Comments on: Forever Fifteen

By: Karin

Karin — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 21:49:15 +0000

I absolutely loved this book. I can’t wait for the sequels. I’m so glad Lucy and John got together at the end. Would love to watch it as a series – probably a little more like Trueblood than Vampire Diaries though. Another one I can’t watch with the kids around. Oh well, can’t wait!

By: Kimberly Steele

Kimberly Steele — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 05:04:18 +0000

A week doesn’t go by when I get an inquiry about a sequel: this is very validating to me as a writer; makes me think I must be doing something right if people still bother to ask! So thanks 2dizzy for asking a question I get quite frequently. As of Sept. 2010, the film and television rights for Forever Fifteen have been optioned. For this reason, I’m “sitting” on the sequel material. All of you can probably already figure this out by yourselves, but the director of Forever Fifteen and I will have to hatch plots and subplots together, especially if it becomes a TV series and a movie (it could become either or both). Working on a second vampire novel currently called River’s Heart. It’s not in the Forever Fifteen universe, but if you like FF, you’ll probably enjoy it. Jenny, I love the Dexter reference. Funny you should mention him, he’s too soft for my tastes because I’m a truly warped individual. Lindsay, heading over to check it out now.

By: 2dizzy

2dizzy — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:46:37 +0000

Is there a second book? If so, where can I pick it up or where can I listen to the audio version. This book kept me entertained while working long hours at work.

By: LindsaySnider

LindsaySnider — Fri, 21 May 2010 18:07:07 +0000

Featured on my blog!
http://allyoucaneatplusmints.blogspot.com/2010/05/listen-listen.html

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 00:08:51 +0000

My impression from listening to chapter one is ‘Twilight meets Dexter”.

By: Melissa Colmenares

Melissa Colmenares — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:58:50 +0000

really loved it. ends perfectly. loved the characters, and how it all worked out.

By: Thomas in Korea

Thomas in Korea — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:38:27 +0000

An aside from the audio book, your music is hauntily beautiful!!

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:26:33 +0000

FANTASTIC!!! This Podcast is a MUST. Kim, is there anything you cannot do? You have more talent than any one person should be allowed. Looking forward to more of the trilogy.

By: Tomer

Tomer — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:21:50 +0000

Listened to it a few years ago and loved it. I just ranked it the highest possible ranking in all categories. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

SEQUEL, SEQUEL, SEQUEL!!!!!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:59:37 +0000

I had the pleasure of listening to Steele’s Forever Fifteen recently, albeit much later than its release. I have to say that this was much more entertaining and hearty than many vampire books I have read. I remember being quite disappointed by the recent vampire books and movie just released recently (I won’t mention it here, but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about). Steele’s book was a welcome adventure, and I look forward to reading more of her work.

By: Dariclone

Dariclone — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:05:14 +0000

One of the best stories about vampires in *any* medium!
I loved it all. I liked how you included Lucy’s past, it added realisim to the story, though I have to say I was always anxious to see what was going on with mordern times Lucy. Even though I’ve finished Forever Fifteen, I’ll definitly resubscribe at some point and give it another listen.
I can’t wait for Kimberly Steele’s next book and I am totally psyched for the movie!

By: Melacanth

Melacanth — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:05:47 +0000

Great story! I really enjoyed the characters and the plot line. I would have liked more info about the characters past but i guess that’s what sequels are for.

By: Thomas in Korea

Thomas in Korea — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:59:46 +0000

Kimberly, Queenie, Forever Fifteen and all others above.

A very polite rebuttal (well, not really a rebuttal) to Jan Karrel…

I’ve been listening to Podiobooks.com for several years now and have watched the library and quality grow at a steady pace over the years.

I initially downloaded this book over a year ago and just put it in my queue of books to listen to eventually. It sat there until I noticed Evo’s announcement of a possible movie deal. What!? Movie deal? That got my attention. Only a book with potential gets that kind of enquiry.

I slipped it onto my MP3 player and have spent the last few days listening. As with all audio books, I give myself a few chapters to adapt to the author’s voice. Most new story tellers take a few hours to become comfortable with reading a text and Kimberly was no exception. Even when they know the characters as Kimberly does, it takes a few hours to finally settle each character’s voice and speaking style into their brains.

At around chapter 14, Kimberly hit her stride. Each character began to take their own timbre and beat. Without the written context of “…, he said,” listeners were able to follow without confusion or waiting that extra moment to identify the speaker/character.

Like Jan Karrel above, I am not a big follower of the vampire genre and I must concede some of his observations. However, faults aside, I am most pleasantly surprised and pleased with the author’s effort and final production.

On another note, in today’s politcally correct environment, this book would probably be a hard sell to a publisher. If there was a reply, at a minimum, the response would be along the lines of, “could you make her 18?” Today’s acceptance of what is socially acceptable sexual behavior for print is at odds with the rest of human history and current realities. Kimberly took a big leap by incorporating historical fact and current fact into fiction that would otherwise be unacceptable today if written differently.

To wrap it up, I liked it. Minor plot issues aside, I feel she did a wonderful job! I am really looking forward to the possible movie and audio/written sequels.

Thanks Kimberly!

By: Jan Karell

Jan Karell — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:43:24 +0000

I want to write a quick reviewish thing about this one. I don’t know how to say these things though, I don’t want to go out and say the book is bad because it isn’t. But there were so many things nagging at the back of my mind that I just didn’t know how to deal with. The story was interesting, but I felt that it lacked a bit of plot. There was no goal anywhere and I waited half the book for somewhere for the characters to go. (there finally was some direction, and a couple of red herrings)

The combination of past and present worked fairly well. It gave you information about the present just when you needed it. Just the way these things are supposed to work. The only thing about the flashbacks I have to say though is just how annoying the Sebastian accent was… I nearly wanted to claw my eyes out but I managed not to 8^)

Another thing that felt weird to me was all the dark pasts of characters. Not to mention that when they talked about their dark pasts (Lucy in particular) the people listening took it a bit too calmly. I don’t know what the receivers believed but I think there was way too little freaking out in the book.

On the whole though I’m not a big fan of angst-filled dark vampire stories. Which was why I listened to this because I always want to challenge my likes and dislikes. This felt like something very typical to me though and it fulfilled most of my expectations of what an angst-filled vampire novel is supposed to be like. To end this semi-review I’ll probably say that this novel won’t make any new believers but people who are already into it I have no doubt will enjoy it.

By: Collin

Collin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:20:42 +0000

You see I disagree with the above. I think that Lucy’s past was kind of boring…I like her present life a great deal more. I actually want to know what’s happens. Does she stay with John? What happen with Sebastin? Anyway, i love the story it was well read and written.

By: quandmeme

quandmeme — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:33:51 +0000

Mixed review: Lucy’s history had depth to it, and I think that is what kept me subscribing. However, whereas the guy who turned her learned science and dark arts; Lucy was on autopilot. The modern Lucy was 15% as interesting as her past.

By: Forever Fifteen

Forever Fifteen — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:28:22 +0000

GREAT NEWS!! Kimberly Steele is currently in talks with award winning Canadian director Eva Madden to adapt Forever Fifteen into a feature film.

Plus . . . Kimberly Steele is working on her next audiobook novel, the Dream of Flight, which she plans to release here at Podiobooks.com.

By: zZzacha

zZzacha — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:04:41 +0000

The first weeks I saw this book on podiobooks, I wasn’t drawn to it. Maybe the cover picture put me off, I was expecting it to be ‘another chick book’ and I don’t like those very much – even tho I’m a girl myself.
After a few weeks, I read the book’s description a bit better and it sounded like a wonderful book! So I began listening and I was hooked. Great story, NOT a ‘chick book’ at all.
And Queenie, your voice is wonderful. I love to listen to audobooks in bed and your voice is great to fall asleep by. Not in a negative way at all! I love drifting to sleep with a soothing voice in my ears. Of course, it takes me a long while to finish a book that way, and that’s fine with me. I’ll keep listening to Forever Fifteen from time to time, so from time to time you’re in my dreams. Ain’t that funny :]
Thanks for this great work and please make some more!

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:37:41 +0000

At first glance I wasn’t sure this book would be interesting to me. Being that I’m a guy and there was a girl on the cover I thought it might be some prissy novel. But it was about vampires so I thought I’d give it a try. Man was I wrong. This story was great. I had to try to limit myself on the number of episodes I listened to in one sitting just to make it last long enough. My roommate probably thought I was nuts just sitting on my bed for hours at a time staring off into space listening to Forever Fifteen. Or when I took it with me to the restroom and laundry room not able to turn it off. Sadly all good stories must come to an end. You know a story is good when you feel a little depressed when it’s over. This was one of those books. I don’t know if there is going to be a sequel or if there even could be, but believe me if there is I’ll be one of the first to subscribe.

By: Kimberly Steele

Kimberly Steele — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:18:31 +0000

Wow–thank you, thank you, thank you for all of these great comments. I’ve been thrilled with the response to FF on Podiobooks.

Paul Fischer’s efforts are what made this possible. At one of the most trying times of my life when I simply had no access to my recording equipment, he swooped down and rescued the FF audio novel from obscurity. Using his own time and resources, he made this brilliant little podcast. I owe him a great deal.

One of the nicest things for me are the weekly arrivals of emails that I’ve gotten since I wrote FF. Please feel free to write me anytime personally at queenie +at sign+ queeniemusic.com if you liked this book.

It’s great to have readers telling me that it is a great story, not just a great horror story. I hope that I can continue to produce works that make readers feel the same way.

Sincerely,

Queenie