Michelle Harder
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Count My Lies
- By: Sophie Stava
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden, Devon Sorvari, Emily Tremaine
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Sloane Caraway is a liar. Harmless lies, mostly, to make her self-proclaimed sad, little life a bit more interesting. So when Sloane sees a young girl in tears at a park one afternoon, she can't help herself—she tells the girl’s (very attractive) dad she’s a nurse and helps him pull a bee stinger from the girl’s foot. With this lie, and chance encounter, Sloane becomes the nanny for the wealthy, and privileged Jay and Violet Lockhart. The perfect New York couple, with a brownstone, a daughter in private school, and summers on Block Island.
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It’s boring
- By Anonymous User on 03-08-25
- Count My Lies
- By: Sophie Stava
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden, Devon Sorvari, Emily Tremaine
Writing Style Engaging, Story Just Ok
Reviewed: 04-15-25
Super slow start, and there wasn't much suspense. In fact, the entire book felt like the setup, then the last 15 minutes or so was the actual plot, if that makes sense. I enjoyed the author's writing style, which is the only reason I stuck with it. I was never bored, just never fully engaged, and was left at the end feeling a little bit like the whole thing could have been a short story. The story was very character driveb, and the main characters were sympathetic (for me, at least), but there was little actual character development aside from a final redeeming decision made close to the end, so it felt a bit flat. Definitely predictable for anyone who has read this genre for any length of time, and called for serious suspension of disbelief at the end. If you, as an author, have to spell out very clearly, "this type of thing never would have worked anywhere else in the world except this little place where every set of circumstances and every person and every coincidence all just happened to line up perfectly despite being well out of the characters' control for this totally implausible thing to work, then you're really not doing all of the heavy lifting that you should be doing to MAKE this thing possible without 60% prep 40% luck. It should be 99% prep, 1% luck.
Also, spoiler here, so if you want to read the book and don't want the ending SPOILED for you, don't read any further, but IMO, the punishment did NOT fit the crime. I hate cheaters as much as the next person, and I have a deep loathing for narcissists who take advantage of women and do a number on their self esteem, but while the husband was a cad, a heel, a lazy narcissistic cheater and manipulator, nearly 2 decades of prison for a crime he didn't commit was a bit much. The author missed an opportunity to describe coercive control and make him a little more of a bad guy so that the punishment didn't feel quite so out of proportion to the crime.
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Before She Finds Me
- A Novel
- By: Heather Chavez
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Julia Bennett has worked hard to create a stable life for her daughter, Cora, in Southern California. So when Cora leaves for college, the worst thing Julia expects on move-in day is an argument with her ex-husband and his new wife. But a sudden attack leaves the campus stunned—and only Julia’s quick actions save Cora’s life. Shaken in the aftermath, and haunted by a dark secret, Julia starts to wonder: What if the attack wasn’t as random as everyone believes?
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Definitely worth the money
- By Kim W. on 04-12-25
- Before She Finds Me
- A Novel
- By: Heather Chavez
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing
Pretty Good. Kept My Interest
Reviewed: 02-18-25
Not groundbreaking or particularly memorable, but the story was enjoyable, and it held my interest, which is what I needed..
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The Locked Door
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Leslie Howard
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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While eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement. Until the day the police arrived at their front door. Decades later, Nora's father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way. `Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims.
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This is a Re-release from 2021!
- By Itwasntme on 12-19-24
- The Locked Door
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Leslie Howard
Passed the Time Well Enough
Reviewed: 02-04-25
I enjoyed the story, though the end was a bit unrealistic. It kept me engaged and passed the time, which is what I needed it to do.
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The Crash
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Leslie Howard
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn't realize she's heading straight into a blizzard. She never arrives at her destination. Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she's made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle occurs: she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears. But something isn't right.
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It was ok...
- By Tiffany on 01-29-25
- The Crash
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Leslie Howard
One of my favorites from this author
Reviewed: 02-03-25
I really found this one to be enjoyable. One of the best I've read from her. I devoured it in one sitting, and was really routing for the characters.
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After You've Gone
- By: Margot Hunt
- Narrated by: Stephanie Einstein, Tyla Collier, Dina Pearlman, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
- Original Recording
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Tessa and Charlie have been best friends since childhood. Now Tess is a famous travel writer who documents her adventures on social media while Charlie rarely leaves the safety of her home, living in fear after narrowly escaping a vicious attack years earlier. But despite their different lives, their bond of friendship remains unbreakable...even in death.
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Beautiful
- By Daniel Garcia on 07-22-24
- After You've Gone
- By: Margot Hunt
- Narrated by: Stephanie Einstein, Tyla Collier, Dina Pearlman, Brian Telestai, York Whitaker
Decent Short Story
Reviewed: 02-02-25
Nothing spectacular, but it was a nice litte story and good performances from the narrators. It killed a couple of hours.
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The Sister-In-Law
- By: Samara Cove
- Narrated by: Emily Christine, Skye Alley, Shawn Lennox, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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When Vivienne Walker becomes one of the prime suspects in a murder that sends shockwaves through the community, her guarded secrets begin to unravel. As investigators dig deeper, the cracks in Vivienne’s carefully crafted life begin to show, and the dark truths about her past start to emerge.
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Absolutely terrible
- By Cynthia on 01-05-25
- The Sister-In-Law
- By: Samara Cove
- Narrated by: Emily Christine, Skye Alley, Shawn Lennox, Simone Brooks
1.5 🌟 for effort
Reviewed: 01-31-25
Let me start with the one positive. It held my interest, and i would read another from this author in a few years to see if they mature. So if you're looking for a time filler and don't care about plausibility and a massive suspension of disbelief, go for it. But...
These authors are trying too hard to be the next Gone Girl that they're writing the book to fit a "twist you'll never see coming," but the reason you won't see it coming is because it's absolutely implausible, impossible, and utterly ridiculous.
This is the 2nd book I've read in a row where the investigation was so utterly impossibly bad that even a first year Sheriff in a small town wouldn't explain it.
*****SPOILERS AHEAD*****
Removing identifying marks from a body (hair, teeth, fingerprints, etc) ONLY WORKS IF THEY DON'T KNOW WHO THE VICTIM IS SUPPOSED TO BE!!! It doesn't remove their "DNA," it just makes it difficult to trace who they are if their DNA isn't already in the system, and if they don't have any idea who the victim is. How would a publisher allow this glaring error of fact to stand? The only way this twist would have worked is if it had been set back in a time before DNA identification was as advanced as it is now...and that would have meant the author would have had to find a new way to frame the sister. You can't have it both ways: DNA technology advanced enough to detect DNA under the fingernails and in the nose of a corpse submerged in water AND have it not advanced enough to identify a whole body with DNA evidence and every last one of their belongings and their family members available.
Removing identifying features certainly doesn't work to make them think it's someone else when you have the entire family of the person it's supposed to be right there being interrogated, and they wouldn't trust one of the suspects as the only person to provide a positive ID. It's ludicrous to think that you can have a whole body that you've removed identifying features from to try to pass it off as someone else, and yet you can plant someone else's DNA to frame them for the wrong person's murder and the planted DNA will show up, but they won't be able to pull DNA from the actual corpse and cross reference it with familial matches or with items that the suspected deceased person used. They'd be able to rule out that corpse as the loved one immediately. These authors don't seem to know how DNA works.
Thus, the whole premise of the story is DOA from the moment of the first scene. We don't learn this until halfway through the book, and by then, I was invested in the story, which does say something for the skill of the author as far as writing style goes.
Also, the portrayal of a person with Bipolar Disorder is uninformed and flat out insulting. That character was written as if they author was trying to write someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Bipolar Disorder does not manifest in the way that this character was written. The husband was written fairly well, as was the wife, but then we get to the actual confession from the villain, and it's ludicrous, unbelievable, impossible, and also insulting because it's just as bad as having a scene where the villain of the story gets their 5 - 10 minute diatribe as they have the protagonist in their clutches as a lazy way to wrap everything up. Yet even with entire chapters dedicated to the confession, it still managed to leave plot holes. It also confirmed some of the more predictable twists (such as the fact that it was pretty obvious that the untimely death of the parents was connected to the case, and it was obvious that the absent brother was somehow involved, and it was also obvious once we knew that the wife was still alive that it was someone who was supposed to love her who took her.
All in all, while it was an interesting read, it just got more and more implausible with each twist and each revealed. By the very end, I just had to shake my head at how sloppy the plot was. And yet, still, I did finish the book, and mostly enjoyed the ride even as I cringed at the lack of research and basic knowledge that this author had about several of the subjects they tried to write about.
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The Boss
- By: James Caine
- Narrated by: Haley Taylor, Hillary Huber
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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I have my dream job. With a nightmare boss. At first, Nicole Barret seemed to be the perfect boss. I was dead wrong. It gets worse when I find out my husband knows her all too well. She's his ex-fiancé. She won’t let me quit without destroying my career and my marriage. It wasn’t a coincidence that she hired me. It won’t be a coincidence if I disappear.
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The Boss
- By DEBF on 02-06-25
- The Boss
- By: James Caine
- Narrated by: Haley Taylor, Hillary Huber
Empathetic main character, ludicrous plot
Reviewed: 01-12-25
The writing style of the author, the main character, and the performance of the narrators was able to hold my interest, but this story calls for a massive suspension of disbelief in so many different areas. Also, the actual synopsis of the story should never have revealed the connection between the boss and her new hire. That would have been a decent reveal if done correctly. It could have created more tension, suspense, intrigue. Instead, it was instantly clear that the hiring was no coincidence because that connection was revealed before the story even started. Why would you choose to put a huge spoiler in the synopsis???
Spoilers ahead for anyone who has read the book and came to confirm that they're not alone in their frustration with some of the ridiculous plot points. The motivations of the villain made absolutely NO sense. If a woman already believes she's about to be exposed for embezzlement, it makes no sense to hire someone to mess with them and take the chance that you'll further expose yourself. Her energy would have been better spent trying to further cover her crimes, not add to them. And that was a plot point that went NOWHERE. It was ludicrous that after her "death," the truth of what she had been doing was never mentioned again. Surely, if she was that close to being caught, the police would have uncovered it in a murder investigation? It would have been at least cause to lend credibility to the suicide theory. But once she's supposedly murdered, it just disappears from the story as if it didn't exist. And the investigation didn't catch the fact that it wasn't even her body?? Not unless every person on the case from the responding officers, the detectives, and the coroner was completely incompetent. Time of death wouldn't match, the condition of the body certainly wouldn't line up with a fall like that. There would have been very little blood (if any) rigor mortis would have already set in, there would have been mottling on the body indicating that it had been inside if a container and in a certain position for so long... Not only that, but what about the bruise she put on her own arm to send in the text, no one noticed that mark wasn't on the corpse?? Lastly, NO WAY are the police going to open an manhunt for a woman who has already been declared dead and whose alleged killer has already confessed to her murder at the word of the incarcerated man's wife. And for them to never have found her body? They wouldn't have released him on the word of the wife that she happened to stumble on this woman alive, ESPECIALLY when the body never turned up. Clothes with her DNA wouldn't have been enough. And since when did we start doing DNA in this story?? We certainly didn't do it on the literal corpse that was dead for a day before having been thrown off of a balcony to confirm it was even the right one. All of the major plot points of this story fall between unlikely, improbable and impossible.
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My Daughter's Revenge
- By: Natali Simmonds
- Narrated by: Claire Storey, Izzy Meikle-Small
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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My first mistake was raising my daughter to be just like me… His death is reported on the morning news. The man my daughter’s been dating. Dead. Gone… I blink slowly–once, twice, three times. The hair on the back of my neck rises as I grip my coffee harder. My breath comes in short bursts. I didn’t even know he existed until recently. Leah doesn’t tell me anything anymore. But I found the letters she hid. I know she fell head over heels for him. That he broke her heart.
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Not Great, Not Bad
- By Michelle Harder on 01-06-25
- My Daughter's Revenge
- By: Natali Simmonds
- Narrated by: Claire Storey, Izzy Meikle-Small
Not Great, Not Bad
Reviewed: 01-06-25
A little slow to start, and somewhat predictable second half. A few surprises, and mostly held my interest. The twist in the very end didn't make much sense, and felt like it was thrown in just for an extra twist.
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The Broken Places
- A Novel
- By: Mia Sheridan
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella, Will Damron, Leon Nixon
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The streets of San Francisco aren’t as sunny as the city pretends they are. Detective Lennon Gray has learned this the hard way, and it’s starting to wear on her. When a new case plunges her into the depths of the transient community, Lennon must once again face ugly truths about humanity. Her new partner makes things a little easier, though. Agent Ambrose Mars is charming—innocent, somehow, despite his own hard years in the field. The combination leaves Lennon fascinated and disturbed at the same time, and she’s even more drawn to him for it.
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Another winner
- By Kindle Customer on 04-21-25
- The Broken Places
- A Novel
- By: Mia Sheridan
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella, Will Damron, Leon Nixon
DNF - First in a LONG Time
Reviewed: 12-29-24
I absolutely LOVED All the Little Raindrops and at least one of her other books that was more on the suspense/mystery side than romance, but I just couldn't get into this one. The inner dialog of the lead male character was just cringe. I mean, like...I've seen less cheese in a Wisconsin curd shop. I tried to get past it for the sake of the story because the actual dialog between characters was fairly normal, but then we get the villain's POV for the first time, and it was equally as cheesy. I can't stand it when authors write villains in a way that is utterly over the top dripping with evil villainousness, like they're trying too hard to make you hate them. It feels so one dimensional. I need a little bit of inner conflict, a little bit of sympathy for the bad guy, at least to start with, but a couple minutes into the intro to the bad guy, and it was clear he was meant to be hated and lacked any depth. This just clearly wasn't my cup of tea. I wanted to like it...and maybe the story is good, but I just couldn't get past the writing of the male Character, Life is too short to listen to something that makes you cringe internally for minutes on end...
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The In-Laws
- By: Laura Wolfe
- Narrated by: Lauryn Allman
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Taking a deep breath of the fresh, leafy air, Abigail promises herself: Today she is going to make her parents accept her future husband Pete’s family. She’s planned three days away from it all in a beautiful, forested nature reserve. Out here, with almost no one else around, their families will have nowhere to run. They might have clashed from the moment they met—with their stark differences in backgrounds and personalities—but now, Abigail thinks, they will have to get along.
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Too much new age, mystical stuff…
- By Lydia S. Higgins on 05-18-23
- The In-Laws
- By: Laura Wolfe
- Narrated by: Lauryn Allman
Predictable
Reviewed: 12-27-24
I don't know if it's a me thing...maybe I need to swap genres for a while, but I saw where this was going from very early on. I clocked every twist that made sense. There were some threads that went nowhere, and a couple twists that had no reasonable lead-ups, but I knew the main villain from very early on and knew several of the things that happened well before they happened. I also had a hard time empathizing with the protagonist because she brought a lot of it on herself, and her motives for doing so made very little sense. I understand being a people pleaser. I spent most of my life being one. Never in my most people pleasing of people pleasing days would I have ever taken such drastic measures to avoid a conflict. Her disappearing and starting a new life to avoid drama would have been less drastic than what she did, and with less potential for harmful outcome...but then we wouldn't have had a story, and that's problematic for me. When the whole premise of the story is built on one massively nonsensical decision made by the protagonist, the whole plot is questionable. This story just didn't do much for me. That said, I enjoy the general writing style of the author, and enjoyed the last story I read from her, so I will give her another shot.
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