Mandi Kaye @ Never Too Fond of Books

Reviewed at http://www.mandikayereads.com/archives/3192 (7/12/13)Have you ever listened to an audiobook that you thought would never end?This was one of those.And to tell you the truth, I don't typically read publisher blurbs. I look at the covers and I do a quick skim of genre to see if it falls into what I typically read - but I like going into books blind. Publisher blurbs often unintentionally give spoilers and I hate spoilers. So I went into this book thinking it was a stand alone novel. The cover doesn't indicate it's the first book of a series. And when I purchased it from Audible, it didn't have that tale tell #1 in the title indicating that there are more to come.I kept waiting for things to begin to wrap up - but they never did. 12 hours of listening and it ends with a cliff-hanger. And I finally figure out it's a series.12 hours that should have been 8 or less. Had I actually been reading the book, I'm not sure I would have made it through. Excessive (and meaningless) inner monologues made up quite a lot of the story. And to tell you the truth - I just couldn't quite suspend my disbelief long enough to stay invested in the story. My mind kept popping out of it say Please! or Yeah right, like that would actually happen.Mila's character is just so... unrealistic. The dichotomy of her very essence just didn't work for me. Part android and part human? An android who actually believed she was human? And then who struggled to reconcile what she believed herself to be with the logic of what she was faced with? It didn't work for me. She was too human. She just happened to have machine parts. I'm pretty sure that's what the author was going for, but in the context of the story it didn't work. It felt forced and out of place.One character introduced early on - with substantial time spent developing his character and a potential relationship with Mila - was virtually non-existent in the rest of the book, except in Mila's thoughts. It wasn't until the end, when I realized he was to be used to set up the sequel that I realized what he was there for. But it was distracting. I kept asking myself what was the point of Hunter?Overall, the book was ridiculously long. It could easily have lost 150+ pages without harming the central focus of the story and that probably would have tightened up Mila's character enough that I might have identified with her a little more. As it stands, I don't know if I'll continue with the series or not. It just depends on whether or not there's something else I'd rather read that day.