What I listened to in August!

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 to. 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 August:

Come Again by Robert Webb!

Kate’s husband Luke - the man she loved from the moment she met him twenty-eight years ago – died suddenly. Since then she has pushed away her friends, lost her job and everything is starting to fall apart. One day, she wakes up in the wrong room and in the wrong body. She is eighteen again but remembers everything. This is her college room in 1992. This is the first day of Freshers' Week. And this was the day she first met Luke. But he is not the man that she lost: he’s still a boy – the annoying nineteen-year-old English student she first met. Kate knows how he died and that he’s already ill. If they can fall in love again she might just be able to save him. She’s going to try to do everything exactly the same.

This book is in three parts and I really enjoyed the first two parts. Waking up in your younger body is never going to happen but this story made it feel believable enough to just go along with it. It did make me think about what I would do if I could go back in time, knowing everything that I know now. I didn't enjoy the third part nearly as much. It felt like I’d gone from reading a story to watching an action movie. There was drama dealing with a high-speed car chase, a brawl in a theatre, spies, cabbies and Russian heavies. It felt so over the top and not in keeping with the first two parts. It was not needed and felt a shame since I had been enjoying it so much until then. One thing I did love was Olivia Colman reading it. She is brilliant doing all the different voices and accents for the characters and it made listening so much fun. Even when the plot started going a little off the rails, I was still enjoying listening to her.

My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney!

Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into, Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls, nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn’t fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that the stranger is his wife.One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying. Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner called Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person's date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel, and as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs.

This story got straight into the drama in the first chapter, so I was hooked from the beginning. It made me want to know what was going on, what was going to happen and how it was going to end. I was a little confused in parts, especially with the different characters which I kept changing my mind about and the timelines but I think that is part of what kept me listening. I did make sense of it all eventually. There is so much going on that you have to pay attention and every time I think I had worked something out, something changed and I wasn't completely sure any more. The ending was a little far-fetched, but by then, I was invested enough to see what happened and it all came together well at the end. I listened to this as an audiobook and the different voices were fantastic. The sound effects added to the suspense too, which I really enjoyed. It made certain parts feel even more dramatic and I found myself wanting to carry on listening rather than switching it off.

Someone Else's Shoes by JoJo Moyes!

Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else’s shoes? Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in. That’s because Sam Kemp in the bleakest point of her life has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag she’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When she tries on Nisha’s six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must change and that thing is herself.

Who'd have thought a story about a pair of Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes would be so good! I loved this book. There is quite a lot going on in this story, with lots of different characters and their own little storylines. I loved getting to know each of the women and finding out what was going on in their lives. They all have their own problems, secrets, worries and mistakes and slowly their lives start to become intertwined. There’s a bit of everything in this book with romance, mystery, humour, heartbreak and friendship. I really didn't want it to end!

Best Summer Ever by Heidi Swain!

Summer is in full swing when Daisy drives back into Wynmouth in her almost-clapped-out car, having left both her most recent job and the man her parents thought she was going to marry. Coming home could be just what she needs to move her life on. At Wynbrook Manor, things are in disarray. Owner Algy isn’t getting any younger, and Daisy’s mum Janet, housekeeper at the manor, spends her days running around after him, while Daisy’s dad Robin, the gardener, has been let down by the person he had lined up to take care of the new cut-flower garden. As Daisy tries to find her place at Wynbrook and in the village, she’s drawn to summer visitor Josh. But when he turns out to be not the person he appears to be, will the spark between them fizzle out? And with it, the chances of this turning into the best summer ever?

This is my first book by Heidi Swain and I loved it. It was exactly the sort of book I wanted during August. I know summer books don't need to be read in the summer but listening to this one while we were in the middle of a heatwave felt perfect. It has a coastal village, gardens, family, friendships, romance and plenty going on with the characters. It was pretty obvious where the story was heading and I was mostly right. I didn't mind because sometimes I just want to sit back and enjoy the story without having to think too hard. I really liked the setting of Wynmouth. It's a fictional coastal village but it was so easy to picture while I was listening and it made me want to visit somewhere by the seaside! I also discovered that there is a whole series of books set in Wynmouth, which I didn't realise before starting this one. I will definitely be looking for the others on BorrowBox.

What have you been reading or listening to lately?