ALC Review: A Brewed Awakening by Pepper Basham
A Brewed Awakening
Author: Pepper Basham
Narrators:
Ann Marie Gideon
Christopher Ashman
To Be Published: May 5, 2026
Audiobook: 13 hours 33 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: April 13-21, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
Daphne dreams of Mr. Darcy. Finn serves up pints and rock music. Can opposites attract when a tea shop princess meets her pub-owning rival? Perfect for fans of Courtney Walsh and Emma St. Clair.
In the charming mountain town of Wisteria, North Carolina, Daphne Austen clings to tradition like cream to a scone. She’s built her life–and her late grandmother’s tearoom, Tea Thyme–around all things English: delicate china, Jane Austen novels, and the comforting predictability of routine. The only thing threatening her perfectly ordered world? The loud, aggravatingly handsome Brit opening a pub next door.
After his ex-wife broke his heart and his business partner nearly destroyed his career, Finn Dashwood packed up his six-year-old daughter and left England behind. He’s looking for a fresh start, and the last thing he needs is a fussy, tea-obsessed neighbor criticizing his every pint and playlist. It doesn’t matter that she’s ridiculously kind (to everyone else) and that his daughter is utterly fascinated by her. Finn’s heart is not open to being broken again.
But disagreements turn into prank wars and then a competition when a high-profile wedding needs a last-minute caterer. The townsfolk are thrilled–Wisteria hasn’t seen this much excitement since the county fair lost a goat.
When the wedding demands both sweet and savory fare, Daphne and Finn are forced to put down their swords and pick up their serving trays. Between burnt pastries, brewing tempers, trending hashtags (#SipsAndSpats, anyone?), and one very adorable little girl, rivalry soon gives way to reluctant friendship–and maybe something that feels suspiciously like chemistry.
Can a tea shop princess and a pub owner with a past mix their lives as seamlessly as clotted cream and jam . . . or will their differences keep them steeped in rivalry forever?
Jessica’s Review:
A Brewed Awakening was such a fun read! Taking place in the fictional Appalachian town of Wisteria, NC, we have Daphne Austen who owns the tearoom Tea Thyme and then comes new to town British Finnley Dashwood who will be opening a pub named The Green Dragon right next door. In fact, the two businesses will share a wall! (Do you see the Jane Austen references already???)
This is a sweet slow burn romance that includes enemies to lovers, a single dad to an adorable daughter with a cleft palette, lots of humor, and some chemistry that the whole town joins in on with a rivalry on social media that consists of call outs, and hashtags galore! There was so much humor at the beginning of each chapter with the hashtags. The competition between the two intensifies when an influencer couple can’t decide on which business will host their wedding reception. Hello rivalry, it’s time to heat things up even more! The banter is abundant, and as a listener I was like “Just go ahead and get together!” The journey of the inevitable is always fun to go on, especially when it is this entertaining. But then… the direction the novel goes in is unexpected and it affects everyone in the entire town. This is a romcom that goes in a serious direction. This direction also shows how close the small town is in bringing everyone together. There is such community which we don’t really see anymore.
We have both Daphne and Finn as our povs and the narrators did a great job! An extra bravo to Christopher Ashman who was superb as Finn Dashwood. Both he and Ann Marie Gideon brought the story to life and definitely portrayed the chemistry just as it was needed to be!
I really enjoyed this story and the fact that it was clean with no spice made it even better! Sometimes no spice can be what a reader/listener needs!
Many thanks to the publisher for granting me an advanced listening copy to listen to and review! This one releases tomorrow, May 5, 2026!
Pre-Order Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Audiobook Review: The Voice We Find by Nicole Deese
The Voice We Find: A Fog Harbor Romance
Series: Fog Harbor #3
Author: Nicole Deese
Narrators:
Stephanie Cozart
Nick Mills
Taylor Meskimen
Published: April 15, 2025
Audiobook: 14 hours 26 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: February 15-23, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Two voices. One story. A chance to rewrite their future.
Sophie Wilder returns home to California with nothing more than a failed Broadway career and a geriatric cat. Stuck working at the family winery with her egotistical brother and desperate for a way to revive her acting dreams, she takes a side gig as an audiobook narrator with Fog Harbor Books. But getting mixed up in the life of her reluctant sound engineer was never a part of her plans.
August Tate is still reeling from taking on guardianship of his teen sister. Determined to find a solution to her degenerative hearing loss and to prevent his private recording studio from going under, he agrees to produce audiobooks part-time. When Sophie breathes new life into his creativity and forms an unexpected bond with his sister rooted in their common faith, he must confront the reasons he turned away from his own or risk losing the second chance he’s only just started to believe in.
The Voice We Find is the third book in Nicole Deese’s Fog Harbor Romance Series for fans of clean, faith-based stories, deaf and hard of hearing representation, workplace romance, books about books, found family, and sibling bonds.
Jessica’s Review:
The Voice We Find is a contemporary Christian Fiction novel that deals with some deep themes. All three of our characters: Sophie, August, and Gabby all have growth over the course of the novel. The reader also experiences the character’s traumas and the aftermath of family loss, family tension, struggles with faith, and as the title suggests: The characters finding their voice in the ways that they are meant to. In addition to these themes, we have God and He is also a central part of the story. There is also a little bit of a mystery with Sophie’s past..
In addition to the three main characters we also have Phantom, who is Sophie’s ‘geriatric’ cat. He is his own character as I saw my own cat Curry in Phantom. All my love to stubborn, older cats! Curry can be his own ‘stubborn old man’!
My favorite parts of this novel are the ASL and the hard of hearing/ deaf community representation! Disability representation is needed more of in books and it is a significant part of the novel due to Gabby’s degenerative hearing loss and eventual deafness.
The reader also gets some insight in theater performance and audiobook narration. I enjoyed getting a brief look at what working in those ‘worlds’ consist of. We also get a sweet romance that progresses slowly. We also get another form of love that is the sibling love between August and Gabby. They may not be ‘blood relatives’, but they are family and their love is definitely there!
You can’t help but grow to care about all of these characters in all of their realities. They are all far from perfect, but again we experience their growth over the course of the novel.
All of the narrators brought August, Sophie, and Gabby to life with perfection. They all enhanced the story. The Voice We Find is the third in the series, but each novel can be treated as a standalone. This one was a book club selection for February, and I enjoyed it and hope to experience the other two in the series soon.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
The Book in Room 316
The Book in Room 316
Author: ReShonda Tate Billingsley
Published: July 10, 2018
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: October 30-November 11, 2019
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Savannah Graham thought she had the perfect marriage…until grief drove her husband into the arms of his best friend’s wife. Now, she believes revenge is the only way her heart can heal from the betrayal.
For fifty-two years, Ollie Moss lived side by side with the love of his life, his wife Elizabeth. But now that she’s gone, so is his desire to live, despite the love from his children, and his beloved grandson Samuel. Can anything save Ollie’s life?
Anna Rodriguez just wants to work and provide for her three children by any means necessary. But her decision to break the law in order to get a job is threatening life as she knows it.
Trey Brown is known in his neighborhood as a hustler, so much so that the gangs want him to join their ranks…but there’s a reason the nineteen-year-old does what he does—he’s the only one left who can save his little brother.
Different circumstances lead each of them to The Markham Hotel, where they hope to find solace, comfort, and answers. Told from multiple perspectives, The Book in Room 316 will renew your strength and faith that there is always a way forward.
Jessica’s Review:
When I picked up The Book in Room 316 I did not realize it was Christian Fiction, but I did not have an issue with that. It is not overtly Christian as some novels in that genre can be much to the detriment of the novel and then deter people from reading. The Book in Room 316 pulls you in and is a novel that focuses on four different people in four very different circumstances that are all brought to room 316 in the Markham Hotel. Besides being connected to a single hotel room, I enjoyed seeing how all the stories were entwined with each other. As big as our world is, it is also very small and we all affect each other in what we do, whether the connection is large or small. This is a novel about faith: Being tested in your faith, losing your faith and getting your faith back. I would love to see a continuation of these stories.
The Book in Room 316 is recommended.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK