The Accidental Alchemist

By: Gigi Pandian

Narrated by: Julia Motyka

From USA Today best-selling author Gigi Pandian comes a modern tale of ancient intrigue.

Unpacking her belongings in her new hometown of Portland, Oregon, herbalist and reformed alchemist Zoe Faust can't help but notice she's picked up a stowaway. Dorian Robert-Houdin is a living, breathing three-and-half-foot gargoyle—not to mention a master of French cuisine—and he needs Zoe's expertise to decipher a centuries-old text. Zoe, who's trying to put her old life behind her, isn't so sure she wants to reopen her alchemical past ... until the dead man on her porch leaves her no choice.

Includes recipes!

Download the recipes from the book.©2015 Gigi Pandian (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Pretty good, but a little frustrating

The performance of this book was terrific. I would happily read more books performed by this narrator. The story was promising, but slightly annoying in that the character continually 'forgot' things, or couldn't quite figure things out. This made her character being am alchemist a lot less believable... but, it's a story with a gargoyle, so...

Formulaic

Cute concept but it got old quick. Skipped ahead several chapters and I did not miss anything.

amateur

this book seems to be written by an amateur. It's almost like the author pleated 8th grade English composition, learned all about how to write a proper story, and then applied it to this book. The story itself is not so bad. The author team, wanted to let everyone know what a great job she did researching alchemy, Portland, etc the facts around the story we're not heading or subtle, it just seems so childish. as for the narrator, she was okay for the most part, except there were several times when you could hear her clear her throat. You would think the publisher would have done a better job at editing. I would not intend to read any of the future accidental alchemist mystery books.

Wonderful!

Great story, great narration. Can't wait for the next book in the series! Oh so good and satisfying. Sad it's over.

Entertaining

Wish I could get a copy of her recipes:) This book absorbed my attention completely. Unique and interesting and I will immediately get Book 2!

Main character is a weenie

The writing is good but I got so tired of the main character beating herself up constantly. For someone who is 3 or 400 years old, you'd think she's have had enough time to develop some self-esteem. She's constantly blaming herself for the deaths of two people she loved, but when you find out what happned to them you realize it was in no way remotely her fault and her moping gets that much more tiresome.

I still read the 2nd book.

A bit campy but fun

A new twist on a tired genre. Other than her habit of repeating words in a sentence, well written.

not a great book but adequate

I think the narrator was not the best for this story, or maybe the story wasn't the best for the narrator, it was a predictable book, not unpleasant...but I was bored. I thought I would like it due to it's subject, and I did like it...but did not love it.

Well written, but simply not for me.

I thought the story telling was well done, I just found myself disengaged from the characters, I simply didn't really care what happened to Zoe or Dorian. I didn't care about the finding of the book. And I didn't care about the 'cooking.' It's me. I like books set in odd places, but I don't really care to hear about all the food someone eats, or how coffee might smell like red roses. That's just not something I care about. so overall I gave this 4 total stars, based on the reader Julia Motyka, but the series itself is not something I'm invested to continue.

Interesting book, wrong narrator

Intriguing interpretation of Alchemy, however, I was thrown but the many unresolved twists and turns of the many characters and how nothing seemed to be finished. In the end was there really an ending? I found myself hanging on every stretched out word. All in all I enjoyed the book, but the narrator was another story. There were places in the book where you could hear her clear her throat or take an exasperated breath, which was a bit distracting. I truly feel the book would have flowed differently with another narrator.