Incarcerated by Inger Iversen {Blog Tour: Audiobook Review}

*Received a free copy in exchange for an honest review

Book Info-

Title- Incarcerated

Series- Love and War Stand alone

Genre- Adult Contemporary Romance

Publication Date- September 29th, 2014

Blurb-

One of the few white kids in a rural Kentucky town, Logan Whyte always kept to his own kind out of self-preservation. He never considered himself racist, but that didn’t stop him from falling in with the wrong crowd that celebrated hate as much as he fought it - or from ending up in prison for eight years on an armed robbery charge.
  
A successful and educated black woman, Katie Andreassen is tired of being accused of betraying her own race. Her lonely isolation, coupled with her grief over losing her mother, inspire her to create a new pen pal program at Capshaw State Penitentiary, where her father is a warden.
  
The program brings together the unlikely pair, but Logan and Katie soon find themselves forced to overcome past fears and prejudices. Their friendship doesn’t come easily - threatened by a crooked lawyer with a grudge and a best friend who betrays her promise to help.
  
When faced with a world that forces them apart, Logan and Katie must show everyone else what they have discovered: that love is, in fact, colorblind.

Helpful Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Audible | iTunes

My Review~

I will admit. I have only done one audiobook review before. And in all honesty I haven't listened to many audiobooks, but I am working to change that. So pardon me as I stumble through this review. 

Before I talk about the book itself and tell you what I liked and what I didn't, I feel it is necessary to talk about the audio part. Again I am going to be honest. When I sit down to listen to an audiobook it takes me a while to adjust to someone reading me a story. It especially takes me a while to get used to the fact that they read it a lot slower than I do. What took me 8 hours to listen to, I could have read in under 4 hours, but that is not the issue here. Sometimes it is nice to sit back and let someone else do the storytelling. 

Overall the performance was a 4 out of 5 that audible has you rate it on. I enjoyed Olivia Ppeppersmith's attempt at accents and distinguishing between the characters by changing her voice. I have listened to Olivia Peppersmith before and think that she does a good job of portraying the story. However, there were a few times that my mind latched onto the way she said certain words or the funny accent she gave Logan. There were many times that I was left thinking that she sounded like the crazed fan and psycho from the movie Misery. So though I enjoyed it, I was yanked out of the story more than a time or two because of the way she told the story.

The rate of the story moved slower than I wanted it too and when I sped it up it was just unnatural. So here I am going to give it a 3. I tolerated it and if it wasn't for the actual story being told, I would have quit. 

Overall rating of book.... well for that I am going to have to go in a bit more detail. Overall, I liked the book. I like the story that was told and the struggle between race and love. This is a story that is not told often in books. Well at least not in many that I have read. And when Inger Iversen added the convict side I was definitely interested. Talk about creating a struggle. There were definitely many in this tale. But with that being said, there were things that bugged me and the part I am struggling with is whether or not they would have bugged me if I read the book myself or if it was just because it was read aloud. I don't know if I am the only one, but sometimes when things are read out loud they sound different then when you read them in your head and unfortunately that's the way it was with a few things with Incarcerated. I love terms of endearment as much as the next person, but I was starting to get annoyed with the term 'baby.' Her father called her that and every guy she had ever dated. Really there was something that just grated on my nerves about it, but again I say that may be just the way it was read. But I felt it was over used. 

Incarcerated attempted to tackle a very real struggle, one that I was happy to see playing out in the pages, but I felt that the story moved a little fast for my taste. I wanted it to dive deeper into the issues that Logan and Katie faced. Issues that I felt were lightly touched, but overall danced around. Was this a deal breaker for me? No. I still enjoyed the story and was swept up in the way that it flowed. Was I mad at certain parts? Hell yes. Granted I may not of gotten mad for the reasons the author intended. The story was a good one, it was strong and it got me. So overall I would give it a 3.5. 

Incarcerated is one of those books that is hotter when read aloud, bringing the intensity and heat to the forefront. Definitely something that has power. I liked the characters, but desired more from them and would have loved to have seen this play out in another book allowing for Inger Iversen to touch more on some issues that she touched on throughout the tail end of the story.  But I liked it and was left satisfied with the way that it ended. Overall this is a story that I feel that I am going to have to read again in order to judge truly for myself. This is also a story that I suggest you read or listen to and judge for yourself.

About the Author-

Inger Iversen lives in Virginia Beach with her tree-hugging boyfriend, Joshua and her overweight lap cat, Max. When not reading or writing she spends her time watching reruns of True Blood, Walking Dead or killing zombies in Call Of Duty. Of course, if the world were to change into some World War Z type situation, she’d probably be the only chick running around searching for a Ray Gun!

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