Cast in Blood

Morgan Blackstone Vampires, Book 1

By: Michelle Rabe

Narrated by: Karen Bachman

To the outside world, Morgan Blackstone is an eccentric business woman. But, within her chest beats the undead heart of a 21st century vampire. Behind the doors of her nightclub, The Dracul, Morgan rules with an iron fist in a velvet glove.

After a long night of wrangling unruly supernatural customers, she is looking forward to some peace but unbeknownst to her, there are other vampires who are conspiring against her. Just before dawn, in the deserted parking lot, she comes face-to-face with two old adversaries, one of which she had last seen being sealed in a tomb, 400 years before.

Overpowered by her attackers, Morgan wakes inside the lab of an unscrupulous doctor. Held against her will, subjected to experiments, she soon realizes that something has begun to burn within her veins.

Something that she knows will kill her.

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©2013 Michelle Rabe (P)2019 Michelle Rabe

It was just okay

I did not like the narrator, at all. I think the storyline would have been alright if it had another narrator. I would love for the author to find a way to get her point across other than the characters‘talking to themselves’

Good story but...

The narrator did not do justice to this story. She sounded more like she was reading a news cast than telling a mysterious, thrilling story about vamps. But the story was good so I’ll probably download the ebook for the rest of the series.

Interesting

Good story, vampires with a little mystery thrown it. Narration didn’t really fit but the storyline was good

Suspenseful until the end.

It was a great story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I would recommend it.

Great vampire story but pay attention

I seemed to have trouble at times understanding what was going on or if I missed something but other than that I really enjoyed this book and am listening to book 2 already

shorter and more passion please

This one was interesting and unique as vampires go, but was a bit too long and drawn out for me. The romance between Nic and Morgan was uninspiring and lacking passion imo. A fair listen. I voluntarily listened to a free copy of this and am giving an honest review. The narrator did a good job.

After 4hrs in... just Couldn’t finish

The story seemed interesting and I might still get the ebook version to read on my own, but the narration caused me to lose interest completely.

The good:
Her voice is pleasant, while still being clear and concise. She speaks and reads very well.

The bad:
She just couldn’t get the pace of the story or the cadence down. I think it might have helped her to pre-read the story maybe? She pauses in very off places, has incorrect inflection at points in almost every paragraph. It sounded to me like she was trying to act out the parts, but without being knowledgeable of the characters. Just winging it as she read.

An OK book. Not amazing, but also not horrible.

From the beginning, you would have thought this story to go in a different direction.Does that make it bad? Nope. While it did hold my interest throughout the story, I did find myself beginning to drift a bit 3/4 of the way . It does have some loose ends. (perhaps for a series?) it is a vampire book that is without sexy times....and that did not detract from the story. If this would become a saga, I am undecided if I would continue.

Honest Review in Exchange for Promotional Copy

Sorta typical for the genre but with a mystery twist that kept things interesting. The narration was a bit stiff at times but overall a worthy supernatural listen.

contemporary vampire story

Michelle Rabe has a solid premise with Cast in Blood, but it definitely could have used an editor. There was a lot of dialogue that seemed to go nowhere nor did it further the storyline. Quite often talk between characters seemed like a stream of consciousness rather than actual conversations. I wanted to know more about what happened with Morgan after the experiments were done on her but it took forever to get there. Toward the middle of the book, I started getting more interested but then action lagged and gave way to more dialogue. That could also be me in that I love a book with a lot of action versus character interaction.
I enjoyed the terminology "blood child" "sire" "grandsire". I would have liked to learn more about nomads.

Narration:

Pros: Karen Bachman has a clear and understandable presentation. I've listened to other narrators who almost seem to rush through their reading. Bachman's voice seems more compatible with a children's or young adult book though. I don't mean this in a bad way. Her voice seems to imbue innocence.

Cons: Bachman's voice has a lot of sweetness in it that seems out of place in a vampire book. I had to listen to the book at a higher speed as the dialogue made the story lag. And Bachman's slow narration speed wasn't a good fit with a slow-moving story.