Audiobook Review: Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans

Posted on February 21, 2013 · 5 Comments

level2Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans
Publication Date: January 22, 2013
Format: Audio CD
Rating: 3 stars
Genre: YA Dystopian
Source: Review copy from the publisher

Amazon Synopsis

In this gripping exploration of a futuristic afterlife, a teen discovers that death is just the beginning.

Since her untimely death the day before her eighteenth birthday, Felicia Ward has been trapped in Level 2, a stark white afterlife located between our world and the next. Along with her fellow drones, Felicia passes the endless hours reliving memories of her time on Earth and mourning what she’s lost—family, friends, and Neil, the boy she loved.

Then a girl in a neighboring chamber is found dead, and nobody but Felicia recalls that she existed in the first place. When Julian—a dangerously charming guy Felicia knew in life—comes to offer Felicia a way out, Felicia learns the truth: If she joins the rebellion to overthrow the Morati, the angel guardians of Level 2, she can be with Neil again.

Suspended between Heaven and Earth, Felicia finds herself at the center of an age-old struggle between good and evil. As memories from her life come back to haunt her, and as the Morati hunt her down, Felicia will discover it’s not just her own redemption at stake… but the salvation of all mankind.

My Thoughts

The audio narration by Jenna Lamia is outstanding. She is the perfect choice to read this novel. Her voice and inflections are on point; the character voices distinct. She made listening to the book an enjoyable experience.

However, I had a very difficult time staying focused on the story itself. And, honestly, it might just be me. This is not the typical genre of book that I read. I wanted to read it only because the author is a fellow book blogger. The storyline is not one that I would normally gravitate toward, so I may have brought some preconceived biases into my reading experience that are not fair.

With that said, there were parts of it that intrigued me … but I was left wanting more. There were other parts that went on and on … that I just wanted to skip over. Felicia Ward is a seventeen-year old girl who finds herself in Level 2, the stage between life on earth and Heaven. Felicia is dead yet she is stuck in this in-between world where she relives her life through countless memories. This is how the reader is introduced to Felicia’s back story – her life on Earth, so to speak. I was intrigued by some of her memories; others did not seem to move the plot forward in any meaningful way but instead showed a part of her character or an aspect of a relationship that helps us get to know her character a little better. Her relationship with her boyfriend, Neil, was adorable – how they met, their first date, etc.

The dystopian-esque elements of the book (the Level 2 parts) were just plain confusing to me. The Morati who oversee Level 2 are in the process of rebelling because they want to go to Level 3, but are forever stuck on Level 2. Then Julian, Felicia’s maybe-but-maybe-not love interest breaks in to free her and tries to get her to join the fight against the Morati. Julian was part of Felicia’s real life and they engaged in a relationship, but as far as Felicia in Level 2, it is all about Neil. Neil is her one true love. So, the premise of there being a love triangle was a bit flawed. The Neil/Felicia relationship seemed more real and emotional than the Julian/Felicia relationship.

The ending felt a bit rushed and contained some surprises that I am not sure make sense, but I am ultimately happy about.

Overall, a mixed read for me. Enjoyed some parts; other parts were confusing, but this could be because this is not the typical genre of book that I read.

Audio clip

My audiobook review copy was provided by Random House Audio. All thoughts are my own.

 

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Book Review: The Guest Book by Marybeth Whalen

Posted on August 23, 2012 · 1 Comment

The Guest Book by Marybeth Whalen
Publication Date: July 3, 2012
Publisher: Zondervan
Genre: Christian Fiction
ISBN: 978-0310334743
*****
This book brings me back to the days I spent in our rented Carolina beach house as a child. I remember reading guest book entries and thinking about the people who passed before me – who they were, where they were from, and what adventures they went on. I do recall seeing some wacky drawings in some of those guest books over the years, too! And, even though I still regularly visit North Carolina, I haven’t looked inside a guest book in many years. I honestly just forgot about it. So, when I saw this book for review through Amazon Vine (and then the digital copy on Netgalley), I snatched it up in a heartbeat.

Macy Dillon is a single mother to a five-year-old girl and nursing a broken heart while still grieving the loss of her larger-than-life father ten years prior. As a way to help the family move on, Macy’s mother suggests that the family return to one of their favorite places – Sunset Beach, North Carolina. In the rented beach house that they regularly visited so many years ago, Macy, her daughter, her mom, and her brother, confront the past in hopes of moving to a better future.

Macy immediately becomes obsessed with locating the boy she used to exchange pictures with in the guest book of her youth. Macy would draw a picture and the next year her family visited the house, a little boy would have responded to her picture with a picture of his own. While an interesting premise, I found it a bit farfetched that a single mother would be pining after a boy who drew her pictures each year in a guest book. But, it did seem to have a significant impact on her life, so I went with it. Once Macy arrives in Sunset Beach, suddenly men come out of the woodwork and all of them could potentially be The Artist of her youth. But who is it? Or has he moved on with his life altogether and forgotten Macy, too?

In the background of Macy’s search for her Artist is her mother, Brenda’s, journey of letting go of her deceased husband and embarking on a new stage of life. Max, Macy’s brother, is battling his own personal demons. He drowns his grief at the bottom of a bottle. But with the help of a new friend, Max may learn to find his own way again.

This is a quick read and I did enjoy it. If you can get past some of the unbelievable parts (who gets three men chasing after her immediately upon landing at a beach house for vacation?!) and just take it for what it is. Recommended.

*****

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Audiobook Review: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Posted on August 14, 2012 · 5 Comments

The Age of Miracles
by Karen Thompson Walker
Publication Date: June 26, 2012
Publisher: Random House
Source: Library

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life—the fissures in her parents’ marriage, the loss of old friends, the hopeful anguish of first love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.

My Thoughts:

In this coming-of-age (?) story by debut novelist Karen Thompson Walker, we meet our main character, 11-year-old Julia. The world in which Julia lives is about to change drastically. The earth begins to slow, creating longer days. Paranoia is heightened. People begin to think that the end of the world is near. But at the heart of this story is the changing family dynamics of Julia’s family. Her parents marriage is falling apart and Julia discovers a secret that her father is keeping. Julia is also dealing with everyday childhood woes – teasing at school, trying to get the attention of the boy she likes, and the dissolution of a friendship.

The author creates a sense of foreshadowing throughout the book  (“If we had known this then…”) and there is a subtle tension that kept me riveted to the audio narration. I was expecting a grand conclusion as to the cause of the slowing since there is so much build-up, but I was very disappointed with the ending. The reason I have coming-of-age as a question mark above is that I think that is the intent of this story, but I never truly felt like Julia’s character grew through the course of the book.

The audio narration is fantastic. I really loved the narrator. She spoke slowly enough that I could follow along and used great inflections and voices for the different characters.

So, overall this is an interesting premise, but it did not quite live up to my expectations.

*****

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Audiobook Review: The Daughter’s Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick

Posted on July 13, 2012 · 4 Comments

The Daughter’s Walk
by Jane Kirkpatrick
Publication Date: April 5, 2011
Publisher: Waterbrook Press
Source: I received an ARC of this book from Amazon Vine for review last year, but I ended up listening to the book on audio which I got from my library.

*****

Taken from an actual historical event, author Jane Kirkpatrick tells the story of suffragette Helga Estby who, in 1896, accepts an almost impossible task. Starting in her home state of Washington, she must walk across America to New York City within seven months. If she succeeds she will receive $10,000, which will save the family farm from foreclosure. Along the way, she will be promoting a new dress style and showing that women are strong and independent. Taking along her 18-year-old daughter, Clara, the women set out on their journey. They are met with numerous obstacles, threatening situations, and illnesses that hamper their progress. When they return home over a year later, they are met with severe hostility from the rest of their family and are forced to never speak of “The Walk” again. Clara, unable to accept these new restraints put on her, chooses to leave the family and make her way on her own, attempting to achieve financial independence of her own doing.

The book starts off fantastic. A mother and daughter embark on a journey together to help save their family’s livelihood. They must earn money to support themselves by taking odd jobs, selling their portrait, or speaking at events. They must battle the elements, people, and most of all, each other, if they are to make it. During their walk, secrets are revealed, memories are shared, and the women form a close bond. Since so few historical details remain from the actual walk, the author did use the historical premise to create a fictionalized version of the walk as it could have happened back in 1896.

However, “The Walk” only encompasses a small part of the book, which is disappointing. Much of it recounts the details of Clara’s life after the walk when she left her family to make her own way in the world. I feel that this is when the book lost some of its luster. Clara meets and begins to work for two women, Olea and Louise, who become like family to her. These women are not fictionalized. They were actual people who were part of the real Clara’s life (in fact, the author uses the real life names for nearly all of the characters in the book). Since these women are involved in the fashion industry, Clara becomes interested in it as well. The book takes an odd turn and seemed to meander endlessly about the fur industry and animal-trapping, which is not what I was expecting. Clara seemed to be trying to find her way in the world through any means necessary that would bring her financial gain.

This book is classified as Christian Fiction and there is an overarching theme of God’s provision throughout the book, but it does so in an unassuming way. Clara does seem to struggle with her faith, but the end of the novel did not bring any full resolution to that issue.

The narrator is fantastic. Each character’s voice is distinguishable and well-accented. I really enjoyed listening to this book mainly because of the narrator. The story bored me at times, but I liked hearing each character’s voice come to life.

Overall, this is a good book. It was not quite what I was expecting after reading the synopsis. I thought there would be more of the walk, so I was disappointed by that piece of the novel. I was also expecting more of a resolution to Clara’s faith journey considering the book is in the Christian fiction classification. It’s a nice story spanning many years, but it did not quite live up to what I expected.


*****

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Book Review and Giveaway: The Girl Below by Bianca Zander

Posted on June 20, 2012 · 4 Comments


The Girl Below: A Novel
by Bianca Zander
William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: June 19, 2012
Source: Review copy from the publisher

Amazon Synopsis

Suki Piper is a stranger in her hometown. . . .

After ten years in New Zealand, Suki returns to London, to a city that won’t let her in. However, a chance visit with Peggy—an old family friend who still lives in the building where she grew up—convinces Suki that there is a way to reconnect with the life she left behind a decade earlier. But the more involved she becomes with Peggy’s dysfunctional family, including Peggy’s wayward sixteen-year-old grandson, the more Suki finds herself mysteriously slipping back in time—to the night of a party her parents threw in their garden more than twenty years ago, when something happened in an old, long-unused air-raid shelter. . . .

A breathtaking whirlwind of mystery, transgression, and self-discovery, Bianca Zander’s The Girl Below is a haunting tale of secrets, human frailty, and dark memory that heralds the arrival of an extraordinary new literary talent.

My Thoughts

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, the author has a way with words that kept me entranced until the end. However, on the other hand, the book left me wanting. There were things that were never fully resolved and ultimately, I think I am one of the readers who just did not “get” this book.

Suki Piper is 28 years old, but she is very immature for her age. I often felt sorry for her as she never seemed to really grow up. She suffered through her parents divorce at a young age and then the death of her mother as a young adult. She never really recovered. Compounding all of these things are the mysterious occurrences that Suki reflects on from her childhood; specifically, the incident in the air raid shelter, the “hand” in the cabinet, and the issue with the statue called Madeline. As a reader, I kept looking through these supernatural-type experiences to find the real truth hidden in the author’s words. However, upon finishing the book, I never found a real conclusion to any of the events that Suki experienced, which is unfortunate. I drummed up many theories as I was reading the book, but there was no answer that left me wholly satisfied. Perhaps that was the point, but I am a reader who likes to have a definitive answer to the questions and oddities that are raised in the course of the story. I do not like to wonder at the outcome – I want to know the outcome.

The relationships Suki had with those around her were strange at best. She was a caretaker for Peggy, her old neighbor, and became reacquainted with Pippa, who is Peggy’s daughter and Suki’s old babysitter. Pippa’s 15-year-old son, Caleb, is a bit of a delinquent and Pippa thinks that Suki could have a positive influence on him given her life experiences. So, Caleb and Suki begin spending time together, but their relationship is just plain weird, awkward, and uncomfortable. I was left shaking my head on several occasions.

Overall, the author has excellent writing ability and the story kept me intrigued til the end. However, when none of my lingering questions were answered at the end of the book, I was left feeling disappointed and a bit puzzled that I completely missed something. Other readers should note that I do not typically read stories with strong supernatural elements, so this could be part of the reason that this book did not resonate with me. I was very intrigued by the synopsis, which is why I wanted to review the book. Unfortunately, this is one that just did not quite meet my expectations, which does not mean it will not meet yours!

Read 5 star reviews on Goodreads

Giveaway:
Thanks to the publisher, I have 3 copies of THE GIRL BELOW to give away to THREE readers in the USA!

Rules:
1. Enter your name and e-mail address in the ContestMachine widget below.
2. Open to residents of the USA only.
3. Contest will close on June 27 at 11:59pm EST.
4. 3 winners will be selected and contacted upon contest closure. Winners will have 48 hours to respond to notification email or another winner will be selected.
5. Winners must provide their full name and mailing address which I will send to the publisher for fulfillment of the prize.
6. Neither Crazy-for-Books nor the publisher are responsible for lost or misdirected prize shipments. Pleas ensure that you provide the correct mailing information if selected as the winner. Please allow 4-6 weeks for prize delivery.


*****

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