THE LAST PASSENGER

The Last Passenger by Will Dean
Narrated by Jenny Funnell
Genre: mystery
Format: ebook & audiobook

About The Last Passenger:

When Caz steps onboard the exclusive cruise liner RMS Atlantica , it's the start of a vacation of a lifetime with her new love, Pete. On their first night they explore the ship, eat, dance, make friends, but when Caz wakes the next morning, Pete is missing.

And when she walks out into the corridor, all the cabin doors are open. To her horror, she soon realizes that the ship is completely empty. No passengers, no crew, nobody but her. The Atlantica is steaming into the mid-Atlantic and Caz is the only person on board. But that's just the beginning of the terrifying journey she finds herself trapped on in this white-knuckled mystery.

Source: Info in the "About The Last Passenger" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67356448-the-last-passenger on 12/02/2024.

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

I thought that this book must be a paranormal thriller because when you suddenly become the only passenger in a golliath-sized liner with everybody disappeared without a trace, that is paranormal to me. People just don't vanish into thin air in the middle of the ocean.

I would do exactly Caz did. Call for help. Mayday on the radio...

By the way, just how old is Caroline Ripley?

Caz is too stupid to live (TSTL). First, she believes that she can leave the ship whenever she wants after being forced to participate and starved? Then she believes in Peter still after leaving her in the ship. **sigh** I do not like stupid heroines.

There is no plot. Just a story of a pseudo-reality show of people in a ship. Then it ends in a big whooping cliffhanger. I'm not fond of cliffhangers.

This is my first Jenny Funnell audiobook and I like the way she reads. Her attempt at a Welsh accent is not bad.

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 2
Character development = 2
Story itself = 1
Writing Style = 2
Ending = 1.5
World building = 2
Cover art = 2
Pace = (12 hrs and 41 mins listening time)
Plot = 1
Narration = 4

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 cherries

Meet The Author

About Will Dean:

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands, living in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying law at the LSE, and working many varied jobs in London, he settled in rural Sweden with his wife. He built a wooden house in a boggy forest clearing and it's from this base that he compulsively reads and writes.

blakefriedmann.co.uk/will-dean | twitter | facebook | youtube | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Jenny Funnell:

Actress / audiobook narraotr / voice-over artist

Accent: Australian, American, Liverpool, London, Midlands, R.P., Scottish, Yorkshire

Style: Clear, Confident, Cool, Mature, Maternal, Natural, Smooth, Trustworthy

Funnell was born in Kenya and has a twin sister. She moved to the UK when she was four years old, and attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art[2] She initially started voice acting in radio drama while still a student at drama school, winning the Carleton Hobbs BBC Radio Drama Award in 1984.

twitter | linkedin | wiki | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were bought with private funds.
No money received for this review.

Review: ALL THE LITTLE LIARS

All The Little Liars by Charlaine Harris
Book 9 of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries
Read by Therese Plummer
Format: ebook & audiobook
Genre: murder mystery

About All The Little Liars:

#1 New York Times bestseller Charlaine Harris returns to her Aurora Teagarden mystery series with a fabulous new book featuring the small-town Southern librarian.

Aurora Teagarden is basking in the news of her pregnancy when disaster strikes her small Georgia town: four kids vanish from the school soccer field in an afternoon. Aurora’s 15-year-old brother Phillip is one of them. Also gone are two of his friends, and an 11-year-old girl who was just hoping to get a ride home from soccer practice. And then there’s an even worse discovery — at the kids’ last known destination, a dead body.

While the local police and sheriff’s department comb the county for the missing kids and interview everyone even remotely involved, Aurora and her new husband, true crime writer Robin Crusoe, begin their own investigation. Could the death and kidnappings have anything to do with a group of bullies at the middle school? Is Phillip’s disappearance related to Aurora’s father’s gambling debts? Or is Phillip himself, new to town and an unknown quantity, responsible for taking the other children? But regardless of the reason, as the days go by, the most important questions remain. Are the kids still alive? Who could be concealing them? Where could they be?

With Christmas approaching, Aurora is determined to find her brother…if he’s still alive.

After more than a decade, #1 New York Times bestseller Charlaine Harris finally returns to her fan-favorite Aurora Teagarden series with All the Little Liars, a fabulously fun new mystery.

Source: Info in the About All The Little Liars was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28220808-all-the-little-liars on 15/05/2017.

My Thoughts:

I read this series, like, donkey's years ago! Then all of a sudden I come across another book in this series more than ten years later! Whoa! That is a long hiatus!! And only Charlaine Harris can revive back to life a series that long dead. I wonder why she decided to write again in the Aurora Teagarden's world, after all this time... Speaking of which, I find the story flow a little bit sluggish... Sluggish?! ...heck! It's a little bit under crawling pace... at less than a snail's pace!!... The main reason being that I have already forgotten a lot of the characters and events from previous books. So I had to stop and think, who was who? And did Roe got married before?? Yeah, that was how long ago I've read this series... But I remember Therese Plummer's sleepy voice! And am very happy to be listening to it again! But after a while, it all comes back more easily this time... after an annoyingly interminable time.... *sigh* ... did I say it was a long time ago??...

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 3
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 3
World building = 3
Cover art = 1
Pace = (7 hrs and 51 mins listening time)
Plot = 4
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 cherries


Books In Aurora Teagarden Mysteries:

 

About Charlaine Harris
	Charlaine Harris is a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing for over thirty years. She was born and raised in the Mississippi River Delta area. Though her early works consisted largely of poems about ghosts and teenage angst, she began writing plays when she attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She switched to novels a few years later, and achieved publication in 1981 with Sweet and Deadly. After publishing two stand-alone mysteries, Harris launched the lighthearted Aurora Teagarden books with Real Murders, a Best Novel 1990 nomination for the Agatha Awards. Harris wrote eight books in her series about a Georgia librarian. In 1996, she released the first in the much darker Shakespeare mysteries, featuring the amateur sleuth Lily Bard, a karate student who makes her living cleaning houses. Shakespeare’s Counselor, the fifth—and final—Lily Bard novel, was printed in fall 2001. By then, Harris was feeling the call of new territory. Starting with the premise of a young woman with a disability who wants to try inter-species dating, she created The Sookie Stackhouse urban fantasy series before there was a genre called “urban fantasy.” Telepathic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse works in a bar in the fictional northern Louisiana town of Bon Temps. The first book in the series, Dead Until Dark, won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery in 2001. Each subsequent book follows Sookie through adventures involving vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures. The series, which ended in 2013, has been released in over thirty languages. Sookie Stackhouse has proven to be so popular that Alan Ball, creator of the HBO television series Six Feet Under, announced he would undertake the production of a new HBO series based upon the books He wrote and directed the pilot episode for that series, True Blood, which premiered in September of 2008. In October 2005, the first of Harris’s new mystery series about a young woman named Harper Connelly debuted with the release of Grave Sight. Harper has the ability to determine the cause of death of any body. After four novels, this series is on hiatus. Now Harris is working on a trilogy of graphic novels with Christopher Golden and artist Don Kramer, “Cemetery Girl.” On her own she is writing a new series set in the small town of Midnight, Texas. Harris has also co-edited a series of very popular anthologies with her friend Toni L.P. Kelner, aka Leigh Perry. The anthologies feature stories with an element of the supernatural, and the submissions come from a rare mixture of mystery and urban fantasy writers. Professionally, Harris is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, the American Crime Writers League, Sisters in Crime, and the International Crime Writers Association. She is a past member of the boards of Sisters in Crime and MWA, and she has served as president of the MWA. She is also a member of Science Fiction Writers of America, Horror Writers Association, and Romance Writers of America, just to make sure she’s covered. Personally, Harris has been married for many years. She mother of three wonderful children and the grandmother of two. She lives in central Texas, and when she is not writing her own books, she reads omnivorously. Her house is full of rescue dogs.
charlaineharris.com | facebook | twitter | goodreads | amazon | google+ | instagram

The Narrator
	Therese Plummer is an actor and voice over artist living and working in New York City. Favorite roles to date include TV: Rose Nerrick, The Good Wife, Andy in Law and Order SVU. Stage: Celebrity Row; New York Theatre Workshop, Under Tillage, The Irish Repertory Theatre. Off-off Broadway credits include The Vagina Monologues, Suzanne in Twilight of the Gold’s and Madeline in the Award Winning Samuel French Short play The Sweet Room. Comedy Credits include Improv at Upright Citizens Brigade and Stand-up at Caroline’s Comedy Club. Therese also performed her one woman show, Ribbons Undone, at the Here Arts Center. Therese records audio books for Audible.com, Recorded Books and Talking Books, Inc. As an adolescent counselor, Therese spent five years utilizing Drama therapy techniques in individual and group settings before moving to New York. She shares a passion of creating, helping and entertaining and feels incredibly lucky to do all three.
www.thereseplummer.com | twitter | facebook | goodreads | google+ | audible

FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

Review: POPPY DONE TO DEATH

Poppy Done To Death by Charlaine Harris
Book 8 of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries
Read by Therese Plummer
Format: audiobook
Genre: murder mystery

About Poppy Done To Death:

On the way to a lunch meeting of her local book discussion group, the Uppity Women, small-town Southern librarian Aurora "Roe" Teagarden is shocked and dismayed to find her sister-in-law Poppy lying bloody and dead right outside her own back door. Poppy had her flaws, certainly - she and her husband were having trouble staying faithful to each other - but she didn't deserve to be so brutally murdered.

Investigating a case like this is never easy, of course, given the gossipy atmosphere of any small town, what with Poppy and her husband's extramarital affairs, the local police detective (who also happens to be a former boyfriend of Roe's) and his seemingly unresolved feelings for Poppy, and the need to protect Poppy's family. But Roe is also coping with a burgeoning romantic relationship as well as the sudden appearance of her teenaged half brother. All in all, it's a lot for one woman to have on her plate, even one as together as Roe.

Longtime readers and new fans alike will delight in Roe's exploits as she employs her impeccable knowledge of small town politics and enchanting Southern charm to solve the crime in this wonderful installment of Charlaine Harris' terrific cozy series.

Source: Info in the About Poppy Done To Death was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10153250-poppy-done-to-death on 21/03/2012.

Review:

Just another installment in the Aurora Teagarden series. Sure there are a couple or so changes in the story line which might prove interesting in future books, but overall, just another book to feed an Aurora Teagarden addiction. There isn't much distinguishing factor in this book from the rest of the books in this series. However the story telling quality is undeniably compelling that even if I got tired of Aurora Teagarden, I still kept on listening to this series. That tells you something about how good the story telling quality is. But I think, the most valuable feature of this book is the fact that it is part of a good series. And thus it would be good for a follower of the Aurora Teagarden who is planning to continue reading on, to read this book so that the reader will have a better understanding of events and characters which originates from this book and gets mentioned in future books. Having said that, it's been a while and no further Aurora Teagarden book bas been released. This seems to be the last book in this series thus far, yet in the book it seems to indicate that further books is forthcoming. And this book did not read like a finale of a series. There was no big bang and no dramatic revelations. If this book is indeed the last of this series, it seems such a lame ending!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 3
Ending = 3
World building = 3
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A (-hour listening time)
Plot = 3
Narrator = 3

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 cherries

Review: LAST SCENE ALIVE

Last Scene Alive by Charlaine Harris

Book 7 of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries
Read by Therese Plummer
Format: audiobook
Genre: murder mystery

About Last Scene Alive:

Aurora Teagarden has never forgotten her first case: a serial killer who terrorized suburban Lawrencetown. Now that story is about to hit the small screen. Even if she wanted to, Aurora can't help getting involved. Her ex, Robin, wrote the TV movie's screenplay and her stepson, Barrett, has a starring role. Then there's Celia--the catty actress portraying Roe--who, by the way, also happens to be Robin's latest squeeze. But when Celia is murdered and Barrett is accused, the real-life script takes a deadly turn. Between threatening letters, deranged fans and renewed feelings for Robin, Aurora has one goal: catch a killer and make it to the final scene alive.

Source: Info in the About Last Scene Alive was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/140080.Last_Scene_Alive on 27/10/2012.

Review:

In this book Charlaine Harris took the "movie adaptation" angle which seems to be a favourite theme of some long-running serieses. Like for example, JD Robb also took this story line up in her In Death series. I'm not complaining, I'm just apprehensive that this theme is starting to recur more frequently and start to feel like "same old, same old". But it hasn't yet, just starting to, so let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that it doesn't become "too used up".

The story telling quality is still great, however, this book does not seem to stand out for me. It felt like just another chapter in Roe's life. Though admittedly her life now has seems to have, all of a sudden and quite coincidentally, acquired a rather busy upheavals lately which never occurred in the last 30 years of her life. I am kinda hoping that Charlaine Harris would give some sort of explanation about this sudden influx of events in Roe's life in future books. It would be nice to have a reason why. It would definitely be an added bonus!

And at the end of it, this book's biggest merit is that it is a part of the Aurora Teagarden series and if you are a fan, you would be wanting this book. But other than that, there isn't much more I could say about this book, thus the rating of three instead of four or higher.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 3
Ending = 3
World building = 3
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A (7hrs & 4mins listening time)
Plot = 3
Narrator = 3

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 cherries

Review: A FOOL AND HIS HONEY & DEAD OVER HEELS

A Fool And His Honey by Charlaine Harris
Book 6 of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries
Read by Therese Plummer
Format: audiobook
Genre: murder mystery

About A Fool And His Honey:

Sleepless nights, a cross-country chase and a temporary stint at motherhood all turn newlywed Aurora Teagarden's life upside down. When her husband's niece, Regina, shows up unannounced on their doorstep with a baby and a secret, Aurora's perpetual curiosity leaps into overdrive -- especially when the body of the girl's husband is found axe-murdered in her own backyard But Aurora's curiosity may get the best of her this time, as she walks right into the middle of Regina's dangerous secrets.

Source: Info in the About A Fool And His Honey was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/140094.A_Fool_and_His_Honey on 17/02/2012.

Dead Over Heels by Charlaine Harris
Book 5 of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries
Read by Therese Plummer
Format: audiobook
Genre: murder mystery

About Dead Over Heels:

Part-time librarian Aurora “Roe” Teagarden never liked Detective Sergeant Jack Burns, but she also never wanted to see him dead— especially not dropped from a plane right into her own backyard. But when other strange things happen around her, ranging from peculiar (her irascible cat turns up wearing a pink ribbon) to violent (her assistant at the library is attacked) to potentially deadly (her former lover is stabbed), she must decipher the personal message in the madness before it's too late.

Source: Info in the About Dead Over Heels was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/140089.Dead_Over_Heels on 17/02/2012.

Review:

I trolled google and this is an image I found of what I imagine Aurora "Roe" Teagarden, our main protagonist, would look like. For those of you who've read this series, what does she look like in your head? ...Speaking of Roe, I actually stopped listening to this series because I got really annoyed about Roe getting too stupid to live (TSTL). However, with these books, Roe's TSTL has tapered down a bit, thank god for small mercies!! But, there isn't much distinguishing factor with these two books from the rest of the series other than that it feeds more of an Aurora Teagarden addiction. Having said that, this series is not as addictive as True Blood or the Harper Connelly series. And these being a Charlaine Harris work, of course it has fantastic world building and great story telling quality. Plot-wise, Dead Over Heels is a bit thinner than A Fool And His Honey. Both however, feel like the plot is 2D rather than 3D. There isn't much layering of plots. And yes, the cover art remain totally uninspiring. I thought that the cover is the first line of marketing tool of a book. If that is the case, this cover arts failed miserably. The art department needs to be fired! They have failed in their function. The only selling point of these books is Charlaine Harris's name! And ofcourse, that sold it to me.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A (6.25-hour listening time)
Plot = 3
Narrator = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Thank you to the RCT Library for letting me borrow these audiobooks!!

FTC Disclosure:
This audiobook was borrowed from the library. No money received for this review.