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I love reading so much , but, unless I’m on holiday I barely have the time or energy to sit and read an actual book, however hard I try. I often start one, read the first page approximately five hundred times because I’m so distracted, and then give up and put it down again. It’s so frustrating because I absolutely adore getting totally absorbed in a good book but I just can’t seem to switch off from noise around me or the fact I have a million mundane jobs to do.
My daughter, meanwhile, is completely the opposite and can totally switch off from anything going off around her, whether that’s me telling her dinner is ready, or me exploding into a million pieces right next to her – she won’t notice. I love that she loves reading too, but I am extremely jealous of her ability to read wherever she is and how many books she gets through.
So, all that to say, I am still enjoying audiobooks and find it pretty much the only way I get to ‘read’ books unless I’m away. I can multitask whilst listening to an audiobook and so I don’t feel like I should be doing something else, because I already am!
I haven’t listened to quite as many recently – I’ve been enjoying dipping in and out of ‘My Therapist Ghosted Me‘ podcast – which is brilliant – and I’ve been enjoying more casual listening and Joanne and Vogue making me laugh whilst I’m doing my make-up or washing up.
If you don’t already know, if you are a member of your local library you can borrow audiobooks and ebooks on the Borrowbox app for free; you just need to sign up with your library details. They don’t have everything on there or always get new releases straight away, but they do have loads available to reserve and borrow. It’s great. I will often check if a particular audiobook I am after is on there (and how long the wait is for it) before I use a credit on it on Audible.
These reviews are actually from a little while ago now, so I do have some more to write about soon, but for now, here are my thoughts on some audiobooks I have listened to; some great, some not so. Let me know your thoughts if you’ve read or listened to any of these books too.
A few days after I had finished this audiobook I still wasn’t really sure what I thought about it. I enjoyed the overall story but after the first part it did get very slow and I wasn’t sure what could possibly fill the five hours I still had remaining to listen to when I’d already listened for hours.
Having said that, I was interested in the story and the characters and wanted to see where it would go and I thought the narrator was great. I think it would have been hard to read as a book though as I just think it would have been a bit dull and seem even slower.
I liked the ending, although I do feel like some characters’ stories didn’t really go anywhere. Overall a bit underwhelmed, however I have picked up another of her’s from a charity shop since then so it can’t have been that bad!
Get it here: Sun Damage by Sabine Durrant
I don’t think this is the best book ever but I did enjoy it and actually got through it very quickly. I did get very, very frustrated with the main character and how she let her husband treat her so badly all the way through and it’s like she has a third, very petulant, horrible child who does what the hell he wants.
It’s hard accepting her being so deferential; putting up with him constantly and not ever making a stand or telling him what a dick he’s being, even on holiday, so I did get a bit angry quite often listening to this!
The narrator is very good and I liked that it was based in Italy and the lovely Italian characters. It did take a while to get to what felt like the main part of the book in Italy and I feel like the first part could have been quite a lot shorter – I just wanted them to hurry up and get there.
Not the best, but an enjoyable listen overall.
Find it here: The Family Holiday by Shalini Boland
*Contains slight spoilers
I was looking forward to this book as I really like the sound of the premise but my goodness it annoyed me a lot! The idea was good and I didn’t mind that you had to suspend disbelief throughout but it was all just so incredibly frustrating and ridiculous! Why would Amy’s closest friends and her mum continue to believe a stranger over her!? And even if they did why didn’t they get rid of him and protect her until they were sure regardless?! I’m very glad I don’t have friends who would support and care about a charming stranger over their best friend!
And then when something terrible happens neither they nor the main character didn’t make sure they themselves called the police! Too much has to be ignored for this book to make sense.
I wanted to get to the end because I found it so annoying so I was glad when it was over and glad I borrowed the audiobook from BorrowBox instead of paying for it! It also annoyed me that it paved the way for another book in the series! No thank you.
I’ve liked other books by this author but this one is a nope from me. The narrator, Christina Cole, is good though.
Get it here: The Boyfriend by Michelle Frances
I really enjoyed this and the narration was excellent. It’s about a couple who have moved to Italy to start afresh after a hard time and are opening up their new villa to guests.
I loved the setting of Italy and I could really imagine the beautiful Villa Luna Rossa and the landscape around it. I actually got the physical book from the library but then the audiobook was suggested to me and I really liked the narrator so I went for that instead as I figured I was more likely to get through it that way.
Summer Fever goes back in time at points to explain the relationships and events back then – I didn’t actually enjoy these parts quite as much and found myself not listening quite so intently; I just wanted to be back in Italy I think, but they are integral to the story and help you to understand everything.
I found myself getting pretty frustrated with the main character after a while when at first I could kind of understand her behaviour, but that was just part of her story. I really wasn’t sure what was going to happen with this one, although I guessed a couple of things, but it was nice not to have worked out the ending or all of the details of the relationships for once.
I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it quite as much if I hadn’t listened to the audiobook and I was disappointed that Victoria Blunt isn’t the narrator of another of Kate Riordan’s books, but I would still read or listen to another and went to check out her other more recent one as soon as I’d finished Summer Fever.
Get it here: Summer Fever by Kate Riordan
I have just literally finished listening to this audiobook and I both loved it and didn’t love it, if it’s possible for that to make sense.
The narrators are absolutely brilliant. This is so much more than a reading of a book, it is a performance and it is done incredibly well. It has you believing you are listening to a documentary and recordings of a real-life band and I really wanted them to be real! They were just so good at the narration which wasn’t really a narration but acting a role and (with one very slight exception that niggled at me a bit) they were all amazing and perfect for their role.
I loved how different it was from a normal audiobook and I think you would miss a hell of a lot just reading the book.
Having said all that, after being really gripped at the start of the story, I did get a little bored for a while and I felt it lacked what it had started with and what it once again had towards the end. Not a lot actually happened, there were no huge twists but that was alright with me; it was about the relationships and life’s battles and trying to overcome them.
Some spoilers coming up…
I found Billy and Daisy talking about their intense love and feelings for each other hard to take but I wasn’t rooting for them to get together as I thought I might be. I was actually anxious that it was just going to happen between them eventually and I wanted Billy and Camila to keep fighting for each other and I loved that they did.
I loved Camila as a character and I still can’t believe how unbelievably strong she was throughout it all; how honest and capable and how wonderful she was! I couldn’t have done what she was able to do and know that your partner is in love with someone else and even be OK with it and accept it. I loved her. But I hated that she had to be in that situation.
Oof that last paragraph. It sent shivers through me. And now I feel all weirdly nostalgic and emotional and I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe it’s because it feels like these people actually lived and got older and suffered heartbreak; I don’t know. I feel like I like it more now, having finished it, than I did whilst I was listening to it. I don’t know. I feel a bit confused by it all.
I want to watch the newish series that they have made but I’m not sure – I don’t know that I could take seeing the emotions and the hurt in the book played out on screen, or if it could even match up to those intense parts of the book. Although I’ve just looked and the actors seem brilliant so I think I will watch it at some point.
Sidenote: Later the same evening I was looking for something new to watch and I ended up starting Daisy Jones & the Six after all and I got into it really quickly and stayed up far too late watching it! I really like it so far.
Where to buy: Amazon or Audible (choose the audiobook if you can! I got it from Borrowbox).
If you would like a free trial of Audible then you can get a 30-day free trial which gives you one Audiobook of your choice: Audible Free Trial. You will need to unsubscribe from Audible afterwards if you want to, otherwise, you’ll pay £7.99 a month after the month is up, but it’s really easy to unsubscribe or pause your subscription and you still keep any books you’ve downloaded.
Let me know what you download if you join and what is on your wishlist if you already subscribe!
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Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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