Hi Reading Ninjas, so question... How many of you are audible fans? I'll be honest with you, in the past I have not been. When I read I have an idea in my head of how the characters sound, and the inflections in their voices and when I've previously tried audiobooks they just haven't hit the mark for me. HOWEVER, recently I was convinced by a friend (who is always right when it comes to my life dammit) to try again, what with the 6hr round trip drive into town I do at least once a month - and so I started with a non-fiction audible (hey no characters to let me down); but then I got a freebie fiction book from audible and I'm here to sing its audible praises.
DON'T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME by Mhairi McFarlane
This is Georgina's story and she's the kind of friend we all have in our lives (or perhaps YOU are that friend - no judgement here)... The girl is a walking disaster and seems to bounce from calamity to calamity - all with a smile on her face and a faux fur pink coat. I really loved this book, and I think part of the reason I loved it so much was the fact that this was an audible on the long trip to Darwin and back.
The story itself is fun and flirty and well written, and the narrator makes the whole audible experience of it so wonderful. Listening to Georgina's life is like having one of those conversations we've all had many times. That slightly drunken conversation with friends where you are all trying to work out why your lives, relationships, finances, etc are disasters. That conversation where everyone tipsily blurts out their disastrous stories of spectacularly messy relationship endings, questionable workplace happenings, that time they got fired, that day Aunty Beryl let rip over Xmas dinner about your fashion choices, the great disappointment you are to your parents, why your sister has it so easy and it makes you look so much worse than you are... You insert whatever your friend group rehash over cocktails and you've got this entire book in one. And it's all told with such wonderful timing that I found myself laughing aloud and simultaneously biting my lip to stop the torrent of advice sitting on the tip of my tongue I know that my friend Georgina needs - as though she is sitting beside me in the car crying into her martini. Listening to this book was like having a night out with the girls and I loved every minute.
Whether you grab the audible, ebook or paperback - I promise you won't be disappointed by Don't You Forget About Me - don't stress Georgia, even in my 40s there are days when I don't feel like I'm adulting very well, and days when I downright celebrate the fact that I don't adult at all and just want to go play in a bouncy house while wearing a rainbow tutu.
I for one will be adding another of Mhairi's books to my audible account next month. (There's always another 6hr drive ahead of me)
You always remember your first love... Don't you?
It began with four words.
‘I love your laugh. x’
But that was twelve years ago. It really began the day Georgina was fired from The Worst Restaurant in Sheffield (© Tripadvisor) and found The Worst Boyfriend in the World (© Georgina’s best friends) in bed with someone else.
So when her new boss, Lucas McCarthy, turns out to be the boy who wrote those words to her all that time ago, it feels like the start of something.
The only problem? He doesn’t seem to remember Georgina – at all…
