New Reviews by Title: S

Three narrators present the story of a young, renowned playwright, Sarah, who died in a fall off the cliffs of Capri thirty years ago. Every year since, her wealthy family has returned for a week at a lush villa. This year, Sarah's daughter, Helen, portrayed by Carlotta Brentan, is shaken by the appearance of the necklace her mother was wearing the night she died. Brentan... Read More

Lisa Flanagan uses the entire box of crayons to depict this mystery's colorful characters, who are led by a doozy of a Franco-American crime boss, Babs Dionne. The drug-running queenpin featured in Currie's bloody revenge tale runs the town of Waterville, Maine, with impunity until someone murders her youngest daughter, Sis. You can almost hear Flanagan's lips curl in blind... Read More

Sura Siu's narration brings depth and sensitivity to Amanda Nguyen's powerful memoir about surviving sexual assault when she was in college. Siu's measured, compassionate delivery honors Nguyen's story, which balances the raw emotion of trauma with the strength of survival. Siu's voice captures the shifting tones of the narrative--quiet pain, determined resolve, and moments of... Read More

Narrators Christine Lakin and Matt Lanter deliver a heartbreaking and uplifting duet narration featuring a geographically challenged couple. Samantha, a marketing rep of mustard, and Xavier, a surly veterinarian, spend their first date locked overnight in an escape room. Shortly after, Samantha goes to California to care for her mother, who has dementia. Lakin communicates a... Read More

Matt Godfrey's horrifying first-person portrayal of the serial killer Dan Morley is perfect for this first novel by Robert Bloch, author of the 1960 movie PSYCHO. Dan is molested by a teacher and later becomes a successful author/screenwriter who leaves a trail of mayhem behind him. The 1949 setting comes alive with Godfrey's dynamic delivery of timely jargon--such as "swell"... Read More

Narrator Josh Bloomberg takes listeners through a novel that explores the grief and mysteries of our childhood that plague our adulthood. Culture writer Jacob Goldberg must create a successful podcast for his company, or he'll lose his cherished spot at the magazine he's worked at for decades. After speaking with a former high school crush about his need for a topic worth... Read More

Narrators Jennifer Jill Araya and Emily Lawrence perform this complicated thriller about dangerous room shares and hidden personalities. Broke and injured yoga instructor Emily Hawthorne is in debt and desperately in need of a roommate in expensive San Francisco. Things are frustrating enough when squatter Pip Stone tricks Emily into getting a room in her condo, but the... Read More

Author and narrator Gabrielle Bernstein offers tools for real change using Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS). In a calm, even tone, she shares personal experiences and guides listeners on how to remove blockages and tap into self-energy. The strategy involves recognizing, identifying, and compassionately connecting with emotionally protective parts of oneself that may... Read More

Georgia Tennant's lively performance as main character "Haze" and Kyle Soller's more understated interpretation of her husband, Fox, might make us think that these two somewhat boring suburbanites are just like their upscale neighbors--hosting dinner parties and caring for their adorable 2-year-old, Bibi. Haze attends mommy/baby groups, while Fox goes into London for work.... Read More

Crown Prosecutor Eve Wren finds herself in the middle of the trial of the decade in this riveting audiobook filled with well-crafted characters and dialogue. Moira Quirk is a superb choice as narrator. She skillfully develops each character, yet with deft use of inflection and vocal modulation the focus remains on Wren. As she reviews all the evidence to make sure the... Read More

This wonderful middle-grade audiobook is about a youth basketball team led by a coach who understands the value of leadership and living a good life off the court. Tony is trying to make the team, and he does--but not in the way he expects. As the players work hard on the court, they deal with the senseless death of a pal whom the whole community mourns. Marc Anthony Samuel's... Read More

This audiobook is the harrowing story of attorney Piper Danes and her quest to track down a deadly stalker. While serving as a guardian ad litem, Danes is assigned the case of Sophie Grace, a teenager who is the lone survivor of a brutal family massacre. Saskia Maarleveld is an outstanding narrator. When the audiobook begins, Maarleveld is subtle and understated as she details... Read More

The classic story of the Hollywood dream meets an ancestral ghost story in this entertaining audiobook, narrated by Elyse Dinh. She provides excellent voices for both Issa Bui and Olivia Nong, best friends who dream of becoming movie stars. Dinh's voice-acting experience is apparent in the dialogue between the friends, as well as that of the many other characters. Her narration... Read More

Kristen Sieh's performance brings the listener into the life of a complicated woman whose sexual desire is fixated on commercial airliners. Lisa works as an online comment moderator in San Francisco. She's good at her job, but she reserves her passion for airplanes. She perceives flights as dates, turbulence as flirtation--and a smooth flight could lead to something more.... Read More

Jones's debut novel continually shifts between Margaret's traumatic girlhood and her current life. She's a divorced mom with two daughters, a dominating mother, an earnest ex, and a new boyfriend whom she enjoys, especially sexually. Narrator Rebecca Lowman embraces her character's inner life. Lowman's tone and tempo are just right as she voices Margaret's anxious thoughts and... Read More

Karissa Vacker carries most of the narrative load in this delightful "coming-of-retirement-age" novel. Exploring the ins and outs of aging and what those changes all mean to a long-term relationship, Vacker brings both Kim and Grant to life, as well as a quirky cast of characters in Palm Springs as the couple seeks to escape winter in the Midwest. When Grant goes missing from a... Read More

Psychologist William von Hippel tackles the human dilemma of wanting to feel free and accepted simultaneously. Josh Bloomberg's narration helps listeners understand that balancing these two desires, instead of choosing one over the other, is the key to happiness. Using a strong and reassuring approach, Bloomberg smoothly explains the friction humans feel between connection and... Read More

Narrators Joshua Manning and Stina Nielsen transport the listener to Scotland, where travel writer Katie Campbell, known for her misadventures, is taking part in an Edwardian experience. Graeme MacKerrow has leased his ancestral home to an English couple for the three-week event. Both narrators skillfully handle the Scots, American, and English accents. Manning in particular... Read More

Ana Clements performs an engrossing story about a child psychologist, Mina, who investigates the haunting of a girl named Alice in the English countryside. A handsome journalist offers to bring Mina to the tiny town where Alice claims to be haunted by a witch. Clements imbues the characters with vibrant accents and embodies Mina with engaging earnestness. Clements also plays... Read More

Róisín Rankin narrates this action-packed story set at an elite Dublin school. Listeners meet a group of 16-year-olds who are hospitalized after a bomb blast in their chemistry lab. Was it an accident or a deliberate act? Each chapter presents a different viewpoint, as well as a mysterious countdown hinting at a more sinister event to come. Focusing on classmates Jess and... Read More

J. Ann Thomas narrates this spooky story. For more than a century, 15 ghosts have remained bound to the grand Berkshires estate of Thorne Hall, which has been controlled by generations of Thorne men. Elegy Thorne thinks she, too, has to inherit the "spirit collection" when her father dies, but her contractor's son suggests another option. Thomas speaks her own eloquent words... Read More

As the story opens with Christina's family eating out, the ensemble of narrators provides a realistic delivery. Later, believing that eighth grade will be her best year yet, Christina persuades her two best friends to try out for cheerleading, even after the heartbreak of not making the squad in their last attempt. Grace Li shines at conveying the wide range of emotions... Read More

Greta Jung narrates this moving story of three women: Angelina, Gongju, and Sunyuh. After the unexpected death of her mother, Gongju, Angelina, a recent divorcée, travels to Korea to reconnect with her birth culture. Jung captures Angelina's melancholy and hesitancy with the Korean language. When Angelina meets a relative, family secrets begin to unspool, leading her on a... Read More

Ailsa Piper evokes the stark Outback of Australia in her performance of this captivating novel. To escape her busy life in the city, a middle-aged woman visits a small religious community for peace and quiet. Years later, she returns to the community, this time for good. But not long after she joins the nuns in their daily life, a plague of mice descends upon the entire state.... Read More

Imran Sheikh's narration captures the interiority of 13-year-old Mohammad (Mo) Mirza, who works hard to stay cheerful despite his father's rages. Sheikh delivers the humor, intelligence, gift for storytelling, and sarcasm that buoy Mo as he deals with his father's paranoid schizophrenia; the absence of his mother, who has chosen to work in a distant refugee camp; and being... Read More

Ari Fliakos expertly delivers this timely audiobook about how some Americans get geographically trapped, preventing them from accessing better livelihoods. Appelbaum's research takes aim at the use of neighborhood covenants, codes, and other systemic tools to prevent diversification. Relating to these issues, housing costs have skyrocketed in the most desirable neighborhoods,... Read More

Is this audiobook delivered by a full cast? No, just the immensely talented Hillary Huber. In this second installment of The Martini Club series, Huber crafts distinct voices for each male and female character, immersing listeners in the search for a missing teenage girl in the club's hometown of Purity, Maine. The retired CIA agents of the Martini Club use their skills to stay... Read More

Sura Siu's narration soars--it's as light and airy as the high-flying Arctic terns on which this nonfiction audiobook focuses. She takes listeners into the sunny summer world of one such bird, who snatches fish to feed his chicks, fiercely drives off predators, and finally leads them to fly for a month over the ocean at summer's end. Siu's gentle narration stresses the lyricism... Read More

Jefferson White shows remarkable skill balancing a youthful cast with the sobering reality they must face. Twenty-four years before Katniss's games, Haymitch, from District 12, must compete in the Hunger Games--with twice the tributes (competitors). White's perfect pacing adds intensity to the brutality of the games and lingering melancholy as Haymitch struggles to maintain his... Read More

The author, a renowned Jewish singer, narrates her first short story collection, an incredible selection of horror stories featuring Jewish characters. In the title work, a young woman hopeful for new romance is worried about people disappearing from her apartment building. Each story is wonderfully unsettling in its balance between historical accuracy and horror told through... Read More

Sarah Perry performs her collection of micro essays, which revolve around her love of candy. Each essay highlights a different confectionery sweet, which she uses to contemplate her relationships, ideas around humanity's pursuit of pleasure, or memory's connection to taste and smell. Perry perfectly describes the experience of eating each candy--every delightful texture and... Read More

Rachel Syme is delightful company. Upbeat, witty, informative, and persuasive, her guide to all things epistolary entertains while convincing listeners that letters (preferably hand-scrawled) are some of the best things in life. Narrating in a cheerful, perky, and crisply enunciated tone, and introduced by romantic music, Syme explores it all: letter-writing history, tales of... Read More