3.25 stars
An interesting book with an interesting premise. Jane Doe comes from a clan of weredeer, the daughter of a shaman who has some rather unsavory skeletons in her past and a father who tries to stay upbeat and positive. Jane, however, just wishes she could escape her little hometown and do something interesting with her life. When an FBI agent with a penchant for magic comes to town to investigate a murder, she finally sees a chance to break free of the patterns of the past.

I like Jane. I think as a character she has potential. It's also nice to see shifters from a different point of view. Though I did get off track with this book earlier in the summer, I'm glad I finished it.

The book really needed another run through to catch mostly grammatical mistakes (missing words from sentences, etc.), but there was no egregious use of apostrophes in plural words.

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I Was a Teenage Weredeer
Bright Falls Mysteries Series, Book 1
By: C. T. Phipps, Michael Suttkus
Narrated by: Arielle DeLisle
This is an audible book I requested and the review is voluntary.
The only thing better than reading a hilarious Phipps book is having someone else reading it to you, someone professional! Yep, this book was awesome! Who knew deer love puns? It is an informative book too! Lol! They must have a sense of humor because Jane Doe, yes, Doe as in deer, is a weredeer! There is a whole bunch of shifters in this town. Vampires too. There is a serial killer too! Jane is drafted to help find it. Jane really grows up fast! There are a lot of secrets in this little town, some of it Jane is not going to want to know. Lots of action, danger, magic, creatures, mysteries, and humor! Very funny book!
The narration was performed excellently! Great job! ( )

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

This was entertaining. I am not going to lie - the thing that really caught my attention about this book was the title. Weredeer? Have I ever read a book about a weredeer? Of course not so you know I had to give this book a try just to find out more about this weredeer. It ended up being a really clever story with some great world-building. I am glad that I took a chance on this fun little story.

Jane Doe is a weredeer. I should probably mention that there are little bits of humor sprinkled all over this story as you may have guessed as soon as you saw Jane's name. Anyway, Jane's family owns a local diner where Jane works as a waitress alongside other members of her family. Since Michigan is one of only two states that are safe for shifters, the town of Bright Falls has a rather large shifter population. Jane's best friend is a werewolf and there are all kinds of colorful characters around town.

Jane learns that her best friend's sister has been killed and that her brother has been accused of the murder and decides to investigate. Weredeers often have special abilities and Jane is able to gather a lot of knowledge just by touching objects. Jane and her best friend hope that her special abilities will make finding out what really happened a simple task. Of course, things quickly get complicated and they find themselves uncovering a mystery that goes back quite a few years.

I liked Jane. I thought she was pretty brave to get involved with everything and she was never afraid of asking the hard questions. It was fun to watch her try to figure everything out. There were a lot of other characters in the book and I liked most of them. I did find it a bit difficult to keep everyone straight at times since there were so many characters that had a role. I did think it was odd that Jane's parents were almost always referred to as Judy and John instead of Mom and Dad.

I thought that Arielle DeLisle did a great job with this story. This was the first time that I have had the chance to listen to this narrator and I was impressed by her delivery. I thought that she was able to bring Jane to life and added a lot of emotion and excitement to the story. I wouldn't hesitate to listen to her work again in the future.

I would recommend this book to others. I had a lot of fun with it and found myself chuckling from time to time. There were a lot of pop culture references and puns worked into the story that kept everything rather light. I felt that the ending of this book was pretty satisfying but I may decide to pick up the second book at some point in the future.

I received a review copy of this audiobook from the author via Audiobook Boom.

Initial Thoughts
I found the book to be quite clever and enjoyed learning about the world that it was set in. I have to admit that the idea of a weredeer is what really made me want to pick up this book and Jane was even more interesting that I could have expected her to be. There were some parts of the book that had me chuckling and I thought the narrator did a fantastic job with the story so it was a good overall reading experience. ( )

The puns! The murders! The romantic entanglements! All that wereshifting! This was a very fun listen. Jane’s best friend, Emma, is from a different shifter clan but they are still as close as sisters. When Emma’s flesh and blood sister (Victoria) dies, Jane’s brother is the primary suspect. Jane goes on the hunt for clues, not trusting the authorities to catch the real killer. The FBI gets in on this murder as well and Jane has to work with the kinda spacey Alex Timmons.

The plot draws in more interesting characters, like a vampire coroner and the local drug dealer/gangster Lucian. Some witches pop up and Judy Doe’s shaman abilities come into play. Jane has some internal conflict with her parents’s expectations that she continue on in the shamanistic tradition. The action never ends and the story is never boring.

Be prepared for plenty of nerd culture references. Being a self-identified nerd, I reveled in this most of the time. Though there were a few moments when it felt like the authors were trying to shoehorn in just one too many nerdy references. Then there are the puns. They lurk around every corner. Most of the time, they gave me a chuckle but sometimes it was a groan. The story could be a touch too punny at times.

There’s a smidge of romance as there are 2 or 3 guys interested in Jane. I found this to be the true weak spot of the story. I don’t need Jane to be the center of romance with so many people at one time. She’s got enough on her plate as it is, trying to prove her brother innocent and all.

Over all, it was a fun light read and I enjoyed it thoroughly. 4/5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book.

The Narration: Arielle DeLisle was a great pick for this story. She sounds just like a young Jane weredeer. DeLisle also did a wonderful job with all the emotions being tossed around in the story. She had distinct voices for all the characters though I felt her male characters would sometimes use a touch more masculinity. I also liked the variety of accents and growls and such she performed. 4.5/5 stars. ( )

My original I Was a Teenage Weredeer audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

I Was a Teenage Weredeer by Charles Phipps and Michael Suttkus was an excellent audiobook. The story takes place in Bright Falls, Michigan. The town, for the most part, consists mainly of supernatural beings – vampires, shapeshifters, witches, Shaman’s, werewolves and more. Magic is prevalent in this story as is the spirit world and the world of puns … a curse for the Weredeer!

Jane Doe discovers that not everything is as it appears – there are family secrets, deadly pacts, and revenge plots. Jane finds herself smack dab in the middle and must discover not only the secrets and defeat the Big Bad Wolf but that she must also discover her true self.

Witty, well written and amusing. The dialog flowed naturally moving the story along at a good pace. The action and plot were cleverly executed. New Detroit was mentioned several times so the story is in the same time frame as Straight Outta Fangton.

I enjoyed the characters and felt the authors did an excellent job of developing them. I would have liked to have learned more about mom’s secret dealings but there was enough there to let people know she was NOT a good person – not evil but absolutely and undeniably NOT a good Weredeer! I thought the authors did a great job of word-playing (puns, sarcasm, personification, etc) - just perfect for the story.

Arielle DeLisle gave a wonderful performance; she did not stumble over the puns or other tropes. She was solid in her performance keeping the voices straight. I found her voice entertaining and calming as well. It was pitch perfect.

I enjoyed this book and while it comes across as a Young Adult, it is for anyone who enjoys supernatural and mystery genres. I look forward to reading more about Bright Falls!

There were no issues with the production or quality of this audiobook.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author. ( )