Pure

Written by Kim Alexander

Narrated by Em Eldridge

"A unicorn walks into a bar…."

That is not a joke.

Look, I’m a bartender, I have nothing to do with the xenos. I don’t care if it’s an elf or a vampire--as long as they don’t bother me, I steer clear. I have my reasons--you can see them in the scars on my neck.

I never wanted to get involved. But my life changed for the second time when I saved the life of a unicorn. I made an enemy of something old—old and evil, and whatever it was, it’ll be back for another try. I also made a friend when I decided to help March. He’s only been a human man for a day. I’m responsible for him now. He’s my friend… and maybe something more. Maybe a lot more.

It doesn’t matter to me that he isn’t magical anymore. I don’t care if he’s not PURE.

But he does.

From best-selling author Kim Alexander, a modern fairy tale of magic, love, and redemption.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryant Street Publishing
• Release date: May 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781094420745

Kim Alexander

Kim Alexander grew up in the wilds of Long Island, NY and slowly drifted south until she reached Key West. After spending ten years working as a disc jockey in the Keys, she moved to Washington DC, where she reported the traffic and spun the Oldies. After a career upgrade, she became the co-programmer of Sirius XM Book Radio, which gave her the opportunity to interview some of her writing heroes, including Anne Rice, George RR Martin, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King and Margaret Atwood, among many hundreds of others. She began writing when she ran out of authors to interview (and they pulled the plug on her channel.) Kim is the author of the epic fantasy series The Demon Door, and the paranormal romance series New World Magic. She currently lives with two cats, an angry fish, and her extremely patient husband close enough to the National Zoo to hear the lions and the monkeys, at least she hopes that’s what those noises are.

Reviews for Pure

[Jay Jones · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Story was fairly interesting but my god the narration was terrible! I genuinely hope she either improves her skills or stops completely.

[Kerra D Wagener · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story was fun, but I had to make myself continue listening hoping that the narration would get better... Chapter 8 she seemed less like a robot reading, but she soon fell back into irritating and unpleasant narrating. I was interested in the second book, but I was not up to listening to the narrator again so I skipped it. If you can deal with the way Kindle used to narrate books, then you might enjoy it.

[Earthwolf · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thoroughly enjoyable story. Very different. I highly recommend it. If you enjoy fantasy I’m positive you will enjoy this.

[Pita Espinoza · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good story but it was really hard to get past the narrator's nasal monotone voice half the time. I'm still going to check out the next book hopefully she's sticking to writing and let someone else tell us the story. I enjoyed the characters especially March.

[Monica Cedeno · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I thought it might be fun and it was in the beginning. But it started getting on my nerves About halfway. The narrator reads very flat, which only highlights thatit's not great writing. I normally finish books even if I've only barely started them, but w 1 hour left to this book, I had to stop. I just really hated it. I knew it was supposed to be the climax of the story, and I was almost to the end but it was just so poorly written, I stopped. Def would not recommend

[Giada Vancini · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really enjoyed this universe, not trite at all and fast paced.

[Fola Sadé · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I just don't understand. I really thought this was a joke at first. The narrator is horrible. My mind is blown and my ears are bleeding. I just can't even right now.

[Kay Goat · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

You can listen to this book on 2.0 that’s the only way to accept this narrator - she sounds like a Dalek …… jut nut!! There should be 2 separate bits to rate the story teller as I would not even call her a narrator ! And rate the book as many many books have low stars because it’s read badly

[AlisonRodgers · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Wow. I can't get past the introduction. How is this a professional narrator? She pauses in the middle of sentences. It's impossible to keep the story in mind with the narrator destroying the flow.

[Emily Halliday-Ellenburg · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I can't get through the first chapter bc of the terrible narration.

[Shawna Lisk · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I do not know if it was more the narrator or the author, but oh my GOD. This is awful. I have listened to this narrator before and enjoyed her work. This, though? It sounded like someone who had just learned to read, in the pacing, the monotone? I am unsure how to describe it. But it is awful. The way it is read I am unsure the heroine is old enough/capable enough to live on her own. Painful.

[Mombie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Storyline was unique but the narration is just terrible. It was painful to listen to.

[L'illette Vasquez · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Story was okay, but the terrible narration made it pretty much impossible to enjoy.

[Theodora Soh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great short story! I wish we could have gotten March's POV as well but still loved it. Can't wait to read the next book! There's so much more I'd like to see from this world.

[Mindy Ngo · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Terrible plot with even worse narrator. The female voice sounded like AI with a teenage attitude who questioned everything. I thought it would pick up, but it was consistently horrible throughout.

[Jessica McNealy · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Interesting premise, but I couldn't get past the first 10 minutes of the audiobook due to the grating, nasal voice of this narrator. Besides the offputting voice, she read the story as if she was barely interested in it herself.

[Susan · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Do not listen to the audio book version! The narrator is so monotone and gives nothing to the characters. I honestly don't know if I would rate this story any better if I read it myself, though. It is a little fluffy for my taste and I am not sure what the point of any of it was. However, the audio book version is actually painful.

[Beth · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Had to turn it off . Couldn't make it even a few minutes in. It is genuinely extremely difficult to listen to. The narrator needs a new line of work.. it's a shame they released the audiobook like this.

[Windy D. Schultz · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I might like this book if I could actually bear to listen to it. The narrator really ruins the story. Every sentence has the exact same inflection. The same weird unnecessary pause and monotone droll. I don't understand what they were going for but it's just not working.

[Jasper Drury · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I feel like if the narrator were replaced this book would be something I enjoyed a lot more. It has a lot of elements of a story that I could really like, but if just falls short in a lot of ways. Like, we don't have background info for the character despite being first person narrated. She mentions having trauma around vampires at some point but it doesn't come off as seamless and it just feels like there should be more to her than that, but we haven't been given anything to imply there's more to her and what motivates her. She's just kind of caught in the charm of this guy, and then gets upset when he has this centuries long lover who disappeared who he was looking for. Idk. It has appeal but the narrator really tainted my overall experience.