Hound's Bite

Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective, Volume 5

By: E.J. Stevens

Narrated by: Melanie A. Mason, Anthony A. Bowlin

PRG Reviewer's Choice Award finalist for Best Urban Fantasy series.

Ivy Granger thought she left the worst of Mab's creations behind when she escaped Faerie. She thought wrong.

In a cruel twist of fate, Ivy has unleashed a powerful horde of Unseelie beasts upon her city, turning her homecoming into a potential slaughter of innocents. Now Ivy must gather her allies to fight a reputedly unstoppable force - The Wild Hunt.

Will the training Ivy received in her father's court be enough to save her city, or will Harborsmouth be forced to kneel before the Lord of the Hunt? She is willing to risk her own life, but some sacrifices come at a cost worse than death. When an ally is bitten by one of The Wild Hunt's hounds, Ivy must face the possibility that winning this battle may mean killing the one person she has come to love most.

Hound's Bite is the fifth full-length novel in the award-winning, best-selling Ivy Granger urban fantasy series by E.J. Stevens. The world of Ivy Granger, including the Ivy Granger Psychic Detective series and Hunters' Guild series, is filled with action, mystery, magic, dark humor, quirky characters, bloodsucking vampires, flirtatious demons, sarcastic gargoyles, sexy shifters, temperamental witches, psychotic faeries, and snarky, kick-butt heroines.

The Ivy Granger series has won numerous awards, including the BTS Red Carpet Award for Best Novel, the PRG Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Paranormal Fantasy Novel, Best Urban Fantasy Novel, and finalist for Best Urban Fantasy Series.

©2016 E.J. Stevens (P)2017 E.J. Stevens

Ivy returns home with hounds on her heels.

Have you listened to any of Melanie A. Mason and Anthony A. Bowlin ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

By now you know I'm a sucker for the extras in audio. The first thing we hear are the howls that Ivy hears as she speaks, questioning what the howls are. This has me liking the audio from the first moment. We get a female and male voice team for this book. All feminine voices are performed by Melanie and all male by Anthony. It adds a nice flavor and contrast to the characters as we listen. I like the sound that they give to Herne's voice.

Any additional comments?

*I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

The refresher was shorter in this book, thankfully. Though when we meet someone we get their back story as of now. I'm one for working this into the story not just giving it to me at seeing the person in the beginning of the book. But that's my preference, not everyone's.

At times I found sentences that were more poetic than others. There are also sentences that made the story feel as though it was for a young adult crowd (which it's really not) because it told what was implied the sentence before, instead of letting the impression for the reader be all that was needed. I like how the writing has improved as well. Ivy doesn't just point something out about herself, the events and others guide to that moment of a bigger feeling.

Ivy has grown into a strong woman. She has to do the things that are hard, and stop someone that's dangerous. She's written more in what she's doing than just telling us how she is. Ivy also has to face consequences of what's been done in the past.

This book feels to be deeper in the plot. There is more reason to the Wild Hunt being here than originally thought. And I like the connections to the reasons. They feel on the larger scale than the previous books. There is more to come and more going on outside of Ivy's little world than we knew.

Jinx has her own drive in this book. She's working to free the streets of the dangerous drug Ice. It was something that was used on her and killed another, but that story can be found in Club Nexus. This is a wonderful tie in and building of the character that we've seen through the stories.

I very much enjoyed this story. It felt to tie a bunch of strings from the previous books together here. Everything leads up to something. What the characters have lived through and why the events have happened. I like this connection as the story feels to have a great depth to it.

Powers Abound..

Any additional comments?

This book centers around the female lead, Ivy, and her quest to "Right" a "Wrong".

The story line was action packed and heart pounding.

Overall, an adventurous read.

Melanie A. Mason and Anthony A. Bowlin did well with the narration.

Note:
"This audio book was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review."

An exciting supernatural adventure

Hound’s Bite is an exciting supernatural adventure with cool characters, lots of action, and a bit of romance. This is part of a series, but works just fine as a standalone. If you are looking for a detective novel though, this particular book probably isn’t what you’re after.

Suitable for teens and adults. May be too violent or scary for younger readers.

The narrators have a fun time with the book and include sound effects in with the narration to make things a bit more exciting.

I received this audiobook at no-cost from Audiobookworm Promotions. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Interesting Fae adventure!

Fun narration! There’s sound effects and voice modulation going on. The female narrator did a good job too. There’s also some male narration; a little stiff at times, but still good.

Entertaining magical adventure for Ivy and all her friends! For the best reading experience, I recommend reading the previous books, but this book does have its own complete adventure. In this one, the Wild Hunt is after Ivy, and someone has kidnapped someone Ivy considers family. Lots of danger going on! The story does move a bit slow at times; lots of planning and lots of characters to deal with, but I still enjoy the read. Love all the Fae aspects, and I enjoy the light, fun vibe to the story. I’d like a bit more depth of emotion, more romance; what is there is really sweet though, and some more action, but overall, this series has been great!

Ivy 5

This is a great series.I enjoy all the books so far.Ivy,psychic detective has so many things going on in this one that she loses sight of those closest to her.Can she trust her friends or her enemies?Melanie A. Mason , Anthony A. Bowlin are terrific narrators.“I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”

brilliant💛

This book brought together the previous stories and characters in one exciting conclusion. Once again E.J.Stevens had penned a brilliant tale with spot on narration.

Exciting, fast-paced urban fantasy is a fun listen

This is the fifth full-length novel in the Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective series by E.J. Stevens. This story is a continuation of past entries in the series and would therefore be best read in order, although it is written so that it could be enjoyed on its own.

This was an exciting, fast-paced book with lots of action. I really enjoy the character interactions and humorous dialog in this series, and this particular book was interesting because it brings together so many of Ivy’s allies. It is, however, more about combat than conversation and seemed a bit chaotic at times because there is so much to keep track of. For a psychic detective, Ivy was sometimes a bit slow to put together clues, but she also had her clever moments.

The author does a nice job breaking the tension with moments of levity. As an example, I was amused when Ivy’s friends teased her about her housekeeping, and Torn’s flirting is always fun.

I really appreciated the narration by Melanie A. Mason and Anthony Bowling. Their performances were well paced and easy to understand, and I enjoyed the character voices. It was especially fun to hear the howls from the Wild Hunt and Herne’s creepy laughter, or the voice of the witch Kaye when she was juiced up on power.

If you enjoy snarky urban fantasy, I recommend this book and the entire series, and I think it’s a great choice for listening. There is some sexual suggestiveness and some swearing, but it’s generally terms like “Mab’s bones” or “Oberon’s eyes,” which I found amusing.

I was given a free copy of this audiobook by the author and volunteered to provide an honest review.

Ivy is taking charge!

Ivy Granger has returned from the journey of a lifetime only to be faced with a battle that will test her skills and her new found magical abilities. With her boyfriend Kef and best friend Jinx by her side, will Ivy win the fight over evil or will evil take its toll?

Ivy and the gang have come full circle now with fighting battles, winning in love, friendship and respect but they have also gained more to lose. When Ivy returns after discovering who she really is, she now faces the challenge of controlling that power yet still keeping her loved ones safe. When the hounds come howling, Ivy gathers the troops and prepares for an epic battle, and in the process everything goes wrong, very wrong. Ivy is a born leader, she knows just how to call the shots when the chips are down like a true leader. The story, the battle only strengthens the bonds and seals an emotional attachment for the reader. How could you not love Sparky, the demon she has adopted, or Kef, the Kelpie King boyfriend who never judges her but just loves her and Sparky. It has been my pure pleasure to read as Ivy comes into a wonderful and powerful leader as well as a strong, brave woman. The ending left me with questions, but ones that show how fascinated I am with Ivy’s life and where it will go from here.

Narrators Review

Narrated by Melanie A. Mason and Anthony A. Bowlin. Both Mason and Bowlin have done a wonderful job with their narration. The sound quality was excellent, the tone was pleasant to my ears, and the emotion/acting was most entertaining! I can honestly say that listening to this duo was a treat, and made the story come alive. Thank you for a job well done.
**Audiobook provided by the author for an honest review**

An amazing series!

I love this series more with every book; the world that E.J. Stevens has created is amazing, detailed and so vividly conveyed. I don’t want to give away what happens; there will be no spoilers here. But I’m continually amazed by the situations that Ivy Granger is put through and the emotional response it creates in me as I listen to the story unfold. Stevens is incredibly creative and there is never a dull moment.

The narration was good but I don’t like the background sounds that are added at times especially when they don’t totally match what’s happening. At one point the book says, the horn sounds three times and we hear a horn but only twice, if you’re going to add sounds, at least get it right. There are also strange sound shifts used to show things that are remembered and I really didn’t like this, I found it jarring. At times the dual narration is jarring as well and while Melanie and Anthony do a decent job, I want Traci Odom back!

This book was supplied free by the author/narrator/publisher and I voluntarily wrote this honest review.

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A fun urban fantasy/story with odd sound effects

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was my first introduction to the Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective series. I had a bit of a hard time getting into the story completely because I didn't know the background from the first four novels. As this was a free, review copy for me, I expected as much so took this into consideration.

The narrators did a good job on the voices and I felt they gave the characters "life" by being unique for each. My one, and for me, big detraction was the sound effects. I've found that I really don't care for it when the production companies do this for audio books. Perhaps its because I haven't found one where the execution was right, or perhaps I just don't like it... either way, it was highly distracting from the experience.

I was interested enough in the story that I'm tempted to go back and listen to the first 4 books in the series, but will read the reviews first to see if the sound effects thing is unique to this book or not.