Category: audiobooks

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Speed Book Reviews : The Nightingale House and The Night Swim

So I am taking an idea from the beauty community and going to try and do speed reviews for books I read. Sometimes I just don’t have a lot to say about a book but still want to share the few thoughts I have.

Let’s see how this works. Let me know down in the comments if this is something you want to see more of.

The Nightingale House – – Steve French

This reminded me sooo much of Home Before Dark by Riley Sager! Both are haunted house stories with a family tragedy at the center of the story. Both have dual timelines and both are pretty fast paced in the story telling as well.

I liked this one because it stayed on the path of paranormal and haunted house. If you read Home Before Dark, you will know what I mean. I think the latter was better written than this one though. I felt this to be pretty mediocre writing, but it didn’t take away from the story. But if you are looking for something so completely well written with words you wouldn’t use yourself, this isn’t going to be for you. 

Overall it was a pretty quick read that kept me interested. Is it the greatest thing ever? No. But not much has hit that mark for me lately. I will probably check out his other book sometime int he future. 

3.5 Stars

The Night Swim – – Megan Goldin

My overall feelings, It’s fine. 

This isn’t a ground breaking mystery/thriller. It is actually pretty slow paced, which generally is not my favorite in this genre. The topic though is pretty tough and if you have hard time with books surrounding rape and rape culture, then I would skip this one.

What I did like about this is the dual timeline. I am a fan of that along with multiple perspectives. I thought it was done pretty well. I also like that this book alternated with podcast episodes. However, I just couldn’t get behind the name of the podcast. So generic and unoriginal and I would expect more from an author. 

The writing was fine for me. I hate to keep using this term but it was just okay. Too wordy and descriptive in spots that didn’t need to be. I listened to the audiobook so I picked up on it more. And to be honest, I was not the biggest fan of the audiobook. 

Overall, it a good read. I don’t know if I will go and rush to pick up her next book, but maybe.

3 Stars 

Those are the two books I finished in the past week. Have you read either of these? Thoughts? Let me know!

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Weekend Wrap up : 7/18/2020

The Goldfinch – – Donna Tart

I am so conflicted on this one. I think I enjoyed it? But I am really not sure!

I have been listening to the audiobook for quite some time. The audiobook is fantastic. The narrator does a great job with the different characters. I can’t believe it was just one narrator. 10 out of 10 recommend the audiobook if you are going to read this. 

I am just not sure what I think about the story itself. This is a long one, almost 800 pages. And while I do like long stories that span a characters life, I don’t know if this one fits that category. I think I was about 300 pages in and I felt like the story was going nowhere. But the writing was very good. A bit long winded in spots, but good nonetheless.

Overall, my rating is confused. I am going to hold onto this one and I think I will reread it in physical form at some point. Maybe I will get a better understanding of my feelings if I do it that way.

3.5 Stars

Scythe – – Neal Shusterman

I am embarrassed to say I almost unhauled this unread not that long ago. I am so glad that I held off and that I finally read this.

This has to be my most surprising read of the year. I did not expect to like this, let alone love it. It is not my preferred genre or age range. But I loved every page of it.

I blew through this over 400 page book. I was hooked from the very beginning. I am not a huge YA reader, but this had none of the elements of YA that I dislike.

I just received Thunderhead and plan to read that very soon.

I am currently in the middle of trying to pick my next reads. Stay tuned for when I post what I plan for next weekend!

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Book Review : Have You Seen Me? by Kate White

What did I read? No, seriously. I am super confused on what I just read. Probably because it felt like several different books in one.

Premise

One rainy morning, Ally Linden arrives early to work only to realize she doesn’t have her key to get in and has to wait for someone. When her boss finally shows up, he is surprised she is there waiting because she has not worked there in years. Turns out, Ally has no idea where she has been and what she has been doing for the last few days. She is now trying to piece together what has happened to her and why she doesn’t remember.

Review

Have You Seen Me? by Kate White started out on the right note. I like a good amnesia thriller. It started to lose me right in the very beginning though. I felt like it moved too fast; no lead up to anything. We were just thrown in to the story and I thought I missed something.

This also felt like several stories in one. Storylines were just coming out of left field and it really made no sense. I feel like some of them could have been left out and we would have missed nothing from the actual story. I know thrillers like to throw out red herrings, but it felt like this author was just reaching for something and it became too far fetched.

It was a fast read, the audiobook made it go even quicker. But had I not been listening to it, I would have DNFed it. If I am being very honest, this felt like a debut novel and not something from a NY Times Best Selling author. It just felt very amateur; characters weren’t really developed (they were very much one note in fact), the dialogue was cringeworthy and then the ending was just so out there that it both made sense and made absolute no sense at all.

Overall, this was just a hard miss for me. There are better psychological thrillers at there.

2 Stars

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Audiobooks to Check Out

Last week I did a post detailing how I got into audiobooks. This week, I want to share with you some of my favorite audiobooks I have ever listened to. I hope you are as excited as I am.

The Century Trilogy – – Ken Follett

It is no secret that I adore Historical Fiction; and I especially love what I have read from Ken Follett so far. If you have some time to put into an audiobook, I would highly recommend you listen to The Century Trilogy, starting with Fall of Giants. These books are lengthy, running around 35-40 hours on audio, but they are so good. The narrator does such a fantastic job at voicing all the characters. In this series, we are following families from many different countries so you are introduced to many different accents and the narrator does a wonderful job at them. There is no confusion when it comes to figuring out who the characters are. This is definitely a series you want to read in order because you are following the same cast of families throughout. If you enjoy Historical Fiction, and haven’t read this series, I highly recommend you pick it up.

Caraval Series – – Stephanie Garber

Keeping with series, I really enjoyed the Caraval series, starting with Caraval. I picked up the first book on a whim and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Admittedly, I am not the biggest reader of YA and Fantasy but I blew through all three books. The were super fast paced and fun. I will say, the first book was my favorite of the series, but as we are talking about audiobook quality, I think they were fantastically done.

Anything by Karin Slaughter

I have listened to Pretty Girls, The Good Daughter, most of the Will Trent Series and all but one of the Grant County Series and I absolutely freaking love all of these, especially on audio. They are done so well and they keep you engaged and you blow through them so quickly because you don’t want to stop listening. I am such a fan girl for anything Karin Slaughter writes, but if I have the chance to listen to the audiobook version, I do. I think it just gives you a whole different experience than reading them in print.

The Bill Hodges Trilogy – – Stephen King

I really love my series on audiobooks and this is no exception. Mr. Mercedes is the first book in this series. I am pretty sure I started this in print and switched over to audio, and finished out the series in audio; it was so good. I just really loved the narrator for these and was completely engaged the whole time. Stephen King is hit or miss for me, and I find if I choose to read his books via audiobook, I tend to enjoy them more. I also listened to The Outsider and that was great too. I believe it is the same narrator for both the series and the stand alone book.

What are your favorite audiobooks? Drop your recommendations below!

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