AUTHOR: Meg Shaffer

NARRATOR: Mia Hutchinson-Shaw

RATING: ★★★

REVIEW: This was my first time reading Meg Shaffer’s work, and The Book Witch was such a fun read. I don’t think there’s a librarian or book lover out there who hasn’t wished they could hop into their favorite books, and that’s exactly what the main character, Rainy, is able to do. Actually, it’s her JOB. (Wouldn’t that be awesome?) My little librarian heart adored all the references to the numerous works of literature mentioned in this story, and I even learned some new things too. (Did you know the Nancy Drew books originally had blue covers? I didn’t!) The narrator, Mia Hutchinson-Shaw did an amazing job too, and I have to admit I especially loved her narration of Rainy’s love interest, Duke. (It was - dare I say it - quite sultry and hypnotic). There’s a lot of different elements to grasp in this book, which could be confusing at times, so there was a good bit of backtracking and re-listening on my part. Just take my advice and try not to get distracted because you might miss something crucial to the plot. Overall, I happily recommend The Book Witch to everyone, and I look forward to reading more of Meg Shaffer’s work in the near future. 

NARRATORS: Teresa Palmer and Zachary Webber

RATING: ★★★

REVIEW: Let me just say that I’ve read every one of Abby Jimenez’s books, and I haven’t rated any of them less than four stars…until now. It killed my soul to give this one three stars, but the whole story was so different from Abby’s other books. The highlight: I listened to the first few chapters before I finished reading it with the ebook. The audiobook version is amazing because the narrators are reciting all of their lines through the whole book and not just in their individual chapters. It was like actually listening to them carry on a conversation, and I loved it. The misses: The Night We Met is just…sad. There’s hardly any witty banter between the two main characters, like I'm used to in Abby’s books, and their whole love story is more depressing than exciting. Let’s put it this way - there’s much more angst than passion. I will say that I liked the female lead, Larissa, a lot - although it was painful at times how much I related to her upbringing and relationship with her parents. Chris, the male lead, is admirable in my eyes for the way he takes such good care of Larissa, but is he swoon-worthy? Unfortunately, no. Even the ending felt disjointed and lacking. I hope this isn’t some terrible foreboding of what Abby’s future releases will be like because that would really break my heart.

NARRATORS: Erin Mallon and Teddy Hamilton

REVIEW: Hello, dear readers. I know…I know. You’re probably sick and tired of seeing book reviews for Abby Jimenez on my website. LOL. I do apologize, but what can I say? She’s just a really great author. I believe I'm caught up on all of her books now, except for her latest one, The Night We Met. I have that one in digital format, but I’d rather wait on the audiobook version. The Friend Zone was another funny, romantic, and enjoyable read. Lots of sarcastic and hilarious banter between the two main characters, and I was glad to see Abby took on something that’s rarely talked about in romantic comedies - women’s reproductive issues. Kristen, the female lead, suffers from uterine fibroid tumors, which have caused debilitating periods for most of her adult life, and she makes the difficult decision to have a hysterectomy. Josh, the male lead, wants a house full of children someday, so this causes problems between the two of them. There’s a lot of back and forth drama, especially on Kristen’s part, which honestly could’ve been solved with a simple conversation, but this is a romance book, so you’ve got to go through all of their angst first before they get their happy ending. This is book one in the Friend Zone series, and I wish I had read it first instead of The Happy Ever After Playlist (book two) because I knew what was going to happen toward the end, and I dreaded it. I’m not giving away any spoilers, so I’ll just leave this review with recommending reading the book series in order and not how I did it.