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

Posted April 30, 2022 by RobbieLea in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

#neversawmecoming #verakurian #brittanypressley #thegodmothers #camilleaubray #lisaflanagan #saskiamaarleveld #thekeeperofhappyendings #barbaradavis #robinsiegerman #hopenewhouse #thechristieaffair #ninadegramont #lucyscott   

I’m unusually pleased with my selections for May! Each was chosen based entirely on the book description – you know … that little teaser that publishers put out there to entice readers or listeners to buy a book. Sometimes the book description gods just come my way because each of these was well worth my time. My first pick has a storyline that includes a psycho’s psycho. Next comes a book that hints that the wives of organized crime figures may hold all the power. My third selection is a book with something for everyone, and April’s Best finishes up with a work of fiction that is based on a little known fact about one of my favorite authors.

 

Never Saw Me Coming: A Novel

By Vera Kurian

Narrated by Brittany Pressley

I almost laughed out loud when I read the book description for Never Saw Me Coming. A book about a clinical study of psychopaths? Are you kidding? Sign me up! Now don’t go thinking this is some dull medical tome that is going to put you into a coma. Chloe, who stars in the featured roll of head psycho, spends her days like any other college student, except her primary goal is not to be valedictorian of her class or the Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, but to kill the unsuspecting fellow student who sexually assaulted her as a child. Generally speaking, I don’t enjoy YA books, so I didn’t quite know what to expect since these psychos are, after all, college kids but narrator Brittany Pressley turns in a perfect performance of all these vapid kids while still conveying that they are not your normal college students. Author Vera Kurian presents what should be a shocking account with just enough dark humor to make it about the story and not the sick minds of the characters.

The Godmothers: A Novel

By Camille Aubray

Narrated by Lisa Flanagan & Saskia Maarleveld

The Godmothers is the perfect listen for those of you who like historical novels with a twist. As young girls, Petrina, Amie, Lucy and Filomena have nothing in common except belonging to the same family. Each of them comes into a wealthy Italian family, either by birth or by marriage, with a different story and a different set of baggage that enables them to accept that the family earns its living in a most unusual way. Petrina is the pampered daughter who longs to escape her family legacy of organized crime while Amie, Lucy, and Filomena are happy to become part of a loving, if unconventional, family after spending their childhoods in Europe and the war-torn landscape of WW2. Each of them is an outcast in her own way, but find their true family in each other when fate makes them sisters and godmothers to each other’s children. Camille Aubray has written a compelling family saga with a lot of historic detail and it is expertly narrated by Lisa Flanagan and Saskia Maarleveld.

The Keeper of Happy Endings

By Barbara Davis

Narrated by Robin Siegerman and Hope Newhouse

The Keeper of Happy Endings is one of those rare books that will likely appeal to every audience. It’s a historical novel, a romance novel, and a mystery and thriller. There’s even a psycho thrown in for good measure. There are sad endings along with the happy endings alluded to in the title. It’s a classic example of how even if a story doesn’t turn out exactly as you would like, it can still turn out as it should.  Barbara Davis’s compelling story is one of those which is taken to the next level by the narration. Robin Siegerman and Hope Newhouse are en pointe with the right accents and the right voices for all the characters. Even if you figure out the ending, you will love traveling the road to get there.

The Christie Affair: A Novel

By Nina de Gramont

Narrated by  Lucy Scott 

I’m sure Dame Agatha Christie would have liked to be credited with originating the saying “Truth is stranger than fiction.” But, since both Lord Byron and Mark Twain used the phrase before her time, Dame Agatha must settle for a starring role in a work of fiction that is centered around a truth in her own life – a mysterious eleven day disappearance which has never been explained. In The Christie Affair, author Nina de Gramont takes it upon herself to write a fictional and very entertaining solution to the mystery.  I grew up reading Christie’s novels and loving the adventures of Monsieur Hercule Poirot; in fact, those books are likely the reason for my love of mysteries. No book about Dame Christie would be complete without a mystery to be solved, and Lucy Scott gives an excellent performance of the author’s fictional explanation for a true event

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

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