Masters of Death had the magically diverse cast of characters I didn’t know I needed. I loved meeting every single one and getting to know their motivations. This story takes place in two parts. The beginning is where we meet most of the characters, and the second half is where the game is played. This book definitely had a modern mythology feel while still appealing to the feelings of the everyday person. I kept wanting to listen to find out what happened next. The audiobook is exquisitely narrated by Steve West, whose voice and intonations give the characters life.

I had to DNF this one. I liked the premise and would probably have given this at least 3 stars just for that, but just some of the relationships and dialogue were so cringey for me I couldn't do it. I did have this arc as an audiobook and I really tried to push through but just couldn't. It could have been the narration.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the arc.

A demon, an angel, a reaper and a fake medium walk into a haunted house to help a vampire real estate agent with a ghost problem... naturally chaos ensues...

What I expected to read about was so supernatural hijinks related to who killed the ghost and what I got was some supernatural hijinks that involved Death, a pair of annoying archangels, a demon king and immortals playing weird games. Because when immortals play games things do often get weird.

This book was weird but in the best way. I loved it which is good since I will at some point own multiple copies of the book for book box reasons. Which is mostly why I was interested in an audiobook arc of it. It’s a weird book with rather weird people and a lot of complications.

In the end the moral of the story is be weary of what you are willing to sacrifice for what you want. I firmly believe that Death didn’t cheat... people just didn’t want to accept the consequences of their actions. It made sense that if you got something you wanted you had to lose something. But I guess immortals wouldn’t realize that anything valuable was at stake until it was too late. So it wasn’t the least bit surprising that when a mortal tried to play an immortal game things went rather awry.

I really liked this book so it’s very likely that another book I bought by the author is about to skip to the head of my TBR.

The narration was perfect even though I don’t typically like when the whole book is done by just a male narrator.

This is a rerelease of this authors previous work and it was such a beautifully done audiobook I am so glad I got to hear it honestly. It was such a good time- this author has a phenomenal writing style and such interesting concepts for books that she absolutely nails.

The production on this is sensational, Steve West is doing a showstopping job narrating this, but not even that could make up for how confusing the story is. I'll definitely check out more by this narrator but the book itself wasn't quite for me unfortunately.

Two of my favorite bookish things: Olivie Blake's books and narrations by Steve West. So if those two things were to be combined... Yay me!! Steve West narrates MASTERS OF DEATH by Olivie Blake, and you better believe I squealed when I heard that. Again, Blake combines multiple characters in their own arcs that somehow take on this fantastical journey that is whole by the end. She is a mastermind.

Blake's mind with West's narrations is a treat! Every character stands out. His narrations make it easy to follow the different characters and the jumping timeframes.

An exquisite book with exquisite narration - Olivie Blake has done it again. If you love her writing like me, read this. Or, if you are looking for an underdog to root for, read this. Or if you like books with creatures and found family, read this. Or, if you like books where Death comes out to play, this is your book.

Thanks, Macmillian Audio, for the gifted book!

This book was an absolute blast. With godlings, ghosts, vampires, demons and Death himself it explores all shades of Immortality. The character interactions were what gave this book such a high rating for me, with sassy characters and fantastic banter. I adored both the romantic and platonic relationships explored in this story and could have gone on reading for another 400 pages.

My only drawback from the story is that it was a touch cheesy at times and the conclusion was a bit too quick.

In terms of the narrator, he was fantastic. Often male narrators pitch their voices far too high for female POVs, but this actor was excellent no matter the character. He’s ability to effectively differentiate between each character was impressive, given how often they were all in the room having back and forth conversations.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio & NetGalley for the audioARC of Masters of Death in exchange for an honest review.

This book is what I imagine would happen if you dumped Good Omens, Supernatural and Agatha Christie into a blender!

Is that good, you might ask… hell yes it is!

This book is not easy, it’s absolutely not linear, at times to the point of seeming nonsensical but it is spunky, campy and altogether enjoyable to read. Despite the mental gymnastics I had to do to keep up at times, I was absolutely riveted.

Maybe it’s the ADHD but the switching POVs and timelines sent my brain into overdrive in the most enjoyable way. Generally, I can easily multitask while listening to an audiobook but at times I stopped in my tracks to focus on all the moving parts.

There is so much to this book that is revealed through the most innocuous seeming dialogue that I’m sure there are a billion Easter eggs I missed along the way.

I loved this in audio but I will add this to my physical TBR so I can go back and catch the details. I don’t annotate often but this one has me wanting to do so.

The only thing that bothered me was the pronunciation of Viola, but that’s a personal issue as it didn’t line up with any pronunciation I have heard of that name. But alas every time the narrator said it, it bugged me.

4.5 stars - I had no idea what this book was about when I picked it up but Olivie Blake knocked it out of the park yet again.
All of the characters were so enjoyable and the premise was the right mix of spooky and quirky with the right amount of mystery thrown in. This book was an absolute joy from start to finish.
I mean…We have a Vampire realtor and a medium who is godson of Death trying to remove a ghost from a house she’s trying to sell. The ensemble of characters has an incredible range and, in my opinion, there was not a dull moment in the story.
Olivie Blake’s writing style really shines through in this story.

3.25⭐️

This started out strong but then it got…. boring. Perhaps it just wasn’t my cup of tea, but it seemed to stretch unnecessarily long and the repetition just underwhelmed me and made it hard to finish.

There were some clever concepts and witty dialogue, it just didn’t coalesce into anything that could grab and hold my interest. If you read and loved it, I’d love to hear what I’m missing.

Thank you Olivie Blake, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for providing this ALC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

I would first like to give a huge thanks for the advanced readers copy of Masters of Death to MacMillian Publishing, Netgalley and Olivie Blake.

I want to start this review off by saying that I am a huge Olivie Blake fan girl and in my eyes she can do no wrong. This was no exception. I loved the banter between the characters and the little quips that each character had.
This book had me laughing constantly and I don't think I can say enough positives about it. If you're looking for a vampire, ghost and death comedy about a real estate agent trying to sell a home (who is the vampire) I would highly recommend.

(This is for the audiobook version of this book, specifically).

"Masters of Death" is a charming and character-driven work about a vampire real estate agent who needs the help of the godson of Death to get rid of a stubborn ghost in a property she wants to sell. If you've read that premise, you'll know if this is your kind of book or not. It's funny, it's dramatic, it has a lot of pining and failed relationships, and most of all, it ponders the nature of immortality: what does it mean to be human? How does the prospect of living forever change you?

I very much enjoyed this work, and it doubly worked fairly well in audiobook form. The narrator was engaging and had lots of different voices for the various characters. The one thing I'll note is that this is a very dialogue-heavy book - lots of banter and back-and-forth - and as a result, you needed to really pay attention to the narrator as it can quickly become difficult to tell who is talking despite his excellent voices.

This was basically 350 pages of sassy, thoroughly unimpressed not-quite-dead people being unwilling to admit they care for other people while very clearly doing so and it was very entertaining.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ //5
𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐎𝐟 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡
by Olivie Blake, Narrated by Steve West

THOUGHTS:

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me the opportunity to read an e-arc/audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

When I started this book I had ZERO idea what I was getting myself into and I put my AirPods right in and got to listening. For starters, Steve West gets all my praise because his narration was incredible…his voice, how you felt throughout the story, hands down will continue to watch for his narrations of other books. This book though! YOU GUYS! This was wild. This book was nothing like I’ve ever read before, the storyline was YES, the characters were all YESSS! It’s hard for me to put everything into words so I will try and keep this simple and to the point.

I loved how the author talked about the reality of life and death and how we all have demons inside each and every single one of us. I love how dark and eerie this book was, I loved feeling this book in my soul. It wasn’t a fast paced book like I am used to reading or listening to, yet it was taking you through it. I could NOT turn this audiobook off, I wanted to keep hearing the story, I wanted to keep following the characters, the author kept us readers wanting more and more and I felt as though if I turned it off I would miss something. It was fantastic! You followed so many characters through this read. You followed vampires, death, ghosts, angels, demons, gods etc.

This is one of my TOP 5 book reads of 2023 and I absolutely hold this book close and will recommend this to those who I know would love the writing style of this book (because I feel like this book is not for everybody) and I honestly cannot give enough praise. I am very happy that I chose to listen to the audiobook version of this book because it made this entire story come to life and I could watch it play out in my head the entire time. I will continue to watch for new releases and read everything that Olivie Blake puts out.

When you play the game of the immortals, there is only one rule: don’t lose.

In this fantasy all of the myths, fantasies, and things that go bump in the night are present as a ragtag group of things from our nightmares unite together to set a ghost free and rescue death from the Demon of Vice. The only way to do this is to play the immortal game.

It’s a very interesting book, although a little too fantasy for my reading tastes. There are a multitude of characters, which were difficult to get straight at the start, but as the book progressed it became easier. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Steve West, who did an incredible job with all of the characters and distinguishing them through accent, cadence, and tone. For his performance alone I would recommend listening to this book.

Themes: ☠️👻🧛🏻‍♀️👹🎲

My thoughts: 🙂🤓

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This was such a witty and fun book. The use of all different God's, legends, and myths was entertaining. Death might have been my favorite character. This could be a short series.

Masters of Death started out really fun as a paranormal mystery which I always love to read as a genre. Right off the bat, I really enjoyed the switch between POVs amidst a mystery and loved the breadcrumbs we get in learning the world and characters slowly. I especially loved the linguistics and how clearly the author enjoys putting effort into each sentence and word they type. This is a clearly well thought out plot, with a lot of moving parts and reveals, however for me the pacing was the number one struggle. I felt like it really started to drag around 25-30% and unfortunately I just couldn’t find myself excited to pick it back up each time I returned to it. I kept listening to it on faster speeds hoping to get to a reveal faster and realized that while the topic and bones were great for me, the pacing just wasn’t. Again it’s a great book and has a lot of humor and wit, but the pacing for me personally felt like it would never get to the culmination. I made it to about 60% and decided to DNF because I really wasn’t looking forward to finishing it.

Now for the narration, I thought it was fantastic and it actually was the main reason I hung on as long as I did. The narrators voice has so much depth and range and lends itself well to both mystery and the paranormal. I’d love to listen to this narrator for any book especially a PNR or Romantasy!

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to arc read this audiobook

Forever is a gift and a curse

Back on my pushing for Olivie Blake with "Masters of Death." This is a fun one that might take a little bit to slide into place what it is. But we have a Vampire real-estate agent trying to sell a haunted house, the adopted godson of Death, an Angel and a Reaper definitely not in love, a thief, a demon, and angelic management trying not to catch the blame. Oh and a game decides who has control over Death.

Narrated by Steve West, really loved the sardonic to angry changes.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for providing copies!

Reasons to read:
-Stand alone story so it's all on the table
-FUN take on a lot of tropes and pairings
-Banter, and I'm a banter slut
-Good Omens vibes
-Things made me think
-Interesting stance on eternity and mortality

Cons:
-Now I'm in a banter drought

I want to start of by saying I absolutely loved the narrator for the audiobooks! I thought he did a great job of giving all the different characters a unique voice and really enjoyed the listening experience. I did like the cast of characters and learning how everyone was connected/ their pasts. Unfortunately the overall story leaned a bit too speculative for my personally tastes. I think fans of the night circus would absolutely adore this story

I enjoyed this book overall. The narration was perfect but there were times that I felt a little lost in the story so it is possible that I would have been better served to pick up a print copy instead of the audio. I actually made it to the halfway point and was so confused that I went back to the beginning and started over. Things seemed to click the second time around and I think that my confusion came from the fact that this story isn’t always linear. Once I got things straight in my head, I found this to be a very entertaining book.

I really liked the cast of characters featuring a ghost, a vampire, a demigod, and even Death himself. Basically, if you can think of a supernatural character, it was probably included in this book. Viola, a vampire and real estate agent, has a house that she needs to sell. Unfortunately, the house has a ghost in residence so she needs some help. She enlists Death’s godson, Fox, to help her out and things get just as crazy as you would think they would.

Steve West is a fantastic narrator and he did an amazing job with this book. He handles a large diverse cast of characters incredibly well creating a distinctive voice for each of them. I found his voice to be easy to listen to for hours at a time. I do believe that he added to my enjoyment of this story.

I will definitely be recommending this one. I had a good time with this quirky story filled with amazing characters. This is the first time that I have read Olivie Blake’s work and wouldn’t hesitate to pick up more of her work in the future.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Macmillan Audio.