The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Rating: 5

Reader: Kate Rudd

Extras: Q&A interview with the author.

Short Review: Heart-wrenching and uplifting roller coaster ride. Brilliant reader does justice to this amazing story.

Mockingjay (Hunger Games, Book 3) by Suzanne Collins

Rating: 4.5

Reader: Carolyn McCormick

WARNING: Have you read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire yet? No? Then stop and go listen to them (in order) before reading this review. There is NO way to even begin to describe this book without huge spoilers of the first two books.

Short Review: Intense, captivating final book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Lots of twists and turns lead us through this darkest chapter of the series. Action plus emotional turmoil make this a roller coaster ride. Satisfying conclusion for most, perhaps bleaker than some readers are expecting.

Fire Will Fall by Carol Plum-Ucci

Rating: 3.5

Readers: Julia Whelan, Paul Michael Garcia, Eddie Lopez, Neil Shah, Kirby Heyborne and Tai Sammons

Short Review: More character driven (but still fairly suspenseful) sequel to Streams of Babel. Round robin of readers still pleasing.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Rating: 5

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Readers: Kate Reading and Will Wheaton

Short Review: A steampunk adventure set in an alternate-history Seattle where the Civil War just won’t end, airships abound, mad scientists run amok, volcanoes make zombies, and intricate questions about liberty and rights continually rear their heads.

Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve

Rating: 4.5

Reader: Philip Reeve
Extras: Unpublished excerpt and discussion by author about the origins of the story.

Short Review: Imaginative and original steampunk story set in a distant future London and beautifully read by the author.

Streams of Babel by Carol Plum-Ucci

Rating: 4

Readers: Julia Whelan, Paul Michael Garcia, Eddie Lopez, Neil Shah, Kirby Heyborne and Tai Sammons
Available from Audible.com

Short Review: Welcome a the post-9/11 world in which terrorists wield bioweapons and our best intelligence is gathered online by teenagers. Kept me listening and then made me hunt for the sequel.

Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell

Rating: 5

Reader: Emma Galvin
Short Review: A stark, beautifully written and expertly read novel about an overburdened girl in dire straits.

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

Rating: 1.5

Reader: Jeannie Stith
Short Review: A disappointing audiobook that’s hard to listen to.

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld (Leviathan Trilogy)

Rating: 5

Reader: Alan Cumming
Bonus: Endnote read by the author detailing what is fact and what is fiction

Short Review: In this stunning follow up to Leviathan, Alek and Deryn continue on their intricate path through the steampunk inspired alternate World War I created by Westerfeld. In this rollicking adventure we weave through the back streets of Istanbul, eggs are hatched, some secrets are revealed while others stay safely hidden.

The Tiger in the Well by Philip Pullman

Rating: 4

Reader: Anton Lesser
Short Review: The third Sally Lockhart mystery continues Pullman’s engrossing story of a young Victorian woman, expertly read by Anton Lesser. This book delves further into questions of women’s and children’s rights in Victorian Britain and also examines worker’s and immigrant’s rights and anti-semitism.

Warning! If you have not yet read The Shadow in the North, stop reading this review. There’s no way to review this book without giving spoilers for the previous book in the series.

The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman

Rating: 4

Reader: Anton Lesser

Short Review: The slightly-less brilliant sequel to The Ruby in the Smoke, read just as brilliantly by Anton Lesser.

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman

Rating: 4.5

Reader: Anton Lesser
Short Review: A beautifully read story about a resourceful young woman who finds herself orphaned and embroiled in a deadly mystery.