City of Angeles

Memoirs of Marlayna Glynn Brown, Book 2

By: Marlayna Glynn Brown

Narrated by: Abby Elvidge

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Immediately following the wildly popular award-winning Overlay: A Tale of One Girl's Life in 1970s Las Vegas, Marlayna Glynn Brown continues her remarkable journey in City of Angeles, revealing the underside of a life lived in 1980s Los Angeles.

This searing, often bizarre tale of Glynn Brown's teens and twenties reveals her flight from Las Vegas to the formidable world of self-re-invention among the angels and demons.

Glynn Brown unflinchingly begets a self from the unlikeliest beginnings, and now delivers a sequel illustrating heaven and hell on her continuing flight for self-discovery.

©2012 Marlayna Glynn Brown (P)2015 Marlayna Glynn Brown

City of Angeles

I enjoyed this audiobook.Narrated nicely by Abby Elvidge,we continue the story of Ms Glynn Browns life in the 1980's.Through ups and downs we live her life as it was,no glamour to weigh it down.A very honest book.This audiobook was provided to me at no cost for a fair and honest review

Making Peace With Adversity and Moving On In Life

CITY OF ANGELES is book two in the moving story of the life of MARLAYNA GLYNN BROWN. I especially liked this second installment of her story. The first book, OVERLAY, was about her life while growing up in Las Vegas being the child of alcoholic parents. Book one was an amazing and unforgettable story. The last paragraph of my review of Overlay:

“This is book one in a trilogy and it ends with her calling her mother who has moved to Los Angeles and asking if she could come and live with her for a while. She’s now a teenager and has experienced many things that most people haven’t at her age. She withdraws herself from school and boards a bus and ends her journal….for now.”

Upon arriving in California, Marlayna undergoes multiple other trials and tribulations that most people never experience in a lifetime. This move provides a whole new set of issues for her to learn about and deal with. She manages to hold her own throughout her time in LA but with more mature thoughts and feelings. It ushers in adulthood for Marlayna bringing with it the age of alcohol, failed relationships, learning about drugs, friends, rape, marriage, children…and divorce. These are just some of the scary things she had to overcome while living in LA during the 1980’s. She married a man named Chance and has four stair step children (meaning fairly close in age) by him. Then Chance approached her one day and just decided he wanted out. I think she may have seen this coming with his behavior.

This is an extremely good novel and series. If anyone is reading this and considering this memoir, I would highly recommend it. It should to be listened to in order because it’s Marlayna’s memoir and has a timeline. I applaud her for writing this. While she was raised by alcoholic parents, she does a great job at mothering her own children. This book is involved, engrossing, endearing, happy, sad, and it’s told with grace and style. She’s a strong, strong woman to have had so much adversity in her life and overcome it. Well, I’m not exactly sure one ‘overcomes’ it but rather, makes peace with it. Adversity is what makes us who we are. I look forward to listening to the last book to see how she’s arrived at where she is now in her life and how she came to write these books. I love the way she’s stayed friends with Linda Woo all these years and kept track of the people in her life.


ABBY ELVIDGE is the voice for Marlayna in this series. She does a terrific job narrating these bios. It’s like sitting down and talking with a friend you’ve known forever. I can’t say enough good things about her work. This is a perfect pairing of author/narrator.


AUDIOBOOK RECEIVED IN EXCHANGE FOR AN UNBIASED REVIEW.

So brave and amazing....

Wow, what a story! Here we are in book 2 of Memoirs of Marlayna Glynn Brown. In book one we learned about How Marlayna grew up and memories from as far back as she could remember from being a toddler thru her High School years. Now in book 2, we get to learn of what life was like beyond her High School Days. How Marlayna got married , had children, took trips, jobs she had and so on.

Wow Marlayna, you sure had a rough life! I felt so bad for you fighting for your marriage. I cried over the kitten. I would have called the cops on Billy - he is just plain creepy! It is amazing you even were able to hold it together! I remember the Rodney King riots and the OJ times too. There is an old saying that what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger! I picture this to be so true with you and your life. I am willing to bet, your children turned out to be better people from your life experiences. I know mine did! It is the wiseness (hindsight) we gain from bad situations that help's us make our kids even smarter.

The author, Marlayna Glynn Brown does a fantastic job telling us how life was for her and her children. Once again her facts are spot on. Listening to this memoir had me remembering so many things that happened in history... That earthquake was horrible! The narrator, Abby Elvidge did a fabulous job once again delivering this memoir to us. The speech is very clear and those accents were awesome! Great job ladies!

Second In the Series form Marlayna Glynn Brown

This Angeles, second of a three part series about the life of a child of alcoholic and abusive parents is uplifting in the sense that Marlayna Glynn Brown is now a young adult successfully experiencing her life without the doubts and struggle she’d lived as a child. She works with several helpful and supportive employers, lives in apartments she is proud of, and continues finding well-adjusted friends. This is an excellent story of a young adult that has surmounted the tragic home life of her childhood. Marlayna has overcome her earlier experiences as a lonely, abused, neglected and abandoned child.

If you are looking to read a book that describes “This is What Happy Looks Like” then this is your book. If you are looking for a book describing the struggles of the first steps away from a dysfunctional family, this books misses the mark. Marlayna is strong, she doesn’t hold back, she is responsible, knows how to have fun, accepts change and even initiates major change without hesitation. All of these traits might be unusual for someone raised in an alcoholic home. Several places in the book Marlayna mentions characteristics she had brought from her earlier life. She describes uncertainty, lack of self-esteem, and inadequacy.

This is a very positive book and describes great success for Marlayna. One would think her family would be proud to see her move into a secure life, but unfortunately the family is so dysfunctional, they don’t acknowledge her success.