Audiobook Review - The American Queen Series by Sierra Simone • Ana's Attic Book Blog

The American Queen Series (AKA the New Camelot Series) by Sierra Simone

Narrated by Stephanie Rose and Guy Locke

Erotic Political Trilogy, must be read in order. None stand alone.

I don’t usually like to commit to three books, but so many people insisted that I read the American Queen (New Camelot) Series and everyone I know loved it. I wanted to read it before Wicked Book Weekend, but just could not fit in 3 longish books. So I grabbed American Queen and American Prince on audio and listened while I put up Holiday decorations. The third book didn’t release on audio for 3 more months, and I decided to wait, checking every week.

I could have read the kindle version of American King, however, I like to stick to the same format in a series. But to be perfectly honest, in my opinion, this series needs to be read and not listened to. In fact, I am actually not going to review this with stars because I loved the story and feel this would have been a favorite, but it just didn’t translate well to audio for me. I thought maybe it was my mood, or I was distracted doing my decorations. But when I listened to the third book in March was when I had the hardest time.

There is a lot of detail and nuances that require your FULL attention. If you are a bit of a distracted audiobook listener like me, I think you miss too much of the story. But my biggest problem was having the same male narrator for both male parts. I could never keep straight who was who, especially if I had to stop in the middle of a chapter.

While that was my biggest problem, it all just felt a little slow, emotionless and stiff to me. While I can normally separate out the narration from the story, in this case I can’t, and I am not 100% sure if it was the narration of these characters or the story I didn’t fully connect with. In fact, I listened to other books narrated by Stephanie Rose and never had a problem. And though this was my first time listening to a book with Guy Locke as the narrator, I thought he had a great voice. But something just never connected for me.

It was an awesome story. Rich and detailed with so many unexpected twists and turns and very hot and dirty m-m-f light BDSM sex. I SHOULD have LOVED it. You can’t get much more unique than the first lady “serving” the President and the VP can you? I think it’s a completely memorable series and I bought them all in paperback, signed by Sierra Simone.

Likes:

Completely unique and interesting.
Deliciously dirty and taboo.
A rich, detailed story with a big back story.
Super memorable.
A little PNR light twist in the last book.

Dislikes:

These books did not translate well to audiobook for me at all.
It felt stiff and detached and somber and sad the whole time.
Too many details and twists for audio for me.
Having the same man 1st person narrate two different characters had me confused the whole way through.

The Narration:

I usually separate my thoughts about the narration here and whether it enhanced or detracted from the book. While they had good voices, these books do not work well for me in audio. Please see my “dislikes” above.

The Down & Dirty:

If you’ll notice, all of the dislikes are related to the narration. While I can usually separate the narration from the story, this time I can’t. The narration kept the series kind of sad and slow for me. I found myself not able to pay full attention and missed details. The same narrator doing both men just added to my confusion. I feel like if I had read the trilogy rather than listened, I would have loved it. But to be honest, I just don’t know how much of my detachment is from the story/characters and how much is from the narration. But if you like dirty, taboo-but-classy m-m-f with a ton of conflict, drama, adventure, angst and sexy times, I’d advise that you read this series rather than listen unless you can really pay full-full attention to the audio.

Rating:

I have decided for the first time to refrain from rating because I can’t separate the writing from the narration. But if you look at the ratings on Amazon they are SUPER high.