audiobook

Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch

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Started: 1/30/23
Finished: 3/31/24

I read the first book in this series in 2021 and liked it okay. I switched to the audiobooks for the rest of the series, and either they got MUCH much better or I just love the narrator THAT much. He really is incredible, and now I do love the series, but I am strictly on audiobook forever for these.

Yay magic, yay police procedurals, yay interesting characters and completely wacky side quests. I’ve read all 14 books and novellas. There’s more coming, and I’m waiting very impatiently.

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

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Started: 10/11/23
Finished: 10/19/23

A professor visits her old boarding school, runs a class about podcasting, and starts a podcast where she accuses just about everyone she knows of murdering her roommate 20 years before. It started out good and then got pretty tiresome.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

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Started: 9/29/23
Finished: 10/10/23

Pretty good story, pretty good narrator (for the audiobook, I mean), and the main character pretty much acted her age, which was a nice change. I mean, she still outsmarted lots of people and saved the day, but in a tolerable way. Magic and dangerous grimoires! And libraries!

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

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Started: 9/15/23
Gave up: 9/16/23

I have heard so much good about this book and this series, so I started the audiobook and quit almost immediately. Main character was TOO young/immature, all of the dialogue was too misogynistic, and maybe it gets better, but I don’t want to get through this to find out. Maybe I could deal with it better if I were reading it at my own pace instead of listening. Maybe someday I’ll try again.

Planetside, Spaceside, and Colonyside by Michael Mammay

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Started: 9/1/23
Finished: 9/15/23

A trilogy of well done space military mysteries, likable main characters, really good narrator for the audiobooks. I flew through these and then emailed the author because I thought he did these so well. Dad would have liked them, I think.

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

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Started: 8/18/23
Finished: 8/31/23

Post-apocalyptic story with Little Red Riding Hood vibes. I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed it. I think the apocalypse was a plague? There were a couple of monsters, but it wasn’t a zombie-type plague. Our Red has to trek across the countryside to Grandma’s house, avoiding the government and bad guys, keeping her companions safe (when she can).

A Twist of Fate by Kelley Armstrong

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Started: 7/14/23
Finished: 7/19/23

You know how romance series pick up the next character in line to fall in love? They’re usually family members or friends of the characters who fell in love in the previous book? This one is no different. A woman who was part of a mystery in the first book gets her own story, but the more interesting part here is that her love interest is already her husband. Way to subvert the tropes!

On the Steel Breeze by Alistair Reynolds

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Started: 6/28/23
Gave up: 6/29/23

I started the sequel to Blue Remembered Earth immediately after it ended, but I gave up on it the next day. The narrator was different (not the one I LOVED from the first one), there was a big time jump, and all of the characters were different. I just couldn’t get into it.

I realized just now, when I looked up the narrator, that it was Adjoa Andoh, who plays Lady Danbury in Bridgerton, and I LOVE her. But apparently not enough to enjoy this audiobook.

Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds

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Started: 6/8/23
Finished: 6/28/23

One of John’s friends recommended this to me, and I enjoyed it, but I don’t think I would have liked as much if I hadn’t listened to the audiobook. The narrator, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, is the same actor who reads the Rivers of London books, and he’s SO GOOD. Just so good.

The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

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Started: 4/8/23
Finished: 4/14/23

I found this book mostly annoying. The conflict was predictable, and the two “main” characters should NOT have ended up together. The guy was truly awful, and sure, he got better, but he was specifically awful to the woman he ended up with, without EVER apologizing to her for being awful TO her! I don’t think it was in character for her to not insist on an apology or an acknowledgement or whatever. No happily ever after for them!

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney

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Started: 1/9/23
Finished: 1/24/23

If I’m going to listen to an audiobook, I prefer a thriller or a mystery, usually. This was a thriller, and every thriller has a twist, and while I didn’t guess this one, I was also underwhelmed by it. Not creepy enough, maybe, and the twist made the whole story stranger.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

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Started: 2/14/20
Gave up: 3/9/20

I really liked that other Holly Black trilogy, so I picked this book up from the library.  I couldn’t find time to start reading the physical copy, so I borrowed the audiobook a few days later and listened to it in the car…for as long as I could.  Teenagers and vampires and the angst that goes with a centuries-old vampire who finds something deep and unique and irresistible and different and blah blah blah about a 17-year-old girl and I cannot count the ways in which I do not care.