Audiobook Review: Sonora by Jenni L. Walsh
Sonora
Author: Jenni L. Walsh
Narrator: Piper Goodeve
Published: October 28, 2025
Audiobook: 10 hours 9 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: October 20-29, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
Inspired by a true story of one of the first female horse divers, Sonora explores a world of daring feats and extraordinary adventures set in the heyday of the American carnival scene. This book vividly captures the spirit of a brave woman who defied societal norms to follow her dreams, diving into the unknown with courage and resilience.
Sonora Webster is penniless but plucky, and despite the looming Great Depression, she follows her wanderlust, answering an advert to dive with horses. Little does she know that she is about to be thrust into a world teeming with danger, excitement, and fierce competition.
As Sonora delves into the cutthroat world of show business, complete with human cannonballs, trapeze aerial acts, and juggling bears, her undeniable talent and unwavering dedication propel her into the limelight, making her a sensation, and after marrying the show runner, her entire life becomes their act and their horses. But she soon learns that a diver–and her horse–are only as good as their last show, a show some are hellbent on shutting down. When a tragic accident changes her life forever, can Sonora muster the courage to climb the fifty-foot tower and dive again, risking her life to save the show and their horses from falling into the wrong hands?
Jessica’s Review:
If you grew up in the 1990s then you more than likely saw the Disney movie Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken. I watched it so many times growing up and I saw this audiobook about Sonora Carver and jumped on it. It is Historical Fiction and follows the same path as the movie, with differences as it is based closer on Carver’s actual life. Walsh used Carver’s memoir as a basis for this novel.
Listening to this novel, brought back so many pleasant memories of watching Wild Hearts Can’t be Broken. I did not realize that Sonora was from Waycross, Georgia until it was mentioned in the novel!
I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and knew the story because of the film, but still felt I learned some things. The narrator Piper Goodeve, captured Sonora perfectly! From a spunky teen at the beginning of the story to the determined woman that she became, beating the odds despite what happened to her. Listening to this novel and now knowing there is a biography written by Carver herself, I plan on listening to it as I got it on Audible and then rewatching Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken.
**Be sure to listen to the author’s note at the end of the novel to learn more about Sonora’s life.
Thank you to Walsh for the enjoyable novel and bringing back the nostalgia I had for the film growing! And for piquing my interest in the biography! I will also be looking at what else she has written to read in the future!
Many thanks to the publisher Harper Muse Audiobooks for granting me an audiocopy to listen to and review. I really enjoyed it!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Book Review: Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid
Lady Macbeth
Author: Ava Reid
Published: August 13, 2024
Hardback: 295 pages
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 3 stars
Book Description:
The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men.
The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.
The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive.
But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world.
She does not know this yet. But she will.
****Kim is guest reviewing today! She’s still around!!****
Kim’s Review:
Worst. Retelling. EVER.
You’d think by now I’d finally accept the old adage of “don’t judge a book by its cover” and quit buying books because they’re gorgeous. And it’s not like I even like retelling’s at all, especially retelling’s of my favorite stories. Macbeth is my favorite Shakespearean play. I did a monologue from it in one of my college drama classes and first fell in love back in 9th grade. Well, Reid ruined it. Murdered it. Mutilated it. And then didn’t even have the courtesy to go insane because of the guilt. Somehow, she managed to take a strong, independent, clever, ambitious, aspiring queen and turn her into an incompetent, petty victim who somehow fails at being a victim at all! The entire book was filled with feminist virtue signaling and man hating.
Lady Macbeth is only 17, forced into an arranged marriage with a man who is surprisingly gentle and patient with her, and while acting like she’s the smartest person in the room, manages to prove that she is in fact the dumbest person in the room. Then, a romance was added between the good lady and the king’s eldest son, in which she is reduced to a common YA stereotype. She is incapable of seeing the big picture and at her best is reactionary, always one step away from using her wits effectively. The one time she manages success is a simple and petty revenge story that just highlights her immaturity and short sightedness.
Reid managed to add some pretty cool fantasy elements to her story that lead me to wonder why she didn’t just write an original story that was “loosely inspired” by Macbeth and actually give us a good book. Nope. Instead, she reduced the complex and fascinating story of Macbeth to a yawning conflict between the genders with the woman showing herself to be a failure to herself and womankind at every turn. Lady Macbeth was a dynamic villainess whom you hated yet admired and obsessed over. This character was just a teenage eye roll.
Why then the three star review? Well, it kept me engaged and I even wrote a bunch of notes while reading it … so I’ll give it the extra star for at least being emotionally and intellectually stimulated, even it was was criticizing the whole time.
My conclusion is that Reid didn’t understand Macbeth to begin with and then went so far as to completely reduce one of the most famous Shakespearean characters to a weak and pedestrian cliche. And I’m still upset about it.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Advanced Audiobook Review: The Hitchhikers by Chevy Stevens
The Hitchhikers
Author: Chevy Stevens
Narrators:
Lindsey Dorcus
Moniqua Plante
To Be Published: October 7, 2025
Audiobook: 12 hours 6 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: September 7-13, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
The open road beckons.
A chance for them to reconnect.
Then they make a fatal mistake.
It’s the summer of 1976 and Alice and Tom set out on the remote Canadian highways in their new RV, hoping to heal their broken hearts after a devastating tragedy.
They’ve planned the trip perfectly, taken care of every detail. Then they meet two young hitchhikers down on their luck and offer them a ride. But Simon and Jenny aren’t what they seem. They’ve left a trail of blood, destruction, and madness behind them.
Now Alice and Tom are trapped, prisoners in a deadly game, with nowhere to turn. As the tension builds, the lines blur, and the question becomes, in whose heart does evil truly lie? What secrets are Jenny and Simon hiding? And who will live another day?
Jessica’s Review:
It’s been four years since Chevy Stevens’ last novel, so I was excited to receive an advanced audio copy from the publisher via NetGalley!
A novel like this can only take place in the past (circa 1976 in Canada) now that cellphones have everything on them, which includes social media, notifications on what is going on in the world, and even just to call 911! The past for The Hitchhikers is in 1976 and our couple Alice and Tom were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, with good intentions. Our “Bonnie and Clyde” are Jenny and Simon and they are leaving destruction wherever they go.
I wasn’t sure how this one was going to end, and Stevens kept me on this RV roller coaster ride the entire time! Who is going to be injured or killed by our villains next and will Tom and Alice survive? What is going to be the ‘big twist?’ The Hitchhikers is a dark and tense thriller that I enjoyed.
The ending went in a ‘happily ever after’ direction and that didn’t work for me. I like my thrillers dark, and the endings don’t have to be positive. I’m not used to this with Stevens, though I see why she did write the ending in the way that she did.
The narrators are Lindsey Dorcus and Moniqua Plante, and both ladies brought their narration on! They really enhanced the characters of Alice and Jenny.
If you are a Stevens fan, then go read or listen to The Hitchhikers when it comes out on October 7th.
Many thanks to the publisher for granting me an advanced copy to listen to and review!
Pre-Order Links:
**I just love the UK cover!**
Amazon US
Amazon UK
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