Finders Keepers

De: Natalie Barelli

Narrado por: Rachel Leblang

“You’re not going to murder me in the night, are you?” Emily asks.

“Hahaha. That’s funny,” I say.

Of course, I’m not going to murder her in the night. I need my laptop back first. That’s the whole point of making friends with Emily Harper, author of the hugely successful novel Diary of an Octopus. So I could get into her apartment and take back what’s mine.

Emily doesn’t know who I really am. She thinks I’m her biggest fan, her new best friend who happens to need a place to stay for a few days. She doesn’t realize the laptop she found—and took—from a busy airport almost two years ago was mine. I don’t care about the laptop, just what's on it: my diary.

I kept it many years ago as a troubled thirteen-year-old girl with a vivid imagination and a flair for the dramatic. Now she's published it as her own.

She thinks it's a story about a schoolgirl’s crush on her teacher, but she’s wrong. It’s a story about a murder. Two murders, if you count the hamster.

She thought it was okay to make a few changes and publish it under her own name, but she was wrong about that too.

Because, sometimes, truth is deadlier than fiction.

©2023 Natalie Barelli (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

Meh. Pretty good until the end.

The writer tells a good story and keeps the reader engaged ... but then takes the easy way out by having the "villain" explain all the intricacies of the plot in a monologue once their misdeeds are discovered. This is insulting to the listener who has been invested in the story all along.

The narrator needs to find a better way to differentiate voices. All of the characters, except the main protagonist, sound like either high voiced ditzy cheerleaders, or old chain-smoking women, even if the characters are neither.

This could have been a great audiobook were it not for these two things.

Cute story.

I guess it’s weird to say a murder mystery is cute but I think this one is just that. The tone is self deprecating and witty. The story is interesting although I had an inkling to part of its resolution early on. All in all, it was a fun book.

Suspenseful the entire way.

To me, Natalie is great. I have loved all of her stories and o have another ready to go. Great story.

Great Listen

I enjoyed this listen including the twists and turns along with its satisfying ending! Would recommend.

A no for me

I didn’t care for the story line. I also didn’t really like the narrators voice all that much. This is probably my least favorite of Ms. Barelli’s book.

Liked the

Twists and turns. I was fooled a little. Horrible teacher and glad of ending. Some cruddy people.

Loved it!!!

I am so glad I got this book, I never knew what was going to happen next! I loved every minute of it!

Story was very good.

The narrator was not good. All the women’s voices other than the main character and Emily were gravelly, old, not easy to listen to.

Vocal fry

I really enjoyed the story. Great twists. But the amount of vocal fry given to every character made it difficult to listen to. I have never left a negative review for anything, but this was almost unlistenable.

unexpectedly entertaining

I didn't think I could listen to it, but I stayed the course, and it turned out to be actually engaging. It would have greatly gained from being performed by a better reader, one who sounded less ditzy and irritating.