Susiesharp's 2014 75+ book challenge

Here we go again! I read so many great books last year and I hope to do it again. This year I will be concentrating on listening to all the audiobooks I've purchased but haven't read, and hopefully some of the ebooks too!

Welcome back!

Thanks!

#1-Something Rotten (Thursday Next #4) by Jasper Fforde, narrated by, Emily Gray

Another fun installment in the Thursday Next Series. Thursday has decided it’s time to come back to the real world, she has been living in the book world for 2 years, since her husband Landen was eradicated, but as you know trouble follows our Thursday and as much as she wants Landen back there are some bad people out there that want her eradicated in every sense of the word.

I so enjoy these books it’s been too long since I picked one up and it was the best way to end my year in reading! Hamlet was hilarious in his pining for but hating Ophelia and what he thinks of all the movies and books on his “life” and the Shakespeare’s , yes many more than one since he was cloned but none of them seem to have the originals talent.

Thursday gets Landen back and then loses him again, it is all a big game played by Goliath and new baddy Kaine who may or may not be a fictional character, who seems to have it out for the Danish, and who does Thursday have living her who else but Danish Prince Hamlet.

There is, as usual many great characters in this book but most of them aren’t literary characters and I missed them, and Miss Havisham!

Emily Gray as always does a wonderful job at the narration, I love all her different voices she is very, very talented!

I read the last book in 2012 and I think it is time I finished this series, so I will be listening to the rest of these this year.

4 Stars

Happy New Year, Susie. Looking forward to following your reading again this year.

Thanks to you too, Judy!

#2-Fear Nothing: A Detective D.D. Warren Novel , by Lisa Gardner

This book definitely had the creep factor that Lisa Gardner writes so well and it is now the second creepiest after Say Goodbye.

I love that DD has grown so much as a person I've always loved the writing of this series but DD has always annoyed me but the last couple books , well, since she got pregnant there has been a humanizing of her and I am glad for that. This one gave us a raw, injured DD and we saw a softer more vulnerable side to her which I enjoyed immensely.

This story kept me guessing and had some great red herrings including one I made up in head about the Warden that never did come to pass but I still think Gardner wanted me to suspect what I did. (*no spoilers*)

She also explores nature vs. nurture if everyone in your family is a psychopath, even though you didn’t grow up with them will it make you one too? When your father was a serial killer who kidnapped and tortured young women then buried them under your house, then your sister murders a child when she is just a child plus has killed a couple guards so is in prison with no hope of parole, but you were a baby these things shouldn’t have to be you should they? Adeline was the lucky one adopted by a doctor who really did help her so much and kept her from her past but when he dies… Adeline ends up making decisions that will change everything.

I was also fascinated by the Adeline’s condition; she doesn’t feel pain which sounds good on the surface but as Adeline shows us it’s not a gift but a curse because you have to live very, very carefully. Adeline has to check her body every night because an infection she can’t feel will kill her. I can’t imagine breaking a bone and not feeling it and just going on with your day.

Gardner also goes into the crazy murderabilia business where people buy letters and items from horrific crimes & criminals. Google it , it is more macabre than any book could ever be. I didn’t realize just how much there really was out there till I googled this to see what the correct spelling was, it is frightening and very odd!

All in all this is another great book from Gardner and I am happy to report DD is finally growing on me and I am liking her more and more. Another great read from Lisa Gardner! Highly recommend.

5 Stars

I received this book from netgalley and the publisher for a fair and honest review.

#3- Cocaine Blues (Phryne Fisher, #1) by Kerry Greenwood, narrated by, Stephanie Daniel

The last thing I needed was another series but that is what I got with this book, I really enjoyed the character of Phryne, she’s tough and funny and a sexual being( when you get towards the end you will understand this statement) who was way ahead of her time. This is the best kind of cozy with historical fiction thrown in. This series is set 1920’s and Phryne is bored with being a London socialite and at a party is asked by a gentleman to find out what is going on with his daughter in Australia so off she goes and so begins our adventure into the seedy world of cocaine and murder.

Sometimes a person forgets how long cocaine has been prevalent and how long it has ruined lives, what I found interesting is this wasn’t the downtrodden these were rich people addicted to cocaine and getting it right from their friendly neighborhood pharmacist. Along with this there is a story about abortion too this book and its characters seemed far ahead of their time yet at the same time you could tell the sensibilities were right for the time period.

The mystery was almost secondary to the fun cast of characters, although I did enjoy the mystery; I hope to see more of Dot, Sasha, and Cec & Bert.

I also plan on watching this episode of the TV show soon and see how it compares to the book.

I listened to this on audio narrated by, Stephanie Daniel and was totally swept up in her narration every accent was superb and everyone had their own voice, I am so glad she narrated the rest of this series. Then this morning I heard that Stephanie Daniel passed away last week and was very saddened since I had just discovered her wonderful talent but I will honor her memory by listening to the rest of this series and anything else she has narrated. RIP Miss Daniel thank you for sharing your beautiful voice the world.

If you are a fan of cozies or the 1920’s give this one a try.

4 Stars

Susie, I downloaded the first two Phryne Fisher books to my Kindle at some point last year when they were a daily deal. I am hoping to get the series started soon!

Great review! I love the Miss Fisher Investigates TV series, but have yet to read the books. I love the shows more from a period piece with wonderful wardrobes, setting and the banter between the characters.

Thanks,lkernagh I plan on watching the TV show this weekend, looking forward to it.

As an aside and a humble brag Bolinda Audio producer of the Phryne books shared my review on their Facebook Page and said..." Thanks for the review Susie - it's a great tribute to Stephanie Daniel. She will be missed."

#4-After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse (Sookie Stackhouse, #13.5) by, Charlaine Harris

Everyone has the whole rest of their life mapped out even if it is in just a few short sentences such as, they had kids and died in car accident that is pretty much all we get, however, I was left wondering about 3 characters Hunter & Quinn’s pages said they had many more adventures & Barry’s page said we may hear more about his life so it made me wonder are there more stories/books to come about these 3 characters.

I for one wasn’t quite as disappointed as some with the final book in the series but I’m just not sure I liked the whole mapping out of everyone’s lives in a couple sentences I felt these characters deserved better than that.

This took me about an hour to read because most pages have barely 2 sentences on them, if you are bound and determined to read this check it out from the library don’t waste your money on it, this could have easily been a .99 cent ebook not an $18.00 book.

2 Stars

#5-To the End of the Land by, David Grossman narrated by, Arthur Morey

This book was tough for me the story felt like it had ADD, I had a hard time with the cadence or flow of the text it was like she spoke and thought so fast it was hard to keep up especially as her thoughts raced from one thing to the next. I also didn’t really like these people much Ora was just a bit too odd for me, if not a bit crazy. I can see how some people may like this book the writing is beautiful but I felt like I was slogging through it most of the time and just wanted it to be over.

Arthur Morey was not the right choice for the narration of this book, this should have had a female narrator and I think Shohreh Aghdashloo would have been perfect. It was off-putting to have a man talking about her son suckling on her teet, also he has a very strong (in my mind) New York/New England accent and this book screamed for a Israeli/middle eastern accent and I am just guessing here but I doubt his pronunciations were correct. (and if they were correct they sounded bad without an accent). I will say I would listen to Morey again but not on a book where he is playing an Israeli woman. This was just plain bad casting and I think I would have enjoyed this book more with a different narrator. Although I did try to give up the audio and read the book but I couldn’t find the cadence of Ora’s racing mind.

I only finished this book because it was a bookclub book I would have DNF’d if it hadn’t been but I ended up reading some of it in print ,listening to some on audio and skimming some, and at the end a huge sigh of thank god that’s over!

Above are my thoughts on the book but this was a bookclub book that made for a great discussion and others in the bookclub loved this book, so even though this isn’t a favorite I would recommend it for bookclubs.

2 ½ Stars

#6-The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd narrated by, Jenna Lamia & Adepero Oduye

I maybe shouldn’t have started this one so soon after finishing The Wedding Gift because there were some similarities, but this book was different in that Sarah Grimke was a real person. The other similarity between The Wedding Gift and this book was the slave, Handful, was always hoping to escape she and her mama saved money so that they could finally get away and be free. But of course things don’t work out as hoped.

Sarah was so far ahead of her time that when she was gifted a slave on her 12th birthday she asked her daddy for remuneration paper so she could free said slave when she turned of age. As she grew older she was also not only an abolitionist but also suffragette at this time in our country's history these two and hand-in-hand.

There were times in this book when I wanted something happy to happen, just anything even a tiny thing but it never did. But this is probably more true to the real circumstances of these women’s lives.

I love Sue Monk Kidd’s writing and this was a good story if not at all happy. This book also had real people so I had a lot of fun researching after I was done. I loved the alternating chapters between Sarah & Handful because sometimes the same event was seen so differently from each woman’s viewpoint it was very fascinating.

The narration by Jenna Lamia & Adepero Oduye was absolutely spot on. As always Jenna was great as Sarah and new to me narrator Adepero Oduye was fantastic as Handful, I would definitely listen to more books by her. These two were great choices for these two women and all the secondary characters.

Fans of southern fiction won’t want to miss this one. I also learned a lot about Sarah Grimke that I never knew because I had never heard of her and that is sad because she did some amazing work.

4 Stars

Full Disclosure: I did receive an early review copy of this from Netgalley but then I saw that Jenna Lamia was one of the narrators so waited and bought the audiobook.

The real Sarah Grimke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Moore_Grimk%C3%A9

#7-The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax(Mrs. Pollifax #1) by Dorothy Gilman, narrated by, Barbara Rosenblat

Again, I did not want to start another new series but oh Mrs. Pollifax you are quite the woman!

Retired, widowed, grown children and bored so what is a woman to do when she is looking for some excitement? Well join the CIA and become a spy right??!!?? That is exactly what Mrs. Pollifax does; the CIA agent gives her a try, since no one would suspect a little old woman as being a spy but this simple hand off of information turns into something different from what Mrs.Pollifax or the CIA expected.

However this unexpected turn of events shows us that Mrs. Pollifax can take care of herself and she is no one to be messed with. She can also take care of others when things go horribly wrong, I loved her no nonsense attitude and her view of life and her friendship with Farrell and I hope there will be more of him in future books, there are a few characters I will be interested to see if they pop back up in the future. Mrs. Pollifax made me giggle and made me want to read more!

Barbara Rosenblatt narrated the audiobook and as always a fantastic job with many different characters, dialects and accents. You can never go wrong with this narrator.

I really enjoyed this book if you are a fan of Miss Marple or cozy mysteries give this one a try you won’t regret it.

4 Stars

#8- Speaks the Nightbird (Matthew Corbett #1) by Robert R. McCammon, narrated by, Edoardo Ballerini

A lot of this review is just my thoughts while listening to the book…

This book was so hard to put down between the great story and fabulous narration by Edoardo Ballerini I wanted the world to go away so I just listen without interruptions.

There were times this book made my blood boil , these sickening men the way they treated and talked to Rachel and she just had to take it but I loved that the author let us know that our champion Matthew was feeling the same way right along with me! Matthew is so far ahead of his time and has his own mind and doesn’t go along with the hive mind thinking of this witch hunt. I have all these feelings about Rachel’s innocence but when she asks Matthew to hold her hand my mind says, but, but what if she is evil?!!? Great writing plus the hesitation the narrator (Ballerini) puts into Matthews’s voice had me on the edge of my seat. Matthew getting the whipping just broke my heart and made me sick to my stomach but it was an amazing scene.

I can’t stand this Reverend Jerusalem the minute I hear his voice the hair on the back of neck stands up if she really is a witch she should smite him! And Bidwell too he is such an ass!

There are times I feel so bad for Rachel it makes me want to cry and I am not sure I would have such strong emotions without the fantastic narration.

I was a bit shocked by a certain scene with a horse.

From English gentleman, to slaves, to women, to Indian Chiefs and everything in between Edoardo Ballerini is so absolutely amazing! Ballerini has earned a spot in my favorite narrators list his narration of this book was absolutely amazing. I will listen to anything he narrates!

I don’t know why this has been shelved in horror because as usual the demons and devils are just good old human beings. This book is not paranormal, fantasy or horror it is just a good old fashioned mystery.

This was a long story (31 hours on audio) but it kept me rapt the entire time it never bogged down and I enjoyed every word. This was such an interesting look at life at the end of the 1600’s, the superstitions that ruled people’s hearts and the recent fever deaths that still remain in people’s memory. I will definitely continue to listen to this series especially since Edoardo Ballerini narrates them all!

I truly enjoyed this book and look forward to more from this author and narrator.

4 1/2 Stars
5 star Narration

Speaks the Nightbird sounds interesting, Susie, and I love historical fiction so this one goes on the wishlist. I suspect it was shelved as a horror book because that is Robert McCammon's usual genre.

I think you'll like it Judy! I see he has done a lot of horror but this one isn't at all.

Oh, that does sound like an interesting one - thanks for the review!

#9-Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune By, Bill Dedman & Paul Clark Newell Jr. narrated by, Kimberly Farr

It was very cool having actual interviews/phone calls with Huguette on the audiobook, this makes the audio version very unique but you still want to have the hardcover so you can see all the pictures of these amazing houses completely furnished but empty, so I feel like the audio version should come with a PDF of all the amazing pictures in the book because the two together are amazing.

I thought it was interesting how W.A. Clark (Huguette’s father) is not as well known as others of his time such as the Rockefellers but he was a huge Copper King in Montana and made scads of money, I also found his Montana senatorial race quite interesting too. There is a lot of background on Clark himself almost more than about Huguette but still a fascinating story.

Huguette was a fascinating woman and from the sounds of it generous to a fault, I think maybe some people did take advantage of her but I think others were truly surprised by her generosity. One thing that was never really fully explained was why she kept all these houses in pristine condition but never lived in them, it is almost like they are shrines to her family but she didn’t want to live there. I found it amazing that this woman who owned these mansions, palaces really, but she spent the last 20 years of her life living in a hospital room (no she was not sick) instead of these amazing homes boggles the mind and does make it seem like she may not have been right in the head but when you hear the phone calls with her cousin Paul she sounds pretty with it to me. She also seemed like a very caring person and once she befriended you, you were a friend for life and so were your children she would help out when needed. I felt like Huguette was just a sweetheart, in the phone calls with Paul she asks about family members and remembers so many things when Paul asks about them and seems genuinely happy to talk to him even though the end of the calls are very abrupt but I felt like she couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to take up their day talking to her not that she was being rude in the least but that people have more important things than to talk to her all day, which I feels says a lot about who she was as a person.

Narrated Kimberly Farr did a very good job at the narration and I would listen to her again.

This book is well written and I felt it was interesting all the way through, I highly recommend this book and its fascinating history.

4 Stars

#10-Sunrise (Ashfall #3) by Mike Mullin

The hardest thing for me in most apocalyptic / dystopian stories is what human beings become ; The inhumanity of man, towards man.

What Alex and Darla go through in this book is harrowing it's so awful to think that human beings could treat each other this way, it is horrifying and as Alex says (paraphrasing to avoid spoilers) “I had always believed that the human race would survive the massive volcanic eruption at Yellowstone, would surmount this disaster, just as we had surmounted so many lesser disasters before. But after… (NO SPOILER), I wondered did we deserve to survive?”

One other quote that made me giggle in this very serious story …
“Didn’t he used to be a flenser?”
“Yeah and I used to be a High School student.”
Uncle Paul turned toward me, a sad smile creasing his cheek,” Same thing, but with less cannibalism?”
I snorted. ”Yeah pretty much.”

Alex’s mom pissed me off in this book, I understand she had a lot to handle but she didn’t handle it well at all! I thought it was so neat that the younger generation is the one that took over and took care of everybody no matter what age. Darla was amazing she is a mechanical genius and I don't think Alex could have ever survived without her, or anyone else for that matter to me Darla is the hero of this little community. I loved how they brought out the best in people and made this safe place.

This series addicted me immediately to me it is a more realistic than other apocalyptic /dystopians because this could actually happen, I live only a couple states away from Yellowstone Park and this series scared the heck out of me, I even researched where the ashfall would be and needless to say I would be screwed and I honestly don’t know that I would survive as well as Alex and Darla in fact I’m sure I couldn’t.

Oh and when you get to the part where the cover makes perfect sense oh my just be prepared!

This was a great ending to this series however I wish it could go on because I would read more, the only thing that I was left wondering about; was the rest of the country/world in the same boat as the people in this book or were there places that were unaffected? Was this little part of the world just forgotten?

But I will be content with this ending and will look forward to anything else this author writes.

5 Stars
Full Disclosure: I received this book from Netgalley and the publisher(Tanglewood) for a far and honest review

#11-The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon narrated by, Cassandra Campbell & Kathe Mazur

This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time and I don’t think I took a breath for the last hour or so. I did not want to put this book down, I needed to know what exactly was going on with everyone in the book!

This is a great story, atmospheric, haunting, and addictive. I loved how all the stories came together and all the timelines were very well written and flowed beautifully with each other. The past & present stories were both great. I also really liked the characters especially Sara because I think she went through the most emotionally.

This is a hard book to review because the way the story wraps around it would be so easy to spoil it for someone and I wouldn’t want anyone to not get the full effect of how this story plays out. So much of the story leaves you guessing and wondering what is real and what is not and I enjoyed the parts of Sara’s diary that gives so many clues as to what is really going on but also leaves much unsaid or lost. The craziness of the first big reveal caught me totally off-guard it wasn’t something I expected at all and that makes for a great book!

Cassandra Campbell & Kathe Mazur were the narrators and I thought they did a wonderful job even if their voices are very similar you still knew who was telling the story. I thought they were able to bring a softness to the tale when warranted and creeped me out just enough!(which is a good thing)

This is so much more than a ghost story it is also a story of family and what that means and how you treat people may come back to haunt you (heehee see what I did there?). But the ending OMG the ending in reference to Katherine did she?? Didn’t she??? And poor Ruthie I feel bad for her. Sorry, but just had to have my say on that and make it spoiler free, when you read the book you will understand and Yes you really do need to read this book!

Lesson #1 from this book let the dead stay dead!

5 stars

Hi Susie, I didn't read the review on the third Ashfall book, but was excited to see that you gave it 5 stars and since I like a good shiver, The Winter People is being added to the list.

Hope you enjoy it, Judy!

#12- Masques (Aralorn, #1) by Patricia Briggs, narrated by, Katherine Kellgren

First of all if you are New to Patricia Briggs Do Not Start With This Book! Read either the Mercy Thompson or Alpha & Omega series these are both fantastic and should be your introduction to Briggs.

There is an introduction to this by the author who says that she wrote this book when she was a teen did a rewrite and this was her first book long since out of print, then after she started selling with the Mercy Thompson and the Alpha & Omega series they talked her into re-releasing this book she decided not to change much of it and hoped fans would still enjoy it. Well I did BUT it is no Mercy Thompson!

The story was good but the writing didn’t flow as well as her later books and the story didn’t grab me immediately and not let go like her newer books do. I will read the next in the series because I already own it but I know that there are 2 series Sianim, #1 / Aralorn, #1 and I’m not sure if I should read the Sianim 2 &3 before I read #2 in the Aralorn because it is #4 in Sianim which is a little confusing so will have to do some research as which way I should read them. I did enjoy the characters of Aralorn & Wolf and look forward to more from them.

Katherine Kellgren was the narrator and of course you can’t go wrong with her narrations however it was odd to hear her with an American accent, she does do it so very well but almost every book I’ve listened to she has a British accent but as always all of her accents and characters are very distinct and well done!

This isn’t a bad book, it just doesn’t live up to her newer works.

3 stars

#13-Guests on Earth by Lee Smith Narrated by, Emily Woo Zeller

I enjoyed parts of this book and thought other parts (the ending especially) weren’t as good. I like the character of Evalina and my second favorite was Dixie, I felt these two were the most fleshed out of all the characters. However Evalina’s love life was confusing to me and I didn’t really understand her attraction to Pan and didn’t really understand why she was leading these men on. Also it was never fully explained how she ended up back at the hospital and what really happened to her in Paris and after she went to her father’s house again which is part of the more I mention later!

There were times the story jumps and it was jarring and made me feel like I missed something I went back on the audio a couple times thinking I zoned out and missed something but that wasn’t the case. This book starts out with the news report about the fire at the Ashland Hospital but when the time came for the fire it was rushed and very anti-climatic the story of the fire was in the last 9 minutes of the book, it was pretty much there was a fire and these people died, the end.

This book mixed real and fictional people including Zelda Fitzgerald, I am not a big F.Scott Fitzgerald fan so the inclusion of Zelda was just another famous person to me, I actually wanted to know more about Mrs.Carroll tutoring Nina Simone in music but that was just talked about in passing.

I guess what I wanted in the book was more, more info about the characters, more about the hospital which actually seemed like a very good institution especially for this time period. Of course the insulin shots and shock treatments were awful, but they mentioned that they were not doing lobotomies which is something, and these women do seem to have been treated well and not abused, plus given arty things to do singing, art, playing music etc. so this was a different look at institutions in this time period then I’d read before.

I recently re-read Maggie O’Farrell’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and now after reading this one I really wanted to know the various reasons women were institutionalized so I have now checked out the book ‘The Female Malady’ which explores some of the reasons women have been institutionalized throughout history. So in that aspect the book did its job it made me curious about why a lot of these women were put away.

Emily Woo Zeller was a good narrator although our lead character didn’t have a southern accent (and I thought she should) the only one that did was Dixie which was overdone but it did fit with Dixie’s personality she was very over the top herself. But overall she did a decent job and I would listen to her again.

At times this story bogged down and at other times I enjoyed the story so for me this is a 3 Star book barely 3 but 3 nonetheless.

3 stars

#14-The Book of Obeah (Crossroads #1) by Sandra Carrington-Smith Narrated by, Dave Fennoy

I really liked this book; however I am not sure I would have liked it as much if I had read it in print. But since I did listen I really enjoyed it, it was suspenseful and kept me on the edge of my seat. This is paranormal suspense about Voodoo and Hoodoo.

Melody’s grandmother dies and asks that Melody take her ashes back to the Louisiana Bayou, but what her grandmother doesn’t tell her is the inheritance of “The Sight” that she also passed on and that there is an old book that she needs to take care of as there are many willing to kill for. Melody didn’t know anything about Voodoo or Hoodoo but soon finds out her grandmother did which comes as a shock to Melody. When she gets to Louisiana things get even weirder plus she is threatened by a man who says the book her grandmother stole is his and he will get it back no matter what. So we have a mystery a family story with some ghosts and hoodoo going on!

This isn’t a story I would have been drawn to but since it is up for an Audie Award I listened to it and am glad I did, it had just the right amount of suspense and the paranormal add a little Catholic Church baddies to the mix and this made for a good story. I was glad a certain someone didn’t end up being a bad guy (you’ll know if you read it) and I am curious if that relationship will go on to the next book (which there is not an audio and that needs to be remedied!). I am curious if certain characters will carry over and which ones that will be. I liked Melody I thought she took everything in stride and it was a lot to take in and I’d love to see how she goes forward and what becomes of ‘the Sight’. This book grabbed me enough to want to continue on with the series.

Even though our heroine is female it didn’t bother me at all that this one was narrated by a man because he was amazing and added to the spookiness of this book. Dave Fennoy has this voice it’s the voice of every scary Voodoo witch doctor that’s ever been heard or read he was perfect for this book. His voice is a cross between Barry White & Dion Graham and I really liked it and was very surprised to find out this was his only audiobook on audible so did some digging and found out he is a voice over actor and has some impressive credits to his name in commercials, animations, games and documentaries. I for one hope he narrates the second book in this series because it won’t be the same without him! I also hope he will narrate more books because I could listen to him all day! There were times the music between chapters was annoying and times it felt like it fit in so just a warning to those of you who don’t like music in your audiobooks.

4 Stars
5 Star narration

I had the awful flu last week and now this week my father in law is going downhill fast they gave him hours yesterday but he is still hanging in there, I have finished a couple books but just haven't gotten around to reviewing them. Am headed to the nursing home to sit with him, there is nothing else we can do.

So sorry to hear about your father-in-law, Susie. A very hard time but hopefully he will know and get comfort from your being there. ((Hugs))

Thanks, Judy! He is still hanging in there but they called this morning and said he had a rough night.

A very tough time for your family, I'll be thinking of you.

Thinking of you.

Oh, Susie, I'm so sorry about your father-in-law. I'll be keeping you and your family in my thoughts.

Thanks so much everyone he passed away peacefully yesterday afternoon. It's tough but he is free from pain now. Thanks for your thoughts everyone.

#15-The Ghost Writer by John Harwood Narrated by, Simon Vance

I so enjoyed John Harwood’s book The Asylum it kept me interested all the way through, but with The Ghost Writer it was very easy to get distracted and the back and forth between Viola’s story and Gerard’s was at times very confusing especially on audio. And the ending was rushed and very abrupt, I thought there was one more chapter but no it just ended and was very unsatisfying.

Simon Vance’s narration was very well done and he added a good degree of spookiness to the reading however even he couldn’t save me from the dragginess of this book. ( I don’t care if that is not a word I think it fits well!) Maybe this would have worked better with 2 narrators one for Viola and one for Gerard, but I don’t think even that could have saved this one.

I didn’t hate this book but I sure didn’t love it, it was just an okay read for me. I also think the title gives a lot away I mean it is obvious very quickly just who the ghost writer is so it kind of takes away the mystery of that, leaving no feeling of mystery or urgency.

In the last month or so I have read some really great ghost stories and maybe that is one of the reasons this one fell short for me is because the other ghost stories were so much better.

2 ½ Stars

I received this book from the Audiobookjukebox.com Solid Gold Reviewer program and the Publisher Blackstone Audio for a fair and honest review.

#16- Night Broken , by Patricia Briggs

Loved it!! As always Patricia Briggs writes a fantastic book!

Mercy is again chased a big baddy but this time it is because of Adam’s ex- Christy, and what an awful piece of work this woman is! She plays people off each other and makes them feel sorry for her, but I thought Mercy handled it beautifully. I felt so sorry for Jessie being in the middle I thought she handled it very maturely and always made sure Mercy knew she didn’t feel the same as her mother, she has matured into a very impressive young lady.

We also got a reappearance of Coyote and one of the Grey Lords but our big bad in this book is a volcano God Guayota and if you do some research as Patty did you’ll find that this is an actual myth the big dogs and Tibicenas all come from a real myth which is so neat. We also meet Mercy’s “brother” Gary Laughingdog another child of Coyote I look forward to seeing where this relationship goes.

We also found out some new things about Tad and I sure hope everything works out for him, but maybe we will get to have Zee back in the next book, I have a feeling from some hints at the end that we may have a trip into “fairyland”(the fae rez) in the next book.

I felt the ending was very abrupt , and really wanted more, of course these books could be a thousand pages and I would probably still want more! I wish I didn’t have so long to wait for the next one!

Some other random thoughts:
I was hoping Guayota would burn down Adam's house so they could start over with house that is his and Mercy's alone, not one that was decorated & lived in by Christy when she and Adam were married!

Wish Bran would have made an appearance guess we have to wait for the next Anna & Charles book for that.

I love Adam & Mercy and was happy with how she handled Christy especially the ending that made me laugh out loud! And I am so glad Adam is such a good man and that his and Mercy’s mate bond is so strong that it didn't turn into an idiotic triangle.

Loved Honey in this book she's really coming into her own since Peter died and I think Mercy has a potential friend in Honey.

Will be curious to see how the Joel thing plays out.

So much good stuff in this book, and so much more to look forward to in future books. I love this series it just gets better and better.

5 Stars

#17- Unfit by Lara Cleveland Torgesen

Wow this is something I never knew about and it breaks my heart, this book was fascinating it felt like a true story but was a fictionalized amalgamation of different people, and it worked well, I really came to care about Chrissy.

I never knew anything about the eugenics program before and was horrified that this happened in our country and how long North Carolina held on to this antiquated practice. If you don’t know what I am talking about eugenics is- forcing sterilization procedures on thousands of people deemed “unfit” to reproduce. And who decided this? People with fancy degrees who thought they knew better than anyone else. Kids who were sent to juvenile hall were sterilized, and girls like Chrissy whose mother was on welfare were threatened if she didn’t have the surgery they would lose their benefits, Chrissy’s mother worked a job but it wasn’t enough to raise all of her children. And yes before you think it Chrissy’s parents were married and had children then her father was killed in a car accident that is when they ended up on welfare.

That Chrissy was ever able to love & marry and have a happy life was a credit to her strength even when she felt she had Unfit tattooed across her forehead most of her life. How awful would that be to be told at the age of 14 that you are unfit?? Especially when Chrissy’s mother dies too and she loses all her brothers and sisters and feels the guilt of being mean to her mother after the surgery and what really bothered me they didn’t sterilize her mother and how could Chrissy not feel anger towards her mother who had signed the papers before Chrissy was even told what would happen to her.

This book grabbed me right away and was hard to put down, it is a fascinating read and well written. My only qualm was I so wanted Chrissy to find her siblings, I wanted them all to be okay and had been raised by loving happy parents but with a book like this the reality is she probably never could find them especially the little ones, but I wanted a happy ending for Chrissy, I wanted to hug her and tell her everything would be okay, so the author did a great job at making me care about the characters in this book. This book is a must read , about an embarrassing and heartbreaking time in North Carolina history.

5 Stars

Full disclosure: I received this book from Netgalley and publisher for a fair and honest review

#18- Clover by, Dori Sanders

When I requested this book I thought it was right up my alley it sounded like something I should love I have been trying to read this little book for weeks, it just didn't grab me and was very easy to put down and try something else. The writing is sparse and I wanted more, I wish there had been more background on Gaten and Sara Kate instead of jumping right in with his death , it was hard to tell just how long Gaten and Sara Kate had been dating before they married. There were also times it was hard to tell if it was past or present.

I liked the last 50 or so pages the best it gave me the most insight into the main characters before that I just didn't feel much of a connection with the characters.

From the afterward we see this is somewhat autobiographical, but without the white step mother and maybe this would have been more interesting if she had just told her family's story.

I wanted to know more about the characters and by the time I started to the book was over. This one just didn't do it for me.

2 1/2 stars

I received this book from Librarything and the publisher for a fair and honest review.

#19- Missing You by Harlan Coben narrated by, January LaVoy

Harlan Coben has written another non-stop thriller that will leave you on the edge of your seat, and make you never want to stop reading! This book grabbed me immediately and never let go till the very end. I really like the character of Kat and would read more books with her in them.

What would you do if you found your ex (the one who got away) on a dating site well you find his picture but the name isn’t the same and when you message him he at first doesn’t seem to remember you. As if that isn’t bad enough some kid (Brandon) shows up at your door saying that same man went away with his mother and he thinks she is in trouble. Throw in a mystery about who really killed Kat’s father and away we go on this rollercoaster ride of a story. Be ready for twists and turns and red herrings, which will keep you guessing all the way to the end.

I love Harlan Coben’s books he always writes a good solid story with a mystery that keeps you on your toes, there was one part of the story I had figured out but my theory was not what Coben ended up writing so I still wasn’t 100% right and I love that in a mystery. I liked the fact that there weren’t any cardboard cutout characters in this book each character had their own identity and back story, which made me care about them even the ones that didn’t last long.

January LaVoy’s narration was very well done I liked that you always knew who was talking and that everyone had a voice, I must mention though there are times some of her male characters sound like cartoons but that was only a couple people so it was easy to overlook. This is my second narration by January and I really enjoyed both so I will seek out books where she is the narrator. Very well done narration.

If you can’t already tell I loved this book, so the only thing I can say to you is, what are you waiting for get to listening!

5 Stars

#20- Savage Girl By, Jean Zimmerman Narrated by, Edoardo Ballerini

This book grabbed me from the start and it did keep me guessing as to who was killing the men, however there were times the story was disjointed and hard to figure out when in time it was, because it is told in flashbacks.

I liked it but I didn’t love it. Parts of this story I really enjoyed and as I said it kept me guessing and I would have never guessed who the eventual killer ended up being, so that was good, but the way the story was told I felt hampered the story. I felt at times it was because Hugo, who is telling the story, was so frenetic and so the story felt that way too.

I also felt I didn’t really get to know Bronwyn (savage girl) at all even though this story is about her and I also felt like Hugo didn’t really get to know her either and that his fanatic love for her that was on the verge of obsession was all in his head from his first meeting with her, so their “love story” almost felt forced to me because we the reader had no idea just what her feelings for Hugo may have been. I wanted to know more about Bronwyn and wish there would have been a little more about how the family was able to get her from Savage Girl to ladylike Bronwyn.

What I did enjoy was the sense of the time and it also has a bit of a gothic feel and the edge of your seat I can’t figure out who the real murderer is, was well done.

I received this book from netgalley and when I started reading the ARC I realized I was reading it in Edoardo Ballerini’s voice, so I took to twitter to tell the publisher that he should narrate this audiobook and my answer came from Edoardo himself saying he had just finished recording it and it would be out soon. So needless to say I stopped reading the ARC and waited for the audiobook and I was not disappointed, his narration was perfect his accents and characters were spot on and I found I was right his was the perfect voice for this audiobook.

This was a good story but the frenetic way it is told is a little off-putting.

3 ½ Stars
5 Star Narration

Hi Susie, here I am so far behind again. Trying to spend a little time here everyday and get caught up. Hope everything is going well with you.

I know what you mean Judy. I've been having the same problem.

#21- Veronica Mars: The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas, Jennifer Graham, narrated by, Kristen Bell

I feel this is a must read/listen for Veronica Mars fans. I will say if you are going to listen to the audio don’t expect professional narration but expect Veronica to tell you the story, which I for one felt was only right. I think I would have had a hard time with anyone else reading Veronica than Veronica herself. I thought she did a good job at the narration and no one else could capture her little quirks of cadence and snark that the TV Veronica did so well and it made it easier for me to see the scenes in my head. I thought she had Mac’s voice down pretty good but at times it wasn’t consistent and I wish she had done a little more with Wallace & Keith’s voices, but overall I was very happy with how this was narrated and I am glad Kristen Bell herself did the narration as I said I can’t imagine hearing anyone imitating Kristin’s take on Veronica.

This was a good story that started just weeks after the events of the Veronica Mars movie. I enjoyed the mystery and would have never guessed the outcome. Plus the added bonus of having these characters back in my life, it was funny I kept thinking where is Dick Casablancas, then tada there he was. Also I love Keith and every scene he is in, even in the book, he brings happy goodness with him, the last few scenes had my heart racing and soaring and all I could think was I love you Keith Mars! There are a few family surprises in this one as well *No Spoilers* that will tug at your heartstrings.

I was delighted that this story was so good it’s a great mystery that had lots of twists and turns along the way and kept me guessing all the way to the end and surprised me with the outcome.

As I said this is a must read for fans of Veronica Mars if we can’t have her on our TV screen at least we have the books to get us through

***Movie Spoiler*** Please stop here if you have not watched the movie
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
I still have a hard time picturing Logan in the Navy and I wish there had been more than just a couple Skype conversations with him. Hopefully he will be back from sea in the next book. And yes there better be a next book.

4 ½ Stars

#22-The Daring Ladies of Lowell: A Novel by Kate Alcott, narrated by, Cassandra Campbell

This was such a great book, it’s not only the story of the ladies that worked at the Lowell Mills but also a murder mystery, fabulously written by the author and fantastically narrated by Cassandra Campbell.

This was a fascinating look at the working conditions of the cotton mills of Lowell, how sick these girls got because the windows were closed and their lungs would fill up with so much cotton they would cough up balls of cotton. How awful is that? Also the machinery isn’t in the greatest condition and accidents happen more often than they should. All of the ladies are well written and each has their own voice. Alice is the main character, but the other ladies are great too and poor Lovey, she had so much going for her but her murder and the trial that followed brought about small changes in the mill that were good for the workers, not as much change as they should have had but as one worker said it’s uphill from where we were before. Of course, the owners of the mill are pretty much bad guys not wanting to change anything that would affect their bottom line and Hiram Fisk is a huge jerk. He has two sons one that truly wants to help the ladies and one that is just pretty much a waste. (Can you guess which one is involved in the love story?) There is a chaste love story that doesn’t overwhelm the book and actually had me hoping things would work out for the two of them.

Cassandra Campbell’s narration of this one is just superb; it may be my favorite of all Cassandra’s narrations to date. Everyone had a clear voice and you always knew who was talking, her narration of Hiram was perfection! All of her characters and accents were so perfect I absolutely loved this narration, and I have been a fan of Cassandra’s for awhile now but I think this is my favorite and I was very surprised it didn’t win an earphones award and won’t be surprised to see it as audie nominee for best female narration next year!

This book was a great story and I will read anything Kate Alcott writes I really enjoyed her book The Dressmaker too! If you like historical fictions with a good story give this one a try.

5 Stars

You would have got me with The Daring Ladies of Lowell but I already have it on the wishlist!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did Judy!

#23-Whimsey: A Novel by Kaye Wilkinson Barley narrated by, Susanna Burney

I want to live in Whimsey! This book proves not only can you go home again but that you should. Emma tried to leave Whimsey in the past but when things go wrong in her life and her artistic jewelry line takes the hit , she eventually figures out she needs to find her inner magic again and with some help from her long dead aunt Elizabeth the only place that it can be found is on the island of Whimsey. I loved the scenes with Aunt Elizabeth and the crayon and the story of finding you crimson, we all need this lesson!

I also enjoyed the pixie Earlene, I loved that she made silver glitter fall off of Emma without her even realizing it. Oh who am I kidding I loved every character in this book. The whole ensemble is there for a reason each with their own set of advise to Emma and when she finally decides to listen to all the people and island are trying to tell her things get much better for. I also want to see her jewelry; I want to see these colors the colors of a sunrise on Whimsey with colors no one has a name for.

This book is right up there with Sarah Addison Allen in southern magical realism; in fact I think these two authors should get together because the big grand opening of the gallery needs a caterer and who better than the Waverly sisters!

Susanna Burney narrates this book; her narration is good my only quibble was that sometimes her voices weren’t consistent. But overall I enjoyed her narration she didn’t go full out on a southern accent so it sounded fake she just had a hint of it that made it believable, her characters were good with my one quibble being the exception.

I highly recommend this book to southern fiction lovers, especially fans of Sarah Addison Allen. This book has the same feel good aftereffect that Sarah’s books do. I was surprised to find this is Kaye’s first novel; I look forward to reading anything else she writes!

5 Stars

I received this book from the author for a fair and honest review. Thanks for the pleasure of listening to this delightful story!

#24- He's Gone by Deb Caletti narrated by, Cassandra Campbell

This is a quiet, slow moving mystery that felt like more of a deconstruction of a marriage than a mystery. I kept waiting for a Gone Girl Twist that never happened. After Dani’s husband goes missing she goes through every minute their relationship and realizes it wasn’t the great love story she thought it was. And honestly the more she reveals about who Ian is I can’t help thinking why the hell would you want him back anyway! Plus Dani’s self-deprecation and whining got on my nerves, she wasn’t a very likable character either.

I’m not sure I liked this book, but I didn’t hate it I just didn’t feel like it was a mystery. Yes there is the mystery of what happened to Ian but that feels almost secondary to Dani going through their entire relationship with a fine toothed comb.

Cassandra Campbell’s narration was really good, she had just the right amount of emotions in her voice and when Dani is feeling overwhelmed and frantic the narration conveys this superbly. As always Cassandra’s narration is very well done.

I’m sorry but this book was forgettable and the reveal of what happened to Ian felt rushed and didn’t have any impact on me at all. I wanted to be shocked or even the least bit interested and it just didn’t happen.

2 ½ star book
4 ½ star narration

#25- The Other Story by Tatiana de Rosnay narrated by, Simon Vance

I have loved all of Tatiana's other books but this one just didn't do it for me. It had a lot of very descriptive sexting scenes that took me right out of the book and even Simon Vance's narration couldn't get me back in.

This book was about an author, Nicholas, I did have to kind of giggle, the title of the book in the book was called ‘The Envelope’ and the author Nicholas who turned into a jerk after his first book is a hit and made into movie. Ummm Nicholas? The Envelope? Or was it The Notebook? Heehee, not sure but that is where my mind went.

I kept listening hoping this book would get better and that the sexting storyline wouldn’t last the entire book but that turned out to be the majority of the story, bordering on erotica (at least in my mind). I guess it was to show what an ass Nicholas was but it could have been a short couple pages and not taken over the entire story. My problem with this was by the time we do get a few passages about Nicholas and the family secret I didn’t really care, Nicholas is a pig, and I didn’t care where he came from or what his family secret was.

Simon’s narration was well done as always but I felt like I didn’t know how old Nicholas was supposed to be because he sounded like an old man, but Vance does some great accents German, Russian, French, American. But it was almost embarrassing to me listening to these sexting scenes, at least when you are reading in print you can skip these but when listening that isn’t a choice. Honestly though this was such a huge part of the story I don’t know how much book would be left if I skipped all those scenes.

I will read Tatiana’s next book but hope she gets back to her true storytelling gift that have made me a fan!

2 stars

Your's is the second review of the Tatiana de Rosnay that I have read recently, I think this one gets a pass from me.

#26-Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats by, Kristen Iversen

This was a fascinating look at the Rocky Flats, Colorado plant that built the “triggers” for the atomic bomb, and produced a lot of plutonium waste that affected people’s health that lived around the plant. However according to the government everything is fine and no one should worry.

Kristen grew up next to the plant though neither of her parents worked at the plant, plenty of her friends’ parents did, plus she rode horse and played within close proximity to the plant never realizing it would affect her health years later. That is the scary part about this contamination your symptoms don’t show up immediately it takes decades in some people for the cancers to show up.

At first I was a little put off by her family story since neither of her parents worked at the plant so I didn’t really understand why there was so much about her fathers alcoholism but then she said ‘I couldn’t tell one story without the other because as big as Rocky Flats was in my growing up so was fathers alcoholism they went hand in hand in my memories.” (This is paraphrased) but it made me understand why the two stories needed to be told.

What I found most upsetting in reading this book was; the government cover-ups that went on for decades under the shroud of national security, the tons and tons of missing plutonium, the barrels of waste rusting and leaking into the ground, and that this place even after “clean-up” has no warning signs for people using the reclaimed land as a park. It also amazes me how stupid we were about the effects of plutonium that they built this plant 15 miles from the huge metropolis of Denver. And the lies that the DoE was checking on the levels out there and come to find out that the company that owns the plant send them a memo/report saying everything is fine and we have checked and it was all lies but was rubber stamped by the people that were supposed to be protecting the peoples’ health.

The sad part is Rocky Flats is in no way alone there are numerous plants around the country with these same problems and when you look into nuclear power plants you open up another scary can of worms about the waste from those too.

I think this and books like it are very important to read and research for yourself. I highly recommend this book.

4 stars

Some other observations, articles, videos & documentary-
can be found on my blog :
http://www.misssusiesreading.blogspot.com/2014/04/full-body-burden-growing-up-in...

#27- Rage Against the Dying: A Thriller (Brigid Quinn #1) by Becky Masterman narrated by, Judy Kaye

I really enjoyed this book, even though I didn’t understand Brigid’s decisions some of the times, I really liked her and will definitely read the second book in this series. I was impressed to see this was this author’s first book and think she has a good career in front of her.

From the moment we meet retired FBI Agent Brigid Quinn we know she is no shrinking violet ready to buy a walker and toddle on into retirement, oh no Brigid Quinn is a badass no matter what her age is. There are times though that I was wondering about her decisions, there is actually many of them that make you go hmmm, however, I needed to know what happened next, I also needed to know why she made the decisions she did, there had to be a reason behind it. The more I learned about Brigid and why she does the things she does made me like her more and more as the book went on.

All the secondary characters are fully fleshed out and I really hope that certain people will be back, okay that was ambiguous I know, but there are characters you need to worry about to enjoy this book and I don’t want to spoil it for you.

This book is a thrill ride from beginning to end, it is a hard book to put down I didn’t ever want to stop listening. It starts out with a bang and doesn’t let up to the crazy conclusion. It kept me guessing all the way through I never had an inkling who the serial killer was and the reveal was edge of your seat screaming at Brigid get out of there, get back up, Ahhhh look out!

Judy Kaye’s narration was fabulous all of the characters and accents were very well done. She did a few different accents which felt authentic especially since the main accents were male characters it was very impressive. She brought Brigid to life flawlessly and I hope that she will continue to narrate this series because I will keep listening, I see she narrates Sue Grafton’s series and I have been meaning to re-read those so may have to start them on audio.

If you haven’t already surmised I truly enjoyed this book and look forward to this series continuing. This would be a full 5 stars but there are times you have to suspend a little belief (which stems from Brigid’s decisions) but this is a solid 4 ½ Stars.

4 ½ Stars
5 Star narration

**Will try to get touchstones to work tomorrow

#28- Heirs and Graces by, Rhys Bowen narrated by, Katherine Kellgren

This book was hilarious it made me laugh out loud while driving down the road other drivers must have thought I was crazy!

Georgiana is staying at Kingsdowne Place to help out the family when they find a new heir for the Dukedom unfortunately for this upper crust family the heir apparent is an Aussie who has been raised as a rancher not as a Duke, plus the current Duke Cedric is a jerk who would rather have everyone gone and adopt one of his male playthings than put up with an interloper or anyone else in the family. Unfortunately for the Duke things don’t go well for him at all.

The mystery was a good one I didn’t guess who had done it. And the cast of characters and I do mean characters are all fabulous; you have Princess Charlotte who constantly wants to have a séance, her sister Vivienne who is a highly sexual being and turns everything into innuendo, The Dowager Duchess who is as upper crust as they come, her daughter Irenee who just whines a lot and her two incorrigible children. Plus we have, as Georgiana called them, the Starlings who are Cedric’s companions and possibly his lovers. And of course we have Georgiana’s boyfriend Darcy and her best friend Belinda shows up hoping to catch the new duke in her snares.

Katherine Kellgren’s narration was as always Amazing. I kind of feel sorry for anyone else in an Audie category that is up against Katherine Kellgren because she is so amazing. There are so many characters in this book with very different accents and each and every person sounds different and is distinct. Some of the accents in this book were; high brow English, Australian, cockney, Irish, male and female, kids and grown-ups all done absolutely flawlessly. No other book in the mystery category had this many accents and characters done so well.

This was a fun book and a cute story; I’ve only read the first book in this series and wasn’t confused at all so this one could easily be read as a standalone. This is a very fun historical cozy I highly recommend this series.

4 ½ Stars

#29- The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic by Hazel Gaynor

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; the author did a great job of mixing the Titanic story with the present day story.

I found it fascinating to read about this group of 14 people from one little town of Ballysheen Ireland it was a fictional town (but there was a real town Addergoole that had 14 people on the Titanic and lost 11 people) which made me want to do even more research on them. Also I loved the pictures of the real cables and telegrams from the titanic and the Carpathia interspersed in the book.

Maggie was a great character she was strong willed and a survivor, this book really made you feel how terrifying it was and how lucky it was that anyone at all from 3rd class survived that awful night. I found it interesting that Maggie had never spoken to her family of her time on the Titanic and it made me wonder how many other survivors never spoke of it again. We all know the story of the titanic and I have read many books on the subject myself but when Maggie is talking to Grace and says she never talked about it because even this many years later she can still hear the screams of the people in the water and as the ship went down, how awful to live with that the rest of your life.

I also enjoyed the love story of Maggie & Seamus, if you follow my reviews you know I’m not much into romance but this love story was so sweet and the way Maggie told the story just made me want them to make it.

Maggie’s granddaughter Grace was so different than Maggie I felt she was weaker because look at what Maggie had been through, when all but herself and one other that were traveling on the titanic were lost to the sea but she went on with her life but Grace loses her father and completely falls apart and gives up everything she loves to take care of her mother but really I felt it was more about Grace herself than taking care of her mother, it was her way to hide.

All the characters on the boat were well written and I really felt the author did a great job of putting you in their shoes, even though you as a reader know what will happen it was still edge of your seat hoping your favorite characters make it to the life boats.

Make sure you read the acknowledgments and the PS to learn more about the real town and where the author got the ideas for this book I found that interesting.

I truly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any historical fiction fans out there.

4 Stars

I received this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program for a fair and honest review.

#30-Dakota by Gwen Florio narrated by, Caroline Shaffer

I should start off by saying that I am a North Dakotan, I live here, my family lives here, my parents were raised here, so my perspective on this may be different than others.

This was a good mystery and it kept me guessing right up to the reveal. Lola is a reporter who decided to go after a story even though her Montana newspaper and Sheriff boyfriend Charlie tell her not to. She finds herself in the North Dakota Oil patch where the men outnumber the women by a huge percentage and finds herself hip deep in all sorts of trouble. She’s on the hunt for a killer of a young girl and maybe even more girls, when she puts it together that many women from the Blackfoot Reservation in Magpie, Montana are going to the patch to work and that work ends up being dancing or prostitution but they are ending up dead, not rich like they were hoping. She takes it upon herself to find the answers and it puts her in danger.

I liked the character of Lola she’s scrappy and fearless, of course that fearlessness gets her in trouble as she dives feet first into a story that is much bigger than she ever expected. I liked this book well enough that I plan to read Florio’s first book Montana and I look forward to reading more of Lola’s adventure’s especially after the ending of this one I am curious how she will deal with that going forward.

The author also does a good job of respecting the Native Americans while honoring their culture. Also the descriptions of the man camps and the bars near them were pretty spot on.

I wish the narrator, Caroline Shaffer, hadn’t used the movie Fargo to learn a North Dakota accent. The character of Charlotte sounds just like the lady cop on the movie/tv show Fargo, and that annoyed me to no end. Her Native American accents were a little better and the main character was good because she wasn’t from North Dakota. Also The Bakken is pronounced Bahkken (like Bah humbug). It wasn’t that the narrator was bad I liked her narration except when she was doing her Fargo impressions. So I would listen to this new to me narrator again as long as the book wasn’t set in my home state!

This story looks at the gritty underbelly of the Bakken Oil Patch in North Dakota it involves prostitution and human trafficking and it may seem like fiction but unfortunately it is a true consequence of the major influx of people coming to ND to work, the crime rate in ND has gone up considerably and there are a lot of murders and crime on the west end of our state.

One thing that bothered me was, Thor saying this is Dakota, I have never heard anyone from North Dakota call it just Dakota because we need to make the distinction that we are North Dakota Not South Dakota.

3 ½ Stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher & Librarything however I did end up checking out the audiobook from my library.

#31- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by, Ian Fleming narrated by David Tennant

Well I have discovered that my favorite movie from childhood is only Very Loosely based on Ian Fleming's book of the same name.

The only thing familiar from the movie I love so much was the car and the kids' names, everything else is different, no grandpa, no Truly, no child catcher or Baron. It was very odd to have it be familiar yet not at the same time.

I’m still trying to get over how different this was than what I was expecting; it is more similar to the Bond stories than the musical movie is. There are crooks and their hideout and trying to get away. This was a fun book but just know it is nothing like the movie of your childhood.

David Tennant's narration was fabulous though, great accents and voices and characters! Tennant’s narration made this book even better.

4 Stars

#32-We Were Liars , by E. Lockhart

This book was very twisty and turny with an unreliable narrator and is very hard to review because I don't want to give anything away and I'm afraid many people will, by tags and such, which is a shame. I'm so glad I read it right away.

I can't stop thinking about this story, it is written at times like poetry, as a diary and as just rambling but beauty throughout. It is so unique and hard to describe and I would highly recommend reading it soon before the spoilers are out there.

There were times I thought I had it figured out then the author would change my mind only to be partly right later on.

I read this book in 2 days and it has been a long time since a book has grabbed me that fast in a long time. Once I started all I wanted to do was keep reading. And when I was done I just wanted to start it over again.

I would recommend this to adult and young adult alike this book defies classification it just needs to be read.

If they make a movie of this one Edward Hermann must play granddad. I pictured him all the way through.

If you like a book that keeps you guessing, give this one a try. And Please Don’t Spoil it for other!

I don’t want to say anymore for fear of giving something away but I loved this book!

5 Stars

Hi Susie. We Were Liars sounds very intriguing and as it was a 5 star read for you, I will try to hunt down a copy, and I promise not to give anything away! ;-)

#33-My Mother's Secret: A Novel Based on a True Holocaust Story by J.L. Witterick

This was a fascinating book; it is a novelization of a true story. Set in Sokal, Poland during the German Invasion and all the Jews are being rounded up and put into the ghetto or being killed outright and anyone who helps the Jews is summarily executed for their efforts. That’s what makes Franciszka and her daughter, Helena true heroes these women put their lives on the line for people they barely knew, they gave them a place to hide, food and gave them their lives because none of these people would have survived the Nazi’s, well Vilheim may have survived but his soul would have become so scared by what he was forced to do that he would have never been the same.

These two amazing women not only hid 3 Jewish families but also a German Soldier who could not do what his commanding officer was asking of him he had an acquaintance with Franciszka, who reminded him of his Oma and of course she hid him , she hid them all and none knew about the others.

This woman’s courage just floored me especially when she invited the German Commandant to dinner with 2 Jewish families in the basement and another in the shed but it made her above suspicion and when the Germans moved tanks into her yard and were a little close for comfort she talks them into moving everything out of her yard when asked how she did it she says, “Always point out what is in the best interest of the other person if you want them to do something. Works on everyone.”

There are some great quotes in this book these are my favorites:
“Helena, there are three kinds of people in the world. One that would have seen the suffering cat and not have given it a second thought. Another that would have seen the same cat and said to themselves, ‘Oh, isn’t that a pity’ before continuing about their business. Finally, there is the kind that sees the suffering, feels the empathy, and then goes one step further by taking action to help. That is you. You didn’t leave the cat there to perish. I am proud that you are my daughter. Think what a wonderful place the world would be if everyone was like that.”
“I always thought courageous people were those who were not afraid. Meeting Franciszka and her daughter, I realize that courageous people are afraid like everyone else. They just act despite the fear.”
“ If you choose to do the right thing, it’s a conscious decision at first. Then it becomes second nature. You don’t have to think about what is right because doing the right thing becomes who you are, like a reflex. Your actions with time become your character.”

This was a great book and I would highly recommend this story, it’s a short book that packs a powerful punch.

4 Stars

#34-A Sudden Light by, Garth Stein
Pub Date: Sep 30 2014

Those who follow my reviews know I am a sucker for a good family secrets novel and this one had it all…secrets, spirits/ghosts, lies, deception and a great generational story. I enjoyed Stein’s book The Art of Racing in the Rain and when I saw he had a new book coming out I requested this one on Netgalley and once I started I could not put it down.

I really enjoyed this story I liked the flow of it and the writing, I felt like Trevor was telling me his story and I was completely enthralled.

My favorite character in this book was Grandpa Samuel even though he wasn’t the best father or husband or grandfather it was the little snippets he would come up with that would make me laugh or wince but truth coming from a “demented” person sometimes takes a humorous tone.

I wasn’t fond of Serena at all and she creeped me out long before anyone in the book seemed to realize how creepy she was. But I won’t say anymore because *No Spoilers*

Trevor is a 14 year old kid who just wants his parents to get back together and be happy again. When his parents separate his mother goes to England and Trevor accompanies his father, Jones, to his ancestral home North Estate a home made completely out of huge logs and a place his father hasn’t been since he was banished from the home at 16 after his mother died. Trevor is more than happy to accompany his father because he makes it his mission to fix his dad and make everything ok between his parents. But as he soon discovers there is more going on at North estate than meets the eye and it may take a lot more than he was bargaining for to help his dad. I enjoyed Trevor’s intellect and his ability to believe in things even when everyone is telling him not to.

Trevor’s dad Jones is a messed up man, something happened in this house years ago that he won’t talk about and it has affected and is still affecting his entire life but can he step up and become the father his never was?

Then there is the history of the house generations back a promise was made to a dead man that one day North Estate would be allowed to go back to the forest but the people living there today want to be rid of it and want to make boat loads of money in the process, so do you keep a promise to a dead man? Or do you do whatever you want and have the life your forefathers had before other generations squandered the fortune?

These people and stories come together in a great book that I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a multi-generational family secrets story.

4 ½ Stars

Full-Disclosure: I received this book from Netgalley and the publisher for a fair and honest review.

Hi Susie, how's your summer going so far? A Sudden Light sounds like another one that should be added to my wishlist.

My summer is great Judy, Thanks!I just got back from vacation where I rode on the back of a Harley across Michigan put on about 2000 miles. I listened to some fun books and a couple serious ones. I still need to review them but I finished.

Blunder Woman written and narrated by Tanya Eby who was a narrator before she wrote the book so the narration by the author is great, This book also cracked me up, it isn't my usual fare but I loved it! I also didn't realize it was set in Michigan and I listened to it riding across Michigan on a motorcycle so it was really cool.

Top Secret Twenty-One: A Stephanie Plum Novel by, Janet Evanovich narrated by, Lorelei King this was a fun book it had lots of Grandma, Lulu and Ranger I always enjoy the Plum books they are the best thing for a lite fun read.

Footprints in the Sand by Mary Jane Clark,narrated by, Thérèse Plummer This was an ok cozy I didn't realize it was 3rd in a series so it took a little while to learn the characters backgrounds, some of the story was a bit far fetched but the characters made me curious enough that I may go back and listen to the first 2. Plummer narration was well done.

Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon narrated by Davina Porter even at the end of 45 hours I didn't want this book to end can't wait to hear the rest of the story.

I needed a short book so I could start a fresh book when I left on vacation so listened to The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida, David Mitchell (Translator), K.A. Yoshida (Translator),Narrated by, Tom Picasso..This was an interesting book I have a son who is mentally handicapped with shades of autism and I saw him in parts of this book. If you are interested in learning more about the mind of someone with autism I recommend this book!

The Butterfly Sister by Amy Gail Hansen narrated beautifully by, Amy Rubinate This was a different story than I expected, it turned out to be a darn good thriller and Amy Rubinate's narration just made it all the better!

I am working my way through the Outlander series and this time I am listening to them. Davina Porter is so perfect, I just finished the the third book, Voyager and at 43 plus hours, I was sad to see it end! She breathes new life into the series!

Oh yes Davina brings those books to life! Worth every minute spent listening!

#35- Blunder Woman written and narrated by, Tanya Eby

This book is not my usual fare; however I truly enjoyed this hilarious story starring the dysfunctional Chloe AKA Blunder Woman. This book is humorous first then a bit of romantic comedy, Chloe has fallen head over heels for MMM-Matt , as she calls him, but she is getting very mixed signals from him but some of those signals give her hope that he feels the same way. However as the reader of the book you know she is barking up the wrong tree and there will be times you just want to shake her and say he’s just not into you, wake up! When Chloe finds out Matt is engaged to the gorgeous Amber, she follows them to Mackinaw Island with her best friend and mother in tow to show Matt that it is really her he loves. This is when true hilarity ensues!

The other characters in the book include Chloe’s best friend Megan and Chloe’s mother who is a great character all on her own, from her Reiki to tarot readings she is hippy dippy and hilarious. There is a whole cast of interesting fully fleshed out characters each one with their own quirks and personalities.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Tanya Eby on my blog but had never had the pleasure of hearing her narrations so I decided to do one better and listen to a book she wrote and narrated, I was not disappointed the story is great and the narration was fabulous you always knew exactly who was talking and everyone had their own voice. I look forward to listening to more by Tanya.

I didn’t realize this book was set in Michigan when I chose it for one of my vacation listens and I was vacationing in Michigan, so it was fun knowing all the places they went.

If you are looking for a light listen/read that will make you giggle, snort and guffaw this is the book for you! Be warned listening to this book in public will get you funny looks because you can’t help but laugh out loud at some of the great lines and situations. I would definitely read another book by Tanya and would read another book with this cast of characters (hint, hint).

4 Stars

#36-Footprints in the Sand by Mary Jane Clark narrated by, Thérèse Plummer

This was an ok cozy I didn't realize it was 3rd in a series so it took a little while to learn the characters backgrounds, some of the story was a bit farfetched but the characters made me curious enough that I may go back and listen to the first 2.

I enjoyed parts of this book but had a problem with the actions of some of the characters, it did keep me guessing and a couple of the red herrings did get me.

The part that annoyed me the most was Piper’s posting everything to Facebook and the way she talked about getting comments and ,oh wait there’s a dead body let’s post a picture of her dead body so I can see how many comments I get. What??!!??

This was one of my vacation listens, I chose light easy reads and this one fit the bill it is a cozy mystery with traces of chick lit but the story wasn’t horrible I just question some of the actions. Piper should really leave the sleuthing to her dad (a former cop) or to her boyfriend (FBI Agent) because honestly she’s not very good at it and just pretty much put a huge target on her back without finding any answers, by the time she did figure it out it was almost too late.

Plummer narration was well done, everyone had a distinct voice and I would look for more books she has narrated.

My rating is somewhere between these two:
3 Stars- Good Book but some things didn't connect with me
2 1/2 Stars- just didn't connect to this book but was ok

#37- The Butterfly Sister by Amy Gail Hansen narrated by Amy Rubinate

This was a different story than I expected, it turned out to be a darn good thriller and Amy Rubinate's narration just made it all the better!

Ruby is a much damaged woman after a bad affair she drops out of college and moves home when one day a delivery is made to her house of a suitcase belonging to her former roommate Beth but when Ruby sets out to find Beth she instead finds out that she is missing. This mystery takes her back to the scene of her heartbreak, Tarble College, where she finds an even bigger mystery that also seems to revolve around her own heartbreak.

As I said I wasn’t expecting this book to be a thriller I was expecting a sister story, (the title is explained towards the end of the book.) But I did really enjoy this one once I got over the fact that I hadn’t read the description very well. I enjoyed the use of authors Woolf, Plath & Perkins as plot devices to tell you how some of these women felt. The mystery of it all kept me guessing as to the cause of the disappearance and other things happening on campus and the reveal completely threw me, which is a great thing! Every time I thought I had it figured out things would swing in a different direction, which I enjoyed.

Amy Rubinate’s narration was as always impeccable her soft southern accent was perfect with just the right amount of accent as to not become overdone. All of her characters and voices were well done and I feel her narration made this book even better. If you haven’t listened to Rubinate’s narrations I highly recommend anything narrated by her.

I would recommend this thriller to anyone who likes a book that will keep you guessing.

4 Stars
5 Star narration

#38- The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida, David Mitchell (Translator), K.A. Yoshida (Translator), Narrated by, Tom Picasso

This was an interesting book I have a son who is mentally handicapped with shades of autism and I saw him in parts of this book. If you are interested in learning more about the mind of someone with autism I recommend this book!

Tom Picasso’s narration was very well done I think he truly brought this question and answer book to life.

Highly recommend.

4 Stars

#39- The Secret Life of Violet Grant by Beatriz Williams narrated by, Kathleen McInerney

I so wanted to like this book, the description sounded like something I would really like but this one fell short for me. I won this book from librarything early reviewers but had a hard time getting into it so got the audio hoping it would be better but for over half of the book all I wanted was for it to be over.

I love dual storylines in historical fiction and that was what I was expecting but this book is Romance, lots of sex (very descriptive) and once you get through that there is a little bit of a historical fiction storyline but not enough to save this one, IMHO. Also the characters are all pretty much unlikable and the whole stupid romance in the 1964 storyline is ridicules they fell in love in 5 minutes?? Give me a break! This book may have been better served if it just told Violet’s storyline because Vivian was annoying and her whole storyline revolved around this convoluted romance with someone she met and supposedly fell in love with in an afternoon.

Violet’s storyline started out strong then dwindled into idiocy, with many unbelievable things happening and I wanted more of the actual story of how …( no spoilers) than just the whole romance crap.

And the ending was all tied up in a little bow that made me throw-up a little in mouth, it was so saccharine.

Kathleen McInerney’s narration was very well done but couldn’t save me from wanting this book to end!

I may be in the minority here, this book has gotten a lot of buzz but, don’t be fooled by the historical fiction moniker this is straight up romance and not a good one!

2 Stars (barely)

#40- Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich Narrated by, Lorelei King

I do not read/listen to the Stephanie Plum books as the great American novel, I read them because they are fun, enjoyable and like reconnecting with old friends.

I enjoyed this one because it had lots of Grandma, Lulu and Ranger ,who we actually got a bit more background on than we have before and we saw a little snippier side to him which I liked because it made him more real.

As usual Stephanie has a car or two blow up, grandma’s up to high jinks, Lulu is Lulu, but what I thought was interesting in this installment was Ranger was the main target for bad guys and you almost saw a little crack in his facade.

I loved grandma and Bella’s spats those made me laugh so hard and now grandma has a bucket list and lord all mighty you can about guess what’s on it, I loved at the end when she actually got to cross one off, leaving her speechless, it was hilarious!

I also think I saw touches towards Stephanie actually picking between Joe and Ranger, I think she knows who she will end up with maybe she’s just not ready yet.

As always Lorelei King’s narration brings these characters to life for me I always listen to these on audio because Lorelei is the voice of Stephanie Plum!

I enjoyed this installment it was the perfect vacation listen, and I look forward to the next book.

3 ½ stars

#41-Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf narrated by, Tanya Eby & Kate Rudd

This is a powerful book, and at times hard to read. This is definitely a ripped from headlines book, when the unthinkable happens to social worker Ellen, how do you get people to understand that it was an accident when the guilt of it is ripping you apart. Then we have runaway Jenny whose dad is in jail and her mother ran off with the man that beat Jenny when she was younger but luckily she is found by a kind woman who also happens to be Ellen’s mother Maudene.

Ellen has seen the most awful things in her career as a social worker but one moment of distraction changes her whole life and the life of her family and she ends up on the other side of the fence wishing with everything that she could go back and start the day over. This book shows the difference between outright abuse and neglect and accidents but sometimes social services and the media don’t see the distinction between the two. My heart broke in Ellen’s storyline when the awful thing happened my heart was racing and it was just really tough to read.

Jenny is spunky and courageous and luckily pretty street smart I liked her and was rooting for her to find a better life. Although her storyline was a bit too happily ever after and felt a little rushed I was still happy for her.

Tanya Eby’s narration as Jenny was very well done and believable but Kate Rudd’s narration was so hysterical it got really old, I can understand that in certain moments of this book the hysteria was needed but it was constant and it seemed to be all the characters are just screeching and whiny. I do understand this was a taut emotional book but I wish Rudd had dialed back a bit.

As I said this is a powerful book, I think this would be a good book for a bookclub because I think it would bring about a great discussion. I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending I felt both stories were rushed and a bit too tied up in a bow for my taste.

3 Stars

#42-Euphoria by Lily King narrated by, Simon Vance & Xe Sands

I know that Margaret Mead inspired this story but I still wanted Nell to be a real person that I could research and learn even more about. This was a fascinating book made all the better by the fabulous narration of Xe Sands & Simon Vance.

This book kept me completely enthralled from beginning to end, not only from the descriptions of the tribes, their customs, taboos and superstitions but from the relationships between the three main characters. Also this book is so well written that it was easy to picture the village and tribes people. If you search Margaret Mead New Guinea in Images you’ll see some pictures that could easily be the three main characters

I really enjoyed the characters of Nell & Bankson and even though Fen is not a very likeable chap he is an interesting character he is so jealous of Nell’s success and her relationship with not only Bankson but with the tribe themselves, Nell has a rapport with the tribe that Fen can only dream of which he kind of does he imagines a relationship that really isn’t there. He hides things from Nell to make himself look better and is a very insecure man. Where Bankson sees Nell in all her glory and is impressed and awed by her ability to get the tribes people to talk to her about things no one else seems to be able to get at. He learns from her and respects her and I think that is the key in their friendship.

Obviously the narration of this book was superb Xe Sands as Nell was fabulous and all her different accents from American, to British to Australian were all spot on and when she voiced Bankson I felt like she did a good job of channeling Simon Vance! Simon Vance as always does a great job and did well even when speaking as Nell and I thought he also did a great job channeling Xe; also both narrations of Fen and his Australian accent sounded the same so you knew that it was him. I thought this was a fantastic collaboration and hope to have more books with these two working together!

If you can’t already tell I loved this book, it is different book and hard to categorize, but I found it fascinating and even went back and re-listened to the last hour because I wasn’t ready for it to be over. I have never read anything by Lily King before but I will be remedying that as I loved the way the writing in this books flowed and how she kept me so interested from page one to the end.

5 stars

Full Disclosure I received this book from the Audiobookjukebox and the Publisher Blackstone Audio for a fair and honest review

#43-Doctor Who: The Feast of the Drowned by, Stephen Cole, narrated by, David Tennant

This was a good story but couldn’t help thinking of The Water of Mars. My favorite line in perfect Ten voice,’ Now that Mickey the untrained civilian has a hand grenade oh yes everything is going to be fine.” I could just picture the doctor saying it and the look on Mickey’s face as he did!

I love that David Tennant reads the narrative in his Scottish accent and the Doctor bits as the voice Whovians know so well and his voicing of Mickey is fantastic!

Of course makes me want to go back and watch David’s episodes again and again.

4 Stars

#44-A Fifty-Year Silence: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France by Miranda Richmond Mouillot

This book started out great with this interesting family secret and how the author’s grandmother’s habits from surviving the war had been handed to her granddaughter without her even really realizing it. (Like leaving your shoes by the door so you could make a quick getaway, always scared of losing your home, etc.)I was intrigued right away with the reasons behind this 50 year silence between her grandparents, however we never truly got a revelation of what the reason was behind the silence. The story also bogged down a little in the middle and at times seemed to be going nowhere.

The author goes on this journey to discover the reason her grandparents had not spoken in 50 years and when she find out they own a home in the South of France she becomes even more intrigued. The house was such an interesting twist and when Mirandali decides to go live there she hopes it will unlock the secrets however it never really does.

What I did find fascinating was that after the war her grandfather ended up being an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials, and I believe the things he learned there were the reasons behind Anna & Armand growing apart, if they were ever really together to begin with. These two went on the run to escape the Nazi’s then were separated many times and I was left wondering how much time they actually spent together before and after they were married.

Parts of this book were very fascinating and other parts seemed to be superfluous, so I am having a hard time on just how to rate it, I guess I would say it was just ok.

2 ½ Stars

Full-Disclosure I received this book from Netgalley and the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.

#45- People I Want to Punch in the Throat: Competitive Crafters, Drop-Off Despots, and Other Suburban Scourges by Jen Mann

This book cracked me up and after reading a few serious books in a row it was just what I needed, I laughed out loud many, many times while reading this book and saw people and situations that I recognized as my own. And how could you pass up this title!

One of the chapters that cracked me up was ‘Just some of the reasons the neighbors always hate us’ this one made me laugh because at my house we are a bit anti-social and seem to have major differences politically plus have a hard time not commenting on things like “You paid thirteen grand for a dog to have surgery?” this chapter hit close to home!

As a mother and grandmother I also have to wonder about these theme birthday parties and spending hundreds of dollars to throw your kid a party, whatever happened to birthday parties at home with a cake and pin the tail on the donkey now it can’t be at home and it has to have a theme why?? When did this start?? This chapter hit home too.

Oh who the hell am I kidding this book is full of snarky goodness and sounded like all the things I say inside my head but don’t always have the courage to say out loud!

If you are a fan of Laurie Notaro and/or Celia Rivenbark then this is a must read!

4 Stars

I received this book from Netgalley and the publisher for a fair and honest review.

>75 susiesharp: Oho! That's definitely one for the wishlist - sounds hilarious!

76-scaifea- It is! Hope you enjoy it!

Book Bullet!

#46-Stay Where You Are And Then Leave, by John Boyne narrated by, Euan Morton

This is such a powerful story, set in WWI before we had a name for PTSD or Shell Shock this book takes you to a hospital with one doctor who is trying to get people to realize this is an actual condition not men just being cowardly. But how we get to that hospital is a heartbreaking yet uplifting story told through the eyes of 9 year old Alfie who is in search of his father Georgie.

Alfie is a precocious 9 year old who misses his father it has been 4 years since he went off to war and Alfie’s mother won’t let him see the letters he is writing but Alfie finds a way but notices there hasn’t been a letter in a long time, his mother tells him his dad is on a secret mission but Alfie is not sure he believes that. Alfie has been helping out by shining shoes at Kings Cross Station ( unbeknownst to his mother) and one day a man drops some papers and as Alfie helps him pick them up he sees his dads name and the name of a hospital so he sets off to find his dad.

This story is at times heartbreaking, uplifting and powerful, seeing it through Alfie’s eyes really brings home the separation of war, the not knowing if your parent is alive or well and how the parent left behind wants to protect their child from knowing the gory details of war but that leaves Alfie to think his father is dead. When Alfie does find his father it will break your heart and Alfie’s innocence in thinking if he just comes home he will be okay leads to circumstances that make Alfie have to confront just what shell shock is and how the war affected his father.

Euan Morton narrates this book with skill, his narration of Alfie is spot on and you feel every emotion he feels. Every character has a voice and the parts with the banging how Morton brings Georgie’s emotion to the forefront are amazing. Highly recommend this on audio!

The author does a great job at making you feel everything Alfie feels the fear, the trepidation, the confusion all written so beautifully.

4 ½ Stars

I received this book from netgally but ended up listening to the audio version and am so glad I did!

#47-Dollbaby , by Laura Lane McNeal narrated by, January LaVoy

Warning: You will fall in love with the characters in this book.

This book made me laugh and made me cry. 11 year old Ibby’s (Liberty) father has died and her mother (can I put quotes around mother to let you know what I think of her) drops her off at her grandmother Fannie’s house the problem is Ibby and Miss Fannie have never met, and this so called mother doesn’t even walk her to the door to introduce them just drops her off in the street and drives away. If you can’t tell by this paragraph I don’t think very highly of Vidrine’s so called motherly love. Especially the “gift” she wants Ibby to give to her grandmother, Vidrine is just a spiteful woman.

Luckily for Ibby she is going into a house full of women that will love her and take care of her, the first person she meets is Dollbaby and her momma Queenie who work for her grandmother Fannie and Ibby doesn’t realize her grandmother is just as scared as she is that they won’t like each other, but Miss Fannie is a character and luckily they do hit it off even if it is strained for a little while. Miss Fannie is an interesting character strong yet fragile I laughed when she was helping the bookie then cried when she had her spell on Ibby’s birthday she was such an interesting character that has been through some awful things and when we learn how Queenie came to work for her and how she got her nickname it really gives insight into both of these women.

The book starts out in 1964, 3 days before Ibby’s 12th birthday and continues on till she is in college. Now, you know what race relations were like at this time in our country and even though this is New Orleans there is still certain things that can’t be done, even though Ibby is friends with Doll & Queenie’s family when she is out alone with any of them things are said and done that will make you cringe and hope that in this day and age things like that don’t happen anymore.

There is one other character that I did not like and that was neighbor girl Annabelle what a little brat who grew up to be a spoiled rotten brat (ok not the b-word I was going to use but you get my drift) but karma oh wonderful karma with a little push from Miss Fannie and Miss Ibby she does get her comeuppance and that made me laugh and cheer!

I truly loved the characters in this book Doll and Queenie are great ladies and I loved how loyal and loving they were towards both Miss Fannie and Ibby even from the first time meeting them. This is a story about family and acceptance and is a truly wonderful read.

Narrator January LaVoy did a fantastic job of bringing these characters to life I loved how she voiced Ibby at age 11 sounding like a little girl and voiced her differently as she got older but yet you knew it was Ibby talking, everyone had their own unique voice, LaVoy’s narration truly added to my experience of this book.

If you are a fan of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt or Secret Life of Bees or just southern fiction in general give this one a try.

5 Stars

#48-The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey, narrated by, Davina Porter

Davina Porter’s narration was as always fabulous, the story however I didn't enjoy as much as I had hoped since Jane Eyre is one of my all-time favorites and this story was supposed to be inspired by Jane Eyre but there is a huge difference between inspiration and downright word for word story. And Mr. Sinclair is no Mr. Rochester.

I liked the story much better once she got to Iceland, I kind of wish the first half hadn’t been so much like Jane Eyre and had just been Gemma’s story. There were times I didn’t like Gemma much, I understand it was hard for her to trust people because of the way she was treated by people who should have loved her but there were times when people were very, very nice to her and she still couldn’t accept it.

This one was just ok for me; maybe if you aren’t as huge a fan of Jane Eyre as I am you may like it more.

2 ½ Stars

#49-The Right Thing by Amy Conner narrated by, Kate Baldwin

This book was just ok for me, I wanted to really like it, heck I got the paperbook in a Goodreads giveaway but wanted to get it done so listened to it on audio.

I liked these girls much more as children than I did as adults I felt neither one was very likeable. Annie a put upon southern housewife with an eating disorder (no they didn’t delve into that too much but it was so obvious by things she said) who has been desperately trying to get pregnant with no luck. She doesn’t seem too happy with her life when a chance meeting with her best friend from 2nd grade Starr (who she hasn’t seen since). Starr is in the middle of a scandal she is pregnant by a married man who is also a society bigwig and when Starr asks for Annie’s help Annie lies to her husband and goes off with Starr to help her out. And as you can guess things don’t go as planned.

I felt these characters weren’t very fleshed out, I like a book where I care about what happens to the characters and that just didn’t happen in this book , I think I liked the secondary characters more than I liked the main characters. I liked Annie’s mom and Annie’s aunt Tuti in the flashback scenes and the girls’ friend Betty.

And the ending was just well blah, I think if we had seen them from childhood and the story had been more linear instead of the alternating chapters I don’t know maybe I say that because I really enjoyed the parts where they were children but neither grew up to be very likeable.

So I guess what I am saying is I enjoyed parts of this book and other made me cringe, from the choices these two women make. Also if you haven’t seen your “BFF” since 2nd grade don’t you think they may have changed and just possibly you don’t have anything in common anymore? In this day and age of Facebook I know I have found that out when re-connecting with people from my past that maybe once we were friends but now they are a wackadoodle (and they probably think the same of me).

Now onto our narrator Kate Baldwin her voice is fine but for the love of god she needs to learn to control her breathing better there were times she sounded like a fish out of water gulping for breath and it was very off-putting. If she learns that, I would listen to her again because her voice and characters were well done but I had a hard time getting over the gulps of breath she was taking.

2 ½ Stars

#50- The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi narrated by Gin Hammond

This was a fascinating and heartbreaking book. This book has a dual storyline set in Afghanistan, first we have Rahima in 2007 whose family only had girls so she is dressed as a boy in a custom called bacha posh, she is able to go to school, play soccer and work. Our second story is of her Great Great Grandmother Shakiba in 1901? She is disfigured from an accident when she was a child and whose father dies and her Grandmother can’t stand the sight of her. So she is given to another family as a servant but they believe she is a curse on them and when Shakiba sneaks away to try to claim her father’s land the family decides to get rid of her (after beating her of course) they give her to the King to work as a guard in the harem. All the guards are women dressed as men so there would be no temptation in the harem.

Both stories are a fascinating look into the lives of women in Afghanistan even though the stories are years and generations apart it is heartbreaking how women were treated. The way Shakiba is treated by her own family and then the people who take her in is harrowing and heartbreaking. And Rahima would have loved to have stayed being a boy but someone very powerful has seen through her disguise and when her opium addicted father complains about all his daughters to this man, he decides to take one of his daughters for his wife and he chooses Rahima who is only 13 at the time, she has 2 older sisters and tradition demands they be married first so he has cousins to marry them too and Rahima’s father is paid in cash and opium. Rahima is a very strong willed woman I think from her years as a boy I liked her very much and worried about her when she spoke up. You will have to read the book to see how their stories play out!

I loved the narration however there were times I wish there had been two, for the times I missed it say who was talking. But Gin Hammond was fabulous all her accents and voices were great I would definitely look for other books narrated by her.

I truly enjoyed this book it is a powerful story that I highly recommend and if you are a fan of Khaled Hosseini, I would highly recommend you read this book.

4 Stars

I received a copy of this from the Audiobookjukebox and the Publisher for a fair and honest review.

Glad to see you liked The Pearl That Broke Its Shell as I have that one on my list.

I think you will like it Judy!

#51- Life After Death by, Damien Echols narrated by Damien Echols

If you don’t know about the case in West Memphis three little boys were murdered and three teenagers were charged the 3 teenagers were innocent of the crime but spent the next 18 years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit, they were railroaded because they dressed in black and were known around town as troublemakers there is no evidence against them yet all three went to prison but Damien was the only one to be sent to death row where he spend the next 18 years in a small cell waiting for execution thankfully he was released before they killed an innocent man.

This wasn’t as much of a book about Damien’s life after death row but his life during, and a scathing commentary on our prison system. Having watched all the Paradise Lost documentaries I really wanted to know how Damien has been doing since he got out of prison but that isn’t what I got so I was a little disappointed in that. But as a man in prison for over 18 years for a crime he did not commit I guess I can understand him not wanting to share his life anymore. I understand that he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore and that he is sick of hearing about the West Memphis Three, I hope one day they find out who actually committed this crime and they see justice themselves.

I hope that one day he will be able to have a close relationship with his son, who was born shortly before Damien was falsely accused so when he got out of prison his son was 18 years old so sad that they missed all that time.

When Damien talks about what prison was like it is just heartbreaking, to be treated as a non-person a non-human being and for someone on the cusp of their adult life I know that this is something that will stay with him forever and that is horrible for an innocent man to live with. I wish Damien, Jason and Jessie good luck in their free lives and that they can become productive members of society and find some happiness.

If you have never seen the documentaries I would highly recommend you watch them all three Paradise Lost documentaries are available for streaming on Amazon Prime. Also check out The West Memphis 3 website http://westmemphis3.org/ to learn more about the case.

3 ½ Stars

#52-A Cast-Off Coven by Juliet Blackwell narrated by, Xe Sands

This was another good addition to this series. The San Francisco School of Fine Arts has had some paranormal activity going on so Lily agrees to help in return for some vintage clothes. But there is more in this closet of clothes than she bargained for. Plus she stumbles across a dead body and everyone thinks “the ghost” killed the man but Lily senses something different something demonic and everyone at the school seems to be on edge and aggravated at each other. At one time the school was a convent and Lily starts to wonder just what these nuns were up to.

Lily does go to Aiden for help his help is a little lacking and she also meets Sailor, who is more help, and Lily seems to be attracting men like crazy, first we have Max but I agree with Aiden she will be in a Darrin & Samantha relationship with him trying to squelch her magic. Then Luke, I liked Luke myself, until it got weird. But I know most people prefer Sailor. Max did grow on me more by the end of the book.

This one kept me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out who killed the big cheese, a ghost, a demon, or just a human? But the things that happen in this school would freak me out the white light and wind would freak me out more than the voices.

As always I love Oscar he is my favorite character. I also want a store like Lily’s in my town! I liked how her relationship with Inspector Romero evolved in this one and I see them working together much more in future books.

This one is narrated by Xe Sands, who as always does a great job I just love her voice and she seemed to come more into her own as Lily in this book compared to the first she was a bit more forceful and sure, I liked that!

The ending really made me look forward to more of this series! If you enjoy cozy mysteries with a supernatural tilt give this series a try!

3 ½ Stars

#53-Season of the Dragonflies: A Novel by Sarah Creech narrated by, Kate Turnbull

I so wanted to like this one but it just fell flat for me. The description sounded like something I would just love and I kept waiting for it to really grab me but it never did. It was just ok and I guess I don’t really have much more to say about it.

#54-Rebel Queen by, Michelle Moran

Wow Michelle Moran does it again. Such an amazing story about a time and place I really knew nothing about and am now completely mesmerized with. I want to read anything else I can find about this time period, even though they probably won’t compare to how this is written.

These were absolutely amazing women and as always with Moran's books it made do more research the first thing I searched was images of the clothing how gorgeous they must have been. The way they dressed was amazing and seeing the pictures even made it more real. The freedom these women had in Jhansi was extraordinary especially compared to the village women who could never leave the house, which is how Sita grew up plus she had an overbearing grandmother to add to the stresses of daily life. Having a girl child in India in the 1800’s was not a happy occasion if it was not a son then it just didn’t matter, girls were sometimes killed, given away to who knows where and kind of horrible circumstance they would end up in. (prostitution, slavery, nunnery etc.) But Sita was lucky her father loved her even after her mother dies her father never thinks of getting rid of her in one of these horrible ways, though his mother has other ideas (she is an awful person!), so to keep his mother from doing anything bad to Sita he decides she should become a Durga Dal for Queen Lakshmi or the Rani as she is called. The Durga’s are women soldiers and guards of the Rani who dress in beautiful silks but fight better than most men. This is such a fascinating chunk of history that I knew nothing about and if you love books with strong female characters look no further than this one.

Every character in this book is drawn to perfection, there are no one dimensional characters to be found, everyone has a distinct personality and background. There are some great characters in this book even the ones you don’t like; you will find you are still fascinated by their actions. Sita is the person telling the story of what happened during those fateful times when the British decided to just take over India and India and their culture and traditions be damned they just wanted it. The end of the book is heartbreaking, well, so are a few parts in the middle!

I of course had to love that Sita loved to read and because in her Village women didn’t leave the house very rarely going outside this is called purdah, but Sita lived many lives through books she read as she says, “Even prisoners can escape if they have books.”

I was completely and thoroughly enthralled with this story, I learned so much and felt completely immersed in the sights, sounds and clothing of this time. Michelle Moran always writes so beautifully that you feel like you are there with the characters and this book is no exception. This book doesn’t even come out until March 3, 2015 but I want another Moran book already!

5 Stars

I received this from edelweiss and the publisher for a fair and honest review.

#55- The Murdered Family - Mystery of the Wolf Family Murders by Vernon Keel

This is a fascinating story especially because I am a North Dakota girl but the writing is very stilted and almost reads like the about town column (if you are from a small town you will know what I am talking about).

This was such a horrible murder 8 people children included only one small baby survived and she was left in her crib alone for at least a day. You have to remember that this was the 1920’s so the way this case was handled and publicized was very different than it would have been handled today. The Sherriff from Bismarck seemed to have his suspicions about a neighbor right away and lo and behold not to long later this man Henry Layer confessed to the crime was booked and in the State penitentiary within days no trial no nothing he confessed and the judge sent him away. Soon thereafter Layer was making noise about his innocence and that he was beaten and coerced into making the confession, but no one would listen and he unfortunately died in prison within a few years.

There are so many unanswered questions in this case first and foremost how did one person shoot 3 people in the yard and 5 people in the house without one person running or getting away? A shotgun makes a very loud noise plus it needs to be re-loaded; how did this one man get the people to stay still while he reloaded the gun? This book does give us another suspect but that person died even before Layer did so it is all just speculation and I don’t think the full story of what happened that day will ever be known.

This book though poorly written was fascinating if only to see how things were investigated and it was surprising how the newspaper men were such a huge part of the investigation it was all so different from the way things would be handled today.

I don’t know if Layer did it or not but I am sorry he died before he could at least get a fair trial.

3 stars

#56-The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon narrated by, Julia Whelan

I so wanted to love this book, I truly enjoyed other books by McMahon but this one just kind of fell flat. I think a lot was because I really didn’t like Reggie or the way she treated people, yes I know her mother disappeared at a very formative age for her, but she didn’t ever seem to be able to tell when people were being nice or really trying to help her out. And the way she treated her aunt just made me mad.

There was just too many coincidences and the different timelines did get a little confusing at times, especially once Tara was back in the picture because we had just seen her as this very odd teenager and now we are supposed buy her as a caring nurse without any story telling us how she got there it was just a tough sell.

We also never really got to hear Vera’s side of where she had been all those years and then the reveal of who Neptune was it just fell flat, it was rushed and was just odd.

Julia Whelan did a great job at the narration but the book itself was just meh for me.

2 ½ Stars

#57- The Weight of Blood: A Novel by Laura McHugh narrated by, Dorothy Dillingham Blue, Shannon McManus and Sofia Willingham

Review to come

#58-The Legendary Adventures of the Pirate Queens by James Grant Goldin narrated by, Shiromi Arserio (No Touchstone I was the first one to add it)

What a fun book I didn’t want to stop listening, it was rip-roaring fun on the high seas! These two ladies are so different Martin/Mary dresses like a man and fights in a war and goes to sea and ends up on a Pirate ship. Anne Bonny on the other hand is all woman all the time, she ran away from her husband and became mistress to a pirate though in all honesty I think Anne ran the ship and just let Captain Calico Jack think he did.

When Anne can’t seem to get Martin to pay attention to her and then Calico makes the comment that Martin is in love with her Anne sets out to find out the truth, these scenes are hilarious because as readers we know Martin is really Mary however Anne Bonny is not used to a man who wants nothing to do with her. I loved how she couldn’t comprehend a man not falling for her feminine wiles, and poor Mary trying her best not to cross Anne because she is a pirate after all and has the temper to go with it. And Mary as Martin is a gentleman she is tough as nails and can fight and shoot and do the jobs on the ship but she always tries to be a gentleman.

However our dear Martin/Mary is in love another seaman Peter who has no idea that she is a he, this complicates their relationship, so she moons over him from afar and tries her best to keep him alive because he is not much of a seaman and not a fighter at all, he came to sea because he is the 2nd born or the spare as they were known in the day, wanting to learn about longitude and clocks because at this time in history it was sailing by the stars and I believe people went of course a lot.

All the characters in this book were very interesting, and it made me want to know even more about these ladies and as I always say a sign of a good historical fiction book is that it makes me want to research more and this one definitely did that.

New to me narrator Shiromi Arserio was very good she had many different accents and I liked how she had 2 different voices for Martin and Mary even though they were the same person. Very well done and I will be on the lookout for anything else she has narrated.

This was a new author and narrator for me and I truly enjoyed them both and if the author writes any other historical fiction books I will be reading them for sure.

If you enjoy the Jackie Faber/Bloody Jack books give this one a try I think you will enjoy it.

4 ½ Stars

I received this from the author for a fair and honest review, and I am so glad I said yes!

#59- Neverhome by, Laird Hunt

A fascinating, sad story. I read this book in a day I couldn't stop reading I had to find out what happens next.

It's written like an oral history you truly hear her voice in every phrase and story. At times she is an unreliable narrator but sometimes you need to lie to yourself to get through the day.

This is historical fiction and Ash/Constance is a compilation of many women who dressed as men during the Civil War to go fight the war. All had different reasons and Ash’s reason was because her husband was weak he was the soft one in the family and she was wire so she decided that she was the one who is going to go off to war. As she said I was strong he was not , so it was me went to war to defend the Republic.

Parts of this book are very gory because this is a no holds barred war story and you have to remember what medicine was like in those days. Plus there is no Geneva Convention so prisoners of war were treated so awfully that it’s hard for us to understand because there are rules abound prisoner treatment now. The hardest part of this book to read is when she is held prisoner, those scenes are horrific but it is what happened during the civil war.

I loved the metaphor of the shave how it made you feel human again and you could forget the things you’ve seen for a few minutes.

Constance/Ash kept up an inner monologue with her mother who had been gone a long time but I think these conversations with her mother helped keep her sane. But it also teaches us about Constance and why and how she became Ash the reasons go so much deeper than just her husband is the soft one.

I think more men than she knew were on to her but since she was such a good soldier none of them said a word, like the Colonel I think he knew for awhile. And in her journey home she learned so much about herself and the Colonel. Speaking of her journey home, when she reached home things weren’t as she hoped there either and this ending was so heartbreaking.

But as I said earlier yes this book is heartbreaking but it is also beautiful and lyrical and I feel it is a must read.

4 ½ Stars

#60- Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng narrated by, Cassandra Campbell

Below you will find my random/rambling thoughts as I listened to this book. I liked and disliked this book or should I say I liked the book and completely disliked the characters. The parents in this book are unemotional distance people who should never have had children, they are not abusive in the broad sense of the word but they have no idea who their children are and have no idea how to show that they love them let alone care about them. See my final thoughts at the end.

Everyone grieves differently and it is sad that they are all grieving separately instead of as a family, to be there for each other but I don't think they were there for each other before Lydia's death so I feel like her death multiplied this separateness tenfold.
It just seems like Marilyn could have enrolled in a school right from home instead of sneaking out signing up for classes and getting an apartment. I guess I just don't understand this woman at all.

Do these two people (James & Marilyn) even know each other at all it feels like their whole relationship is superficial it doesn't go deep enough to tell each other what they want from life, what their lives are really like or anything about their true selves and they passed this on to their children so they are just as closed off as the parents are.

James & Marilyn started out fighting the stereotypes then ended up being the stereotypes I am hoping this family becomes something amazing and breaks out of those roles but I am scared this is going to be a depressing book all the way through.

Poor Nath and Hannah to be that ignored by your parents must be heartbreaking.
How could you forget your own child so much that you forget to set a place for them at the table?? Really??
It didn’t seem like James even cared that Nath got into Harvard. Then when Lydia ruined his moment it made me very mad.
The way this family relates to each other is so heartbreaking they are so separate in so many ways.
And even Lydia making up friends pretending to be on the phone talking, all 3 of these children are so lonely and starved for love it’s so sad.
Wow the way James treats Nath is horrible I understand he is grieving but wow.
For this family to get certain news from the authorities is going to tear them apart even further.
But James is so not handling this at all but I also get the feeling that James would have cheated and said the things to his mistress even if Lydia hadn’t died.
I think it was awful that Nath had to be the one to tell Marilyn where James was especially after what James had said to Marilyn. I don’t think she knew, I honestly don’t think she could comprehend him having a mistress when he didn’t have any friends.
I find it a bit I don’t know disconcerting that there is only one other oriental in the whole town and she is who James is having an affair with I don’t know it’s a little too unbelievable. Someone had mentioned to me that I need to remember what year this is but this is the late 70’s and things had changed a lot in the last 18 or so years since they have been together. And that James didn’t have the balls to come out of the bedroom what a louse!

That Hannah and Nath were right there watching as her parents fight over the affair was tough; it just goes to show how little these parents thought about their children. And that James said if we had never met and she had never been born I wanted to yell Hey jackass you have 2 other children too!

She left first, come on James, that was a long time ago. Oh these two are so screwed up! But it goes to show that they never communicated when Marilyn came back they never talked about it and so all these years James is still hurt by Marilyn leaving. They never discussed why she left, maybe if they had a conversation about the reasons Marilyn left all those years ago maybe everything would be different just maybe James would have supported her decision I don’t know maybe not but maybe…

I think that Nath leaving for college was so hard for Lydia because she felt he was the only one she had, but poor Hannah always gets lost in the shuffle. Then when Hannah tries to bond with Lydia it all goes wrong, oh this family makes me so very sad. I feel so bad for Hannah she just wants some love and affection and every time she tries she gets slapped down figuratively and literally.

Oh my gosh when Jack comes clean to Lydia, if anyone can understand feeling like an outsider it’s him she should have stayed his friend they could have been true friends. I think if Lydia would have had it in her to understand Jack things would have been different.

How sad just when Lydia was finally thinking on her own without the grudges and hatred. But was it an accident? She stepped out of the boat into the water it sounds like she meant to do it to me.

I hope this means Hannah will finally get some love and not just be a cardboard cutout of Lydia in her parents eyes.
There is this little bit of a coming together but I don’t think this family ever learned to communicate with each other, too many years have passed and these behaviors are ingrained now. I wonder how Nath & Hannah were with their families in the future.

Ooof this book is like a gut punch but so beautifully written that you need to continue on. I honestly am not sure how to rate this book because there was no redemption, one can only hope that this family got better that they cherished the children they had left and started communicating with each other but I’m afraid I this did not happen.

Cassandra Campbell’s narration is very well done as always.

4 Stars

Thanks you to the FordAudiobookClub for the opportunity to listen to this book.