Hey fam! So this is one of my first audiobook series blog tours that I was chosen for, and we all know how much I’m into mermaid mythology, so you know I had to pick this one. I think it’s actually quite perfect that I ended up getting picked for this blog tour because I’m pretty sure I have this trilogy on my bookshelves somewhere. If I find them, I’ll be sure to include the pictures for you.

Hopefully I am actually talking about this series and not another one because they look alike, but you know how I am!

Thank you again so much to Jess at Audiobookworm Promotions for hosting this tour, and for including me as one of the tour hosts. Click on the banner for information on all three books, and the entire tour schedule. You’ll see my review for each novel, so stay tuned and beware of any spoilers in the next two installments of this tour!

For Kate Sweeting, love isn’t in the air. It’s in the water.

Since her father died, Kate Sweeting’s home life has been in the pits, her well-being on life support. Her future looks desolate until she and her mother, Cara, make another plan: abandon their shriveled existence for more promising prospects on the coast, where Cara can play small-town librarian-bachelorette and Kate can figure out what’s up with that secretive Blake family from the beach.

Everyone is eerily captivated with Kate and her mother, and Cara is the first to figure out why when the man of her dreams arrives all dripping and devoted and closed-mouthed about what he intends. Kate is willing to go along with their subterfuge for a while, but eventually makes a charge for the water to learn what her mother is hiding. Gabe Blake is there waiting for her…and so is someone considerably less friendly. By the time Kate navigates her way home, everything will have changed for her—what she feels, what she wants, and what she’ll risk to be with the man she loves.

Click HERE for a sneak peek excerpt!

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Errin Stevens writes paranormal romantic suspense stories from her home in Minnesota. When not wrestling with unruly narrative – or reading literary and commercial fiction like a fiend – you’ll find her poring over seed catalogues (winter) or gardening (the other three days of the year).

Sean is an aspiring game developer who’s used his years of work on Youtube to excel at audiobook narration.

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

This book definitely read as more of a romance novel than any fantasy kind of mermaid world that I was thinking of. I think also we need to establish that since our main mer-character Gabe considers the males of the species to be called Sirens, that we should call them Sirens rather than mer-people. I just feel like they are totally different, you know?

The novel moved really quickly for me, and I feel like this did a lot more telling me of what was going on, rather than showing me. I also felt like the time jumps weren’t established clear enough for me to realize that “hey, by the way, Kate and Gabe are now out of college rather than the six year olds that we met in the beginning of the book,” and yet it felt like I was still in the same chapter. That could have been how the narration was for me, or the pacing of the book in general. Either way, I know I got a little confused while I was listening to it.

Now about the romance, oh man this was just a very interesting love story. I felt like from the moment we saw Kate and Gabe meeting when they were children, that something was going to happen between them. It felt like they could have been really good friends if nothing romantic ever evolved between them, and I would have loved to see their friendship grow when they were younger. I feel like their parents’ decision to have them wait until after they graduated from college before getting involved romantically was a pretty interesting and appealing move on their end. At least that’s what I felt. Sure, Kate and Gabe probably hated it when they were told that they couldn’t really see each other before that time, but I think the end goal really worked out for them. Kate’s drive and motivation towards her career and her succeeding in her university work was really great, and even Gabe’s passion for what he did seemed to work out that they didn’t have any distractions of the mythical variety to deal with.

Oh that ending though. I don’t even want to talk about it because of spoilers but wow, I was honestly very, very shocked at how it ended, and curious to know if Stevens knew that this was going to be a trilogy while he was writing this installment. Because that ending was something that I was not expecting, and quite frankly I’m curious to see what’s going to happen in the aftermath.

Yay for another narrator interview! I appreciate Jess for sending these questions out on my behalf even though I was really late in getting them to her. Don’t be like me, friends. Make sure you read the entire instructions on when your tour company needs your information by, so they can send it out and get it back to you timely. I’ll make sure I don’t make that mistake again.

I got lucky for this one, and Sean Posvistak was able to answer them for me, which I appreciate so very much!

So let’s get this interview started, shall we?

How did you become an audiobook narrator?

I’ve been told my entire life that I have a “radio voice”, so my Mom helped me narrow down the search by looking for places I could use that talent. ACX (Audible’s platform) took em with open arms, and I’ve been happier and more financially secure ever since.

Do you usually read a book before you apply to be a narrator?

No, because it would take entirely too much time. The audition script and the brief description you’re given is usually a good barometer for what the rest of the story is going to be like, so it’s safe to judge it based on that. Not that there are many projects I would turn down in the first place (writing quality and subject matter don’t bother me all that much, even if it’s sexual in nature).

What was your favorite book to narrate to date?

That’s a tie. “Updrift” by Errin Stevens immediately comes to mind, because it was my first “big” book, as well as a gigantic learning experience. My performances are awful compared to what they’re like now, but that aside, Errin has a wonderful writing style that made me fall in love with the characters involved. I got a little misty-eyed when it all came to a close because of how much of an emotional journey it was in and out of the pages. 

The other is a vampire novel that shall remain nameless because it was the opposite situation. The writing was so hilariously awful that I was laughing for the entire production. But that’s the thing of it: I poured my heart and soul into that performance. One of my career goals is to be the Qui-Gon Jinn of somebody’s Phantom Menace; the undisputed best part of an otherwise legendarily bad production.There’s something incredibly cool to me about that prospect.

Describe a typical work day in the studio (is it a studio?)

That’s the funny thing about this job: for the first 2 years, I was doing this out of an apartment with my only sound dampening being two comforters I hung on the walls with Command hooks and shower curtain rings. Now (using the money I’ve invested back into my work), I’m inside a “square tent” made out of professional sound dampening sheets and a PVC pipe skeleton. I didn’t even have a super high-end mic. I was making ends meet with a Blue Yeti, and that thing served me well on project after project. Don’t let resources hold you back in this profession. You’ll need it eventually, but learning proper cadence and pacing is the foundation that all that fancy tech will do you no good without.

But yeah. With that tangent over, a lot of it is just making sure I take a break every 2 hours (of an 8-hour workday), and staying motivated by reminding myself of the pleasantries extra cash provides me (I keep an Ebay tab pinned in Firefox with an item I’d love to put in a game room when I get my own house). Whenever I start work on the last book in my project queue, I simultaneously start auditioning for new projects so that they’ll be ready to go when I’m done with it. This job can be incredibly rewarding and profitable, but only when I’m willing to put the effort into it.

How do you determine what kind of voices you give to each character and how do you keep each voice straight while recording?

I tend to go with the first thing to come to mind that “makes sense”. Based on someone’s job, manner of speech, or physical characteristics, some voices seem to fit more naturally than others. The mark of a good voice is that it just “feels right” (that, and the author doesn’t have anything negative to say about it). For anyone thinking of using my method, I recommend watching more movies, listening to more of other people’s audiobooks, and just consuming more media in general. Like any art form, the more pools of inspiration you have to pull from, the better your performance will tend to be.