Score: 4/5 Bookmarks

I received a free copy of this audiobook in return for an honest review.

Playing in the Rain by Sandra J. Jackson is the first in the Escape series, about two girls who come out of a drug-induced hypnosis to find themselves in some sort of medical testing facility. While the venue only changes once in the book, and the girls are living the monotonous routine of their daily lives, you get rich flashbacks and insights into their pasts along with the inner dialogue of the main character, April.

The story is paced really well and compelling enough to make me want to keep listening, when I should have been doing other things. It’s also narrated expertly by Carrie Coello. A narrater can really make or break an audiobook and Coello made my experience even better.

I will say that I was left with a lot of questions by the end of the book. Were the girls in some sort of post apocalyptic world? What were they being studied and tested for? I have no doubt that this was the author’s intention, and given how invested I am in the girls now I am itching to get my hands on the second book and find out what’s going on.

Synopsis:

When the effects of a hypnosis inducing drug fade, April slowly begins a conscious awakening. Memories of her past are unclear and she has no recollection of her identity or her whereabouts.

As the days slip by, April realizes there is more to life than existing when she is introduced to an occupant who does just that—her sister. The more she learns about her environment the more she wants to escape.

Will April remember her past, her sister? Will she have the courage to leave? And if she does, where will she go?

Experience through April’s eyes her struggle to remember and her determination to escape in this sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, suspense story.