Category: Audiobook Review

Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other by Bethany Turner

Audiobook Review | Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other by Bethany Turner

Brenda Cornell reinvented herself as Brynn not long after she left the tiny town of Adelaide Springs, Colorado, twenty years ago.

She’s now the co-host of a network morning news show, and has a bright future ahead of her. At least, she does until she’s overheard disparaging her hometown when she thinks the cameras are no longer rolling. She is sent back to Adelaide Springs to try and save her career by making good with the people she insulted on national TV.

Sebastian Sebworth is an ex-journalist who moved to Adelaide Springs a few years back, and who now sits on the city council, runs the local newspaper, and acts as general taxi driver and dogsbody in his spare time. He’s given the job of shepherding Brynn and her cameraman around town for the week.

My first impression of Brynn was not positive, and I could fully understand why Sebastian took an instant dislike to her. She was arrogant, rude, and shallow, and seemed to excel in saying the wrong thing at the same time. However, Sebastian didn’t win me over either. He deliberately baited Brynn instead of taking the opportunity to be the bigger person.

Brynn and Sebastian reminded me why I’m not a fan of enemies-to-more stories.

I was probably halfway thought the story before I found either of them particularly likeable, and even then I was reluctant. They both have difficult backstories to overcome, but didn’t feel like their backstories influenced their behaviour toward each other … which was barely civil to begin with.

I also wasn’t entirely convinced by their developing relationship, in that they seemed to move from enemies to forever in too short a period of time (less than a week in story time). I did enjoy seeing Brynn reunite with people from her growing-up years, and I enjoyed the insights into life in a tiny town (population of under 900).

I reviewed the audiobook version which makes it harder to judge the quality of the writing.

There were a few sentences that sounded clunky, but was that the writing, the narration, or a combination of the two? It was generally a good production, but there were a few times when I found it difficult to track which character was speaking, especially if the conversation was between two men.

Overall, Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other is a solid rom-com that fans of the enemies-to-more trope will enjoy.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free audiobook for review.

About Bethany Turner

Bethany Turner has been writing since the second grade, when she won her first writing award for explaining why, if she could have lunch with any person throughout history, she would choose John Stamos. She stands by this decision. Bethany now writes pop culture–infused rom-coms for a new generation of readers who crave fiction that tackles the thorny issues of life with humor and insight.

She lives in Southwest Colorado with her husband, whom she met in the nineties in a chat room called Disco Inferno. As sketchy as it sounds, it worked out pretty well in this case, and they are now the proud parents of two teenagers.

Find Bethany Turner online at:

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About Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other

She’s a sunny morning-show host. He’s a cynical ex-reporter. They’re destined to hate each other . . . Aren’t they?

Brynn Cornell has to be stuck in a nightmare. Just last week, she was riding high as cohost of the popular morning show Sunup. She’s America’s Ray of Sunshine—the girl-next-door beauty who drives up TV ratings while never exuding anything but her trademark positivity and poise. All it took was one huge on-air mistake to expose her snarky side to the world and make it all come crumbling down. Now she’s back in her hometown of Adelaide Springs, Colorado, in a last-ditch attempt to convince viewers she’s not the mean girl they think she is. All she has to do is apologize and capture some feel-good footage reminding everyone she’s just a girl from humble beginnings who’s grateful for her big break, and she might manage to preserve both her career and her image. But this town holds painful memories that she’s not ready to face.

Sebastian Sudworth was on the fast track to the journalist hall of fame. A superstar reporter with a reputation for being in the center of the action, his fearless, relentless coverage of major events around the globe was winning him awards and accolades—until something snapped inside him and he vanished from the scene under mysterious circumstances. Sebastian sought refuge in tiny Adelaide Springs, working odd jobs and trying to blend in as a scruffy mountain town citizen.

When Sebastian is assigned to chauffeur Brynn around town, Brynn is sure he can see right through her carefully cultivated, sunny persona. But she’s determined to do what it takes to maintain her image and save her career—so she’ll just have to charm the socks off Sebastian the same way she charmed her viewers. Easier said than done. It’s no picnic to play nice around someone you hate . . . especially when you might be crazy about them.

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Ladies of the Lake cover image

Audiobook Review | Ladies of the Lake by Cathy Gohlke

Ladies of the Lake begins in 1935, with the headmistress of Lakeside Ladies Academy in Connecticut calls to personally invite Mrs. Murray to her daughter’s graduation, even though it is over 800 miles away. Mrs. Murray refuses, and that is the first big question: why?

The story then skips back to 1905, when twelve-year-old Adelaide MacNeill’s parents drown, her older half-brother sends her away from her beloved Prince Edward Island and sends her to the Lakeside. There she is befriended by Dorothy, Ruth, and Susannah, and they refer to themselves as Ladies of the Lake.

The story flip-flops between Adelaide’s growing-up years at Lakeside and the present, where she continues to refuse to travel to the USA. We see her graduate, start work … and fall in love with the same man as Dorothy, her best friend. A man who happens to be a German-American in World War I … yes, there is every indication this isn’t going to end well.

The mystery unfolds as we move further into the novel, particularly as the past story comes closer and closer to the present. There was plenty of tension as I wondered when the present characters would work out what the listener has known from the beginning: that Adelaide is alive. But there were also a couple of unexpected twists, one that was revealed close to the end, providing the piece de resistance to an already excellent story.

The narrator did an excellent job.

The first few minutes felt a little stilted, as the story opened with a letter. But once she got into the regular dialogue and action of the novel, the narration moved smoothly. I was particularly impressed with her ability to portray the different voices–child, teen, and adult, male and female.

I’m not always a fan of audiobooks, mostly because they feel slow—I can read a novel in half the time it takes to listen to the audiobook (and I can’t take the audiobook reading speed much past 1.25 times or I start literally losing the plot). But Ladies of the Lake had plenty of mysteries and secrets to keep me engaged and did a masterful job of unravelling the secrets at the perfect pace to keep me engaged and listening.

Of course, the one weakness of audiobooks is that I can’t underline and share any of the great writing or lines I found particularly meaningful. You’ll just have to trust me: there were many.

Recommended for historical fiction fans, particularly Anne of Green Gables fans.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a free audiobook for review.

About Cathy Gohlke

Cathy GohlkeCathy Gohlke is the three-time Christy Award-winning author of the critically acclaimed novels Secrets She Kept (winner of the 2016 Carol and INSPY Awards), Saving Amelie (winner of the 2015 INSPY Award), Band of Sisters, Promise Me This (listed by Library Journal as one of the best books of 2012), William Henry Is a Fine Name, and I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires (listed by Library Journal as one of the best books of 2008), which also won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Book of the Year Award.

Cathy has worked as a school librarian, drama director, and director of children’s and education ministries. When not traipsing the hills and dales of historic sites, she, her husband, and their dog, Reilly, divide their time between Northern Virginia and the Jersey Shore, enjoying time with their children and granddaughters.

You can find Cathy Gohlke online at:

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About Ladies of the Lake

When she is forced to leave her beloved Prince Edward Island to attend Lakeside Ladies Academy after the death of her parents, the last thing Adelaide Rose MacNeill expects to find is three kindred spirits. The “Ladies of the Lake,” as the four girls call themselves, quickly bond like sisters, vowing that wherever life takes them, they will always be there for each other. But that is before: Before love and jealousy come between Adelaide and Dorothy, the closest of the friends. Before the dawn of World War I upends their world and casts baseless suspicion onto the German American man they both love. Before a terrible explosion in Halifax Harbor rips the sisterhood irrevocably apart.

Seventeen years later, Rosaline Murray receives an unsuspecting telephone call from Dorothy, now headmistress of Lakeside, inviting her to attend the graduation of a new generation of girls, including Rosaline’s beloved daughter. With that call, Rosaline is drawn into a past she’d determined to put behind her. To memories of a man she once loved . . . of a sisterhood she abandoned . . . and of the day she stopped being Adelaide MacNeill.

Find Ladies of the Lake online at:

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The London Restoration by Rachel McMillan

Audiobook Review | The London Restoration by Rachel McMillan

I’m not a big audiobook listener, but NetGalley has recently started making audiobooks available so I thought I’d give The London Restoration a go as an audiobook.

Long story short, I’m still not a fan of audiobooks.

The London Restoration is romantic suspense with a twist—Diana and Brent are already married when we meet them a few weeks after the end of World War II. But they’ve been separated by war for years, and it’s almost as though they are strangers. And there’s the matter of what Diana did during the war. Brent thinks she was a translator, but she actually worked at Bletchley Park.

As such, I should have loved this story.

It’s got London and churches and spies and codes—all things I love in fiction. While I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it, and I think that’s mostly because of the audiobook experience.

The narrator had an English accent, which was a plus (although there were a handful of words I don’t know if she pronounced correctly i.e. in London English). She also did a great job using her voice to show the difference between the two viewpoint characters, and between the multiple speaking characters (although I didn’t work out until the very end that Fisher and Carne were the same person—I thought Fisher was a surname, not a first name. Oops).

Yes, the audiobook had the problems I always have with audiobooks.

It felt slow, because it takes longer to listen than to read, even at 1.75 speed. Yes, I’m a fast reader. Listening is much more stop-and-start than a novel, because I tend to listen while I’m driving, and my commute is 15 to 25 minutes. It therefore takes a couple of weeks to listen to an 11-hour audiobook. It was interesting enough to keep me listening, but not so gripping that I wanted to listen at other times.

The writing was excellent.

But that was also a problem: you can’t highlight favourite quotes in an audiobook. I couldn’t even write them down, as I was listening while driving. So while I could appreciate the writing, I can’t share it with you. I do recall a couple of oddities—they ate a lot of eggs, considering the ration was one per week (or less).

The descriptions of wartime London were excellent, and I could feel Diana’s passion for the Wren churches (the churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren following The Great Fire of London in 1666). I lived in London for ten years, and felt the city coming to life as I listened. It reminded me of friends and family telling me about their experiences in wartime London, and got me wondering what lies behind the stories they didn’t tell. It was obvious Rachel McMillan has a real passion for her story, and that she’s done her research.

There were a lot of flashbacks.

The flashbacks were to before and during the war—to when Diana and Brent met and married, and to some of Diana’s experiences during the war. That made the story harder to follow, as it wasn’t always clear where a flashback fit in the overall timeline. And that’s my overall problem. I pay more attention when I’m reading than when I’m listening, and I think I would have enjoyed the story more if I’d read it.

Fans of Roseanna M White and Carrie Turansky will enjoy The London Restoration.

But I wish I’d read it rather than listening to it.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free audiobook for review.

About Rachel McMillan

Rachel McMillan is a keen history enthusiast and a lifelong bibliophile. When not writing or reading, she can most often be found drinking tea and watching British miniseries. Rachel lives in bustling Toronto, where she works in educational publishing and pursues her passion for art, literature, music, and theater.

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About The London Restoration

The secrets that might save a nation could shatter a marriage.

Madly in love, Diana Foyle and Brent Somerville married in London as the bombs of World War II dropped on their beloved city. Without time for a honeymoon, the couple spent the next four years apart. Diana, an architectural historian, took a top-secret intelligence post at Bletchley Park. Brent, a professor of theology at King’s College, believed his wife was working for the Foreign Office as a translator when he was injured in an attack on the European front.

Now that the war is over, the Somervilles’ long-anticipated reunion is strained by everything they cannot speak of. Diana’s extensive knowledge of London’s churches could help bring down a Russian agent named Eternity. She’s eager to help MI6 thwart Communist efforts to start a new war, but because of the Official Secrets Act, Diana can’t tell Brent the truth about her work.

Determined to save their marriage and rebuild the city they call home, Diana and Brent’s love is put to the ultimate test as they navigate the rubble of war and the ruins of broken trust.

Find The London Restoration online at:

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Read the introduction to The London Restoration below: