This Must Be the Place

By: Beth Curry

Narrated by: Chad Fox, Daphne Rivers

"Buckle up for a wild road trip." Carson Atkinson, ARC reader

"That ending!" Bianca McNeil, Senior Editor

Welcome to Harmony Springs, where every day is perfect... forever.

When Alex Whitaker and three friends stumble upon this picturesque town during their carefree road trip, they're instantly captivated by its idyllic beauty and warm hospitality. But beneath the flawless facade, something isn't quite right. Time behaves strangely, escape seems impossible, and the town seems to know their deepest desires and fears. As unsettling cracks appear in Harmony Springs' perfect veneer, Alex and his friends must confront dark secrets—both the town's and their own. In a place where perfection is eternal, what price must be paid for paradise?

Authors note: Some listeners have noticed repetitive elements in This Must Be The Place — this is intentional. I use repetition to reflect the way certain thoughts and memories keep resurfacing in our minds, especially during moments of anxiety or mental entrapment. These repetitive elements were designed to make readers feel that same mounting tension and desperation to "get out." This rhythmic echo is designed to immerse you in the characters’ emotional tension and the unsettling atmosphere of the town. It’s a literary device meant to evoke the uneasy, surreal feeling of obsessive thought patterns and fractured reality.

©2024 Beth Curry (P)2025 Beth Curry

not bad

So i went into this expecting a trippy twilight zone kinda vibe and yeah it tried harmony springs starts off sounding real chill but then the perfect forever thing turns into straight up horror lite when you realize time’s busted and the town’s basically gaslighting everyone and the part where the town starts feeding on their personal fears was kinda cool but it gets bogged down by the same convos looping over and over like my audiobook glitched or something

Potential but not quite there

The storyline has potential, and I wanted to love it. The underlying theme is that perfection may be great in theory, but a mix of messy, progressive, and beautiful moments is a nice idea in real life. I understand the premise that the characters are stuck in a time loop of sorts. However, it was a struggle because of the repetitive lines, dialogue, and figurative language. I sometimes thought I had accidentally backtracked the reading due to the repetition. The characters, again, had potential but fell flat and seemed cliche.