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Title: The Replacement Wife

Author: Eileen Goudge

Narrator: Susan Boyce

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-27-12

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 56 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Camille Harte makes her living as a matchmaker. When she receives the diagnosis she's dreaded and learns she has only six months to live, she decides to do the unthinkable: find a replacement wife for her husband. It's a setup only international mega-best seller Eileen Goudge could concoct. Goudge's consistent 16 New York Times best sellers include Garden of Lies, Once in a Blue Moon, Woman in Red, Domestic Affairs, and The Diary.

Members Reviews:

Either the best idea or the worst idea...

Or that other platitude applies: "we make plans and God laughs".The premise of this book is either the epitome of micromanagement from the grave, or the best way to take care of your loved ones after you're "gone", i.e. dead. Only trouble with that idea is that what if you get waylaid on the way to your funeral, and get to live, and actually see your spouse hook up with someone else?

I love unusual hypotheticals like this, books that explore the "what if" factor. That's one of the reasons I read, to find out what happens when you stir the pot, test an alternative idea or two, get stuck in a tree and then try and get down.

I can see the sense in the idea from the children's perspective - why not interview your prospective replacement and make sure your family is kept intact, loved and cared for, and continues as before? But the thing is, people tend to have minds of their own, and what if your spouse takes the problem off your hands and you lose control of the plan?

The only fault I can find here is that some of the plot lines were way too detailed, and I couldn't make myself care about all the minor characters and their stories. Goudge does a good job of keeping it all under narrative control, but I kept wanting her to go back to what I thought was the "main" story, and became impatient with some of the meandering.

Anyway, I'll close with another platitude: be careful what you wish for.

Stranded in a soap opera

My goodness this was a long book filled with numbingly unnecessary details. I was attracted to the book for its premise, but I was unable to connect with the characters because I found the writing stilted and self conscious I doubt the author ever met an adjective she didnt like. The dialogue resembled the arch and self-aware conversations between soap opera characters, which this plot (for me) resembled. A major flaw was the habit of darting down rabbit trails in the form of overly detailed back stories on minor characters whom we see in a single scene and never again, and who do nothing to progress the storyline. It felt as though Ms. Goudge tried to make the characters real by sheer weight of information, when finding a way to portray their hearts would have done. A strong editor was needed to trim this down to size.

Accentuating the disappointing writing was the reading by Susan Boyce. If a reading style had posture, this story was told with the upright posture of a whaleboned corset. When Camille's husband's shoulders slumped in discouragement, it was pronounced with hearty "can do" determination. Boyce pronounced every word with the clipped precision of an elocution teacher, constantly inserting little micro pauses commonly used by TV news magazine reporters for ear catching emphasis. Ok for a news story, but ineffective in creating empathy for a character.

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Title: The Priest Fainted

Author: Catherine Temma Davidson

Narrator: Alyssa Bresnahan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-18-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

A stunning fictional debut by an award-winning poet, Catherine Temma Davidson deftly blends memories, family stories, recipes, and Greek myths in this intricate and sensuous first-person narrative. During a year-long visit to her ancestral homeland, a young Greek-American woman discovers herself through stories from the past. As she comes of age, she finds her own meaning in the tales of Persephone, Athena, and other mythic figures. She is finally able to identify with her mothers and grandmothers lives and to appreciate the unspoken understandings they share like secret family recipes. Catherine Temma Davidson has won awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Dorothy Daniels Award from PEN, and first prize at the L.A. Poetry Festival.

With her ardent reading, narrator Alyssa Bresnahan evokes the deep passion of the poets language. Her performance carries you pleasurably through the rich cultural and psychological landscapes the novel traverses.

Members Reviews:

Not a novel

Catherine Temma Davidson is a Greek-Jewish American who, in her book The Priest Fainted, tells the story of her year or two in Greece, interspersed with stories about a year her Greek-American mother spent in Greece a generation ago, and some snippets about her Greek grandmother's life. The book is called a novel, but to me this book is not a novel -- it's a memoir. I read The Priest Fainted because I wanted to get a sense of what life in modern Greece is like, and the book met that expectation, but at no time did I feel that I was reading a novel.

The author writes well, although after a while I found her attempts to interpret Greek myths through a filter of 21st century American feminism a little tiresome. In places the writing is poetic, but nothing that sets it apart from other such writing. The book reads like the author's journal, dressed up for public viewing. Instead of taking her material and using the creative process to form it into a seamless whole, she has chosen instead to present us with stories about her life, woven through with stories about her mother's and her grandmother's lives, and letting it all form its own whole.

There is an implication in the beginning of the book that some truth is going to be revealed by the time we reach the end -- that is, some question answered, or something explained. If that happened, I missed it. Hints of dark stories and revelations to come are dropped throughout the book, but nothing significant is ever revealed. I think her message is, possibly, that womens' potential is stifled by the patriarchy, but since that is not exactly a new concept, it is not the stuff of which revelations are made.

One small example of the author setting us up for something much more than she delivers is her chapter on spending the Easter holiday with her mother's relatives in their village in Greece. She says ominously, at the beginning of the chapter, "During Easter I felt I would encounter the core,.... travel to the origin. I did not realize ...I would have... a desire to get as far away from Greece as quickly as possible." You couldn't help wondering what was going to happen that would make her feel this way. As far as I could tell, it was basically that she didn't like the soup they served at the special meal the day before Easter, and she didn't have an appetite for roast lamb at the Easter picnic the next day.

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Title: Outback

Subtitle: Outback Series, Book 1

Author: Aaron Fletcher

Narrator: Cameron Beierle

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-01-11

Publisher: Books in Motion

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 16 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Patrick Garrity started life unwanted and unloved as the bastard son of a female convict. Barely out of his teens, he worked to make a new life for himself in the limitless back country of New South Wales. There he met Mayrah, the native girl he bought to satisfy his passions and the woman who would change his destiny and that of an entire continent. Divided by competing cultures, they were nevertheless united by their fierce love of the land -- and eventually, each other. Together they carved out an enormous empire in the great outback, and founded a new generation of Australians who would forever bear the imprint of their pride and passion.

Members Reviews:

a wonderful story

I have listened to the story three times, and found li diificult to put away, in order to get a shorter nights sleep, each time.

Aussie Accent

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed the story but these books should be read by an Aussie... somebody with a REAL Australian accent. It would have been so much better.

Loved the book - audio ?

Would you be willing to try another book from Aaron Fletcher? Why or why not?

Yes because I loved the book that I read years ago.

How could the performance have been better?

It was rather bland and blah. Parts of the story that excited me as a book, did not excite me at all listening to it.

Any additional comments?

I was going to buy the audio books for the rest of the series - I don't think so.

Interesting, lot of information.

What made the experience of listening to Outback the most enjoyable?

Lots of information on how to raise sheep. Not a lot of talking between charaters. There is more than one stoy in this book.

This is a nice long book, keeps you interested. I found that it is a little confusing because of the differant stories put into the book.

Although I did like this book and others in this series.

What does Cameron Beierle bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

I believe that the reader puts in alot of emotion while reading, and that if I was just to read the book myself I would have become very bored and given up on the book.

Great Book

Excellent thought provoking story, fantastic story of the life & country of the outback and the oeople that made Australia great.

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Title: Wishes and Stitches

Subtitle: The Cypress Hollow Yarns, Book 3

Author: Rachael Herron

Narrator: Carrington MacDuffie

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-11-11

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 67 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Practicing medicine in a small town like Cypress Hollow has always been Naomi Fontaines dream, but shes had a hard time becoming part of this tightknit community that her late friend, knitting guru Eliza Carpenter, loved so well. Naomi just doesnt seem to fit in, no matter how hard she tries. But when rugged Rig Keller moves to town to take over half of Naomis medical practice, he instantly charms everyone in Cyprus Hollowincluding Naomi.

Witnessing the painful aftermath of his brothers broken relationship, Rig isnt interested in getting serious. But that doesnt mean he can resist playing doctor with his new partner. Swept up in a passion neither expected, the two are soon faced with difficult choices. While keeping secrets is dangerous, revealing hidden truths can lead to heartache. Now, Rig must decide whether to risk his heart, and Naomi whether to open hers completely, if they want to have a chance of being together.

Critic Reviews:

Rachael Herron seamlessly blends romance, friendship, and laughter. (Barbara Bretton, USA Today best-selling author)

Members Reviews:

Great series!

I love the narrator! I love Rachel herons books. They make me happy and I love the romance. Great author.

Great romance

Caracters that both seem real and a bit cliche-but mostly real and believeable. Great descriptions of relations-and of attraction.

Don't bother

Any additional comments?

Seriously awful storyline and really not a good book at all. It's actually kind of a demeaning take on women in general.

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Title: Shadow Baby

Author: Alison McGhee

Narrator: Christina Moore

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-29-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Winner of the Minnesota Book Award, author Alison McGhee pens tales shimmering with shrewd truth and wild imaginings. In this moving novel, she tells of the growing friendship between two oddly matched people as they share their very different world. With a missing father, sister, and grandfather - and a mother who refuses to explain - 11-year-old Clara lives with many questions. When she begins interviewing an elderly immigrant for a school biography assignmnent, she learns he too has a shadowy past.

Attempting to fill in gaps, Clara invents version upon version of stories for both her new friend and herself. As the tales evolve, she uncovers some unsettling family history, but most importantly, she begins to discover what matters most in life. Filled with small surprises, Shadow Baby is at turns funny, poignant, and heartwarming. Narrator Christina Moore provides the perfect voice for the young heroine who is wise beyond her years, but in many ways still a child.

Members Reviews:

Shadow Baby..

Awesomely written. Great voice, story stays true to character with the age of the child and her questions about life..

Shadow baby

Odd story about a young girl trying to understand life and how she fits into the framework of the past and present. She is helped in this discovery by several people who live nearby and are dealing with their own issues. The child like perspective is well done.

This is a fantastic book containing deep insight into events we can so ...

This is a fantastic book containing deep insight into events we can so often take for granted. It succeeds in viewing the story from several angles. Alison is a great writer.

I really loved the metaphysical connection described in the novel

I really loved the metaphysical connection described in the novel. I patterned a character in my Halloween short story on the protagonist.

Emotion, soul searching

This was a very enjoyable book. Often sad, but a fascinating exploration of the human experience through the eyes of a child.

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Title: Frozen Charlotte: Martha Gunn, Book 3

Author: Priscilla Masters

Narrator: Patricia Gallimore

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-07-11

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

When a woman arrives in A&E clutching a child in a pink blanket, Martha Gunn is not quite ready to make the discovery that the evening has in store for her. The baby has been mummified. A post-mortem reveals the child to be a new born boy, deceased for over five years. As always coroner Martha Gunn reserves judgement until she is able to question the mysterious woman who brought in the body...

Members Reviews:

Not as good as hoped

Wish I could say more about this book that is positive. However, it is the third in a series of books about Martha Gunn, a coroner who also likes to be in on solving whatever mystery is happening. I think the author drags the stories out unnecessarily, and has a tendency to (in first two books) leave things unexplained with no explanation, then in this one--ties them up in an almost offhand manner. While each book has had a good story line--something about them has left me wanting to simply speed them up to get them finished. I sort of would recommend them to someone looking for a decent series that have interesting plots--but the writing is just so tedious and has too many fillers for me to give this book a higher rating. I will say that Patricia Gallimore, as narrator, does a lot to rescue the books. The fact that I listened to all three says that I found them okay--but I just can't get terribly enthusiastic about them.

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Title: Night Waking

Author: Sarah Moss

Narrator: Jane Lambert

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-23-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Historian Anna Bennett has a book to write. She also has an insomniac toddler, a precocious, death-obsessed seven-year-old, and a frequently-absent ecologist husband who has brought them all to Colsay, a desolate island in the Hebrides, so he can count the puffins.

Ferociously sleep-deprived, torn between mothering and her desire for the pleasures of work and solitude, Anna becomes haunted by the discovery of a baby's skeleton in the garden of their house. Her narrative is punctuated by letters home, written 200 years before, by May, a young, middle-class midwife desperately trying to introduce modern medicine to the suspicious, insular islanders.

The lives of these two characters intersect unexpectedly in this deeply moving but also at times blackly funny story.

Members Reviews:

Struggled to keep me awake

The narration was one of the better aspects of this book for me and I ploughed on expecting something to happen and the plot and purpose of the book to reveal itself. Now having completed it I am left wondering if I missed a chunk. The whole novel is set around the unhappy, dissatisfied life of Anna, who spends practically every night walking the floor with her youngest child Timothy who for some reason they call 'Moth' I think. Her days are spent refereeing various altercations between her two sons, the elder of which, Raphael, is a super intelligent environmentally green fanatic with a death obsession and the tantrum prone Timothy.

Throughout all this is the bubbling resentment of her puffin counting husband, Giles, who spends blissful days counting said birds on the remote and virtually uninhibited island on which they live.

Interspersed with all this is the reading of letters from an unknown source and the finding of some baby's bones wrapped in a knitted shawl buried in the garden of their house. There are no spoilers here so I shan't go further. I know some people enjoyed this book and there are moments of humour when Anna imagines what torture she would like to mete out to Giles on occasion and indeed the children. The wonder for me is how she managed to restrain herself. Personally I felt all the characters, especially the children, lacked any redeeming features whatsoever.

I hate giving negative feedback and the book was well written and constructed but I am still left wondering what the point was.

Very good read

I really enjoyed this book. To begin with I thought I might become too annoyed with the self sacrificing main character, but thankfully she resists many of the expections put upon her as a woman. The humour within the text helped make this an interesting exploration of the complexities of some women lives. The narration was good, and by the end I wanted more.

too many diversions.

What would have made Night Waking better?

ditching the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. I found in the first chapter it was hard to know where the quote ended and the story began.

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Title: Another Dawn

Author: Kathryn J. Cushman

Narrator: Therese Plummer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-26-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Critically acclaimed author Kathryn Cushman explores difficult social issues. Here, she tackles the child vaccination debate in a gripping portrait of lifes uncertainties. At her sisters insistence, Grace Graham returns to backwoods Shoal Creek, Tennessee, with her four-year-old son in tow. As Grace struggles to reconnect with her estranged father, her unvaccinated son becomes ground-zero for a measles outbreak. But should she take her son and runor stay and help?

Critic Reviews:

Cushman crafts strong characters (Romantic Times Book Reviews)

Members Reviews:

WOW! Just wow!

Would you consider the audio edition of Another Dawn to be better than the print version?

I don't know, actually. This is the first book I listened to that I hadn't read yet! I'm very glad that I did!

What other book might you compare Another Dawn to and why?

There is nothing to compare it to!! I read mostly historical romances, and this was a (happy!) break from the norm.

What does Therese Plummer bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

The wonderful southern accents. Even though I live in a southern state, I wouldn't have read the book the same way she acted it out. I loved how in the parts that the main character became emotional, her Californian accent slipped a bit and incorporated a bit of 'southern'. It was just a brilliant performance all around.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I listened to this book mostly at work, leaving the last few hours (due to happenstance) to listen to at home. I am so glad I didn't hear the climax while at work-- If I had, I would have been very embarrassed. I was BAWLING at the climax, tears streaming down my face as I listened. It was a really great part of the story and one I want to go back and listen to again just because.

Any additional comments?

I got this audio book on a whim because I had read one of her other books (Going Amish). This book, Another Dawn, is so much deeper than the summary would have you think. It's a story of hurt, trouble, forgiveness, and love, all the while teaching you something. It laid bare the facts of a huge argument aroused by event in the book, and let you fairly see all the sides. It did have romance in it, but it's not the main focus of the story.If this story doesn't have you bawling in tears by the end of it, I'd be surprised. I loved this book and am VERY glad I got it!

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Title: Blood Feud

Subtitle: Wilderness Series, Book 26

Author: David Thompson

Narrator: Rusty Nelson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-20-11

Publisher: Books in Motion

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 13 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The brutal wilderness of the Rocky Mountains can be deadly to those unaccustomed to its dangers. So when a clan of travelers from the hill country back East arrive at Nate King's part of the mountain, Nate is more than willing to lend a hand and show them some hospitality. He has no way of knowing that this clan is used to fighting--and killing--for what they want. And they want Nate's land for their own!

Members Reviews:

Great book

David Thompson has done it again. "Blood Feud" is the 26th book in the Wilderness series. I have read all 26. They all have been good but I believe this is one of the best. I can just see the clan family from Georgia or Arkansas as they speak and the words flow through the pages. As usual Nate King and his family handle everything in mountain fashion. Would recommend this book to anyone who like to read about life and times of the mountain men of long ago.

Blood Feud

I like westerns and I like the story line, Its my chance to relax I like the author David Thompson

Didn't Receive It

I sent out an email on 26 June and have not received any reply. You can't give a review on a book that you didn't received!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't rate what I have not seen!

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Title: A Death in Tuscany

Subtitle: Michele Ferrara, Book 2

Author: Michele Giuttari

Narrator: Sean Barrett

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-23-11

Publisher: Hachette Audio UK

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 22 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

In the picturesque Tuscan hill town of Scandicci, the body of a girl is discovered. Scantily dressed, she is lying by the edge of the woods. The local police investigate the case - but after a week, they still havent even identified her, let alone got to the bottom of how she died. Frustrated by the lack of progress, Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara, head of Florences elite Squadra Mobile, decides to step in. Because toxins were discovered in the girls body, many assumed that she died of a self-inflicted drugs overdose. But Ferrara quickly realises that the truth is darker than that: he believes that the girl was murdered.

And when he delves deeper, there are many aspects to the case that convince Ferrara that the girls death is part of a sinister conspiracy - a conspiracy that has its roots in the very foundations of Tuscan society

Critic Reviews:

"Neat plotting, distinctively Italian characters and a good pace make A Death in Tuscany an enjoyable read, with the added bonus of its Florentine setting."( Sunday Telegraph)

"A Death in Tuscany is not to be devoured in one sitting. Rather it is one of those books one hates to finish." (Irish Times)

"The plot is intricately woven, with enough gasp-worthy twists to sustain a reader to the end." (Financial Times)

"The plot is clever and fast-moving, the atmosphere, not surprisingly, authentic." (The Times)

Members Reviews:

Disappointing on many levels

I bought this for two reasons: I'm planning a trip to Tuscany and was hoping for the sort of local color other mystery writers provide--Parker for Boston, Connelly for LA, Johnson for Wyoming, Sandford for Minneapolis and environs, for example. There's virtually none of that here and, except for the Mafia connection, it could have been set almost anywhere. Also, I like good mysteries, but this is not one. Finally, the narrator does all the Italian characters with something like either an Oxcam or Cockney accent, depending on their class and background. Cannot recommend.

Great listen

What did you like most about A Death in Tuscany?

I loved this book was totally engaged with the story and liked the way it built up the plot, will definitely look out for future books from this author. A excellent listen in my opinion.

What does Sean Barrett bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you had only read the book?

Sean Barrett as usual supplied an excellent listening experience, his delivery of a story with a great voice to the narration was really good. I have listened to many books that he has narrated and it is one of my criteria of choosing a book to listen too.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No I don't think any book has that appeal unless you have many hours to idle away. My main listening experience is on long drives where I can get totally absorbed in the story, to entertain while on a boring long journey.