Rich, rich, beyond my wildest dreams.

As Alexa speculates on the possible success of her new tri!ogy, wishing for the fame and fortune her debut book had fleetingly brought to her, she is unknowingly transported to an alternate reality where her wish is about to come frighteningly true. Despite thoroughly enjoying many aspects of her new life style - the sex, the private island and more money than she could even sent in spending, she is repelled by her perceived situation, including her apparent power over life and death - and wishes things back the way they had been before. But how can that ever happen now?

Despite Alexa being a thoroughly unlikable main character writing in the first person, the initial half of the book is intriguing as she struggles to understand what is happening to her. But as the story unfolds and becomes more obviously paranormal rather than psychological, at least for this reader, it began to lose charm and the ability to hold interest. She seemed to be making far too much fuss over something she had deliberately brought on herself and others and, anyway, I simply did not care. The epilogue was slightly more interesting, however.

Author Karen Bell read her own story on the audiobook, not always the wisest of decisions, but in this case, justified. Her middle timbre voice was a little dull, tending to be monotonous at times, but for the most part conveyed the emotion written into the text, with reasonably good intonation and her voicing of other characters was excellent, with the exception of the British accent attributed to the chauffeur. Her reading was slow, however, and increasing play back speed to 1.25 helped without affecting the quality.

My thanks to the rights holder of When a Stranger Came, who, at my request via Audiobook Boom, freely gifted me with a complimentary copy. I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed the premise and the first half of the story but then felt that not only did the tale spin out of control but was too long, the main protagonist too unlikable to hold audience empathy and that psychological was far more interesting than paranormal, anyway. But the book has made an impression even though I doubt if I would recommend it to anyone other than a paranormal fan.

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