And the Crowd Went Wild by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

 

Title:  And the Crowd Went Wild

Author:  Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Narrated by:  Kelli Tager

Publisher: Avon

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 8 minutes

Source: Review Copy from NetGalley.  Thank-you!

Do you have a favorite sports team?  I live near and work in Green Bay, so the Packers are just sort of a part of everyday life around here.

Darcy Flynn is a star best known for her bombshell roles and marriage to a famous action star.  After a very public humiliation, she is looking for a place to get away.  She inexplicitly ends up at her former high school boyfriend’s (now Chicago quarterback) retreat in Wisconsin.  Clint is trying to relax and regain his focus before the season begins and he is surprised to see his old girlfriend who broke his heart in high school.  He lets her stay in an old caboose on his property that he is restoring.  Will these two find themselves and each other?

My thoughts on this audiobook:

·       This was the February pick for the Brenda Novak Book Group.  There was a fun book club meeting on Facebook for this book that you can still watch.  Sadly, Susan Elizabeth Phillips was sick and unable to join the book club this time.

·       And the Crowd Went Wild by Susan Elizabeth Phillips was a contemporary romance, but it had depth and hard topics were discussed such as alcoholism, r#@e, and murder.  Even with these topics, it was still a fun and engaging romance.

·       Narrator Kelli Tager had a great performance and unique voices for the characters.

·       I loved the Boxcar Children quotes at the start of each chapter.  It gets even better when Darcy ends up living in an old boxcar that Clint is fixing up on his property.

·       Darcy’s marriage reminded me of the breakdown of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s marriage.

·       This is #11 in the Chicago Stars series.  I read this as a standalone and it was fine as a standalone.  I’m assuming some of the characters were also in previous books.

·       The characters are in their mid-thirties.

·       This was a dual point of view novel between Darcy and Clint.

·       Tropes in this novel included second chance romance, enemies to lovers, and forced proximity.

·       I loved the Northwoods of Wisconsin setting and how Darcy is only able to find Packer gear for clothing.  This rings true for the area.  This pains Clint as he is a quarterback for Chicago.

·       Darcy and Clint had amazing tension and chemistry.

·       The romance in this novel was steamy with the door wide open.

·       I loved the romance, but also the personal journey of both Darcy and Clint.

·       I also loved how Darcy rescued a mutt and named him Watch (from the Boxcar Children).  I also like how she helped and befriended a woman who was being abused by her boyfriend.

Overall, And the Crowd Went Wild by Susan Elizabeth Phillips was an engaging contemporary romance with great characters, chemistry, and romance.  The story had depth and was very enjoyable.

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

 

Title:  Us Against You

Author:  Fredrik Backman

Narrated by:  Marin Ireland

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 14 hours and 17 minutes

Source:  Purchased from Audible.com

What series are you currently reading?

Beartown had a transformational year and change in continuing when they find out that their hockey team is going to be disbanded.  A local politician pulls strings to keep the team in place with a surprising new coach. With much of the team now a part of their rival team, Hed, how will they build back the Beartown team?  How can they work through the trauma of the last year?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I read Us Against You for the February Pick for the Rogue Book Club. We are going to discuss it in March as there was not enough time for everyone to get the book and read it before our book club meeting.

·       This is the second book in the Beartown series.  We all loved Beartown, and it was a previous book club pick.  We decided to keep reading this series as a book club.

·       Sports mean so much to a small town.  When you try to take away sports, you can cause violence.

·       Sadly, the girl or victim is often blamed for a rape. A rape occurred in Beartown and Us Against You continues the story and shows that while it was a one-time act of violence, it will forever impact the life of the victim.

·       There was a line in the book about how someday there will not be female hockey coaches, there will just be coaches. This really spoke to me.

·       I loved being immersed in this town and in the lives of these characters again.

·       There is a good refresher at the start of the book to remind you about the first book.  You could potentially read this as a standalone, but I highly recommend reading Beartown first.  They are both excellent reads.

·       I liked the nice short chapters.

·       The twist in the book was heartbreaking, but I don’t want to spoil it up for others.  It was very emotional, and I teared up.

·       I like how Backman sets up what will happen in a book with a question or foreshadowing at the start.

·       Fredrik Backman is one of the best authors out there today.  He is able to capture how it feels to be human at any age.  He fully captures the complexity of humanity.

·       One such moment was when a dad pondered on how he didn’t have time to play with the kids when they were small and now that they are teens, they want nothing to do with him.  How did this time pass away?

·       Another such moment was when a teen told her Mom that she had been a great role model to her.

·       Marin Ireland is a great audiobook narrator, and I fully enjoyed this audiobook.

·       I am really looking forward to reading the next book in the series, The Winners.

Favorite Quotes:

“Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did. We’ll end up saying that violence came to Beartown this summer, but that will be a lie; the violence was already here. Because sometimes hating one another is so easy that it seems incomprehensible that we ever do anything else.”

“You try to be a good parent, in every way, but you never know how. It's not a difficult job. Just impossible.”

“Love and hate. Joy and sorrow. Anger and forgiveness. Sports carry the promise that we can have everything tonight. Only sports can do that.”

"Fathers need to seize the day, because childhoods are like soap bubbles; you get only a few seconds to enjoy them.”

"The complicated thing about good and bad people alike is that most of us can be both at the same time.”

"It's hard to care about people. Exhausting, in fact, because empathy is a complicated thing. It requires us to accept that everyone else's lives are also going on the whole time.”

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman is a story about a town that loves sports, but beyond the rivalries it shows empathy and what it means to be human.  The humor and drama in this novel are top notch.  I highly recommend this series and any book by Fredrik Backman. 

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

 

Title:  Beartown

Author:  Fredrik Backman

Narrated by:  Marin Ireland

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 13 hours and 11 minutes

Source: Audiobook from Amazon Music monthly allotment.

What is the best book you’ve read for a book club pick this year?  Beartown by Fredrick Backman was the March pick for the Rogue Book club.

Beartown is a small dying town located far to the north in Sweden.  They are hoping for a comeback for their town if their junior league hockey team wins the national semifinals and championship.  After an assault occurs between a hockey player and the general manager’s daughter,  the town grapples with the repercussions.  Who should be believed and what is most important in such times?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This novel had great character development.  I feel like I really like to know the characters and the town.

·       The story had a slow build as Backman got the reader to know the characters and town before the action of the story really happened.

·       It made the reader ponder the frailty of human beings.  What is truth?  Do you want to believe the truth that will further yourself and your “team?”  Or what actually happened?

·       The town’s obsession with hockey was relatable living in a small town with a football obsession and having attended a northern college with a hockey obsession.

·       I mostly kept thinking in this book that teenagers can be real a##holes.  Backman captures this perfectly.

·       It was also a good look at family life.  While some people don’t have much, they do have the love of their family.  Kevin is a hockey star, but lives in a cold family.  They have wealth, but don’t even attend Kevin’s games.  I felt for Kevin.  He could have been written as a purely evil character, but there was a lot going on in his life.  He made poor choices.

·       The novel was a good look at community life and life in a small town as well. 

·       We had a good mini discussion of this book at book club, but we want to discuss it more in depth at our next meeting when everyone has had a chance to read it.

·       This was the first book of a trilogy and I really want to read the rest!  I enjoyed the characters and I want to see what else life has in store for them.

Overall, Fredrick Backman has a gift of writing unforgettable novels that leave you thinking about them long after you finish the last page.  Beartown was another great novel with great characters, and I am happy this is a series so I can read more set in this world.  My one sadness is – why can’t I watch the HBO mini-series?  I can’t find it anywhere!

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

Title:  Carrie Soto is Back

Author:  Taylor Jenkins Reid

Narrated by:  Stacy Gonzalez, et. Al.

Publisher: Random House Audio

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 30 minutes

Source: Checked out with Libby through the Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you!

 Are you a tennis fan?  If so, who is your favorite player?  Growing up, my friend Erin was a tennis player and I feel that all I know about the world of tennis is from her.  I also think it’s cool that Erin pursued tennis in college and is now a college tennis coach. 

 Carrie Soto is back is the story of a fictional famous tennis player, Carrie Soto.  Her career was in the 1970’s and 1980’s and she retired after winning twenty slam titles and turning thirty.  Now that she is 37, her record is smashed by Nicki Chan.  She decides to come out of retirement to try to win back her record again.  With the help of an old love, Bowe Huntley and her coach father, will she be able to meet this new challenge?

 Carrie Soto felt like a conglomerate of many famous tennis players from back in the day, but I also felt flashes of Serena Williams as well.  Luckily, you don’t have to be an expert on tennis to follow along on Carrie Soto’s journey.

 Carrie Soto is Back was the July pick for the Page-turners Book Club at the Kewaunee Public Library.  I sadly had to miss the meeting due to work commitments, but it worked out as I wasn’t able to get a copy of the audiobook through the library until after the meeting.  I ended up listening to Carrie Soto is back in August and it kept me very intrigued through many drives for work.

 Carrie Soto seemed like a cold person that grew up in the vacuum of tennis.  She seemed to have no personal relationships at all and to not be happy.  Her father gave her the love of tennis, but also made it so she didn’t have a normal childhood or teenage life.  For me, what I loved best about this novel was her growth and seeing her develop personal relationships by the end of the novel.  I also really wanted her to win and found her matches nail-biting.

 I also thought it was interesting that Carrie Soto was called a “battle ax” by the press and other worse things for being a woman who wanted to win.  This seemed very true to what I’ve seen female athletes face over the years.

 I loved how in this audiobook there are newsclips about Carrie Soto.  They are read by different narrators acting the parts and also have accompanying music.  It was very entertaining!! Stacy Gonzalez was a great narrator and was the voice of Carrie.