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  • Slouch Witch

  • The Lazy Girl's Guide to Magic, Book 1
  • By: Helen Harper
  • Narrated by: Tanya Eby
  • Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (261 ratings)
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Slouch Witch cover art

Slouch Witch

By: Helen Harper
Narrated by: Tanya Eby
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Summary

Let's get one thing straight - Ivy Wilde is not a heroine. In fact she's probably the last witch in the world you'd call if you needed a magical helping hand, regardless of her actual abilities. If it were down to Ivy, she'd spend all day every day on her sofa, where she could watch TV, munch junk food, and talk to her feline familiar to her heart's content.

However, when a bureaucratic disaster ends up with Ivy as the victim of a case of mistaken identity, she's yanked very unwillingly into Arcane Branch, the investigative department of the Hallowed Order of Magical Enlightenment. Her problems are quadrupled when a valuable object is stolen right from under the Order's noses.

It doesn't exactly help that she's been magically bound to Adeptus Exemptus Raphael Winter. He might have piercing sapphire eyes and a body a cover model would be proud of, but as far as Ivy's concerned, he's a walking advertisement for the joyless perils of too much witch work.

And if he makes her go to the gym again, she's definitely going to turn him into a frog.

©2017 Helen Harper (P)2017 Tantor

What listeners say about Slouch Witch

Average customer ratings
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

Would you be willing to try another book from Helen Harper? Why or why not?

I have enjoyed other books by Helen Harper

What didn’t you like about Tanya Eby’s performance?

Tanya Eby is American, not good at English accents or pronumciation, and a bad choice for a voicing character who uses so many English idioms that she must be English, nor for narrating a book that has such a very English setting.

What character would you cut from Slouch Witch?

Winter - he's a bully who willingly gives his loyalty to a corrupt organization headed by a man who openly blackmails people to get his own way, yet he's cast as the love-interest for the female protagonist.

Any additional comments?

Unfortunately, hackneyed but sadly pervasive (in paranormal fiction) trope of Girl thrown into position of being stuck working with handsome, powerful, overbearingly arrogant Man ends up falling for him instead of finding a way of slapping him down so hard he can't get back up.The amusing writing style and reasonably good plot, unfortunately, aren't enough to save this one from the offputting and irritating romance element.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, eccentric narration

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book is great, I loved the down to earth language and behaviours of the characters. Ivy is very "normal", Helen Harper hasn't fallen into the pervasive trap in fantasy literature of making her heroine super-good or special. Although she is a very talented witch, she is also very easy to relate to.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Brutus, every cat owner can appreciate his stubborn determination to get what he wants.

How could the performance have been better?

The narration is eccentric to say the least. A book set in England, with English characters narrated by someone with an American accent. The book is written in the first person so Ivy is portrayed with a US accent, even though her language is very British. (e,g, plonker, bloody hell etc). It jars when listening to it. Tanya's character accents are a bit hit and miss, some are good, but there are a few Dick Van Dyke moments with some attempts at British regional accents.
If you are American, imagine a book set in New York, with New York characters being narrated by someone with a Received English accent. It's perfectly understandable, but just doesn't sound right.

Any additional comments?

Once I managed to get passed the US accent using British vernacular, it was very enjoyable and will definitely be getting the next ones in the series.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Erm..

Liked the book. Hated the narration. The accent is all wrong for an English story, set in (the clue is in the word) England!

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Hated the narration, it was so annoying

I wanted to like this but the narration was so off putting. It done my head in and I kept tuning out. A very frustrating listen for me, and I don't think I fully absorbed the story as I was so annoyed by the narration. I think if you changed the narrator I'd actually enjoy it

She had a dodgy American / robotic accent and drawn out pronunciation. I don't know if she was trying to add dramatic suspense but it was plain awful.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great story and characters - slightly dodgy narration.

This is my first Helen Harper book and I've been avoiding this one for a while. The main reason being the title. It sounded to me like it had been dumbed down and for some reason it really irritated me - enough to keep passing it over. I've also passed over Helen Harper's previous audiobooks because of the narration. Having listened to the samples of previous books narrated by Saskia Maarleveld I just couldn't cope with an urban fantasy heroine with a clipped upper crust British accent. I know it's because I've listened to so many other urban fantasy books set in the U.S. with American narrators and it might sound a bit shallow. I feel I should be supporting British writers and narrators but I personally just didn't enjoy the narration so I couldn't warm to the main character or get absorbed in the story. So despite Tanya Eby's American accent sounding a bit weird narrating obviously British dialogue and idioms it's what actually tempted me to spend a credit on this one. And I'm so glad I did. It was a great story that was well paced and it was nice to hear some of our unique British humour. I absolutely loved the cat, Brutus. I'll certainly carry on with this series and maybe even try some of the previous books in paperback. My only criticism is again with some of the accents. The voice for main male character - Winter- who is supposed to become the love interest, sounds to me like a 45yr old banker. Despite him being written as a fit and attractive, if uptight guy, my imagination just cannot conjure up "sexy" because of the narrators take on his voice. However, I don't want to sound too negative. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good urban fantasy. It's great to read something in this genre with a distinctly British flavour to it. I just wish the publisher with the audio rights to Helen Harper's books would find a British narrator with moderate and likeable accent that would bring t

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brutus you are my hero

ii loved this! A heroine I can relate to and a cat that had me inappropriately wetting myself with laughter in A&E : what more could a girl ask for.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Bad narrator

I enjoyed the story but it’s bizarre using an American narrator for an English character set in England. She made so many poor pronunciations it was just infuriating!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Quirky

Funny and engaging story, hope there are more adventures, about Slouch witch and her speaking cat

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

A mistake, a mystery, and a will-they-won’t-they, all with a side of magic.

The premise of the story is good; a mistaken identity causes two witches to work very closely together to solve a crime.

The story itself has some nice sections, her devil may care attitude is fun. However I cannot say I enjoyed the book. It’s just bland! I wasn’t invested in any of the characters or even the will-they-won’t-they, I just didn’t care enough. Also I read a number of reviews slating the narrator, unfortunately they’re not exactly wrong.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Funny

Enjoyed the story, had some laugh out loud parts, very funny. I liked the two main characters, hoping they end up together.

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