Audiobook Review: The Crash by Freida McFadden
The Crash
Author: Freida McFadden
Narrator: Leslie Howard
Published: January 28, 2024
Audiobook: 9 hours 13 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: February 10-15, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
The nightmare she’s running from is nothing compared to where she’s headed.
Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn’t realize she’s heading straight into a blizzard.
She never arrives at her destination.
Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she’s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears.
But something isn’t right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn’t what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet.
And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself—and her unborn child.
Jessica’s Review:
Freida did it again!
I really enjoyed The Crash. It was fast moving and intense and starts out with a death. It had some similarities to Misery with a snow storm and a main character keeping the other character locked away against their will. Granted we have a pregnant woman instead of an author, but still, why would you even go out and drive in bad weather!?!?! Some people just don’t have common sense… But then if Tegan did have common sense then we wouldn’t’ have this story to read!
Tegan is eight months pregnant and her life is not going the way she planned. After some ‘baby daddy’ drama she decides to go stay with her brother for a while until she figures out what to do next with her life. She never makes it as she crashes into a tree. And ends up with a broken ankle. Depending on how you look at it, Tegan is ‘saved’ by a couple and stays in their home. Until she realizes that she doesn’t want to stay there and she is unable to leave. Tegan’s rescue becomes her worst nightmare.
Polly is the wife and Hank is the husband and something is not quite right with the way things are going with them. We know from the start of the novel that there is a death, but we don’t know who the killer is and who is dead. This is a Freida book, so you may change your mind so many times as to what is going to happen. Just when you think you know what’s going on McFadden brings on yet another twist!
The Crash is very fast paced, and from the accident forward it is just four very intense days for Tegan. I am proud to say I picked out who the killer from the beginning is, just not who the victim is. And there were twists I never saw coming: I was shocked at one particular one. For most of the book I was thinking I would give it 4.5 stars, but the final part of the novel was just… perfect for me!
The narrator is Leslie Howard and she did a great job with the narration! She has been around for a while and has narrated several of McFadden’s previous novels.
I am excited to see what McFadden brings us next! Whether I read an older book of hers or an upcoming novel. I am definitely a Freida Readah! Keep on writing Mrs. McFadden!
Audiobook Review: Everything We Never Said by Sloan Harlow
Everything We Never Said
Author: Sloan Harlow
Narrators:
Steven Molony
Ferdelle Capistrano
Brittany Pressley
Published: May 28, 2024
Audiobook: 9 hours 14 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened: January 17-24 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
What you don’t know can hurt you….
It’s been months since the accident that killed Ella’s best friend, Hayley, and Ella can’t stop blaming herself. Now, Ella is back at school, and everywhere she looks are reminders of her best friend—including Sawyer, Hayley’s boyfriend. Little by little, they grow closer, until Ella realizes something horrifying…
She’s in love with her dead best friend’s boyfriend.
Racked with guilt, Ella turns to Hayley’s journal, hoping she’ll find something in the pages that will make her feel better about what’s happening. Instead, she discovers that Sawyer has secrets of his own, and that his relationship with Hayley wasn’t as picture-perfect as it seemed.
Ella knows she should stay away but finds herself inextricably drawn to him—and scared of everything she never knew about him. Perhaps it’s his grief. Or maybe his desires, cut short by tragedy. Or could it be something twisted only Hayley knew about?
Jessica’s Review:
This one is my first five star read of 2025! It is a mix of my two top genres: YA and Suspense/Thriller. It’s more of a mix of those genres with some romance added in. It does get a slight bit steamy, just the YA version of 16/17-year-olds doing what 16/17-year-olds do.
We have two narrators: Ella and Sawyer. Ella and Hayley were best friends and Ella blames herself for Hayley’s death while Sawyer was Hayley’s boyfriend. We also get to know Hayley through diary entries. Over time Ella and Sawyer become close and then fall for each other. But over time Ella begins to read Hayley’s diary and begins to realize things may not have been what they seemed.
Grief and domestic abuse are themes in this novel and could be triggering to readers. The book takes place in Georgia and Harlow is also from the state so I enjoyed the many references being from Georgia myself! Authors from Georgia that mention locations in Georgia get a plus in my reading! It helps me identify with the characters more.
Everything is a fast-moving novel and yes, I figured out the ‘whodunnit’ 66% of the way in, but not the why this person did what they did. I still had a surprise when I got to that. But then…. To quote Samuel L Jackson, “hold on to your butts” the reader is in for another big twist later on!
I really enjoyed Everything We Never Said. There are three narrators to it. The guy narrator had to ‘grow’ on me. I didn’t really like him, but the two female narrators did great. Brittany Pressley narrated Hayley’s diary entries and did a fabulous job!
I will be looking into Harlow’s future novels!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Audiobook Review: The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald
The Night Olivia Fell
Author: Christina McDonald
Narrators:
Kelly Burke
Laurel Lefkow
Published: February 5, 2019
Audiobook: 10 hours 45 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: January 6-16, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
A search for the truth. A lifetime of lies.
In the small hours of the morning, Abi Knight is startled awake by the phone call no mother ever wants to get: Her teenage daughter, Olivia, has fallen off a bridge. Not only is Olivia brain-dead, she’s pregnant and must remain on life support to keep her baby alive. And then Abi sees the angry bruises circling Olivia’s wrists.
When the police unexpectedly rule Olivia’s fall an accident, Abi decides to find out what really happened that night. Heartbroken and grieving, she unravels the threads of her daughter’s life. Was Olivia’s fall an accident? Or something far more sinister?
Christina McDonald weaves a suspenseful and heart-wrenching tale of hidden relationships, devastating lies, and the power of a mother’s love. With flashbacks of Olivia’s own resolve to uncover family secrets, this taut and emotional novel asks: How well do you know your children? And how well do they know you?
Jessica’s Review:
This book showcases how strong the mother/child bond is: So much so that it won’t be for all readers who are triggered by severe injury to a teenage daughter. I’m not a parent but I could feel the emotion that Abi felt as she was determined to find out what happened to Olivia. This is because I have very close friends with children (younger and older) that I love and would be devastated if this happened to them.
Abi Knight get the call that no parent ever wants to receive: “Your daughter is in the hospital.” Then she later finds out her daughter is brain-dead… and pregnant. The doctors are required by state law to keep Olivia on life support until the baby arrives. And for Abi, this will be several months of anguish. Olivia did not tell Abi that she was pregnant.
This was a good novel! We have povs from both Oilvia and Abi and over the course of the novel find out who the baby’s father is, what happened to Olivia, and more. This is a mystery/ suspense with a bit of political intrigue added in to the mix.
The novel goes into the secrets that both Abi and Olivia are keeping. I did not figure it out but finding out who was responsible was a bit anticlimactic for me. I was expecting more than what happened. But Abi’s emotions and determination were the main focus for me. Towards the ending the book does get emotional, as the reader already knows the direction the story will go in. I can see some mothers ugly crying at the ending. And yes, it was emotional!
Both narrators did a great job. I am not sure which narrator voiced Abi and which voiced Olivia, but they were exceptional in their portrayals.
This was my first novel by McDonald and I will be reading/ listening to more by her!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
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