Vampires Win

Going in I wasn't sure of this listen since vampires aren't my usual favorite. However given a chance I figured it was worth a listen. I was immediately drawn into a world where one main character, Ethan had his whole family slaughtered by vampires when he was a kid. He gets a job working for a vampire to help an overly zealous anti vampire group kill vampires for revenge. Marcus is a vampire who opted to be turned over with his brother to take care of his mother who was a mentally ill vampire. This story follows Ethan who falls for Marcus and realizes not all vampires are evil and there are redeeming qualities. He seeks to escape the league, and Marcus who falls for Ethan not knowing his history. There story is a wild story that was masterfully told. It left me no longer a sceptic and needing to hear the brothers stories and find out the rest of this family's journey. I can't wait to listen to the next installment.

5 people found this helpful

The only word that comes to mind is: perfect!

I love vampire stories, and this book is the perfect start to a family saga that promises to be just amazing! Marcus is the oldest of the four Varik brothers, turned into vampires almost 200 years ago. Just as he and his human assistant start to fall in love, secrets start to unravel and dangers come at his family from many sides. I loved the bond between the brothers, and I especially loved the deep bond between Marcus and Ethan. Kenneth Obi's narration is just perfect, his voice for Marcus is exactly what I envisioned for the strong, brooding elder Varik. Can't wait for book 2!

2 people found this helpful

Its about time for a good Vampire story!

If you’ve been looking for a good MM Vampire story, look no more. This is a book one in a series and does have quite a bit of backstory especially at the beginning, plus build-up for the series but it is very well done and keeps you pulled into the story. I adored Marcus and Ethan. Ethan is a human with spunk and in the beginning, is going for what he thinks is revenge until he meets Marcus and his brothers and realizes they are not the vampires he is looking for but now its too late and he has brought danger to Marcus’ doorstep but can he save him? I loved this story and it kept me turning the page (well in my case listening. I did it all in one afternoon.) There is lots of action and the romance is a slow burn but so good. Kenneth Obi gives each character distinguishable voices and each voice tells you of the character's personality. You can hear the soft but determination in Ethan. The strength and protectiveness in Marcus and the cackle in the evil vampire lady is amazing. His narration keeps you absorbed in the story and you forget all about the boring tasks you are doing.

1 person found this helpful

New and Fascinating Legends for the Vampire Folklore

In Claiming Marcus , Jocelynn Drake is expanding in the known Vampire Folklore by creating her own MM, brand of lore and vampires. I loved the world building , the fresh and intriguing plot , the heroes , the hot AF sexy times, low angst and the exciting action adventure aspects of the story. Claiming Marcus is an entertaining and awesome read . It kept me engaged and invested in it's outcome from the first page to the last. Highly recommended to anyone looking for a fresh and fun take into the world of vampires. I enjoyed Kenneth Obi narration. He did a great job . #Audible #ListenedOn2020 #ReadOn2019 #KU #BooksILike #ClaimmingMarcus #KennethObi #JocelynnDrake

1 person found this helpful

low angst, great read, perfectly narrated

loved this story of a vampire finding his forever love. the story was written well and the narration was great! the voices really gave the book something extra and much better than what I could have produced in my own head.

1 person found this helpful

Amazing

Marcus and Ethan are wonderful in print, but to have them brought to life was beyond great! Kenneth does such an amazing job with bringing our favorite characters to life, I cant wait for book 2

1 person found this helpful

Awesome

AMAZING!!!!!! Marcus and Ethan are my new favorite couple! I loved this unique world built here and only want to know more and more. Kenneth Obi does a fantastic job bringing all these different personalities to life. These two together are HOT! Intense chemistry mixed with sweetness that had me smiling he whole time. Hilarious moments, action and has you guessing what could happen next. Great side characters like the bothers, Aiden, Julianna, Carl, Cain, Meryl, and Minerva too. Can't wait for the next.

1 person found this helpful

Obi does a terrible narration. Slow book.

I love the narrator usually. For some reason though, I just could not get into his voice work for this book. It doesn't feel like his best work and not a good a match for a vampire series. I Dunno maybe in my head I picture someone who can pull off a more masculine, deeper or raspy voices which Obi can not. The voice desxriptions just do not match anything the narrator could pull off, he sounds too perky and quirky too often. The book itself. Also, just, awful. And I feel terrible saying it. I tried and tried to get into it but I just hated the characters, the plot, the world building was awful, and everything was just so slow. I can do slow burn but this book was like simmering on the lowest setting for hours. It was unbearable waiting for something interesting to happen. Way too much internal monologing too, i was getting frustrated. Overall I just didnt like anything about this book. I don't understand the positive reviews with something so bland and uninspiring. Nothing I guess was wrong with the sentence structures and it wasn't so unbearable that I was disgusted, but it was just bad to me.

everything you want and more

This book has everything: humor, action, suspense , and sexiness (so hot). Marcus and Ethan are great together. Ethan might have started as hating vampires and wanting to kill them but Marcus dug himself into Ethan's heart. Kenneth Obi does an awesome job of bringing all these emotions alive. I loved the audiobook as much as the book which I didn't think it was possible.

Claiming Mediocrity

With regard to the narration, I have listened to one other book by Kenneth Obi and I will back my initial take on him being a passable narrator. The two books I listened to him were released some 2 years apart and I don't think he has done anything to improve his narrating capabilities. He clearly gets enough work, but I have to assume he's a much cheaper options for narration because he is simply not good. And this becomes more and more evident the more characters that are present. If you often have issues with narrators differentiating characters, or listen to the sample and don't jive with the narration, I would recommend giving it a pass. As for the context of the book at large, it's incredibly surface level, in a way that it doesn't even feel like the author had the depth in her mind and just failed to convey it to the audience. It's just not there. Jocelynn clearly likes the idea of having these big, relevant pasts for her characters, especially Marcus and Ethan, but really does nothing to address them or use them at all. They are so flippantly mentioned and disregarded that I cannot comprehend how they made it into the final product. One would either want to tone down the backgrounds if you were not going to use them at all, or you might actually want to write a character that would act in a way that their background would have shaped them. Having backgrounds that would, by all means, heavily influence the characters, and then have them completely disregard said backgrounds, or mentioned them so flippantly as to make the worthless just results in the writing coming across as poorly conceived, or lacking editing and revision. For me, it also fails because of the overwhelming insta-love. I know I lean more towards slow burn than insta-love, but have most definitely enjoyed insta-love stories as well. However, when it comes to shifter and vampire literature I do find the insta-love to often be ridiculously over the top and the possessiveness to be beyond red-flag levels. If you share that opinion then be warned, or be prepared. If that is your cup of tea, you will not be displeased. With everything being so surface level I found it impossible to actually believe or empathize with the characters in this book. I often just found myself rolling my eyes, hanging my head, or just laughing out loud in dismayed shock. And, as an aside... I don't know what possessed the choice, but I would not recommend claiming that blood in a bag or a glass looks anything like tomato juice. And one can simply not get the fine, pulpy texture out of one's mind, and pulpy blood sounds horrendous.