CBR17 Book 46: "Listen for the Lie" by Amy Tintera

Page count: 384 pages

Audio book length: 9 hrs 17 mins

Rating: 4 stars

Buzzword Title Challenge 25: Truth and Lies

CBR17 Bingo: Review (this was very favourably reviewed by Pooja, Narfna and Chairbrarian)

Five years ago, Lucy's best friend Savvy was murdered and Lucy was found wandering along the road, absolutely covered in Savvy's blood. Unfortunately, Lucy also had a pretty severe head wound, which resulted in amnesia, and can't remember anything about the night in question, before or after the murder took place. There wasn't enough evidence to convict her, but most people in her home town of Plumpton, Texas made up their own minds.

Since absolutely everyone back home is convinced Lucy is a murderer, she's been living and working in LA, writing romance novels under an assumed name and doing her very best to try to stay as anonymous as possible. Unfortunately, podcaster Ben Owens has decided to dedicate the second season of his very popular podcast 'Listen for the Lie' to investigating Savvy's murder, and all the sordid details are being dragged back into the light. In short order, Lucy gets fired from her job, and it becomes clear that her throroughly average boyfriend is too scared of her to actually break up with her, but very much would like her to be gone, from his life and apartment. So when Lucy's grandmother calls and emotionally blackmails her into coming back to Texas for her 80th birthday, Lucy doesn't really have a lot of options.

Of course, back in Plumpton, Ben Owens is going around interviewing people and asking intrusive questions, making Lucy's life oh so much more awkward. That he turns out to be handsome and very charming, and that Lucy's grandma is a big fan of his, makes the situation even more annoying. Did Lucy actually kill Savvy? If she didn't, who was the actual murderer and why have they managed to stay hidden for the past five years? Lucy wants Ben to find out the truth, but also fears that it may turn out she was guilty all along.

As I mentioned above, several Cannonballers whose opinions I trust recommended this book, and I had Audible credits to spare, so I figured it might be an entertaining Spring read. There is a tradition in Norway, that during the Easter holidays, you do very little (if you're outdoorsy, you go to a cabin in the mountains somewhere and ski, either cross-country or downhill) and you read crime novels. The various television networks all show mystery mini-series and the book stores put all their crime novels front and centre on their displays. We even have a specific term for it 'påskekrim', roughly translated as Easter Crime/Mystery. It's a whole thing. So listening to a novel about murder and true crime around Easter seemed very fitting.

The audio book is very well done. It alternates between chapters narrated by Lucy, who is a very sarcastic and cynical individual. January LaVoy does an excellent job conveying her snarky tone. Then in between, there are the 'podcast' sections, narrated by Will Damron as Ben Owens. I don't listen to podcasts, really (they take time away when I could be reading, or watching something with my husband, who is already a bit cranky about how much time I would rather be reading than watching stuff with him). So I'll take other people's word for it that these podcast sections are well-done and feel realistic. Based on what I heard, if I had ANY interest at all in true crime (I do NOT - the world is an awful place and I do not need to find out about all the horrible things people to do one another this way), 'Listen for the Lie' sounds like it would be a good podcast to follow.

I really liked that Tintera let Lucy be a quite spiky and hostile character. Convenient though it may seem, the amnesia makes her life more difficult, because there is always that nagging doubt that something horrible happened, and she actually murdered her best friend. Her complete lack of memory of the whole evening (including the events leading up to the murder) also makes it impossible for her to help the police investigate and find the real killer, when she desperately wants justice for Savvy. So a little part of her is relieved that Ben Owens is investigating the case again. It's obvious that a lot of people have been lying about and keeping secrets about the night of the murder, but he manages to ferret out the truth and uncover a lot of information the police never discovered.

This was very entertaining, and I'm impressed that this was Tintera's debut into crime fiction She seems to have only written YA fantasy before this. Nevertheless, I didn't love it as much as Narfna and Chairbrarian. There were some story developments that I found a bit unneccesary. I would absolutely read more of Tintera's books in the future, though. 

Judging a book by its cover: Not the most exciting cover, really (and it also seems like it directly ripped off the cover design of Good Girl, Bad Blood, which came out four years before this book. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR16 Book 45: "The Ex-Talk" by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: Pets (Steve Rogers Goldstein plays a fairly major role in the book)

CBR16 Bingo: Dreams (Shay has dreamed about having her own show on public radio for over a decade)

Shay Goldstein grew up loving radio. She and her now deceased father would listen to radio together and even have their own pretend radio shows, so she is very grateful for her job as a producer at a Seattle public radio station, and is very happy with what she does. However, while trying her best to be an indespensable help to the hosts whose show she produces, she can't help but wish she could have a show of her own. She's also very frustrated about the fact that one of the radio station's new hires, Dominic Yun, keeps being given positive attention by their boss, even though Shay has worked there for a decade, while Dominic only recently graduated with a journalism degree.

Unexpectedly, during a pitch meeting (where her boss asks her to take notes, naturally, can't leave that to a man), one of Shay's ideas is met with great enthusiasm and before she knows it, Shay will have a chance to host her own live call-in show. The only problem? The show is supposed to be hosted by two exes, who now share relationship advice, rooted in their own relationship failures. The station boss proposes that Shay and Dominic pretend to be those exes, a little white lie to help bring listeners and advertising revenue to the station. Neither is happy about having to lie to their listeners, but once it becomes clear that both of them, and possibly their young producer too, are likely to lose their jobs if they don't go ahead with the show, they reluctantly agree.

The Ex-Talk very quickly becomes a huge success, and their fan base grows week by week. On social media, there is a lot of talk of Shay and Dominic's supposed relationship, with a lot of people hoping "they get back together". The co-hosts are both shocked and pleasantly surprised at how well their show is doing, but they also start feeling more and more uncomfortable about lying. Only their boss knows their relationship is pure fiction, even their producer thinks they dated for a few months but kept it quiet. What will happen if the truth comes out? After spending so much time together, discovering the other person's strengths and weaknesses, Shay and Dominic also find themselves falling in love. Can they really risk an actual relationship when their entire working life is based on them being broken up?

Confession here, I find radio generally very boring. Going to university in Scotland, with so many of my friends absolutely addicted to BBC Radio 4, I've listened to my fair share of it. I just don't get it. I don't really get podcasts either. Why would I spend lots of time listening to people talking about stuff when instead I could read, or listen to an audiobook? It just seems like wasted time. I will, on occasion, listen to pop culture related podcasts with my husband, but we also watch a lot of TV together, so it becomes more about the shared experience, and feels less like I'm frittering away time when I could be reading. So I cannot tell you how true to life all this behind the scenes in the radio world this book is.

I did, despite my indifference to radio shows and podcasts, really enjoy this book, mostly because Shay and Dominic are great characters, both separately and together. Both of them are very lonely people, and once their initial antagonism (much greater on Shay's part than on Dominic's) passes, they discover that they have a lot in common. Shay has invested sensibly and bought herself a house, but it feels far too big for her, and she can't really be there without all the lights on and TV or radio playing. Once she adopts a dog, the adorable, if somewhat demanding, Steve Rogers, her life improves, even if she now has to go home every afternoon to make sure he gets walkies.

Shay manages to squash down her misgivings about lying to their audience because she's wanted a show of her own for so long. She gets Dominic to agree to give it six months, even though he's scrupulous about workplace ethics and being truthful. As their show becomes not just a local listening success, but starts becoming a thing nationwide, both of them are uncomfortable about the way their boss is managing the situation, and especially how much he seems to ignore Shay, but listen to Dominic, even when they're saying the same thing. The job market is tough, and a steady paycheque is important, but how long can they continue lying to their family, co-workers and friends? 

My LibraryThing tells me that I own quite a few Rachel Lynn Solomon books, both YA and adult fiction. This is my first romance by her, and based on it, considering how much she made me care about characters and a premise I wasn't sure I would even like, I am absolutely going to be reading more of her books in the next year or so. 

Judging a book by its cover: I like the cute simplicity of this cover, and the two faces over the microphone. It works for me, even though I'm very aware that modern radio and podcasts in no way are recorded this way. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR15 Book 33: "Hana Khan Carries On" by Uzma Jalaluddin

Page count: 358 pages

Rating: 4 stars

CBR15 Bingo: On the Air

Official book description:

Sales are slow at Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, the only halal restaurant in the close-knit Golden Crescent neighborhood. Hana waitresses there part time, but what she really wants is to tell stories on the radio. If she can just outshine her fellow intern at the city radio station, she may have a chance at landing a job. In the meantime, Hana pours her thoughts and dreams into a podcast, where she forms a lively relationship with one of her listeners. But soon she'll need all the support she can get: a new competing restaurant, a more upscale halal place, is about to open in the Golden Crescent, threatening Three Sisters.

When her mysterious aunt and her teenage cousin arrive from India for a surprise visit, they draw Hana into a long-buried family secret. A hate-motivated attack on their neighborhood complicates the situation further, as does Hana's growing attraction for Aydin, the young owner of the rival restaurant--who might not be a complete stranger after all.

As life on the Golden Crescent unravels, Hana must learn to use her voice, draw on the strength of her community and decide what her future should be.

Uzma Jalaluddin's first novel, Ayesha at Last, was a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice, set in Canada with Muslim protagonists. This novel has strong elements of You've Got Mail, where the heroine and hero have built a friendship (and maybe more) via messages in response to Hana's podcast. The love interest just happens to be the handsome, rich guy who sweeps in with a rival operation, threatening to put our humble heroine's family business out of business for good. No bookshops here, but rather halal restaurants. Also, while Aydin's family is wealthy, he's nowhere near as rich and unscrupulous as Tom Hanks' character (seriously, I have never liked You've Got Mail since the first time I saw it, the older I get, and the more I subscribe to Kill the Rich, the more unattractive Tom Hanks' character gets). Yet this plot is so beloved and so frequently retold. 

Jalaluddin introduces a subplot in her story that has nothing to do with the movie she's taken inspiration from, however, it's one of the things that makes this book really interesting and gives the reader further insight into a culture that at least to me is quite unfamiliar. Hana's auntie is extremely glamourous and opinionated and has clearly lived a very different life than a Muslim woman from her generation may have been expected to live. She gives Hana several pieces of sage advice, and it turns out that she's harbouring secrets that may impact several characters in the story in unexpected ways. 

The novel doesn't shy away from the racism that causes problems for both Hana's mother's restaurant and the one Aydin is starting. Without it becoming too heavy a subplot, it's nevertheless refreshing that the author doesn't pretend that minority groups still don't face difficulties with acceptance in majority white communities, even in a progressive country like Canada. 

I've enjoyed both the novels I've read by Jalaluddin, and her third novel is apparently a modern take on Persuasion, so I'm already looking forward to seeing how she interprets that story through a new lens. 

Judging a book by its cover: While the cover image doesn't exactly look like the no-nonsense, very pragmatic heroine this book features (it's far too ethereal and impressionistic for that), I nonetheless like the colour choices and find the soft lines pleasing to the eye. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.