Goooooood Morning Lovelies!!
Welcome back to another Audio Book Review <3 thank you in advance for joining me as I share my 2 cents.
I am sure by now you are not surprised that this book is once again is from my all time favourite South African Author, JT Lawrence. Her writing skills and ability to literally taking you on such a whirlwind adventure really is inspiring <3 JT is a genre hoping author which only makes me love her even more. She makes her own rules and she is am amazing person to chat to.
J.T was kind enough to sponsor me a copy of her audio book series When Tomorrow Calls. Even though I love this author and she gifted me a copy of the book, this review is based on my honest views and opinion.
And if you haven't heard of her yet... check out her bio at the bottom of the post.
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Audiobook on Audible:
Narrator: Roshina Ratnam
Length: 8h 50 mins
Released: 08 July 2017
Paperback info:
Published: 23 February 2017
Publisher: Fire Finch Press
* What it's about *
Jo’burg city is shimmering with a bitterbright tension, the perfect playground for a scarred, creative – and extremely efficient – assassin.
Kirsten is a roaming, restless synaesthete: an awarded photographer with bad habits and a fertility problem. Her life has been defined by what she calls her ‘Black Hole’: a painful hollow feeling where her heart should be.
Seth is a brilliant chemgineer and loyal member of Alba: an underground biopunk Truther organisation that exposes corporate bullies and black clinics. He has the hollow feeling too, but fills it with other things, like the drugs he designs, and women in ridiculous shoes.
Kirsten and Seth don’t know each other, but they seem to be connected; they feel echoes of one another.
At once familiar and bizarre, adorned by litter bunting and broken pavements, South Africa in 2021 is beset by a relentless drought and a fertility crisis. When Kirsten’s journo friend Keke uncovers some cryptic information, they team up to investigate, and discover that Kirsten’s parents were actually her abductors, and that she is one of a twin.
A strange, muttering woman with dog hair on her jersey approaches Kirsten with a warning, and is found dead shortly afterwards. The police attribute it to the Suicide Contagion.
The warning leads Kirsten and Keke to the Doomsday Vault and a hit list of seven people – and Kirsten’s barcode is on it. The twins are re-united – ironically – by the poisoned list, but as the bodies of the other victims begin surfacing they realize how real their jeopardy is.
* My thoughts *
This is the first book in this series, which follows on from the prequel Sigma surrogate. There is no need to read/listen to Sigma Surrogate first, but I would recommend it as you do get a little bit of background on a few of the characters before hand.
Narration
The narrator Roshina Ratnam is amazing! I loved her in Grey Magic and once again loved her just as much in Why you were taken. She nails the South African accent and really did make me giggle and laugh at her interpretations of the content and 'South Africanisms.'
Performance wise she gets a solid 5/5!!
Story line
This story was mostly written from Kirsten and Seth's perspective. It doesn't exactly pick up where Sigma Surrogate ends, but you can connect the dots.
JT has a wonderful way of telling a story and drawing you in. The world she builds is interesting and easy to navigate and the characters are diverse. I am not the biggest fan of Kirsten (this does stem from the prequel as well), but I am not against her.
I missed Keke!! She is so colourful and exciting, which unfortunately makes Kirsten pale in comparison. Keke did feature but not as much as I would have liked. In the last third or so of the book, we got a little more of Keke as the book revolved around her circumstance a little bit more.
I did get to understand Kirsten as the story unfolded and her story with her emotions are very easy to follow.
Not to fear though..... JT introduced another character that I totally adored!!
Seth stole the show for me. I loved him from the get-go. He is a little dark and paranoid, there was just something about his view of the world that I found interesting, including the work that he does. I guess there is just something about the dark and brooding males that always intrigue a reader.
James... I didn't like much in Sigma Surrogate and I didn't like him that much more until the very end when you kind of see the light and reasoning for everything. I did feel quite bad for him when you uncover his life a bit more, and kinda wished for a bit more for him. So good job at that JT.
The story progression:
Since I was listening to this on Audio, it was a little disorienting when the POV switched from Kirsten to Seth or visa versa in the same chapter, but overall it had good flow. You do literally wonder how can it get any worse and then it does, which had me cringing.
Once again I loved how much of South Africa JT brought into the world building, including some of the phrases and words that we use. I admired the way JT addressed some very current and real - not only South Africa issues - but global issues that we are dealing with and could possibly be dealing with in the near future. Some of them were used for context of a problem and some where things we are really dealing with, in a tactful way.
The ending does make for a good lead in to book 2. JT rounds up the story lines nicely. I can't say the Epilogue wasn't good. It was... Kirsten's final scene had me wanting to kick her a bit and say 'Go for it dammit' and Seth well I am just so happy he has ended up where he has.
I am keen to see how the rest of this series unfolds and an definitely hoping for more Keke and Seth.
* Overall Rating *
Books In This Series
Author Links and Bio:
JT Lawrence is a bestselling author (and playwright) based in Parkview, Johannesburg. She is the mother of two small boys and a baby girl, and lives in a house with a red front door.
Any thoughts?? Post a comment below <3
Happy Reading Peeps!
Love
Chanzie
xxx
