Audiobook Review – Grave Bounty Magic (Forty Proof Series, Book 1) by Shannon Mayer, Narrated by Lauren Fortgang (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 8 hours and 47 minutes
Publisher: Hijinks Ink Ltd
Release Date: February 29, 2020
ASIN : B0858VMP9X
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Forty Proof Series
Source: Audiobook from Audible Plus
Rating: 4/5 stars

“One day, I’m married, living in Seattle, and magic isn’t real. The next, I’m divorced and living in the guest room of my ex’s hotter-than-sin cousin’s place in Savannah and talking to an animated skeleton named Robert.

I have to admit, Robert isn’t my worst date. At 41, I didn’t think I’d be starting over. But I’ll be damned if my ex thinks I’m down and out because he pulled a fast one on me.

When a job comes my way that offers me a chance to use my childhood training in the shadow world, I take it. I need the money more than I care about my sanity.

It’s dangerous. I have to embrace the magic and dark of my past. And I need Advil to keep me going.

But those who’d hold me back better sit up and take notice because a new woman is in town, and she’s not about to be counted out by anyone. Even if she does groan when she rolls out of bed in the morning.”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Forty Proof series. There are currently four books in this series, with the fifth book expected to release in June of 2021. I borrowed this audiobook from the Audible Plus catalogue.

Audiobook Quality (4/5): This book was well done, the narrator sounded exactly how I imagined Breena would sound and did a good job with other character voices as well. No complaints about the audiobook quality at all.

Story (4/5): This was a cute and fun urban fantasy series featuring a woman in her 40’s who comes back to the paranormal world after leaving it behind in her 20’s. After a bad divorce she’s left with nothing and joins a paranormal bounty hunting company to make ends meet. This is a pretty typical urban fantasy type of read but I enjoyed it. It ends up being more of an investigative type of urban fantasy with some action.

Characters (4/5): I enjoyed that Breena is older, you just don’t get to read many urban fantasies where the protagonist is over 20 years old. As a 40 something year old woman, I could relate to Breena and her struggle to stay fit (and occasionally pop an Advil to keep moving). I didn’t really enjoy her constant bitterness towards her ex, but I understood it based on her history. The rest of the cast was well done too and ranges over a broader age range than most urban fantasies (some older, some younger). I particularly enjoyed Robert (the creepy, untalkative skeleton that shows up over and over to help Breena out) and Crash (the super sexy, dangerous weaponsmith who keeps getting tangled up in Breena’s troubles).

Setting (4/5): The whole story takes place in Savannah which was fine. Breena bitches about the tourists a lot which got kind of old. However, I loved all the creepy graveyard settings and the feel of Savannah that is portrayed in the story. I have never been to Savannah before and it was fun to visit it in this book.

Writing Style (4/5): The book is written in a casual way that is very easy to read. The whole story is told from Breen’s POV. At heart Breena ends up solving a mystery around some people who are harassing a half man Yeti. I enjoyed the inclusion of some different types of Shapeshifting races that you don’t normally hear about. This was just a fun read and had some neat paranormal elements and was coupled with a good mystery and some quirky characters.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this, it was a fun paranormal read that featured an older character as the main protagonist. I liked the paranormal creatures, the mystery, the characters, and the creepy settings. This was a great start to this UF/para series and I plan on continuing it.