ALC Review: This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum
This Story Might Save Your Life
Author: Tiffany Crum
Narrators:
Julia Whelan
Sean Patrick Hopkins
To Be Published: March 10, 2026
Audiobook: 10 hours 39 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: January 7-12, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
Benny Abbott and Joy Moore host one of the most beloved podcasts in the world. Each week, they delight listeners with a different “against all odds” survival story, gleefully finding the weird, life-affirming humor in near-death experiences. Since their first episode on Joy’s experience with severe narcolepsy, they’ve been the best friends everyone wants to befriend—and thanks to the meticulous management of Joy’s husband, Xander, they’ve built a lucrative empire.
The problem is, their next survival story may be their own. When Benny arrives at Joy and Xander’s one morning to record, he finds shattered glass and an empty house. The one clue shedding light on the couple’s disappearance is the incomplete, previously unseen first draft of Joy’s memoir. Benny will stop at nothing to find them, even as the police zero in on him as their prime suspect.
Millions of devoted listeners think they know the “real” Benny and Joy. But as the hours tick by, and the odds seem increasingly stacked against Joy and Xander being found alive, not even the most devoted fans could guess the terrible secrets their favorite famous BFFs have hidden from the world—and from each other.
Jessica’s Review:
This book! It was my first five star read of the year and I know it will be in my ‘Top 10 Reads’ of 2026. Where, exactly? Close to the top if not my top spot! We will have to wait until the end of the year to see where it ultimately ends up!
Anyways… This book! It’s pretty much everything I love in a book and a debut novel too!?!?! This Story will be one of THE books to read in 2026. I listened to an advanced copy and it is perfection! We have two main narrators: Julia Whelan and Sean Patrick Hopkins. They portray Joy and Benny as BFF’s with such precision! You can just feel the chemistry and more with these two. Both Julia and Sean Patrick are in fact Joy and Benny.
With the audio we also get podcasts, Benny and Joy’s dual POVs, voices of tipline callers and even some occasional special effects added in. Everything just makes this audiobook a MUST LISTEN to for 2026!
This novel really is everything. You just love Benny and Joy: Their present and backstory. I was transfixed for the entire novel! And the directions this novel goes in.. I would have never expected. The fact that this is a debut novel for Crum, wow, she is on my list to see what is written next!
As you can tell from the book description, Benny and Joy’s podcast is a survival podcast that takes off. We have Joy who suffers from Narcolepsy, and as a listener I learned a little about it. One of their podcasts Joy asks a question: “What is the most dangerous home appliance?” I am proud to say I guessed that one right in one guess! And one of the tipline calls mentions Snellville, Ga… I was shocked to hear that city’s name! I looked it up and the author is now local in Georgia! And Snellville is the area I grew up in. Being Crum lives in my state, this is another reason I will be keeping up with her and what she writes. I love supporting local-to-me authors! And the fact that Crum was able to get Julia Whelan as a narrator for a debut novel???? I’m ready to see what Crum brings us next!
And I will have to buy myself a physical copy of this book to go with my favorites….
Many thanks to the audiobook publisher Macmillan Audio for granting me an advanced copy to listen to and review. It was a great pleasure to listen and review this one!
ALC Review: My Husband’s Wife by Alice Fenney
My Husband’s Wife
Author: Alice Feeney
Narrators:
Bel Powley
Henry Rowley
Richard Armitage
To Be Published: January 20, 2026
Audiobook: 8 hours 58 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: December 23, 2025- January 5, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 3.5 stars
Book Description:
Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into, Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls, nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn’t fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that the stranger is his wife.
One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying.
Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner called Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person’s date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel, and as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs.
My Husband’s Wife is a tangled web of deception, obsession, and mystery that will keep you guessing until the last page. Prepare yourself for the ultimate mind-bending marriage thriller and step inside Spyglass – if you dare – to experience a story where nothing is as it seems.
Jessica’s Review:
I’ve read a few novels by Alice Feeney, so when I hear she has a book coming out, I look into it. This one has an intriguing premise and I was excited to be granted an advanced copy to listen to and review. And once I started it, I was glad I got this advanced copy.
There are a lot of twists throughout the novel, and it goes in many directions that I was not expecting. And then… Add in a company that claims that it can predict when a person will die… WHAT!?!??!
We have four POVs:
Carter who is a police officer
Eden who is Harrison’s wife and an artist
Birdy who is comes back to Hope Falls and also a police officer.
Harrison who lives in Spyglass and married to Eden
So much happens that it could be hard to keep it all straight. I think the audiobook definitely helped me with this. It is all very implausible and something about the story just did not connect with me. I can’t figure out what it was. Sometimes books are for you and sometimes they just are not. My Husband’s Wife had a lot of promise, but it just ended up not being a book for me.
There are three narrators who did a great job and there are also ‘sound effects’ that enhanced and adds to this story! Nothing too distracting to affect me while I was driving. For example, one effect was when Eden was running you can hear her making those steps. And I just have to say the cover is gorgeous!
Many thanks to the publisher, Macmillan Audio for granting me a copy to listen to and review!
Pre-order Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Audiobook Review: The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware
The Woman in Suite 11
Series: Lo Blacklock #2
Author: Ruth Ware
Narrator: Imogen Church
Published: July 8, 2025
Audiobook: 15 hours 11 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: December 5-16, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
In this follow-up to #1 New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware’s multi-million copy mega-hit The Women in Cabin 10, Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe.
When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.
The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests. When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus’s hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She’s greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus’s mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy.
What follows is a thrilling cat-and-mouse pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save this woman…and if she can even trust her?
Jessica’s Review:
It’s been ten years since her ‘adventure’ on the Aurora and Lo Blacklock is back! The Woman in Suite 11 is Ruth Ware’s first sequel and it was written because fans wanted it. Did we need it, no, but I did enjoy it. It had been nine years since I listened to Cabin 10, so I went for a re-read before I listened to Suite 11.
In addition to the time having passed, Lo is now married with children. She receives an invite to the opening of a new luxury hotel which she takes up. She would like to revive her career and this invite might just be the way to do it.
When Lo arrives at the hotel it is a sort of reunion of folks who were on the Aurora ten years ago. Now, has Lo learned anything from her last adventure ten years ago? Apparently NOT! Lo makes one bad decision after another and gets herself into quite the cat and mouse game across Europe. My thoughts became ‘here we go again’ with every bad decision Lo made. But she had her own reasoning why each decision would work. It’s a bit crazy, but I did enjoy the ride despite rolling my eyes with every decision Lo made. I mean, how trusting can one person be?
Despite the craziness that occurs throughout the novel, I did enjoy it. And Anything Ruth Ware writes I will listen to! And of course, Imogen Church returns as narrator! I can’t really see anymore adventures occurring with Lo, how much more can one woman go through?
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK