Audiobook Blog Tour & Book Review- Surviving DooDahVille
Author: Ashley Fontainne & Lillian Hansen
Narrator: Rebecca Roberts
Publisher: RMSW Press
Released: May 24, 2019
Length: 11 hours 45 minutes
Genre: Contemporary Romance; Family Saga
“Filled with powerful scenes and great characters! Brings the ’83 Old
South to vivid life. One of my all-time favorite reads! Loved it"!
(Janelle Taylor, NY Times best-selling author)
The summer of 1983 - the era of big debt, big hair, and big dreams. Seventeen-year-old Kassandra Lawson is excited about starting her senior year of high school. She has a crush on a local hunk, and her best friend, valley girl extraordinaire Liz Hendricks, insists on helping her snag the hot guy - for sure! July starts out uneventful for Kee and her parents. Her father, Kevin, is a partner at a CPA firm, and her mother, Gail, works as a secretary at the police department. The small family lives an idyllic life in sunny Hacienda Heights, California. 1983 also brings upheaval and strife for the Lawson clan. A death in the family forces Kevin and Gail to make the painful decision to pack up and move to Kevin’s hometown of Daltville, Arkansas. Each faces daunting challenges adapting to their new life. Gail and Kee aren’t quite sure they can handle the culture shock. They encounter social and racial issues they never faced on the West Coast, strange food, weird dialects, odd customs, and wicked secrets that have the potential to destroy their family. More than just a coming-of-age story, Surviving Doodahville explores family bonds, racial barriers, and just how much a person is willing to sacrifice for others. The tale is full of humor, action and a touch of mystery, making it a fun romp into the past.
After tragedy strikes, the Lawson family makes the decision to
move from sunny California to rural Arkansas in the early 80s. This story dealt
with many topics i.e. generational secrets, murder, drugs, the racial divide
and even touched on the ramifications of homosexuality in a close-minded community.
What I liked about the way the story was told was that it was not only
relatable but very believable. While the topics were a bit heavy, the authors
did a good job of lacing those serious moments with humor at times i.e. the personal
revelation Clint makes to Kassandra.
There were a couple of things that were confusing or unclear to me
and I had to go back and listen to try and find where it was mentioned or just
move forward and hope that the confusion would resolve itself. I was confused with the ethnicity of a few of
the characters. At times it seemed as if
the characters were talking in riddles and yet everyone got it. Needless to say, it took me a while to get into the story or connect with the characters. Once I
did get into it, I enjoyed it and rooted for them. The second half of the story moved swiftly
and held my interest until the very end. There was only comment or conversation
that was off-putting. A generalization that was made by one of the characters
that black people don’t celebrate Halloween. I had to chalk that up to the
ignorance that prevailed in that town OR that the character meant the black
people in that town didn’t celebrate it.
The narrator did a great job of bringing each character life and
capturing the southern “twang” and inflections, just as easy as she captured
the Californian accent as it is referred to by the people in “DooDahville”. It also didn’t hurt that the production
quality was very well done. There were
no sounds in the background that shouldn’t be. The transitions were smooth and the sound was
clear. It was a smooth listen with developed characters and an interesting plot.
(I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Ashley Fontainne. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.)
After tragedy strikes, the Lawson family makes the decision to
move from sunny California to rural Arkansas in the early 80s. This story dealt
with many topics i.e. generational secrets, murder, drugs, the racial divide
and even touched on the ramifications of homosexuality in a close-minded community.
What I liked about the way the story was told was that it was not only
relatable but very believable. While the topics were a bit heavy, the authors
did a good job of lacing those serious moments with humor at times i.e. the personal
revelation Clint makes to Kassandra.
There were a couple of things that were confusing or unclear to me
and I had to go back and listen to try and find where it was mentioned or just
move forward and hope that the confusion would resolve itself. I was confused with the ethnicity of a few of
the characters. At times it seemed as if
the characters were talking in riddles and yet everyone got it. Needless to say, it took me a while to get into the story or connect with the characters. Once I
did get into it, I enjoyed it and rooted for them. The second half of the story moved swiftly
and held my interest until the very end. There was only comment or conversation
that was off-putting. A generalization that was made by one of the characters
that black people don’t celebrate Halloween. I had to chalk that up to the
ignorance that prevailed in that town OR that the character meant the black
people in that town didn’t celebrate it.
The narrator did a great job of bringing each character life and
capturing the southern “twang” and inflections, just as easy as she captured
the Californian accent as it is referred to by the people in “DooDahville”. It also didn’t hurt that the production
quality was very well done. There were
no sounds in the background that shouldn’t be. The transitions were smooth and the sound was
clear. It was a smooth listen with developed characters and an interesting plot.
Award-winning and International bestselling author, Ashley Fontainne, is an avid reader, becoming a fan of the written word in her youth, starting with the Nancy Drew mystery series. Stories that immerse the reader deep into the human psyche and the monsters lurking within us are her favorite reads.
Her muse for penning the Eviscerating the Snake series was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Ashley's love for this book is what sparked her desire to write her debut novel, Accountable to None, the first book in the trilogy. With a modern setting to the tale, Ashley delves into just what lengths a person is willing to go to when seeking personal justice for heinous acts perpetrated against them. The second novel in the series, Zero Balance, focuses on the cost and reciprocal cycle that obtaining revenge has on the seeker. Once the cycle starts, where does it end? How far will the tendrils of revenge expand? Adjusting Journal Entries answers that question—far and wide.
The short thriller entitled Number Seventy-Five touches upon the dangerous world of online dating. Number Seventy-Five took home the BRONZE medal in fiction/suspense at the 2013 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards.
The paranormal thriller entitled The Lie won the GOLD medal in the 2013 Illumination Book Awards for fiction/suspense. A movie based on this book, entitled Foreseen, is currently a feature film available on video-on-demand from Amazon.
Ashley delved into the paranormal with a Southern Gothic horror/suspense novel, Growl, which released in January of 2015. The suspenseful mystery Empty Shell released in September of 2014. Ashley teamed up with Lillian Hansen (Ashley calls her Mom!) and penned a three-part murder mystery/suspense series entitled The Magnolia Series. The first book, Blood Ties, released in 2015 and was voted one of the Top 50 Self-Published Books You Should Be Reading in 2015 at www.readfree.ly.
Website⎮Twitter⎮Facebook⎮Goodreads
After a career in finance, Rebecca Roberts became inspired to pursue her childhood dream of becoming an actress. Her ingenuity and ardent desire brought her to voice-acting which has rapidly grown into her thriving audiobook narration and production company, Atlantis Audio Productions. She has narrated and produced over seventy audiobooks for indie authors and major publishing houses. Rebecca delivers her stories with a mature and intelligent style characterized by a believable tone, and versatility in creating memorable and individual characters with her various accents and vocal qualities. In short, she narrates with her whole heart. Rebecca is a native Floridian, proud mother to three sparkling children, and wife to the man of her dreams.
Website⎮Twitter⎮Instagram
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