#HelenLaser – Rosepoint Publishing

The Wedding People: A Novel by Alison Espach #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday #DarkHumor

Winner for Readers’ Favorite Fiction 2024

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

A Today show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick, A Goodreads Choice Awards 2024 Winner, and long-listed in many Best of the Year 2024 picks!

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt & Company.

My Review:

The idea of the destination began with the death of Phoebe Stone’s cat, Harry.

Really? Did she need or deserve that too?

No.

So here she is in gorgeous Cornwall Inn, checking into the grand Rhode Island hotel alone that she dreamed of enjoying with her handsome hubby. She might have planned this in greater detail, but who needs a lot of luggage or itinerary when there was only one real plan in mind?

The end of all of it. The loss of mid-life crisis hubby to her best friend, the crushing disappointment of the failure of the IVF rounds, and although a successful university professor, a loss of interest in teaching. Just..so…tired of it all.

The fly in the ointment might be that she is the only person at the hotel this weekend who is not there for the wedding. Lila single-handedly created the Bridezilla concept, the wedding planned down to the most minute detail—and it didn’t involve Phoebe who appears to be an unwelcome interloper at the hotel, which was supposed to be exclusively hers. Insult to injury: Phoebe has the primo suite that views the beautiful wild and free Atlantic.

No problem. Lila will just go have a small discussion with her, but confronting Phoebe discovers Phoebe has come here to quietly discard her earthly bonds. At the hotel!! Well! Lila can’t have that during her wedding week (yes, week)!

While Phoebe is quietly realizing she is free now with her decision—she can be honest, open, and sharing—and she does—in spades. What happens during the development of both characters is the revelation both confronts during the week with heavy suicide interruptus constantly postponing the inevitable.

Sympathy goes to Phoebe, compassion for her sorrows and depression. Lila comes off just slightly less than despicable—but it’s only the Lila as she’s been groomed to be, formed through circumstance into a person that is not truly her.

Loved the setting, so atmospheric, and the support characters, which lent well to the mood of rising conflict as well as the disquieting awakening on both their parts. A dark theme written with thoughtful consideration as well as a sense of humor. A beautifully written story swelling with emotion and human idiosyncrasy. The conclusion was satisfying and left a smile on your face. Thank you to Lynne over at Fictionophile for her post of the book which caught my attention, and yeah, I loved it and happy to recommend also.

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Book Details:

Genre: Dark Humor, Family Life Fiction, Women’s Domestic Life Fiction
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Narrator: Helen Laser
Release Date: July 30, 2024

Title Links:

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Alison Espach is the author of the novels The Wedding People, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, an Indie Next Pick and Amazon Editors’ Pick for 2022, and The Adults, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and Barnes and Noble Discover pick. She has written for McSweeney’s, Vogue, Outside Magazine, Joyland and other places. She teaches creative writing at Providence College in Rhode Island.

#ThrowbackThursday

If Something Happens to Me: A Novel by Alex Finlay – #AudiobookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Book Blurb:

For the past five years, Ryan Richardson has relived that terrible night. The car door ripping open. The crushing blow to the head. The hands yanking him from the vehicle. His girlfriend Ali’s piercing scream as she is taken.

With no trace of Ali or the car, a cloud of suspicion hangs over Ryan. But with no proof and a good lawyer, he’s never charged, though that doesn’t matter to the podcasters and internet trolls. Now, Ryan has changed his last name, and entered law school. He’s put his past behind him.

Until, on a summer trip abroad to Italy with his law-school classmates, Ryan gets a call from his father: Ali’s car has finally been found, submerged in a lake in his hometown. Inside are two dead men and a cryptic note with five words written on the envelope in Ali’s handwriting: If something happens to me…

Then, halfway around the world, the unthinkable happens: Ryan sees the man who has haunted his dreams since that night.

As Ryan races from the rolling hills of Tuscany, to a rural village in the UK, to the glittering streets of Paris in search of the truth, he has no idea that his salvation may lie with a young sheriff’s deputy in Kansas working her first case, and a mobster in Philadelphia who’s experienced tragedy of his own.

In classic Alex Finlay form, If Something Happens to Me is told by several distinct, compelling characters whose paths intersect, detonating into a story of twist after pulse-pounding twist. The novel cements Finlay as one of the leading thriller writers today.

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.

My Review:

It appears there are many more people who enjoyed this one than I did. I listened to the audiobook and will add kudos to the female narrator. But for some reason, I had a problem getting into it and staying with it.

Three POVs, Ryan being the main character, who kicks off the backbone of the storyline by reliving the night he was pulled from his girlfriend’s car and sustained a blow to the head. He can only remember small glitches of that night, but remembers her screams as she is taken. He escapes an arrest for her disappearance, but public opinion as well as his schoolmates tries and convicts him. He changes his name and goes to law school, but it catches up with him in Italy five years later.

We are good so far, huh?

Okay, I’m digging the female deputy. Poppy McGee is earnest, giving it her all. This is it for her as her military experience didn’t go all that well. She is new on the job, suspects she’ll be handing out traffic tickets, when small town law enforcement needs her to follow up on leads for the car pulled out of the local lake with two male bodies inside. It could happen—it’s a small town remember (Leavenworth, KS). Coincidentally, it’s the missing girls’ car.

Okay, so behind the scenes, there is a little mischief going on with the local mob. Now we start getting twists, tropes, and the suspense ramps up. I love how the mob grandpa nurtures his grandson—it’s sweet—never mind what he’s doing with his business—the revenge third of the plot.

Then there’s the cryptic note found in the submerged car and there is much to do regarding decoding what the note says. But, generally, there is a lot going on and the narrative flips between one of the three POVs until there is gradually a connection and an audible, “Ohhh…”.

So, yeah, it is entertaining, engaging in sections while others appeared to lag a bit (for me anyway). Suspend a little disbelief and just go with the flow as the conclusion might just do it for you.

The CE read two of his previous books, What Have We Done in 2022, and enjoyed both.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Thrillers, Suspense
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0CKM1LNKW
Listening Length: 7 hrs 16 mins
Narrators: Helen Laser, John Pirhalla, Paul Dateh
Publication Date: May 28, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: If Something Happens to Me [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Alex Finlay is the author of the 2021 breakout novel, EVERY LAST FEAR, the 2022’s GoodReads Choice nominee for Best Mystery & Thriller, THE NIGHT SHIFT, and his latest 2023 release, WHAT HAVE WE DONE. His work has been an Indie Next pick, a LibraryReads selection, an Amazon Editor’s Best Thriller, as well as a CNN, Newsweek, E!, BuzzFeed, Business Week, Goodreads, Parade, PopSugar, and Reader’s Digest best or most anticipated thrillers of the year. Alex’s novels have been translated into nineteen languages and are sold around the world. All of his books have been option for film and television, and EVERY LAST FEAR is in development for a series on a major streaming service. Learn more at https://alexfinlaybooks.com/