A Nice Surprise

I thought I would try some of Audible's productions and saw that Mr. Rain was a #1 Kindle book seller, so I thought I would give him a try. I was not disappointed. This has a little bit of a different spin on the vampire/werewolf supernatural genre. First Mrs. Moon doesn't (usually) drink human blood. Second, she tries to keep up appearances as a human by even going so far as to slather on sunscreen and a hat and shades so she can pick up her kids from school. Third, she is a PI (former Federal Agent for HUD) and doesn't want to become a killer, like a lot of legends have portrayed many vampires. Only a few people close to her even know the truth about her "skin disease." This series really humanizes many aspects of the supernatural and how they are coping with their "condition," and how they carry on relationships. Whether they consider themselves still one of "God's children" or not; if they think they, themselves, are good or bad.

The books are not very long, compared to some, but there is a lot of ground covered. It will be interesting to see the continued character development in the next installments of this series. I appreciate Audible taking a chance with this author and would probably enjoy some of his other books in audio format as well. Too bad my library doesn't carry his books.

Dina Pearlman does an outstanding job in her reading of this work.

33 people found this helpful

Great listen!!

Where does Moon Dance rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Right up there - was a real nice surprise and would definitely be a favourite

What does Dina Pearlman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She is a great narrator and really brings it alive and becomes Samantha Moon

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes i hated having to turn it off.

Any additional comments?

Excellent reading and sucks you right in - i ended up getting all 4! Great story, believabel and very real. Nice surprise as didnt expect it to be this. incredibly enjoyable read, love the character, the plot, the story and the narrator. Excellent in my view - all round! Definitely a JR Rain fan and cant wait till the 5th installment!

12 people found this helpful

Better Than I Expected ~ Original Characters!

What did you love best about Moon Dance?

I loved the characters and plot were different from most vampire stories. Six years ago Samantha Moon was attached and changed into a vampire against her will. Since then she has been trying to adapt to being a vampire, while hanging on to her husband and children. Because she can no longer go out in the sun, she has started her own PI business from the comfort of her home and mainly works at night.

While we only get to meet one vampire in this story, it appears the vampires are not always drop dead sexy and being a vampire could be considered a curse. However, while it was a curse at times, her heighted senses and strength did come in handy. Then her ability to turn into a creature that could fly was definitely different.

Which character – as performed by Dina Pearlman – was your favorite?

This story was told from Samantha's POV so she was my favorite character. I loved Dina's delivery of all the snarky comments.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, I did! It was the perfect length.

Moon Dance is an older story but if you have not listened to it, you are missing out. It's about a female Private Investigator who happens to be a vampire. She is investigating her new client to find out who tried to kill him by shooting him in the face......five times. I know I have been missing out.

Any additional comments?

There are few stories that evoke strong emotions from me; however, this story made me feel rage. Samantha's cheating husband tells her he is taking the kids and makes her move out of their house. Adding insult to injury, he will only allow her supervised visitations every weekend for two hours. If she does not comply with his demands, he will expose her as a vampire, and have her declare unfit as a parent.

All throughout the story, you could tell Samantha was crazy about her kids and took very good care of them. I hope she gets even with her ex-husband in the next book.

5 people found this helpful

Fantastic--

What made the experience of listening to Moon Dance the most enjoyable?

It was the perfect blend of earthy humor and mystery woven in amongst the paranormal goings on. Even my husband liked it, and he doesn't like anything.

What other book might you compare Moon Dance to and why?

Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series

What does Dina Pearlman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Oh my goodness, she brings the visual aspect to a basically two deminsional experience.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me laugh. That was a hell of a first paragraph, you've got to admit.

10 people found this helpful

never again!

if I never hear the words He said She said or I said again it was like the author didn’t think the reader was smart enough to figure out who said what .I found it very nerve wrecking.

4 people found this helpful

Getting annoyed

If the narrator says "he said" "she said" " i said" one more time during a two person conversation I might just stop listening and get a refund. So annoying to say that over and over when it's obvious who's speaking by the tone of voice.

4 people found this helpful

Pretty Good for Light Listening

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

I would recommend this to a friend who enjoys mystery vampire books.

Would you recommend Moon Dance to your friends? Why or why not?

I would recommend it, but only as a light read. It's pulp fiction, not too deep or meaningful.

12 people found this helpful

Meh

The main character was uptight and judgmental. Odd, considering her predicament. I don't think I'll bother with the second book.

2 people found this helpful

Good character, horrible writer,

Maybe it's me. Maybe I am obsessive compulsive but I have two perspectives on this series. The first is that the character, plot, flow varied, I can care about Samantha Moon, what happens to her I like many of the other characters, and find the suspense and drama compelling.

However- you knew there was going to be one - the writing or rather the editing of these books is horrible. It reads like a high school creative writing exercise. You know the scene in Amadeus where them Emperor comes to Mozart's first opera and complains that it has too many notes. Well it's kind of like that.

First, if you took all of the redundancies that Rain commits in these first eight works you could use that number to make a 9th book. There are the traditional "3:00 AM in the morning"and "continue on" kinds of mistakes that seem ubiquitous these days, but these are only a small portion of the redundancies, many so blatant ("descended down the stairs")one wonders how the cannot have jumped off the page and screamed "fix me, stupid!" I tried to track them for a while but finally just quit because the constant stopping made it impossible to read.

The use of "myself" instead of "me"', the unnecessary superlatives, the clichés scattered all through "naked as the day I was born" etc,,the unnecessary adjectives and adverbs; the word seemingly is seemingly used on every page, if not in every paragraph; these errors become excruciating after a while. Sometimes Rain combined the errors "rows upon rows of aisles that seemed endless" and even the occasional trifecta "row after row of endless shelving that stretched as far as the eye could see" cause cringe moments that almost make you feel sorry for the author they are so embarrassing.

The thing is, these errors may be acceptable (barely) for an author to make, Rain should be attending to the plot etc.,The fact that they made it through an editing process is both astounding and unforgivable.

And then there is the simple wrongness; for instance Rain consistently refers to blood as hemoglobin, which is only a component of that vital fluid. Worst of all is when Samantha Moon refers to her "super-secret identity". What is she "Vampire Girl".

Finally, good fantasy requires the suspension of disbelief. This is a commodity and cannot be abused by the author. Rain flogs it. First there are the basic questions: why, after six years, does all of this stuff kick off. It took her husband six years to get disgusted, why do her abilities start showing up now? Why has it taken Fang six years to fall in,live with her and look her up? Why after all of this time is she just know running into Sherbert? Why has she know nothing about the supernatural community.

The problem is that the writing is so bad that it detracts from the story, and so any interest I had in it was contaminated. The reader made it worse not better, her delivery was mundane, almost deadpan.

Overall the idea is a good one, the execution is horrible.

10 people found this helpful

Meh...

Admittedly, this is my favorite statement for audiobooks that are not exactly good, yet not laugh out loud horrible either. Been there, done that kinda vampire story.

1 person found this helpful