Amazing audio book with an enjoyable narrator. It was a bit confusing at first but the plot quickly resolves itself. A young man and police officer killed, along with a child kidnapping and shoot out. Emma and Alibi must find out how and if they're connected.This was a pulse pounding story of cat and mouse.

Intriguing mystery--there is a lot going on but the story came together nicely in the end and wasn't too predictable. If you enjoy thrillers, this is a solid choice.

I started and stopped this book twice. I restarted it again. I thought maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention to it, but I can 't follow what is happening. Its isn't holding my attention and I hate the accent the narrator is trying to give to the characters from Ireland. The description sounded interesting, but so far I've given it enough time for a listener to know whether or not they want to finish an audiobook and I'm not giving it anymore of my time. I listen to over 100 audiobooks a year so I'm not new to this format. This one just didn't do it for me.

⭐⭐⭐

I have to say that this book started off like a bullet! It was action packed, fast paced, and murder filled. However, I felt that the author was scared of leaving something out and tried to cram all of the information in the first few chapters of the book. So many characters were introduced right away, at times it was very confusing. I also thought it was kind of odd that so many of the characters had accents, especially taking place in Sacramento.. I really did enjoy Emma and Alibi's characters and the amount of detail the author gave us. I liked how Alibi got his name and the little tid-bits the author added. I really wouldn't classify this a thriller, just a run of the mill murder mystery that had moments of suspense. I really didn't enjoy the narrator, something about her voice just really got to me. All in all, this was a pretty good start to a new series. I would definitely give the second book a chance! I probably would not attempt the audio version again.

Thank you to @netgally and @dreamscape_media for gifting me this audio book of #Allthatfall.

All That Fall had a lot going on. The first half seemed to be a way to introduce dozens of characters, many with some odd names, that would later be tied together fairly neatly. The second half was the unraveling of a conspiracy that included most of those earlier characters. If you can keep them all straight then you can enjoy the second half. At times I found my mind wandering, but that was mostly during the first half.

The narrator made it easy to differentiate between the main characters. Some of her accents were more successful than others. One made me cringe every single time to the point that I hoped the character would not appear again. For the most part the narration enhanced the story rather than detracting. Just that one guy...

Thank you to Netgalley and Kris Calvin for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The audiobook narrator, Caitlin Davies, did a fabulous job! There are a LOT of characters in this book and her narration (multiple voices) really assisted in keeping track of them.

Probably a 3.5 and rounding up to a 4.

This book has a lot of potential, but is missing something.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher (Dreamscape), the author Kris Calvin and the narrator Caitlin Davies for the opportunity to review this advance copy of All That Fall in exchange for an honest review. Publication date is 13 April 2021.

I listened to the audiobook of All That Fall by Kris Calvin. It was read by Caitlin Davies who did a great job narrating this book. Based on her performance of this audiobook, I would listen to other books she narrated. All That Fall was a stand alone book. It was fast paced and captured my attention immediately. The characters were well developed and complex. The plot centered around mysterious killings and a kidnapping. It was a complex mystery with a big cast of characters. All That Fall was the first book in a new series created by Kris Calvin. The new series will be centered around Emma Lawson, the recently chosen youngest woman ethics investigator in California. I look forward to reading more installments in this series.

Emma’s best friend, Kate, had talked her into opening a preschool with her. The school was designed to attract California’s elite’s children, and children of politicians and legislators. Among the children that would be attending the new school was the granddaughter of the governor. This was not Emma’s primary job but she was happy to support her good friend, Kate, in this endeavor.While the two women were in the last efforts of putting the finishing touches on the school, the community was up in arms because there was a serial killer on the loose. The serial killer was dubbed The Gambler. The Gambler targeted young men of color. His calling card, that distinguished him from others, was that he left several imported playing cards, believed to be of Nazi origin, on the victim’s dead body. The police had taken a suspect into custody. They thought they had apprehended the killer but then another killing occurred and the police were back to square one.

On the day before the grand opening of the preschool, the governor’s granddaughter was scheduled to show up with her nanny at the school for a tour. Unsuspecting, three year old Vivian sat in the back of the car with her headphones on immersed on her I-pad as her nanny exited the car. The nanny was met with gunshots as soon as she stepped out of the car. Somehow, someone had found out that the governor’s granddaughter was expected at the school on that particular day and time. The nanny was killed instantly. Emma’s friend, Kate, ran out of the office to find out what was going on only to be hit by a bullet as well. Luckily, Kate’s son Luke was present at the school that day. He was helping his mother out with last minutes things when he saw that his mother was hurt. When Luke tried to get help for his mother, he was mistaken for one of the team sent to kidnap Vivian, the governor’s granddaughter. He was forced to drive the the car with Vivian in tow to a undisclosed destination. Luke became the calming force and protector for Vivian. He knew he had to find a way to escape from the blue house. The men that were holding them there were bad and dangerous. He knew he had to get a message to Emma. She would save him and Vivian but how could he message her? Would Emma be able to put all the pieces together in time to save Luke and Vivian?

All That Fall by Kris Calvin was a very well written book with a riveting plot and complex characters. It explored white supremacy, racial tensions, greed, friendships, teenage behaviors and defiance, motherly love and kidnapping. It was suspenseful, fast paced and kept me guessing. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for allowing me to listen to this audiobook through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book had a lot more potential than I think it was able to deliver on. But I did really like the character of Emma (although at times she was super dumb for a smart lady. The opening was intriguing and the mystery was good. I did feel that the story could use a little more than blaming all the evil and bad guys on white supremacy, it felt more like a catch phrase answer instead of any real motivation. I also found Alibi to be an interesting character and a decent detective (even if he missed some obvious clues). If anyone else listened to this or read it can you help me understand how Luke’s accent didn’t give him away? Thanks! All in all it was ok. The narrator annoyed me at times and made me tempted to turn the radio on instead...but I would read/listen to the next book.

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced listener’s copy of All That Fall! The blurb of this one sounded a little like Mother May I, with a woman racing a clock to save a child.

There were a lot of characters introduced in the first few chapters. On audio, it's a little difficult to keep track of this many characters without being able to flip back and forth to remember who's who. As it turns out, many of the characters introduced in the first couple chapters of this book were largely inconsequential to the plot. This all likely would have been clearer reading a physical book, but 25% of the way through this book I was rather confused about who everyone was.

Once I got the hang of who the important characters were, I loved this story. I probably would have enjoyed it more if it just focused on Emma, Vivian, Luke, and the kidnapping plot, without the other confusion.

Luke’s character was amazing--he was quick thinking and smart, as well as sensitive to little Vivian. The ending of this book seemed like it was a setup for more books about Emma and Alibi, and I’m hoping we see more of Luke in the future too.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC of the audiobook for All That Fall in exchange for an honest review.

First off, this book is really convoluted. There are way too many perspectives and a lot of them are basically useless. You can write a good multi-perspective mystery if the mystery itself is tightly woven enough to necessitate it but All That Fall doesn't. It's generic good guy badass heroes and villains who's only motivation is white supremacy (I'm not saying some people do awful things in the name of white supremacy, but these were cartoon villains, not actual characters. I also really don't understand Calvin's want as a white author to write a book that brings up white supremacy this much while also having an all white hero cast). Were this limited to Emma, Luke and (maybe) Alibi's perspectives and the focus was shifted from the flimsy mystery/thriller to character relationships it might have been okay, but as is, I say nothing special here.

Thank you Netgalley for this audiobook of All That Fall by Kris Calvin.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. First off, while the narrator wasn't necessarily bad, she probably bit off more than she could chew with those accents.

A few minor beefs. While it presented as a cop/crime drama, it was also a bit to gushy for me. The dialogue too sappy, it hit silly against the suspense background. Because of that, it made it less believable, and so harder to invest in the story, or characters.

Basically, this just wasn't my cup of tea, I couldn't get into it.

I don’t know what to say about this book, The premise is good, The writing is good. There are a ton of characters that makes things slightly confusing and plot is slightly over complicated. Maybe it is easier to follow if you are reading the book, but at times I had some trouble remembering who was who. This was in no fault of the narrator who does a good job.

I requested this on a whim, but honestly what a great find! I listened to this in less than 24 hours. It was so good! Sort of a “dad book” political thriller feel, so if you enjoy those types of books, definitely check this one out. The story was great and kept my attention til the end!

My only complaint about the audiobook is that the narrator enunciated a little TOO much. But otherwise it was well done!

This was a solid mystery/thriller. The story held my interest and I kept wanting to know what would happen next. This was a story about survival, sharp thinking and secrets. The characters were well developed and the story line was consistent. Death and kidnapping were at the forefront of the story. If you are looking for a book that doesn’t take a ton of thinking but keeps you on your toes, this is the one for you.

There is so much wrong with this book. It started off so strong and I was very invested in the characters and storyline. But it quickly got almost lazy. How many times can you say white supremacy in a book? A lot, evidently. There was minimal character development and the author just seemed to blame everything on race and racially motivated crimes without any real plot or backstory. I mean some characters didn’t even have names, they were just “the white supremacist.”

This book just felt rushed and slightly ludicrous. I won’t spoil the ending, but it was just ridiculous. Like at the the level of an unarmed kid taking on a group of armed mob bosses and winning ridiculous. There are serial killers. Kidnappers. Cops. Drugs. Politicians. Race. Race. Race. There’s so much going on but also nothing going on at the same time. I felt that the author spent too much time telling you what to think and feel instead of allowing the reader to naturally think and feel based on the story. It’s like she just took all current events and smooshed them into one book. It just didn’t flow. There were so many ancillary characters that, even with voice differentiation by the audio narrator (who was great by the way), I kept having to rewind to try to follow which character we were even discussing.

Ugh I hate giving such negative reviews, but I do accept arc’s with the knowledge that I will always be honest. This book had SO much potential but, unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

I'm sorry to say that I did not care for this audiobook. The first half of this book was basically the introduction of a multitude of characters. This large number of characters who didn’t really seem to connect to each other was somewhat overwhelming on audio, and by the time I got to the meat of the story, I was just kind of tired. There was a lot of action and some suspense in the last half of the book and the storylines/characters did come together at the end, but this book just really didn’t work for me. The fact that I listened to audio instead of reading may factor into my feelings about this book. I don’t know, because I’m not planning to go back and read the print version to compare. At the time of writing this, there aren’t very many reviews posted for this book of Goodreads, and most of them are very positive. I am clearly an outlier, so others may very well like this book more than I did.

The narrator of the audiobook was good; I would listen to another book narrated by Caitlin Davies.

This was a great story. At times I Felt torn because on one hand there were so many view points it became confusing and jumbled but it also gave an insight and a well informed story. I really enjoyed the characters and the plot was really well worked out from most angles. I appreciated that the story didn't focus really hard on the police pov and took personal happens into the forefront of the story

I love the narrator’s voice, she is intriguing to listen to and hearing her read made it all the more interesting for me. I felt like the book was a little slow but I enjoyed the plot points and felt the characters were well described. I would love to see this be the first of a series, I would happily read more!

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

I assume this is the beginning of a new series. The first half of the book was introducing characters and the plot didn't really get going until the mid point. The character I liked the most was Alibi.

The book was ok. It felt like the author came up with a bunch of different ideas and then worked the story in order to fit it all in. All these coincidences just didn't work for me as a reader.

Emma Lawson is taking a day off from her high pressure job as a government ethics investigator to help her friend , Kate, open her new preschool. What should have been a relaxing, change of pace for Emma turns into a nightmare when one of the students, Vivian is kidnapped. The granddaughter of the governor, Vivian is obviously a pawn in a high stakes, dangerous game. And what about the disappearance of Kate’s teenage son? It must be linked to the kidnapping, but how? Emma is drawn into a world of racism, hatred, ignorance and murder as she fights against the clock to save the child. Calvin’s book is a bleakly realistic view inside 21st century politics, but it’s also riveting, Davies does an excellent job delivering the story in a just the facts manner that goes well with the compelling story