Hi and welcome to Bite Size Saturday with a little help from my friends!
I think we can all agree that our bookish friends and the bloggers with whom we interact have an impact on our TBR. I am proof of that! So for the second time, Bite Size Saturday has as a common denominator the fact that I picked up these books because of (a) review(s) I read.
Dear Wife by Kimberly Belle is a thriller about a runaway wife, the police officer trying to find her and a husband left behind. It is told from the POV of these three characters. Dear Wife is one hell of a read! It is edge-of-your-seat entertainment and when I had my lightbulb moment and finally put two and two together, I gasped audibly and literally stood frozen for a moment. I’d had an inkling about something and I knew that I wasn’t seeing the bigger picture, but when it dawned on me what I was missing, ohmigod, I was not prepared AT ALL! Clever, very very clever!
Dear Wife works perfectly as an audiobook, with each POV voiced by a different narrator, and they all do an amazing job!
I can’t remember who put Dear Wife on my radar, for a while it was everywhere, and I added it to Goodreads right away because I’d enjoyed Kimberly Belle’s The Marriage Lie a few years ago. Dear Wife, in my honest opinion, is even better. With its mystery and suspense, one character to root for and another one to hate with a vengeance and its highly satisfying finale, Dear Wife ticked all my boxes.
Highly recommended in whatever format!
Proximity by Jem Tugwell is set in the not all too distant future, and the most notable difference between society now and society then (apart from the self-drive cars) is that people are constantly monitored. No need for sleuthing anymore, because the police can easily retrace your steps et voilà, there’s proof you were there committing that crime. As a consequence, so-called proximity crimes are practically non-existent. Until someone finds a loophole…
The best thing about Proximity is its main character Clive Lussac. He’s an old-school detective, remembering how it used to be when detectives had to actually, you know, detect. He’s not very technologically-minded, he’s constantly snarking at the vending machines insisting on giving him healthy food and refusing him coffee, and I found him so funny because I could really see myself reacting in the same way. With something like an advanced Fitbit dictating my every move, telling me what I can and can’t eat, drink and do, I’d become very bad-tempered very quickly! (I wouldn’t mind the granola though ?)
Proximity was put on my radar by Meggy’s review on Chocolate’n’Waffles. The premise ticked all my boxes, and I happened to have an Audible credit lying around, so down the rabbit hole I went. Quite frankly, this was not the best audiobook I’ve ever listened to, or rather, it wasn’t the best fit for me, as I had to really concentrate on the narrator’s voice, if not I caught myself dreaming off. Kevin E. Green’s voice must be too soothing for me!
Proximity is an entertaining crime novel but first and foremost, it is extremely thought-provoking. You can’t help but ponder the possibilities, the advantages and the downsides of the iMe technology. Recommended, especially to Black Mirror fans.
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is about a fictional rock band in the 60s and 70s. It depicts their rise to stardom and their fall and everything in between and I was not at all prepared for how much I loved it. It’s not really my genre, but the story and the characters got under my skin, and I think they may stay there for a while to come. I’d read numerous reviews but it was Jonetta’s audiobook review that nudged me into buying it on Audible. If I hadn’t listened to Changeling, Daisy Jones & The Six would have be my audiobook of the year for sure! The full-cast narration is sublime, the narrators extremely well cast, especially Billy, The Six’s singer, with his warm voice, and Daisy, you can the grit in her voice that is talked about so much in the book. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much if I’d read it, instead of listened to it, but as an audiobook I can’t recommend it enough, whether you’re a music buff or not!
Thanks for joining me today! Have you read any these? Do you pick up books because of reviews or are you made of sterner stuff than I am? Tell be below!
I love Clive! I can’t wait for the next book! Thank you for trusting my review and giving Proximity a chance. I’m sorry the audio version was not the best fit for you! 🙁 xxxx
Not the best fit but still very enjoyable, I’ll definitely read the next Clive, although perhaps in another format 😉 Of course I trust your review, I know you know your books 😊
I love it when fellow bookish friends help us discover new gems! I loved Daisy Jones as well and it’s one of the few books that actually tempts me to try audiobooks again (yes, the Six Stories books do that too). I’m definitely curious about the other two!
You really should give audiobooks another try, you might enjoy them! So much depends on the narrator(s) and your own mindset! Audiobooks like Daisy Jones and the Six Stories series are less effort because of their format I think.
I really should, shouldn’t I? I might just try and listen to those two as they seem perfect for audio… I’ve always been curious about Sadie as an audiobook too.