? Have You Heard? ? Audiobooks For Your Listening Pleasure ? The Best of January ?

Posted January 31, 2020 by RobbieLea in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

#theriseofmagicks #chroniclesoftheone3 #noraroberts #juliawhelan #brillianceaudio #thetrappedgirl #tracycrosswhite4 #robertdugoni #emilysuttonsmith #brillianceaudio #goodgirlslie  #jtellison #fionahardingham #harlequinaudio #thesilentpatient #alexmichaelides #jackhawkins #louisebrealey #macmillanaudio

Happy 2020 to all my readers and listeners. January can be such a cold and dreary month, so I hope each of you has taken extra time to binge listen to your favorite authors and all those books you wanted to hear during the busy holiday season. The Best of January is a mixed bag: Nora Roberts brings Chronicles of The One to a predictable conclusion, Robert Dugoni adds another installment to his Tracy Crosswhite series, J. T. Ellison earns my 5 Star Award with Good Girls Lie, and I succumbed to the hype and downloaded the much-acclaimed The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides.

Nora Roberts‘ gift for character development is the element of the Chronicles of The One that will keep readers and listeners interested enough to listen through all three books. In The Rise of Magicks, we have Fallon Swift aka The One all grown up and ready to take back the world that was destroyed by The Doom in the first book, Year One. Of Blood and Bonebook two gives listeners a clear picture of how life is in the post-Doom world, who the players are, and what must be done to beat back the dark forces that threaten The Light. We know in our hearts that things will be all right, that Fallon and fellow warrior Duncan will join forces both romantically and militarily, and we know that good will triumph over evil. This is 4 Stars worth of magical beings, good guys to the rescue, and a HEA delivered in an excellent performance by Julia Whelan.

The Trapped Girl is another solid 4 Star listen. Author Robert Dugoni takes what is essentially a police procedural and dresses it up with mystery and suspense in a psychological thriller. Our girl detective Tracy Crosswhite brings her personal baggage to the investigation and it adds a human touch to a grisly and compelling storyline that will keep listeners guessing as much as it does the competitive detectives who are jumping through hoops to outmaneuver each other as they try to decide who has jurisdiction over a corpse that is found stuffed in a crab pot — see . . . I told you it was grisly. But, in order to determine who’s in charge, they have to determine the identity of a victim who keeps changing identities!   Emily Sutton-Smith might not be the best narrator for this story which could have benefited from a more dramatic performance.

I’m sure there are people who will be aghast that I dared to give a book as widely acclaimed as The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides a mere 4 Stars. A big part of that rating goes to narrators Jack Hawkins and Louise Brealey for an excellent performance of a book that didn’t live up to all the hyperbolic reviews. It was a good story and there were twists and turns and I don’t deny the ending caught me by surprise. Nevertheless, it took a long and winding road to get to the Gotcha moment and the scenery along the way was not always engaging. I rarely jump on book bandwagons because I prefer to find my jewels myself. The Silent Patient vindicates that practice.

My 5 star book for January is Good Girls Lie by J. T. Ellison. I was a bit dubious about this one going in because I typically dislike books about teenagers. The girls of the Goode School are definitely not your typical teenagers. They are very privileged and entitled and overly confident they can get away with anything including murder. Imagine a genuine psycho finding herself in this hotbed of girlish drama! These little prisses don’t realize there is someone in their midst who is actually capable of doing all the things they threaten to do! Good Girls Lie has a very creepy vibe . . . and based on some of the snoots I’ve known over the years, sadly, I can see this happening. Fiona Hardingham sets just the right tone to make your skin crawl a little at these girls and their cruel and deadly shenanigans. Hold on to your earphones for the ending! You’ll think you have it all figured out, but you haven’t! Well done, Ms. Ellison.

Thank You For Following Us at Literati Literature Lovers and Happy Listening in February!

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