Audio: Pride Prejudice and other flavors by Sonali Dev

By: Sonali Dev

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani

Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins

Release date: 05-07-19

Series. The Rajes #1

Publisher: HarperAudio

Romantic fiction /PP variation

To review

I am not the biggest fan of modern adaptions, because most of the time I see nothing of the story in them, but here it shone through in a wonderful way. She did pp justice and managed a great adaptation. 

Trisha is the proud surgeon. But her family ties are not the best because of something that happened 15 years ago. 

Arghh, Wickham, he was loathsome in PP, and here she is a bitch. Evil calculating bitch. It was a very fitting modern Wickham, smile and dagger in the back.

DJ is a great chef, but his sister is really ill and he quit everything to take care of her. But he needs money. He is the prejudice then, and Trisha does make it easy for him. Of course I did like Trisha, her pride in her work was justified. Of course she could have seen that other do just as important things. And DJ just saw a rich girl, but she was so much more. But that is PP.

They clash, a lot! They argue, he despise her, she starts to fall. There is Wickham lurking and spreading lies.

I so want to read about Trishas brother, all I am saying. But I am thinking her cousin and younger brother might get their books and not him.

Also her other cousin was really fascinating!

Back to the story. It does follow PP, so you know they will have their fights and reconciliation, and slowly fall in love. They just really have to work for it.

A good story, a really nice PP version.

Narrator

I have listened to Soneela before and liked her. She is great with accents as she juggles British, American, Indian, and they all work well. As well as the different voices for everyone,

Only in a family like the Rajes could San Francisco's most acclaimed neurosurgeon be considered the black sheep. Dr. Trisha Raje has developed groundbreaking technology and won the respect of her peers and the life-long gratitude of her patients. Still, her large, close-knit family-descended from old Indian nobility-has certain rules to uphold. Trusting outsiders is frowned upon. Disloyalty of any kind is unacceptable. Trisha never intended to jeopardize her brother's political aspirations, yet her long-ago actions inadvertently did just that. At last she has a chance to turn that around.
Up-and-coming chef DJ Caine has known people like Trisha before-people who judge his background and find it lacking, who put pedigree above character. He may need the lucrative, career-making job the Rajes offer, but he has little time for Trisha, especially when he learns that she's the arrogant surgeon who wants to perform an untested procedure on his sister, Emma.
As the two continually clash, their assumptions shatter like spun sugar on one of DJ's stunning desserts. Drawn to DJ's steadiness, humor, and passion-as well as his extraordinary food-Trisha begins to reexamine her view of the world, while challenging his beliefs about the nature of family. But there's a past to be reckoned with before they can hope to savor a future bursting with delicious possibility.

Audio: The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani, Deepti Gupta

Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 04-30-19

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

Fiction

To review

My Thoughts

Always when I read something about travel in India it is always so exotic, filled with foods and no dangers at all. But this other shows the side that I always read about in the news. The latest story I read about this child was so horrifying that I wanted to cry.

The sisters are told to dress modestly, not to walk alone and still they all fear at times. Men in groups, leering, brushing up against them. It is that dark side of India, and they do come across a women's movement too. They try to fight back, even if the odds are against them. And it is certainly a story that needs to be told too.

But let us start at the beginning. With 3 sisters, Raj, Jez and Shirnia whose mother pass away and before that she tells them to go on a pilgrimage. To visit holy sites and to get to know each other again.

Raj the oldest is 43 and her son has found a girlfriend only a few years younger than Raj. She is the mother hen who is strict

Jez is a struggling actress with a scandal brewing. She is the wild one

Shirnia, the one who went into an arranged marriage and moved across the world. She is the diplomat.

I liked these sisters. They certainly had their issues, they did not really want to be here, but they come together in the end and become stronger than ever before.

This book touch on another subject too.  And you know what...I am going to put it in a spoiler because you might ut two and two together. Daughters. And I learned something new, I mean I knew that abortions are high and who wants a girl. But that even rich people do it was horrifying, I just wanted to scream why? Why are girls so bad? It really made me sad.

It is a road trip. It is family drama. And it was a really good story to listen to. I enjoyed it a lot. I should check out that previous book by her too.

Narrator

I really liked her voice and her different voices for the sisters. You could always hear who was who with everyone who showed up. She was perfect.

Ha, I did not realise that the mum was a different narrator. I just thought this one did an amazing job, but yes the mother has another narrator who did a good job too

Blurb

The British-born Punjabi Shergill sisters Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirnia were never close and barely got along growing up and now have grown even further apart as adults. Rajni, a school principal, is a stickler for order. Jezmeen, a 30-year-old struggling actress, fears her big break may never come. Shirina, the peacemaking "good" sister, married into wealth and enjoys a picture-perfect life.

On her deathbed, their mother voices one last wish: that her daughters will make a pilgrimage together to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to carry out her final rites. After a trip to India with her mother long ago, Rajni vowed never to return. But she’s always been a dutiful daughter and cannot, even now, refuse her mother’s request. Jezmeen has just been publicly fired from her television job, so the trip to India is a welcome break to help her pick up the pieces of her broken career. Shirina’s in-laws are pushing her to make a pivotal decision about her married life; time away will help her decide whether to meekly obey or to bravely stand up for herself for the first time.

Arriving in India, these sisters will make unexpected discoveries about themselves, their mother, and their lives - and learn the real story behind the trip Rajni took with their mother long ago - a momentous journey that resulted in Mum never being able to return to India again.

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters is a female take on the Indian travel narrative. "I was curious about how different the trip would be if it were undertaken by women, who are vulnerable to different dangers in a male-dominated society," Balli Kaur Jaswal writes. "I also wanted to explore the tensions between tradition and modernity in immigrant communities, and particularly how those tensions play out among women like these sisters, who are the first generation to be raised outside of India."

Audio: The Ruin of Kings - Jenn Lyons

Narrated by: Feodor Chin, Vikas Adam, Soneela Nankani

Series: A Chorus of Dragons, Book 1

Length: 27 hrs and 15 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 02-05-19

Language: English

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

My Thoughts:

I know I keep saying that everything is better in audio, well, this book proved me wrong. Everything is NOT better in audio. Even those that have Vikas Adam narrating.

Gods, where to start!?

The way it was built:

1 Pov telling Kherin's story today

3rd telling Kherin's story 2 years ago

At the same time.

Then there is footnotes, god damn footnotes that come in in the middle in the narration. If you read it you could at least wait until the end of the page.

And omg, then at the end there is a third narrator, the footnote guy that narrates Kherin's story all the sudden.

The names. Everyone had names that sounded similar, everyone had names that started with the same letter.

Footnotes, I guess it was supposed to build the world? It just annoyed me and at the end when I found out who the letter was to, well then I just found footnote guy to be an arrogant prick. Wtf, the footnotes made no sense.

The worldbuilding was spotty. It was too grand that I understood nothing of. There seems to be a lot of different humanoids, gods, monsters, elves? I really do not know. It was a convoluted mess.

Linear. Just make it linear!

The words. She used a lot of madeup words, or I do not know, maybe they are real, but the thing is I have no idea what anyone was wearing? Words without meaning tell me nothing.

The sad thing is that the history was interesting, it was just put together in a messy way.

Khirin could be such a bratty dick at times too. Yes your life sucks cos of your dad, still, he just kills someone in cold blood. Yes the guy was bad, but he had orders. Kill the one that gives orders instead.

oh and then there is the whole oh this person is dead but someone else is using that body. X is mother to Y, even if only by body since the soul is gone. And this happened a lot. So many who is their parents or grandparents. Everyone in someone elses body

No, I will not read more

Narrators

Well Vikas Adam rocked his 1 person

The woman was good as 3rd person Kherin

Footnote guy was good, until he had his own Kherin story and then it fell apart. Suddenly Kherin had a really American accent and it was really weird 

Blrub

Kihrin grew up in the slums of Quur, a thief and a minstrel's son raised on tales of long-lost princes and magnificent quests. When he is claimed against his will as the missing son of a treasonous prince, Kihrin finds himself at the mercy of his new family's ruthless power plays and political ambitions.

Practically a prisoner, Kihrin discovers that being a long-lost prince is nothing like what the storybooks promised. The storybooks have lied about a lot of other things, too: dragons, demons, gods, prophecies, and how the hero always wins.

Then again, maybe he isn't the hero after all. For Kihrin is not destined to save the world.

He's destined to destroy it. (less)

Audio: City of Brass - SA Chakraborty

Audiobook, 18 h

Published November 14th 2017 by HarperAudio

The Daevabad Trilogy #1

Paranormal/inworld fantasy

Bookbeat.fi

My thoughts

I have a few mixed feeling about this one. It just took so bloody long for it to get going. The first part was pretty dull. Maybe half the book? One third? I can not remember. And then it got somewhat better. But the truly good part was actually only the last 2 hours. Which is kind of sad. Up until that I was not that keen on ever listening/reading more, but those did up the game.

The part that made me stop and think was that I got Twilight feelings and that did ruin a lot. It was SO twilight! I also did not realise that this is adult fantasy. Sure there was rape talk and violence, but I did feel it was more YA. Sure the main character is 20, but she does not act like that. I could just as well have thought her 16. She was so not 20.

Let us begin. Nahri lives in Egypt in the 1700s. She is hustler and a thief. Then she meets a Djinn and she manages to loose a bit of her personality.

There is a magical world mortals do not know of. Of djinn and Peris and other things. She is taken to the city of Daevabad (on a long trip where nothing happens and he tells her nothing cos they are busy.)

At first I liked Dara, but then, he is so caricature bad boy with a chip on his shoulder. I can not love thee, you deserve someone better. Oh just cut it out man.

There is another POV in the book and that is of a prince, Ali, religious zealot and wants one tribe wiped out...right. I can not like you cos of that even if you are trying to help half bloods.

Anyway, Dara is 1400 years old and is clearly Edward then. Ali is 17 years old and clearly...damn what was that boring wold called? Anyway him! Cos Nahri longs for her brooding guy. Ali will become a friend and there is only friendship, but it felt so Twilight. It felt like she had read Twilight and thought, well I can't have her be 17, better make her 20 cos they she is an adult who easily cn love a 1400 year old guy.

I know I complain a book but the Twilight feeling so soured things for me. 

And everyone are acting like dicks. The Djinn dislike one tribes that worships Fire (from which they are made). Cos allt the rest are muslims cos Suleiman put a curse on them to make them look more human and live shorter or whatever it was. Which raises more questions than anything. Why would that then become the right religion for them?

But those last 2 h were good and I will still rate this as good. But honestly, a lot was boring and the end also made me freaking mad. Cos then we learn things and omg I hate that premise. Just tell Nahri everything you effing eejits!

Narrator Soneela Nankani

She was good, I am sure this would have been a dnf otherwise

Blurb

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles. 

But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass?a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound. 

In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences. 

After all, there is a reason they say be careful what you wish for . . . 

Listened to at Bookbeat.fi

Mini review of that site. I like the concept. For 14.95 a month you can listen yo as many audiobooks as you want. They seemed to have a lot of Harper Collins which is good.

BUT, I had huge problems (I did a free month and will not continue). When dling the app on my phone I kept having issues and the only speed I could listen to was 1x. Then I dled on my tablet and there is worked but who is taking that everywhere?

A bit hard to forward and go back too.