This book had my brain exploding more than once - I'm not sure if it was in a good way or a bad way. Kristi and Jillian are both so unlikeable to me - but it's hard not to feel bad for Jillian after you find out what Kristi has been doing behind her back. I really can't figure out if I loved this book or if I hated it (in the best way). The absolute betrayal of Jillian by Kristi (best friends) is beyond wild. The author does a great job and really pulling emotion from the reader as the story progresses. One of the things I enjoyed thoroughly is how many point of views the story is told from - it kept me engaged and I like getting to learn a bit about some background characters and it made me really feel for the children, out of everyone they all deserved better parents.

This read is available everywhere July 4, 2023 - be sure to grab yourself a copy!

Name of Book: Swimming with Ghosts
Author: Michelle Brafman
Narrators: Hillary Huber, Scott Brick, Sophie Amps, and Pete Cross
Genre: Adult Drama
Publisher: Dreamscape Media
Pub Date: July 4, 2023
My Rating: 3.4 Stars
Pages: 380

I was drawn to this story by the title. I am not a swimmer nor do I call myself any kind of a an athletic but I have spent hours on the side lines of soccer fields, baseball diamonds but most of my time has been on the pool deck. This started when my energetic three year need something to do during the long Chicago winters. The indoor pool at the Y was the answer. Now that energetic child is the mother of three amazing athletics – good at everything but excellent in the water; first swimming but true love - water polo.

The second reason is the narrators are audiobook performers that I love!

Third bonus reason- as if I needed another reason - is the author’s bio:

Author Michelle Brafman tells us –
Writing is not my first gig. I’ve also worked as a coffee barista, radio advertising salesperson, and filmmaker, among other jobs. My resume reads like a ransom note, yet this assortment of life experiences has propelled me toward my big passion, the coaxing and telling of stories.
She goes on to tell us ~
I teach creative writing at The Johns Hopkins MA in Writing Program, the George Washington University, The Washington Center for Psychoanalysis’ New Directions Program, and smaller workshops throughout the Washington, DC area. In 2003, I founded Yeah Write, a writing coaching business.

I am a Milwaukee, Wisconsin native and University of California, San Diego
Alum, I still dream about Kopp’s custard and La Jolla Cove swims. I now live just
north of the Washington, DC border, in Glen Echo, Maryland, with my husband
and two children.

Story is told from the POV of Gillian, Christie, Gillian’s son Justin and Charlie.
Kristy Weinstein and Gillian Cloud are suburban moms and BFFs who work so closely together people call them Krillian. For ten summers they’ve reigned as the go-to parent duo in charge of the River Run Manta Rays swim team.”

Story starts with a Pasta Pep Rally/dinner which is a Manta Rays tradition; everyone brings a different kind of pasta- which is always a big hit!
When the head coach’s real job results in him having to move; our duo has to find a new ‘head coast’. Gillian’s husband Charlie is current out of work and was a swimmer so volunteers for the position.

I wanted to love this but I found these potty-mouthed characters so unlikeable; the story had me curious so I hung in there.
Although my curiosity was satisfied, I never reached the point of enjoying this.

Want to thank NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this audiobook.
Publishing Release Day scheduled for: July 4, 2023.

Thank you to the author, publisher, narrators and Net Galley for providing a free e-audio version in exchange for my review.

I'm just going to say it. I didn't like this book. I kept listening, hoping to get to the 'good parts' or to have it all click and make sense. It didn't. There was SO. MUCH. TO. DISLIKE about this book. Just, so, so, so much.

I don't even want to talk about it. I'm probably an outlier, but I can't say one single good thing about this book. I didn't even like the narrators.

1 star for 'didn't like it'. I won't recommend this to anyone at all.

It's summer and the neighborhood swim club is open for business and that opens up the opportunity for some awesome neighborhood drama. The swim club needs a new coach and Charlie, the husband of the "pool heiress" steps in to fill the job. The power dynamics switch - enter a new social club director and some tension between best friends. When a derecho strikes the area, the strong winds do more than just damage the pool.

This was a fun book filled with neighborhood drama. It really shows how things that have happened in the past effect the future - whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. I very much enjoyed this book!

Actual Rating 2.5

It’s June 2012 in Virginia, and the River Run swim club is in full swing. It’s Gillian’s family’s legacy, and she’s about as involved as possible in all aspects of the club. But when the unexpected happens, her husband Charlie decides to get more involved, and Gillian finds herself losing her much-loved control. And then her best friend, Christie, starts lying to her and ghosting her. These three adults find their lives changing and intertwining in unexpected and sometimes unhealthy ways.

This story is told from four POVs: Charlie, Gillian, Christie, and Justin. The inclusion of Justin (Gillian’s son) felt a little odd. He was helpful in rounding out certain parts of the story, but his POV wasn’t particularly relevant until the last third of the book or so. His characterization was also quite weak and aside from acting as an outside view of the adults, he didn’t add to the story. I did enjoy how the other POVs added much to the story, relationships, and drama. The work is character-driven, and the author did an okay job with the characterization of the protagonists. The secondary characters were only there to support the protagonists, though – no development or depth to be found.

The pacing of the work felt a little off, but this was likely since it was light on the plot and heavy on the characters. My main issue with this is that I didn’t really connect with any of them in the way I wanted to. There were also instances when characters made decisions that seemed out of left field with no good explanation, as well as a couple of subplots that started off as major focuses but were left as dead ends. I think my biggest dislike of this book was that there were many things going on and incorporated, but almost none were meaningfully explored or included, leaving it all feeling rather superficial. This unfortunately bled into the characters as well.

Despite these areas of weakness, the story was fine, and I wanted to know how things were going to end up. This was an easy, summer-themed read that had some drama and serious themes but didn’t dive too deeply into them. The narrators of this work did an excellent job, which certainly added to my enjoyment of this read. My thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape media for allowing me to read this book, which will be published July 4th, 2023. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I remember when my Facebook feed was flooded with posts about the derecho in the DMV but I didn’t realize how scary it truly was. That was the most fascinating part of this book for me. Yes, there were complex relationships and well-developed characters that were bogged down in the messiness of being human and suffering trauma. There was also the thrill of competitive swimming and finding your place in the community. This was such a complete story delving into the lives of a family and their complicated feelings. It’s a lot heavier than I was expecting but I enjoyed it.

It's the summer of 2012 and the swim team at River Run is one of the best they've ever had. But the past hangs thickly and threatens everything.

When Swimming with Ghosts was pitched to be in the lead-up to the print edition's release, I passed on it. It didn't sound quite like my kind of book and I had a lot of books to review already. But then I was in between audiobooks and I saw that the audiobook was available for review. I was right about it not being my kind of book, but there were enough enjoyable bits that kept me listening.

The reason I say the book wasn't my kind of book is because there is cheating. While there was probably no other way to move the plot along as effectively, it did kind of turn me off the book.

I loved the full cast reading the book. I listen to a number of books that Scott Brick narrates and always enjoy his performance (though it does take me a minute to shake the character that I most associate with him). As the story is told through multiple third-person limited points of view, it was a good choice to have a different narrator for each of the main characters.

I enjoyed the look at how the past shapes the future, even multiple generations. I also liked that there were several members of the same family so we got to see how the same past was viewed differently and they all coped differently with that past.

I liked most of the characters. Kristy is my least favorite character. She is a love addict (which is different than a sex addict apparently), but I'm not sure I really saw it. She is definitely self-destructive and needy. I felt she needed more therapy than a 12-step program.

I liked the swim team setting. I swam competitively as a child and definitely could identify some of the swim team moms that are portrayed in the book.

If you like family drama and don't mind cheating, then this could be a great summer read for you.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Thursday, June 22 - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2023/06/swimming-with-ghosts-by-michelle.html

Many thanks to Net Galley and Dreamscape Media for an audio ARC of Swimming with Ghosts for an honest review.

This book was fun to read! Why is it so much fun to read a messy characters book with their messy lives? I think it is because it makes us realize that people are messy, all people. Not just us. This book is so entertaining and a must-read!

Thank you Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I think the author did a good job describing “sport parents” but I just didn’t love this book.
It reminded me a lot of “The Lifeguards” with the mom drama, but it was just missing something that grasped me.
I did really enjoy the short chapters and the drama between the parents.
2/3 of the narrators did a wonderful job (Hillary never misses) but 1 sounded like he was recording underwater and those chapters were not enjoyable at all for me.
Overall it was a good story, and I think it would be great for the right person, I just wasn’t the right person for this one.