It’s August and almost back to school time! Fittingly, I listened to not one, but two PTA-themed books that I want to recommend to you today.
But I also have amazingly romantic books and a big shocker right at the start.
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Bury your Gays
By: Chuck Tingle
Narrated by: André Santana, Charlie Jane Anders, CJ Leede, Georgia Bird, Liz Kerin, Mara Wilson, Mark Oshiro, Sarah Gailey, Stephen Graham Jones, T. Kingfisher, TJ Klune
Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
I’m not embarrassed to say this but I’m a wimp and super squeamish. So, Horror is usually the one genre I will not touch. But I will make an exception for certain authors. And one of them is Chuck Tingle.
Bury your Gays is a friggin delight!
This book is magic. And Chuck Tingle has filled it with so much love, you can feel it throughout.
Bury Your Gays is his love letter to Horror, given through the main character. It made me understand what Horror is about for many fans of the genre and it made me see it in a new light.
It is also, fittingly for this author, a very hopeful book as we try to uncover what is going on with the weird imaginary monsters coming to life.
I loved absolutely everything about Chuck Tingle’s new audiobook and the narration is truly excellent! I’m a big fan of André Santana. He has a beautiful voice and a real knack at bringing the story to life.
But Bury Your Gays also has special chapters that work like a script. These are read by other authors, including T. Kingfisher, another author I will venture into Horror for.
I can’t recommend this brand-new audiobook enough to you! Even if you aren’t usually a Horror fan, it will give you an appreciation for this genre, and you’ll simply have a fantastic time listening to this outstanding audio production.
You can borrow Chuck Tingle’s new audiobook on Everand or get it for free with an Audiobooks.com trial**. It’s also available on Audible and LibroFM. I did not see it on Hoopla or Libby at the time of publishing this post.
Related article: How to use LibraryExtension to get the most out of your Audiobook Subscriptions
Pink Glass Houses
By: Asha Elias
Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez, Saskia Maarleveld, Andi Arndt, Helen Laser, André Santana, Amy Landon, John Pirhalla, Robin Miles, Michael Crouch, Jane Oppenheimer
Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
While we are at genres I don’t usually venture much into… I had an excellent time with Pink Glass Houses! I picked this Contemporary Fiction novel up because I was intrigued by the list of outstanding narrators.
And the story itself really grabbed me. Told from the points of view of a cast of main characters, we get to see how each of them experiences certain events. Since we get their first-person experiences, we get to understand why one person did something, and how another person perceives it
It was truly fascinating! The book is thoughtful but also wildly entertaining. This new audiobook is set at a glitzy Miami Beach public school that gets immense donations from rich parents who want to set their kids up for Ivy League schools.
But not everyone who seems generous has a good heart.
Pink Glass Houses is available on Amazon Audible**, Audiobooks.com, and LibroFM.
Do Me a Favor
By: Cathy Yardley
Narrated by: Elyse Dinh, Teddy Hamilton
Length: 9 hrs
Cathy Yardley has grown into one of my favorite authors! Her novels about gamers and “older” couples always resonate with me.
Do Me a Favor is set on a PWA island where recently widowed Charlotte moves after inheriting a house. Hudson is the perfect neighbor who loves the sense of community on the island and is happy to offer Charlotte all the support she needs to fix up the house.
Charlotte has an interesting career in food science and ghostwrites cookbooks. I didn’t know that was a thing! Hudson has adult children and his daughter makes hilarious comments about Hudson’s budding friendship with Charlotte.
Do Me a Favor is such an entertaining audiobook and wonderfully narrated by Elyse Dinh and Teddy Hamilton!
You can borrow it with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. The audio version is included.
Cursed Boys and Broken Hearts
By: Adam Sass
Narrated by: Torian Brackett, Adam Sass
Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
This Young Adult gay Romance is simply beautiful!
Cursed Boy and Broken Hearts felt poetic in many ways, the way the author played with recurring themes, and it was simply heartwrenching how Grant took apart the triggers for his depression and explains how it feels to grow up as a queer teen, trying to fit in while figuring yourself out.
Grant believes he was cursed by his grandma’s iconic rose which is supposed to make people find their soulmate. The book plays with a Beauty and the Beast theme in a contemporary setting. It’s done with a light touch though and something that Grant likes to bring up as his depression sometimes tells him he’s a hideous, cursed beast.
The love story itself is a second chance, as Grant returns to the family’s B&B where he runs into the first boy he ever loved, his childhood friend Ben.
Torian Brackett and Adam Sass were excellent choices for Grant and Ben and bring out all the emotions of these two 18-year-olds.
It’s Elementary
By: Elise Bryant
Narrated by: Aure Nash
Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
It was a month of PTA-themed listening for me! In It’s Elementary, I first learned that some rich parents send their kids to public schools where the parents proceed to get involved heavily through donations and the PTA.
It’s Elementary is a Cozy Mystery in which Mavis, one of few Black parents at her daughter’s elementary school, gets dragged into PTA work and then stumbles into a possible crime scene as the new principal disappears without a trace after threatening the PTA president’s plans to turn the school into one exclusively for gifted kids.
Aure Nash brought Mavis and the other moms to life perfectly and I had such a blast listening to this story and trying to figure out what happened.
A Bluestocking’s Guide to Decadence
By: Jess Everlee
Narrated by: Ell Potter
Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
This Lesbian Historical Romance is such a delight!
Jo is married to her best friend. She believed once that she had married for love, but over time, she figured out that she was only interested in women. Her husband was happy to keep the marriage intact while being with his girlfriend who is very opposed to marriage.
Emily is a doctor at a time when women could only be obstetricians, a medical field she absolutely doesn’t want to work in as her own mother had died during childbirth.
But then Jo approaches Emily to help her friend with exactly the kind of medical emergency Emily doesn’t want to have anything to do with.
Aside from being delightfully entertaining, this book also has depth that made me think. Jo and Emily have many supportive, progressive men in their lives. But when it comes down to it, they don’t know how far they can trust them and how well these men can truly understand the experience of women who have limited rights in that society.
Ell Potter is an excellent audiobook narrator and I loved listening to her bring this book to life! This audiobook is also now available to borrow on Hoopla.
The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love
By: India Holton
Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
India Holton just keeps getting better! I was wildly entertained by her Dangerous Damsels books but the humor in The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love just blew me away.
This is a whimsical Historical Fantasy Romance about two young ornithologist professors. They’re rivals in the search for gathering data on magical birds. Then they get pushed into the race for Birder of the Year, a highly rewarded title.
But there are forces at play here. Do the two get pushed together to make for better press on ornithology? Is Birder of the Year real or a scam? Who can we even trust?
There are all these fun meta jokes about Romance tropes in here, the book doesn’t take itself too seriously. But at the same time, the love story works perfectly and really pulled me in.
Elizabeth Knowelden’s narration is a pure delight! She has the perfect comedic timing, I love her accents, and she’s so good at bringing out the wit and dry humor. India Holton’s new audiobook is a real treat and I cannot recommend it enough!
What I Listened to Last Month…
I continued my GraphicAudio binge by finishing the absolutely amazing Murderbot series! This was a relisten. I have enjoyed the series read by Kevin R. Free before who did an incredible job with it.
But the GraphicAudio cast did the series justice as well, especially with David Cui Cui as Murderbot.
I also tried to keep myself out of a reading slump by listening to some more Sci-Fi and Thrillers. Earthlight was a bit of a mistake. That book was not at all for me! It could not have taken itself more seriously if it had tried. The amazing cast sadly did not make up for the fact that I was very decidedly not the target audience for this book.
I Shot the Devil and What Have You Done were gripping though.
Happy listening 💕
Eline Blackman (pronouns: she/they) fell in love with books as a child – with being read to and reading herself. 10 years ago, she bought her first Audible book. It was love at first listen! An average of 250 audiobooks per year has become the new normal and you will rarely see Eline without a wireless earbud. Romance and Fantasy are the go-to genres for this audiobook fan.