Dangerous Designs by Dale Mayer (Audiobook Review)
A unique YA Parallel Worlds SciFi tale with a Fantasy feel
Drawing is her world...but when she's banished to a deadly new world and needs help, it's his world too. Her... Storey Dalton wants to go home - but something goes terrifyingly wrong and she ends up in her worst nightmare. There's no escape...not without Eric or her stylus. Then she finds someone who needs rescuing even more than she does... Him... Eric Jordan races to save Storey, only to realize a close family member has betrayed them both. Now the enemy is closing in on him.
Drawing is her world...but when she's banished to a deadly new world and needs help, it's his world too. Her... Storey Dalton wants to go home - but something goes terrifyingly wrong and she ends up in her worst nightmare. There's no escape...not without Eric or her stylus. Then she finds someone who needs rescuing even more than she does... Him... Eric Jordan races to save Storey, only to realize a close family member has betrayed them both. Now the enemy is closing in on him.
Disclosure: Hovering over the cover and purchasing may give me a small commission (yippee, book $).
The eBook is currently free on Amazon. [affiliate link]
SERIES INFO: This is Book #1 of 3 in the “Design Trilogy.” All 3 books are available on audio.
A prickly young artist is plucked out of her dead end life in a dead end town and thrust into a dimension hopping adventure (with a chance for a bit of romance). And it’s up to her to save everyone. Don’t worry, she’s up to task. Just don’t try to keep stuffing her back in “the box,” because she’s a brainstorming kind of girl, and not afraid to leap before she looks.
Storey - A very practical & levelheaded young woman, with a bit of slacker problem (possibly caused by a learning/behavioral disability). Despite the fact that she comes up with most of the ideas and solutions, it didn’t come off as “Mary Sue” to me. It really does seem to be a natural consequence of her coming at it as a complete stranger and newbie with no preconceived notions.
Eric - Apparently didn’t have much of a life before he met Storey. Possessed of a firm sense of justice and right. Once he stops fighting it, he makes a good partner.
No InstaLove or Love Triangle - he finds her frustrating; her first response to his (too typical in fiction) good looks is simply a desire to sketch him. She’s as practical about her love life as everything else.
The science of Eric’s world is never fully explained, but appears to be internally consistent.
The ending resolves the main plot, but ends with a cliffhanging set up for the next book.
NARRATION: I didn’t like her voice at first, but was able to overcome that. I do feel like it fits Storey well / An oddity is that she actually read the full front matter (including the isbn numbers) / Some of her pronunciations were strange also, and I kept getting pulled out of the story by the way she sometimes pronounced stylus (a major word in the series) as “stylist” / Listened on 1.25 speed (my usual)
FAVORITE PART(S): Transdimensional shipping = Want to get rid of something? Slap a label on it.
I COULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT: frequent swearing (including some uses of the Lord’s name)
OTHER WARNINGS: Her mother is a practicing Wiccan (the religion, rather than a type of fantasy “magic.”) / It is mentioned that she “experimented” a bit with her previous boyfriend.
MY RATINGS:
--Narration: LOW
--Enjoyment: HIGH
--Re-readability: AVERAGE - it gets demoted due to the swearing, I have to be in the right frame of mind to put up with that.
I purchased this book myself.
Dangerous Designs by Dale Mayer; read by JR Lowe; produced independently in 2014 / Length: 6 hrs 21 min (Unabr) / Available through Audible & Amazon plus iTunes
SERIES INFO: This is Book #1 of 3 in the “Design Trilogy.” All 3 books are available on audio.
A prickly young artist is plucked out of her dead end life in a dead end town and thrust into a dimension hopping adventure (with a chance for a bit of romance). And it’s up to her to save everyone. Don’t worry, she’s up to task. Just don’t try to keep stuffing her back in “the box,” because she’s a brainstorming kind of girl, and not afraid to leap before she looks.
Storey - A very practical & levelheaded young woman, with a bit of slacker problem (possibly caused by a learning/behavioral disability). Despite the fact that she comes up with most of the ideas and solutions, it didn’t come off as “Mary Sue” to me. It really does seem to be a natural consequence of her coming at it as a complete stranger and newbie with no preconceived notions.
Eric - Apparently didn’t have much of a life before he met Storey. Possessed of a firm sense of justice and right. Once he stops fighting it, he makes a good partner.
No InstaLove or Love Triangle - he finds her frustrating; her first response to his (too typical in fiction) good looks is simply a desire to sketch him. She’s as practical about her love life as everything else.
“Sex appeal was great, but could she count on Eric when things went wrong? She didn't know. She could only hope so. Someone needed to watch her back.”The “Can I please slap him (repeatedly)?” award goes to Eric’s father.
The science of Eric’s world is never fully explained, but appears to be internally consistent.
The ending resolves the main plot, but ends with a cliffhanging set up for the next book.
NARRATION: I didn’t like her voice at first, but was able to overcome that. I do feel like it fits Storey well / An oddity is that she actually read the full front matter (including the isbn numbers) / Some of her pronunciations were strange also, and I kept getting pulled out of the story by the way she sometimes pronounced stylus (a major word in the series) as “stylist” / Listened on 1.25 speed (my usual)
FAVORITE PART(S): Transdimensional shipping = Want to get rid of something? Slap a label on it.
I COULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT: frequent swearing (including some uses of the Lord’s name)
OTHER WARNINGS: Her mother is a practicing Wiccan (the religion, rather than a type of fantasy “magic.”) / It is mentioned that she “experimented” a bit with her previous boyfriend.
MY RATINGS:
--Narration: LOW
--Enjoyment: HIGH
--Re-readability: AVERAGE - it gets demoted due to the swearing, I have to be in the right frame of mind to put up with that.
I purchased this book myself.
Dangerous Designs by Dale Mayer; read by JR Lowe; produced independently in 2014 / Length: 6 hrs 21 min (Unabr) / Available through Audible & Amazon plus iTunes
4
