Okay so this picture has nothing to do with audiobooks – but I liked it! And I feel like this is a picture of the inside of my head: thousands of books!

If you know me, you know I commute a lot (over 2 hours a day) during the school year. I find it rather deadly, so my saving grace is audiobooks. I have an Audible subscription, and I just remembered that Net Galley has audiobooks, so I will try to get more of those, too.

Recently, I listened to three different stories, all gotten through my Audible subscription. I liked them all!

What happens when a relationship with a new friend turns into a nightmare of lies and a web of deceit? Lisa Jewell is a master at this type of suspenseful writing and she’s one of my favorite “listens” for when I’m driving. My mind doesn’t wander! (Note: this story had multiple narrators.)

Here’s the scoop:

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author known for her “superb pacing, twisted characters, and captivating prose” (BuzzFeed), Lisa Jewell returns with a scintillating new psychological thriller about a woman who finds herself the subject of her own popular true crime podcast.

Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summer crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.

A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realize that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?

Another suspenseful read, by another master of suspense, was Shari Lapena’s Everyone Here Is Lying (With narration by January LaVoy).

In this story, where a young girl goes missing, everyone really is lying! I was practically squirming while listening and I couldn’t wait to see how it ended.

Here’s the overview:

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

Another thrilling domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door

“The most addictive book I’ve read in ages—so slick and disquieting and clever. Just brilliant.” —Lisa Jewell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Family Remains

“Lapena is a master of manipulation.” —USA Today

Welcome to Stanhope. A safe neighborhood. A place for families.

William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he’s been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper. 

Hours later, Avery’s family declares her missing. 

Suddenly Stanhope doesn’t feel so safe. And William isn’t the only one on his street who’s hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true, Avery’s neighbors become increasingly unhinged. 

Who took Avery Wooler?

Nothing will prepare you for the truth.

Finally, a friend recommended Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait (with narration by Genevieve Gaunt and the author). I loved loved loved her Hamnet. I loved this story, too. This was historical fiction, as O’Farrell builds us a story of Lucrezia de Medici and her short life as the wife of ruler of Ferrara in the 1500’s. What was it like to be married at 13? Sent away to live with your husband at 15? And then dead at 16? O’Farrell’s writing is so beautiful. She captures a phrase and describes a moment so beautifully, that listening to her work is as lovely as reading it.

(I’m just seeing that this was a Reese Book Club pick, too)

Here’s the scoop:

WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de’ Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court.

“I could not stop reading this incredible true story.” —Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Pick)

“O’Farrell pulls out little threads of historical detail to weave this story of a precocious girl sensitive to the contradictions of her station…You may know the history, and you may think you know what’s coming, but don’t be so sure.“ —The Washington Post

Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf.
 
Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?
 
As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court’s eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess’s future hangs entirely in the balance.
 
Full of the beauty and emotion with which she illuminated the Shakespearean canvas of Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell turns her talents to Renaissance Italy in an extraordinary portrait of a resilient young woman’s battle for her very survival.

Currently, I’m listening to Chris Bohjalian’s The Lioness with The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post up next!