This was a very quick read - I listened to the audiobook on 2x and listened to it in a day. I really loved it! The premise was so intriguing - is the town suffering from some unnatural sickness that leads to violence? Or are people just broken and cruel no matter the zip code? I loved the complex relationships in the story and thought the characters were well-developed. It left me with a mild book hangover which is the hallmark of a great story. Definitely recommended, especially if you are looking for something a little spooky and twisted this fall.

Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I received a free Audio copy of this book from Dreamscape Media and NetGallery for an honest review.

4.25.

I really liked this book. I’ll start with the story first and then talk briefly about the Audiobook as a separate thing.

This story is much more than how it was described. In many ways, this book is described as a thriller, maybe even a bit spooky and while it was dark, it didn’t read to me that way. For me, this was a book about grief, lose, and betrayal. It’s about dangerous love and how that can affect an entire community. I am unsure if those looking for a tight thriller or horror ya will be satisfied, but I loved this book because it was more than I expected.

The Audiobook was well paced and the narrator was wonderful. I could easily distinguish between the characters and I had a hard time putting it down.

3.25 stars

I will give Walters this: she definitely has a gift for writing prose. There were quite a few moments where I had to nod along with the audiobook narrator because the lyrical language found its way into my heart. She does a wonderful job of bringing the incredibly complex protagonist to life through her firm grip on the character's voice.

However, there were also quite a few moments where I found myself thinking that this story was really two separate books that were being smashed together. While The Violent Season was marketed as a thriller, I found that all of the mystery/thriller aspects took a back seat to the twisted love triangle. I have enjoyed thrillers with a romance subplot before, but the thriller aspects of The Violent Season felt like tiny crumbs dispersed throughout a dark romance. Yet again, I found myself burned by a book blurb that went overboard in selling the story's content.

Overall, I enjoyed The Violent Season, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if my expectations had been set up to align with the book's actual content.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for a fair and honest review!

WOW!! This small tiny town had more going on in it then a major city!! I received an audio copy of this book. Every November this town becomes a mystery of very disturbing events. It is a month where you either survive, or you are killed. The way some characters walk around like it is normal- fits with these disturbing events. I was captivated by the narrator and if you like thrillers this is the book for you!

I received a ARC of The Violent Season in exchange for an honest review.

This story follows Wyatt Green around the anniversary of her mother’s brutal murder in the town of Wolf Ridge. She’s on a mission to prove that the urban legend that the Wolf Ridge residents gets plagued with a sickness that turn them violent every November is true.

The cover of this one pulled me in and the premise sold me. I just knew I had to get my hands on this one. Unfortunately, this one didn’t match what I was expecting. I was thinking it’d be a Purge style fast paced novel with a touch of romance. In reality, it was just slow paced and sad. Additionally, Wyatt’s constant reference of being “sharp edges” and “cuss words and cigarettes” was distracting. It was equivalent to when you get a new car then all of a sudden you see it everywhere. If I took a shot every time that description or a similar one was said, I’d have, at minimum, a buzz by the time I reached The End.

With all that said, this book was middle of the road for me. Not bad at all just nothing I would be dying to read again. .

I enjoyed this audiobook very much!

Every November the residents of Woodridge are overcome with violence. Some people say it’s a disease. Others are not so sure.

Last fall Wyatt’s mom was murdered. She can’t remember the events that transpired and that’s part of what is fueling her grief.

This year, her best friend and guy she can’t find a reason to leave, hears the call for violence. A class assignment forces Wyatt to team up with Cash’s nemesis Porter. The more time they spend together the further she pulls herself away from Cash.

As the truth unravels about the murder of her mother, Wyatt uncovers secrets that are life changing. It forces her to question everything she believed in and those she trusted most.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for this audiobook.

In The Violent Season, Wyatt is wary because it's November and according to the town rumors, that's when a sickness comes over the place. Last year, her mother was murdered but the police still haven't found the culprit. This season, she starts feeling drawn to her best friend's nemesis, Porter, and comes to some realizations about her mom's death.

This book had a lot of crazy moments in it. Though for some of them, it almost glazed over them or swept by them too quickly for me. At one point, there is a fire which I wanted to stay in for a moment to build more tension from, but the scene was over too quickly. I found myself feeling bad for Wyatt and wishing she would move on from her town. Though I do get how she got brainwashed into thinking she was only good enough to stay. She also trusted people a little too much for my tastes. Porter definitely had me wanting to trust him but also wary because Cash didn't like him. This book ended up being a nice murder mystery to listen to, though I did figure out the killer before the end. For me, this was a 3.5/5.

With one narrator for the audiobook, I felt like she did a very good job sounding like the character. She didn't feel disconnected or as if she was reading dryly from a script. However, there were times when a new chapter would start and it would sound a little different than before and that happened a few times. This was a nice book to listen to because it flowed very nicely without taking too long.

If you like traumatic events that mess with your mind, you wish that Nick and Gatsby were the real romance, or you like dark and dangerous boys, this is the one for you.

I received a copy of this audiobook free from NetGalley and Dreamscape Media in exchange for an honest review.

The emotional rollercoaster of this book - AH!

This book was nothing of what I thought it was going to be like but it didn't disappoint. I full-heartedly want to see this as a movie or series. I got multiple chills throughout just from Walters' wordplay and how she constructed her ideas.

I listened to the audiobook - which obviously I loved and finished in a day - but I feel like I would have loved it even more if I had the physical book to soak in the lines and feel closer to Wyatt and the rest of the characters. Honestly, I am so impressed by the emotion, I can't stop thinking about it!

Thank you Net Galley for an audio copy of The Violent Season by the debut author Sara Walters. This was a fantastic debut that kept me hooked from the first word. The violent season is November and I will be thinking of that this November for sure!

“The Violent Season” by Sara Walters was one I was excited to read; however, I struggled to stay engaged. I listed to the audiobook version, narrated by Jorjeana Marie. I found Jorjeana’s tone fitting for the main character, however, all the other characters had the same tone / feel to them leaving; resulting in a monotone pattern.

A sincere thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing me an advance copy (ARC) of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read this story and leave my review voluntarily.

5/5!!!
I was completely invested the entire book! It was a little predictable but the way it played out was not exactly how I expected. This is an excellent YA romance/mystery. I will be buying a copy of this book as soon as it comes out! Thank you Dreamscape Media (publisher), Jorjeana Marie (narrator), and most of all Sara Walters for the opportunity to read this book.

From beginning to end this book did not let me go! This is a dark and twisted fever dream of secrets and small town tragedy.

“We may have been in pieces, but we were more than the sum of them. We had to be. Otherwise, what did we have left but the pain?”

In the small town of Wolf Ridge, Vermont, Wyatt Green is convinced that every November, the people living there go a little crazy. They all collectively suffer from this sickness that makes them bloodthirsty and craving carnage, either directed towards others or internalized and directed towards ones self.

For as long as she can remember, people in the town die from suicide or commit unspeakable crimes against others, leaving behind an insane body count for such a small place.

“All that violence left behind more than bodies, though, something less tangible but possibly more damaging: embers now growing into thick, hot flames deep down in the center of me.”

Wyatt and her best friend Cash Peters are in the thick of it. Both still healing from the deaths of their own mothers, the two cling to each other. But somewhere along their years of friendship, Wyatt started to feel more than platonic feelings toward Cash. When his pleading and pitiful rejection strikes her in the heart, she begins to form a tentative friendship with a boy he hates. A class project pairs Wyatt with Porter Dawes, and as they get closer, she begins to shed that hard, cold she’ll that she grew from years of being attached at the hip to Cash. And Wyatt both despises and is thrilled by it.

With the town in the middle of another November, Wyatt tries to keep a tight hold to her better judgement while still trying to figure out who killed her mother. This town holds a plethora of secrets and they might be closer to Wyatt than she thinks.

This was PHENOMENAL! I found myself completely drawn to both Wyatt and Cash’s relationship and Wyatt and Porter’s relationship. Even when things are going wrong and characters become generally unlikable, I still had this infatuation bubbling inside of me, not ready to give up hope.

I listened to this on audio and the narration was amazing. The cadence, pace and the deeper notes of the narrator’s voice lent to the downright creepy factor of this book.

There’s a story, an urban legend, that come November, the people of Wolf Ridge get a little crazy, like The Purge crazy. Did Wyatt Green’s mother fall victim to this phenomenon? A year later, she thinks so, and she’s worried that it’s going to happen again. Torn between two young men, one she wants no matter how badly he treats her and another who shares her both her fear and fascination for this fall frenzy, Wyatt will have to come to terms with both her mother’s death and the truth about the people she has surrounded herself with. A creepy YA thriller that teens will devour