Tag: 4 stars

Audiobook Review: A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage by Asia Mackay

A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage
Author: Asia MacKay

Narrators:
Georgia Tennant

Kyle Soller
Published: January 14, 2025
Audiobook: 9 hours 47 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: June 17-24, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars

Book Description:

I wasn’t smashing the patriarchy; I was killing it. Literally.

Hazel and Fox are an ordinary married couple with a baby. Except for one small thing: they’re murderers. Well, they used to be. They had it all. An enviable London lifestyle, five-star travels, and plenty of bad men to rid from the world. Then Hazel got pregnant.

Now, they’re just another mom-and-dad-and-baby. They gave up vigilante justice for life in the suburbs: arranged play dates instead of body disposals, diapers over daggers, mommy conversations instead of the sweet seduction right before a kill. Hazel finds her new life terribly dull. And the more she forces herself to play her monotonous, predictable role, the more she begins to feel that murderous itch again.

Meanwhile, Fox has really taken to being a father. Always the planner, he loves being five steps ahead of everyone and knowing exactly what’s coming around the bend. Plus, if anyone can understand Hazel needing one more kill, it’s Fox. But then Hazel kills someone without telling Fox. And when police show up at their door, Hazel realizes it will take everything she has to keep her family together.

Jessica’s Review:

A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage was a fun and quick read.  We have a married couple who are serial killers.  They kill ‘bad men’ until… an unexpected pregnancy.  And now Hazel and Fox are trying to adjust to ‘normal’ life: IE not being killers. But killing is what brings and keeps Hazel and Fox together.  Can they survive ‘normal’ life?

We have both Hazel and Fox’s point of views in the past and present.  I liked Hazel, but felt that we never really got to know Fox very well.  The past does come into play with the present.

Trying to have a ‘normal’ life Hazel is part of parenting groups and makes friends with… a police officer on maternity leave and also under investigation.  During this, Hazel can’t help herself and kills again… But this time solo… And the story moves on…

Both narrators did a good job with their narrations.  Guide to Marriage is entertaining and has some dark humor to it.  And I really just enjoyed the ending!  This novel would make a good mini-series that I would definitely watch.

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK 

Audiobook Review: Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

Listen for the Lie
Author: Amy Tintera

Narrators:
January LaVoy

Will Damron
Published: March 5, 2024
Audiobook: 9 hours 18 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: June 25-29, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars

Book Description:

What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn’t matter?

After Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer. Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all, and if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life.

But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast “Listen for the Lie,” and its too-good looking host Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one that did it.

The truth is out there, if we just listen.

Jessica’s Review:

Listen For the Lie is a fast moving and fun book that needs to be listened to!  An interesting premise that has mystery, suspense and well… a girl murdered and her BFF is the suspect. And this suspect doesn’t remember anything! Now, years later a popular podcast creator is interested in the case and determined to solve it!

We go between the story and the podcast.  And the narration keeps the listener fully involved in the story. Both January LaVoy and Will Damron did a fabulous job with their narrations. LaVoy is one of my ‘must listen to’ narrators and Damron really pulled me into the podcast sections! 

Who the killer was didn’t totally work for me, but otherwise I enjoyed this audiobook!  Definitely listen to this one!

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK 

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Audiobook Review: The Lost Girls by J.M. Cannon

The Lost Girls
Author: J.M. Cannon

Narrator: Lauryn Allman
Published: February 27, 2025
Audiobook: 10 hours 31 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: June 6-16, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars

Book Description:

Three missing girls. Two days to find the truth.
One woman’s race against time . . . 

Charleston, South Carolina. Four years ago.

Three girls disappear into the night. One by one they go missing, never to be seen again. No witnesses, no leads, nothing.

The only thing they had in common? An uneasy sense of being watched in the days before they vanished. Noises in the night, and boot prints in the flower beds outside their bedroom windows . . .

Today.

One of the lost girls was Anna Klein’s best friend. With no body, the case went cold. But Anna never stopped looking for Sylvie – or whoever took her.

Now, four years later, Anna finally has a lead when a body turns up in an abandoned mansion. She has to know: Is it Sylvie? But time is running out. As the storm of the century threatens the whole East Coast, the clock is ticking to find the answers before this trail goes cold.

Can Anna find Sylvie and the other girls before they’re lost forever?

** Previously published as The Flash Girls **

 

Jessica’s Review:

The Lost Girls is my first novel by J.M. Cannon and I enjoyed it! I was approached to read it and the description interested me. Missing girls, a possible ‘serial kidnapper’, one girl left trying to find answers years later, and much more.

I was riveted in the book from the beginning.  I liked Anna and was along for the ride with her.  So much was going on in the story and we have another villain heading towards Charleston: The seemingly biggest hurricane that may cause ultimate devastation to the area.

There is a sense of urgency with the hurricane coming and this upcoming storm is its own character! Cannon was very descriptive of Charleston and I felt like I could have been there. There was also a scene that dealt with news footage of the colossal waves hitting a ship. This was making me think twice about doing a cruise out in the ocean!  (Not that I am going on a cruise anytime soon).

Bodies being found with the upcoming storm was also giving a sense of urgency with the crime scenes. And the crime scenes too!  And there is also a scene in a morgue I won’t go into.  Let’s just say these scenes helped to keep the ‘thriller lover/serial killer reader’ in me intrigued!

Some of the directions the story went in was a bit out of left field, but I really wanted to see what was going to happen in the end! Was the villain going to be found and was Charleston going to be devastated by the storm?

Lauren Allman was the narrator and she is fast becoming a narrator that I will look out for.  She is becoming a ‘must listen to’ narrator for me.  She did a great job with her narration.  She kept me wanting to keep listening to the story!

Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a Spotify audio copy via Pubvendo to listen to and review. I enjoyed it!  

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

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