Lute by Jennifer Thorne (Audiobook)
Macmillan Audio
Audible Release: October 4, 2022
Listening Length: 9 hours 27 minutes
Narrator: Victoria Blunt
Genre: Paranormal Suspense
KKECReads Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
KKECReads Rating for Performance: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
KKECReads Rating for Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
I received a copy of this audiobook for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.
Jennifer Thorne is an American author of books for adults and young readers who writes from a nineteenth-century Cotswold cottage in the medieval market town of Minchinhampton alongside her husband, two sons, and various other animals.
Lute and its inhabitants are blessed, year after year, with good weather, good health, and good fortune. They live a happy, superior life, untouched by the war that rages all around them. So it’s only fair that every seven years, on the day of the tithe, the island’s gift is honored.
Nina Treadway is new to The Day. A Florida girl by birth, she became a Lady through her marriage to Lord Treadway, whose family has long protected the island. Nina’s heard about The Day, of course. Heard about the horrific tragedies, the lives lost, but she doesn’t believe in it. It’s all superstitious nonsense. Stories told to keep newcomers at bay and youngsters in line.
Then The Day begins. And it’s a day of nightmares, of grief, of reckoning. But it is also a day of community. Of survival and strength. Of love, at its most pure and untamed. When The Day ends, Nina―and Lute―will never be the same.
“It’s the way of things here.”
Nina Treadway has only lived on Lute for seven years. She’s heard the stories, the rumors, and the lore. She doesn’t believe any of it, so when her husband tries to get them away for the day, she can’t see why until things start to happen that can’t be explained. The price for a nearly perfect life? Seven lives every seven years.
I don’t know how I feel about this book. Part of me didn’t care for it because I found the main character, Nina, awful. Part of me thinks I would have enjoyed reading this instead of listening.
The storyline is interesting and has undertones of The Village and various other movies. I didn’t mind the side characters, and I enjoyed what they added to the story.
I was not too fond of the main character. I found her selfish, shallow, and unlikable in every way. I think this storyline would be a good movie or series, but mainly because this sort of thing has been done before.
It took me longer than it should have to get through this book; I read four others in the meantime. Overall, it was just okay.
Victoria Blunt was fantastic as the narration, though. She did such a beautiful job portraying the various accents and voices. It was always clear who was speaking, and her tone was pleasant. I would listen to her narrate a novel again for sure.