and Kayla, they’re relationship is as close as two cousins can get. Mason and me had a back and forth love/hate relationship but we finally worked it out! I liked the narrator, though she could use a bit more emotion in her reading as well as voice variation between characters. There were a few times it sounded more like she was stuffed up with a cold, then speaking the voice of a guy. But once I tuned that part out, I really enjoyed the book. I am hoping there’s a book 2 already out so I can just jump on the next in the series.