Missing You by Harlan Coben narrated by, January LaVoy

Missing You  by Harlan Coben narrated by, January LaVoy

Harlan Coben has written another non-stop thriller that will leave you on the edge of your seat, and make you never want to stop reading!  This book grabbed me immediately and never let go till the very end. I really like the character of Kat and would read more books with her in them.

What would you do if you found your ex (the one who got away) on a dating site well you find his picture but the name isn’t the same and when you message him he at first doesn’t seem to remember you. As if that isn’t bad enough some kid (Brandon) shows up at your door saying that same man went away with his mother and he thinks she is in trouble. Throw in a mystery about who really killed Kat’s father and away we go on this rollercoaster ride of a story. Be ready for twists and turns and red herrings, which will keep you guessing all the way to the end.

I love Harlan Coben’s books he always writes a good solid story with a mystery that keeps you on your toes, there was one part of the story I had figured out but my theory was not what Coben ended up writing so I still wasn’t 100% right and I love that in a mystery. I liked the fact that there weren’t any cardboard cutout characters in this book each character had their own identity and back story, which made me care about them even the ones that didn’t last long.

January LaVoy’s narration was very well done I liked that you always knew who was talking and that everyone had a voice, I must mention though there are times some of her male characters sound like cartoons but that was only a couple people so it was easy to overlook. This is my second narration by January and I really enjoyed both so I will seek out books where she is the narrator. Very well done narration.

If you can’t already tell I loved this book, so the only thing I can say to you is, what are you waiting for get to listening!

5 Stars

Unfit by, Lara Cleveland Torgesen

Unfit by Lara Cleveland Torgesen

Wow this is something I never knew about and it breaks my heart, this book was fascinating it felt like a true story but was a fictionalized amalgamation of different people, and it worked well, I really came to care about Chrissy.

 I never knew anything about the eugenics program before and was horrified that this happened in our country and how long North Carolina held on to this antiquated practice. If you don’t know what I am talking about eugenics is- forcing sterilization procedures on thousands of people deemed “unfit” to reproduce. And who decided this? People with fancy degrees who thought they knew better than anyone else. Kids who were sent to juvenile hall were sterilized, and girls like Chrissy whose mother was on welfare were threatened if she didn’t have the surgery they would lose their benefits, Chrissy’s mother worked a job but it wasn’t enough to raise all of her children. And yes before you think it Chrissy’s parents were married and had children then her father was killed in a car accident that is when they ended up on welfare.

That Chrissy was ever able to love & marry and have a happy life was a credit to her strength even when she felt she had Unfit tattooed across her forehead most of her life. How awful would that be to be told at the age of 14 that you are unfit?? Especially when Chrissy’s mother dies too and she loses all her brothers and sisters and feels the guilt of being mean to her mother after the surgery and what really bothered me they didn’t sterilize her mother and how could Chrissy not feel anger towards her mother who had signed the papers before Chrissy was even told what would happen to her.

This book grabbed me right away and was hard to put down, it is a fascinating read and well written. My only qualm was I so wanted Chrissy to find her siblings, I wanted them all to be okay and had been raised by loving happy parents but with a book like this the reality is she probably never could find them especially the little ones, but I wanted a happy ending for Chrissy, I wanted to hug her and tell her everything would be okay, so the author did a great job at making me care about the characters in this book. This book is a must read , about an embarrassing and heartbreaking time in North Carolina history.

5 Stars

Full disclosure: I received this book from Netgalley and publisher for a fair and honest review

Night Broken by, Patricia Briggs

Night Broken (Mercy Thompson #8) by,  Patricia Briggs

Loved it!! As always Patricia Briggs writes a fantastic book!

Mercy is again chased a big baddy but this time it is because of Adam’s ex- Christy, and what an awful piece of work this woman is! She plays people off each other and makes them feel sorry for her, but I thought Mercy handled it beautifully. I felt so sorry for Jessie being in the middle I thought she handled it very maturely and always made sure Mercy knew she didn’t feel the same as her mother, she has matured into a very impressive young lady.

We also got a reappearance of Coyote and one of the Grey Lords but our big bad in this book is a volcano God Guayota and if you do some research as Patty did you’ll find that this is an actual myth the big dogs and Tibicenas all come from a real myth which is so neat. We also meet Mercy’s “brother”  Gary Laughingdog another child of Coyote I look forward to seeing where this relationship goes.

We also found out some new things about Tad and I sure hope everything works out for him, but maybe we will get to have Zee back in the next book, I have a feeling from some hints at the end that we may have a trip into “fairyland”(the fae rez) in the next book.

I felt the ending was very abrupt , and really wanted more, of course these books could be a thousand pages and I would probably still want more! I wish I didn’t have so long to wait for the next one!

Some other random thoughts:

I was hoping Guayota would burn down Adam's house so they could start over with house that is his and Mercy's alone, not one that was decorated & lived in by Christy when she and Adam were married!

Wish Bran would have made an appearance guess we have to wait for the next  Anna & Charles book for that.

I love Adam & Mercy and was happy with how she handled Christy especially the ending that made me laugh out loud! And I am so glad Adam is such a good man and that his and Mercy’s mate bond is so strong that it didn't turn into an idiotic triangle.

Loved Honey in this book she's really coming into her own since Peter died and I think Mercy has a potential friend in Honey.

Will be curious to see how the Joel thing plays out.

So much good stuff in this book, and so much more to look forward to in future books. I love this series it just gets better and better.

5 Stars

The Ghost Writer by John Harwood Narrated by, Simon Vance

The Ghost Writer  by John Harwood Narrated by, Simon Vance

I so enjoyed John Harwood’s book The Asylum it kept me interested all the way through, but with The Ghost Writer it was very easy to get distracted and the back and forth between Viola’s story and Gerard’s was at times very confusing especially on audio. And the ending was rushed and very abrupt, I thought there was one more chapter but no it just ended and was very unsatisfying.

Simon Vance’s narration was very well done and he added a good degree of spookiness to the reading however even he couldn’t save me from the dragginess of this book. ( I don’t care if that is not a word I think it fits well!) Maybe this would have worked better with 2 narrators one for Viola and one for Gerard, but I don’t think even that could have saved this one.

I didn’t hate this book but I sure didn’t love it, it was just an okay read for me. I also think the title gives a lot away I mean it is obvious very quickly just who the ghost writer is so it kind of takes away the mystery of that, leaving no feeling of mystery or urgency.

In the last month or so I have read some really great ghost stories and maybe that is one of the reasons this one fell short for me is because the other ghost stories were so much better.

2 ½ Stars

I received this book from the Audiobookjukebox.com Solid Gold Reviewer program and the Publisher Blackstone Audio for a fair and honest review.