Random House Audio – Page 3 – Rosepoint Publishing

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty #AudiobookReview #FamilyLifeFiction

Amazon Charts #1 this week

Book Blurb:

Life is full of twists and turns you never see coming. But what if you did?

The plane is jam-packed. Every seat is taken. So of course the flight is delayed! Flight attendant Allegra Patel likes her job—she’s generally happy with her life, even if she can’t figure out why she hooks up with a man she barely speaks to—but today is her twenty-eighth birthday. She can think of plenty of things she’d rather be doing than placating a bunch of grumpy passengers.

There’s the well-dressed man in seat 4C who is compulsively checking his watch, desperate not to miss his eleven-year-old daughter’s musical. Further back, a mother of two is frantically trying to keep her toddler entertained and her infant son quiet. How did she ever think being a stay-at-home mom would be easier than being a lawyer? Ethan is lost in thought; he’s flying back from his first funeral. A young couple has just gotten married; she’s still wearing her wedding dress. An emergency room nurse is looking forward to traveling the world once she retires in a few years, it’s going to be so much fun! If they ever get off the tarmac. . . .

Suddenly a woman none of them know stands up. She makes predictions about how and when everyone on board will die. Some dismiss her. Others will do everything they can to make sure her prophecies do not come to pass. All of them will be forever changed.

How would you live your life if you thought you knew how it would end? Would you love who you love or try to love someone else? Would you stay married? Would you stop drinking? Would you call up your ex-best friend you haven’t spoken to in years? Would you quit your job?

Intricately plotted, with the wonderful wit Liane Moriarty has become famous for, Here One Moment brilliantly looks at friends, lovers, and family and how we manage to hold onto them in our harried modern lives.

My Review:

Cherry is a fascinating character, no denying that. She has a history that is woven in and out of the story as we begin to know those deeply affected by her predictions on the plane and how they confront the information.

The rich character development engrains an investment in them and morbid curiosity in how they will confront and possibly work the knowledge advantageously. Can you change fate? Or is this fate written in stone by an old woman who then has no memory of her delivery of the edicts?

It comes down to: How seriously would you, in that situation, take the prediction? What if other predictions began manifesting true?

Well, you can’t say it isn’t thought-provoking, a psychological challenge to delve into that reverberates after the novel is finished—quite handily—I might add. It’s an oddly satisfying conclusion, albeit leaving a few unanswered questions, challenges.

There is a complex storyline, lots of characters. Moments of humor, emotions first jerked one way and then the other. The narrators were super.

This is one I’d recommend purely for the unique premise in a psychological thriller, one that grips quickly and doesn’t sag midway through. It is well-plotted and paced throughout to denouement. I read this author the first time in 2021 with Apples Never Fall, slow burn and thoughtful. Thinking I’ll watch for this author again.

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

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Family Life Fiction, Women’s Domestic Life Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0CVSJJLW4
Listening Length: 15 hrs 53 mins
Narrator: Caroline Lee, Geraldine Hakewill
Publication Date: September 10, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Here One Moment – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Liane Moriarty is the Australian author of nine internationally best-selling novels: Three Wishes, The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot, The Hypnotist’s Love Story, Nine Perfect Strangers and the number one New York Times bestsellers: The Husband’s Secret, Big Little Lies, Truly Madly Guilty and Apples Never Fall. Her books have been translated into over forty languages and sold more than 20 million copies.

Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers and Apples Never Fall were adapted into popular television series with the star-studded casts including Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Melissa McCarthy and Annette Bening.

Her new novel, Here One Moment will be released in 2024.

Liane lives in Sydney, Australia, together with her husband, son and daughter.

Happy Autumn Sunday!

Reading or Listening with Covid #BookReviews #SundayBlogShare

After managing to avoid any Covid infection or the many mutations of the original pandemic, I managed to catch what might be the KP3-1-1 variant. Who knows? Reading the symptoms, they all sound the same and I can verify it has kept me in bed for just over eight days with fever, chills, massive headache, body aches, abdominal pains, diarrhea, loss of appetite, and debilitating fatigue. I haven’t had a flu since…the early 90s.

Unfortunately, the CE came down with it the following Thursday, and thankful our son was staying with us to help, appears to be coming down with it now as well. Definitely, the hard way to lose those extra pounds I’d been working on and researching the calories I should be consuming to lose one pound per week at my age, at this point should have lost well over that. I don’t advise this method of weight loss.

Of course, I’ve never been one to just lay there miserable so I started in earnest trying to catch up on some reading and listening, and between long stretches of fevered slumber, either read until I got sleepy again or listened into catatonia.

I had to eventually DNF the following two books. Both sounded good, one an audiobook and the other from NetGalley. Absolutely loved the cover of The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club.

It’s about motorcycles?? YES, please!

Plus, it an [Amazon] Editors’ pick of the Best Books of the Year So Far 2024.

How can it miss?

I think I gave up at about 25%. Was it the narrator? No, think it was more the monotonous page after page of petty dialogue. How could I not love this book? I’ll provide the blurb—and let you make the decision.

The flu?

Or just not for me and you loved it.

Book Blurb:

It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas.

Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies’ motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy’s recalcitrant but handsome brother—a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle—who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.

Whip-smart and utterly transportive, The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is historical fiction of the highest order: an unforgettable coming-of-age story, a tender romance, and a portrait of a nation on the brink of change.

Book Details:

Genre: Friendship Fiction, Small Town & Rural Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0CH3QR9WX
Listening Length: 15 hrs 20 mins
Narrator: Helen Simonson, Fiona Hardingham
Publication Date: May 7, 2024
Source: Local Library
Title Link(s): The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK

As with The Hazelbourne Ladies, I gave No Forgetting Providence: Obsessed Intentions (Book 2) just about 23% before I gave up. I was reading this one and must admit it put me right back to sleep every time I picked it up. The problem was the rereading to remember where I’d left off and finally decided I’d reread enough already.

Book Blurb:

World-famous archaeologist and confident cruise-ship captain Dr. Steven (DR) Ray arrives back in Wall Lake, Michigan, confident the assassination attempt on him and his passengers was a rogue event. Along with his girlfriend, he sets about healing and charting course toward a new future. Then she breaks their engagement the morning after he proposes. Now, he’s again navigating the murky waters of love.

But when the obsession to take down DR proves relentless, love’s the least of his problems. Soon, he and a friend from the cruise are scrambling for their lives as a powerful member of Circle and a hater of the POTUS wants them dead. And Providence-both the boat and his destiny-seems to haunt him as he sails deeper into their ugly plot.

Can DR and his friends survive the Chicago PD and several government agencies with orders to shoot to kill? What about the mercenaries paid to take them down? Find out in Obsessed Intentions Book 2-No Forgetting Providence.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts and once again, wonder if it was the state of illness or the book was just boring. I just couldn’t get into it. If you enjoy some spirituality in the novels you read, you may very well enjoy.

Book Details:

Genre: Dramas & Plays, Religion & Spirituality
Publisher: Hightower Publications
ASIN: B0D4X5643T
Print Length: 356 pages
Publication Date: March 4, 2025
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link(s): No Forgetting Providence: Obsessed Intentions (Book 2) [Amazon]

Maybe I shouldn’t have been reading or listening at all, but I did subsequently find several books that held my interest through sleeping/waking/coughing bouts. These reviews will be coming as the length of time actually sitting in a chair increases over the next week. So they say everyone’s experience is different: This is Day 9 and I’m finally eating some yogurt and soup. The CE is a few days behind me—we’re both seniors, but… Progress, huh?

Enjoy Your Sunday!

The Husbands: A Novel by Holly Gramazio #AudiobookReview #HumorousFiction&Satire

Best Books of the Year So Far 2024

Book Blurb:

When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living?

My Review:

When was the last time you willingly accepted a debut novel and actually enjoyed it? Well, okay, maybe not that rare, but this is one I think you might.

First, this is a unique plot device and one that has you nodding your head and grinning. Definitely light satire, humorous and chuckle worthy moments begin when Lauren discovers a husband in her flat in London that was a real surprise. She wasn’t married.

Her friends, and there are several constants, confirm they’ve been married for a little while. Just look at the photos. Decoŕ definitely looks different.

Well, the good news: She hasn’t gone crazy but when he changes a lightbulb in the attic, Michael is replaced by a new husband. Maybe she needs to reconsider the crazy part.

And then, OMG, she runs the gamut! Right age and education but dense. Bore you to tears but the body of Adonis. Health nut, gamer, sports nut, gambler, drinker, wondering eye. What if she found the one she wanted to keep? Could she keep him out of the attic?

It’s light-hearted and not to be taken seriously although there are a few interesting philosophical questions to ponder. The MC is not fully developed, the reader doesn’t get the depth and certainly of none of the husbands. The attic is apparently “magic.” We don’t know why. There is a solid twist later in the novel but at a reasonable length of time you’ll demand a point to it all.

Of course, I greatly enjoyed the narration of the audiobook—done very well, accents and all. Does Lauren finally pick a husband, warts and all, and stick with him? Do you still care? How does this ring road ever end? You’ll have to read it.

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: Humorous Fiction & Satire, Humorous Fiction, Family Life Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0CDCP4FCT
Listening Length: 10 hrs 30 mins
Narrator: Miranda Raison
Publication Date: April 2, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: The Husbands [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: HOLLY GRAMAZIO is a writer, game designer and curator from Adelaide, currently based in London. She founded the experimental games festival Now Play This, and wrote the script for the award-winning indie videogame Dicey Dungeons. She’s particularly interested in rules, play, cities, gardens, games that get people acting creatively, and art that gets people interacting with their surroundings in new ways. The Husbands is her first novel.

Happy Thursday!

Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon – #AudiobookReview – #ThrowbackThursday

Book Blurb:

With everyone onboard harboring dark secrets and at least one person determined to make sure the airship doesn’t make the return trip, Flight of Dreams gives an utterly suspenseful, heart-wrenching explanation for one of the most enduring mysteries of the 20th century.

On the evening of May 3, 1937, Emilie Imhof boards the Hindenburg. As the only female crew member, Emilie has access to the entire airship, from the lavish dining rooms and passenger suites to the gritty engine cars and control room. She hears everything, but with rumors circulating about bomb threats, Emilie’s focus is on maintaining a professional air…and keeping her own plans under wraps.

What Emilie can’t see is that everyone – from the dynamic vaudeville acrobat to the high-standing German officer – seems to be hiding something.

Giving free rein to countless theories of sabotage, charade, and mishap, Flight of Dreams takes us on the thrilling three-day transatlantic flight through the alternating perspectives of Emilie; Max, the ship’s navigator, who is sweet on her; Gertrud, a bold female journalist who’s been blacklisted in her native Germany; Werner, a 13-year-old cabin boy with a bad habit of sneaking up on people; and a brash American who’s never without a drink in his hand. Everyone knows more than they initially let on, and as the novel moves inexorably toward its tragic climax, the question of which of the passengers will survive the trip infuses every scene with a deliciously unbearable tension.

With enthralling atmospheric details that immediately transport and spellbinding plotting that would make Agatha Christie proud, Flight of Dreams will keep you guessing till the last minute. And, as The New York Times Book Review said of her last novel, “This book is more meticulously choreographed than a chorus line. It all pays off”.

My Review:

The best part of this audiobook was the authenticity of characters the author brought to her fiction account of what might have actually happened to set off the Hindenburg in a fiery explosion that crashed to the ground within thirty seconds. Of the ninety-seven persons aboard, there were sixty-two survivors, among whom were two boys named Werner, eight years (a passenger) and fourteen years (the cabin boy). The two dogs did not survive.

With the possible exception of today’s school children, is there anyone not familiar with the story of this amazing 1937 German sixteen-story hydrogen blimp that burned into a molten heap in a field in New Jersey?

The real reason for the explosion was never determined, however, theorizing a possible leaking gas cell.

That’s okay, as this riveting narrative captures people from the original passengers and crew and creates a possible scenario and a fascinating read. Atmospheric—of course. It cruised at an altitude of 650 feet but could reach about 1500 feet if needed and the descriptions of the interior, not just passenger areas, but crew quarters and engine compartments are detailed.

The author used passenger and crew names and if they survived in real life, they survived in her book.

Interesting to have the POVs of the main characters, their reason for being on the ship, hopes, and dreams. The cabin boy is especially engaging, as is a young woman attendant (the first on a dirigible). Not all are sympathetic and the suspicions, tensions ramp up with each chapter and each new POV.

The storyline as it progresses into the climax takes on a frenetic pace, particularly after the initial explosion. Heart in throat, it’s hoped one of your favorite characters (or person in real life) survives.

And it’s amazing any did. Sixty-two (twenty-three passengers, thirty-nine crewmen).

Hindenburg disaster - photo courtesy Wikipedia — Photo courtesy Wikipedia

I applaud the research that went into the book and loved the epilogue that explained many more details and specific reasons for the way she spun the novel. Whether you’re a fan of historical fiction or not, this is a gripping book, the examination of a zeppelin airship, its attempt to land following a local thunderstorm, and the reason why it was filled with highly flammable hydrogen. The Hindenburg disaster “marked the abrupt end of the airship era.”*

My second audiobook by this author, as good as the first The Frozen River. You can’t go wrong with either. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Thrillers, Literary Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B01AO8KUPM
Listening Length: 12 hrs 40 mins
Narrator: John Lee
Publication Date: February 23, 2016
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Flight of Dreams [Amazon]

The Author: Ariel Lawhon is a critically acclaimed, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. She is the author of THE WIFE THE MAID AND THE MISTRESS, FLIGHT OF DREAMS, I WAS ANASTASIA and CODE NAME HELENE. Her books have been translated into numerous languages and have been Good Morning America, Library Reads, Indie Next, One Book One County, Amazon Spotlight, Costco, and Book of the Month Club selections. She lives in the rolling hills outside Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and four sons. She splits her time between the grocery store and the baseball field.

#ThhrowbackThursday

*Courtesy Wikipedia

The Wager by David Grann – #AudiobookReview – #ThrowbackThursday

Winner for Best History & Biography (2023)
Amazon Charts #11 this week

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then … six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann’s recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O’Brian, his portrayal of the castaways’ desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann’s work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.

My Review:

Can a non-fiction historical book be as exciting and fast-paced as an action and adventure fiction novel? Yes!

This is a heavily researched, graphically detailed, narrative of the 1741 British warship that set out on a secret mission at a time when they were engaged in a war with Spain. Believed to have been sunk in a horrific storm off Patagonia, of the eighty-one original survivors of the sinking, thirty survivors washed up on the shores of Brazil followed six months later by three additional survivors in Chile.

Members of the crew lived in deplorable conditions, some shanghaied on board, only to face sleeping quarters consisting of filthy closely hung hammocks strung from rafters under the deck, contaminated water, rotting or little food and supplies. They endured disease, vermin, infections, and scurvy—the latter of which could have been alleviated had they simply taken on board citrus from an island stop.

The men who eventually made land, some 3,000 miles from their original castaway location were skeletal and near death. They had survived storms on their little Gerry-rigged boat, treacherous currents, lack of nautical location, thirst, cold, and starvation.

What glues the reader to the fast-paced, incredible journey are the little details, the stories of many of the colorful individuals who made up the crew, including the grandfather of the later acclaimed Lord Byron, then 14 years old. Facts regarding the ships, the jargon, and the beautifully described storms have your heart pounding and holding your breath repeatedly.

The survivors struggle with a division of sentiments as to how to proceed and tears at the fabric widen still further. There is deceit, treachery, theft, mutiny, and not wholly unexpected, murder.

When finally back in England, both sides tell very different stories.

The narrator on the audiobook (who does an amazing job) puts the reader squarely in the middle of the men, hanging on for dear life to the lines in raging seas or on the shipwreck island where food is gone and all resources (including native support) has been exhausted. It’s easy to become invested in many of the main characters, and to an extent support characters, and feel their loss if/when they succumb to conditions.

The author brilliantly builds the suspense, amps up the tension, while slipping in small tidbits of history. It’s true with many of these stories, rich in the telling, astonishing tales of human endurance. Sometimes, you just can’t make this stuff up.

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

Book Details:

Genre: Maritime History & Piracy, Great Britain History
Publisher: Random House Audio
ISBN-10: ‎ 0385534264
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0385534260
ASIN: B0B9T7F9RR
Listening Length: 8 hrs 28 min
Narrator: David Grann, Dion Graham
Publication Date: April 18, 2023
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Links: The Wager [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK #1 Best Seller in Maritime Archaeology
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: DAVID GRANN is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine. He is the author of the critically acclaimed books “The Wager,” “The Lost City of Z,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the author of “The White Darkness” and the collection “The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession.” His book “Killers of the Flower Moon” was recently adapted into a film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, and Robert De Niro. Several of his other stories, including “The Lost City of Z” and “Old Man and the Gun,” have also been adapted into major motion pictures. His investigative reporting and storytelling have garnered several honors, including a George Polk Award and an Edgar Allan Poe Award.

Rosepoint Recommended-5 Stars

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon – #AudiobookReview – #HistoricalFiction

in Historical Fiction

Book Blurb:

Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.

Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.

My Review:

I love it when an audiobook hooks immediately. So hard to put that earbud down! This novel tells the story of Martha Ballard, an early eighteenth-century midwife, who (unusually) not only reads and writes (and thinks for herself!), but has also been educated in medical conditions as well as local herbal tinctures.

Now in her fifties, she has successfully delivered hundreds of babies, not losing one baby or mother by malpractice. So as her reputation precedes her, it is not entirely unusual for her to be called to the scene of a suspicious death to render a forensic opinion of a man found frozen in the Kennebec River. Most jump to what might be the obvious cause of death, but Martha notices a number of issues that would point otherwise.

Her opinion was immediately countered by a young male doctor new to the village with little experience and less competence. His narcissistic ego is disagreeable and creates a strong antagonist sure to be reviled.

I was really taken with Martha. She is intelligent, thoughtful, kind, as well as strong-willed and independent. She has, from the beginning, kept a diary detailing her practice, including births, deaths, and callouts, and the diary becomes a historical record of the woman and her accomplishments.

“Like all mothers, I have long since mastered the art of nursing joy at one breast and grief at the other.”

She befriended and treated many women assaulted or bullied at the hands of husbands or others who at the time thought of women as little more than chattel. She recently treated a rape victim who decided to prosecute the men involved causing a huge uproar in the village and surrounds and, again, in opposition to the new doctor. I often wondered how she managed to protect herself facing her own husband’s lack of protection with his absences.

So many laws then weighed heavily against the female populace, rules and regulations that kept her impotent to even testify unless her husband was present.

The book evokes an atmosphere that chillingly cloaks the people and the village in suspicion and mistrust. It’s winter, everyone seeking protection from the elements, closed in, lack of communication except for gossip and hearsay. The simplest tasks are taken to monumental proportions to accomplish. Martha sacrifices over and over her own security, warmth, and protection in her calls from patients. At this point in her life, she and her long-standing husband have only one child left in the home. I wondered more than once how she survived, admiring her courage especially at that time in history given her oppositional stance in the rape trial.

The author shared her discovery of the woman, her diaries, and beautifully blended fact with fiction. Most of her diary entries were simple and didn’t elaborate, but remarkable in the decades covered bestowing knowledge to those who came after.

It was well-plotted and fast-paced with an amazing MC. Obviously, lots of research! But I wondered if it pushed disbelief regarding the latitude given her. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Fiction, Women Sleuth Mysteries, Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0BXK3SRBL
Listening Length: 15 hrs 5 mins
Narrator: Ariel Lawhon, Jane Oppenheimer
Publication Date: December 5, 2023
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Frozen River [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Happy Thursday

All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers – #Audiobook Review – #FlashbackFriday

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Goodreads Choice Awards

Book Blurb:

Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the infamous case of January Jacobs, who was discovered in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January—and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist. But she’s always been haunted by the feeling that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice.

When Margot returns home to help care for her uncle after he is diagnosed with early-onset dementia, she feels like she’s walked into a time capsule. Wakarusa is exactly how she remembers—genial, stifled, secretive. Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who’s gone missing under circumstances eerily similar to January’s. With all the old feelings rushing back, Margot vows to find Natalie and to solve January’s murder once and for all.

But the police, Natalie’s family, the townspeople—they all seem to be hiding something. And the deeper Margot digs into Natalie’s disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, and the colder January’s case feels. Could January’s killer still be out there? Is it the same person who took Natalie? And what will it cost to finally discover what truly happened that night twenty years ago?

Twisty, chilling, and intense, All Good People Here is a searing tale that asks: What are your neighbors capable of when they think no one is watching?

My Review:

So few books actually take place in Indiana that when I saw this did, I bit. Also, because it is mystery, thriller. And, the premise sounded good. Liked the cover. Did the book deliver?

Gees, it’s a debut novel by a true crime podcaster. Gotta be good, right? Some people thought so—many others did not.

Not to beat a dead horse, but it does sound strikingly familiar with another (real life) story that refuses to leave the hearts and minds of the people of another beautiful little girl. In this case, the stories of two little girls, twenty years apart and Margot Davies, the former little girl’s neighbor.

Margot returns to help take care of her uncle in Wakarusa. She is now a journalist and soon after her return another little girl goes missing—found days later under similar circumstances to January Jacobs, twenty years before. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

Naturally, Margot feels compelled to solve the mystery, find the perp, possibly put an end to it happening again. And, of course, it would appear her career could very well depend on the story she would reap from the reveal.

It’s amazing the doors and info Margot can glean from those who would not normally speak with a journalist. She goes about it step by step, after all, she’s done this before, crime beat reporting. Only this time it’s much more personal.

There are twists, a build-up of suspense with the story of the girls and their family circumstances as well as her own struggle with her uncle, diagnosed with dementia. I enjoyed the deep dive into the people and the rural countryside creating a depth to the bucolic nature of the area.

What I didn’t enjoy, as so many others noted, was that abrupt ending and multi-tasking as I generally do with an audiobook, thought I’d missed something. Apparently not. So yes, strongly suspected the who—but then what went down? I guess it’s up to you.

Did you read this one? I thought the audiobook was well done, kept my interest, with the author herself participating in narration. Still…

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

Book Details:

Genre: Murder Thrillers, Women Sleuth Mysteries
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B09QQVLPJC
Listening Length: 10 hrs 35 mins
Narrators: Ashley Flowers, Brittany Pressley, Karissa Vacker
Publication Date: August 16, 2022
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: All Good People Here [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

The Author: Ashley Flowers is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of audiochuck, the award-winning, independent media and podcast production company known for its standout content and storytelling across different genres, including true crime, documentary, fiction, comedy, and more. Ashley is the author of New York Times Bestseller, All Good People Here, a fiction crime thriller released in August, 2022.

As CCO, Flowers works with her team to create an overarching content strategy and vision for the network of shows and company growth. She also hosts several audiochuck podcasts, including Apple Podcast’s #1 show of 2022, Crime Junkie, The Deck, and The Deck Investigates. At the core of the company and all its podcasts, Ashley and her team are committed to developing responsible true crime content.

Through her work at audiochuck, Ashley is passionate about advocacy work and established the nonprofit Season of Justice to provide financial resources to both law enforcement agencies and families in order to help solve cold cases.

Ashley Flowers was born and raised in Indiana, where she lives with her husband, her daughter, and their beloved dog, Chuck. She received a Bachelor of Science in Biological Services from Arizona State University.

Have a good Weekend!

Spare by Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex – #BookReview – #Memoirs – #audiobook

#1 this week

Book Blurb:

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.

For Harry, this is that story at last.

Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight.

At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love.

Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . .

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

My Review:

You can say what you like about Harry’s book, but one thing it is is entertaining. Where is Snopes when you need them? So many controversial snippets contained within these pages, it’s hard to know if you haven’t carefully followed the royals all your life what is accurate and what isn’t. What we do know is that it’s extremely personal at times getting into the over-sharing, TMI zone of stories (a frost-bitten penis? mercy!).

You don’t have to be reading the National Enquirer to know that some of the stories out of the major news sources are ca-ca. We’ve long held that you can only “believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” So with that, I’ll venture to say that I found Harry’s book enlightening, while also confirming much of my impression of the monarchy. This is not, has never been, a loving, demonstrative family. It’s a major business and as such, now more than ever must rely on good press for validation.

Prince Harry was a casualty of birth—the second male—and told and understood from the beginning he was only a backup heir—the spare. He loved his mother and grandmother and the loss of his mother at twelve years of age was a tragedy he denied into adulthood. He tangled often with “the paps” (as he called the British paparazzi) who often made a healthy living off the photos they took by any means to sell.

In this raw memoir, he relates the struggles with his childhood, school, his brother, and those members of the royal family as well as the courtiers who dictated his life down to whether or not he could have a beard. He openly relates his experiences with drugs, alcohol, mental illness, and his failed relationships with women most of the latter of which were blamed on the paps. Of his school years, I wonder why he hadn’t been tested for ADHT and/or dyslexia, something, but then can’t explain his success in the military. It seems inconceivable that he could fly an Apache helicopter in combat if he had experienced neurodevelopmental symptoms.

1 – There were several stories in this narrative that I found most engaging and one was that of his military service (impressive!)—his struggle to find the proper niche—and his success with flying one of the world’s most advanced and proven attack helicopters into Afghanistan. If he could have chosen, it would have been his career choice—the military.

2 – His introduction to Africa and his love of the animals and experiences there where he also meets the people who would become those he escaped to in times of soul-crushing stress.

3 – His story of Diana and what she meant to him—how he finally—as an adult drove that last mile of her life into the tunnel and received the police report (and pictures) to which he was finally given access.

I cannot even begin to understand or walk in the shoes of Meghan Markle and this is a story that understandably was left near the end of the book. We certainly had enough press of Diana to see she had gained enormous popularity the world over. It was not the first time we were plunged back into the drama of the monarchy. And there again, the paps or press printed some of the most despicable stories and pictures imaginable—of both the Princess and Meghan.

There are times he comes off as a spoiled, entitled brat and I wonder how he could not, as he discusses the castles, the retreats, the summer home, the trips, the food, other accouterments of the wealthy. Then this is juxtaposed against the most simple of privilege being denied.

There are no free lunches.

Still, disinherited Harry has landed on his feet in one of the most expensive cities in California, beautiful historic Santa Barbara. Whether or not you’re a fan of him and his bride, you have to give him kudos for exposing a massive, unfiltered peek into the life and times of the business that is the royalty of Britain. Not exactly a touchy/feely hugging-type family but definitely one of fantasy or fairytales (the Grimm kind?).

His ghostwriter, J R Moehringer, did a smashing job. His narration—riveting. I found it open, honest, heartfelt, and emotional. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library (after a significant wait time!). These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Great Britain History, Memoirs, Biographies of Royalty
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0BJ4JGQGS
Listening Length: 15 hrs 39 mins
Narrator: Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex
Publication Date: January 10, 2023
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Spare [Amazon-US]
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

The Author: Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, is a husband, father, humanitarian, military veteran, mental wellness advocate, and environmentalist. He resides in Santa Barbara, California, with his family and three dogs. https://princeharrymemoir.com [Goodreads]