Adventure - Porn?

This ended up being: 80% exposition, 15% unnecessary/overly descriptive sex scenes, and 5% plot.

The blurb seemed perfect for me: vampires =fantasy, ancient Egypt = a personal enjoyment of mine, LGBT leads = FINALLY!
I was hoping for an enjoyable use of historical figures and locations to tell an adventurous tale with an LGBT perspective. What I got was every vampire trope possible crammed into this 12 hour audiotape. It spends far too much time creating the universe which isn’t really unique or interesting, completely failing on relating it to ancient Egypt as promised. Every so often the exposition takes a break for some really crude sex scenes that could have been implied or briefly mentioned, but somehow we have what I can only describe as literary porn. Cringe worthy and waiting for it to end so we can move the plot. Speaking of which, I had so much hope with the main story! Seem interesting enough, but (without spoiling anything) all this built up ending on 1 chapter of action that wasn’t even that big of a deal.
I appreciated the narrator, very impressed with his talent. And I applaud the author for going against the grain with an LGBT take on the vampire craze. But I am unfortunately disappointed. I really wanted to enjoy it.

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142 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

More please!!!

Cronin's Key is one of my favorite books and I was so happy to see it was being made into audio. Joel Leslie is a phenomenal voice actor who truly brings these characters to life. His use of various accents and the quality of his performance make an already great story that much more fantastic. I highly recommend Cronin's Key both in print and audio, and if you haven't checked out any other of Joel Leslie's narrations then you're seriously missing out!

I'll keep my fingers crossed that the rest of this series gets recorded as well!

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27 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Disappointing story

I'll start by saying this came highly recommended so part of my disappointment is in the fact it didnt stand up to my expectations.


The biggest redeeming point is Joel Lesley's narration and voice acting. The guy juggles around the different character accents in an impressive way.


*spoilers ahead*

The story overall is a basic one - destiny, big bad evil, prophecy, a chosen one and how things come to play.

The twist is that there are supernaturals involved and when that happens then as an author you really need to make sure you follow your own rules you laid . Thats basic sci-fi/fantasy writing 101.

This is where NR Walker fails big time.

The biggest contradiction is laid out from the very beginning - vampires can catch bullets.
They can acvidentally die from wood-imbued bullets, but thats if they are distracted or not fully aware.

Thay being said, there is way too much enthusiasm going around this 'invention' and none of the characters seems to care to point out the fact they cancatch those bullets despite Iji doing so over and over again...

Do when The Big Dramatical moment comes and Cronin's "saved" by another vampire sacrificing himself it doesnt seem very genuine. Because going by the rule that if he saw the bullet aimed - he couldve caught it in his hand and avoided getting hurt and dying.


Johanne's death didnt feel necessary or even emotional, and it felt like a huge miss.

Johanne would've done better being a double agent and spy who had just wanted to be rid of Alex to have Cronin all for himself. It would've explained a lot of last-minute changes to the 'prophecy' that didnt make any sense and his death a little more tragic.


The hylogryphs were a nice idea but it felt like there was too much doing for something that couldve been simplified to breaking into a hospital, taking a bag of blood donation, breaking a hole in the pyramids with detonators and letting sun inside.

The whole 'bringing back to life ' one ancient vampire egyptian or another didnt make sense, was never explained and the eventual conclusion felt very hurried and sloppy.

'Alex got it' is not a solution I feel okay with as a reader and felt forced to have the other characters be cool about not hearing an explanation themselves.

I will not be continuing this series.

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20 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Stellar!

I loved this book when I read it and now I love it more as narrated by Joel Leslie. How he manages to keep all the voices distinct is just amazing.
Though I wouldn't put this book in the erotic romance category, the sexual tension between Cronin and Alec is hot! And yes, there are also some steamy scenes, but the book is about so much more than that.
It's been awhile since I read the book and I'd forgotten the ending. Can't wait for the rest of the series to be available in audio. Though they're great to read, Joel Leslie makes them come alive.

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16 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Loved it

Loved it a lot. It was so good. Joel Leslie performance was great. I can not wait for the rest to come out as well.

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14 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

A little slow

Struggled with this one. The story line was good but it just took so long for it to get anywhere. The lead up to the battle was arduous and the battle was done in a second. The character development seemed like it was missing something. The narration was not bad but it seemed like the voices were too old for the characters ages.

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10 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

A new series for me and a wonderful surprise!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I would, I really enjoyed Cronin's Key. The story sucked me in and I have the net book ready to go!

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the progression of the realtionship between Alec and Cronin and Ale coming to terms with his life after the events at the start of the book. And Joel Leslie is awesome!

Which scene was your favorite?

Any scene when Cronin and his friends (hwho are 100's of years old) are subjected to Alec's modern day speech or qips or comments.

Any additional comments?

NR Walker is a new author for me and I don't know why is has taken me so long to find her!

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8 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Confessions of a Romantic

We don’t need to start by saying how much we love anything and everything but NR Walker, and the Cronin’s Key series is right up there. But, there is something that Joel Leslie creates, that brings this fantastic book to life. One of the best audio narrations we have heard in a while, so much we are downloading everything else Joel has recorded!

Cronin is a thousand year old vampire who has been waiting for his fated one, his mate, who shows up in the form of Alec, a NYPD detective that has always attracted the weird. There is other vampires, and a newly born one wanted to take over the world, and happiness of finding each other and the sad thoughts that they might not have forever together.

But, we love this story, so let’s talk about the narration. Joel has this husky quality to his voice that creates each individual voice for the characters. And his accents are out of this world. Reading this book, you feel the sexual tension between Cronin and Alec, but hearing it voices brings the tension, but the sweet heat they are both feeling for finding each other. Joel finds that caring between these two strong men, and their whispered words of love are so endearing. Our favourite scene in when Cronin first takes Alec to the Scottish fields, we could feel he love and tenderness between them.

So much good, but one sad thing, we have to wait for the other 2 installments in the Cronin’s Key series!!! But really, it is a great book, and a fantastic narration, we will patiently wait if the rest are a good as this one.

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8 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

More Please!!!!

I loved this book...I loved this story!!!! What a great story teller N.R. Walker is!!! Alec and Cronin and the cast of characters are fantastic and Joel Leslie does a fantastic job bringing the characters to life. I want to listen to more...

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7 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

great story is even better when narrated :)

Where does Cronin's Key rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

somewhere up near the top of my list, it's my favourite book that I've listened to Joel Leslie narrate

Who was your favorite character and why?

hard to choose between Alec and Cronin
Alec is the tough, no nonsense cop and Cronin is the vampire that has been waiting a lifetime for him

Which scene was your favorite?

when they jump back to the police dept to "acquire" weapons and bulletproof vests
....and the final sex scene

If you could take any character from Cronin's Key out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Alec....tall, dark and handsome, and can still eat human food ;)

Any additional comments?

loved all the character voices as they fit well with the character descriptions

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7 les gens ont trouvé cela utile