Thursday, September 15, 2016

Audiobook Review: All the Rage by T.M. Frazier

Pub. Date:    August 30, 2016
Publisher:Tantor Audio
Narrators:Hollie Jackson
Roger Wayne
Length:7 hrs 31 min
Source:Publisher

I have been curious about Rage since we met her in Soulless. While All the Rage is a standalone, I encourage you to read the King series first to get the introduction to Rage through other people. She fascinated me in those earlier books.

Hope Michaels (a/k/a Rage a/k/a Angel of Death a/k/a Rambo Barbie) is a big sociopath in a small package. Literally - Rage is a short, slight, blonde, cheerleader lookalike who wears bright colors and rides a powder blue Vespa. She lacks the ability to feel empathy, and she is a bit of a hypochondriac and germaphobe. Shockingly, she came from a normal loving family... who began trying to get her help as a child. She didn't like going to the "head shrinkers" who tossed around terms like "indifferent" and "emotionally void". Rage's friend, Cody, tries to help her fake being normal... but nothing works. Giving up on normal, Rage takes off on her own where she gets into the business of killing, arson and explosives - as we saw in the King series.

Nolan Archer (a/k/a Goon) is back home in SW Florida feeling sorry for himself after an injury that may have ended his hockey career. Despite being a collegiate athlete with the appearance of a yuppy, Nolan isn't the squeaky clean good boy that his appearance would suggest. I don't want to give away any spoilers here... so I will just say that I really liked Nolan. He was a little bit good, but a little more bad. 

The relationship between Nolan and Rage was somewhat slow building... but when your heroine is emotionally void, that obviously creates an obstacle to lovey dovey sentiments. Frazier did a good job at humanizing Rage without erasing those crazy predilections that made her character so fascinating. I liked that Nolan was dirtied up a bit to be a good match for Rage, and I loved his determination once he decided she was the one for him.

If you have read T.M. Frazier before, you know that her stories are on the darker side.  I was a bit surprised that Rage's story was not as dark as the King series. With Rage's sociopathic tendencies, I was expecting a cringe-inducing read... but this one was just a little grey and didn't have the blood and gore that I predicted. There were a couple twists that helped moved the story forward as the suspense in this one was not as fast-paced as Frazier's other books... but it maintained that gritty feel that we are accustomed to from this author.  Now... for Preppy's book in October! I can't wait for that one!

I received an advanced copy of this audiobook from Tantor Audio in exchange for an honest review. 4 stars / 3 flames.

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