Audiobook Review: The Intruder by Freida McFadden
The Intruder
Author: Freida McFadden
Narrators:
Patricia Santomasso
Tina Wolstencroft
Jo Hempel
Published: October 7, 2025
Audiobook: 8 hours 19 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: October 15-19, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars
Book Description:
Who knows what the storm will blow in…
Casey’s cabin in the wilderness is not built for a hurricane. Her roof shakes, the lights flicker, and the tree outside her front door sways ominously in the wind. But she’s a lot more worried about the girl she discovers lurking outside her kitchen window.
She’s young. She’s alone. And she’s covered in blood.
The girl won’t explain where she came from or loosen her grip on the knife in her right hand. And when Casey makes a disturbing discovery in the middle of the night, things take a turn for the worse.
The girl has a dark secret. One she’ll kill to keep. And if Casey gets too close to the truth, she may not live to see the morning.
Jessica’s Review:
Freida, it really is time to take a break! Her last couple of books have just been average for me. I know she has her legion on superfans who finish her books the day it is released and must have her next book now even though the release is still months away. And they have ‘read all her books and don’t know what to do now’.
The Intruder is a darker novel that deals with child abuse and extreme hoarding. It also has an extreme YA feel, but that is because we are dealing with the past childhood of Casey and Ella is a teenager. Yes it will have that YA feel, which McFadden had to have taken from her teenage daughter.
The premise was intriguing for me but the delivery and ‘big twist’ just didn’t work. McFadden’s next book comes out the end of January 2026 and I am just thinking that it won’t be what I want it to be. I will listen to it at some point, but won’t be in a hurry for it.
Again, Freida: Take a much-needed break! Your legion of superfans will still be there, hungry for more.
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
Short Story Sunday: Orion’s Story Does Not Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Orion’s Story Does Not Die at the End
Series: They Both Die At the End short story
Author: Adam Silvera
Published: May 6, 2025
Hardback: Barnes and Noble exclusive edition- 11 pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Date Read: September 14, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars
Jessica’s Review:
This is a short story featuring Orion that takes place after both They Both Die at the End and The First to Die at the End. It’s been nine years and Orion has written his book Golden Heart to keep Valentino alive in print since he can’t be fully present in the flesh. Orion is about to have an appearance at a book signing. We see Orion experience a variety of emotions with things that happen at the signing. Orion also has a new boyfriend, so the reader gets to meet Joel, who of course has a connection in They Both Die at the End.
Unlike the previous short stories that Silvera has written: The Father Does Not Die at the End and Dalma Does Not Die at the End, this short story featuring Orion did not feel like it added much to the universe. The other two enhanced the universe for me, especially The Father Does Not Die at the End. It was nice to see Orion at a book signing, and thus it seems like we get to experience what Silvera feels when he does signings himself. This was also a shorter short story and it just felt a bit rushed and something Silvera was contracted to do for the Barnes and Noble exclusive edition. But this Death-Cast world just intrigues me, so I will read anything that Silvera writes in this world!
Purchase Links:
**Please note that this short story is only available in the Barnes & Noble exclusive edition
Barnes and Noble
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