Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Burn Bright ~ Bethany Frenette (earc) review [@DisneyHyperion @bethanyfrenette]

Burn Bright (Dark Star #2)
Disney Hyperion
February 25, 2014
352 pages
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**Summary and review contain spoilers for Dark Star (Dark Star #1)**

Audrey Whitticomb saved her entire city.

Well, kind of. The superhero Morning Star (who just happens to be Audrey's mom) might have played a small part, and her sidekick, Leon—Audrey's sort-of boyfriend, who is gorgeous... and frustrating—maybe helped, too.

But after two peaceful months, there is a vicious new threat in Minneapolis. Her name is Susannah, and she's a Harrower, a demon hell-bent on destroying people like Morning Star, Leon, and Audrey—the Kin. Like others before her, she seeks the Remnant, a Kin girl who has the power to unleash the inhabitants of the Beneath. But to what end?

Audrey already has a ton on her plate: dealing with her best friend Tink's boy drama, helping her other best friend Gideon figure out his nightmares, and exploring the highs and lows of "dating" Leon. But when she develops a powerful new ability, Audrey seizes on the chance to fight, despite her mother's protests and Leon's pleas.

As Audrey gets closer to figuring out Susannah's motives and tracking down the Remnant, she'll uncover more than she bargained for. The terrible truth is staring Audrey in the face. But knowing the truth and accepting it are very different things.

Burn Bright continues Dark Star very nicely. It does not start immediately after the first book, instead giving the characters two months of calm. This permits them time to deal with everything that transpired in Dark Star, to heal and cope.

Audrey knows, now, much more about who she is, who her mother is, and why Leon showed up all those years ago. She is no longer simply the daughter of secret superhero Morning Star, she is Kin. It explains her Knowing - an ability to know things about people, to even see the future - but also explains the demons and the threat they pose that are now a part of Audrey's life.

Iris and Tigue have been defeated, ending their search for the Remnant, but they're not the only ones looking. Once again that quest will pose a threat to Audrey and the other Kin.

In Burn Bright I really enjoyed that things from the first novel had an impact. Besides Audrey now knowing about the Kin and demons, an entire other part of the world, Dark Star also altered things for the other characters. Tink is Kin - but still doesn't want to be - and Gideon was kidnapped by Iris. They are no longer just three teenagers who like to go out and dance. They are aware of the danger.

Several things that seemed small in Dark Star became a part of something much bigger in Burn Bright. It definitely added a sense of continuity to the book and made the two stories feel even more cohesive. It's fantastic when a series feels thought out a whole. Bits that previously seemed inconsequential became something more and I loved the development.

It is still much more of an action, plot book than a character book. The characters and their relationships play a very large role in how the action unfolds, but were not the strongest part. It is easier to get into Burn Bright than it was Dark Star and you do have a better sense of the characters. That may be due to Audrey having a better sense of who she is, both as a girl and part of the Kin.

With Gideon and Tink now knowing about things, as well, and the new relationship between Leon and Audrey, they are all, mostly, on a level playing field. Everyone is involved, more apart of everything that happens. As we see the characters more there's still not a great feeling of connection with them but readers do get a better sense of each of them.

Burn Bright's plot developed very well, pulling in elements of the story - and the characters - of Dark Star and expanding on both. It all comes together in a really nice way for a story that is about so much more than a teenage girl with a superhero mother. Fire Fall, the conclusion to the trilogy, is currently due in September and after all of the revelations in Burn Bright I'm eager to see what happens.



Rating: 7/10


thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my copy to review

Monday, February 24, 2014

Me Since You ~ Laura Wiess (earc) review [@LauraWiess @SimonTeen]

Me Since You
MTV Books
February 18, 2014
368 pages
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Laura Wiess captures the visceral emotion of a girl’s journey from innocence to devastating loss and, ultimately, to a strange and unexpected kind of understanding—in this beautiful and painfully honest new novel.

Are there any answers when someone you love makes a tragic choice?

Before and After. That’s how Rowan Areno sees her life now. Before: she was a normal sixteen-year-old—a little too sheltered by her police officer father and her mother. After: everything she once believed has been destroyed in the wake of a shattering tragedy, and every day is there to be survived.

If she had known, on that Friday in March when she cut school, that a random stranger’s shocking crime would have traumatic consequences, she never would have left campus. If the crime video never went viral, maybe she could have saved her mother, grandmother — and herself — from the endless replay of heartache and grief.

Finding a soul mate in Eli, a witness to the crime who is haunted by losses of his own, Rowan begins to see there is no simple, straightforward path to healing wounded hearts. Can she learn to trust, hope, and believe in happiness again?


 It is great that Me Since You really is a novel of Before and After; readers are not immediately thrown into the maelstrom. When we meet Rowan, she really is a normal sixteen-year-old girl, living her normal life. The introduction to Rowan, her friends, and her family provides a sort of base line, what 'normal' is that make the After of the novel that much better.

While the effect on Rowan and her life would have been easy to see if that novel had started there, it's the contrast to her earlier life that leads to such an emotional impact. Rowan truly was just like anyone else before tragedy struck her life. She was you, she was me. When Rowan's life does fall apart, readers will feel for Rowan - and feel her pain - that much more.

The way Rowan's entire life is part of the story - her friends, her parents, grandparents, school, job - allows us to see how fully grief can impact a person. It's not just how it changes her relationships with her friends, at school. Rowan's whole life has been dramatically altered and Me Since You shows that.

It makes the story that much better, that much harder to read.

Eli's inclusion is really brilliant. He has his own pain, his own losses. He is not that guy that wants to save Rowan from her heartache, to make it all better. One who doesn't understand what she's experiencing. Instead, he does understand and knows her can't make simply make it better, take it away.

Yet, one of my favorite things about Rowan and Eli is that while it was a horrible event that started things for them, it was not all they had. It's something that pulled them together, but you get the feeling it won't be what keeps them together. There really is something between them beyond that.

Me Since You had some of the most - if not the most - honest discussion of suicide, of grief and the outsider's reaction to both. While we see Rowan and those around her dealing with what's happened, Wiess includes very frank statements, through the characters' dialogue as well as what they learn. It's all a part of the story, though; it never feels put there for education or as a PSA. Rowan's father's job as a police officer has given him some insight into depression and suicide. His sharing that with Rowan helps her, but also gives readers the knowledge.

I really applaud Laura Wiess for not only how honest she was about how depression and suicide can change a person's entire life, a family's life but how well it was all done.

While I don't know who has been in Rowan's exact situation, latter parts of the book, especially, caused me to really think about someone who a family friend, a family in a similar situation. I felt I more understood some wondering they had -- they still have.

Me Since You is a very powerful, as well as painful and poignant novel, I highly, highly recommend it.


(And I also have a bit of a soft spot for any book that has a German Shepherd as a good dog, so that didn't hurt, at all.)


Rating: 9/10


Other books you may also enjoy: A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler and Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess


Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my egalley to review

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Dualed ~ Elsie Chapman (audio + print) review [@elsiechapman @randomhousekids]

Dualed (Dualed #1)
Random House
February 26, 2013
292 pages
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narrator: Alicyn Packard
9 hours, 59 minutes
add to Goodreads/buy from Audible/or Audio CD


In the city of Kersh, everyone must eliminate their genetic Alternate twin, raised by another family, before their twentieth birthday. West Grayer, 15, has trained as a fighter, and has one month to hunt and kill her Alt. A tragic misstep shakes her confidence. Guilty, grieving, she feels unworthy, runs from her Alt and from love - both can destroy her.

Dualed takes the 'only the strong survive,' to the extreme. Everyone has an Alt, their twin who is, truly, an Alternate them. Raised by different families, with different advantages and opportunities, but having the same DNA. Someone they must kill upon their activation.

The premise makes Dualed sound a bit darker than it actually was. Yes, the ultimate goal of West - of those in Kersh - is to kill someone and yes, there is violence in Dualed. It's much more about West discovering who she is, what makes her different from her Alt, and if she really should be the one to survive.

The characters are ones you almost immediately care about. Due to the Alt system, they've all lost someone, often more than one someone, close to them. They've formed strong bonds both familially and with those who become like family. Their activation is a foregone conclusion - it will happen, the only question is when. With the nearly imminent chance of one's possible death always in the air, there's always a tension.

Though the focus is West and her Alt, the relationships shown in the beginning of the novel - West, her brothers, their friend Chord - make the story so much stronger. Their bond is, perhaps, stronger because of the hardships they've had to endure and we see not only how they've prepared each other - training, knowledge - but how that love is sometimes the only motivation they can find.

The audiobook of Dualed is a great listen. The narrator does a brilliant job inflecting her voice with all of the emotions West - or any other character - is feeling. You hear the desperation, the fear, the anxiety as she endures both the physical and the emotional struggle of being the one to survive. Hearing the story also keeps the tension up, as West's time counts down (and you can't skip ahead to relieve it as easily as you could in print).

The only negative to listening to Dualed instead of reading it is Elsie Chapman's stellar writing. Chapman has some fantastic, fantastic writing which is not as easily noticed or appreciated when listening to the story.

There's a bit of wondering, questioning when it comes to the Board and the infrastructure, of sorts, of Kersh. I love the characters and the look we got at how their world functions. From the smaller things that were part of the tale - payments, business windows, West's notes on the different sectors - it's clear that Kersh is very well imagined and thought out. More knowledge (as a reader) of Kersh's workings, of the society as a whole is something I'm hoping to find at least a bit of in the sequel.

Whether you listen to it or read it, Dualed is a great book. With great characters - West, especially - a very well imagined world, and a killer (literally) premise, Chapman's debut is one not to miss.



Rating: 9/10


Other books you might also enjoy: Proxy by Alex London and Legend Series by Marie Lu

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Runner ~ Patrick Lee (earc) review [@MinotaurBooks @PL_Fiction]

Runner (Sam Dryden #1)
Minotaur Books
February 18, 2014
336 pages
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Sam Dryden, retired special forces, lives a quiet life in a small town on the coast of Southern California. While out on a run in the middle of the night, a young girl runs into him on the seaside boardwalk. Barefoot and terrified, she’s running from a group of heavily armed men with one clear goal—to kill the fleeing child. After Dryden helps her evade her pursuers, he learns that the eleven year old, for as long as she can remember, has been kept in a secret prison by forces within the government. But she doesn’t know much beyond her own name, Rachel. She only remembers the past two months of her life—and that she has a skill that makes her very dangerous to these men and the hidden men in charge.

Dryden, who lost his wife and young daughter in an accident five years ago, agrees to help her try to unravel her own past and make sense of it, to protect her from the people who are moving heaven and earth to find them both. Although Dryden is only one man, he’s a man with the extraordinary skills and experience—as a Ranger, a Delta, and five years doing off-the-book black ops with an elite team. But, as he slowly begins to discover, the highly trained paramilitary forces on their heels is the only part of the danger they must face. Will Rachel’s own unremembered past be the most deadly of them all?

Runner has elements that make it a great thriller: unexpected twists, tension, danger and you care what happens to the characters. Not 'just' a thriller novel, though, Runner has a bit of a science-fiction edge to it. The concept, however, is done in a way that makes it very realistic. It moves beyond the realm of reality but is executed so well - with background, explanation, details - that it never strays past the believable.

It's a bit like Jack Reacher meets The Men Who Stare at Goats. The tough, talented military character, along with the darker, perhaps stranger, side of the government.

The beginning of the novel, when the two characters meet and are immediately in danger felt almost light on the tension. They're in fear, quite literally, for their lives but seemed rather calm. As the story progressed and more about both Sam and Rachel became known, that lack of anxiety started to work and make sense. It also wasn't permanent. As the search for Rachel ramps up, as both Dryden and readers learn what her skill is, the tension, anxiety, as well as the intrigue, are taken up a notch.

Dryden's background makes his assisting Rachel possible, giving him knowledge that not only helps them, but creates an increasingly interesting character. The plot of Runner truly facilitates in the gradual revealing of more and more of his past and who he is. He's a character I look forward to seeing in latter publications in this series.

Rachel's story, from why she was held to her amnesia is so central to the plot that one revelation can completely change the course of the story and characters. While adding to any suspense present, it also leaves readers wanting to know what Rachel doesn't . . . how it will all end.

I'm not sure Rachel is a very believable twelve year old character. Most of the time she seemed older, primarily due to how she spoke, but also that bit of near calm in the beginning. If she had been fourteen, maybe, the age would have better fit the portrayal. Yet for the story she needed to still be a 'kid' and not a teen or young woman so I can see why she was twelve. It makes her old enough to handle what's happening - physically, at the very least - but keeps her a child and removes any, even remotely possible, sexual anything that might have been present with and older girl.

The relationship between Dryden and Rachel is great. Not only do they both deal with each development very well, but they compliment each other in dealing with them, too. Both characters start off as a bit of a mystery, but as the story unfolds, we learn more about both of them. The developments with Rachel's story affect the action more, Dryden's characters growth and unveiling altering how we see him and how he sees himself and his situation. You're left caring about both of them and understanding their connection.

This is one series I'm glad to have started and I eagerly await the next installment.

(Runner is an adult novel but almost completely YA age appropriate.)



Rating: 9/10



thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my copy to review

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The Tyrant's Daughter ~ JC Carleson (earc) review

I'll be playing a bit of review catch-up after a minor medical thing threw me off schedule - my apologies.

The Tyrant's Daughter
Knopf Books for Young Readers
February 11, 2014
304 pages
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From a former CIA officer comes the riveting account of a royal Middle Eastern family exiled to the American suburbs.

When her father is killed in a coup, 15-year-old Laila flees from the war-torn middle east to a life of exile and anonymity in the U.S. Gradually she adjusts to a new school, new friends, and a new culture, but while Laila sees opportunity in her new life, her mother is focused on the past. She’s conspiring with CIA operatives and rebel factions to regain the throne their family lost. Laila can’t bear to stand still as an international crisis takes shape around her, but how can one girl stop a conflict that spans generations?

J.C. Carleson delivers a fascinating account of a girl—and a country—on the brink, and a rare glimpse at the personal side of international politics.

*Bonus Backmatter includes a note about the author's CIA past, and a commentary by RAND researcher and president of ARCH International, Dr. Cheryl Benard. Recommendations for further reading are also included.

Fifteen-year-old Laila has a lot more to deal with in The Tyrant's Daughter than simply a new town and new school. For her it's a new country and an entirely new way of life as well. After her father, King - or so Laila has always known, believed - in assassinated in a coup, she,  her mother and younger brother move to the United States. The apartment in the suburbs of Washington DC is a far cry from the palace they're accustomed to.

As Laila is adjusting to this new life, her brother seems to be taking to America nearly seamlessly but her mother is still focused on home - or where it used to be - and the past.

Laila is a great narrator. At fifteen she's old enough to see certain things a younger character (like her brother) might not, yet is also old enough to want to question things. The more Laila's mother tries to keep her out of things, apart from what's going on, the more it makes Laila want to find answers. It would be true of, likely, any character her age but is especially true of Laila given her past, this vastly different new life and what she's learning of her father.

There was maybe not as much of the cultural clash, the adjustment issues that I was expecting Laila and her family to experience. We learn that she's from a (fictional) Middle Eastern country and is used to a Muslim society. While her family - both in societal and economic position - allowed Laila more freedom, she is used to wearing a veil, of having different expectations and privileges than males. Laila does not wear a veil in the United States and I wish there had been more about that. There's a passage, about their past, that explains why her mother is not wearing one, but Laila's change is a passing mention.

Some more introspection from Laila and/or more of a look into the past, may have been a nice addition. The looks we do get into the past are both very telling of the family's power as well as what their country was like.  The scenes are chosen very well to have the most impact, the most poignancy.

Those things to do affect Laila seem well chosen, too. The smaller aspects of life in the United States seem to give her the most pause and cause the most anxiety. Things that no one here, including her friends, give a second thought are incredibly different for Laila. Though her country is fictional, these things are very real - for those from countries undergoing similar struggles - and are definitely something to notice and remember.

The commentary at the end of the novel by Dr Chery Benard, is very much worth reading. It gives more of a 'true life,' historical perspective to the novel you've just read. Benard's commentary contains not only very interesting information that will, perhaps, cause you to see The Tyrant's Daughter's ending differently, but also some very thought provoking questions. Ones made more real having read Laila and her family's story. The essay is not to be skipped.

Despite Laila's country being fictional, it contains enough similarities to actual nations that it's very easy to immerse yourself in Laila's world while also thinking of a broader nonfiction reality. It's great that the family remains so much at the center of The Tyrant's Daughter - both the good sand the bad; while the story is Laila, her family's past, present and future are key. A world most will never experience is made very real through her adjustment to a world most are more familiar with and the family dynamic adds quite a bit.


Rating: 8/10


Other books you may also enjoy:  Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo by Zlata Filipovic and the 'Additional Reading' offered at the end of the reviewed novel


thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my copy to review

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Vengeance ~ Megan Miranda (earc) Review + Guest Post [@bwkids]

Vengeance (Fracture #2)
Walker Children's
February 4, 2014
352 pages
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** See my review of Fracture here - Vengeance review and/or synopsis contain Fracture spoilers**

Nobody really believes in a curse. Until you know the people who disappear. Too much coincidence, you look for reason. Too much death, you grasp for something to blame. Carson pulled Delaney out and he died on the side of the road with her mouth pressed to his. Her air in his body. Troy. She told the cops it was suicide. Didn't matter. The lake released her and grabbed another. But when Decker's father dies in a pool of spilled water on their kitchen floor, all Decker can feel is a slow burning rage. Because he knows that Delaney knew that his dad was going to die. She knew and backed out of his house and never said a word. Falcon Lake still has a hold on them both, and Decker can't forgive Delaney until he knows why.

While I remembered that I really enjoyed Fracture, as well as the more major aspects of the novel, I knew there was quite a lot of it that I had forgotten. Luckily, when it came to reading Megan Miranda's Vengeance, the follow-up to Fracture, that was okay. Events from Fracture played a very significant role in Vengeance but were explained enough that even if their mention didn't bring back the memory, there was enough detail you didn't need to remember. Though, you could possibly get by not reading Fracture, I definitely recommend reading it before this second novel.

Not only is Fracture a fantastic novel, it gives a great introduction to the characters, who they are, and what their relationships with each other when everything all starts. It's the foundation upon which Vengeance is built.

Told from Decker's point-of-view, Vengeance is even more about the aftermath of Delaney's accident on the lake - more importantly, possibly, the aftermath of her recovery. That she has survived is a given here, as is the knowledge she seems to have of when someone's going to die. It's the deaths that occurred in Fracture -- those of Decker and Delaney's friends -- paralleled by Delaney's survival that are affecting everyone now. Why did she survive and they died? It brings talk of a curse.

From anger, to blame, to confusion, the different sides of grief come into play. It affects lifelong friendships, with lines that seem ready to be drawn. Whether the characters themselves necessarily want to make those divisions or not.

The introduction of new characters, along with another death and more incidents that seem related to the lake add a new level to the story. While the characters are all working to sort out how they all fit together now with the loss of their friends who died, life is also working to complicate matters further. There's the 'curse' that no one seems sure if they believe in - and with some events seeming to lend credence to it, readers won't be sure if they do, either.

The new character who becomes most involved in the story was hard to really pin down. It was hard to get a true grasp of who they really were. It was also hard to know, while reading, whether that was due to who their character was, what they were dealing with, or if the author had written them a bit ambiguously for other reasons.

Though there is mystery around just what is happening to the characters and who or what is causing it, there was a scene that gave away one ending revelations. Perhaps on purpose, perhaps not. The others, however, were still a surprise, either in their entirety or how they impacted others.

I really loved that there was all of the play of the different relationships between the characters, how that dynamic changed not only from the beginning of Fracture until now, but also the different way that played against what transpired. If the relationships had not been so complicated, if they had only been 'sort of' friends, or didn't have the deep friendships to be affected, the deaths, the curse, the questions wouldn't lead to anything very interesting or dramatic in Vengeance. They did have that history, though, and it lead to the unfolding of something really unique and great to read.


Rating: 8/10



Guest Post from Vengeance author Megan Miranda:

First of all, thank you for having me on your blog!

I have always loved both science and writing, and I really took the advice write what you love to heart. It definitely affects my writing because it’s where my interests lie. I love reading about current events in science, and I’m fascinated by the things that we can’t fully explain yet. I read a lot of Michael Crichton when I was younger, whose books explored the what ifs of science, and this definitely influenced me growing up.

Mostly, I think my science background sparks my story ideas. Fracture and Vengeance deal with the what ifs of the brain, the idea for Hysteria started with research about memories, and my upcoming 2015 book is about something I used to imagine when I was in school: What if we could find the soul in science?

In a lot of ways, the process of science and writing isn’t all that different. You sit down, day after day, and you chip away, bit by bit. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t, and you have to start a project all over again, trying something new. The process itself is the science, just as much as the end result. Same goes for writing. An experiment that doesn’t work how you expected it to isn’t a failure—it’s a result, an answer. And in writing, it’s the same—a draft that isn’t working right yet is telling you something about the story. It’s a step toward the finished product, even if it’s not progress in word count.

I think a lot of people think science and writing are on different sides of the spectrum, but I’ve found it to be the opposite. For me, both the ideas and the process really go hand-in-hand. I was a kid who loved both science and writing, and it’s a dream to be able to explore both of my passions through my books.


Thank you Megan Miranda for the Guest Post!


thank you to publisher and NetGalley for my egalley for this review

Monday, February 3, 2014

Just One Day ~ Gayle Forman (audio) review

Just One Day (Just One Day #1)
print:
Dutton Juvenile
January 8, 2013
368 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

audio:
Penguin Audio
January 3, 2013
10 hours, 29 minutes
Kathleen Mcinerney, narrator
add to Goodreads/buy from Audible/or B&N



From the New York Times bestselling author of If I Stay
Allyson Healey's life is exactly like her suitcase—packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life.

A book about love, heartbreak, travel, identity, and the "accidents” of fate, Just One Day shows us how sometimes in order to get found, you first have to get lost. . . and how often the people we are seeking are much closer than we know.

The first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels. Willem’s story—Just One Year—is coming soon! (synopsis from paperback edition, published by Speak)
It was beyond time for me to read Gayle Forman's Just One Day. I'm a big fan of If I Stay and an even bigger fan of  Where She Went, its follow-up, both of which I listened to so I had high hopes for Just One Day.

I don't think I read the synopsis for this at all, or if I did it was back in 2012 when I added it to my 'to-read' list on Goodreads . . . Whatever the case, I didn't know what the plot was going into it. I'm really glad I didn't.

Just One Day is so much more than it seems at first. As the paperback's (I like it much better than the hardcover/audio version as it reveals much less plot) synopsis says, "Just One Day shows us how sometimes in order to get found, you first have to get lost. . . "

At its start we meet Allyson who is a very straight arrow teenage girl on a post-graduation trip.She believes that her neat, precise, planned life is what she thinks she likes and wants. Until a chance encounter with Willem leads to a day that not only will she never forget but which will change her life forever.

It's here that Just One Day seems like it's going to be this perfect romance . . . and in some ways it is. But it also isn't.

It's so much more as well. That day, just one day, really changes Allyson and who she is. We see the transformation in Allyson, in her friendships, in her academic life, in her relationship with her parents, in how she sees herself even. The events of twenty-four hours lead to a lot of self-discovery for Allyson, but also leave her with some lingering questions.

While the romance is kind of perfect, it's also set in just about the most perfect place and at a prime time in Allyson's life (between high school and college) for a big change in her life. It's all around rather amazing.


Just One Day is one of my favorite kinds of books to listen to, instead of read. Books with foreign locations and/or any foreign language in them are ones that I, especially, love listening to. I know that I'll get the proper pronunciation of things (which I may not always do myself, let's be honest). Hearing things pronounced correctly - immediately - not only keeps the story flowing but pulls me more into the story and the location. It's much easier to imagine I'm in Paris or wherever with the characters when the French, etc is just there.

Kathleen Mcinerney, who also narrated All the Truth That's In Me and Sworn to Silence that I've previously listened to and enjoyed, does a very nice job. She sounds the correct age for Allyson and does a very nice job of staying with the characters different emotions. Mcinerney also does a great job handling the different voices, accents, and languages of the different characters and well as keep them consistent. It's easy to tell which characters are which as we go back and forth, though Allyson is, by far, the primary speaker.


Just One Day is a book I highly, highly recommend and the audio version is a fantastic listen!



Rating: 10/10

Other books you may also enjoy:  13 Little Blue Envelopes series by Maureen Johnson and the Anna and the French Kiss series by Stephanie Perkins









Book Trailer Friday [@RandomHouse @TransworldBooks]

Beth Dorey-Stein's From the Corner of the Oval  - a tale of being the White House stenographer during the Obama administration will be ...