Uncommon Stock: Version 1.0 (The Uncommon Series)

By: Eliot Peper

Narrated by: Jennifer O'Donnell

Book one of The Uncommon Series, the best-selling tech start-up thriller trilogy.

Mara Winkel is rock climbing, mountain biking, and 'studying' her way through school at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

But when her best friend, James, asks her to partner with him to start a disruptive new software company, she discovers that the world of technology start-ups is fraught with intrigue, adrenaline, soaring successes, and scorching failures. It turns out this is especially true when your technology threatens entrenched drug cartels.

Mara has to juggle mysterious investors, opaque partners, critical customers, and a team that is as brilliant as it is dysfunctional until only one choice remains: win or die.

©2014 Eliot Peper (P)2016 Eliot Peper

Didn't Hold My Interest

I wasn't a fan of the startup story. There is no "suspense" until more than halfway through the book. Even the suspense was weak. It reads more like a drama fiction with how-to type tidbits of beginning a startup. I also found it incredibly annoying with the minute details of things that didn't add to the story or character building. At the end of the book, it was clear that you needed to get the sequel to finish the story. There were way too may unfinished issues.

This story just wasn't interesting enough to me. Had to force myself to finish it and I feel duped into having to purchase the sequel so that I could hopefully get some closure to the story.

Never underestimate the underdog

Eliot Pepper's intriguing thriller had the perfect combination of mystery and comedy allowing the reader/listener to follow along with ease. The writing was witty and raw which really worked for the story's plot and characters.

Narrator Jennifer O'Donnell's narration was well done. She has an easy voice to listen to, and kept the pace and vocals natural.

Overall a great story and I look forward to seeing what comes next in the series.

This audiobook was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Worth a Try!

I don’t usually read many books from this genre, but I really enjoyed this one. The narration brought the story to life and held my interest throughout. The story was well thought out, complete and will keep you listening. I will be watching for this author in the future.

* I was provided a free copy of this book from AudioBookBlast for an honest review.

Great startup fiction

Uncommon Stock is loads of fun and I highly recommend it. If you have never started a company before, it gives you an authentic taste of what its like. If you have started a company before, it is fun to go along for someone else’s roller coaster for a change.

A tech startup stumbles upon info that could kill

Mara who loves the outdoors and any kind of outdoor activity she can be a part of. She's attending the University of Colorado to become a lawyer, but feels like something is missing. Enter her best friend James asks her to be a partner in a new startup he's founding that uses a new algorithm and program to help teachers grade and read papers faster. This algorithm has potential in almost product vertical that they look. After running some dry runs they come across some data that has serious implications. That is where things being to take a turn from good to bad. Uncommon Stock is a mix of thriller and tech/startup. With lots of "business thriller" thrown in.

Narration for this was done by Jennifer O'Donnell and she does a killer job on this. The character that she is portraying is a confident and strong woman in a tech world that is surrounded by men. The voice that she gave her was perfect for this role and allowed me to really get into the story. The other voices that she used for the other characters was really enjoyable too. There was never a time that I felt like I wasn't sure who the focus was on inside the audiobook.

Well, I love a good business/techno thriller. This was a wonderful mix of both. With business thriller just being the world that they were living in -- start ups, tech firms, buyouts, hostile takeovers, angel investors, VC's, and more. It really had it all if you enjoy both thriller and "tech/business" type books. I work in a tech field and there was a lot of things that really clicked with me from the inside, and I went to school for business so the business side of things that Mara had to deal with were also familiar.

Peper really wrote Mara's character well for this. She was incredibly likable when Peper wanted her to be, and at times she was also easy to hate. This, to me is a sign of a well-thought out character and character arc. She really grows and changes throughout the book. If you were to look at her from the beginning to her in the final pages, it almost feels like a different person. But the way it was written took the reader along for a ride with Mara. I really felt like I knew her by the end.

Well, once I finished the book, the first thing I did was head over to Audible and look up to see if the other books in this series were on audio. To my dismay--they are not... yet. I hope that Eliot Peper continues this series in audiobook. And to do that I'm sure that the more reviews he gets, the more likely he'll continue it. So, pick this up and leave a review. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

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Very fascinating and entertaining

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast and I’m glad I got the opportunity to get it as I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is well thought out and well written. The characters are interesting and while it take a while, do have some growth by the end of the tale. I work for a startup so I enjoyed getting to see all of the back office work and drama that goes into building a company and how the characters worked (or didn’t) to try and resolve their issues. Reading the story it felt very real to me. While I did find the story line interesting, since the primary part of the story is the building of Mosaic Industries I didn’t find the plot to be very thrilling or mysterious, but I finished it in three days so you can tell my enthusiasm for tale. My biggest issue with this book is that it doesn’t tell a complete story. There is a giant cliffhanger at the end trying to get you to go into the next version of the story which is one of my pet peeves. Other than that I can’t recommend this enough, especially for anyone who thinks they want to start their own company.

Ms. O'Donnell's narration is great. Her characters and pacing are terrific and she really helped bring the story to life.