#AudioTour “The Silent Bluebird” by Elle M. Holmes

Author: Elle M. Holmes

Narrator: Linnea Hubbard

Length: 7 hours 29 minutes

Publisher: Elle M. Holmes

Released: Apr. 29, 2021

Genre: Science Fiction

The stories we read have the power to change our lives.

Sadie Smith lives an ordinary life, unlike the extraordinary ones of the characters in the books where she finds an escape.

Until one story changes it all: The story of the impetuous Killian Quinn: an agent for the Zeta Defense Agency, determined to avenge his fallen partner. As she follows him further down the rabbit hole, worlds collide when she awakens with her hands tied to a chair in the face of armed men. Sadie finds herself dropped in the middle of a battle between secret agencies she didn’t even know existed, but maybe where she’s belonged all along.

Elle M. Holmes was born in Florida, and has been writing both professionally and recreationally for years before publishing her debut novel The Silent Bluebird. When she’s not writing she has her nose buried in a book, taking in the sun at the beach, or finds herself stalking dog adoption sites. Oftentimes all three concurrently. She and her husband foster dogs whenever they can.

You can find her on Twitter and Instagram if you enjoy silly observations and bookish things.

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Linnea Hubbard is a voice actor based in Southern Indiana. She has a BFA in Theatre from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, with a special focus on voice and dialects, and has performed in over 100 projects including audiobooks, video games, plays, films, and commercials. Linnea was born in North Carolina and divided her youth between Raleigh and Los Alamos, New Mexico before spending much of her adult life in Seattle. A relatively recent transplant to the midwest, Linnea spends her free time enjoying the outdoors, studying public health, and fixing up her little mid-century modern house. She has two young kids and too many cats.

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Books Elle M. Holmes Read In the Last Year

Being an SFF author and all-around binge reader, sometimes I need a little help to push me out of my cozy hyperdrive cocoon and read other genres. Thankfully I have a book club made up of only 5 of us, and we all have wildly different tastes and opinions – which I think makes for the most *spirited* of book club conversations. So looking back on the books I’ve read in the last year, they thankfully run the gamut. For brevity, I’ll offer up a few quick hits. And again, these are only the ones I’ve read in the last year.

Favorite Book: Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
Most Re-Read Book: Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Unexpected Delight: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Longest Book: Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson
Most Out of Genre: Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan
Attitude Changer: Overstory by Richard Powers
Favorite Audiobook: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Okay, so now that the quick hits are out of the way, let’s dive into some of the reasonings. Any astute reader will notice the prevalence of Brandon Sanderson’s work on that list, and there’s a reason for that. He’s fantastic. What others see as useless ramblings, I see as brilliant breadcrumbs that take well over one million words to taste the whole cake. And while brevity may never appear on a list of Sanderson’s talents, in my humble opinion, world-building on a Tolkeinian level will. If you’ve not had a chance to read anything by him, I highly suggest you stop reading this and go pick up Mistborn or Skyward immediately. If you like those, then jump into Way of Kings. Be forewarned; you need some serious arm and finger muscles for those books. Thankfully his audiobooks are narrated by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer, and they are true auditory delights.

Enough about Sanderson; I could wax poetic on him all day. Next up is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. This one is my guilty pleasure. It’s such an adorable little book, and I find myself re-reading it every year, sometimes multiple times per year. It’s historical fiction set in a post-WWII era England about the Nazi-terrorized life of the Guernsey inhabitants, all written by way of letters, and it’s absolutely brilliant. It doesn’t hurt that Netflix made a movie out of it starring Michiel Huisman. Read it. Fall in love with Dawsey. Then read it again.

A Man Called Ove was certainly not on my radar before book club picked it. Would I have found it eventually? Most assuredly, Anxious People was far too good to keep me from the rest of his library. But his ability to blend real issues with a light-hearted air that doesn’t detract whatsoever from the gravity of the situation is, in a word, masterful. If you’ve not read the story of a crotchety old man determined to die and his tenacious new neighbor determined to keep him in the land of the living, definitely add this one to your TBR list.

Longest book was Oathbringer; I shall refer you to my previous Sanderson rant. And who says reading can’t be a workout?

Now Little Beach Street Bakery, this one was a book club choice that none of us knew what to expect. A salacious honey scene was certainly NOT what I expected, but maybe that’s on me with a bakery being the primary setting. Either way, if you’re into quick and easy beach reads involving flour and flirting, this one may be right up your alley.

Overstory by Richard Powers made me question the way I live my life. It caused me to look closer at the paper plates and plastic cups that are so readily thrown out. To question my propensity for printed books. To think about the state of the world and what I can do to help it. Not to mention question my own writing ability due to the fluid nature of Powers’ writing. He managed to weave together a story spanning generations as easily as a tree grows roots. Overstory is definitely a book that will make you question your place in the universe. I guess that’s why it’s a Pulitzer Prize-winning book.

Some books were written to be audiobooks; they thrive on it, live for it, explode off the page, and are discontented to be seen and not heard. Daisy Jones and the Six is most definitely one of those books. Truth be told, I tried to read this one in paperback first until a good friend started playing the audiobook for me, and I was hooked. I put down my book and picked up my phone to hear the stories of Daisy, Billy and Graham drift lightly through the air. This is definitely a book with an all-star cast that will get any audiobook newbie fully onboard with the trend. The only criticism I have, where is the soundtrack? I want so badly to hear all of the songs. If any producers out there are listening, please make it happen.

Also, if any producers are reading, can we also get a Crows Have Eyes 3? It’s painful having songs, movies, and stories alluded to in fiction only to have them never brought into actual existence. But I digress.

So while many more books could’ve been on this list, I hope these few shed some light into the mind of this simple author. And I’ll leave you with this thought, just because it isn’t in “your genre” doesn’t mean you can’t learn something from it. The stories we read do have the potential to change our lives, if only we give them a chance.