Blog Tour/Feature Post and Audiobook Review: Updrift by Errin Stevens

Hi, everyone!

I am very excited to share my Feature Post and Audiobook Review on the first of my three stops for The Mer Chronicles Blog Tour. Today I am featuring UPDRIFT (The Mer Chronicles Book #1) by Errin Stevens.

Below you will find a book synopsis, my audiobook review, an author interview Q&A, author and narrator info and a giveaway. This is the start of an enchanting new paranormal series. Enjoy!

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About Audiobook #1

Author: Errin Stevens

Narrator: Sean Posvistak

Length: 8 hours and 37 minutes

Publisher: Errin Stevens⎮2017

Genre: Romantic Fantasy

Series: The Mer Chronicles, Book 1

Release date: Apr. 20, 2017

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Book Synopsis:

For Kate Sweeting, love isn’t in the air. It’s in the water.

Since her father died, Kate Sweeting’s home life has been in the pits, her well-being on life support. Her future looks desolate until she and her mother, Cara, make another plan: abandon their shriveled existence for more promising prospects on the coast, where Cara can play small-town librarian-bachelorette and Kate can figure out what’s up with that secretive Blake family from the beach.

Everyone is eerily captivated with Kate and her mother, and Cara is the first to figure out why when the man of her dreams arrives all dripping and devoted and closed-mouthed about what he intends. Kate is willing to go along with their subterfuge for a while, but eventually makes a charge for the water to learn what her mother is hiding. Gabe Blake is there waiting for her…and so is someone considerably less friendly. By the time Kate navigates her way home, everything will have changed for her—what she feels, what she wants, and what she’ll risk to be with the man she loves.

Buy Links for Audiobook #1Buy on Amazon⎮Audible

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My Book Review:

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

UPDRIFT (The Mer Chronicles Book #1) by Errin Stevens is the first book in a new enchanting paranormal romance series featuring Sirens. Ms. Stevens’ worldbuilding introduces us to Sirens that interact and live along-side humans, but only a very few know of their existence.

The beginning of this story introduces Cara and Kate Sweeting. Cara lost her husband in an accident while Kate was still very young. She decides to accept a job as the town librarian and moves them to a small community on the North Carolina coast to start over.

While on a boat tour while only five years old, Kate sees a young boy her age swimming in the sea who calls out for her to join him. She goes over the side of the boat. While she swims with her new friend, Gabe all the adults are frantically searching for her. They find Kate and Gabe on the beach with Gabe’s family safe and sound. This begins a life-long interaction and attraction between the two.

The second part of the story has Kate and Gabe coming together as young adults and all of Kate’s questions about Gabe and his family’s differences are answered. Kate and Gabe are planning to be together forever and just as it seems all is right in their world, another Siren wants Kate for himself. Will Gabe be able to find and rescue Kate before she is lost to him?

This is my first audiobook review and this story was very well suited to this media. It is a story that has a lot of worldbuilding to bring the Sirens and their world to life, while entwining it around the human characters and Kate and Gabe’s life stories. Then it seamlessly flows into a paranormal romance plot that had me just as engrossed. All the characters were fully fleshed out and believable to the fantasy.

Ms. Stevens’ story pulled me effortlessly into her Mer Chronicles world and I am looking forward to listening to Book #2. I also enjoyed Mr. Posvistak’s narration.

I recommend this new paranormal world!

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Author Interview Q&A:

1.Tell us about the process of turning your book into an audiobook.

Well, I went to the ACX web site and did a LOT of internet research while I considered how to best approach my projects. I decided I don’t much like how often we all get asked to create on the if-come, so even though it was expensive for me, I carved out a section of Updrift for use as a script and put the project up as a paid gig through the ACX production system. I got such wonderful responses from some truly talented narrators and was so agitated about choosing the right one. I co-opted the opinion of a longtime friend and actress to listen with me to help me figure it out! She told me to go with the one that pulled the “right” emotional response as I felt it… and since she and I both thought Sean’s read was the most compelling, I made him an offer. Thankfully, he accepted.

Sean was an amazing professional to work with. He made every edit I requested, did everything smoothly and beautifully, and the second I could amass my next pile of cash to produce the sequel, I contacted him to see if he’d be interested, and he jumped all over it. Same with my third. I’m really grateful for the care Sean took with my stories and can’t recommend him highly enough.

2. Do you believe certain types of writing translate better into audiobook format?

My short answer to this is ‘yes,’ although with the caveat that I still prefer reading on paper because that process blurs a certain divide between my conscious and unconscious and results in the experience I’m seeking when I read. But. I’ve listened to a few audiobooks – it saved my sanity on two cross-country drives! – and I think the experience was similar enough to “reading” that I’d do it again. I think any nonfiction would play well (I adored “In a Sunburned Country” by Bill Bryson); and I think a good narrator will know how to bring a story across as the writer intended.

3. Was a possible audiobook recording something you were conscious of while writing?

No, but I found when I listened to auditions I did in fact have beliefs about how my characters should sound. As I write my fourth – and having produced three audiobooks at this point – I can say I do think of it, now. And it’s a helpful perspective to have, has helped me refine my own narrative voice on the page, I think.

4. How did you select your narrator?

Sean was one of several people who auditioned for Updrift on the ACX platform. His audition really stood out to me and my actress friend.

5. How closely did you work with your narrator before and during the recording process?

Very closely, and Sean was the consummate professional throughout. He may remember the process differently, but just as proofing a written manuscript results in copy edits, the same little things come up in voice narration. I think there have been only two sentences in the whole of all three works where I asked Sean to re-read with a different tone. The rest was small stuff.

6. Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing?

Although my stories are not at all retellings, the inspiration for Updrift was The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. The little reflection of it I hope people see/enjoy is in the form of a character twist, since I modeled my bad guy after the original heroine. I.e., he was the one who risked everything and suffered the most for what he wanted.

7. Are you an audiobook listener? What about the audiobook format appeals to you?

Audiobooks are a secondary go-to for me but I have very much enjoyed the ones I’ve listened to. They’ve been invaluable during long trips in the car, and they likely appeal to me because listening feels a bit like when my parents used to read to me when I was little.

8. Is there a particular part of this story that you feel is more resonating in the audiobook performance than in the book format?

Oh my goodness, yes. Sean’s voice is just this terrific blend of compelling goodies, prompts for the listener to envision the story as well as hear it, and to feel more viscerally the tension the characters feel. And then I think his rich, resonant delivery does a much better job bringing both my hero and my antagonist to life.

9. In your opinion, what are the pros and cons of writing a stand-alone novel vs. writing a series?

A standalone is just that: a completely contained story with all major loose ends tied up. A series lets you explore the lives of peripheral characters or corollary issues the original story did not address, and when done right I think results in a deeper relationship with the narrative.What’s your favorite:

10. What’s next for you?

I’m going to finish a fourth for this series, Crosstide, if it kills me. And it might. Seriously, I think my brain got broke last year… 😉

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About the Author: Errin Stevens

Errin Stevens writes paranormal romantic suspense stories from her home in Minnesota. When not wrestling with unruly narrative – or reading literary and commercial fiction like a fiend – you’ll find her poring over seed catalogues (winter) or gardening (the other three days of the year).