ALC Review: This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum
This Story Might Save Your Life
Author: Tiffany Crum
Narrators:
Julia Whelan
Sean Patrick Hopkins
To Be Published: March 10, 2026
Audiobook: 10 hours 39 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: January 7-12, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
Benny Abbott and Joy Moore host one of the most beloved podcasts in the world. Each week, they delight listeners with a different “against all odds” survival story, gleefully finding the weird, life-affirming humor in near-death experiences. Since their first episode on Joy’s experience with severe narcolepsy, they’ve been the best friends everyone wants to befriend—and thanks to the meticulous management of Joy’s husband, Xander, they’ve built a lucrative empire.
The problem is, their next survival story may be their own. When Benny arrives at Joy and Xander’s one morning to record, he finds shattered glass and an empty house. The one clue shedding light on the couple’s disappearance is the incomplete, previously unseen first draft of Joy’s memoir. Benny will stop at nothing to find them, even as the police zero in on him as their prime suspect.
Millions of devoted listeners think they know the “real” Benny and Joy. But as the hours tick by, and the odds seem increasingly stacked against Joy and Xander being found alive, not even the most devoted fans could guess the terrible secrets their favorite famous BFFs have hidden from the world—and from each other.
Jessica’s Review:
This book! It was my first five star read of the year and I know it will be in my ‘Top 10 Reads’ of 2026. Where, exactly? Close to the top if not my top spot! We will have to wait until the end of the year to see where it ultimately ends up!
Anyways… This book! It’s pretty much everything I love in a book and a debut novel too!?!?! This Story will be one of THE books to read in 2026. I listened to an advanced copy and it is perfection! We have two main narrators: Julia Whelan and Sean Patrick Hopkins. They portray Joy and Benny as BFF’s with such precision! You can just feel the chemistry and more with these two. Both Julia and Sean Patrick are in fact Joy and Benny.
With the audio we also get podcasts, Benny and Joy’s dual POVs, voices of tipline callers and even some occasional special effects added in. Everything just makes this audiobook a MUST LISTEN to for 2026!
This novel really is everything. You just love Benny and Joy: Their present and backstory. I was transfixed for the entire novel! And the directions this novel goes in.. I would have never expected. The fact that this is a debut novel for Crum, wow, she is on my list to see what is written next!
As you can tell from the book description, Benny and Joy’s podcast is a survival podcast that takes off. We have Joy who suffers from Narcolepsy, and as a listener I learned a little about it. One of their podcasts Joy asks a question: “What is the most dangerous home appliance?” I am proud to say I guessed that one right in one guess! And one of the tipline calls mentions Snellville, Ga… I was shocked to hear that city’s name! I looked it up and the author is now local in Georgia! And Snellville is the area I grew up in. Being Crum lives in my state, this is another reason I will be keeping up with her and what she writes. I love supporting local-to-me authors! And the fact that Crum was able to get Julia Whelan as a narrator for a debut novel???? I’m ready to see what Crum brings us next!
And I will have to buy myself a physical copy of this book to go with my favorites….
Many thanks to the audiobook publisher Macmillan Audio for granting me an advanced copy to listen to and review. It was a great pleasure to listen and review this one!
My January 2026 Reads
Was January as long of a month for you as it was for me? It’s February 2nd, so it’s time to share what I read in January: I listened to four audiobooks and read one novella on Kindle. I had one DNF: That’s a Great Question, I’d Love to Tell You by Elyse Myers.
Here are the books I completed in January. They are listed in the order that I finished them:
My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney- 3.5 stars
This Story Might Save You Life by Tiffany Crum- 5 stars
The Quiet Neighbor by JD Barker and Adam Roach- 3.5 stars
The Wife Upstairs by Freida McFadden- 4 stars
The Heart-Shaped Box by Lucy Kaufman- 4 stars
My ‘top rated read’ was This Story Might Save Your Life. And a debut novel: WOW. This is a strong five star read that comes out March 10th. I say definitely listen to the audio on this one! My review for this one will come soon! And one of the narrators is JULIA WHELAN!!!
My ‘lowest rated read’ will be my DNF: That’s a Great Question, I’d Love to Tell You. This ends up being a kind of ‘mini-review’: This was a book club read that I DNF’d at about 40% in. I made it 2.5 hours out of 5.5 hours, so it got a great shot at an attempted read. This was supposed to be a memoir, but it was really just stories of events that happened in her life. I have no idea who she is and there was no introduction to herself in this book. It’s like she assumes you know who she is. With that I found myself not caring about these stories with no desire to complete the book.
What did YOU read in January?
[Top]Cover Reveal: The Secrets of Strangers by Jess Kitching
Today I am excited to help in the cover reveal for Jess Kitching’s upcoming novel The Secrets of Strangers!
Please note that there are different publication dates depending where in the world you live:
Australia Paperback: April 28th
Global E-book and Audiobook release: April 28th
UK Paperback: July 16th
The author is from Australia, it makes sense it is released physically there first! Those of us in the USA will have to wait a bit longer for the physical version, but you can still read it on April 28th. And being my birthday is April 29th, maybe I will give myself an early birthday gift!
Book Description:
After suffering a loss, Janine and her husband Kamal need a fresh start. They leave their family and everything they know in Manchester and move to Bamblethorpe, a picturesque Lancashire village where they expect nothing but peace and quiet. It’ll be just what Janine, a thriller writer, needs to work on her next manuscript.
But the peace of their new village life is disrupted when longtime local Alexa Clarke goes missing out of the blue. Did she leave her husband like some people suspect? Or is there credibility to the rumours that something more nefarious has happened to Alexa?
Frozen by writer’s block, Janine stumbles into investigating Alexa’s disappearance, and the more she discovers about Alexa’s life, the more complicated things become. Nothing is as it seems, and Janine begins to realise that there are disturbing parallels between Alexa’s life and her own.
What starts as curious procrastination quickly spirals into a tangled web of secrets, lies and a truth Janine may not be ready to face … if she survives.
A propulsive thriller about a writer who gets caught up in the case of a missing woman, for fans of Lisa Jewell, Paula Hawkins and Ruth Ware.
Now….. What does the cover look like?????? Keep scrolling to find out!!
Almost there!!!
Here it is:
Australia
UK
Amazon US (Kindle and Audio only currently)
‘A terrific writer with a smart, keep-on-guessing, plot-twisting story that will keep you turning the pages until you reach the final one … then you’ll finally be able to take a breath.’ – Chris Carter, author of The Crucifix Killer
‘This book held me hostage in the best way. Gripping, twisty, and emotional, it grabbed me from the first page – and even made me cry.’ – Noelle W. Ihli, USA Today bestselling author of Ask for Andrea
‘A compelling, unhinged tale that explores the moral ethics of turning a real-life crime into fiction, with a final twist that will blow your hair back.’ – Camille Booker
Contact Jess:
Instagram: @jesskitchingwrites