At the start of the year, I started listening to audiobooks. I always wanted to be a reader but couldn't/wouldn't make the time so audiobooks were a way around it. I could be busy doing something while still listening to a book. Anyway, I thought I would share what I have been listening too. All of my audiobooks come from my local library through the app BorrowBox. I know lots of what I listen to might be considered old but they are all new to me!
This is what I listened to in February:
It’s safer for Mia to play the part that people expect. She’s a good wife to her husband Tristan, a doting stepmother, she slips on her suit for work each morning like a new skin. But beneath the surface, there’s another woman just clawing to get out. When a shocking event shatters the conventional life she’s been so careful to build, Mia is faced with a choice. Does she live for a society that’s all too quick to judge, or does she live for herself? And if that’s as an independent woman with a cat, then the world better get ready...
If you’re in the mood for something a bit bonkers but surprisingly deep, you have to listen to Cat Lady! I flew through this. It felt like a rollercoaster. One minute you’re laughing out loud and the next you’re actually a bit heartbroken. It touches on some heavy stuff like childhood trauma and grief but it never feels like it's too much because the wit is always there to pull you back up. It’s basically a life lesson to stop trying to be the perfect version of yourself and just be the weirdo you actually are. What I loved most was how it challenges that whole "cat lady" stereotype. It flips it on its head and turns it into something empowering instead of sad.
Tiffy and Leon share a flat
Tiffy and Leon share a bed
Tiffy and Leon have never met...
Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they're crazy, but it's the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy's at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time. But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven't met yet, they're about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window...
I absolutely loved how Beth O’Leary made something that sounds quirky feel genuinely warm and emotional. Tiffy is this wonderful, bubbly, whirlwind, while Leon is much more quiet and reserved. They communicate by sticky notes, texts and random little messages left around the flat and over time those notes build a connection that’s warm and funny! The audiobook is clever because it uses two narrators, Kwaku Fortune and Carrie Hope Fletcher. Having two different voices for Tiffy and Leon makes the whole post-it note friendship feel so real. While it’s definitely funny and has those heart-melting moments you’d expect, it actually handles some pretty heavy stuff with a lot of grace. Tiffy is dealing with the aftermath of a really gaslighting, emotionally abusive relationship and seeing her find her confidence again is good. Leon is dealing with a massive family crisis involving his brother. It balances the will they/won't they tension with some really high-stakes drama that makes the happy moments feel earned rather than just handed to them. By the time they finally meet in person, which takes a while, I was rooting for them so hard.
From the bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Tulip Fever, a deliciously funny, poignant and wry novel, full of surprising twists and turns: James is getting on a bit and needs full-time help. So Phoebe and Robert, his middle-aged offspring, employ Mandy, who seems willing to take him off their hands. But as James regales his family with tales of Mandy's virtues, their shopping trips and the shared pleasure of their journeys to garden centres, Phoebe and Robert sense something is amiss. Then something extraordinary happens which throws everything into new relief, changing all the stories of their childhood - and the father - that they thought they knew so well.
The Carer shares a very ordinary slice of life. You’ve got these two siblings who ease their guilt by hiring Mandy to look after their dad. I found myself cringing a bit at how much they patted themselves on the back for finding her only to turn into investigators the second they realised their dad actually liked her more than them. When the siblings start spiralling, convinced that Mandy is some sort of gold-digging mastermind it got me hooked. It’s not a thriller but the tension comes from flipping between thinking the kids are being spoiled brats and wondering if Mandy really does have a skeleton or two in her closet. Without giving anything away the story changes into something much deeper than someone being a shady character. It touches on how little we actually know our parents and they have a history before we were born. By the end I wasn't even thinking about the mystery anymore I was just really moved by the secrets people carry to keep their families together.
Susannah has two beautiful daughters, a high-flying medical career, a successful husband and an enviable life. Her hair is glossy, her clothes are expensive; she truly has it all. But when - on the hottest day of the year - her strict morning routine is disrupted, Susannah finds herself running on autopilot. It is hours before she realises she has made a devastating mistake. Her baby, Louise, is still in the backseat of the car and it is too late to save her. As the press close in around her, Susannah is put on trial for negligence. It is plain to see that this is not a trial, it's a witch hunt. But what will the court say?
This is not a light, fun listen. It’s tense, uncomfortable and there were moments I had to pause because it felt a bit too real but it’s also sharp and thoughtful and very relevant. It says a lot about burnout, ambition and how close someone can be to the edge without anyone noticing. What makes this book so gripping is that it doesn’t feel dramatic in a sensational way, it feels like what happened to Dr Sue could happen to anyone! The blurb above isn't a spoiler as what happens, happens in the first couple of chapters, this is all about the aftermath and how one single bad decision or even just a moment of human weakness could tip someone over the edge. This book makes you think about how quick we are to judge mothers and how harshly we look at women who falter.
What Emma Caroline Blake has planned at New Hampshire’s Ridgemont Academy is shocking. Her school blames a heart breaking tragedy in her family. Her best friends point to her most recent social media. Her teachers, even her father, say it’s a drastic cry for help. But Emma doesn’t want help. She wants to make a difference. Not tomorrow. Today. Now. She’s going to walk through fire to change the world.
When I started this I thought I knew what I was getting. Fast paced, dramatic a bit shocking with a twist or two but I wasn’t fully prepared for was just how intense this book would feel right from the start. This isn’t a slow build, there’s no gentle easing into it as during the very first chapters you know something big is coming! Emma is not your typical troubled teen character, yes she's had tragedy in her family and normal teenage stresses but she doesn't see herself as someone falling apart. I was constantly questioning what’s really going on. She pushes people away, keeps secrets and has a belief that she has to do something drastic to be heard! By the time you reach the final chapters, the tension is almost unbearable.
What have you been reading or listening to lately?
