Bloodline

By: Jess Lourey

Narrated by: Whitney Dykhouse

Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

Perfect town. Perfect homes. Perfect families. It’s enough to drive some women mad...

In a tale inspired by real events, pregnant journalist Joan Harken is cautiously excited to follow her fiancé back to his Minnesota hometown. After spending a childhood on the move and chasing the screams and swirls of news-rich city life, she’s eager to settle down. Lilydale’s motto, “Come Home Forever,” couldn’t be more inviting. 

And yet, something is off in the picture-perfect village. 

The friendliness borders on intrusive. Joan can’t shake the feeling that every move she makes is being tracked. An archaic organization still seems to hold the town in thrall. So does the sinister secret of a little boy who vanished decades ago. And unless Joan is imagining things, a frighteningly familiar figure from her past is on watch in the shadows. 

Her fiancé tells her she’s being paranoid. He might be right. Then again, she might have moved to the deadliest small town on earth.

©2020 Jess Lourey (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Horrible Unbelievable Annoying

Ummm, I don’t want to be ugly, but this was enormously horribly stupid! It was a Kindle First Reads choice, so I’m glad it was free! I read/listened to “Unspeakable Things” and it was pretty good. This one, considering it was “based on a true story” should’ve been better. It is extremely unbelievable in so many aspects. The main character, Joan, is annoying and downright stupid especially considering she is a journalist. She feels constantly watched and suspicious of everyone but continues to make stupid decisions. I was so tired of hearing how she was going to leave, but have one more thing to do first again and again and again! This was more of a crappy mashup of Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives, and Peyton Place. It is neither fulfilling, satisfying, suspenseful, or mysterious. I should’ve quit long ago, but I’m a glutton for punishment and just have to finish a book after I invest a certain amount of time into it, unfortunately. This is a HARD pass!

What was that?

I liked the first book, this one nope. First, as a lifelong Minnesotan and from a small town. That's nothing like reality. Had to make clear so people don't think we're like that.

Now, it was a slow read most of the way. The summary makes it sound different that what this actually was.

It's the ending, last 2 hours where it takes a hard turn into wtf. It gets beyond weird and unbelievability. It was hard to try and follow the "twist". I want those hours I lost back

An awful book

this was just awful. I couldn't listen beyond the first hour. completely implausible characters and plot.

enjoyable read if you aren't from MN

I read this book after reading a fellow Minnesotan disliked the book. I thought it was just bias. My issue was that I couldn't get past the geography. Lily Dale is a suburb of St. Paul and the area the town was supposed to be is not 2.5 hours away from Minneapolis. the author should have just made up a town.
The story and writing were decent enough to finish.
The narrator was excellent and made it possible to finish the book.

History. Does it, will it repeat itself?

Bloodline is fictional. It has shades of past historical events. It also shows us that history can, has and will be repeated.
I listen and read all fiction knowing the words are a result of an author taking the time to write, research and finally entertain the reader. Entertainment can be educational and frightening.

Ok

I really liked the Narrator, Story was just ok, took my mind off of a long trip. No wow! factor or anything that stood out. if Narrator had not been so easy to listen too probably would not have bothered past the sample.

wrong on so many levels

the narration is off by 4 chapters. story I figured it out within the first few chapters although the story kept me intrigued and I wanted to know more the way it ended was a little disappointing was hoping that Chris and Joan got together in the end.

Predictable

Seen it, heard it, many times in various versions. Only thing I found original was the cats name, Slow Henry.

Creepy little town

I liked this audiobook but I didn't love it. I downloaded this book as a Kindle First Reads pick and decided to add the audio on for just a couple of bucks. The book sounded rather promising and it seemed to everywhere online so I thought it would be a safe bet. I found it to be a rather quick listen and the story did hold my attention quite well.

Joan is a reporter hoping to advance her career. She is expecting a child with her boyfriend, Deck. After she is mugged in the city, they decide to move to Deck's hometown of Lilydale. When they arrive, she learns that Deck has told everyone that they are married. This story is set in the 1960s but the residents of Lilydale are more opinionated and controlling than you would expect in any era. Things start getting creepy quite quickly and Joan feels like she is constantly being watched by everyone living in the town. A boy that disappeared from the town 20 years earlier and it appears that he might be back. Joan has just started writing for the local newspaper and is thrilled to get the story. As she looks into the events in the town, she quickly realized that the issues in town might be bigger than she ever imagined.

I can't say that I really liked many of the characters in this book. Joan did some things, especially at the beginning of the book, that made her very difficult to fully embrace. The story is told from Joan's point of view but I wasn't sure if I should completely believe everything we learned from her. The only character that I completely liked and trusted didn't show up until later in the book and played a rather small role. I think that the story would have been much more powerful if I liked Joan enough to actually care what happened to her.

Whitney Dykhouse did a fabulous job with the narration. I thought that her voice worked perfectly for this story. She did a great job with all of the character voices and I liked the fact that she was able to add emotion into the reading. I thought that her voice was very pleasant and easy to listen to for hours at a time. I believe that her narration added to my enjoyment of the story.

I think that a lot of readers might enjoy this one more than I did. I liked the story even though I did have a few issues with it. I wouldn't hesitate to try other books by Jess Lourey in the future.

Lucky to stumble onto this

The story unfolds and I find myself siding with the main character.... This reminded me of so many Twilight Zone sagas. I really enjoyed it.