Pau Hana

Cat cozy Humor Mystery

By: Toby Neal, JoAnn Bassett

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

"This series is my favorite new addiction! I want the Miss Fortune to escape to Maui, too!" ~ Reader

My name is Kat Smith, and my new life as postmaster of the tiny town of Ohia on Maui was beginning to settle down. No new dead bodies had turned up for months! And then, the UPS guy spotted a little girl in the window of a house where no child was known to live. My former Secret Service training kicked in. I had to investigate, no matter what Mr. K, my boyfriend, attack cat Tiki, or Aunt Fae said about how far I'd go to find out what happened… to a child who might not even be real.

"Pau Hana was a warm hug with zings of excitement. So much love, acceptance, ohana, mixed in with a great story line." ~Sheree S, Advance Reader

Love the story, hate the VirtualVoice

I have recently come across Toby Neal, and have enjoyed all the books I listened to so far. However, I have to say that I am no fan of the Virtual Voice. I real voice reading the story has such rich nuances that the Virtual Voice just leaves a flat taste. Flat coke will slake a thirst when you are dying of thirst. But it has no comparison to the real thing.

That aside, I really enjoyed the story, and will continue to snatch up books by Toby Neal as a see them.

Fun book but I'm not a fan of the narration

I have thoroughly enjoyed this fun cozy mystery series. I love how the characters from the Lei Texeira series are seamlessly woven into each of these stories. All the characters are fun and interesting and as in her other series, I love learning a little about the Hawaiian culture; I only wish the Hawaiian words would have been pronounced correctly.

In another review on this series, I spoke about the AI narration. It's pretty bad in this book, in particular. At one point, the "reader" was actually reading the punctuation along with the sentences. There were spots where it felt like it was stopped and then perhaps skipped a word or two. The voice levels were all over the map. In part of the book, Kat's voice was normal, then in others almost squeaky high; ditto for her boyfriend and other characters. It was really disconcerting and at times made it a little tricky to follow.

I don't know what the rationale was/is for this type of narration but I, personally, think it does a great disservice to the author(s) and the stories. In the beginning of the series, I almost quit listening, but hung in there for the characters and stories. Please bring back Sara Malia Hatfield!!! She's a perfect reader for these stories.

I would have given this review a solid five stars but just can't because of the narration.

At the end of this book, the author mentions there will be more to come in this series. I can hardly wait, and hope by then someone has decided not to use the AI reader.

Enjoyable Read

I liked the characters and the story but definitely read this one instead of listen to the Virtual Voice. The problem with the Virtual Voice (is that right?) is that there is no difference between the characters voices, and the narrator makes the star, Kat, sound like a diminutive young girl, certainly not a strong, former, Secret Service Agent. But, with that said, the Audiobook was very handy while I was driving at work so that I didn't have to wait until I could read it!! I'm absolutely looking forward to more Kat books.

The closeness of the people.

Loved the story. I totally dislike virtual narratio
n, although there were very few errors in this book