Audiobook Review: What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
What Alice Forgot
Author: Liane Moriarty
Narrator: Tamara Lovatt Smith
Published: May 1, 2010
Audiobook: 13 hours 32 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: March 15-23, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child. So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over — she’s getting divorced, she has three kids, and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over…
Jessica’s Review:
Imagine this: You wake up in the hospital. Other than being unsure why you are there, you are thinking you are 29, have a happy marriage, and newly expecting your first child. And it is 1998. Then you are told it is actually 2008, you are 39 (No Way!?!?! That’s middle age!!!) with three children (Wait a minute..not one but three kids!?!?!), estranged from your sister, and in the middle of a divorce (WHAT!?!?). That’s what happens to Alice after she has a fall in the gym.
This is the basic premise of What Alice Forgot. The reader/listener goes on the journey with Alice to try and figure out the who, what, when, and whys over the forgotten last ten years. There are many mini mysteries that Alice must figure out, or does she even want to? This is a book about family misunderstandings, forgiveness, second chances, and love.
Can you imagine missing the last ten years of your life?!?! This was a book club read and called for a lot of discussions. The ten years that Alice forgot a lot happened in the world: She doesn’t even remember 9/11. And then all of the technological changes over that time including Y2K! Even going back from now in 2026 to back to 2016, I have gone through so many changes! It’s scary to think about.
I did have some issued with the narration. At times it was hard to distinguish differences in characters journals/homework, etc. I had to go back in my audiobook at the beginning of most chapters to figure out who or when the chapter was occurring. Maybe a second narrator or even just a change in her tone would have been helpful.
Other than the narration issues, I did enjoy this one!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
ALC Review: We Burned So Bright by TJ Klune
We Burned So Bright
Author: TJ Klune
Narrator: Kirt Graves
To Be Published: April 28, 2026
Audiobook: 6 hours 25 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: March 24-27, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
The road stretched out before them. No other cars, just the headlights on the blacktop. Above, the cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky….
Husbands Don and Rodney have lived a good long life. Together they’ve experienced the highest highs of love and family, and lows so low that they felt like the end of the world.
Now, the world is ending for real. A wandering black hole is coming for Earth and in a month everything and everyone they’ve ever known will be gone.
Suddenly, after 40 years together, Don and Rodney are out of time. They’re in a race against the clock to make it from Maine to Washington State to take care of some unfinished business before it’s all over.
On the road they meet those who refuse to believe death is coming and those who rush to meet it. But there are also people living their final days as best they know how—impromptu weddings, bright burning bonfires, shared meals, and new friends.
And as the black hole draws near, among ball lightning and under a cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky, Don and Rodney will look back on their lives and ask if their best was good enough.
Is it enough to burn bright if nothing comes from the ashes?
Jessica’s Review:
This book will be in my Top 10 of 2026 and I cannot see anything beating it. We still have many months to go for 2026, but it really seems like We Burned So Bright will be my number one read this year. What would you find yourself doing if you only had a month left to live? There is no doubt about this fact as a black hole is coming towards Earth and the rest of our solar system, destroying everything in its path.
Our story focuses on Don and Rodney, husbands who have been together for over forty years. Now in their mid-70s, with the end of the world rapidly approaching they find themselves on a cross-country trip with a final destination in mind. They are determined to complete it before Earth and everything on it says its final goodbyes. Over the course of their journey, Don and Rodney come across a variety of people each facing their grief of the inevitable end in a variety of ways.
We Burned So Bright is a compelling heartbreakingly emotional read. I listened to an audio copy and the listener feels a sense of urgency: Will Don and Rodney reach their destination and goal before the end comes? The urgency increases as the novel progresses as it becomes even more apparent that this is in fact the end. The reason for their cross-country trip is slowly uncovered over the course of the novel and it is ultimately heartbreaking.
The narrator Kirt Graves is seemingly a perfect fit for this novel. He helps the listener experience everything the characters do and as the novel progresses, with Graves narration I could visually see what Don and Rodney experienced in my mind. This is the sign of a great narrator and superb writing by Klune.
The listener does get some LGBTQ history as we learn about Don and Rodney’s past through flashbacks of their long history together. Given they are a gay couple, the listener experiences what life was like for the two during the chaos of the time that they lived which includes the AIDS crisis. We Burned so Bright is a deeply touching novel that will stay with me for a while. Though I did not cry, I can see some readers/ listeners shedding some tears. For such a short read, it creates a lasting impact and everyone should read this one.
Many thank you to the publisher for granting me an advanced copy to listen to and review. I am going to have to purchase the Barnes and Noble Exclusive Edition, as I will have to have that version on my shelf of favorite novels.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes and Noble Exclusive Edition
Novella Review: What Does it Feel Like? By Sophie Kinsella
What Does it Feel Like?
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Published: October 8, 2024
Hardback: 133 pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: December 20-22, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
From #1 bestselling author Sophie Kinsella, an unforgettable story—by turns heartbreaking and life-affirming—of a renowned novelist facing a devastating diagnosis and learning to live and love anew.
“What Does It Feel Like? is fiction, but it is my most autobiographical work to date. Eve’s story is my story.”—Sophie Kinsella
Eve is a successful novelist who wakes up one day in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. Her husband, never far from her side, explains that she has had an operation to remove the large, malignant tumor growing in her brain.
As Eve learns to walk, talk, and write again—and as she wrestles with her diagnosis, and how and when to explain it to her beloved children—she begins to recall what’s most important to her: long walks with her husband’s hand clasped firmly around her own, family game nights, and always buying that dress when she sees it.
Recounted in brief anecdotes, each one is an attempt to answer the type of impossible questions recognizable to anyone navigating the labyrinth of grief. This short, extraordinary novel is a celebration of life, shot through with warmth and humor—it will both break your heart and put it back together again.
“Why did I write such a personal book? I have always processed my life through writing. Hiding behind my fictional characters, I have always turned my own life into a narrative. It is my version of therapy, maybe. Writing is my happy place, and writing this book, although tough going at times, was immensely satisfying and therapeutic for me.”—Sophie Kinsella
Jessica’s Review:
What Does it Feel Like? was a bittersweet read. It is fiction, but the closest we get to an autobiography of Sophie Kinsella. She passed away December 10, 2025, just two days shy of her birthday. Kinsella fought the battle of Glioblastoma for three years, longer than most patients who fight the disease. Glioblastoma is a very aggressive brain tumor and there is no cure.
I was actually not aware that she had been sick until after she passed away. I then found out she had written What Does It Feel Like? and very quickly ordered a copy off Amazon, which temporarily sold out of the book. Looks like a lot of readers wanted to read this novella.
It is a short novella under 150 pages; readers are given Eve’s story of battling cancer and working on recovering after having surgery: Having to learn to do the most basic things that anyone else takes for granted. It is a very moving and quick read. I read it in a 24-hour period over the course of two days.
Each chapter is an anecdote giving more of Eve’s experiences. This novella is a celebration of life with warmth and humor given along with the heartbreak knowing Kinsella’s ending. This is a moving novella and I did tear up towards the end. Even though this is Eve’s story, this is also Kinsella’s story. Kinsella will always carry a piece of my heart as her novel Can You Keep a Secret? is the book that helped me to fall in love with reading again, and I have yet to stop reading.
I wish I could tell her thank you for writing her novels, so many readers have come to love her over the many years she wrote. What Does it Feel Like? was the last book that I read in 2025 and it also was in my ‘Top 10’ of the year.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK