Quick and sweet listen. I liked the accents, although it made it harder for me to multitask like I do when listening because they were so strong. Otherwise was a really cute story.

Thanks to Dreamscape Media & Netgalley for an advanced audiobook copy of The Lost Manuscript.

This book had such an amazing and fun premise -- Anne-Lise finds a manuscript of a book in a hotel drawer and finds the author's address and sends it to him, only to find out that he lost it 30 years ago...
It is told in letters and emails as she tries to figure out who touched the manuscript and all of the people who saw it.

The audiobook of this was hard. I liked the full audiobook cast, but there were a lot of switches and I struggled a little bit with the characters and there were a lot of them! I think I would have preferred to read this one.

What a fun story. It starts with a lost Manuscript that someone finds and tries to find the rightful owner and what happens after that is both touching and fun. The storytelling is different in that it evolves into many different stories involving the manuscript. It answers what happen to the manuscript, the people involve in the story and the new relationships that are created because of the discovery of the book. I really got a kick out of the story and listened to it twice to make sure I didn't miss anything and at the end it made me smile.

I want to thank Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for this advance copy of a very entertaining audiobook.

3/5 Stars

The atmosphere was so beautiful and the writing for some my be over the top, but I think it really matched the tone of the book. Considering a majority of this are letters back and forth it did a really good job showing the character through that aspect.

This just didn’t end up going the way I thought it was going to. The concept had me hooked and for the first half I was invested. However, it started to just feel dragged out. I just didn’t feel the emotional punch I think the author was going for by the end. I think this book could be some peoples favorite, sadly, it was just lacking something for me.


Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this.

Written through letters, this book felt like a perfect mix of 84, Charing Cross Road and I think The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants?? I'm not totally sure but whatever it is works so well!
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I loved, loved, loved this story! Anne-Lise begins this adventure by tracking the manuscript backwards, talking to everyone who has had it in their hands and finds out how much it has changed their lives. I already pre-ordered a copy because I enjoyed it so much!

Thank you, NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and Cathy Bonidan, for a copy of this audiobook for review.

Narrated by Elodie Yung, Rupert Degas, Cecile Delepiere, and Jean Brassard - it was a interesting and enjoyable listen. Loved the french accents and the story told to you by letters between the characters.

As an audio, I like listening at 2x the speed but with the strong accents, I drop it down to 1.75x but overall it was a great listen.

The Lost Manuscript by Cathy Bonidan ⠀
Pub Date: 12 Jan 2021 ⠀
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Thoughts: this was a cute read all about this woman who becomes, imo, obsessed with finding the writers of this manuscript! She gets in contact with the main author and discovers there is a second author who completed the book he left in the hotel room. But, this discovery takes her on an adventure! It was slow in parts but all in all okay.
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Audiobook: I thought this was good for an audiobook. I think I actually preferred it to a book. I think it would have gotten a little slow in parts for me personally, but with the audio I didn't skip a beat. ⠀
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When Anne-Lise Briard books a room at the Beau Rivage Hotel for her vacation on the Brittany coast, she has no idea this trip will start her on the path to unearthing a mystery. In search of something to read, she opens up her bedside table drawer in her hotel room, and inside she finds an abandoned manuscript. Halfway through the pages, an address is written. She sends pages to the address, in hopes of potentially hearing a response from the unknown author. But not before she reads the story and falls in love with it. Not only does the author write back, but he confesses that he lost the manuscript 30 years prior on a flight to Montreal and that he was not the author of the second half of the book. So she sets off looking for the 2nd author! ⠀
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Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for providing me with this audiobook in exchange for my honest opinion! ⠀
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This book was so good I had to finish it in one sitting. The idea that a long lost manuscript brings so many book lovers together is so amazing. This is what dreams are made of. Although this book was amazing, the nostalgia I felt about reading this book and traveling to England and France was a strong and consuming. After finishing the book, it took me a while to gather myself and shake off the characters and the beautiful story of what ifs. Great book!

The main message of this story is the power of how one book can change a variety of people who live vastly different lives - and how a book can reinforce healing past wounds.

I thought it was interesting how it was written in a series of letters and incorporated a bit of mystery in who wrote the second half of the book.

I did find it a bit disconnected and choppy, given its all various letters went from numerous characters. It was still a very sweet and easy read!

Netgalley provided ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you, NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and Cathy Bonidan, for a copy of this audiobook for review.

The Lost Manuscript narrated by Elodie Yung, Rupert Degas, Cecile Delepiere, and Jean Brassard was a delightful listen. The story is told with a series of letters and emails sent by and between the various characters. Each letter perfectly executes the narrative and makes it a unique journey through the written word but voiced by the characters. This was a uniquely written story and wonderfully narrated. I enjoined the story of how a single manuscript of an unfinished novel could bring together individuals from every walk of life; on a mission to find the original author and the people their story touched.

The Lost Manuscript was not one that I could really get into. I will maybe try again, just not on audible. I think it would be easier to read then it is to listen to given the nature of how it’s written.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook

While staying in a hotel on the Brittany Coast, Anne-Lise finds a manuscript in the hotel’s bedside table and decides to read it. She finds within its pages the address of the author and sends the manuscript back to it’s owner. Anne-Lise is surprised when the author writes back explaining that he had lost the unfinished manuscript 30 years ago and that the second half of the book had been written by someone unknown to him. This book is told through a series of letters between the characters that have had their lives touched by the manuscript as it traveled over 30 years back to the original author. It’s a charming story that shows how books impact us. I love sharing the books I’ve read and will recommend this book to everyone.

An absolute gem of a book, I finished out 2020 with this one and it did not disappoint. I would love to read more by this author. It was he such a great feel good book

When Anne-Lise Briard is on vacation on the Brittany Coast, she searches her hotel room for something to read and discovers an unpublished manuscript in the hotel room night stand. This sets her on the path to solving a mystery that will change her life. When she mails the manuscript back to the address she finds, she discovers that the author lost it years ago on a flight, and that he didn’t write the second half of the book. In her quest to solve the mystery, she finds everyone who ever held the manuscript, makes some friends, and finds romance.

This is a love letter to booklovers, almost literally as much of it is told through written correspondence, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s pretty short, and I tore through it in just a few hours. I loved the storytelling through letters, the characters, and though I’m not a fan of the mystery genre, I do love a good mystery within Literary Fiction.

The narration was great. I loved the cast of characters. They brought even more vibrancy to the story, and it was an excellent choice to have several narrators. Sometimes when books switch POV frequently I get a little lost, but the change in voice made it easy to keep up, and they all did an excellent job.

I am always looking for good books to recommend to book lovers, and I’m thrilled to be able to add this one to the list. It’s out on the 12th, so if you love books, and of course you do, because you are reading this, definitely check it out.

The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss is one of my favorite books of 2021. While technically I started this book in 2020 (about a day ago-ish) and finished it this morning, I loved every minute of listening to this book and honestly want to reread it again!

Let's start with the first and most major part of this book, the topic of mental illness (i.e.: anxiety, depression, etc.). I have found few authors in my time of reading that actually take the dive and write an accurate book about mental illnesses. Amy Parks blew it out of the waters with her story!

Her main character, Evie, is a very smart mathematical logically interesting girl who has anxiety and doesn't understand feelings as much as her BFF Caleb does. She starts to date a guy named Leo and understand her feelings about her BFF and the world around her. She goes to a therapist to talk about her feelings, days, and work through her anxiety. I love that Parks added in the therapist because I, too, used to go to therapy and having that representation in a book just makes me so happy!

Now on to Caleb, the BFF, he blows me out of the water as a characters. While yes, he has a major crush (and he even says he loves her) on his bestie, he takes it slow and allows her to take her time instead of demanding things from her. He is logically and responsible about her anxiety. He tries his hardest to make sure she has someone she that can understand her and help her when she needs it.

All in all, I loved the characters development in this books. I liked the idea of using mental illnesses to raise awareness about what it is like for the person who has them as well as people who are around them. Breaking stereotypes is the first and most important priority society needs to start doing. There was some real though and research put into The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss. However, there is somethings that really did bug me about the book (mostly me being me and being picky).

First, I didn't like how Evie thought she could force her friends into going to the same college as her. While yes I get that anxiety can make the person thing or do unethical actions and them being there for her is their choice, sometimes in the book though it felt like Evie's friend had no choice but to side with her on where to go. However, I will say the friends did stand up and say they wanted to go to different schools so I appreciate that. But it just seems rather late in the book for me, but again that's a personal option there.

Second, I DID NOT enjoy Evie's mother trying to drug her with anxiety medicine through her tea. When I read that part, it really didn't settle with me. The other part that didn't settle with me is how the author kind of play it off as "oh mother is a psychologist and that's just how she is" and Evie just getting mad but sitting down to talk to her mother about it. THATS ILLEGAL! While I do not think the author should of added her mother going to jail, I wish there was a harsher punishment for the mother than a slap on the wrist and a "don't do it again" type thing.

Either way, I still really enjoyed this book a lot and hope the author decides to write sequel or a follow-up story to this one so we can see what the characters are up to later in their lives. To see how Evie and Caleb's relationship is going. To hear about Leo and how he is doing as well. Even all of Evie, Caleb's, and Breck's friends are doing. I recommend this to young adults and teenagers that like romance but not romance in the sense of all the sex scenes or talks (most you get is kissing).

It is perhaps ironic that a book about the power of the written word makes the perfect audio book. This book tells the story of a lost manuscript's journey across continents and decades through letters between people whose lives it touches. The various narrators brought to life the voices of the characters as they read their letters. This book contains elements of romance, mystery, family drama and adventure. The characters are well developed and truly come to life through narration. I would love to catch up with them again in a sequel! Finishing this book was a great way to start the new year. Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's press for the ARC.

I was very lucky to get to preview this book via Netgalley on audiobook.
This devastatingly charming read is an epistolary novel. Similar writing style as The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Written in a series of letters between the characters. It’s a lovely tale of a manuscript found in a hotel bedside table. It was returned to the owner via post only to find that said finished manuscript has been missing for 30 years. Hence begins the correspondence between Anne-Lise an the author. Only when the author lost the manuscript he was half finished and someone else finished the work. The journey to trace the books whereabouts over the thirty years begins. Friendships are formed, secrets are uncovered, and love blossoms. It’s a book for those who love books and the power books have over us and the paths they lead us down. 😍😍😍😍😍
The Lost Manuscript ~ Cathy Bonidan

This was so precious. Anne-Lise found an abandoned manuscript and was determined to find the author. As a person that loves books and loves to read, this tale about a book that wasn’t finished and brought people together touched me! Old friends, new friends, surprising friends. Told mostly via mail correspondence between multiple people, it was very fun to follow. The narrators were wonderful and the accents were lovely. Thanks to @netgalley for the chance to review this book.

The Lost Manuscript by Cathy Bonidan is a delightful tale of a story that was lost for many years and has suddenly been found! It is told completely via letters from the different people involved. The manuscript is found after being lost for 33 years in a hotel drawer. The woman who finds it reads it and contacts the address she finds in it's pages to see if the writer may still be there. They talk via letter for several months as they try to trace all the hands that the letter has seen since it was lost all those years ago. The story is fun and exciting and I love how the manuscript reaches all those that have read it. That is exactly what a good story should do! I enjoyed the audio narration immensely, as each character had a different narrator. I highly recommend this story and, most especially, the audio version of it! Five stars!
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

Cute, romantic story featuring (surprise!) middle-aged characters. Told in letters, the different styles and content of which convey the characters' personalities and histories. An enjoyable read, full of appealing characters and beautiful European locations. I would recommend this sweet and touching novel to fans of women's fiction and those who enjoy books about books.
3.5 stars