MIA SHERIDAN
Audiobook, Audible
Narrators: Zachary Webber, Virginia Rose
Modern Day Beauty and The Beast
Jonah Chamberlain is a young hotshot defense attorney in a prestigious firm on the way to winning a major case. He is defending a man who allegedly raped and killed several girls. His “do-gooder” brother advises him not to “take this path”. Jonah, however, dismisses him. He wins the trial… and all hell breaks loose right outside the courthouse. Shots are fired and a bomb explodes, leaving Jonah scarred for life and his brother dead. Jonah retreats to his family’s plantation mansion to live a life of a recluse.
Clara has moved to New Orleans to pursue her dreams of becoming a ballerina. She’s always felt bit like a square peg in round hole in the community. Her bus driver father has done everything he can to help her in her dream, but she always felt like a little ugly ducking amongst the more well-off crowd of the ballet world. She is living a lonely life in New Orleans because, unfortunately, her father now has Alzheimer’s and he barely recognizes her when she calls home.
One day, her neighbor tells her an old tale of the “wishing wall” located in an old plantation home and she is curious to find out more about it. It is said that wishes are granted by Angelina, the ghost of a former slave who lived in the house and had taken her own life after the betrayal of her soldier lover. Clara goes to visit the plantation and she places a wish on the wall. To her surprise she hears someone behind the wall and notices the person had picked up the paper with her wish. They talk and a beautiful friendship emerges from there… and love.
I really loved that this book has a “magical” quality about it. The way Clara and Jonah meet feels like they were destined to be. We get to follow two stories: Clara and Jonah’s and Angelina and John’s. Both are beautiful and both are marked by tragedy.
My only little peeve about the story is something in the plot that happens in the 1800s. We are dealing with a slave owner, a woman who is considered, even by her daughter, as ruthless and evil, so there is no way she would have come up with all the deception that ends up with Angelina taking her own life. In the real world, she would have solved her “problem” in a way more brutal way. I understand it helps the plot, but it made me feel like it was romanticizing a bit how things were back then (and sadly, some things are still bad right now).
I loved the book, though, and highly recommend it for anyone who likes a little “magic” in their lives.
Zachary Webber can make listening to anything a good experience, but when he is given material in which he can shine… he does. You can feel the emotion, the sadness, the pain in Jonah’s soul. Virginia Rose is also a great narrator and her Clara is spot on. It was a joy to listen to these two.
