Title: Windswept
Author: Annabelle McCormack
Series: Windswept Saga #1
story dragged, characters rather unlikeable
I would like to thank Annabelle McCormack and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it was incredibly well researched and I loved that McCormack explored an often overlooked area of WWI; it was an interesting change of scenery that lent itself to fascinating descriptions and unique conflicts. On the other hand, several aspects of the novel were not to my taste.
It was so long. Thank god for playback speed options; if I hadn’t been able to listen at 1.5x, I probably would have DNF’d it. Granted, it’s not freakishly long, but definitely longer than it needed to be. It always felt like they accomplished very little from scene to scene, drawing out the plot and letting the mystery and tension go stale. I got so weary of not knowing who could be trusted and often forgot what the protag’s goals were. My attention wavered when Ginger was fired and there was a big setting shift, then by halfway I was only half-listening. It didn’t help that I didn’t much care for the characters or the plot. It also didn’t help that I’m not super into reading about war (I needed something to listen to and there’s not much audio selection on NetGalley yet).
Aside from the story dragging on and on, I didn’t like Ginger much. She struck me as incredibly self-centered, whiny, and arrogant. She often just did whatever she wanted. So irritating, insisting on getting involved in matters that didn’t concern her and for which she was not at all prepared. At times it felt as if her irresponsibility was used to propel the plot and infuse tension—which could work with a likeable character, but not with Ginger. Dealing with her felt like telling someone annoying to sit down and shut up so you can concentrate on important work, but the person keeps popping up and asking questions and criticizing your actions, telling you to do it differently when they have no actual knowledge or experience of the matter.
I didn’t like Noah, either. He seemed like a selfish and at times immature prick who only lusted for Ginger, not cared about her. Their “love” felt so forced. He also came across like he had no idea what he was doing; it just seemed like he could not get his shit together and focus. His plans seemed half-assed and/or reckless. And that engagement nonsense really pissed me off. That was totally a cheap twist meant to appear clever and astonish the reader, but I wasn’t having it; if he was supposed to appear engaged and I was supposed to respect him, he wouldn’t have taken advantage of Ginger the Dumbass that first time. Just—whatever.
It was also very unsatisfying to not see Steven (Stephen?) get his comeuppance, especially since I won’t be coming back to see what happens to the scumbag.
The narrator, Elizabeth Grace, was okay, she did voices well and I didn’t notice any distracting habits or mispronunciations—I failed to note if she was good at accents or not—actually, I remember that someone was supposed to sound Irish and Grace either did a very poor accent or didn’t do one at all, take what you will of that. What I did note about Grace was that she reads at rather a low somewhat-monotone, and in the beginning she made the story sound boring and made me feel tired. It was as if she were reading ASMR or something, audio meant to help someone relax or go to sleep. But eventually I got used to her and the boring/tired effect faded, or at least ceased being noticeable.
