Finders Keepers

By: Natalie Barelli

Narrated by: Rachel Leblang

Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

“You’re not going to murder me in the night, are you?” Emily asks.

“Hahaha. That’s funny,” I say.

Of course, I’m not going to murder her in the night. I need my laptop back first. That’s the whole point of making friends with Emily Harper, author of the hugely successful novel Diary of an Octopus. So I could get into her apartment and take back what’s mine.

Emily doesn’t know who I really am. She thinks I’m her biggest fan, her new best friend who happens to need a place to stay for a few days. She doesn’t realize the laptop she found—and took—from a busy airport almost two years ago was mine. I don’t care about the laptop, just what's on it: my diary.

I kept it many years ago as a troubled thirteen-year-old girl with a vivid imagination and a flair for the dramatic. Now she's published it as her own.

She thinks it's a story about a schoolgirl’s crush on her teacher, but she’s wrong. It’s a story about a murder. Two murders, if you count the hamster.

She thought it was okay to make a few changes and publish it under her own name, but she was wrong about that too.

Because, sometimes, truth is deadlier than fiction.

©2023 Natalie Barelli (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

Twisty story and excellent narration

Hard to put down! Enjoyed the story..always kept me guessing. Great character development perfectly matched with flawless narration. Barelli never disappoints!
Can’t wait for her next book!

Great psychological thriller

So after some duds, I am glad to say that I finally got the psychological thriller I have been looking for. It took me a bit but I narrowed the suspects down to two and couldn’t decide which one it was going to be. Without giving anything away, I was sort of right on both guesses. Very entertaining.

Fun page turner

Grabbed me right away!
The premise is great. The situation quickly becomes preposterous, but I can roll with it for the sake of entertainment. And it’s got some sly humor for the win. Natalie Barelli delivers again!

Quick read. Entertaining

A bit unbelievable but interesting as story line unfolds. I am a Berelli fan but many of her other books contain more realistic plots. I enjoyed this though

Interesting plot

I thought the narration was great. The book kept my interest throughout. Yada yada yada

Not a Favorite

Story concept was interesting at first but became very repetitive. Though I felt empathy for main character, also wanted to shake her. I give narration a C-.

Wow!🤩

So many twists and turns! Going places you never could imagine. Very original theme. Love it!

Good!

The story was good , very Good!
Slightly predictable but overall Good. The narrator was so-so. Over all she was Ok but the high pitched voices she made for most of the women was annoying and badly done. The rest of woman’s voices made them sound 90 years old and the men’s voices were overly deep and drawn out. The bad attempts at doing voices took away from the overall experience.

Decent plot

This was good, but not one of my favorites by her. The character of Emily grated on my nerves, and the twists were pretty good. This was a 3.5 for me.

Meh. Pretty good until the end.

The writer tells a good story and keeps the reader engaged ... but then takes the easy way out by having the "villain" explain all the intricacies of the plot in a monologue once their misdeeds are discovered. This is insulting to the listener who has been invested in the story all along.

The narrator needs to find a better way to differentiate voices. All of the characters, except the main protagonist, sound like either high voiced ditzy cheerleaders, or old chain-smoking women, even if the characters are neither.

This could have been a great audiobook were it not for these two things.