Acquired Audiobook By: I started to listen to audiobooks in [2016] as a way to offset my readings of print books whilst noting there was a rumour about how audiobooks could help curb chronic migraines as you are switching up how your reading rather than allowing only one format to be your bookish choice. As I found colouring, knitting and playing solitaire agreeable companions to listening to audiobooks, I embarked on a new chapter of my reading life where I spend time outside of print editions of the stories I love reading and exchange them for audio versions.
Through hosting for Audiobookworm Promotions, I’ve expanded my knowledge of authors who are producing audio versions of their stories whilst finding podcasters who are sharing their bookish lives through pods. Meanwhile, I am also curating my own wanderings in audio via my local library who uses Overdrive for their digital audiobook catalogue wherein I can also request new digital audiobooks to become added to their OverDrive selections. Aside from OverDrive I also enjoy having Audible & Scribd memberships as my budget allows. It is a wonderful new journey and one I enjoy sharing – I have been able to expand the percentage of how many audios I listen to per year since 2018.
I received a complimentary audiobook copy of “Magical Neighbours” via Audiobookworm Promotions who is working with the author on this blog tour in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
*waves* It is time to reveal my second audiobook story I’ve listened to this #WyrdAndWonder which involves *gnomes!* Remember, earlier in the month when I shared my audio review for The One Great Gnome? You might have caught the *excitement!* I had in listening to select Middle Grade Fantasy stories this Wyrd And Wonder in audiobook – as prior to this lovely, I was truly smitten with the world within The Marvelwood Magicians!
One of my most earnest requests for audiobooks across the board are to have cast & narrator lists – wherein if there is more than one narrator, each voice a narrator represents needs to be given to a listener whilst a cast listing is wicked helpful for dyslexic listeners such as myself who struggle to sort out how a name is properly spelt in the stories we’re listening too. Guess what!? This particular author must’ve have known how helpful a PDF character disclosure would be – as she’s included one with this audiobook!
Not only are there hand-crafted gnome and fairy doors throughout the PDF file but there is also artwork representing the characters themselves as well as how their names are spelt! They each have their own unique personality and the one who graces the cover of Magical Neighbours is known as Hoedown, which I could only conclude before hearing the story was due to her gardening obsession!?
What a brilliant treat to find!! I wish all audiobooks came with a PDF file to accompany the stories wherein each story we listen to would disclose the names of the characters like Magical Neighbours has given us! And, of course, for harder to spell/hear names for settings in stories, that would be most ideal as well.
Let’s find out my reactions to this super short story which has such a big heart!
Magical Neighbours
by Mary Ellen Spencer
Source: Audiobook via Audiobookworm Promotions
Narrator: Rosemary Benson
The sudden appearance of a portly gnome on a humdrum, ordinary day definitely threw me for a loop. When this gnome began to speak to me about building him a home in our neighborhood, I know my eyes were as big as saucers, but I tried to appear casual. And I even managed to answer graciously, “Sure, I’d be glad to.” Then other gnomes who wanted to live in my neck of the woods showed up. Fairies, too! They all became part of my world. And their world became part of mine. Life’s been astonishing ever since.
Maybe you’ve never met anyone who lives beyond fairy doors. Well, I’d like you to meet my new neighbors. They’re really quite wonderful in their own magical way. Knock on their doors and have a chat. Make friends with fairies and garden gnomes. Come spend some time with us!
Places to find the book:
ASIN: B0932B15V8
Published by One Night Stand Studios
on 21st April, 2021
Format: Audiobook | Digital
Length: 40 minutes (unabridged)
Published by: One Night Stand Studios
Converse via: #Fantasy, #KidsLit and #MGLit or #MiddleGrade
as well as #AudiobookwormPromotions OR #TheAudiobookEmpire
+ #MagicalNeighbours & #WyrdAndWonder
About Mary Ellen Spencer
Mary Ellen Spencer lives in a forested neighborhood near Harrods Creek in Kentucky with her cute husband Hank and her trusty dog Annie. She likes to make things—fairy doors and birdhouses from gourds, men of the forest carved from stone, and woodspirits carved into cedar. She enjoys growing things—like trees and hostas and oak leaf hydrangeas. And sometimes stories spill out.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- #WyrdAndWonder
