Audiobook Review: The Snow Storm by Triona Walsh
The Snow Storm
Author: Triona Walsh
Narrator: Jacqueline Milne
Published: February 2, 2023
Audiobook: 9 hours 56 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: February 6-10, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 2 stars
Book Description:
It’s an icy New Year’s Eve. Snow blankets a windswept Irish island as the wild Atlantic Ocean rages.
Six friends gather. It has been ten years since the tragedy that tore them apart. A lot can change in a decade…
Childhood bonds are now lifelong secrets.
Dear friendships have twisted into deep jealousies.
A happy reunion is shattered by a dead body.
The celebrations have barely begun when one of the guests goes missing. As the snow thickens, the body is found.
Then the storm wreaks havoc on the island. Everyone is trapped – there is no way out. No electricity. No phone signal.
Nobody knows who to trust. No one is who they seem. Because one of them is a killer, and one will be dead next…
Jessica’s Review:
You know how sometimes a reader just doesn’t mesh well with a book that seems right up their interests? That has happened before and sadly it happened with The Snow Storm as well. The premise intrigued me but I just couldn’t get into the novel. It comes off similar to Ruth Ware novels, but it just dragged for me.
I don’t know what it was: Was it the unusual names for this American reader that I would have had no idea how to pronounce if I didn’t listen to the audiobook? Was it the narration? Possibly, with the Irish accent I had issues understanding the narrator. Was it a mix of the above and just not the right type of format for me. Maybe. The Snow Storm just did not keep my interest. Maybe it just came at the wrong time for this listener.
Though this one did not work for me I would give the author another chance, just not an audiobook next time around!
**Many thanks to the publisher Bookouture Audio for granting me an audio copy to listen to and review. I just wish I had enjoyed this one much more.
Short Story Sunday: Tell Her Story by Margot Hunt
Tell Her Story
Author: Margot Hunt
Main Narrator: Dakota Fanning
Published: May 5, 2022
Audiobook: 2 hours 52 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: December 29-30, 2022
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Paige Barrett was living her dream as a journalist in New York City, racking up bylines as a staff writer at The Razor, a cutting-edge online magazine. But when she’s suddenly fired from her job and dumped by her boyfriend, she finds herself back home in the quaint seaside town of Shoreham, Florida, waiting tables and living in her sister’s guesthouse.
Restless and itching for something meaningful to occupy her time, she decides to launch a true-crime podcast about the death of Jessica Cady, a beloved teacher who died mysteriously 20 years earlier. The case went cold with no leads and no suspects, but the more Paige digs into the woman’s death, the closer she comes to a killer. In a small town like Shoreham, it’s impossible to keep a secret forever.
Jessica’s Review:
This was the last short audiobook I listened to in 2022. It was short at under three hours and I really enjoyed it!
We have a young and disgraced former journalist who is convinced by her sister to start a podcast featuring the cold case of a 20-year-old murder of a much-loved teacher in her hometown. And of course, she gets in over her head the further involved she gets.
I really enjoyed this short story and liked Paige. I was fully involved in her journey to hopefully solving this long cold case. Tell Her Story is currently only available in audio format and I feel that is the way it should be ‘read’ or listened to. We go on Paige’s journey of ‘whodunit’ with her and then part of the audiobook is the podcast. Dakota Fanning is our main narrator and she did a very good job portraying Paige.
This is a short story, so it was fast paced and I never lost interest in it. The farther Paige went in her research the more she discovers and she then finds herself involved in a way she never expected. The podcast angle with the unexpected popularity adds to the danger and also shows how different our world is now than just 20 years ago when this murder happened.
I would be interested in looking at more of Hunt’s novels. This was a good introduction to her for me.
Purchase Links: Please note this one is only available in audio format currently.
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Audiobook Review: Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
Wrong Place Wrong Time
Author: Gillian McAllister
Narrator: Lesley Sharp
Published: August 2, 2022
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: October 4-10, 2022
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened?
Late October. After midnight. You’re waiting up for your seventeen-year-old son. He’s late. As you watch from the window, he emerges, and you realize he isn’t alone: he’s walking toward a man, and he’s armed.
You can’t believe it when you see him do it: your funny, happy teenage son, he kills a stranger, right there on the street outside your house. You don’t know who. You don’t know why. You only know your son is now in custody. His future shattered.
That night you fall asleep in despair. All is lost. Until you wake… and it is yesterday.
And then you wake again… and it is the day before yesterday.
Every morning you wake up a day earlier, another day before the murder. With another chance to stop it. Somewhere in the past lies an answer. The trigger for this crime—and you don’t have a choice but to find it…
Jessica’s Review:
It seems like 2022 has been the year of thrillers for me as I have found so many I have greatly enjoyed. And Wrong Place Wrong Time is another of those! This is another one that made me go “Whoa!”
Sort of like a reverse Groundhog Day where Jen sees her teenage son Todd murder an unknown stranger in front of their house one night and he is arrested. This would be every parent’s worst nightmare come true. Then she wakes up the ‘next day’ but it is not: It is actually the day before the murder. She lives each day and then wakes up further in the past. How long will Jenn keep going into the past and can she stop Todd from his now future crime?
Jenn is on this on her own for the most part because everything she experiences no one will remember because the next day she moves into the past again.
I can’t say much more because you really can’t without giving everything away! I thought I might know the direction the novel was going, but nope! I was wrong! The story does become more than just stopping this now future murder and we get some unbelievably good twists! And the ending.. I just loved it!!!
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a fabulous job with her storytelling and interpretations of the characters.
If you are a thriller lover at all, then go pick this one up now! And prepare to go along for a wild and crazy good ride!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK