Showing posts with label jennifer pickens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jennifer pickens. Show all posts

Monday, June 15, 2026

Audiobook Review: Beach Thriller by Jamie Day

 
Beach Thriller by Jamie Day

Beach Thriller by Jamie Day
Publication Date: June 9th 2026 by Macmillan Audio
Pages: 368
Audio Book Length: 12hrs 20min
Narrators: Emily Shaffer, Jane Oppenheimer, Jennifer Pickens, Megan Tusing
Source: Publisher 
Rating:
Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:
Holly, a moderately successful writer, is suffering from writer’s block, but needs to come up with her next book soon. Especially since she’s hurting for cash. Moving back to her childhood home, a rundown beach cottage isn’t something she wanted to do but it’s all she can afford. Holly just needs to hunker down and write a book. That’s difficult when reminders of her sister’s death which was ruled as “undetermined” are around every corner. Holly knows in her gut that Anna was murdered, but the police did little to solve it.
 
Jade, not quite eighteen, ran away from a troubled home has also landed in Beauford, her path intersecting with Holly’s.
 
Finding her old draft, “Beach Thriller”, which was based on those events motivates Holly to uncover the truth and finally get justice for her sister.  Unfortunately, digging around for the truth puts both Holly and Jade in danger.
 
It took me a bit to get into the story and some of the dialogue and reactions felt a little off, but around the 30% mark I was fully invested. I enjoyed Beach Thriller and liked both Holly and Jade. I liked the “book within a book” aspect. I guessed at some of the reveals, but others were a surprise. I appreciated how it all was explained and made sense, wrapping up the story in a satisfying conclusion.
 
I listened to the audio version and having a full cast of narrators, one for each POV, definitely enhanced my enjoyment!

4 Stars


Book Description:

Holly Sinclair, a struggling writer, is forced from her cherished New York apartment and returns to her family's seaside cottage in the charming town of Beauport, Massachusetts—a home she hasn't seen in nearly twenty years. Guilt grabs her the moment she arrives. Years ago, her sister died here, and Holly still blames herself.

She arrives on a mission from her literary agent to write a best-selling novel. Her future depends on it. But she’s not the only one with an agenda. Someone is watching Holly's every move from the shadows. Desperate for a good idea, Holly makes the fateful choice to write about her past. The Watcher sees all and knows what Holly doesn’t: Some secrets must remain buried.

As threats from the ominous Watcher become increasingly sinister, Holly realizes that, even though the past is a faint echo, it is still close enough to be deadly.


Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Review: I'll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong

 

I'll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong
Publication Date: October 1st 2024 by St. Martin's Press & Macmillan Audio
Pages: 327
Audio Book Length: 10hrs 3min
Narrator: Jennifer Pickens
Source: Publishers
Rating: 
Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo Libro.fm |  Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:
When Nicola and Anton married, they always thought she’d die first with Cystic Fibrosis, but Anton is killed in a tragic accident and Nicola is mired in grief and haunted by his last word: “I’ll be waiting…” Since then, even though she doesn’t put much stock in spirit mediums, she can’t help holding out hope that she can connect with Anton again. Nic doesn’t let up, because there’s an experience from her past that leads her to believe there’s more after life, even though this experience went horribly wrong!
 
I was hooked from the start, as the story starts with a bang! Hints of Nicola’s past is dangled. Her history is slowly revealed, and I was riveted by the mystery! Built up suspense, crazy things happening, an old home with creaks and noises that shouldn’t be possible! 

I’ll Be Waiting was spooky, and I was a little jumpy reading late into the night! I wondered if there was someone behind all the scary things or if it was some malevolent, paranormal force at work. I had my suspicions.
 
Things got wild, just like the ending of a horror flick, and it was a battle for survival! I enjoyed every minute!
 
I alternately read and listened to an audio copy and I recommend either version. The narration was wonderful! Loved Jennifer Pickens’ voice, rich, and quietly strong, it fit Nicola’s calm, practical character. Definitely enhanced my enjoyment!

4 Stars


Book Description:

From New York Times Bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a spellbinding new tale of supernatural horror involving a haunted-house, seances, lost loved ones, and a sinister spirit out for blood...

Nicola Laughton never expected to see adulthood, being diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a child. Then medical advances let her live into her thirties and she met Anton, who taught her to dream of a future… together. Months after they married, Anton died in a horrible car crash, but lived long enough to utter five words to her, “I’ll be waiting for you.”

That final private moment became public when someone from the crash scene took it to the press—the terminally ill woman holding her dying husband as he promised to wait for her on the other side. Worse, that person claimed it wasn’t Anton who said the words but his ghost, hovering over his body.

Since their story went public, Nicola has been hounded by spiritualists promising closure. In the hopes of stopping her downward spiral, friends and family find a reputable medium—a professor of parapsychology. For the séance, they rent the Lake Erie beach house that Anton’s family once owned.

The medium barely has time to begin his work before things start happening. Locked doors mysteriously open. Clouds of insects engulf the house. Nicola hears footsteps and voices and the creak of an old dumbwaiter…in an empty shaft. Throughout it all she’s haunted by nightmares of her past. Because, unbeknownst to the others, this isn’t her first time contacting the dead. And Nicola isn’t her real name.

That’s when she finds the first body....

In this atmospheric, thrilling new ghost story, Kelley Armstrong's full talents are on display to thrill, chill and leave the reader guessing how Nicola escapes with her life--if she can.


Thursday, December 14, 2023

Audiobook Review: Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger

 

Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger
Publication Date: October 24th 2023 by HighBridge/Recorded Books 
Pages: 260
Audio Book Length: 5hrs 39min
Narrator: Jennifer Pickens
Source: Library
Rating: 
Links: Amazon Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Librofm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:
Independent bookstore owner Madeline survived a brutal attack, but her friends weren’t so lucky. They caught her attacker, but Harley Granger, a famous true crime writer/podcaster is in town asking questions. Is Madeline sure Evan acted alone? When a new girl goes missing, Madeline isn’t so sure.

I really enjoyed this mystery and even though I narrowed down the list of suspects, I wasn’t absolutely sure until the end! This is my first time reading Lisa Unger, but won’t be my last!

Three POVs: Madeline, Harley and the new missing girl. I enjoyed all three. Would love more books featuring Harley in more cases!

I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed Jennifer Pickens’ performance of both male and female voices. Would definitely listen to her again. I listened at my usual 1.5x normal speed. The audio is on the shorter side: 5hrs 39min so it’s a fast, exciting listen!

4 Stars


Book Description:

Instead of presents this Christmas, a true crime podcaster is opening up a cold case…

Madeline Martin has built a life for herself as the young owner of a thriving business, The Next Chapter Bookshop, despite her tragic childhood and now needing to care for her infirm father. When Harley Granger, a failed novelist turned true crime podcaster, drifts into her shop in the days before Christmas, he seems intent on digging up events that Madeline would much rather forget. She’s the only surviving victim of Evan Handy, the man who was convicted of murdering her best friend Steph, and is suspected in the disappearance of two sisters, also good friends of Madeline’s, who have been missing for nearly a decade. It’s an investigation that has obsessed her father Sheriff James Martin right up until his stroke took his faculties.

Harley Granger has a gift for seeing things that others miss. He wasn’t much of a novelist, but his work as a true crime author and podcaster has earned him fame and wealth—and some serious criticism for his various unethical practices. Still, visiting Little Valley to be closer to his dying father has caused him to look into a case that many people think is closed—and some want reopened. And he has a lot of questions about the night Stephanie Cramer was killed, Ainsley and Sam Wallace disappeared, and Madeline Martin was left for dead, bleeding out on a riverbank.

Since Evan Handy went to jail, three other young women have gone missing, most recently a young college dropout named Lolly. Five young women missing in the same area in a decade. Are they connected? Was Evan Handy innocent after all? Or was there some else there that night? Someone who is still satisfying his dark appetites?

As Christmas approaches and a blizzard bears down, Madeline and her childhood friend Badger return to a past they both hoped was dead—to find the missing Lolly and to answer questions that have haunted them both, discovering that the truth is more terrible and much closer to home than they think.

Coupling a picturesque, cozy setting with a deeply unsettling suspenseful plot, Christmas Presents is a chilling seasonal novella that can be enjoyed all year long.