Audible Book Reviews – Summer Reads Round 1

Summer Book Reviews Round 1

Summer is here and it is HOT in Texas! Now is the time to sit back with a glass of ice tea and stay in the air conditioned house for a good read!

I love reading but sometimes I really prefer the Audible versions of books so I can multi-task. Audible books are great for long car rides or when you are cleaning your house and want to listen to something at the same time. So here is a list of some recent audio books that I have listened to. Most if not all of these books are also available in paperback. All links will be in the descriptions below, enjoy!

The Missing Years by Lexie Elliott.

1.) The Missing Years by Lexie Elliott– Lexie Elliott is the author of the French Girl which I read last year and loved! She is an amazing author and this book was very good. This book takes place in the Scottish Highlands and centers around the main character Alisa Calder.

Alisa’s mother dies and she inherits this old Scottish manor that is steeped in mystery. The townspeople tell her scary old tales of the manor, animals are afraid to venture onto the property and she feels like the manor is watching her. She moves to the manor along with her half-sister Carrie. Once there they begin to experience weird happenings in the house alongside trying to find out what happened to her dad who went missing 27 years ago.

This book had many suspenseful moments that kept me on the edge of my seat. The characters were very well developed and believable. Very good twist at the end of the book! Highly recommend and worth reading, five stars!

The Au Pair by Emma Rous

2.) The Au Pair By Emma Rous This book was very well done and it keeps you guessing. The story centers around three siblings, two of them twins and the recent death of their father.

While cleaning out her father’s office Seraphine Mayes discovers a strange photo of a woman she doesn’t know with her older brother and a photo of her mom with only one baby shortly after she gives birth to twins. On the night of her and her twin brother’s birth, their mother commits suicide.

Seraphine and her brothers never knew the whole story of their mother’s death and knew anything of this au pair that abruptly left the night their mother died. Wanting to find out the truth Seraphine tracks down the au pair and slowly learns that there was more to the story of their mother’s death. As she begins to piece together the mystery of that night, scary threats start appearing and now she is in danger. Along with the town’s folklore of her family and new threats will she find out the mystery of the au pair and what happened to her mother? Highly recommend this book, a great super thriller read for the summer.

Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine. The first in the three book trilogy.

3.) Still House Lake Trilogy- By Rachel Caine– This is a 3 part book series and I loved it! I just completed the third one in the series but recommend you read the first two first.

Story centers around Gwen Proctor and her kids who are the family of a notorious serial killer. Unbeknownst to Gwen and her kids of the true evil that lives with them and how they are put on trial after he is caught. Gwen is falsely accused of helping her husband to commit these heinous crimes and several online hate groups turn against her and her kids. Gwen is acquitted and goes into hiding but is always looking over her shoulder.

Gwen and her kids live in fear for their lives from online vigilantes and her ex-husband in prison who wants revenge on her. Gwen has worked hard to create a new identity in a new town for her kids and herself. Everything is going fine until a new body appears in the lake right by her house and she starts receiving familiar letters from an unknown assailant. Now she must do whatever it takes to protect her family and trust no one. The books in the series are Stillhouse Lake, Killman Creek, and Wolfhunter River. All three are fast reads.

I'll Never Let You Go by Mary Burton

4.) I’ll Never Let You Go By- Mary Burton – This is a great book by one of my favorite authors. It does start out a bit slow and so you need to pay attention to the beginning characters and details but then it gets really interesting. The characters are likable and believable with a lot of back stories that are worth knowing. The end has a major twist and I did not see it coming!

Four years ago Leah Carson’s husband came close to killing her by stabbing her 23 times. Her husband flees and she is told he died in an accident but they never found his body. Now four years later in a new town, weird things start happening to Leah. Missing keys, flat tires, and flowers on her wedding anniversary. Now another woman she knows is killed with exactly 29 stab wounds and Leah is in fear that maybe her husband is back to finish the job. Highly suspenseful and a really fast read.

Hope you enjoyed this book review for Summer round 1. Round 2 will be up in a month or two. Let me know if you read any of these books and if you have any good book suggestions.

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The French Girl By Lexie Elliott- Book Review

The French Girl by Lexie Elliott is by far one of my favorite books that I have listened to recently. I love reading but find that I do not have a lot of time to read, so I really love Audible books. This book was recommended to me and I am really glad that I did listen to it! This book for me was a very fast listen, I finished it in two days!

The story centers around a group of six college friends who all attended Oxford University. They took a weekend trip to the country and stayed at one of their friends’ country farmhouses. It was supposed to be the perfect little getaway, until the French girl next door, Severine arrived. She was an unwelcome visitor to the group and things go from bad to worse when she ends up missing.

Fast forward ten years later and her body is found. Now the group of old college friends are swept into turmoil over what happened to the french girl? Who killed her? Who can you trust? Old friendships and relationships are tested as the book goes from present day to the past. Slowly, the pieces fall into place and the book takes you on a real thrill ride. I found that I really liked the main character and all of the characters were well described and the relationships were believable. You have a mystery thriller and a bit of a romance thrown in for good measure. All in all it was one of my favorites so far this year. This book kept me guessing until the very end.

About the Author:

Lexie Elliott  grew up in Scotland, at the foot of the Highlands. Her first attempt at a book came in primary school, and featured a horse; sadly, that manuscript has been lost. She attended a local state high school, Dunblane High School, and spent much of her teenaged years reading and swimming. In 1994 she began a Physics degree at University College, Oxford, where she obtained a first; she subsequently obtained a doctorate in Theoretical Physics, also from Oxford University.

After losing her banking job during the Global Financial Crisis, she began work part-time in fund management in the City of London, where she still works now; the rest of her time is spent writing, or thinking about writing, and juggling family life and sport. Her debut novel, The French Girl, was published in February 2018. Lexie is currently working on her second novel.

To learn more about the author you can visit her site here. https://www.lexieelliott.com

To get your own copy of  The French Girl or to download Audible follow the links below.

The French Girl Book

Download your copy of Audible and get a free audiobook.

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