Second String Savior

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Second String Savior

October 18, 2019 by JBronder

Author: Rick Gualtieri, R.E. Carr

Narrator: Andrea Emmes

Length: 12 hours 46 minutes

Series: False Icons Series, Book 1

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Genre: Contemporary Fantasy

Jessie Flores is having the ultimate bad hair day.

Imagine going to bed with mousy brown locks and waking up with a headful of supernova scarlet. It’s a hot new look for me – literally, because it bursts into flames whenever I’m threatened.

My magical makeover is all Gary’s fault. I knew there was something off from the moment he transferred to my school. Go figure. He’s a wizard with a trust fund and an inferiority complex.

Now, thanks to him, I’ve graduated from high school bullies to supernatural terrors and that’s not all. Fate has chosen me to face the legendary vampire destined to destroy the world.

If I want to survive, I’ll have to dig deep and discover whether I’m truly worthy of this new power. Because if not, everything I hold dear will soon burn even hotter than my hair.

Rick Gualtieri loves to write adventure, mayhem, and snarky dialogue. His bestselling Tome of Bill series combines all of this into a world of supernatural danger with hard-hitting action and plenty of sharp-tongued geeky humor.

Rick lives alone in a dark, evil place called New Jersey with only his wife, three kids, and countless pets to both keep him company and constantly plot against him. When he’s not busy monkey-clicking out words, he can typically be found either playing Dungeons & Dragons, losing at video games, or jealously guarding his collection of vintage Transformers from all who would seek to defile them.

Defilers Beware!

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E. Carr likes to split her time between the alien (well resident alien) she married, her two adorable offspring and the vast army of characters who constantly argue in her brain. She uses her past life as a video game reviewer to remind herself just how awesome it is to be writing novels now.

Rachel writes because she knows so many people and places that never quite made it into this version of the universe. It’s her duty to let them out. Writing also gives her mind a certain peace and calm rarely felt in this multi-tasking, wired world.

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Best Selling, Award Winning Audiobook Narrator, Andrea Emmes was born in Hollywood, Florida, grew up in both Tennessee and Rhode Island and started her career in musical theatre. She’s enjoyed an eclectic career as a singer, dancer, Vegas Headliner, Magician’s Assistant, a Recording Artist and a Video Game Designer.

A total book nerd, Andrea, now enjoys narrating all genres of audiobooks, especially YA, LitRPG, Mystery, Romance, and NonFictionat her professional home studio in San Jose, CA.

Her wide range of character voices and dynamic/emotionally invested performances has reviewers and listeners alike commenting on how she effortlessly pulls listeners in and has versatility and charisma.

Fun Facts: Andrea has a Bachelor of Science in Game Art and Design; was a game designer for Disney Interactive; and gets her gamer-geek on playing games of all kinds!

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Jessie Flores is your average teenager crushing on the hot football jock. She spends her days after school at the grandfather’s comic book store and teaching kids at the gym ran by her family. In the middle of the school year Gary joins the school and starts a friendship with Jessie. But he is not who she though, a wizard. It seems she may be the Chosen One but who chose her and why?

I loved Jessie from the start. She is full of snark and willing to step up to help out Gary. She is beyond cool with her comic geek knowledge and family full of MMA fighters. She gets this mane of fiery hair and then becomes the focus of a group that thinks she is going to be the one to stop the vampires from taking over.

I admit that I haven’t read the Bill the Vampire series but now I want to dive in. This is a great start to a new series and I loved how the story started out with Jessie being dunking into the paranormal world. But the second half of the book is where it gets really interesting. And I have to say that Andrea Emmes does a phenomenal job narrating the story.

If you liked the Bill the Vampire series you need to check out this book. If you haven’t read the series you can easily start with this book but I have the feeling that it would take place later in that one. This is a killer book and I’m so happy that I got a chance to listen to the audiobook.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Andrea Emmes. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.