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Title: The Cake Shop in the Garden

Author: Carole Matthews

Narrator: Jilly Bond

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-23-15

Publisher: Hachette Audio UK

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Fay Merryweather runs her cake shop from her beautiful garden. She whips up airy sponges and scrumptious scones while her customers enjoy the lovely blossoms and gorgeous blooms. Looking after the cake shop, the garden, and her cantankerous mother means Fay is always busy, but she accepts her responsibilities because if she doesn't do all this, who will?

Then Danny Wilde walks into her life and makes Fay question every decision she's ever made.

When a sudden tragedy strikes, Fay's entire world is thrown off balance even further, and she doesn't know which way to turn.

Can Fay find the strength to make a life-changing decision - even if it means giving up the thing she loves the most?

Life, love, and family are about to collide in The Cake Shop in the Garden.

Critic Reviews:

"A wonderful story of friendship and romance." (Katie Fforde)

"Full of joy and laughter." (Trisha Ashley)

"The perfect escape". (Woman)

"Simply brilliant." (Closer)

Members Reviews:

nice story but a little slow

nice story but a little slow. the main character was someone you could really identify with

If you want to feel miserable then this is for you

The so called heroine of this book is a total doormat, and I just wanted to shake her. I can't believe anybody would act like her and allow herself to be put upon in such a way. She is such a whinging boring character that frankly I really didn't care what happened to her. The story was also spoiled for me by the dreadful Irish accent the reader uses for the main love interest. I normally really enjoy Carole Matthews, but I would recommend that you don't waste your money on this one.

Loved it

Loved this book, ( which is not my normal type )

A great story, with unexpected twists, loved the setting along the canal also.

Only for those with a very sweet tooth

Any additional comments?

This story was so saccharine that I could only get through about a half of it. The "heroine" was a complete doormat and was walked over by her mother, sister and boyfriend without a word of complaint and the hero was totally unbelievable. I have read much better books by Carole Matthews.

Disappointing and depressing!

What disappointed you about The Cake Shop in the Garden?

I had really looked forward to this but sadly it didn't deliver at all. The main character was pathetic and unlikeable, and the storyline completely predictable. The narration was totally mismatched, the main character sounded like an old woman and the fake Irish accent was truly awful!

Very disappointed.

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Title: The Ship

Author: Antonia Honeywell

Narrator: Melody Grove

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-19-15

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 42 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Oxford Street burned for three weeks; the Regent's Park camps have been bombed. Lalla, 16, has grown up sheltered from the new reality by her visionary father, Michael Paul. He has promised Lalla and her mother that they will escape. Escape on a ship big enough to save 500 people. Once onboard, as day follows identical day, Lalla's unease grows. Where are they going?

Critic Reviews:

"The Ship is tense, engaging and emotionally charged: I devoured this novel." (Helen Dunmore)

"A beautiful futuristic fable with huge power to haunt and disturb." (M. R. Carey, author of The Girl with All the Gifts)

Members Reviews:

The Ship leaves you thinking

Had I been 16 when I read this, the plight of Lalla would have been very familiar in its u certainty. As a grownup and mother, I could view it from s different aspect. It is a novel that creates a perfect discussion ground for parent and teen to discover the connection between being an individual

and ones other roles that are regulated by love. The ship takes on a tenuous topic that few explore so thoroughly. I listened to this on audible and the narration was perfect. No overly contrived voices to detract from the listeners own interpretation of the characters and settings. All in all, a must read!

Where late the sweet bird sings

Meets silent spring... This book was a solid 3.5 to 4 stars. An entrancing story told through the eyes of a teenage girl. It's about a destroyed world and a girl that lived through it because of her parents but never gets to experience it. Worth your time cash or credit. I would also put it the ya genre but very well done. Not like hunger games ect...

Interview with author the saving grace

I listened to the free prequel and was so excited to listen. I kept waiting for it to get better and for the main character to stop being so full of self pity. I hated the ending even more than I hated the ending of the Divergent series.

The saving grace really was the interview with the author at the end. After hearing why she wrote this story and the inspirations for it I felt less negativity towards the book but still very frustrated.

A good YA recommendation

A good YA recommendation.

For small group reading study. Middle Secondary. Capable readers should be able to make links to classics such as "Diary of Anne Frank"

Liked but ended terribly

Hated the ending, returned it because of it. Also never understood why Lalla couldn't just seize the opportunity to become their leader and focus on organic regrowth in order to save them all instead of only seeing the ship as only a grave when it could have been a temporary haven while she figured out how to change things.

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Titel: Mias Schatten

Autor:: Ki-Ela

Erzähler: Sabina Godec

Format: Unabridged

Spieldauer: 16 hrs and 3 mins

Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsdatum: 01-08-15

Herausgeber: Lake Union

Kategorien: Fiction, Contemporary

Zusammenfassung des Herausgebers:

Dies ist die Geschichte von Mia und Levin - zwei ganz unterschiedlichen Menschen, deren Wege sich zufällig auf einer Autobahnraststätte kreuzen. Sie beschließen, einen Teil ihrer Reise gemeinsam zu begehen, und lernen sich immer besser kennen und schließlich auch lieben. Doch Mias Vergangenheit holt sie plötzlich ein und der Kampf um ihre Liebe beginnt.

>> Diese ungekürzte Hörbuch-Fassung wird Ihnen exklusiv von Audible präsentiert und ist ausschließlich im Download erhältlich.

©2014 Amazon EU S.à r.l. (P)2015 Audible GmbH

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Title: River Boy

Author: Tim Bowler

Narrator: Imogen Church

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-25-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Grandpa is dying. He can barely move his hands any more but, stubborn as ever, refuses to stay in hospital. He's determined to finish his last painting, River Boy, before he goes.

At first Jess can't understand his refusal to let go, but then she too becomes involved in the mysterious painting. And when she meets the river boy himself, she finds she is suddenly caught up in a challenge of her own that she must complete - before it's too late...

Members Reviews:

Five Stars

The best book ever never ever!

Grandfather Granddaugter Relationship

Jess' grandfather is acting very strangely. He has always been grumpy and irritable--that's no different from usual. He has always been a painter, too, obsessed with finishing a painting he's started and especially nasty to those around him until he does manage to find the inspiration to finish it. But the painting he's working on now is not in his usual style, and this one has a name: "River Boy." He's never named one of his paintings before. To make matters even stranger, he has insisted his son and daughter-in-law and granddaughter Jess go on a vacation to the place he lived growing up. The family drives for hours and moves into a small cottage by a river that starts up beyond them and eventually flows down into the ocean. Jess, an excellent swimmer who craves time in the water, loves the location and the river.

Jess' parents are worried, though. Before they left, Jess' grandfather had a heart attack. He insisted on being let out of the hospital in order to go on vacation, but their vacaton spot is so secluded, they worry he will have another heart attack and won't be able to get to a hospital again in time. Her grandfather is fixated on one thing--finishing the painting he's started. It seems to be the only goal he has left in life, but it becomes more and more difficult as he gets weaker and weaker. Jess is torn. She doesn't know how to help him or what he needs. Furthermore, there seems to be a mystery surrounding this place. She keeps seeing a boy out in the river at the strangest hours, a boy she suspects is watching her. Who is he? Is he really as mysterious as Jess thinks, or is her imagination simply running away with her?

I really liked the relationship between Jess and her grandfather. They were very close despite his crabbiness. It was nice that Jess was able to look beyond that. I thought the ending of this book was really good. Things really came together and made sense. However, I didn't like the way Jess' grandfather treated her father; that made me dislike the character of the grandfather a little bit.

Message in this book has stayed with me for years

I have to say it's been some years since I read this book. I came across it as I am sorting old books out. And this is one I will hold onto. It's message has been with me since I have read it. I remembered it when I saw the book, and realized it has become part of my life. If you read to learn about yourself or others. This is a must read.

river review

The book I chose to read and review was River Boy by Tim Bowler. It is a very interesting book to read which is very surprising to me because the cover made it seem like a boring book (never judge a book by it's cover. The story had a mystery to it that you couldn't figure out until the very end of the book.

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Title: The Childhood of Jesus

Author: J M Coetzee

Narrator: Cameron Stewart

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-13-14

Publisher: Random House Audiobooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

An astonishing new masterpiece from the Nobel and twice Booker Prize-winning author of Disgrace and Summertime

After crossing oceans, a man and a boy both strangers to each other arrive in a new land. David, the boy, has lost his mother and Simón vows to look after him. In this strange new country they are assigned a new name, a new birthday, a new life.Knowing nothing of their surroundings, nor the language or customs, they are determined to find Davids mother. Though the boy has no memory of her, Simón is certain he will recognize her at first sight. But after we find her, David asks, what are we here for?

Members Reviews:

Worst novel

Poor story, annoying characters, boring pace, lackluster and inconsistent writing, pointless narrative and ridiculously idiotic metaphors. Would never reccommend it to anyone.

Puzzling, Enigmatic,Thought-Provoking,Slow-Burning

Any additional comments?

This is a story which almost defies description. I got to the end and wasn't sure how I felt about it or, indeed, what had actually been the point of it. The story seemed unfinsihed almost as if the author had set out to write a novel with a sequel already in mind. Personally, I always find this kind of approach very exasperating. It read as a bizarre mixture of myth, fable, allegory and fantasy but it had a pared-down, elegant style which was very appealing.

Having thought about the book for a couple of weeks (and it certainly lingered in my mind) I have reached the conclusion that the story possibly was in some way a version of the story of Jesus, told in a very loose way. I am imagining that Coetzee has used the absence of information about Jesus' life from babyhood until age 13 when he reappears in the Temple as an opportunity to construct a tale of 'what if'.

An older man (Simon) and a young boy (David) arrive as refugees in a Spanish- speaking colony having escaped from a troubled country. Along the way knowledge of David's mother's wheraeabouts in the new colony have been lost; a letter giving details of his parents has been mislaid and Simon agrees to take on the boy and find his mother. He believes that intuition will guide him to identify the correct woman, and so the story starts.

The remainder of the story covers how the pair come to find a home, friends, work and a woman who Simon rather rashly chooses for David's mother. The story ends with the three main characters escaping from the colony after a brush with the authorities over David's education and setting off on a road trip to find a better place of shelter.

The boy David is both engaging and puzzling. He shows signs of brilliance and somewhat miraculous behaviour at times; elsewhere in the story he is less appealing, difficult and ungrateful. Simon is both naive and idealistic, but practicalities eventually overcome hisbasic nature and he forms an enduring, supportive relationship with the boy. David attracts oddballs and hangers-on and his relationship with his new mother is fraught with difficulty.

There is indeed a sequel, I have discovered and I enjoyed the book enough to follow it up. But if you like books to be clear-cut and explanatory, this is probably not a story for you. if you fancy trying something challenging, then give this a go.

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Titre: L'incolore Tsukuru Tazaki et ses années de pèlerinage

Auteur: Haruki Murakami

Narrateur: Bernard Gabay

Format: Unabridged

Durée: 10 hrs and 52 mins

Langue: Français

Date de publication: 10-15-14

Éditeur: Audiolib

Evaluation: 4.5 sur 5 sur 15 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Résumé de l'éditeur:

Tsukuru Tazaki vit à Tokyo. Architecte, il dessine des gares. Quand il rencontre Sara, un déclic se produit : il lui avoue la blessure qui le hante depuis son départ de Nagoya, seize ans plus tôt. Au lycée, il faisait partie d'une bande où chacun de ses quatre amis avait dans son nom un idéogramme associé à une couleur. Lui non : une identité "incolore" en quelque sorte.

Alors, quand ses amis restés à Nagoya ont coupé les ponts sans explication, Tsukuru a vécu cette rupture comme une forme de mort annoncée. Aujourd'hui, Sara l'incite à les retrouver pour vaincre ce sentiment d'inexistence qui le ronge. Du Japon à la Finlande, "l'incolore" se confrontera à chacun d'eux.

Un pèlerinage entre passé et présent à la recherche d'une vérité autant souhaitée que redoutée.

©2014 Haruki Murakami. Tous droits réservés / Belfond pour la traduction française / Place des Éditeurs (P)2014 Audiolib

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Title: An Artist of the Floating World

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Narrator: David Case

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-02-14

Publisher: Canongate Faber Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

1948. Japan is rebuilding her cities after the calamity of WWII, her people putting defeat behind them and looking to the future.

The celebrated painter Masuji Ono fills his days attending to his garden, his house repairs, his two grown daughters and his grandson, and his evenings drinking with old associates in quiet lantern-lit bars. His should be a tranquil retirement. But as his memories continually return to the past - to a life and a career deeply touched by the rise of Japanese militarism - a dark shadow begins to grow over his serenity.

Members Reviews:

Let down by narrator

The story is absorbing and thought-provoking; it's typical Ishiguro. However, the narrator inflects at random points and it sounds like he's asking a question at the end of most declarative sentences and it's really beginning to grate.

An effort but worth it.

In contrast to his other books this was hard work -maybe because of the culture and location not familiar to me, but the subtle vulnerability of a proud man - out of date and just realising his loss of power - was so delicately and beautifully demonstrated. I didn't really enjoy the narrator's querulous voice, but perhaps it was appropriate for the character.

Struggled with this

I don't think we were supposed to like the narrator. This wasn't helped dy David Case's narration.

Ishiguro deserves better narration

Although Artist of the Floating World is not as plot-driven as most books, I thoroughly enjoyed its atmosphere and prose.

Unfortunately the narrator was a let down. There was strange inflection and inconsistent pronunciation of Japanese names/honorifics.

At times the narrator's voice became unexpectedly hoarse, which was also unpleasant.

dull

not much happening here in terms of interesting writing. just a narrative, with a small level of interest in fallible, self denying narrator. I quit.

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Title: Mr. Tall

Subtitle: A Novella and Stories

Author: Tony Earley

Narrator: Kevin Stillwell, Courtney Patterson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-26-14

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The highly anticipated return of Tony Earley, celebrated author of Jim the Boy

Two decades after his debut collection Here We Are in Paradise heralded Tony Earley as one of the most accomplished writers of his generation, the rueful, bittersweet, and riotous stories of Mr. Tall reestablish him as a mythmaker and tale spinner of the first rank.

These stories introduce us not only to ordinary people seeking to live extraordinary lives, but also to the skunk ape (a southern variant of Bigfoot), the ghost of Jesse James, and a bone-tired Jack the Giant Killer. Whether it's Appalachia, Nashville, the Carolina Coast, or a make-believe land of talking dogs, each world Earley creates is indelible.

Members Reviews:

Heartfelt, but unsentimental. Highly recommended.

This collection of short stories and the novella, Mr. Tall, was my first exposure to Tony Earley. It wonât be the last. In the first story in the collection âHaunted Castles of the Barrier Islandsâ a couple drive up to the University to visit their daughter who they dropped off two months ago as a scared and homesick eighteen year old. From the first page:

âThey found her locked in her room â dressed, but flushed and disheveled â with a scrawny wannabe surfer named Kyle. Kyle wore temporarily indecent board shorts and a T-shirt with F**K**U printed across the front. By the time he took hold of Darrylâs thumb and said, âSup, dudeâ Darryl hated him thoroughly.â

It takes a certain brilliance to come up with the term âtemporarily indecentâ to perfectly capture the awkwardness of that scene.

In the novella, Mr. Tall, his main character is a young woman name Plutina, who sets up a household with her new husband in an isolated patch of Appalachia where her only neighbor is the mysterious Mr. Tall. Plutina (love that name) is a great character â honest and funny and innocent and tougher than she realizes. I could have easily read a hundred more pages with her as the narrator.

Earleyâs stories are heartfelt, but unsentimental. Unpredictable, but with endings that feel natural and inevitable. Highly recommended.

)Tall" is formatted a bit like Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge

Short Stories "(Mr.)Tall" is formatted a bit like Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge, where the same characters appear in different stories. The time span in Olive is tight and you grow with the character of Olive as you go along, whereas the time span of each story in Mr. Tall is different so the characters have evolved from when they were first introduced and you hardly recognize them. I felt disconnected throughout. The last novella "Jack" was hard to get through and I struggled a lot to find something meaningful or interesting but failed. On the whole I felt that the author needs to empathize with the readers a bit and not dump haphazard plots on them. Jack's story is so farfetched and dense that I dropped a star from the rating of this book.

Although I didn't enjoy the novella

Tony Earley's stories resonant on lots of levels -- they are both fresh and nostalgic. The novella at the end was set in a dystopia that never seemed to relate to reality and thus was the antithesis of his stories. Although I didn't enjoy the novella, the book is worth getting for the wonderful stories.

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Title: Hometown Legend

Author: Jerry B. Jenkins

Narrator: Tom Stechschulte

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-12-14

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The number-one New York Times best-selling author of the Left Behind series, Jerry B. Jenkins returns with this heartwarming tale. In Athens City, Alabama, hard times have driven the town to desperation. But with the return of an old friend, the town's football team might be able to bring back the glory.

Members Reviews:

Great Book - Wonderful Story

I liked this book so much that I bought one for my son and one for each of my grandchildren. I like hero books and this one is not your typical hero book, but is so very inspiring. Don't miss it - you may miss the "read" you wish you had purchased.

Incredible

A very beautiful story I hope other people will read this book and enjoy it as much as I have

Five Stars

Would Buy From Again

Hometown Legend

ISBN 0446529028 - My review is based on my reading of an ARC I picked up at a thrift store, so if I comment on things that didn't show up in your book, don't worry about it. First, I'd like to point out something on my book that isn't on yours: the publication date on it is September 10, 2001. Jenkins is the sort of author whose books normally catch attention, even mine, upon release, and I have to think the timing - if it was published then - on this one buried it. It's time for you to go back and pick it up.

Athens City is a small town in Alabama, where football is more than a sport, it's the lifeblood of the town - and the town is dying. The high school football coach left town following a tragedy in 1988 and for the last 12 years things have gone from bad to worse. American Leather, the town's main employer, is failing; jobless people have to leave town to be able to survive; the high school is facing its last year and can't even find a coach to take them through it. Until, that is, circumstances bring Coach Schuler home. With little more than hope on their side, can the team, the school, the company or the town get through alive?

I'm not a fan of Christian writing, but found that religion in the first half of the book slipped naturally and easily into the story. Near the end it began to feel as if Jenkins thought you might not get the message he was sending and the religious references began to feel forced and a bit heavy-handed. The hillbilly-esque writing, including a million uses of "a course" instead of "of course" or even "o' course", didn't read as naturally as the author seems to think it does. Still, with or without a faith in god, Hometown Hero is an easy read with an inspirational storyline and a really touching secondary story in Athens City's star player. Go, read!

- AnnaLovesBooks

An Engaging Story

Cal Sawyer is a widower and the top business employer of Athens City. He struggles with his feelings about Bev, one of his long time employees and to keep his American Leather Football Company--a small town factory--afloat. But if his company unravels, so does the city of Athens, once renowned for having a champion football team under coach Buster Schuler. If Cal's company crumbles, the high school his daughter Rachel attends will close its doors along with the town itself.

But when Buster Schuler returns to coach the Crusaders after resigning twelve years earlier following a tragedy, a candle of hope ignites in the city. The painful memory accompanies Schuler, but doesn't shake his dream to be back on top one more time.

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Title: Just Deserts

Subtitle: Hetta Coffey, Book 4

Author: Jinx Schwartz

Narrator: Beth Richmond

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-23-14

Publisher: Books In Motion

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 52 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Hetta Coffey is a woman with a yacht, and she's not afraid to use it! As a self-employed engineering consultant with a penchant of oddball (read: shady) projects, she has a way of attracting trouble. With her floating home dry docked for repairs in Mexico, Hetta needs a place to live and a job to pay for boat repairs. Landing a project at a mining operation not far from her boat, Hetta finds herself on the tumultuous Arizona/Mexico border, where all hell is breaking loose even before she gets there.

Members Reviews:

Great read!

Lots of adventure and comical mishaps that only Hetta Coffey can get into. She doesn't have to look for trouble, it finds her easily. It is hard to put the book down as one wonders how she will get herself out of one situation after another.

A must read, mystery with lots of laughs.

If you like mysteries and lots of laughs, this is a must read.

A Very Pleasant Read

I have enjoyed all the Jinx Swartz Hetta Coffey series. The books are fun, the characters are fun, and the stories are great. I like that each book in the series is a complete story, though some characters proceed with their stories in other books.

good plot (on land this time)

Jinx gives a good story-line with escapades in Mexico. I like plots that also give background about life in a particular area and this one was especially good. Had not understood how difficult and dangerous life is around border towns and back-road towns. Light humor without being overly outrageous as in "Trouble." Very good reading.

these books are the best fun ever

Fun fun characters, outrageous plot, great action, the best fun reads I have ever had, and I read a lot. I live in Mexico, so it is even funnier. If you want to hide out and curl up with an entertaining book you can't put down and don't mind fielding some boisterous belly laughs, read this',