Hound's Bite: Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective, Volume 5 (Unabridged‪)‬

Fast paced and entertaining story with likable characters. The Wild Hunt is on the loose and it’s Ivy’s responsibility to resolve it. The story picked up from where book 4 left off. Readers/listeners should read the stories in order. The narrator did a good job! I received a free copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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

Ivy, Ceff, and Torn have returned from Faerie, with the Wild Hunt on their heels. Opening the door and going to Faerie has it's consequences, and the Wild Hunt is one for Ivy.

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.

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.

AudioBook Review
Stars: Overall 5 Narration 5 Story 5

From the first, I’ve been in Ivy’s corner as one weird and otherworldly element has appeared in her world, and she’s adjusted. It’s not enough that around every corner there is something new for her to encounter, adjust to or overcome, but her own personal growth has brought her own history, affected her friends, and brought endless challenges into her life. Stevens has brought fey, witches, fairies, vampires, ghouls and more into this little town of Harborsmouth, and Ivy has always managed to find some sort of solution or accommodation to keep the town safe. But now, a hoarde of unseelie beasts are threatening the city and Ivy must find a way to remove the threat while keeping the Lord of the Hunt and his hounds at bay.

Ivy has SO much to deal with: her father is Will o’ the Wisp, her mother is Mab, the child she adopted is a demon and her significant other is the King of the Kelpies. If that wasn’t enough, one of her friends has been bitten by one of the hounds from the hunt, and is now gone rogue, in all the worst ways. While each book has me empathizing with Ivy, and hoping she’ll pull something out from her sleeve that settles a problem, this book had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. Much of Ivy’s path has been an ‘oops’ moment, where one of her actions unleashes something horrible, and then she scrambles to get back in control – this is nothing different, but you have to admire her determination and lateral thinking when she is trying out solutions. Her growth through this series has been exponential, and through it all – good and bad, she manages to hold onto a sense of humor and a belief that things will work out because the good should prevail.

Narration in this story is provided by Melanie Mason and Anthony Bowling and their dual narration brings the characters to light, adding appropriate emotion, tension and weight to the moments as they appear. Clear enunciation, pauses where required, never overstepping on each other’s performance and allowing the words and action to stand forward, even as music was added to bring an atmospheric influence. I’m not against music in stories, and there were some clever compositional choices that did add auditory interest. I love this combination of story and narration, and the series is a unique and interconnected series of events in one small town – a favorite of mine and a great treat for those looking for something different this Halloween season.

I received an audiobook copy of the title via AudioBook Jukebox for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.