Life Happens on the Stairs

By: Amy J. Markstahler

Narrated by: Katie Marchant

Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Elsie Richardson’s world crumbles when her dad drops from a seizure at the Fourth of July festival. The reality that his brain tumor is back with a vengeance slams the 17-year-old aspiring artist and her family into intense hardship. When her mom needs help to make ends meet, it forces Elsie into adulting overnight. On top of that, Elsie’s caustic, grudge-holding brother is on his way home, and she fears he will only make matters worse. Feeling alone and hopeless, Elsie does as she’s told and goes to work with her mom.

That’s when she meets Tyler again. He's the grandson of her mom's wealthiest client, and he hasn't stopped thinking about her since he first saw her at the festival, where her dad was rushed to the hospital. After he invites her to go jogging at the historical Shiloh National Military Park, Elsie is warned by her mom to stay away from the wealthy young man. Elsie gets the notice a bit too late, and so she lies about who she’s meeting each morning. Over the next few weeks, Tyler becomes her secret solace amid the uncertainty she’s facing. But when reality strikes and her private world crashes, she's forced to find her inner strength.

©2018 Amy J. Markstahler (P)2022 Amy J. Markstahler

Great book and an even better Author!!

This is an awesome book to listen to and an even better book to read! I could't quit listening and then I couldn't quit reading!! Iwould definitely recommend this! Thanks for the experience!!

You'll Want More

Once you start this book, you'll want more! So very well written. You can vividly imagine the characters and scenes. Love it's based on the south south a tie to East Central Illinois. Can't wait for the next one!

Couldn’t stop listening!

Although this isn’t my first read of the novel, being able to listen to it aloud brought the story to life for me once more. The narrators pace was perfect to keep me engaged to the intense and genuine love story between Tyler and Elsie. From the beginning, I was sucked in to their world spending all my free time choosing to indulge in their world. Each character’s interaction felt so genuine I could see their world play out in my mind as I listened to the words. It reminded me of my own days as a lovesick teenager and made me fear Claire and Brandon’s unfortunate fate with how raw and real the emotion was. I loved this book from start to finish and shed many tears alongside the characters through their tribulations. If you’re interested in the audio version of “I can’t put this book down”, I suggest you hurry up and get started.

Romance

This story starts out with Elsies a young girl who has a dream of becoming an artist when at a fair selling her art her dad has a seizure and need to go to the hospital but Elsies doesn’t know what to do that’s where Tyler a rich boy comes in and helps her to get someone to help with her dad. But after that day Elsies life changes and her dreams are put on hold, her mother now needs her at home to help with the money. Soon after Tyler and Elsies see each other again which is unexpected and soon become friends. There is so much more to this story but I don’t want to give away the whole story line. This is a well written Ya romance story

ya reality hits hard

You really must enjoy this story from the very beginning. You will find that Elsie was more and less the typical teen. She finds that life for her has much to offer, take, and achieve. I found this story to be so much more than the synopsis/blurb offers the interested reader/listener. I found points to be very connective to my youth and my life now as an adult. I found that she made life more difficult for herself and those around her, but that was her youth or lack of wisdom. Then she begins to make slow growth. Slow changes. Life comes at her from all sides then she does something she very quickly regrets. She finally learns one of life's hardest lessons. The world does not revolve around one person and their wants, needs or desires.

In the process of all this going on we meet some interested characters; her mother, her brother, and Tyler. I want to give nothing away her, but I do feel there are a number of young adults that could read this and learn a thing or two about life.

Katie Marchant was new to me with this audio. I did enjoy her voice. I would have loved to have more of a masculine feel to the male characters but this was more from Elsie's perspective. Katie brough forth the feelings and emotions of the characters through her voice. Amy told a fantastic story of life and reality from the perspective of a teen needing to grow-up all to soon.

Disappointment

The last 3 hours of this listen were just terrible, which was such a disappointment. The first 8 hours are pretty great. I felt really invested in this couple until I wasn't. I have zero empathy for Elsie she's really selfish and yes I understand this is a YA novel, but I want to root for the main character. I was rooting for Tyler and totally think Mark got the short end of the stick in this story. Not to mention a minor was sexually and physically assaulted by a drunk and no one does anything. I mean no cops are called and later she just refers to him as a jerk. I mean her mom basically says who cares if an old man is oogling you and why were you late, because had you been on time none of this would have happened. It was really gross how this was handled. I was ready to move passed it, but with such a weak ending and thinking they've just endangered whoever is set to clean his how next. Yuck!