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If I Was Your Girl
- De: Meredith Russo
- Narrado por: Samia Mounts
- Duración: 7 h
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 1,031
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 938
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 939
Amanda Hardy is the new girl in school. Like anyone else, all she wants is to make friends and fit in. But Amanda is keeping a secret, and she's determined not to get too close to anyone. But when she meets sweet, easygoing Grant, Amanda can't help but start to let him into her life. As they spend more time together, she realizes just how much she is losing by guarding her heart. She finds herself yearning to share with Grant everything about herself, including her past.
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2 out of 5 stars
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The middle
- De Kirah en 06-02-16
- If I Was Your Girl
- De: Meredith Russo
- Narrado por: Samia Mounts
If I Was Your Girl is a beautiful novel of self-di
Revisado: 03-14-17
Would you consider the audio edition of If I Was Your Girl to be better than the print version?
Plot: If I Was Your Girl opened with a nervous Amanda starting her first day at a new school. I liked that Russo interwove elements from Amanda's past throughout the novel so that readers were continuously learning about Amanda and her family dynamic. If I Was Your Girl was a slow book, but that was because the true focus was on Amanda's relationships with the people around her. It was an easy read and the mix of past and present scenes really drew me into discovering Amanda. If I Was Your Girl didn't spend a lot of time on Amanda's transition, which made it effortless to accept Amanda as nothing more than a young 16-year old girl.
Characters: Amanda was a darling girl that I empathized with on so many levels. Her relationship with her family was rocky at times, but everyone had Amanda's best interest in mind. It was funny because I found myself relating to the parents more times than not. I wanted to keep Amanda safe in a world that didn't understand the trans community. There was no true villain in If I Was Your Girl, just various people struggling with life. The relationship between Amanda and Grant was innocent and beautiful and I liked how the teens complimented each other.
Worldbuilding: Amanda relocated to the rural South to live with her estranged father after an incident at her old school. Her father was clearly trying to adjust to life with a teenaged daughter, but he also had the habit of trying to shield her from the bigots. Russo's description of Amanda's new home was nothing short of charming, but there was always the danger lurking in the background. Despite the stereotypes that come with the South, I found Russo's portrayal to be fun and fair.
Narrator Performance: Samia Mounts breathed life into Amanda for me. She gave Amanda a voice of innocence and unbridled happiness, but then could cry her sadness and uncertainty. I wish I could leave my glowing review of Mounts' performance at that, but unfortunately, I could hear her licking her lips every now and then, and that is not a pleasant sound to have in your ears for eight hours.
Short N Sweet: If I Was Your Girl is an important coming-of-age story that explores various relationships. I highly recommend to everyone!
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A Great and Terrible Beauty
- De: Libba Bray
- Narrado por: Josephine Bailey
- Duración: 11 h y 13 m
- Versión completa
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General4 out of 5 stars 892
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 633
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 632
It's 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one.
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4 out of 5 stars
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More Details, please!
- De Beverly en 02-04-06
- A Great and Terrible Beauty
- De: Libba Bray
- Narrado por: Josephine Bailey
Mature YA that will suck you in!
Revisado: 11-05-15
Would you consider the audio edition of A Great and Terrible Beauty to be better than the print version?
Plot: Gemma Doyle is at the age where she wants nothing more than to get away from her controlling mother. They used to get along famously, but now it seems that they can never see eye to eye. As a young woman approaching 16, she wants to leave the hot climate of India and get a proper English education to prepare her for society. That is, until her mother is brutally murdered before her eyes. The result of this tragic death is that she gets what she wants and is ushered to London to attend Spence boarding school. As all good mysteries go, she learns that the school has a hidden secret that affects her more personally that she would like.
I'm slowly learning that Libba Bray simply cannot do cookie cutter. A Great and Terrible Beauty is a unique tale that expertly weaves beguiling characters and a spooky Victorian setting. The pacing of A Great and Terrible Beauty is much like The Diviners. It is slow, but I was never bored. Libba Bray's primary focus is her characters which is always a selling point for me as a reader.
The overall mystery is something that Gemma pieces together little by little until we have our grand "a-ha" moment. It was never obvious, but there is a clear trail of bread crumbs that Libba Bray leaves for both the reader and Gemma to discover on their own.
Characters: From the beginning, Gemma Doyle proves herself to be your typical teenager. She's a downright brat and has a strained relationship with her mother. It isn't until she's forced onto the shores of London that she grows. She even has a moment where she questions what it's like to be a woman and timidly explores the ideas of sex and natural attraction. I appreciated her strong will and refusal to become nothing more than a passive wife.
The other young women at Spence as equally intriguing, as their friendship with Gemma is not 100% "I-like-you,-you-like-me-let's-be-friends." They each have weaknesses that Bray has no qualms with highlighting.
World Building: Libba Bray is the queen of dark and beautiful things. Her portrayal of Bombay, India brought to mind a bustling shopping center and humidity. On the other hand, London was described as gray and almost stifling. I felt transported to this Victorian world that felt both organic fantastical.
Audiobook Performance: At first I was worried about Ms. Josephine Baker's performance. The novel starts off in India so of course, the natives have heavily-accented English. Baker tries her best to deliver her lines with a believable accent, but all I could do was cringe. Her English accents were far better, and I was soon wrapped up in Baker's performance.
Short N Sweet: A Great and Terrible Beauty is the mature YA novel that readers have been waiting for! Full of whimsy, complicated friendships, and a surprise ending, A Great and Terrible Beauty will have you itching to buy the whole trilogy!
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Hit
- De: Delilah S. Dawson
- Narrado por: Rebekkah Ross
- Duración: 7 h y 55 m
- Versión completa
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General4 out of 5 stars 100
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Historia4 out of 5 stars 94
In order to save her mother, a teen is forced to become an indentured assassin in this sizzling dystopian thriller. No one reads the fine print. The good news is that the USA is finally out of debt. The bad news is that we were bought out by Valor National Bank, and debtors are the new big game, thanks to a tricky little clause hidden deep in the fine print of a credit card application.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Hit asks more questions than it is prepared to ans
- De Amber Elise @ Du Livre en 11-05-15
- Hit
- De: Delilah S. Dawson
- Narrado por: Rebekkah Ross
Hit asks more questions than it is prepared to ans
Revisado: 11-05-15
What did you like best about Hit? What did you like least?
Plot: The United States has sold its debt to the banks, and because no one cares about what they're signing, the banks have legally been killing the "weakest links" of society. What I liked the most about this concept is that it made me think, a lot. As a society, we no longer even consider documents without scribbling our John Hancock, so what's stopping anyone from abusing that power? While it started off as Patsy knocking off 10 people from a list of "deadbeats," she begins becoming more introspected and seeing her victims more as people instead of names on a page.
I bought this one on a complete whim with no research so I had no idea that Hit was the first installment in a series. Be prepared to be scratching your head in confusion for a good chunk of this book. I found myself desperate for the bread crumbs of information that Dawson would throw the reader every now and then.
Characters: Patsy has not known an easy life which explains how she can judge others for living in excess. While she felt completely devoid of emotion for the first half of the book, she did begin to open herself up to the reader eventually and speculate more about the human condition and society. I enjoyed her commentary on her situation and the tidbits of her past explaining how she came to be the person she is today.
There is a boy-situation in this one which seems a bit unrealistic. When you're knocking off johns, I feel like your least concern should be some boy. They do fall victim to insta-love, but I do believe that Wyatt was a good addition to the team and aided in humanizing Patsy.
World Building: Hit is scary because, like most dystopians, there is a grain of truth. It's not too hard to imagine a bank laying claim to a country and doing with it as it will. Patsy's inner critique and the narrator helped illustrate the struggle between the town's social classes.
Audiobook Performance: Rebekkeh Ross gives a 5-star performance in this audiobook! Her male voices are believable and none of her accents sound offensive or too far out. She captured Patsy's tortured voice well which made the reading experience even more enjoyable.
Short N Sweet: Hit is a non-stop thriller that paints a dark future that doesn't seem so out-there. I personally recommend the audiobook edition, because I believe the narrator delivers a level of humanity that can't be read on the pages.
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After the End
- De: Amy Plum
- Narrado por: Emily Rankin, Graham Hamilton
- Duración: 8 h y 46 m
- Versión completa
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General4 out of 5 stars 409
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 371
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Historia4 out of 5 stars 368
World War III has left the world ravaged by nuclear radiation. A lucky few escaped to the Alaskan wilderness. They've survived for the last thirty years by living off the land, being one with nature, and hiding from whoever else might still be out there. At least, this is what Juneau has been told her entire life. When Juneau returns from a hunting trip to discover that everyone in her clan has vanished, she sets off to find them. Leaving the boundaries of their land for the very first time, she learns something horrifying: There never was a war.
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3 out of 5 stars
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I enjoyed listening to it.
- De Nickal16 en 06-23-14
- After the End
- De: Amy Plum
- Narrado por: Emily Rankin, Graham Hamilton
Lies and betrayal!
Revisado: 10-18-14
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Years of lies and an a mysterious abduction takes Juneau halfway across the US in an attempt to find out what happened to her clan. And we're ALL in for a surprise.
Plot: After the End opens by transporting the reader to a different world. World War III has destroyed most of the US, only Juneau and her clan are able to continue to survive because they are closest to the Earth's life force. From there, the book quickly goes through an abduction of her clan, and her quest to find out what happened to them. Even though the pacing was slow, I felt like a LOT of things were happening. I would have liked to have learned more about Juneau's upbringing and also more time on her trying to make sense of modern cities. Nonetheless, the overall mystery was intriguing enough to keep me listening to the end. Unfortunately, the ending left me with more questions than I had answers.
Characters: The novel is told through the view point of the two main characters, Miles and Juneau. I preferred Juneau's POV mostly because I enjoyed her as a character. I liked that she was strong but also vulnerable. Plus, she could gut a rabbit without blinking an eye - I want her on my team in a post-apocalyptic world! Miles, on the other hand, I wasn't sold on. In the beginning chapters, Miles is presented as a punk kid who brings weed to school and cheats on tests. Maybe it was due to the narrator, but I didn't get the "punk kid" vibe from him, he actually sounded really mature for an 18 year old. Clearly there HAS to be some sort of romance between our two teenagers, but it was really light, and when "the kiss" finally happened, it sort of seemed out of nowhere. The novel focused so much on the mystery of Juneau's people, that it was difficult to squeeze a proper romance in as well. There are some secondary characters that are in and out of After the End who I found to be interesting and I hope that they make more appearances in the upcoming novels.
Audio Book Performance: One of my favorite aspects of audio books is that they usually have two narrators which makes the experience more enjoyable. Both narrators did a really nice job, Emily Rankin conveyed all of the stress and emotions that Juneau well, and Graham Hamilton was very pleasant to listen to.
Short N Sweet: After the End was an exciting adventure that would have made me a more invested reader if the characters were developed just as much as the mystery was.
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