Category: Review

Audiobook Review: The Teacher by Freida McFadden

The Teacher
Author: Freida McFadden

Narrators:
Leslie Howard

Danny Montooth
Published: February 6, 2024
Audiobook: 9 hours 35 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read:  February 19-23, 2024
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars

Book Description:

Lesson #1: Trust no one.

Eve has a good life. She wakes up each day, kisses her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except…

Last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye.

Addie can’t be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that’s what everyone says.

But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet…

Jessica’s Review:

There are a couple of trigger warnings with The Teacher that should be addressed: Inappropriate teacher/student relationship, grooming/pedophilia, and bullying. People seem to not realize this from the book description, but it is there!  Go in knowing this, and you won’t be surprised if you can be triggered by these circumstances.

I had no idea going into listening The Teacher how mind blown I was going to be by the end! I also gave it 5 stars! I’ve read several of McFadden’s books and enjoyed them, but I wasn’t prepared for the sheer direction the twists were going to go this time! In fact, I need to listen to the book again knowing how it ends! My mouth just dropped in shock with her final two twists! McFadden knows what she is doing! It helps that her chapters are shorter, which makes it harder to stop reading the further you get into the novel!

These characters were just unlikeable and I felt so much emotion for them. McFadden captured Addie beautifully: It helps she has a teenage daughter (and at one time was one herself), so she was able to capture the angst and emotions of a teenage girl.  At the end of the book there is a note from McFadden with the help she got from her daughter.   Leslie Howard was one of the narrators and she also captured that teen angst! Danny Montooth was the other narrator, and while his was a much smaller narration, he did a great job with capturing Nate!

 
This is the sixth book I’ve read from McFadden (also her Christmas short story) and I think I can say I’m a ‘Freida Readah’ now! She is another author I think I will read or listen to no matter what, and she has two more books coming out this year: Bring them on!

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

An Advanced Listening Copy Review of You’ll Never Know I’m Here by Kiersten Modglin

You’ll Never Know I’m Here
Author: Kiersten Modglin

Narrator: Stacy Gonzalez
Published: Available now as a book or e-book: New on audiobook on February 27, 2024
Audiobook: 5 hours 49 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: February 13-16, 2024
Jessica’s Rating: 3.5 stars

Audiobook Description:

They tell the world what mysteries to read.
Soon, they’ll be caught up in one of their own.

When six book influencers take a weekend getaway to connect with their fellow creators, it’s meant to be a chance to relax, collaborate, and discuss all of the books they love.

But from the start, something’s clearly amiss. From the host’s mysterious absence and an unexpected guest to an odd occurrence in town and the strange and worrisome behavior of the neighbors, what starts out as an innocent and lively vacation quickly becomes a weekend filled with terror. And when one of the group members believes they see something horrifying at the house next door, their carefully laid plans begin to unravel.

Drawn into a mystery that runs far deeper and is more sinister than they could’ve imagined—and surrounded by those who refute their story—the group struggles to unearth the truth about the house and the couple next door before it’s too late.

As new questions and shocking revelations surface, the group must decide if they can trust each other—not only with their safety in the house, but with their lives entirely.

Readers’ worst nightmares come to life in this terrifying new thriller that tests the limits of friendship, explores the power of social media influence, digs into the depths of trust, and examines the desperate and dangerous lengths of obsession from million-copy bestselling author, Kiersten Modglin.

Jessica’s Review:

Anyone who reads thrillers and who might be termed as an ‘influencer’ will want to read this book! The premise definitely intrigued me. And our group of ‘influencers’ are thriller readers!  YES!  The book has been out for a couple of months but will be new to audio next week.

We have our MC Lena and she and some of her fellow ‘book influencer’ friends decide to finally meet up for a weekend getaway.  The rented home is in a small town away from just about everything, giving the reader a “We are in the middle of nowhere!” eerie feeling. And then things don’t go as they thought they would.  One in our friend group sees something unpleasant happen in another house…. or did they????

It’s a bit of paranoia and who knows what is going to happen? Who can be trusted?  This is another book that shows how social media is so mainstream: Everyone has to be an influencer and/or share everything that goes on in their life. No one has secrets anymore!

For me the characters came off as YA when they are in their 20s.  There was just drama and an immaturity to them. I do read YA, it is one of my ‘go to’ genres, but I prepare myself for what may be in that type of book when I go to read it.  And this one had it and that was a bit of a turnoff for me.  I was invested in what was going to happen and KMod’s books are shorter, so I was in it through the ending!  I also enjoyed Stacy Gonzalez’s narration. 

I have seen other reviews that other readers did not like the twist ending. I actually did: I ‘got’ what KMod was trying to say and I liked it!  I gave it an extra half star for that ending.  You really can’t say much without giving anything away, and I’m not going to!

Many thanks for the publisher for granting me a copy to listen to and review!

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

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An Advanced Listening Copy Review of Switched by Sarah Ready

Switched
Series: Ghosted #2
Author: Sarah Ready

Narrators:
Kelsey Navarro Foster

James Anderson Foster
To Be Published: February 20, 2024
Audiobook: 10 hours 12 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To:  February 2-12, 2024
Jessica’s Rating: 4.5 stars

Book Description:

For Serena Otaki, free-spirited Californian, life is simple. She loves smashing atoms at The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. She loves Star Trek, spicy tofu, and her cat, Captain Purrk. She loves her messy (slob-fest) apartment, her chaotic brand of organizing, and staying permanently, happily unattached.

Life is perfect. She has one true love—physics.
Loving a man isn’t in her future.

For Henry Joules, uptight Brit, life is simple. He loves making analog black holes, drinking piping hot tea, and organizing his pencil tray. He loves his family, red meat, and obsessively cleaning his spotless apartment.

Life is perfect. He has many loves—physics, family, friends. He can’t wait to find the woman of his dreams.
Love and marriage are in his future.

One perfect night Serena and Henry meet. Sparks fly, particles collide, the universe comes to a halt, and…

It was a mistake.
They’re too different.
It won’t work.

Love isn’t in their future.

Until an electric storm causes an unexpected event at the particle collider and suddenly—they’ve switched.

Serena is in Henry’s body.
Henry is in Serena’s body.

And both life and love are suddenly very, very complicated.

Jessica’s Review:

Wow, Jessica listened to another romance novel and really enjoyed it! This is the second in the Ghosted series. It isn’t necessary to have read Ghosted before this one because Jillian and Daniel’s story is mentioned in Switched, but I really do recommend it! Their story also continues since Switched happens after Ghosted.  So far in this series we have extremely smart FMCs (female main characters) with STEM careers, that are also nerdy but adorable.  It’s great to have strong female characters with this type of career!

To be honest, I wasn’t really interested in the book until Serena and Henry switched bodies. I think it was a ‘me’ thing with some things going on in my life. But once that switch happened the book took off for me. 

Switched is very entertaining and hilarious at times.  We see what happens when you are not just in another person’s body, but someone of the opposite gender! Both Serena and Henry have experiences as the opposite sex. And really, we do see that women really are the stronger gender! Full on hilarity ensues, I just don’t want to say what as a minor spoiler.  We do have a small amount of spice that I could have done without.  Remember…. I’ve figured out that I seem to be a ‘fade to black’/ ‘behind closed door’ romance reader.

Here are some of the tropes we have in Switched:
Fake Dating

One Night Stand
Forced Proximity

We have two narrators: Kelsey Navarro Foster and James Anderson Foster, who are married in ‘real life’! Kelsey did a fabulous job! She really captured everything with the characters down to the ‘bad English accent’ with Serena attempting to be Henry.  James only narrated for one chapter, and for that I was thankful as his voice for this chapter did not work for me. 

Sarah Ready is an author I discovered last year and Switched is the third book I have listened to from her, and I have enjoyed them all!  She’s an author I plan to read/listen to more. And with a third book in the Ghosted series coming out in July, I am ready for another book from her!  And for one who doesn’t really read much romance, that is saying something! And let me just say that the covers of the books in this series… It’s very tempting for me to want physical copies of them because they are just… Gorgeous!

Many thanks to the publisher for having these audiobooks available to listen to and reviewing!

Pre-Order Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

 

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