Last Will and Testament

{thank you to netgalley and the orange sky audio for providing an ARC of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review}

“the trick to not having the high expectations of your success bury you when you fail to meet them? lower them to practically nothing.”rating- 2.5/5

This is the first audiobook recording for a book published in 2014. I came across the excerpt on netgalley when I was looking for nothing in particular and found the premise super intriguing. I also don't usually prefer audiobooks, so this was an experience! Samantha Summers, the narrator did a great job with the narration. Her voice fit the main character's monologue perfectly and the voice modulations kept the plot engaging throughout. I had a lot of fun listening to the book and had absolutely no complaints when it came to the audio.
That being said, i don't think i would've liked the book as much if I'd read it instead of listening to it. The writing style was different from what i usually read but seemed to work for an audiobook format.

PREMISE
18 year old Lizzie Brandt has gone into a downward spiral ever since she's come to college. She doesn't care about her grades and spends most of her time in parties and curing hangovers.
Everything changes when she loses her parents to a car crash. Now, she's the sole guardian to her two younger brothers and needs to bring up her grades to maintain the scholarship. She's struggling with parenting at 18 while also figuring out college, when she ends up falling for Connor Lawson, her history TA who has helped her throughout everything. When bad decisions from her past are back to haunt her and threaten her relationship with Connor as well as custody of her brothers, she finds that she has more on her plate than she can handle.

{review contains spoilers after this point!}
THOUGHTS
It was way better than I expected for sure. I looked up the actual book on gr, and I'm pretty sure i wouldn't have picked it up if not for the new cover and the audiobook. i.e. it was definitely a good idea to republish in audio format.

There were a few things in the plot that didn't work for me:
➢ the age gap felt a little icky to me, especially because of the power imbalance in the teacher-student dynamic. Would've been different if she was over 20 i think. But atleast they address this in the book instead of glossing over it. Also think it wasn't the best idea for her to get into a complicated relationship mere weeks after her parents death, but then again, it is what it is.
➢ the predictability of the plot.
I knew immediately after the whole Sophie conflict that this was going to bite her back in the ass. I also disliked the whole cheating situation in the beginning. Lizzie's definitely in the wrong but is surprised that Sophie is mean to her?
➢Although Lizzie's character is more than realistic, because let's be fair every 18 year old would react similarly in a situation like that, i did find her monologue sliiightlyyy annoying at times. She's whiny and constantly complains about her life falling apart instead of doing something about it.
➢ You know a book is written in 2014 when it uses words like fuckability? and lady boner? Plis T_T.
➢ I understand that losing your parents at 18 is terrible and nobody should have to go through that. But the author mentions her parent's death every two pages and it did get more than a little repetitive.

Now, coming to the things i liked:
➢Connor's character was definitely more likable. I was a little apprehensive that they would use the daddy issues bit to justify asshole-like behaviour, but I'm glad they didn't. His reluctance was completely understandable and makes more sense when he voices his thoughts about his inability to be a good parental figure to the boys. Moreover, their relationship was really well done. It wasn't super quick or too slow and they had great banter and chemistry.

“if you don't think I'm committing every fucking second of this to memory, you're crazy”

chaotic nature of the plot.

The ending was not what I expected. It felt like it negated all the character development since Lizzie is back to living on her own. It lets her off the hook as a protagonist and made the plotline of the story seem unfulfilled.

fun, fast paced