Audio Review: Cloaked

Title: Cloaked
Author: Alex Flinn
Listening Time: 6 hrs and 45 mins
Rating: 4/5

I'm not your average hero. I actually wasn't your average anything. Just a poor guy working an after-school job at a South Beach shoe repair shop to help his mom make ends meet. But a little magic changed it all. It all started with a curse. And a frognapping. And one hot-looking princess, who asked me to lead a rescue mission.

There wasn't a fairy godmother or any of that. And even though I fell in love along the way, what happened to me is unlike any fairy tale I've ever heard. Before I knew it, I was spying with a flock of enchanted swans, talking (yes, talking!) to a fox named Todd, and nearly trampled by giants in the Everglades.

Don't believe me? I didn't believe it either. But you'll see. Because I knew it all was true, the second I got cloaked (harpercollins.com).

I've been listening to my MP3 player again at work, so I find myself again turning to audio books to keep me company during a long day.  This week I listened to Cloak by Alex Flinn.  Last year, I read Beastly by the same author and absolutely adored it.  I enjoyed Cloak just as much.

To me the best thing about Cloak was the male protagonist.  I don't read a lot of books featuring a male narrator, and I don't know why because I really like them.  Johnny was an easy to like character, and I found myself rooting for him throughout all of his struggles and challenges.  I really wanted to see him prevail.  I think I always have a thing for the underdog.

The other thing that I really loved about Cloak was the use of fairy tales that weren't nearly as common as the fairy tales used in Beastly.  I absolutely had that story figured out before I even started it.  Cloaked on the other hand, while still predictable, held a bit more mystery. 

Flinn is a very strong writer, and I find myself being sucked into her stories.  They make we want to find a comfy chair, a warm blanket, and an amazing cup of coffee and settle in for a long and enjoyable ride.

As far as the audio itself, the reader was phenomenal.  I absolutely loved him!!  He truly made the story come alive.  This is probably one of the best audios that I have ever listened to, and it is all because of the reader!

Audio Review: Arcadia Falls

Title: Arcadia Falls
Author: Carol Goodman
Listening Time: 12 hrs and 37 mins
Rating: 4/5

In debt after her husband's unexpected death, Meg Rosenthal secures a job as a teacher at an upstate New York boarding school. Leaving suburban Long Island, Meg and her teenage daughter, Sally, embark on a new life in Arcadia Falls, a beautiful but isolated small town and the inspiration for a number of magically eerie fairy tales. With a hurtful rift growing between her and her daughter, Meg is hopeful that the change of scene will provide them with a fresh start. But it soon becomes clear to Meg that this isolated community hides deeply rooted and deadly secrets. And after a mysterious death, Arcadia Falls begins to reveal a disturbing dark side (Cover Blurb).

I borrowed this audio strictly for the cover.  I thought it was beautiful and gothic and really grabbed my attention.  I'm glad I went with the impulse, and thought this book was really spectacular. 

Arcadia is a small private art school that was started in the early 1900s by two women, Vera Beecher and Lily Eberhardt.  The two women were deeply devoted to each other, but each of their lives were shrouded and secrets and betrayal, especially Lilly Eberhardt.  In the present day, Meg Rosenthal comes to Arcadia after the death of her husband, which left her penniless and desperate.  After being offered a job to teach English, especially the history of fairy tales, Meg moves with her daughter Sally into the cottage of Vera Beecher and Lily Eberhardt and it is here where the mystery begins.

Soon after Meg's arrival, one of the students at Arcadia is found dead in the ravine, eerily mirroring the death of Lily Eberhardt so many years ago.  Troubled by the death, Meg begins to delve into the lives of Lily and Vera, finally finding the journal of Lily Eberhardt which has remained hidden for many years.  It is at this point that the novel begins to twist and turn, releasing secret after secret, keeping the reader on their toes.

Intertwined throughout the story, is the fairy tale of The Changling Girl originally written by Lily.  The story mirrors Lily's own journey and it's interesting to see how it fits in with her life.  One of my favorite aspects of this story was the mix between the past and present day.  Along with the changling story, we also were able to experience Lily's journal and travel with her through her struggles.  I loved the descriptions of her life and how everything happened.  There were a few times where my mouth just fell open as I pieced everything together.

I'm looking forward to reading more of Carol Goodman and hope that ther other books are half as good as Arcadia Falls!

Audio Review: The Girl Who Chased the Moon

Title: The Girl Who Chased the Moon
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Listening Time: 7 hrs and 1 min
Rating: 4.5/5

Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew, she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor, Julia Winterson, bakes hope in the form of cakes, offering them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth—but also in the hope of rekindling a love she fears might be lost forever. Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in (sarahaddisonallen.com).

I was really excited when I saw this one available on the library's website and instantly added it to my cart.  I've been interest in reading something by Allen for a while, but always seem to be distracted by something else.  Audio books have allowed me to finally get to all the books I've been meaning to read!  I can't wait to go back and read Allen's backlist of Garden Spells and The Sugar Queen and she's definitely on my must by list now!

Allen's books fall under the genre of magical realism.  Set in the South, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, is a fast paced, moving story filled with lovable characters and bits of mysticism.  The Girl Who Chased the Moon focuses on two main characters - Emily and Julia.  Emily is a seventeen year old girl who has recently lost her mother.  She comes to Mulberry to live with the grandfather she never knew existed.  Julia fled Mulberry eighteen years ago, only to return after the death of her father.  Julia is running from her own secrets while Emily is just discovering those of her mother.

Intertwined throughout the story is a bevy of secondary characters all with their  own quirks.  These secondary characters where so well developed, that I wished there were more of them throughout the novel.  They helped bring a deep richness to the story that would have been lacking otherwise.  Along with great secondary characters, Allen intertwines descriptions of food that will make your mouth water (especially if you are six and a half months pregnant and always hungry)!  Julia's baked good sounded scrumptious and now I am craving BBQ.

I highly recommend this audio and can't wait to dive into the pages of more books by Sarah Addison Allen!

Audio Review: Viola in Reel Life

Title: Viola in Reel Life
Author: Adriana Trigiani
Listening Time: 6 hrs and 17 mins
Rating: 4.5/5

I'm marooned.

Abandoned.

Left to rot in boarding school . . .

Viola doesn't want to go to boarding school, but somehow she ends up at an all-girls school in South Bend, Indiana, far, far away from her home in Brooklyn, New York. Now Viola is stuck for a whole year in the sherbet-colored sweater capital of the world.

Ick.

There's no way Viola's going to survive the year—especially since she has to replace her best friend Andrew with three new roommates who, disturbingly, actually seem to like it there. She resorts to viewing the world (and hiding) behind the lens of her video camera.

Boarding school, though, and her roommates and even the Midwest are nothing like she thought they would be, and soon Viola realizes she may be in for the most incredible year of her life.

But first she has to put the camera down and let the world in (harpercollins.com).

Viola in Reel Life is Trigiani's first novel written for the young adult audience, and I thought she did a wonderful job!  I was immediately captivated with Viola and I thought the premise of the novel was extremely fun.  Also, Trigiani's voice as a writer is amazing.  I could kick myself for waiting so long to read something by her.

My favorite character is Viola, our main character.  She's snarky and fun and her sarcastic manner is light hearted and helps keep the story moving at an even pace.  Viola is an only child whose parents are documentary film makers.  Because of a project they are working on, they send Viola to the Prefect Academy, a boarding school in South Bend, IN.  Viola is housed in a quad with three other girls.  Things are a bit rough in the beginning, but once everything works out, the girls find themselves as close as sisters.

One of the complaints that others have had about Viola in Reel Life was the language of the novel.  They found the dialogue to be too "young" for high school freshman.  I, on the other hand, found it to be refreshing (I must be getting old!).  I thought the dialogue fit the age group and flowed smoothly. 

This has been my favorite audio so far that I have listened to.  I adored the narrator, and felt she brought a real uniqueness to the story.

This is the first in a new series by Adriana Trigiani.  The next book, Viola in the Spotlight, comes out in April of 2011 and I'll definitely be grabbing it.  The cover is equally cute :)

Audio Review: Fever 1793

Title: Fever 1793
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Listening Time: 5 hrs and 46 min
Rating: 3/5


August 1793. Fourteen-year-old Mattie Cook is ambitious, adventurous, and sick to death of listening to her mother. Mattie has plans of her own. She wants to turn the Cook Coffeehouse into the finest business in Philadelphia, the capital of the new United States.
But the waterfront is abuzz with reports of disease. “Fever” spreads from the docks and creeps toward Mattie’s home, threatening everything she holds dear.

As the cemeteries fill with fever victims, fear turns to panic, and thousands flee the city. Then tragedy strikes the coffeehouse, and Mattie is trapped in a living nightmare. Suddenly, her struggle to build a better life must give way to something even more important – the fight to stay alive (madwomenintheforest.com).

This is the third book I've read or listened to by Laurie Halse Anderson and so far my least favorite.  Unlike the other two books, I found Fever 1793 to be very slow moving and extremely hard to get into.

Fever 1793 is told through the voice of Matilda, a young girl living in Philadelphia during the yellow fever outbreak of 1793.  Halse Anderson chose to tell this story in first person using the voice of young Mattie.  Because of this, I found it hard to connect with the story because I couldn't connect with Mattie.  Also, I often felt the book shifted from modern to historical voice, most likely not on purpose, but the shift was there.

One thing I will give Fever 1793 was that it was extremely historically accurate.  One can definitely tell that Laurie Halse Anderson thoroughly researched the epidemic and she was able to truly capture the feel of fear experienced during that time of crisis.

Another issue I had with this audio was the narrator.  I just didn't like her voice.  I felt as though it made the story drag.  It was a tough subject and I think a different voice would have made the story less of a downer.

Even thought I didn't like my first take of Laurie's historical fiction writing, I'm still going to give Chains (which I requested at the library) a try.

Audio Review: Something Like Fate

Title: Something Like Fate
Author: Susane Colasanti
Listening Time: 5 hrs and 31 mins
Rating: 4/5

Lani and Erin are bonded for life. One thing that connects them is their fascination of fate. Lani wonders how much of our lives has already been decided and how much we can actually influence. Since the Unknown can unexpectedly change our lives forever, how much can we really control?
 
From the minute Lani meets Jason, she can't deny the intense connection they share. It feels like she's known him forever. She's not sure if he feels it, too. But it doesn't matter. Because Jason is Erin's boyfriend. Lani is determined to ignore her feelings for Jason, no matter how powerful they are, rather than risk hurting her best friend.
 
What if the boy who is your destiny is the one person you can't have (susanecolasanti.com)?

I've heard great things about Susane Colasanti all over the blogosphere, but had yet to take the time to read anything by her.  When I saw the library had Something Like Fate available for download I jumped at the chance.  I am extremely happy that I did.

Something Like Fate told the story of Lani, who somehow manages to fall in love with her best friend's boyfriend.  The story is a bit cliched, but Colasanti's use of fate made it more original.  I loved the different references to horoscopes, palm reading and the like.  I also liked how Colasanti created such a strong emotional bond between Lani and Erin, making the events that happen later in the novel that much worse.

One of my favorite things about Colasanti is her character development.  Each character in Something Like Fate was distinct with a strong personality.  My only complaint was that at times, I found Lani to be a bit whiny and at one point I did want to hit her over the head with a saucepan for being so dumb.  However, that may just be me and my hormones :)

I have a few more Susane Colasanti books hanging out on my TBR pile, and I'm hoping the library has a few more on audio that I can borrow. 

Are there any other young adult authors out there with similar writing styles to Colasanti's?  I'm definitely open to suggestions :)

Audio Review: Love You Hate You Miss You

Title: Love You Hate You Miss You
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Listening Time: 5 hrs and 8 mins
Rating: 4/5

It's been seventy five days. Amy's sick of her parents suddenly taking an interest in her, and she's really sick of people asking her about Julia. Julia's gone, and Amy doesn't want to talk about it. No one knew Julia like she did. No one gets what life is without her.

No one understands what it's like to know that it's all your fault.

Amy's shrink thinks she should keep a journal but instead, Amy starts writing letters to Julia. As she writes letter after letter, she begins to realize that the past holds its own secrets--and that the present deserves a chance (goodreads.com).

This is the second Elizabeth Scott novel that I've either read or listened to and I was blown away by this story.  Scott is an extremely talented young adult author, and I was again drawn into the story that she weaves.

Amy is a young, troubled teen dealing with the loss of her best friend Julia.  To help deal with her problems, Amy begins writing Julia long letters telling her about how she feels, her frustrations with school, how alone she seems.  These letters truly allow the reader to feel the pain that Amy is struggling with, and my heart truly broke for her.  Listening to this novel on audio seemed to make it all the more painful, because I could hear Amy's heart breaking with every word the narrator read.  By using Amy's letters to Julia, we are truly let into the mind of a teenager that struggles with decisions she made in the past.  We ride along on her road to discovery, traveling every twist, turn and bump.  It's an emotional rollercoaster but one I very much enjoyed taking.

Audio wise, I thought the narrator of this book was great.  It took me a few minutes to get used to her reading style, but once I did it was almost like watching a movie.  I almost felt like was eavesdropping, that how powerfully she read this novel, and how much she made it seem as though she truly was our main character Amy.  The power in an audio book is awesome, and I'm really enjoying them.  Plus they have completely doubled the amount of reading I can do in a week. 

If you are looking for a smart, entertaining, and sharp read Love You Hate You Miss You is definitely the book for you.  I'll be looking for more from author Elizabeth Scott in the coming weeks.

Audio Review: The Replacement

Title: The Replacement
Author: Brenna Yovanoff
Listening Time: 10 hrs 34 mins
Rating: 2.5/5


Mackie is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess.
He is a Replacement - left in the crib of a human baby 16 years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is slowly dying in the human world.
Mackie would give anything to live among us. He just wants to play bass guitar and find out more about an oddly intriguing girl named Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the slag heaps and find his rightful place - in our world, or theirs (theaudiobookstore.com).

In one word, this book was just - WEIRD.  I had high hopes for this one.  The cover was creepy as could be and the description sounded amazing.  I haven't read any books on changelings and the idea was quite new to me.  I figured with Halloween right around the corner, this would be a great read for the week.  I was wrong.

The audio for this book was good - having it read to you with different voices made it all the more creepier.  However, despite all this, I thought the book was boring and much too long.  I just felt like it took forever in between things happening and then the ending was extremely drawn out.  A few times, I almost felt like stopping the audio and moving on to something else, but the reader in me just wouldn't let it go.  I guess I kept hoping it would get better.

One of my main issues with the story was the language.  While I'm not a prude, I just felt like The Replacement had an overwhelming amount of the F word mingled among its many "pages."  I think if I hadn't been listening to this on audio, I probably wouldn't have noticed it as much, but I found it to be distracting and out of place on the audio.  I also found the few sexual situations to be a bit disconcerting.  Again I just found them to be a bit awkward and unjustified.  They almost seemed to be used as a bit of a filler.  It bothered me how front and center they seemed to be in a book aimed at young adults.

I do feel that what the book lacked in action, it definitely made up for in creepiness.  That's why I did rate it at least 2.5 stars.  I definitely didn't want to listen to this one after dark.  The narration helped emphasize this fact, and I found it to be very chilling.

All in all, this book as gotten pretty good reviews around the blog world.  It may have just been the wrong type of book for me, I'm not sure.  Has anyone else read this, and if so what are your thoughts?

Audio Review: Twisted

Title: Twisted
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Listening Time: 6 hrs 25 mins
Rating: 4/5

High school senior Tyler Miller used to be the kind of guy who faded into the background—average student, average looks, average dysfunctional family. But since he got busted for doing graffiti on the school, and spent the summer doing outdoor work to pay for it, he stands out like you wouldn't believe. His new physique attracts the attention of queen bee Bethany Milbury, who just so happens to be his father's boss's daughter, the sister of his biggest enemy—and Tyler's secret crush. And that sets off a string of events and changes that have Tyler questioning his place in the school, in his family, and in the world. In Twisted, the acclaimed Laurie Halse Anderson tackles a very controversial subject: what it means to be a man today. Fans and new readers alike will be captured by Tyler's pitchperfect, funny voice, the surprising narrative arc, and the thoughtful moral dilemmas that are at the heart of all of the author's award-winning, widely read work (penguingroup.com).


This was my first experience with audio books and I have to say I'm extremely pleased.  I was able to listen to this all day at work, and managed to finish a book in one day, and still got all my work done! 

Laurie Halse Anderson is quickly becoming one of my favorite young adult authors.  I finished Speak last week, and was completely blown away.  Twisted was almost as powerful.  The only reason why I didn't rate it quite as high as Speak was because I didn't connect with the main character as much as I did Melinda.  This was probably due to the fact that in Twisted, the main character was male, and being female some of the things didn't connect as well with me as they would a teenage boy.

Again, Anderson tackles some tough topics in Twisted including emotional abuse, bullying, and suicide.  One difference though, I feel, is that the issues where handled a bit more roughly in Twisted than they were in Speak.  This again, is mostly due to the difference in characters.  Also, the language and situations in Twisted are a bit more "vulgar," or rough around the edges.

My favorite character in the novel was Yoda, who is Tyler's best friend.  He's super obsessed with Star Wars, and has a habit of quoting Yoda and talking like a true Jedi Warrior.  I just thought he was cute...and a little dorky.  I've always had a bit of soft spot for guys like that :).

Audio book wise, I thought the narrator of this was amazing.  He was one of the reasons why I continued to listen to the book all day, rather than shutting it off here and there to listen to something else.  I felt he truly brought the characters and the situations to life.  I'm extremely glad I started with this particular novel as my first audio.    I look forward to see if I can find more audio books read by this same narrator.  I can see now why narrators can make all the difference in an audio book!

Next up for me is The Replacement.  I've heard great things about this particular book and I'm excited to see how it is for me :)