West 57

By: B. N. Freeman

Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell

Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Meet Julie Chavan. Julie is trying to rescue the legendary New York publishing house West 57. Everyone else in her life is trying to rescue Julie - her mother, her ex-fiancé, her ex-best friend, and even the ghost of her dead father. They all think they know what Julie needs. What Julie actually needs is a big best seller for West 57, but her debut of the year's hottest book is spinning wildly out of control.

Julie is dealing with a dead con artist, an oversexed London agent, an irresistible young book editor, a drunk author spouting bawdy limericks, and a flying Chihuahua. The smart thing would be to say good-bye to West 57. Julie's Hollywood mother wants her in Los Angeles, and there's nothing keeping Julie in New York - nothing except her whole life. But before Julie can decide where she's going, she has to decide what she really wants. Exuberantly funny and emotionally rich, West 57 will make you laugh and cry about love, friendships, and the big choices in life.

©2015 B.N. Freeman (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Good and entertaining read.

I enjoyed this book and the narrator did a great job of bringing the characters to life. Funny, real, relatable and entertaining. I will be looking for more titles from this author.

slow starter

Slow to start. I almost gave up in Chapter 5, wondering if the story would ever pick up. It finally did, and then all the twists and turns kept me on the edge.

Not bad

A little funny, a lot clichéd, a little racist, a lot pretentious, a little mysterious, a little crud, a lot repetitive "just kidding" dialog is terribly annoying ... The biggest problem is the weak FMC. She is unlikable and overly privileged.

All in all, it is a different but frustrating read.

Nice infusion of humour.

There were a couple of laugh out loud moments within the story. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Author painted a great image of the characters so it was easy to get to know them.

Not funny and racist (as previous reader mentioned)

I understand after a little research that this author is actually Brian Freeman and a popular writer of thriller-type books. He should stick to that genre. (Though I haven't read any of his other books. ) This book was so so bad, even if it was a freebie. I understand why it was written under an alias.

Lots of asides to the reader, which are supposed to be funny but aren’t. Multiple instances of the narrator describing something, but no, a moment later we find out that it hadn't happened. Ok if it was a few times- we get it, already. But that device gets really old really fast. A racist scene in a Chinese restaurant that was supposed to be funny but was just racist and ugly. Beyond that, there are some descriptions of people that are just plain mean and not funny. And the jokes that go along with those descriptors.. calling it beating a dead horse would be too kind. For a book about a publisher, this one was in dire need of editing. Of course, had an editor gotten their hands on this, there probably wouldn’t be anything left once they were done.

The audible narrator was fine.

Racist

I knew this would be vapid but I was not expecting it to be so racist. Like, really really going out of its way to crack extremely offensive racist jokes.

could have been better

It took me almost a week to listen to this book. I fell asleep on it several times and switched to other books that were more enjoyable. It has been noted in other reviews the many stereotypes protrayed and some that were that so racially biased that it was offensive. And the saying something but not really saying over and over again was really irritating.

The narration overall was good which is probably the only reason I was able to finish.

no substance

characters were juvenile, obsessed with materialistic and sexual content. I couldn't get interested in the story

Hard to listen to this story

The story could be interesting, a ghost who visits his daughter, a business struggle, a saucy friend. But this book fell short. Julie the main character is irritating, she goes from being determined to being manipulated in the same event. It ended well, but getting there was hard. I had to stop the book for a few days then go back to it.
The narrator did a good job.

Audible Please Stop!!!!

Audible thinks I must hear this book, but it is honestly horrible!! She talks to her dead father. Her mother is a criticizing know it all. And that is just in the first couple of chapters. I sped the book up so it showed finished but it literally starts automatically after every book I finish as a recommended read. It's not my cup of tea so please for the love of my little sanity STOP recommending it to me!