The Best Audiobooks for Women – Part Two

Verity by Colleen Hoover – I guess I was late to the party on Verity because it has 320,000 reviews on Amazon. Oh well. It was a pretty short book. The story is about a woman who is hired by the husband of a famous author to finish the author's popular series after the author is left comatose from a car crash. The woman moves into their house to work on the books and finds the author's secret autobiography were she talks about how she hated her children and all manner of psychotic revelations. Then strange things start happening at the house. I was left dumbfounded by the ending. Holy cow. 4 stars.

Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica – This was an interesting story that I really enjoyed. It's about two couples: a teacher and her neurosurgeon husband and her best friend, also a teacher, and her husband (not sure what his job was or if it even said). In the very beginning, the best friend tells her husband that she thinks she killed the neurosurgeon because he tried to assault her on a hiking trail. So the two of them spend most of the book trying to cover up the "crime." Then some crazy stuff happens and it goes in a whole different direction than I was expecting. The ending is a little disjointed but overall, a solid read. 4 stars.

Don't Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino – I just started this book by the author of She's Up to No Good which is one of my favorite books of the year. In this one, the main character is a college student named Marilyn, and she gets caught making out with the rabbi's son (in the synagogue!) in 1960. She is sent off to live with her great aunt for the summer. The great aunt is a super strict 70-something matchmaker in Philadelphia who won't allow her to wear lipstick, and that's as far as I've gotten but I am really enjoying the story. 5++++ stars.

The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes by Suzanne Collins – This is the Hunger Games prequel, about teenage President Snow. My teen told me that the movie was coming out, and I needed to get the book done beforehand so we could go on opening night. Well I did, and we did, and the movie was amazing. She liked it better than the original trilogy, but I'm not writing about movies; I'm writing about audiobooks. I don't want to give too much away about the story, but young snow mentors a tribute in the tenth Hunger Games, and then he cheats and gets sent to the districts as a peacekeeper as a punishment. I spent most of the book feeling like young Snow was an earnest and kind boy who was trying to do the best he could do, but my friend and my teen both said he was only ever looking out for himself and everything he did was self-serving. I think the movie writers agreed with me because I felt like they portrayed him the way I thought of him. Of course, everyone else said the same thing so I don't know who's right. 4-½ stars.

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears – I'm not a huge Britney Spears fan, but I have loosely followed her turmoil over the years. I wanted to know the real story so I bought her memoir. And, truthfully, I think I could have gleaned most of what was worth knowing from an online summary or two. Oh well. If you're a big Britney fan, you've probably already read it anyway. 3-½ stars.

Looks Good on Paper by Kilby Blades – In this story, the main character becomes the anonymous penpal of an ultra rich paper CEO from Italy. Except that he doesn't really speak English, and his brother becomes her penpal instead. The brother falls for the girl, and when she travels to Italy on vacation, she meets both brothers and falls for the one she's been writing to (even though she still thinks she's been writing to the other one). Of course the truth comes out eventually and they break up and you'll have to read the book to find out the rest. 3-½ stars.

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland – My older sister told me to read this book, and partway in, I thought, "Whyyyyyy am I doing this to myself?" because the book to that point had all been about how Alice and her pregnant mother were beaten to unconsciousness on the regular by Alice's dad. But things eventually changed, and Alice goes to live with her grandmother who lives on a flower farm, and then she grows up and moves away. In the end, it was a beautiful story of love and loss and the power of women. My sister told me that there's a movie version and the whole thing is based on a true story. I'm going to have to look up to movie and see how it is. 4 stars.

The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith – This is book seven in the Cormoran Strike series, and it is my favorite of all of them so far. In this story, Robin goes undercover to investigate a cult in an effort to get a rich kid to leave it. Of course, Strike and Robin solve the death of the cult leader's daughter and everything gets straightened out in the end. 5++ stars.

The Last List of Mabel Beaumont by Laura Pearson – I started this one a couple of times, but then I finally got into it. It's about an old widow who doesn't know what to do with herself after her husband passes. They had no children and did everything together. In his will, he had arranged for her to have in-home care for 3 months, and the woman who comes to help becomes her best friend. She introduces her to other women, and then a teenage grocery store clerk comes to live there because her family is not accepting of her being a lesbian. All through the book, the widow is trying to find her old friend Dot because she found a list that her husband wrote that said "find D" and she thought she was honoring his final wishes. The ending was so beautiful. 4 stars.

The Day I Disappeared by Brandi Reeds – This is about a woman who had been kidnapped as a young child, but she was eventually returned. A man was convicted of the crime and is still in jail, but meanwhile, similar crimes keep happening around the country except the girls are killed. The woman goes through every man she knows, silently accusing them all of being the culprit. Meanwhile, the woman's negligent mother is in a coma because she was in a suspicious car crash just before the story began. It all comes together in the end of course. I didn't see it coming, but then I pretty much never do. 4-½ stars.

Her Last Goodbye by Rick Mofina – This one was so good! It's about a woman who was kidnapped and her family who is searching for her. While that is happening, there's a creepy cable repairman who stalks women and takes photos of them without their permission. And then also, there's a woman who is chased out into traffic and is incinerated in a fiery crash. And then all three storylines come together in a mind-blowing way. I'm definitely going to look for more Rick Mofina books. He's written about a hundred of them. 5++++ stars.

Everything She Feared by Rick Mofina – This was my first Rick Mofina book but will definitely not be the last. He's great. This one was super complicated, so I'll probably not do the best job explaining it. It's about a woman whose daughter is the last person to see her babysitter alive, right before the babysitter falls off a cliff to her death. A lot of people question whether the little girl pushed the babysitter, including the mom. At the same time as that story is unfolding, a parallel report of a serial killer husband and wife is being detailed. Where the two stories intersect is crazy. And the ending left me speechless. 5 stars.

Zora Books Her Happily Ever After by Taj McCoy – This was a cute romcom about a love triangle between an indie bookstore owner, her favorite author, and his best friend. At first, both men know that they're dating the other, and a rivalry develops. Then the two men have a big falling out and she doesn't know what to do. I loved the ending. 5 stars.

Good Eggs by Rebecca Hardiman – Let me try to get this in one paragraph. A grannie named Millie is caught shoplifting again, and her adult son decides that she needs a caretaker to watch over her and keep her out of trouble. Millie befriends and sort of falls in love with her caretaker (not in a romantic way but in an adoring way) who is a youngish woman from America. Meanwhile, the man's daughter also gets into a lot of trouble, and he sends her away to a boarding school where she falls in with the wrong crowd and gets caught trying to poison the headmistress. Then some stuff happens and Millie and the daughter get in bigger trouble together trying to sort out the stuff that happened. I hope that's not saying too much; it's kind of complicated but a really cute story. 4 stars.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides – This is very tangentially related to The Silent Patient which is on my original list. This one is about a woman whose niece/surrogate daughter is near to some murders. The woman is convinced that the girl's professor is the killer because all the murdered girls are part of a group that he calls "The Maidens," but of course it is not him because that would be too predictable. 4 stars.

Her Perfect Twin by Sarah Bonner – I loved this book! It was a twisty turny ride that I almost quit partway through because one of the characters made me so mad. It starts out with Megan killing her twin, Leah, for having an affair with Megan's husband. Megan leads a double life for a while, posing as Leah and dating a lovely man named Tom, with whom she eventually falls in love. But then lockdown happens, and Megan is stuck at home with her cheating husband and the ruse is up. And then it gets super weird but in a good way. I loved the ending. 5++ stars.

First Born by Will Dean – Hm, two twin books back to back. I didn't notice that before now. This book was whacked. I don't know what I can tell you that won't give something away. Molly and Katie are twins. Molly never left her home city in London, but Katie moved away to New York. Katie is murdered, and Molly leaves home for the first time to go to New York and investigate. There is another murder and blackmail and all manner of craziness and the ending was just like... "o_o" You should read it. 4-½ stars.

It's One of Us by J.T. Ellison – This is about a woman struggling with infertility who finds out that her husband's son by sperm donation is a murderer. Then simultaneously, there is a little girl who is the child of an anonymous sperm donor, and she has located 32 half siblings all around the country. Predictably, the two storylines intersect and it's a crazy ride after that. I loved this one. Lots of very unexpected twists and turns. 5 stars.

Thank You For Listening by Julia Whelan – Julia Whelan is one of my favorite audiobook narrators, and I was excited to see that she wrote and narrated her own book. It's about an audiobook narrator (who else) who has a hot one night stand in Las Vegas and now can't get that mysterious and anonymous guy out of her mind. Then she starts an audiobook project with a very famous narrator and then email then text each other and her attention is distracted from the Vegas man. I don't want to say anything more but I loved this story. 5 stars.

The Silent Bride by Shalini Boland – This is about a woman who is walking down the aisle at her fairy tale wedding, and all of a sudden, she realizes that she doesn't recognize the man waiting for her at the altar. She spends the rest of the book trying to figure out who the man is and what happened to her fiancé. It gets really weird (in a good way!) and the end was c.r.a.z.y. I definitely recommend this one. 4 stars.

You Look Beautiful Tonight by L.R. Jones – This is about a woman who feels invisible and the secret admirer who leaves her complimentary notes. But it sort of turns sour when he starts telling her what to do, who to hang out with, what to wear, etc. And then her ex-boyfriend is murdered. And then there's another murder. She doesn't know who she can trust and it all goes to hell after that. I did not see the ending coming AT ALL. 4 stars.

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren – This was about a couple who is a 98% match using a dna test that's supposed to predict your soulmate. (If only.) The woman is hesitant, and the man's company pays her $10,000 a month to pretend to date him. They fall in love (you already knew that) but they don't stay together long. You'll have to read it to find out why they break up and what happens next. 5 stars.

The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren – This was a cute and light romcom about a romance book author named Fizzy. She's recruited by a hunky tv producer to star in a reality dating show. This was the sequel to The Soulmate Equation, but I accidentally read this one first. It didn't really matter. 5 stars.

A Proposal They Can't Refuse by Natalia Caña – This was a cute little romance about a girl and a boy whose grandfathers blackmail them into a fake engagement. She is trying to revamp and rejuvenate her family's restaurant. He just learned that his grandpa has stage four liver cancer, and their family distillery is a finalist in a national whiskey contest. They have to navigate their fake relationship with the real feelings that begin to develop. 5 stars.

Love After Death by Hildred Billings – This was about a very very rich woman who died, leaving behind four unknowing widows. The US widow who was legally married to the deceased wants to deny the other three the inheritance left to them. They all come together to tell their stories and testify in the lawsuit and form new relationships and move on with their lives. 3 stars.

I Am the Light of This World by Michael Parker – I read this in two sittings: on the way to Boston and on the way home from Boston. It's a tragic tragic story that begins with a little boy who might as well be creek mud because no one ever sees him and his life doesn't get a lot better as he grows up. He falls in love with a girl, gets tricked by her, and is then wrongly convicted of killing her. It is not a happy story by any measure. It starts out sad, it is sad almost the whole way through, and then the ending is sad. BUT! It's a great story that is real, gritty, and well-written. I was once a juror on a trial of an innocent man, and this book made me think of him. Anyway, I painted a really bad picture of it, but if you like dramas, you'll probably really enjoy this story. 4 stars.

Where They Lie by Joe Hart – This book. It's about a children & youth investigator who was looking into a young foster mother who's also big social media influencer. She is the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed her 3 foster kids and husband. She says the oldest foster child, a troubled teenager, wrestled the plane's controls from her husband and downed the plane, but things are not what they seem. This was an awesome story but the ending made me so so so mad. Read it. You'll see what I mean. 5 stars.

A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman – This book was all the rage a few years ago, and I started it, got annoyed with Ove, and then quit and returned it to get my credit back. Well, a movie came out called A Man Calle Otto, starring Tom Hanks who is one of my favorite actors of all time, and I had to watch. And then I got hooked. I LOVED THAT MOVIE SO MUCH. So after I watched it, I rebought the book and tried it again and loved the book too. The movie is better in my opinion (don't think I've ever said that before), but I really enjoyed the book after having watched the movie. 5 stars.

All the Dark Places by Terri Parlato – This was about two women: Molly, whose husband is murdered, and Rita, a police detective on the case. Rita quickly discovers that another murder preceded Molly's husband, and she thinks they are connected. The story follows Rita's investigation and what happens to Molly as it progresses. 4 stars.

More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez – I loved this book about a journalist and the subject of the book she was writing. The subject was a Mexican woman who had secretly married two different men in the 19802: one in Mexico and one in Texas. The original one was convicted of murdering the second one when he came to surprise her. The two women developed a friendship as the interviews progress. Really good story and nice ending. 5 stars.

Good Husbands by Cate Ray – From good wives to good husbands. I didn't plan it that way. LOL. Anyway, this was really good the whole way through but I thought it should have ended about three chapters earlier than it did. Three women receive letters saying that their husbands raped a girl in the 1990s and the author of the letter was conceived in the rape. The wives find out about each other and waffle about what to do but eventually make their decisions and live with the consequences. 4 stars.

Well Behaved Wives by Amy Sue Nathan – This is about a newlywed woman in 1962. She and her new husband have just moved in with his parents, and her overbearing mother-in-law signs her up for etiquette classes. She makes friends with her three classmates, one of whom is being abused by her husband. The main character is an attorney who is secretly studying for the bar exam, and she goes on a quest to help her new friend escape from the man who's hurting her. I loved the epilogue especially. 4 stars.

The Break by Katie Sise – This is about a new mother who had a mental breakdown and accused her babysitter of hurting her baby. The babysitter then disappears and the new parents are accused of hurting her. Eventually, you find out what happened to her, as well as why the mother had the breakdown and what it's covering up. 4 stars.

The Forgetting by Hannah Beckerman – This book had two parallel stories, one about Livvie and her abusive husband, and the other about Anna, who has amnesia after a car crash. Anna's husband is doting and kind, and he is trying to help her piece together her memory. Livvie's husband is domineering, controlling, and doesn't want her to have contact with her family or return to work after maternity leave. The ending will blow you away. 5 stars.

Those Empty Eyes by Charlie Donlea – I preordered this one using a credit because Charlie Donlea is one of my favorite authors, and then a month or two after it came out, it showed up on the Deal of the Day. Oh well. It was worth the credit. The story is about a girl whose entire family was murdered, and she was accused of the crime. Fast forward ten years, the girl wins a defamation lawsuit that makes her a multi-millionaire, but she is essentially living in hiding because true crime aficionados are searching for her. You eventually find out who killed her family when they come after the girl. It's an awesome story, and I listened to the ending 3 times because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Even after that, my friend and I disagreed on whodunnit and the resolution of the story. 5+++ stars.

Always Be My Duchess by Amalie Howard – After Someone Knows My Name, I needed something light and silly. This was a Pretty Woman style story about a wealthy duke who hires a poor ballerina to pretend to be his fiancé in order to help him get a business deal. You already know what's going to happen, but it is a really cute story that's worth reading. The ending was great. 4 stars.

Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill – This is not my typical kind of book, and I never would have read it if it hadn't been in my teen's homeschool curriculum. It was a very heavy but very moving story of a young girl who is kidnapped from her African village at age eleven and sold into slavery. She works as a slave in America for many years, hiding her marriage until she becomes pregnant, and then is punished by her master. The story is long, and she is eventually freed and makes her way back to Africa. As I said, I would never have read this if I didn't have to, but I really enjoyed it a lot. 5 stars.

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen – This is a story about an unorthodox therapist whose license was revoked because of a mistake many years ago. She is still practicing in private though, and she takes on the case of a couple struggling with infidelity. At first, the husband is all gung-ho about the therapy but then it turns out that things are not what they seem. 4 stars.

Found Object by Anne Frasier – This is about a woman who returned to Savannah, Georgia, which is where her mother was murdered twenty years before. A man had confessed and had been in prison all that time, but she doesn't believe he's guilty and tries to discover what really happened. 3 stars.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – I was very late to the Hunger Games party, and the only reason I read it at all was that it came up in my teen's homeschool curriculum and I try to preview her work. I was blown away by the story and finished it in under 24 hours. Then I finished the second and third books in the series in two days each. This series blew my mind. It's about a teenager named Katniss who lives in a post-revolution country. The Capital has punished the Districts for their rebellion by creating the Hunger Games. Each year, one teenage boy and one teenage girl are selected by a lottery system to represent their district in the games. The 24 tributes are wined and dined for a week or so, and then they compete. The competition is a fight to the death. The winner is the last teen alive. Katniss's very young little sister is selected in the lottery, and Katniss volunteers to take her place as tribute, and the book tells the story of the games. After you've listened to the trilogy, there's a prequel called A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes which is about young President Snow, but it will only make sense if you've finished the original three books. 5 very enthusiastic stars for all 4 books.

The Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel – This book is about an Indian girl who had been adopted by white people as an infant, but they died when she was 16. Now she's in her 30s and an Indian woman has bequeathed her a $3 million dollar apartment in a building where the residents all consider each other to be family. The original owner of the apartment left her dozens of cryptic notes, and she spends most of the book trying to figure them out and learning about herself in the process. 4 stars.

The Sorority Murder by Allison Brennan – This is about a college senior who was murdered three years ago, and the current college senior who produces a podcast to try to solve the cold case. H gets help from a former US Marshal, and together they comb through old and new evidence and try to convince the police to reopen the case. 4 stars.

It Takes a Villa by Kilby Blades – This is a romance about a woman who buys a dilapidated Italian villa for $1 in a special program that gives her six months to fully restore it to its original glory. She is unexpectedly assisted by a reluctant architect named Pietro, but then a revelation threatens the whole project and she has to decide what she really wants. Note: I hated this narrator with a passion and almost quit the book because of it. I'm glad I finished but will never listen to another of her books. 4 stars.

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan – This is a cute story about Nina who was a librarian until her library closed, and she was laid off. She buys a huge van and tries to start a mobile book shop, but she can't have it in her town because she can't get a permit for the stupid van. But she is undeterred and sets out to have her mobile bookshop however she can. She is helped along the way by a handsome train conductor and a lot of the townspeople. Cute story. The end took me by surprise. 4 stars.

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London – This book hit pretty close to home being that it's about a plus-size woman who is dating. In her case, she is convinced to be the star of a dating reality show, and of course, the public and many of the men say horrible things about her. The story goes on to describe her experience on the reality show, and how she interacts with the men who like her and what happens afterward. Really cute story that I finished in 24 hours. 4-½ stars.

The Hive by Gregg Olsen – This was an interesting story. At first, it was a little disjointed with the murder of a college student who was writing an exposé on a famous beauty magnate, and then the story flashes back to a murder from twenty years ago. Eventually, you learn that they are both connected to the rich woman and her tangled web of cult-like supporters. 4-½ stars.

Spare by Prince Harry – I wouldn't say that I'm a royalty addict or anything, but I was eagerly awaiting Prince Harry's memoir. I want to believe he wrote it himself without a ghost writer because it was so good and so real and so honest. He talked about how Prince William made him pretend not to know him at boarding school, how he felt about his mother and her death, and of course all the drama with Meghan and the family. 5 stars.

The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick – This is a sweet story about a house cleaner whose boss dies unexpected and asks the cleaner (through her attorney) to finish her novel before announcing the death to the public. The cleaner discovers a lot about herself and the woman in the process, including how they are linked. It's got a really nice, feel good ending. 4 stars.

She's Up to No Good by Sara Goodman – This is my favorite book of the year so far. It's about a 35-year-old woman whose husband left her. She gets talked into taking a roadtrip with her 89-year-old grandmother, to the grandma's childhood home. You learn all about the grandma's life as a young woman and how life might have been different for her if only her circumstances had allowed her to make different choices. The whole story was beautiful from beginning to end. It's about making a good life in the circumstance you've got, and about second chances and about the power of family. I absolutely loved every minute of this book. 5++++ stars.

You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen – This book starts out with Amanda jumping in front of a subway train, and Shay is the eyewitness. Amanda's friends seem to take Shay in and make her one of them, but they are not as kind and generous as they seem. Through the course of the story, you learn the friends' history and why Amanda killed herself. Very twisty story with lots of surprises. 5 stars.

Never Coming Home by Hannah Mary McKinnon – This was a crazy story about a man who pays someone to murder his wife, but then someone starts breaking into his house and leaving photos of her where he will find them. He owes $2 million to an old boss who shows up out of the blue. Through the course of the story, the guy gets more and more paranoid and then all hell breaks loose. 4 stars.