Series ✦ Penny’s Take 🎧 Audiobook
The Giver of Stars: Reese's Book Club (A Novel)
Jojo Moyes · 2019
🎙 Narrated by Julia Whelan
75/100
👍 Worth It
This one has real heart, a vivid Depression-era Kentucky setting, and Julia Whelan is about as good a narrator as audiobooks get, effortlessly differentiating a big cast. It does depict an abusive marriage, so know that going in, and there's a public plagiarism-similarity controversy shadowing the book, but overall it earns its Reese's Book Club pick and the listen is a strong one.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: depicts an abusive marriage/domestic violence · some violence tied to plot conflict. We still scored it 75; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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🎙 Narration: excellent Julia Whelan is an AudioFile Golden Voice and multi-Audie winner; her handling of the large cast and Appalachian setting is a standout.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety65
Substance / usefulness75
Craft & writing88
Originality55
Evidence & accuracy68
Hype vs delivers62
Age-fit78
Human-eye read84
Penny’s verdict75
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