Eline || Lovely Audiobooks's Reviews > Hunting in Bruges

I posted this review on my audiobook blog Lovely Audiobooks.
I received this audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review.

This audiobook production was really outstanding! But sadly, the story disappointed me a bit.

This book is an award-finalist, so obviously I don’t really know what’s good. But let me list the problems I had with the story:

#1 The secret of the protagonist’s new companion, the “mysterious stranger”, is apparent pretty early on. Yet Jenna herself only figures it out in the second half of the book. The reason for that felt very weak to me. I know this is a tool that some people love (knowing something that the protagonist doesn’t), but for me, it just doesn’t work. It made me think she’s a bit daft 🙁

#2 The story didn’t have a very good flow. The pacing was off for me and I found it difficult to figure out where we were going and what the point of everything was.

#3 Jenna is a very serious young lady. Her companions try to banter and flirt but she only gets super annoyed and would seriously prefer to be ambushed. This bothered me because it just made her not very likeable. Of course not every protagonist has to crank out the jokes. But her reaction to her friends flirting and joking felt way too harsh.

On to some positive aspects. A female protagonist, and one male, one female sidekick? That was already awesome in Buffy and it makes for a great slayer.. uhh.. Hunter team! The paranormal concept of vampires using a glamour to appear attractive was creative. Damn bloodsuckers don’t always have to be perfect!

Now that I’m done, I can say that the storyline overall has some good substance. But it took me a long time to finish this and I interrupted it for two other audiobooks because I was bored. “Hunting in Bruges” just didn’t grab me. The pace picked up a bit in the second half though.

As I said initially, the audio production was fantastic. It was a new to me concept and I truly wish everyone would do it like this! Melanie A. Mason is the main narrator. The story is told entirely from Jenna’s point of view so that makes sense. But the bonus is, that Anthony Bowling is narrating all male characters’ lines. Not only are both narrators really great, with very distinct voices, but the editing is done very well, so the men’s lines fit in seamlessly. The narration itself was very captivating.

I so wanted to love this audiobook. Because it’s a great Urban Fantasy concept and the production is so amazing. But I just can’t.