6 Audiobooks for Your Summer Listening Enjoyment

by Donna Huber

My to-do list doesn't seem to be shrinking. Thankfully, I've had a number of audiobooks to listen to while cooking, cleaning, and doing yard work. These books would also be awesome for road trips or for walks on the beach. While I received early print or digital copies of many of these books, I was able to get the audiobooks from the library. For the last two books reviewed, I received advance copies of the audiobooks from the publishers via Netgalley.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. Free books were provided for an honest review.

Two Fantastic Books to Read in July

by Susan Roberts

July is filled with blockbusters, don't miss these two fantastic books!

Amazon affiliate links are used in this post. Free advance reader copies were provided for an honest review.

Everything We Left Behind by Kerry Lonsdale

July 2017; Lake Union Publishing;
978-1477823972; ebook, audio, print (318 pages)
women's fiction

I have been anxious to read this book since I finished the last page of Everything We Keep last summer.

Everything We Left Behind was all I hoped for and more. Once I started it, and I was back in the lives of these characters, I didn't want to put it down until the end.

Warning: you really need to read Everything We Keep (buy at Amazon) BEFORE you read Everything We Left Behind.

This book was mainly about James/Carlos life and how he coped after waking up from a fugue state and found out that he had basically lost over 6 years of his life. After 6 years living in Mexico as Carlos, an artist with 2 young sons, he had no idea that he was really James a rich young American who had been engaged to be married. When he woke up from his fugue state, he had no memory of his life as Carlos and didn't even remember his sons. As he struggles to connect his lives, James has to learn who he can trust and who it is safe to love.

This novel is told in alternating chapters with one chapter being present day James and the next chapter being 6 years earlier with him as Carlos. The author handles this very well and it fills in all of the information in the story line.

I definitely enjoyed this book and will read anything that Kerry Lonsdale writes in the future.

You can read my review of Everything We Keep which is included in 10 Books for Fans of Chick-Lit, Women's Fiction, and Family Sagas.

Buy Everything we Left Behind at Amazon

The Breakdown by B.A. Paris

July 2017; St. Martin's Press; 978-1250122469
ebook, audio, print (336 pages); suspense  

Before you start reading this book I advise you to clear your calendar and find a comfortable place to read because you aren't going to stop reading until you get to the end. This book literally had me so interested that I couldn't do anything at all until the last page because I was so absorbed by the story and anxious about the outcome.

Cass is a high school teacher with a loving and devoted husband, Matthew. One night returning from a school get together, she takes a short cut through the woods during a blinding thunderstorm. When she sees a car stopped along the road, she decides to stop but she is reluctant to go to the car in case it might someone who wanted to harm her. She decides to go home and is shocked the next morning to find out that the woman in the car had been brutally murdered. She is consumed with guilt and remorse once she realizes that she knew the woman who has murdered and starts struggling to remember things. Knowing that her mother had been diagnosed with early onset dementia made all of her forgetfulness convince her that she too had the disease. As her life spirals further out of control, the tension in the book continues to build as no one has been charged with the murder in the woods.

I am reluctant to tell you any more about the plot because I don't want to give anything away. What I will tell you is that I had the culprit figured out by the middle of the book and then changed my mind another fifty pages later only to be totally surprised for the last 40 pages of the book.

This is the second book by B.A. Paris and even though I loved her first book (read my review), I thought that this one was even better. Can't wait for her next book!

Buy The Breakdown at Amazon  

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling. She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with her on Facebook.

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4 Different Suspense Novels, All Great Reads

by Susan Roberts

A good suspense or thriller novel has the reader rapidly turning pages to get to the outcome and trying hard not to read the last page to find out what happens.  I enjoy the thrillers that I think I have figured out before the end, only to find out that I was totally wrong.

Clean Break by Abby Vegas

"I was normal once or close enough to pass for it. then I was not normal and then I sort of vanished.  For several years I was putting one foot in front of the other - existing, basically.  But I was doing it in grand style." (Lane on page 1)

Clean Break is great -- it kept me up way past my normal bedtime last night because I was so involved in the main character, I wanted to keep reading to see if there was a happy ending for her. (If you want to know the answer to that question, you need to read this book!).

At the beginning of the book, Lane comes across as a spoiled young person who doesn't know how to live life and stay out of debt. She's hit rock bottom - no money for an apartment and only a part time job. However, as we learn more about her background and see her rise above the bad things that have happened in her life, she became a very likable character. She goes to work as a personal assistant for a totally disorganized rich person and her family. I thought that some of her interactions with them were hilarious. And of course, there is a man - the Russian maintenance man at her basement apartment who is also an enforcer for the Russian mob. That sums up all of the main characters but the plot that the author has written is not what you'd expect - it's much much better!

Clean Break is a debut novel for Abby Vegas - can't wait to see what she writes next.

Buy Clean Break at Amazon

(a free book was provided by the author for this review)

Guiding Fate by Tamra Lassiter

Guiding Fate is book 4 in romantic suspense series Role of Fate. I wasn't aware that it was part of a series and it can be read as a stand alone with no problems. I want to go back and read the rest of the series now that I have read this book.

Melanie is an ER nurse and single mother in a small town where everyone is aware of what's going on in the each other's lives. Her husband left her when she got pregnant but now he's back in town and wants to reconcile. She doesn't trust him or his motives. At the same time he comes back to town, she meets a new neighbor who is staying at his aunt's house next door while she is in a nursing home. Will is a Marine with PTSD who is very attracted to Melanie but knows that he is not mentally in a good place to start a relationship. The novel revolves around the two main wounded characters - Melanie who has been wounded in love and Will who has been wounded in war. Can they find love and heal their wounds? It's a fun read to find out the answer to this question

Buy Guiding Fate at Amazon

Behind Closed Doors by BA Paris

"The perfect marriage or the perfect lie?"

Jack and Grace appear to be the perfect couple. They live in a beautiful home, they travel often and they have a room in their house for Grace's sister Millie to move into as soon as she turns 18. Millie has Down's syndrome and she and Grace are very close. Jack is a successful lawyer who defends women who have been abused by their husbands and he has never lost a case. Their friends are envious of their life together and the love they have for each other. It all sounds wonderful but behind the closed doors of their home is a totally different life than what the world sees.

Behind Closed Doors is a stunning psychological novel that is told from Grace's POV and alternates between the past and the present. The plot is full of tension and plenty of twists and turns. My advice - set aside a lot of time before you start this book because you won't want to put it down until the end.

Buy Behind Closed Doors at Amazon

(a free galley was provided by NetGalley for this review)

Burying the Honeysuckle Girls by Emily Carpenter

Althea is about to turn 30 and according to her father, all of the women in her family history have a mental breakdown and die when they turn 30. Even though she has just returned home from a year in rehab and a halfway house to deal with her pill addiction, she knows that she needs to solve the mystery before her 30th birthday in less than a month. Her family is no help and her decision-making skills are poor due to her addiction but she jumps right into trying to find answers.

Burying the Honeysuckle Girls is told in several time periods by two main characters - Althea and her great grandmother Jinn. Althea was a difficult character to like at the beginning of the novel but the more I read and the better I understood her internal battles, the more likable she became. My only complaint about this novel is the number of characters that needed to be kept up with. After I made a list of characters and their relationships it was much easier to read.

I definitely enjoyed the mystery and the pace of the novel. It's a great debut by an author that I look forward to reading in the future.

Buy Burying the Honeysuckle Girls at Amazon

(a free galley was provided by NetGalley for this review)

Susan Roberts, reviewer. Susan grew up in the Detroit area but after deciding that city life wasn't for her she moved to North Carolina after college. She and her husband have several acres of land and they enjoy gardening and canning vegetables in the summer. They travel extensively. Susan reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook or Twitter.

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