Dark Witch by Nora Roberts – Halloween Week Special!

Narrated by Katherine Kellgren

Originally reviewed by Kaetrin November 27, 2013 – re-posted for Halloween Week 2015!

Dark Witch is the first in The Cousins O’Dwyer trilogy. That clued me in straight away that there would be three romantic pairings but one over-arching storyline. It’s a good vs. evil story, with the power of the first Dark Witch, Sorcha, handed down over hundreds of years to three relations – Iona (who is the main character of this story), Branna, and her brother Connor. Each of the three has an animal guide/talisman – Iona has the horse, Connor the hawk, and Branna the hound. Their task is to defeat the evil Cabhan, a task Sorcha was unable to do completely.

Iona has sold up all her belongings and burned all her bridges, to go and live and work in Ireland. Her plan is to connect with Branna and Connor and understand more about her heritage. Her grandmother has told her the stories of the first Dark Witch, but more than that, she’s searching for a place to call home, to belong, for family. Apart from her grandmother, Iona is not close to her US family and has felt basically unloved her whole life.

Branna hooks Iona up for a job at the local stables, run by Boyle McGrath and Finbar Burke. Branna’s good friend, Meara, works there as well. Savvy romance readers know that this equals three men and three women and three romances over three books. You do the math. I admit a prejudice in this area. There is something in me, which dislikes this kind of setup. It seems to diminish the later books somehow because there is no sense of discovery for me. Or something.

Anyway, Iona pretty much falls for Boyle straight away and there’s history between Branna and Fin. Unfortunately, Fin is a descendant of Cabhan (even though Fin is a good guy) and this is the big block for them. All six work together to try and defeat Cabhan once and for all.

There is a lot of setup and much time is spent on the mythology and world building of the paranormal aspects leaving the romance a bit short changed. Boyle and Iona quickly fall into a relationship but it is that very speed which threatens it later on. Boyle (who reminded me a little of an Irish Simon from The Search) is a man who comes to decisions slowly and is not at all impetuous. I actually liked that conflict here because I thought it was all a bit fast myself and it did give an opportunity for some relational focus, which I was hungering for.

Iona seemed very young to me and I found it difficult to warm to her (she sounded about 21 whereas Branna sounded more like 40 – I don’t think either of those numbers are correct). She spends much of the earlier scenes babbling and apologising for babbling and it wore on me a little. I would have liked more about Boyle – even though there was some romance focus in the latter half of the book, it wasn’t quite enough for me.

I first heard Katherine Kellgren’s narration when I listened to Susanna Kearsley’s The Firebird. I very much enjoyed her narration there and it was a definite pull for me to review this book. I still cannot determine if Ms. Kellgren is American or British as her accents are so well done. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy her narration here quite as much. It was still very good – above average, but it wasn’t as superbly crafted as her performance in The Firebird.

There are some audio listeners who prefer a straight “reading” of the text without characterisation while others love a narrative performance that differentiates the various characters and gives life and mood and emotion to the text (that would be me). I had two problems with the narration here. The first was in the vocal differentiation. I always knew Iona’s voice because she spoke with an American accent and it sounded lighter and more girlish (most of the time). But at times, it was very difficult to distinguish between Branna, Meara, Connor, Fin, and Boyle. Where there weren’t dialogue tags (and this happened regularly), I had to put it together from context.

The other issue is that I thought the dramatics were overdone. There’s no doubt that listeners will disagree on this – what is “overdone” to me may well be “just right” to another listener. I felt the text was sufficiently dramatic and unreal (as in supernatural) so a toned down reading would have suited me better. I did pick up a little of this in The Firebird but there was vastly more opportunity for it in Dark Witch and was therefore more obvious to me.

I think it is easier to pick faults in the narration when the text isn’t engaging the listener as much as one wishes and no doubt that’s the case here too. It may be that I am merely suffering a little from “audiobook hangover” because my last listen was stellar.

I’ve given the narration a B because it wasn’t by any means bad. It just wasn’t entirely what I’d hoped for and I really would have preferred to hear the characters better distinguished vocally. That said, I’d definitely listen to a Kellgren narration again.

I’d recommend this one for fans of Nora Robert’s trilogies who don’t mind the romance being only one thread in a busy story.

Kaetrin

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Narration:  B

Book Content:  B-

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in (but fairly tame for all that)

Violence:  Fighting

Genre:  Paranormal Romance

Publisher:  Brilliance Audio

Dark Witch was provided to AudioGals for review by Brilliance Audio.

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