Watcher in the Woods by Robert Liparulo (Audiobook Review)

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Title: Watcher in the Woods
Series: The Dreamhouse Kings, book 2
Author: Robert Liparulo
Narrator: Joshua Swanson
Copyright: 2010 Blackstone Audio
Duration: 6 hours, 20 minutes
Genres: adventure, time travel, juvenile
Filed in: Audiobook Reviews
Review copy provided by Blackstone Audio

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: It’s not just the house that’s keeping secrets.
Pretending everything is all right is harder than it sounds. But the Kings know that even if they told the truth about the bizarre things happening in their house, no one would believe them. Right now they’re hyperfocused on rescuing their lost family member before anyone finds out what’s going on.
But when a stranger shows up to take their house, their options start dwindling fast. Why would he be so interested in a run-down old place? And what secret is he hiding—just as he hides the scars that crisscross his body?
The mystery gets stranger with each passing day. Will the Kings be able to find a way to harness the house’s secrets and discover who is watching their every move before another gets snatched into an unknown world?
©2008 Robert Liparulo (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: The King family is new to the small town of Pine Dale, California, and they are definitely not getting off on the right foot. Their new house, which is actually an old Victorian style that needs a lot of work, looks perfectly normal from the outside, albeit a little creepy. In reality, the house is anything but normal. Just a few days after moving in, the King children, Xander, David, and Toria, discovered the secret entrance to the third floor, a long hallway with lots of doors along either side. Each door on this landing is actually a portal to another place, and another time. These portals work both ways however, a fact that becomes painfully clear when a monstrous brute of a man comes in and kidnaps the kids’ mother, carrying her back through a portal with him.
That all happened in House of Dark Shadows, book one in the Dreamhouse Kings series. Now, in Watcher in the Woods, the three children, and their father Edward, must search the portals and try to rescue their mother. Of course it won’t be easy, because the portals are always shifting, no door leads to the same place or time twice. Also, the portals always seem to lead to someplace very dangerous, war zones, gladiator battles, etcetera.
If all that isn’t bad enough, author Robert Liparulo throws a few more monkey wrenches into the works. First and foremost is the mysterious Mr. Taxidian, who shows up rather suddenly trying to buy the old house. When Ed King refuses to sell, Mr. Taxidian takes stronger measures, trying to scare the Kings out by standing outside watching them at all hours of the day and night.
Next problem on the list is the injuries. Members of the King family keep showing up with bruises, cuts, scrapes, and even broken bones, and some people in the town are beginning to think the household is unsafe for the children. This is helped along by the insidious Mr. Taxidian who seems to have an unusual sway over the town council.
Finally, there is the even more mysterious figure of Jesse, an elderly man in a nursing home. Jesse wakes from a daydream one day muttering “The house doesn’t want them.” And other crazy things like that. Jesse becomes a bit more interesting when we discover that it was he who built the old house that the Kings now live in. Jesse seems very anxious to get to Pine Dale and warn the Kings about something, if only he can find someone to take him there.
Robert Liparulo does a good job of introducing new conflicts to keep the story interesting. I confess that I thought Watcher in the Woods would be about the Kings exploring one portal after another in search of Gertrude, but that really isn’t what happened at all. That’s a good thing; nobody likes a story that is predictable.
Joshua Swanson did a good job with the narration, just as he did with the first audiobook. Swanson is a popular voice-over artist, performing television commercials for advertisers such as McDonald’s, Midas, Hallmark, Lincoln-Mercury, Honda, and Baskin-Robbins.
The next audiobook in the Dreamhouse Kings series is Gatekeepers and I can’t wait to see what happens next. I’m especially interested in learning more about Jesse; why he built the house, and how it became the way it is.

CHECK OUT THESE OTHER AUDIOBOOK REVIEWS:
House of Dark Shadows by Robert Liparulo (Audiobook Review)
Watcher in the Woods by Robert Liparulo (Audiobook Review)
Gatekeepers by Robert Liparulo
Timescape by Robert Liparulo
Whirlwind by Robert Liparulo
Frenzy by Robert Liparulo

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If you like this audiobook review, you can purchase the audiobook here:
Get “Watcher in the Woods”, book 2 in the Dreamhouse Kings series by Robert Liparulo (Unabridged Audiobook) from Blackstone Audio.

This audiobook review is based on the unabridged audiobook.
Audiobook review by Steven Brandt
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