Alyssa Cole

Love! Trauma! Robots!

First published to Audible and then to ebook, I bet this was a fantastic audio book. It's a quick, snappy read with plenty of action and a ton of sweetness. I felt like I could hear the voices as I read the book.

Trinity is recovering from a workplace injury at home, living a pretty quiet and staid life when Li Wei shows up. He's weird and stiff and stares at her a lot, but there's something about him (he's hot) that draws her in. Then Li Wei's aunt is taken to the hospital and it falls on Trinity to help Li Wei in his own recovery. But Trinity soon figures out that not everything is as it seems (he's a robot! Well, sort of...) and danger is lurking behind every corner.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I didn't pick up all the clues, but once the twists were revealed, everything fell into place and I could see how Cole left breadcrumbs throughout the story. This is a very strongly plotted kind of book, where the story takes precedence over the relationship-building, but only by a smidge. I did feel the budding attraction between Li Wei and Trinity as Cole built them up, but the tumble into love seemed a bit fast for me. All in all, I had a lot of fun reading this book and hope Cole continues to write more in this world… (more)

A Postcard from Outlier Island 🏝️📨 📪
Review of the Amazon Original Story ebook (July 23, 2023) released simultaneously with the Brilliance Audio audiobook.

Not my style at all. The only reason this short story is a novella length of 124 pages is because it is written in text messages and online comments spread generously throughout the pages. It is probably 40 pages of "real" content. A college student on various social media is victimized by a gang of incels & misogynists. It turns into a troll fest with hate messages. The subject matter is repulsive enough, the format just become wearisome to read at length.

Alyssa Cole is a romance, contemporary and historial fiction writer who has published over 20 novels, the most popular of which is When No One Is Watching (2020).

Trivia and Links
Just a Girl is the 6th of 6 short stories making up the psychological suspense series Obsession, released simultaneously on July 23, 2023 as eBooks by Amazon Originals and as audiobooks by Brilliance Audio. The Obsession collection is described as “Lust. Revenge. Greed. Hunger. Desire doesn’t care if you’re at the bottom of the ladder or the top of your game. Six masters of psychological suspense craft tales about people crossing moral lines in pursuit of their deepest desires. In these short stories, even the most mild-mannered characters can spin out of control when passion is at play. Hold on tight—there’s no turning back.”

You can watch for current and past Amazon Original Kindle short stories which are usually paired with their Audible Original narrations at an Amazon page here (Link goes to Amazon US, adjust for your own country or region).… (more)

I just could not get into this try as I did and now give up marking it DNF at 66%.

The character has dissociative identify disorder and is confused about everything that is happening. So was I.

The setting was interesting - a castle on a mostly deserted island gave all the Gothic feels.

I was listening to the audiobook as I followed along in the e-book ARC provided by the ppublisher and the narrator was great and voiced the MANY characters quite well.

The plot, as it were, was meant to be a mystery but at this point there was yet to be the murder.

Moving on.… (more)