Do love a lake house vibe, do also love platonic friendships as a focus.
I had a lot of fun with this book, not really having any expectations and not having read anything by the author before, I felt the narration (both in writing style and the audio narrator) very easy to slip into.

The description of grief and the realities of living on where some one the best aspects of the book, I think personally for me, the middle dragged and once we got to the time bending I really wanted to go full speed ahead to the ending. I don’t think the mystery aspect of the small town got me as much as the relationship and just the time bending aspect did.

Still a great fun book that I would recommend.

Ahhh, I wanted to give this 5*, but that ending!

The Underwood Tapes is a beautiful book about losing a loved one, grief, time-bending, and mystery.
I really enjoyed it.

Having very recently lost a loved one, this book spoke to me in a deeply personal way.
I really related to the way grief was depicted.
The plot with Grace and Jake talking 30 years apart, but through the cassette tapes was very intriguing and novel for me, and I loved it.
I was also very invested in the mystery surrounding the Underwoods.

I loved the narrator, she did an excellent job.

I couldn't help but feel a bit let down by that ending—I wanted the Underwoods to get their justice!!! Okay, the Charles situation may be an accident, but everything else deserves severe punishment, and I hate how it was brushed off in the end. So many people suffered.

Overall, I loved this book and it will surely remain etched into my memory for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley, author and publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First off, thanks to NetGalley for this book. I devoured this in one day. I was pulled in by the relationship of the two main characters and the secrets they uncover.

This book is a mystery and a bit of a drama. There is a sci-fi aspect to this with the way Jake and Gracie are able to communicate throughout the book.

Gracie’s summer is spent going through these tapes, and uncovering some long lost secrets of the small town her mom grew up in. She is able to communicate with a boy from 1991, and together they go through these mysteries and the information they both have.

I wish there had been more time spent with their relationship being built up (and I just mean them getting to bond more. Not so much romantic in a romantic way). Despite that, I feel like you are able to connect with these characters quite well.

This is the perfect book for teens and young adults. I’d totally buy this for my library if I were a middle school or high school librarian.

No spice.
No violence or gore.
Some serious topics: death and loss of close friends/family, grief

Audiobook: 4/5
Plot: 3.5/5

First of all, the narration was pretty good, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of how she portrayed Jake. It made him seem really young compared to how old he was. It lifted some of the serious tone of the book. Otherwise the narration was great.

Plot wise, this had a phenomenal set up and idea. The execution was a bit lacking. I wanted to be ugly sobbing when I finished the book, but I only cried a little bit. I think I just needed more time with Jake and our MC talking until the very end. We needed those last 9 tapes to really get that absolute gut punch. The death scene was also a bit anti climactic and didn’t leave much of an impression.

I did absolutely love the final scene though with the last tape. That’s what I needed from this book.

Overall it was really good, but it needed to build up more of an emotional connection for the end to be as impactful as it should have been.

Finally a book I enjoyed! This was such a fun mystery book, that focused on grief but also lead us on a mystery of this small town that everyone seemingly doesn’t ever want to leave. Overall I really enjoyed this I wish the relationships were a little more fleshed out and the mystery was more of SHOCK but overall I throughly enjoyed this!

4.5 ⭐
AH! I enjoyed this book so much and know younger me would've loved it even more. Ate it up in one sitting! I don't even know how to summerize it without giving any spoilers; however I will say this:

*FMC solves mystery by communicating with a person 30 years in the past via cassette tapes*

If that sounds like something up your alley, PICK THIS UP!

This was my first Amanda DeWitt book, but definitely not my last.

Thank you RB MEDIA, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

THE UNDERWOOD TAPES by AMANDA DEWITT @am.dewitt
🖤📼🌪️
Thirty years ago, Grace’s mom left her hometown of Hermitage, Florida and never looked back—which is exactly why Grace thinks it’s the safest place to spend her summer now. Since her mom died in a car crash, Grace has been desperate to get away from the memories and reminders of her loss. Spending the summer transcribing cassette tapes for the Hermitage Historical Society might be boring, but boring is just what Grace needs.
Until she hears the voice of Jake Underwood—the boy who first recorded the cassette tapes back in 1992. When Grace realizes he can hear anything she records, despite thirty years of time between them, they strike up an impossible conversation through the tapes.
But the past isn’t any simpler than the present, and a mystery has haunted Hermitage through the generations. In the 1970’s, a hurricane made landfall and resulted in the tragic death of Jake’s uncle Charley. In a town as suffocatingly small as Hermitage, it’s impossible not to notice how no one talks about that storm, or Charley, and as the mystery unfurls, Grace can’t help but realize a worse truth: No one talks about Jake either.
🌪️📼🖤
I could not put this book down. (Put my headphones down? You get the idea.) The story had me giggling and kicking my feet one second, and holding my breath the next. (Amanda has proof in the form of six million texts and squealing voice memos 🫣)
The twists just kept coming and they were incredible, a thrilling narrative until the very end, which had me in tears—not least because Laura Knight Keating’s narration is absolutely fantastic. She captured the characters and mood so well. I can’t heap enough praise on this production. Every go read or listen or both!
🎧 Thank you to @netgalley for the audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Grace’s mom left one day and never came back after dying in a car accident. She decides to spend the summer in her mom’s hometown, Hermitage, working for the Hermitage Historical Society listening to old tapes.

She “meets” Jake Underwood through the tapes and by some paranormal occurrence, he can hear everything she records and they end up communicating through the tapes and building a friendly relationship with each other.

Their communication unearths small town secrets related to Jake’s family and their mysterious deaths with major themes of grief and moving on.

Great narration!

Thank you to NetGalley and RBMedia for the ALC in exchange for an honest review. Release date 2/4/25.

Okay, so I was kind of blown away by this one. Which can be funny to say since there is a connection to a Hurricane Club within the story. I was absolutely hooked on this story and I think I listened to the audiobook over the course of 2 days.

Though there isn't "magic", there is a magical realism which is linking the past and present and I had hopes of how the story would turn out but I was also pretty realistic about what was being placed in front of me.

Grace moves to her mom's hometown for the summer as a way to escape her life after the death of her mom and a pretty horrific car accident. She wants to go somewhere she's never been, but also a place linked to the mom she's recently lost and try to find out why her mom never went back. Hermitage, FL offers her that place, so she moves in with her mom's brother and he finds her a job at the historical society which is just boring enough to help take her mind off things.

Until she hears the voice of Jake Underwood, a boy from nearly 30 years in the past, on cassette tapes she has been asked to catalogue for posterity. As she listens, a mystery unfolds and somehow, she and Jake learn how to connect with each other, when she records her own voice on a tape and Jake somehow hears it in the past.

I could go on and on, but I am going to just tell you all that I really enjoyed this book. I know it is YA but dang, the story really does make you want to cry. I need to find more like this, it was fantastic.

4.5 ⭐️ such a beautiful book about grief

Thank you netgalley for the arc

Who know me knows that Amanda DeWitt previous book Wren Martin is one of my favs ever, so i was kinda anxious to read this one because i didn't know what to expect.
This book is totally different from the previous ones but i loved it nevertheless. It was such an emotional read that sometimes hurt even if i wasn't it expected to.
The mistery part got me gripped to the book to see what would happen.
The ending left me so sad but also hopeful T.T I'm glad Grace became friend with Lara and Griffin.
I loved Jake character so much I wish I could have get to know him better <3

I haven't read a young adult novel in quite a while but man, this may be one of my favorite reads.

The characters were relatable and likable. The plot picked up pretty quickly and kept the pace up throughout the book. I didn't feel like the paranormal elements took over the rest of the plot. The grief exploration was done really well. I could not finish it fast enough and then I was sad that it was over!

I received an audio copy and I think the narration was done really well. She had to voice many different characters and I had to double-check that there was really only one narrator.

This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

Ａｕｄｉｏｂｏｏｋ Ｒｅｖｉｅｗ
4.2 ☆
Grace is spending her summer in her mom's hometown of Hermitage, Florida. Grace thinks it's the safest place to spend her summer now. Since her mom died in a car crash, Grace has been desperate to get away from the memories and reminders of her loss. Spending the summer transcribing cassette tapes for the Hermitage Historical Society is boring, until she hears the voice of Jake Underwood—the boy who first recorded the cassette tapes back in 1992. When Grace realizes he can hear anything she records, despite thirty years of time between them, they strike up an impossible conversation through the tapes.

This book gave me "Remember Me Tomorrow by Farah" vibes. If you enjoy paradox-type vibes, this book is highly recommended. I enjoyed this book too much. I devoured it in one day! I just couldn't stop; I just wanted to know. The cover art is eye-catching and one of the reasons I picked this book.

The audiobook was good; the narrator did a good job, and I think listening to this story would enhance it 100 times more than simply reading it. I listened at 2.5x speed.

Thank you, Netgellay, and RB Media for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I recently read the ARC of The Underwood Tapes by Amanda DeWitt and this audiobook totally complements it. Laura Knight Keating‘s narration compliments and enhances the written word. Grief and sadness seep off the page into sound and voices. In The Underwood Tapes by Amanda Dewitt, Grace moves back to the town where her mother grew up. There was a horrible car accident in which her mother died but she survived. Grace gets a job at the library transcribing cassette tapes for the Hermitage Historical Society. While dealing with grief and anxiety, Grace stumbles upon a town mystery and develops a friendship with Jake Underwood. The weird thing about it is that he’s alive in 1992 and Grace is in 2022. Hello, Doctor Who. This story was inventive and interesting. I liked that instead of wallowing in grief, Grace found something to look forward to. ALC was provided by RB Media/Recorded Books via NetGalley. I received an advance listening copy free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

*Thank you to Net Galley and Recorded Books (RBmedia) for the audiobook in an exchange for review*

So this book was okay. I won't lie I requested it because the cover and the synopsis reminded me of the Life is Strange video games. For the most part the vibes are similar to those games, but this story is not as dramatic. This story deals more with our protagonist, Grace, grief over her mother's death. The magical element of Grace talking to a boy from the 90s who has his own traumas was interesting, but unrealistic that she did not check all tapes. This element did take me out of the story as well as not asking about the boy to others sooner. Also the result of the mystery that she found herself in was lackluster and led me to decide to give this a 3 star.