Reviews - 10 Things That Never Happened: Material World, Book 1

This is a personal nitpick, but in my copy the text is insanely small so it was much harder to get through for me, having to take more breaks because of strain😭

b33dubs's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Austen is well known for her perceptive satirizing of human nature. Alexis Hall is similarly skilled at breathing life and likeability into characters I wouldn't get along with in the real world. Jonathan is not a nice man, but goddamn if I wasn't rooting for him and Sam by the turning point in the narrative. A compelling story with well developed characters and dry wit-- I'll happily suspend my disbelief and prejudice for the happily ever after.

capreacula's review against another edition

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5.0

Great story - I was totally unprepared how much I'd like it. Sam ist such a great guy and we see Jonathan through his eyes and appreciate and grow to more than like him as well.

At first I really didn't understand ehy Sam would fight for someone like Brian or Tiff, but even ahead of the deep rooted reason we learn that he's someone who CARES.

Also: BEST NARRATOR EVER!

I bought the book solely on the strength of his narration in the sample. Otherwise the first chapter wouldn't have charmed me: I guess I'm too much like the royal dick in rhst I wouldn't have tolerated Brian for long.

Will Watt ist simply great. I immediately fell in love with his Scouse. I cannot judge if the accents are correct, to my ears they are.

Now I have to check out whatever Will Watt has narrated. He's a f☆ng genius, who really made the very good story come ALIVE, let Sam's personality SHINE (and Jonathan's as well), sigh.

knitwit526's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

bookworm_heather's review against another edition

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2.0

Wow I didn't enjoy this one. I don't know what it was but the main couple had zero chemistry to me. Sam as a character also REALLY annoyed me. They try to wave away his snippy, judgmental, and lack-a-daisy attitude at the end with his family's death, but honestly, at the very end of the book, that felt like the author handwaving all his faults away, going, "See? All the morally questionable, bad stuff he did is ok!" Well to me, despite the cute scenes with him, Jonathan and the family, it didn't read at all natural. Also, Sam is a terrible cat owner, thinking of just leaving Gollum multiple times, and not having an emergency contact to take care of him if something happened. That might be minor , but it's just something I noticed. Jonathan meanwhile, instead of being "a prick" seemed to be suffering from some sort of undiagnosed issue, that everyone just kind of shrugged at and expected him to just "do (x). Not that hard." . And the ending felt extremely rushed, as the Sheffield branch staff disappears after the Christmas party, and the resolution comes out of the blue. The author paints it as a happy ending, but honestly, it just seemed like Jonathan didn't think he could do better than Sam.

lboyd0's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5 ⭐️ I’m still not sure how the title relates to the story…

whitesj2's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Loved this! The audiobook narrator was excellent and did so well with all the character voices - and this is a rather large cast of characters! The way this story unfolded was absolute perfection. So sweet - loved the ending!

itsnotabear's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

the cast and writing were a lot of fun and it was a fun read. it does suffer from "how on earth are we going to get past THIS" re: the conflict and

the ending felt a little more like a bandaid than a resolution. if it resolved differenly it prob would have been more like 4.25-4.5⭐.

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