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SYNC Audio -- Weekly Offers -- FAQs -- exp 09 Jun @ 11:59 pm ET

NOTE -- you MUST use the Sora app in order to download these books for free

FREE -- Rook -- Sharon Cameron/ Caroline Feraday -- 14.7 hrs -- romance

Caroline Feraday's brisk narration moves this swashbuckling romance along with a vigorous cadence and tone. If it's true that history repeats itself, 18-year-old Sophia Bellamy is in the thick of it. In a dystopian future, the earth's magnetic poles have shifted, wiping away all technology and returning Paris, now the "Sunken City," to a political hellscape. Fierce and fearless, Sophia disguises herself and sets out to rescue the innocent from the Razor, leaving behind her calling card, a red-tipped rook feather. But her derring-do is threatened by her engagement to the foppish René Hasard, which is designed to save her family from financial ruin. Feraday's intense performance is a fine match for the compelling storyline.

FREE -- Salty, Bitter, Sweet -- Mayra Cuevas/ Jennifer Jill Araya -- 10.6 hrs -- romance

Narrator Jennifer Araya’s heartfelt and determined performance will have listeners rooting for aspiring teenaged chef Isa as she joins an intense cooking competition in France. Araya has an ear for the various Spanish, French, and English accents of Isa’s international competitors and supportive family members. The competition is ruthless, but Araya keeps her performance grounded as Isa is drawn into a budding romance while also coming to terms with the loss of her Cuban grandmother, whose love and cooking inspired her. Araya smoothly pronounces the names of complex French dishes, and she uses a soulful tone of voice when Isa reflects on mouthwatering comfort food. Araya delivers a compelling and passionate performance that gives listeners a seat at the table of an aspiring chef.

Week 6 -- The sixth SYNC week takes us even further afield geographically. Thanks to Scholastic Books, Sharon Cameron’s fantasy ROOK, performed by Caroline Feraday, carries listeners off to times that have been—and have been again and again—in once-Britain, formerly Paris, and—well, just listen. This one has romance, high adventure, a dash of dystopian foreboding, and family obligations, all of which Feraday delivers in a performance that keeps listeners glued in place while feeling that they are rocketing forward—and back.

SALTY, BITTER, SWEET, by Mayra Cuevas, performed by Jennifer Jill Araya, and published by Blink, takes us on location to Lyon, France, where teenaged Cuban-American Isa finds herself feeling left out as she meets her divorced dad’s new family. Isa, however, loves to cook, and it turns out that she’s in the right place to enter into an intense cooking competition—and a potential romance, too. Araya is a narrator whom teens will want to follow as she handles multiple languages well and can channel teenaged characters’ varying emotions compellingly. Check out other audiobooks she’s performed after you savor this one.