Audrey’s Gone AWOL is the first novel by Australian author, Annie de Monchaux. The audio version is brilliantly narrated by Jennifer Vuletic. Wife of Simon and mother of three adult children, fifty-nine-year-old Audrey Lamont is already feeling rather redundant with her empty nest, and a bit invisible, when she learns her husband is probably having an affair with his brilliant, gorgeous, petitely perfect co-author, Dr Midori Crump.

Simon’s attitude is anything but contrite so, when her favourite aunt in Brittany is injured, it’s the perfect opportunity to take a break from her marriage on the chance that Simon will realise just what he’s missing. She still has hopes of redeeming her marriage of thirty-seven years. Her children, all in their twenties, are supportive and set up a WhatsApp group, mumsgoneawol, so they can all keep in touch.

In Brittany, Audrey meets friends and neighbours of her beloved Tata Pascale, who include the irrepressible, flamboyant Lilou and the rather taciturn Pascal, nicknamed No E. She lives in Pascale’s hayloft, readies the cottage for paying guests, tries to put the garden into some order, and decides that something completely different would be learning to tap-dance.

She waits for Simon to come to his senses, to apologise. It doesn’t happen. Instead, she learns from regular contact with her children that moving her personal possessions to her brother, Laurence’s, before heading to France constitutes a statement of intent that weakens her position; and that the affair with Midori might actually have begun much earlier that she had supposed. Has her whole marriage been a farce? And what now?

Audrey has been a wife and mother for thirty-seven years; she has no means of support, no job apart from volunteering at the primary school canteen, and no expertise she can market; and they’ve been living in Simon’s parents’ house, so perhaps she now has nowhere to live.

While she considers her options, she distracts herself with gardening and guests, making preserves and bedroom furniture, rescuing hedgehogs and trying to tap-dance, and seems excessively accident prone as she does so. She dreads any communication from Simon, but looks forward to calls from her children and delights in emails sent via a class teacher from sweet little Jakob, who sends sketches, the subject of which must be guessed.

Then, she needs a bit of wiring done, and Dominic, the electrician sets her pulse racing, not just with gorgeous body and his deep brown eyes, but also his kindness. But she’s still married. Isn’t she?

De Monchaux gives her characters depth and appeal, even those quirky Breton villagers, and the comments from Audrey’s children are heartening and prove that her self-sacrifice was worthwhile. Simon’s gaslighting and arrogance will leave readers gasping, and they will likely delight in the fact that de Monchaux gives his exotic lover, Midori the decidedly unlovely surname “Crump”. Much of what Audrey faces will resonate with readers of a certain vintage, and her (often self-deprecating) inner monologue is at times insightful and regularly hilarious. Very entertaining.
This unbiased review is from an audio copy provided by NetGalley and W F Howes Ltd

My favourite part about ‘reading’ audiobooks is the narrator’s style. This can range from the variety of voices they do for various characters or just their differing accents.

This is an Australian-French ( or should it be the other way around?) character who is extremely normal, making her very relatable even if her life and age is completely different from mine.

Audrey’s own life has always come second to those of her children and primarily her husband’s. We begin the tale with Audrey taking aloud at a therapist’s office. Our leading lady has a habit of talking to herself, chiding herself, and this lens itself beautifully to the audio format.

Once she finds out that she’s been taken advantage of, she cracks and the final straw is news of her aunt’s accident and subsequent hospitalisation. Then the story shifts to rural France and a small close-knit community that then becomes the force that Audrey needs to find joy in life again.

The children are believable by being both selfish and empathetic in turns. I will not go into the individual characters because each one is hilarious in a serious way. There is humour but not for comedic effect. It’s almost a regular view of a cross section of people narrated in an intelligent manner.

If it’s not obvious from my review, I really enjoyed this version of the book and highly recommend it to anyone who likes character and dialogue based books.

I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own listening experience.

This was the most fabulous and witty audiobook. I loved the narrator and the style had good pace.

Audrey discover's that her husband has been unfaithful, along with her French aunt having a timely fall. In order to buy herself space, Audrey jets off and abandons her life in Australia for several months while she looks after her aunt's holiday cottage through a busy summer season of rentals. Audrey's time in France leads through a series of self-discovery. What was not to enjoy about the story, it was implausible in places, seemed a little predictable, but ended on such a high with lots of unexpected twists thrown in to keep me hooked! The characters are rich, mad and varied. Audrey's relationship with her children in heart-warming and her husband deserves everything he gets.

Audrey spends a fair bit of time talking to herself and the story is told in the present tense, which is unusual but it works really well. I felt like I was on that journey with her! I don't think that I am much different in age to Audrey and I definitely recognised elements of her 'fault's or habits in my own life - particularly the inability to say no and ingratiating herself with others. Go Audrey! A hilariously entertaining read with lots of powerful messages for women of a certain age who have become 'invisible' - think Shirley Valentine with an update!

Sadly I really did not enjoy this story. After reading the blurb I was really looking forward to it, being the type of story I normally enjoy. The story is about Audrey who is at a crossroads in her life after finding out about her husbands long term affair with a work colleague. The story had so much potential and despite being set in Australia and then France, it just came across as dull and lack lustre. I had the audio version which certainly didn’t enhance the experience and the voice came across as flat and dull as the character did. Furthermore I felt the ending when we finally got to it was rushed and lacked depth and resolution. Sadly I would not recommend this title.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and getting to know the protagonist, Audrey. The author has done an excellent job of creating a character that is fun, intriguing, and multi-dimensional. The story revolves around Audrey, who is at a crossroads in her life and must make a life-altering decision. This theme is relatable to many readers who may be going through similar situations in their own lives.

However, the audiobook narration did not meet my expectations. While the book's writing is engaging and well-crafted, the audio performance was lacking in some parts, resulting in a three-star rating. There were some chapters where I struggled to maintain interest because of the delivery, which was not up to par with the writing skills of the author.

Despite this, I still recommend the book to readers who enjoy character-driven stories and themes of self-discovery. The writing is strong enough to carry the story and keep the reader engaged. However, I may avoid audiobooks narrated by this reader in the future. Overall, I'm looking forward to reading more of the author's work in the future.

This book is a total delight. It’s one that will resonate with many women who, upon reflection, realise just how much of their life they’ve sacrificed to their husband and family. Often with little or no thanks or recognition.

Audrey has been betrayed by her husband and takes time out from her home and grown up children in Australia to go and stay with her aunt in rural France. Her aunt suffered a fall and she decides to stay a few weeks to help her out. The story revolves around her reflections about her husband and it’s filled with so many incisive and astute observations about relationships and life. It’s amusing, poignant but mostly just so plausible. The setting is relaxed as the reader is introduced to a handful of French characters, each with their own insights and back stories. I’ve totally relished this outing with Audrey, A voyage of discovery fir both her and the reader.

I enjoyed this so much. We are all Audrey really, and we could all learn a lot from her. She is written so well, I felt like I knew her instantly. An Australian Shirley Valentine. The story is warm, hilariously funny, but it’s also tender and heartbreaking too. No E made me snort with laughter.

Narrated brilliantly for the audiobook. Highly recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Wavesound from W F Howes Ltd for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in return for an honest review.