Thank you Brilliance Audio for the ALC and Thomas & Mercer / Netgalley for the digital advanced copy of Kismet in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer / Brilliance Audio
Published: August 1, 2022
Summary:
From Amina Akhtar comes a viciously funny thriller about wellness – the smoothies, the secrets, and the deliciously deadly impulses.
Lifelong New Yorker Ronnie Khan never thought she’d leave Queens. She’s not an “aim high, dream big” person – until she meets socialite wellness guru Marley Dewhurst.
Marley isn’t just a visionary; she’s a revelation. Seduced by the fever dream of finding her best self, Ronnie makes for the desert mountains of Sedona, Arizona.
Healing yoga, transcendent hikes, epic juice cleanses…Ronnie consumes her new bougie existence like a fine wine. But is it, really? Or is this whole self-care business a little sour?
When the glam gurus around town start turning up gruesomely murdered, Ronnie has her answer: all is not well in wellness town. As Marley’s blind ambition veers into madness, Ronnie fears for her life.
My thoughts:
This is Amina Akhtar’s debut novel and I have to say, as oddly quirky and weird as this one was at times, I liked it. And I will definitely be keeping an eye out to see what this author writes next because she sure is talented.
This is an unsettling read that kept me on edge while it also pokes fun at the health and wellness industry and I just loved it! I think the fact that there were chapters told by ravens totally won me over and this just might be a book I will have to reread at some point because I am sure I missed a few things as I tried to figure out what the heck was going on. But I will say there is a rather colorful cast of characters, some more likeable than others, that keep you invested in the story and you cannot help but want to know where things are heading.
Between the fact that a killer is on the loose, ravens are keeping an eye on things and the story was set in a place that I really do hope to go to one day, I found myself totally caught up in this story – and as I did listen to it and it was told by a full cast I was in heaven – but more on that below. Again…I really did enjoy this one as bizarre as it was because it really was very entertaining and at the end of the day, that is why I pick up a book – to be entertained!
Audio thoughts:
I love when a book is narrated by a full cast and that is exactly what we have here. Dilshad Vadsaria, Kimberly Woods and Rhett Samuel Price really did a fantastic job bringing this book to life and while I was not familiar with any of these narrators, I will definitely be checking out what else they narrate because I really liked their style. Their pacing and intonation was spot on and they made this book very enjoyable to listen to.
