Alone

By: E. J. Noyes

Narrated by: Abby Craden

Half a million dollars will be Celeste Thorne’s reward for spending four years of her life in total isolation. No faces. No voices. No way to leave.

Since Celeste has never really worried about being alone, the generous paycheck she’ll receive for her participation in the solitary psychological experiment seems like easy money.

When she finds an injured hiker in the woods bordering her living compound, her strictly governed world is thrown into disarray. But even as she struggles with the morality of breaking the rules of the experiment, Celeste can’t deny her growing attraction to the kind and enigmatic Olivia Soldano. Still, how much can you really trust a stranger? And how much can you trust yourself when you know all the faces you’ve seen and voices you’ve heard for the past three years have only been your imagination?

But what’s real? Celeste’s reality may lie somewhere between the absolute truth and a carefully constructed deception.

©2019 E. J. Noyes (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

Audio book even better

I thought that reading a book could not be improved on. I was wrong. Abby Craden has brought this excellent book to life. I cannot think of a better narrator to do EJ Noyes books into the audio world. This book should be number one in a number of categories not just Lesbian Romance. I have already preordered EJ’s next book and can’t wait.

I could give it 10 Stars!

I’ve purchased several books by EJ Noyes, and have always really really enjoyed them. I decided to purchase the Audible for “Alone”, and am very glad I did. This is one of the most intensely emotional, at times disturbing, novels I have ever encountered in the lezfic romance genre. I think if I had been reading this story, I might have walked away from it because of its intensity. This is an unlikely, riveting love story told within a bazaar and extreme scenario. Easily 95% of the story entails only the two main characters. Side characters are either fleeting and/or imagined. Possibly because there are no secondary characters to trip over, Noyes is able to give her MCs extraordinary depth and nuance. The amazing detail of the environment Celeste has agreed to live in, the clever way her past is seamlessly woven into her present, the distinctly authentic characterization of Olivia, the love that slowly burns between them (and can I just say … chapter 13… WOW!), it all latches on to the reader like a magnet that will have you emotionally ruminating over these characters long after you’ve finished the story. A brief aside regarding the narration. We are told fairly early in to Olivia‘s introduction that she is Italian. Unfortunately, the accent used in the narration sounds more like something out of Transylvania. That was a bit of a distraction in the beginning. The narrator, Abby Craden, did eventually get more practiced with a recognizable Italian accent as the narration progressed. The other distraction was that often times there was no vocal distinction made between what Celeste was thinking, and what she was actually saying. Since Celeste’s thoughts are a major plot devise and are pivotal to the story itself, it left this listener at times confused. That said, Abby Craden is a rock star at what she does! She brings real and raw emotions to the narration and edgy, gutsy breathlessness to the love scenes. Her narration actually improves what is already a marvelously well-written story. Highly recommend!!!

Simply amazing

I have listened to this book about 15 times, I can even recite some of the lines. I lovoooovvvveeee iiiitt!!!!. It touches something inside me that makes me keep coming back. It's like you're right there with Celeste, right in her head, it crazy good. So, this may just be me but I have a request for E.J, if you read these. Is it possible at all for you write this book again but from Olivia's perspective? Every time I read it I want, or maybe more dramatically, I long to know how she feels, I want to know her so badly.

Amazing!!

E.J. Noyes is such a great writer. The story was intense and gripping, pulled me right in and kept me engaged, so much so that I finished the book and immediately started re-listening with my spouse. Abby Craden is the best. I'm so ruined/spoiled by her narration that I find it hard to listen to books she doesn't narrate.

World class narrator and an engrossing story

It took me only two days to listen to this. I had several, I'm not crying, you're crying moments.