Review

I thought this was a very well written and narrated book , it is very easy to follow with great characters , I really felt for the main character in this book and fell in love with her , please write a follow up book as I’d love to see her in the future

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Hard hitting!

Wow, this was a tough listen with what the character had to go through and her journey through domestic violence. So well written and narrated. It is worth your time to listen to this one. Thank you for an open and honest book.

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Great great book a must.

I love books like these I love love love the kind that just have you glued from the very start, Christina Hoag absolutely did this for me in this book.

He was perfect. At first. The summer before senior year, 17-year-old Chloe starts an internship as a reporter at a local newspaper. While on assignment, she meets Kieran, a quirky aspiring actor. Chloe becomes smitten with Kieran’s charisma and his ability to soothe her soul, torn over her parents’ impending divorce. But as their bond deepens, Kieran becomes smothering and flies into terrifying rages. He confides in Chloe that he suffered a traumatic childhood, and Chloe is moved to help him. If only he could be healed, she thinks, their relationship would be perfect. But her efforts backfire and Kieran becomes violent. Chloe breaks up with him, but Kieran pursues her relentlessly to make up. Chloe must make the heartrending choice between saving herself or saving Kieran, until Kieran’s mission of remorse turns into a quest for revenge.

This would be a great way to catch young girls attention in high school age to spread awareness that domestic abuse doesn't just happened in older or married couples, it could happen to just anyone.

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Heartbreakingly worth the listen

I received a free audiobook in exchange for an unbiased review.

When I first started listening to this book, I did not expect the very dark twists and lengths that this novel would go to, but, honestly, it was such an intensely good read. Masi did an incredible job of bringing the main character to life and you can’t help but feel for Chloe throughout the book.

Domestic violence is not an easy subject to broach, particularly in a novel for a younger audience, but Hoag does an amazing job at portraying the scenarios through her protagonist’s eyes. Not only do you want to reach into the book and protect Chloe yourself, but you also begin to understand the complexities within such a relationship and the internal and external turmoil such victims have to face. The last few chapters literally had me on the edge of my seat in shock and worry for Chloe.

I really recommend this book if you are a fan of novels by Holly Bourne or John Green.

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Brilliant!

An absolutely brilliant book that should be mandatory reading for teenagers! It tells the tale of Chloe and her summer romance with Kieran who over the course of the book begins to raise red flags.

It talks about surviving domestic abuse and recognising the signs without glamourising it in any way which I appreciated. The author does an excellent job at depicting an abuser and an abusive relationship without it feeling overwrought or fake - I found it very relatable!

Thank you to the author for a complimentary copy!

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Interesting story and great narration

Girl on the Brink could be used as a great conversation starter with teens as far as red flags for abusive relationships. I also found the comments at the beginning very relevant (in 2020) about diversity being a lasting issue. Overall, I found the story to be interesting.

Angela Rose Masi was a new narrator for me. She really impressed me with her accents and dialects for the different characters, most especially the support group characters. I can't think of any other story I've listened to where the characters had such drastically different speech patterns. It made the characters seem more diverse. There was some room for improvement in the editing, but I liked enough other stuff about the performance to overlook it.

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My Heart

The narration of Angela Rose Masi, was perfect for the heart pulling book.

My heart and soul felt so deep in this book.

This is story of emotional abuse and it illustrates how easy it is for teens to become emotionally lost, even when they seem happy and appear to be doing well in life.

Chloe is spending the summer between her junior and senior year interning at the local paper. She meets Kieran. Kieran is charming and charismatic, and Chloe's never met anyone like him. When she falls for him.

In the beginning, their relationship is perfect. Kieran is older and wiser, advising her about her parents and showing her new things. But Kieran has a temper, and things take a turn for the worse. Chloe is forced to decide between saving Kieran and saving herself.

It was intense and a little challenging to listen .

Recommend

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Emotional and intelligent

I had to take a bit after finishing this book just to process the story I heard unfold before me. The struggles, the pain, the elation and the deverstating lows felt all too real. The book is fiction but the situation it depicts is not.

Chloe is our protagonist and she is very bubbly and ambitious at the beginning of the narrative, excited about her internship and the possibility of summer romance.
When that romance starts to turn sour she does everything she can to fix it and save the person she has come to care so much about, she blames herself and when her abuser turns her arguments on her, making her out to be the problem she starts to accept it. She loses her spark, allows herself to be isolated from her friends, made to look bad at her place of work.

As the story progresses you come to care more and more about Chloe and her situation, so many times I found myself going 'nope', 'well that's weird' or 'nah that is not a good sign'. The warning signs were there from the beginning and it's scary how easy it is to ignore them or write them off as a person's little quirks.

'as women we aren't taught to see the warning signs of abuse'

This is the standout statement of the whole novel because it's true. We aren't, we are sold the 'fairytale' from a very young age and when it starts to go wrong we try to hide it, pretend everything is ok, blame ourselves for the failure. Chloe doesn't even think of herself as a victim of domestic abuse, even after everything she's been through.

I think it was a very powerful choice to tell this story through the eyes of a teenager, as it's so easy to swept along by the 'whirlwind' romance of it, it's hard to spot the signs and I think girls and women of all ages and backgrounds should be taught the warning signs that could, possibly, one day save their life. it's a hard conversation to have but it is incredibly important.

This is a book that everyone should read, repeatedly. They should talk to their friends about it, they should talk to their kids about it, it should be on every reading book and book club list of must reads, it should be on school curriculum as a means to bring the subject up with teenagers, to help make them aware and open to talking about the red flags and warning signs of relationships such as the one depicted in the novel.

The author has done a fantastic job of opening up an incredibly difficult topic of conversation and I have to say the narrator gets the pitch and tone of the piece absolutely spot on, she is bright and bubby to start, then we hear her brightness slowly chipped away at, she conveys to us Chloe's feelings to a point where, we feel them ourselves.

Such a powerful book, I can't say enough positive things about it. Read it, listen to it, talk about it. Make others aware, open up that conversation.


"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

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Beautifully read

This isn't the type of book I would usually listen to, it is aimed at a younger listener but it was a thoroughly enjoyable book. Perfect escapism for 2021!

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Interesting

Chloe meets Kieran whilst on a job for a local newspaper. What starts as a fun filled relationship soon turns into one where she is being manipulated and isolated from her friends. With her family falling to pieces around her, Chloe wants to help Kieran overcome his demons from his childhood. The story really showed how very subtlety someone can assert influence and control. When times are good you really want to believe in Kieran, when times are bad you want to shout as Chloe to run as fast as she can and not look back. Taking a tough subject I felt the author dealt with it sensitively and at times it made me feel uncomfortable, but that was important to the story as it made it much more realistic. An interesting listen.

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