JessB

We've all known a Luke...

Revisado: 04-18-25

...and that's precisely why this story works. Women of all ages just love a handsome sweet-talker and overlook/excuse so many red flags about them.

I think this was an imaginative story, which I give the author a lot of props for. Without giving anything away here, the ones who actually turned out to be real actual killers, seemed not-right to me. I like a good "oh, THAT person was the murderer?!" as much as the next person, but in this case I was just not feeling them as murderers. Also, not that it diminished my enjoyment of the story, but I did see the actual parentage coming from a mile away, so that was set up well. I also like the inferred lesson that secrets kill.

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Jane E. James just rocks...

Revisado: 04-11-25

I adore this author (The Grandmother was a recent absolute fave) and I did like this title too. The narration was wonderful. It's set in beautiful Bali and centered around three different honeymooning couples. All their personalities are very different from each other's. As secrets are revealed about the couples, you find they are all bound together by shameful things in their past.

The below is a spoiler; do not continue reading if you have not read the book yet:



My one bone of contention with this one: I was waiting at the end to learn how/why these couples who all shared a past, ended up at the island together. This was never explained and indeed you're left to assume this is a coincidence. I get how two honeymooning couples with shared secrets MIGHT end up on the same island together in a very huge twist of fate, but three couples?? So that was a little disappointing... I kept waiting till the end to learn how they all happened to be there together.

I did like the twist at the end regarding the phone call Samantha got regarding her biological son!

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"I think it worked..."

Revisado: 02-05-25

I'm not a person who's in pain often, but I've listened to this a couple times in the past with headaches. I don't recall if it did much for me then, but today at work I've had a stomachache all day and been lethargic due to not eating enough, so I put this on as I was not able to focus on an actual audiobook's story today. It was only halfway through when I noticed my stomach felt a LOT better and I was energetically typing away. When I realized this, I thought, I think it worked... but maybe I shouldn't be surprised because I listen to Mental Focus a lot when I need to get my mind in the game at work and IT works... so I'm a fan!

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Mostly good, but that ending though...

Revisado: 12-26-24

I really enjoyed this audiobook... even though it was a freebie, as soon as I read the synopsis it went to the top of my list even before my recent purchases! Yvonne is a hilarious character. Her thoughts were often so amusing I found myself saying "ha" out loud. The storyline moves along well, and I think most will find themselves sympathizing with Vince... though most of the world views him as a waste-of-space poverty-stricken loser, you discover the poor guy has a good heart and tries really hard, but doesn't seem to be able to catch a break.

I enjoyed the whole audiobook until the very very last twist. I love a crazy plot twist as much as the next person, but I felt that one was waaaay out of left field, in a way it feels just contrived and though it is meant to be shocking, but I felt there was NO lead-up to it. At least give the reader a small indication it might be coming. Still, I'm not sorry I listened; the rest was fantastic.

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Solid 4 Stars

Revisado: 12-17-24

I thought this was pretty good. I was a little confused by the reviewers who said they didn't see the ending coming... I wouldn't say I'm wonderful at spotting twists or anything (and in fact I prefer not to, and try not to analyze what's happening TOO much in books like these so I can be surprised) but I did start to understand toward the end what was going on. The one thing I didn't really see coming was who destroyed her herb garden and messed with her manuscript & phone calendar. I'm definitely not sad I spent the time on it, and perhaps will even listen again someday-- a re-listen is what makes an audiobook worthwhile IMO!

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A mix of good, bad and great

Revisado: 11-26-24

As with any collection, you will probably have favorites and also ones you consider a hard pass. My opinions:

ARK: I found this super boring and disgruntled I spent time listening.
Summer Frost: Loved it! So twisty.
Emergency Skin: Maybe it's just because I was busy at work at the time, but I didn't care for the story at all. The writing style was really creative though, and the narrator great.
You Have Arrived At Your Destination: Liked it a lot. For being a short story, you get to know the characters well.
Last Conversation: Really good.
Randomize: Best one of the bunch. :)

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Was glad it didn't go where I thought it was going

Revisado: 10-01-24

Really liked this a lot! It was even more of a roller-coaster for me because the first half of this book seemed to me like a nearly-exact copycat of Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll. Girl grows up poor & chubby & clueless, goes on to college and reinvents herself there, develops an eating disorder and a penchant for hurtful sex, and is about to marry a very wealthy man in high society after having gotten herself an elite career. So I was verrry "ehh" for the first part of this book. However, I kept thinking "they wouldn't just publish a Luckiest Girl Alive copycat, this has to be going somewhere else" (if there was a school shooting I was prepared to throw my headphones across the room!) and to my surprise it was.

Below is a spoiler comment; do not proceed unless you have read the book:

As for who the true killer was... I know everyone loves an "I didn't see that coming!" twist, but for me, even though it was more shocking than who you were lead to believe it was-- it felt unreal and not in a good way. It's like there were no breadcrumbs at all leading up to it (his conception of dirty sex aside, but even that was mild, as Eliza pointed out), so it felt disingenuous. Just my opinion that it'd have made more sense that cruel Reid actually did it.

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Witchy - Funny - Cute

Revisado: 06-21-24

Super cute book. Mia does not feel she's rocking life at age 42, especially after an embarrassing fail at work which gets her fired and homeless in the span of hours. Luckily, when she makes the call to her dreaded mother to beg for a last-resort place to stay, her mother reminds her that she inherited her father's aunt's house in a cute rural town, a convo during which Mia spaced out when first held with her mother months earlier. She'd never met kooky Aunt Hazel, and wasn't keen on moving from the city, but a free home is a free home. After tangles with the overgrown garden, an inherited cat, a dead body, a cute lawyer and his detective brother, a police chief who's amiable after Mia is no longer a murder subject, interesting newfound friends, burgeoning psychic powers, and various other things, Mia starts to feel like maybe she's in the right place after all.

What I loved most about this book was that it made me laugh out loud many times. It's very cleverly written, and the narrator was spot-on. If I'd read this first and then listened, the narrator's voice would have matched exactly how I imagined Mia talking. This is a whole series and I do look forward to reading more about Mia's adventures.

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A bit of sentimentality!

Revisado: 04-24-24

I stumbled across this on an Audible sale some time ago and was so excited to get it. I still have my childhood battered, yellowed copy of this book somewhere, and though I haven't read it in probably three decades, I found as I listened that I remembered a LOT of the story. What floors me now listening to the story in 2024 versus reading it in the early- to mid-90s, is how this just couldn't be the same story if it took place in modern day instead of the late 70s to early 80s (book was released in 1981 so was certainly written before then.) Mama likely would have had a cell phone, despite their poverty. There would have been security cameras all over the mall (and indeed everywhere) to help locate her once she disappeared. The police could have used social media to look up her activities and quickly locate family. Etc etc. It was just a more innocent time in which the story took place. And it really works.

Though it takes just a matter of - what? a couple of weeks? - to get to Aunt Cilla's house, it's so detailed (and that's a good thing) that you feel tired, like you were there and went through everything with the kids. And that is only the first small part of the story. There's still a journey beyond that. And there's good lessons along the way. How wonderful of Stewart and his roommate to approach the kids, feed them, give them shelter for the night and get them where they needed to go. And the circus folk protecting them and following up with them later to be sure they were okay. It makes you realize how much we can impact the lives of others. Very inspirational.

Can't wait to listen to Dicey's Song, which I also purchased.

I liked the narrator a lot overall! The one star I deducted is because sometimes I couldn't tell who she was voicing until after the statement came the "(character name) said." Some voices sounded the same for people within the same conversation.

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No Going Back

Revisado: 04-09-24

Fascinating information. Was glad to discover this audiobook... I'd heard of Essy many times over the years as I read & listened to The China Study at regular intervals. It is so amazing to me that Essy found a literal CURE for heart disease and that everyone doesn't know this. Why? Because doctors don't tell you. Why don't they tell you? As one doctor answered Essy when he inquired why the doctor didn't tell his patients: "I billed over five million dollars last year!" If he told his patients, and they were cured, he thought he wouldn't get any more business. THIS is the state of our American healthcare system. THESE are the doctors who took the Hippocratic oath. We must make it our prerogative to take the reins regarding our own health. This book tells you exactly how!!

Time to re-listen to The China Study now :-)

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