The Song of the Lioness audiobook series by Tamora Pierce

After years of prodding from my best friend and a long time of seeing bloggers (ahem, Gillian) squeal about Tamora Pierce, I decided to give the author and her series a try. Since I'm now allowed to listen to audiobooks at work, because all the other ladies get to listen to their old lady radio and I don't even answer phones, I'm just sitting in a corner scanning papers ALL day. Not that I dislike my job or anything. I took the risk of listening to something I hadn't read before. The result?

Why, oh why, did I not read listen to this series sooner? I will not even claim that this will be a review. It is more like me trying to convey my emotions in certain parts. GIFs will probably be the best route so be prepared for an overload of them. 

There MAY be spoilers ahead. Proceed with caution. Please do not get mad at me.

Alanna of Trebond switches places with her twin brother Thom so that she can go be a knight and he can be a sorcerer. If you want to know more about that plot, go to Goodreads because I don't want to waste time recapping the whole series. So let's just say right now that she was awesome and I was surprised all over again when I was reminded on how young she was. She kicked butt, ya'll. When she had a run in with a bully, she worked even harder. Actually, she did that in every book with every challenge or challenger she faced. 

The secondary characters were amazing. All the boys she became friends with, including the lovable Gary, made me want to join their bromance instantly. The unrealistic side to this is that she was accepted a bit too readily since she was younger than they were. The disappointing side was that we didn't see much of them in the later books. However, we did get to see quite a bit of Miles, who was absolutely huggable. One of my favorite quotes, because it's so wise and what I always think when I have to make a decision to something, was provided by him.

"No can always be changed to yes, but it's very hard to change yes to no."

However, there was some romance to keep me happy. In the span of four books, she falls in love with three guys. With all the relationships, Alanna had a hard time admitting her feelings, but the first one was probably the hardest with her because of her femininity. 

• Prince Jonathan. She became his squire even after he found out she was a girl. After a bit, there was some ooh-la-la-ing going on between them. They quarreled and had their differences, but they were quite cute together. Okay, he was cute. 
• The thief named George. Alanna technically met him first and he was the first one to find out about her true gender, after his mother did. Unfortunately for him, Alanna wanted to keep things semi-platonic between them for most of the time. Oh, he flirted though and they had their heartwarming scenes. 

I am a Georgian.

• Liam, the Shang Dragon. Bleh. GET AWAY FROM ALANNA AND FROM ME. Sure, he seemed like the perfect guy at first. They both had the same desires, same goals, same mindset, same toughness. Whatever. He just seemed so old to me. I was thrilled when he was scared of her magic wuss. 

There was only one true villain and that would be Duke Roger, related to Prince Jonathan and the royal  CLUELESS family. Everyone except Alanna were blind to Duke Roger's schemes and at first, that seemed very unrealistic. Don't fear though! We obtain a reason in the end.

Action, mystery, quests, magic....I loved it all and was wrapped up in the story without fail. The first book was absolutely amazing for me. I loved the plot, the characters, the narration, everything. I remember liking the second book because of the added romance and other plot points. However, I don't remember much about the last two, but do think that some of the parts were dragged out too long. I just wanted my familiar characters back. 

I so wanted to like Thom, considering that he's Alanna's twin...but I couldn't. We weren't supposed to anyways, except for maybe a little bit at the end. He was arrogant, pompous, selfish, and standoffish. Everyone who met him were unanimously hating him because of his...attitude? Air around him? Aroma? Behavior? Whatever you want to call it, he had no friends. And deservedly so.

Although he was intelligent and wise with magic, he was stupid too, at least in the last book. Because in the last book, he wonders how a certain person feels towards "the woman who killed him." Say what now? Let's see. If someone killed me, I would have a range of negative emotions. Anger, resentment, and thoughts of revenge come instantly to mind. What, do you think that this person will just forget and be all, "Well, I deserved it. I don't blame her. La, la, la, la, la..." Idiot. 

Thom also said that Alanna was basically the only person he loved, but he sure didn't act like he loved her in the end. But that goes back to the above point on how stupid he was. 

What I loved about having Alanna as a main character was that she was always growing. I didn't realize starting the series that it was technically middle grade. She grew up from being about a pre-teen to around my age. She naturally changed mind on things and matured. You can never say that she didn't work hard because she always tried to be her best. Whether it was to defeat a bully or get a diamond or to do something else that demanded her magic or strength, she trained hard. 

How everyone felt about her from day one.

She certainly had her difficulties growing up though. Since she spent a large portion of her life as a boy, the transition of becoming a woman was tough too. Her time of the month? More awkward than others. Alanna gradually piqued more interest at dresses and while I wanted her to stay tough, I wanted her to be feminine as well. She deserved to feel beautiful. Unfortunately, because of her mixed emotions about how to conduct herself, and because there was one stick in the mud who made her feel like crap about wearing a dress for him, I might add she was confused as to who she was. She always dreamed about being a roaming knight, but she longed for home. She refused the thought of marriage, but started to crave love.

I would bet on it that Alanna said this at one point.

Because I feel like I have a million things to say and no words to say them, here is a gif collection of my feelings throughout the books at different points or throughout the whole thing because this brought on the feels.

Narrator review: I also have to mention the narrator since it was an audiobook series. The pick for the narrator could not have been better! Wow, wow, wow. Trini Alvarado, who played Meg March in Little Women, narrated all four books and was fantastic. You could clearly tell apart all the voices and her variation of all the men wasn't silly either coming from her. Sometimes she even sounded like Megan Fallows, who played Anne in Anne of Green Gables, which I really liked. I looked her up and she narrates another Tamora Pierce series so I will be listening to that asap. I think a narrator has the power to make or break an audiobook and she definitely didn't let Tamora Pierce or me down. 

And to sum up how I felt afterwards when I received major book hangover...

Thank you for being patient with me as I babble and squeal. Such a relief to get it all off my mind.

Have you read this series? Have you listened to anything narrated by Trini Alvarado? What Tamora Pierce series should I read/listen to next?

Audiobook Appreciation

This year, I have expanded my reading world to the listening side of things. Audiobooks were never on my radar because of several things.

• I thought I would mourn the loss of a paperback in my hands.
• I sometimes listened to music while I read or multitasked so how could I possibly listen to something? What could I do if I was listening to a book? Sit there like a lump? 
• Narrators intimidated me. 
• If I listened to a book, what if any negative feeling towards the audio element of it made me dislike the actual book? What if I was missing out on a wonderful piece of art because something else got in the way? 
• I don't like change.

Looking back at my list, I realize that I sound like an old lady. I couldn't process this technology and didn't care to. I was still resistant even coming into the blogging world until I read Starry-Eyed Jen's blog. She is a big promoter of audiobooks and when I read her reviews, I questioned if I was really looking at audiobooks correctly. 

Then my sister started listening to The Hunger Games audiobook in the car and when I went with her on errands, she played it. Since I was forcing** myself to not reread The Hunger Games series until Catching Fire came out in November, I was okay with this arrangement. Sure, I was nervous when she started playing it that it would ruin my love for the series. However, that irrational thinking went out the window when she hit play and we were at the cave scene with Peeta. Well, hello there. 

**I was forcing myself because I had gotten so attached to the series that I got more emotional each time I read it. I needed to use self-control more and also not experience so much heartbreak. Yes, listening to the book is kind of like reading it, but let's not discuss that small detail. 

I still thought that I had no room for audiobooks even though I wanted to go on errands with my sister even more and just sit in the car when she went inside all the stores. But then LIGHTBULB! I realized that I could play it on the iPad speaker in the bathroom while I took a shower. So that's where I listened to all the emotional scenes with Peeta, sad Gale moments, even sadder Prim moments, and Finnick *sobs*. Of course, I also retracted my balking at the thought of listening to it on my daily walk because I couldn't just listen to them in the shower, I needed more time with this lovely series. There was also the fact that I kept getting goosebumps right after I shaved from all the feels. 

That's when I realized: Jen was right! Everyone was right! Audiobooks aren't boring and they shouldn't be intimidating. You can get into them and when you do, they are a wonderful thing. I actually did just sit on my couch as I played an addicting game wasting a lot of time when I should have been doing school so I could listen to my audiobook. 

The things I realized during my audiobook experiences expand every time. 

• Sometimes I don't have time to sit down and read a paperback. Even if I do, I probably just finished reading lots of chapters in my textbook or had to write and reread and reread and reread and reread some more an essay for school. Audiobooks are a great way to help your desire for fiction, but gives a break on your eyes. 
• Like I mentioned above, you can still multitask! Indulge yourself in an addicting phone game. 
• Narrators can give the story more life. Really, that surprised me the most. My audiobook review for The Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce will be coming soon, but the narrator? Fan-stinking-tastic. 
• I might get into books even more if I listen to them because the narrators not only give life to the story, but also pronounce words for me, give voices to the characters, and by listening to a book, I could possibly be wrapped up in the story more. 
• Sometimes change is a good thing. 

I still absolutely love my paperbacks and would rather get a physical book for my birthday than a disc, but audiobooks are great alternatives. 

How I now feel about audiobooks.

All summer, SYNCYA has been giving away two free audiobooks a week, one classic and one YA. It's wrapping up this month, but it's not too late to download a few! Unfortunately, my computer is being wonky and won't let me get to the website. So go to Jen's page and try to get to it there. Or use the powerful Google. 

I might be the last one to the audiobook party, but if you still haven't gotten into them, I strongly recommend starting. 

What are your favorite audiobooks? Do you use audiobooks?