Audio: The Downstairs girl - Emily Woo Zeller

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 08-13-19

Language: English

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Historical fiction YA

In exchange for an honest review

Narrator: 

I like the narrator as I have listened to her before, but I did have to up to 2.2 since I felt it was narrated too slowly, but that just makes the story go faster so all good in my book.

She was the perfect voice for Jo.

Story:

Jo lives with her guardian in a basement. Atlanta after the war means no rights for Chinese people, they are not even citizens.

She loses her job and starts working for the family she worked for before, including a certain bratty daughter. She also starts writing an agony aunt column that takes the city by storm.

Did I see the city going crazy over it, nah, not really. I liked what she had to say, she wanted equality and liberty. But far fetched sure, but hey this is a story after all and I really liked how she went after everything. Though the author did try to put in too many issues at once, I know the time gives a lot to talk about, but a focus on a fewer would have been better.

There might be a romance blossoming at the end, nah, did not feel that. I will just choose to see her not going after that.

There is also drama regarding who she is. Who were her parents? I am not saying no to a bit of mystery. I really enjoyed that part. Even if grrrr, it made me want to hit people.

I enjoyed the story, and it did actually never feel particularly YA. I did not even realize it was YA to be honest.

By day, 17-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, "Dear Miss Sweetie". When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society's ills, but she's not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender.

While her opponents clamor to uncover the secret identity of Miss Sweetie, a mysterious letter sets Jo off on a search for her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby. But when her efforts put her in the crosshairs of Atlanta's most notorious criminal, Jo must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step into the light.

Audio: The Secret of a heart note - Stacey Lee

Narrated by: Nancy Wu

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 04-30-19

Language: English

Publisher: Tantor Audio

YA fiction

To review

What can I say, YA fic is just so fun in audio. Light, fun and they tend to be shorter. Perfect.

In this one we meet Mimosa, an aromateur. She spends her days mixing "potions, and taking care of flowers. And now she is even in High School.

Brief sidetrack. How on earth do they stay a float if they do not charge people?

And then her mum leaves on an assignment, and Mimosa makes a mistake fixing two people up. And meets Court, and falls in love.

But love witches can't fall in love, if will destroy their nose, and without a nose you can not work.

Also, no wonder there are not that many around, I am sure the stake took a lot.

I enjoyed it. Mimosa was nice, there was romance, drama, but all in good amounts.

Narration

The narration was well done and I easily fell into this world. She made me scent the flowers. She did well with different voices and made the story come alive

Sometimes love is right under your nose. As one of only two aromateurs left on the planet, 16-year-old Mimosa knows what her future holds: a lifetime of weeding, mixing love elixirs, and matchmaking - all while remaining incurably alone. For Mim, the rules are clear: falling in love would render her nose useless, taking away her one great talent. Still, Mimosa doesn't want to spend her life elbow-deep in soil and begonias. She dreams of a normal high school experience with friends, sports practices, debate club, and even a boyfriend. But when she accidentally gives an elixir to the wrong woman and has to rely on the lovesick woman's son, the school soccer star, to help fix the situation, Mim quickly begins to realize that falling in love isn't always a choice you can make.