Audiobook Review: None of This is True by Lisa Jewell
None of This is True
Author: Lisa Jewell
Narrators: Full cast narration with music and sound design
Published: July 20, 2023
Audiobook: 10 hours 20 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: March 25-31, 2024
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars
Audiobook Description:
Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.
Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.
But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.
Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?
Jessica’s Review:
Dang, I’m in a rut for my reviews! The next few are not positive reviews, this one included.
I had heard others mentioned that the audiobook was the way to go for this novel, and I waited a few months for it. But it was not worth the wait for me.
The only reason I gave it three stars is because of the full cast narration/ music/ sound design. I don’t think I would have finished it otherwise. This is one if I had known what should have been a trigger warning I would not have picked up: Pedophilia, and there was a lot of it!
There are mentions of podcast and a Netflix show and this is where the music and sound design definitely added to the story!
The premise sounded like one I would be interested in, especially dealing with the ‘birthday twins’ but it just wasn’t for me.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
ALC Review: Her Silent Bones by Pamela Fagan Hutchins
Her Silent Bones
Series: Detective Delaney Pace book one
Author: Pamela Fagan Hutchins
Narrator: Stephanie Cannon
To Be Published: January 16, 2024
Audiobook: 10 hours 13 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: December 14-22, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 3.5 stars
Audiobook Description:
Fifteen years ago I watched my father’s murder.
Now, having never truly recovered from losing her father all those years ago, Detective Delaney Pace is devastated when her brother and sister-in-law are killed in a car crash. Packing up her life she heads back to the rugged cowboy town of Kearney, Wyoming. Her niece Kateena is just eleven years old and Delaney will do anything to keep her safe…
Now there’s another killer on the loose, and he’s already taken his first victim.
New to the local police force, when a body is found on a secluded mountain trail Delaney is called to the scene. Surrounded by imposing pine trees, a young woman lies still in the moonlight. Gazing into her dark, unblinking eyes Delaney’s heart pounds wildly in her chest as she recognises the victim. It’s her beloved sister-in-law: Kateena’s mother, Lila. But she died weeks before. Didn’t she?
There’s evil lurking in this town and I’ll stop at nothing to hunt down the truth and deliver justice. With Kateena traumatised all over again, when Delaney links Lila’s murder back to the place where her own father was killed she realizes she must face her own dark past to catch the man responsible. But little does she know that the killer has already made their next deadly move. Back at home, Kateena should be in bed sleeping soundly, but her room is empty. Kateena is missing…
Can Delaney uncover the truth behind the killings and save Kateena before it’s too late?
Jessica’s Review:
This is another thriller where the description grabbed my attention and I wanted to listen to it. Her Silent Bones is the first in a three-book series with all three books coming out January 16, 2024. So if you love this first book you will not have to wait for the next two to be released! Great job on that to the publisher Bookouture!
It is a fast read/listen and if you become attached to Delaney you will be fully invested and ready for the next book!
The beginning and the end were very fast moving for me, but the middle of the book just slowed for me and I almost lost interest in continuing the book, but I was just curious enough that I had to see what was going to happen next. I am glad I finished it, but I don’t think I will continue the series. The last portion of the book was building up for the second in the series. I am sure we will see readers/listeners continue this series. They will want to see what happens next with Delaney and others!
Many thanks to the publisher Bookouture for granting me an advanced copy to listen to and review!
Pre-order Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Book Review: The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens
The Life We Bury
Series: Max Rupert and Joe Talbert #1
Author: Allen Eskens
Narrator: Zach Villa
Published: October 14, 2014
Audiobook: 8 Hours 23 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: June 10-15, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe’s life is ever the same. Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran–and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home, after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder.
As Joe writes about Carl’s life, especially Carl’s valor in Vietnam, he cannot reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the convict. Joe, along with his skeptical female neighbor, throws himself into uncovering the truth, but he is hamstrung in his efforts by having to deal with his dangerously dysfunctional mother, the guilt of leaving his autistic brother vulnerable, and a haunting childhood memory. Thread by thread, Joe unravels the tapestry of Carl’s conviction. But as he and Lila dig deeper into the circumstances of the crime, the stakes grow higher. Will Joe discover the truth before it’s too late to escape the fallout?
Jessica’s Review:
This was a very good one! It was intriguing with the listener liking the characters they were supposed to like and vise versa! I was pulled in wanting to know everything, which we end up getting!
We have Joe Talbert having a college assignment to interview someone and tell their story. Joe gets more than he bargained for with Carl agreeing to be interviewed and give his dying declaration… See Carl is a convicted rapist and murderer. He is only out of prison because of his medical condition and not having much time left in his life.
Joe’s life is complicated which we also experience through Joe’s circumstances, and meeting with Carl and hearing his just complicates it even more. We hear about Carl’s time in Vietnam, which doesn’t take up a lot of time in this story. I was more interested in everything else that was going on. And as we get closer to the climax I really was invested in what was going to happen because it goes in a direction I was not expecting. It just kept speeding on to that ending.
I am curious about the rest in the series and will hopefully continue it. There are just so many books and only so much time! But Joe I like and want to see what happens with him next!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK