#Audiobook #Review: 5 out of 5 stars for In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware @RuthWareWriter @SimonAudio‏ @ImogenChurch

TITLE: In a Dark, Dark Wood

AUTHOR: Ruth Ware

NARRATOR: Imogen Church

PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster Audio

PUBLICATION DATE: 2015

FORMAT: Unabridged audiobook

LENGTH: 10 hrs and 8 mins

GENRE: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Someone's getting married. Someone's getting murdered.

In a dark, dark wood

Nora hasn't seen Clare for ten years. Not since Nora walked out of school one day and never went back.

There was a dark, dark house

Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare’s hen do arrives. Is this a chance for Nora to finally put her past behind her?

And in the dark, dark house there was a dark, dark room

But something goes wrong. Very wrong.

And in the dark, dark room....

Some things can’t stay secret for ever.

MY REVIEW: 

Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10 was my first read of 2017, and I was totally blown away and wanted to read her debut. This dark psychological thriller is just as good, if not better!

The story moves back and forth between the present and the past. A woman, Leonora (“Nora”) Shaw, wakes up in a hospital but has no recollection of what happened to her. She has been told that she was in an accident.

Nora received an email inviting her to attend a bachelorette party for one of her best friends from high school, who she hadn’t seen in ten years. She had lost touch with Clare Cavendish, and the email from a woman named Flo asked Nora if she would come to a cabin in the woods in Northumberland for a weekend away before Clare’s wedding. Nora’s friend, Nina da Souza, also received an invitation and the two made a pact that if one went that the other would go.

Well, you know where this is going, right? A remote cabin in the woods away from civilization, where the cell phone reception is spotty...you know it is not going to end well! I loved the creepy setting of the story, and Ware had me literally on the edge of my seat as I was driving and listening to this audiobook. What I love most about Ware’s books are her characters. She has a way of making them seem so real to me, and I feel like I am becoming part of their story. I get caught up in the suspense and excitement. Ware doles out the past in pieces, as she connects it to the present, and I loved listening to the story unravel bit by bit.

So, that’s two for two now with loving Ware’s books. She’s a “must read” author for me, and I am on the library’s waiting list for Ware’s The Lying Game which was released in July 2017.

Imogen Church was a fantastic narrator! She brought the characters to life and really brought out their personalities, from Nina’s mean-spiritedness to Melanie’s paranoia and separation anxiety from her newborn to Flo’s strange obsession with her BFF Clare. I just loved her! I flew through listening to the audiobook because I could not put it down. Here is a sample of the narration:

MY RATING:

5 stars!! It was superb! I loved it and will likely re-read it in the future. Highly recommended!!

This book qualifies as:

#73 for my 2017 You Read How Many Books Reading Challenge

#73 for my 2017 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge

#73 for my 2017 Pages Read Challenge

#44 for my 2017 Audiobook Challenge

#44 for my Audio Books Reading Challenge 2017
#49 for my Women Challenge #5

#48 for my New Authors Reading Challenge 2017
#21 for my 2017 Library Love Challenge

#55 for my Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge

#51 for my The Backlist Reader Challenge 2017
#20-3 for my 2017 Bookopoly

Bonus #5G for my 2017 Literary Escapes Challenge

#22 for my Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge

#4 for my Chapter Break Bingo October 2017

Task #13 for my Goodreads Fall 2017 Scavenger - Celebrating the Mayflower

#7 for my Peril the First of R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril XII Challenge
#4 for my FrightFall Read-a-Thon

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