⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Southern Stars

What a beautiful story

I have to say that I tried to listen to this one...twice and struggled, I'm not sure what it was but it just didn't grab me straight away.

This time I forced myself to carry on and listen, and I'm so glad I did because this book was just GORGEOUS!

The descriptions that the author uses are just stunning, I want to hug them all

“The morning burned so August-hot, the marsh’s moist breath hung the oaks and pines with fog.”

Kya is a happy child mostly, she lives in the Marsh area and is 'at one' with nature, she lives in her shack with her parents and siblings and doesn't really see the bad in anything...until her family starts getting smaller.

One by one her siblings leave, and then it is her Mothers turn, she just leaves one day without looking back.

After a while she realises that it is because of her fathers alcoholic and abusive ways, and she is left to look after him.

She learns to live with her father, and they even become 'friends' for a while, but most of the time she is left for days at a time to fend for herself, while he goes out spending money they don't have, and drinking to excess.

She learns that you don't get 'nothing for free', so starts to sell what she can to the storekeeper in town, and soon makes a firm friend in him and his wife.

Kya is an incredibly knowledgeable girl, she could tell you what the weather was going to be like, just by the sound of the birds, but the one thing she cannot do is read, or write, until she meets Tate.

Gahhh, the friendship between Tate and Kya was just lovely, he really took the time to know her and help her, and I was really disappointed in him at certain points in the book!
Friends are something that Kya holds very dear, because she doesn't have any, most of the townspeople are snobby toward her and look down their noses at her.

In 1969 Chase Andrews a local football legend is found dead in the marsh area, the rumours start to fly, and The Marsh Girl's name keeps being linked to his, but why?

This was an absolute joy to listen to, and the author Delia Owens certainly knows her stuff, she is a wildlife scientist, and this shows in her beautiful poetic writing.
I'm not at all surprised that Reece Witherspoon has chosen it to be in her Sunshine reads club, or that it will be coming to a movie theatre soon, I can't wait to see it!!

🎧🎧 - Totally AMAZING narration by Cassandra Campbell, she made this listening experience even better.

Save a credit for this one it is a cracker

Follow my reviews at www.audiokilledthebookmark.com

4 Dystopian Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I do love myself a Dystopian story, most of mine that I have read have been Young Adult, and I haven't really thought about reading any others.

Nora Roberts isn't really an author that i have picked up, which is strange because her other book The Witness is one of my favourite books (Which i still need to review) It isn't a secret that Nora's pseudonym is J.D. Robb and her hugely successful 'In Death' series is something that keeps getting recommended time and time again, but quite frankly the size intimidates me (insert joke here)

Anyhoo, Audible UK had a Boxing Day sale, and I may (or may not) have seen all of the books for £2.99 and went a bit crazy...12 books crazy! This was one of my bargain buys, so I thought let's try it.

Looking at the cover picture, I honestly thought that this was going to be a fantasy book...and it is, but it also isn't, clear as mud right?

I was crossing my fingers that this wasn't going to be a high fantasy book, I've tried so many times to read them, and each time I've failed...HUZZAH...It isn't!

The story starts on New Years Eve, and starts toward the end!

After the Doom Virus is contracted, it soon starts to spread, first through the hospital, then to the streets, then to the rest of the world, wiping out EVERYONE!

Well, almost everyone, you see some people seem to be immune to the virus, a good thing right? But some of these people also seem to have developed a side effect of the virus, giving different magical powers to those left alive that varies from person to person.

Some have developed wings (Fairies) some have 'The sight' some can also Shape-Shift, these people are now known as Uncannies, and are very unwelcome.

We watch three separate groups, coming to realise that they are probably the only people left, until they are not. We see how people help each other out, and how power hungry others can get when faced with certain decisions.

🎧🎧 - Narrated by Julia Whelan

You won't be surprised to hear that Julia Whelan is one of my favourite narrators, in fact, if I hadn't seen that she was narrating this book, then I probably wouldn't have picked it up, because as I mentioned earlier, I though this was going to be a High Fantasy book.

As usual, Julia gives a fantastic performance, her narration always makes me feel comfortable, and wraps me up in her gorgeous warm blanket voice.

If you are thinking about trying a new genre and are a little worried about it, then give this one a shot, I'm so glad I did, and will be adding book 2 to my Audible wishlist

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 Naughty John Stars

Well colour me surprised!

I have seen a few people recently mention this audiobook, and saying that the narration is great. I had a spare credit, so I thought 'what the hell' and clicked the purchase button, hoping that I wasn't going to be disappointed.

Judging by my 5 ⭐ rating, you can see that it was a credit well spent!

"Naughty John, Naughty John, does his work with his apron on. Cuts your throat and takes your bones, sells 'em off for a coupla stones.”

Set in the 1920's, New York City the time of Flapper girls and prohibition, Evie O'Neill is desperate to visit there.
She is a bit of a misfit, and manages to get herself into trouble wherever she goes.

After a drunken mistake at a party one evening, she manages to rat out the local Lothario by showing everyone her 'party trick'
Unfortunately this doesn't go down too well with her father, who is sick and tired of her antics, so his punishment is to send her to New York to stay with her weird Uncle Will.

Pretending to be oh so sorry, Evie can't wait to get to NYC, in fact she thinks it is Pos-i-tute-ly the Cat's Pajamas!

After arriving in New York, she is promptly pick-pocketed, and arrives at her Uncles house, which also doubles up as The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, or as the locals call it, 'The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies'.

Then the murders start happening, horrible, gruesome murders! But who is doing it?

Memphis is a 'runner', he gets everyone's numbers to put on the draw (like a lottery)
He also looks out for his little brother Isaiah, who seems to have a strange 'gift' that he doesn't want anyone else knowing about.

“The time is now. They are coming... Diviners

You see, there are rumours around that there are people with 'powers' they call them Diviners, and they are not wanted around there.

This book was so character driven, there are so many brilliant characters that I fell in love with, from Evie's good friend Mabel, to Theta Knight, a glamorous Ziegfeld girl, to the the smooth talking Sam.

If you are thinking about reading this book, I would highly recommend the Audio Version, if you've never listened to one before, this one would be a great starter, simply because of the fantastic narration.

🎧🎧 - Narrated by January LaVoy, a new narrator for me, but certainly is going to be added to my favourites.

Her narration was Pos-i-tute-ly AMAZING! All of the characters has their own voices, I was not confused at any point, we also had a little bit of singing, and her Naughty John voice was just downright terrifying!

This was not a scary book, it is Young Adult after all, but it was I suppose a little creepy, but all in all it was a fantastic read, and I have book 2 lined up when my next credit drops in!

Grab your copy here:

Audible US - https://amzn.to/2RsJlIi

Audible UK - https://amzn.to/2BQN3BD

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Young Love Stars

So this never would have come up on my radar if I hadn't seen a trailer for the new movie coming out.

This could have been the new TFIOS (The Fault in Our Stars) but it just fell short of that, not to say that it wasn't a fab read, but it didn't hit me as hard.

This is the story of Stella Grant, she has Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and has been struggling with the illness since she was born, she is currently in hospital, where all of the staff know her, considering she is in there so often.

Everything is sterile, and also in the right place, Stella is a little OCD with things, probably because that is the only thing that she can control.

Will however is not so OCD, he arrives on the CF ward and is not in control, he doesn't take his meds when he is supposed to and doesn't really take into consideration how ill he really is, especially as he has B. cepacia along with his CF (This rare disease could be fatal to someone with CF, just a simple touch can infect them)

Therefore the rules are, no touching, and you must be AT LEAST 6 feet apart!

So why does the book have the title of 5 feet you ask?

Well, this is a YA book after all, these guys take risks for love!

A few things did nag at me, I won't spoil them here but if you read the book you will probably see them too, however it didn't sway me from reading the book, and i will certainly be looking out for the movie and see what they do with it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 Deputy Barney Stars


After listening to one of Nora Roberts books the other week, a few more came up in the U.S Audible sale, so I may....or may not have bought a few more to listen to ...ummm 4 more!!

I've decided that I really like her writing style, and the fact that January LaVoy was narrating it made it even more of a one click for me, Ms LaVoy has been bumped up to my on-click narrator list!

On a normal evening in Portland Maine, Simone is waiting with her two friends to watch a movie in the Down-East Mall, while her mother and her sister do a little bit of retail therapy while waiting for the movie to finish.

That evening will be one that they will ALL never forget.

While waiting for the movie to start Simone decides to visit the bathroom.

Thinking that the movie is really loud as she already hear the gunshots, the moment she opens the bathroom door, she realises that this is not a movie!

For 8 minutes the lives of the people in that Mall was pure terror, the death toll that day was pure heartbreak.

The story then jumps forward 20 years or so and we find out what happened to a select few of the people who were there that fateful day.

I absolutely loved this story, Roberts captured the characters so well, Simone and her grandmother CiCi were just fab (I wish that I had a grandmother like that)

I love Reed and the way that he took such a sad tragedy and made a future for himself as a cop, and I love the fact that the person that helped him do that was Essie.

And then we get to the meat of the story, someone isn't happy about the way that the shooting went down, there were survivors after all, and that should have never happened, perhaps they should finish the job!

An absolute page turned (even though i listened to it) that i couldn't put down, and I'm going to slowly make my way through Ms Roberts back catalogue!

🎧🎧 - narrated by January LaVoy, who I mentioned before is firm becoming a favourite narrator of mine, I picked this up because of her, and I wasn't disappointed at all. Fantastic narration, and a great story.

Grab this little page turner and strap yourself in!

Vicci

If you know me at all, then you will know that Historical books are not my usual go-to reads, but it seems that i have missed out on a lot of fantastic reads, so I am aiming to rectify that and change my reading habits.

The reason for me picking this one up? 1. it was the Audible Daily Deal, I couldn't say no to it. 2. Bahni Turpin, I will literally listen to anything she narrates!

This is a story set in the 19th century, an enslaved girl called Mattie is taken away from her 3 month old baby son, and moved to the "big house" to become a wet nurse for the newly born Lisbeth (Elizabeth)

(A wet nurse is a woman who breast feeds and cares for another's child. Wet nurses are employed if the mother dies, or if she is unable or elects not to nurse the child herself.)

Mattie takes to the job, and the baby, and they both learn to love each other very much. Mattie gets to see her son and her family occasionally, even though they all live on the same plantation.

Lisbeth is brought up by Maddie to question things, even though she doesn't say them out loud, she gets taught to not really see all of the problems that can arise when a white girl is friendly with a black family, but her Mother and Father, and the rest of the family certainly make their thoughts known!

Some of the things in this book just made me shake my head and think how shocking it was that people got treated this way, how "slaves are only three-fifths of a man. They are not entitled to the same rights" and they honestly believed this!

Lisbeth is very naive, she doesn't see the anger and the cruelty that the slaves have to endure, she believes as her family has always told her, that they are lucky, and that they are doing a kindness by owning them.

Until one day she sees something that isn't kind at all, and she questions everything.

All Maddie wants is to be free, she wants to be with her family, she wants to be with her son who doesn't even recognise her really anymore, what can she do, the only thing she knows, Run............

🎧🎧 - Narrated by the AMAZING Bahni Turpin, this one will have you shaking your head, and on the edge of your set, a fantastic listen

Another Historical read for me that I never would have even looked at if it hadn't been recommended in a Facebook group I am in (Thanks Cyndi)

This story was one that made me absolutely stunned, I had no idea that this was something that was practised, and also that it was STILL being practised up to the 1980's!!

I was crazy mad listening to this book, how people can have been given this much authority over other human beings is just mind blowing.
If you are a Jodi Picoult fan then you will probably love this one too.

Anyhoo, back to my review!

Set in the 60's in Rural Grace County, Jane Forrester goes for an interview for a job as a social worker, much to the dismay of her fiance, he is unhappy in the fact that she is getting a job, let alone a job that might undermine his position as a doctor, and make him a laughing stock at the Golf Club, none of his friends wives work after all!

Jane wants to work, and feels that this would be an ideal position for her, that she may be able to do some good, she may even be able to help people less fortunate than her.

She gets the position and shadows another worker until an accident sets her on her own to carry on the job.

Ivy is one of her cases.

15 year old Ivy lives on a Tobacco farm with her family, her parents both died so she is now in the full time care of her grandmother, but her grandmother is ill, so it is Ivy that is doing the caring. Looking after her grandmother, her mentally ill sister and her sisters 2 year old son William is no mean feat, they rely on Welfare to get money for the family, they work on the Tobacco farm to pay for their lodgings.

Ivy has her own problems, she is epileptic, and because she is 15, she is "obviously" going to start sleeping around, I mean, look at Mary Ella her "feeble minded" sister, she had William after all!
They managed to fix that though, at least she won't be bringing any more "retards" into this world! Ivy is an ideal candidate for the program, it just needs to be signed off by the Social Worker, of course you don't tell her what it is you are doing, just tell them that they look ill, Mary Ella had her "appendix" out, and look, she's perfectly fine now!!

Jane cannot believe what is happening to these young girls, but what can she do, she's already been reprimanded for something she did wrong, she may even lose her job.

This story is based on true events that happened, in the authors notes she does say that she didn't want to focus on the actual deed, but to focus on the families and the aftermath, but some of the stories that she read about it were truly horrifying.

🎧🎧 - Brilliantly narrated by Alison Elliot, this story is one that will probably stay with you for a while!