Finders Keepers

By: Natalie Barelli

Narrated by: 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.

Mind Game

Rose has spent years trying to escape her sorted past. When an Instagram influencer finds Rose's diary on an old laptop and publishes it as a fiction novel, Rose will stop at nothing cover up the secrets revealed in the book, but when she discovers the truth about her past she will never look in the mirror the same. Finders Keepers is well plotted story filled with twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end.

The narrator

I like two previous books from this author. When I started this one I was going to return it. The beginning was painful - the protagonist was dropping objects as often as the author was dropping the story line. But the narrator resuscitated the story. If it weren’t for the narrator- I would have stopped. Eventually the story begins to carry itself to a satisfying conclusion. All in all it was worth it.

Nasally narrator

The story is OK, but the narrator is awful. It’s OK for the main character, but anyone other than that, except for the males, sounds like a nasally four year old with a high-pitched squeal who sucked helium.

YA

I stuck with the story because it was kind of different and I had just enough curiosity to stick it out. But I think this is really a YA book. The characters were all young and not likable. I figured out “whodunnit” early and easily. So I’d say if you like listening to something in the background it’s fairly unique but not all that exciting to older listeners.

Shake my head

I’m just still wondering why I continued to listen.
I’m glad it’s over. So many things I just just questioned throughout the book.

5 Stars Across the Board

Finders Keepers truly is an excellent tale. It has twists and turns that actually make sense and advance the plot. The story is great, the narration is great. Believe me, you will not waste a credit with this tale. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more from Ms. Barrelli.