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Title: Victory and Honor

Author: W. E. B. Griffin

Narrator: Scott Brick

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-09-11

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 461 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The spectacular new book in New York Times best-selling author W.E.B. Griffin's Honor Bound saga of World War II espionage.

Wars come to an end. But then new ones begin. Just weeks after Hitler's suicide, Cletus Frade and his colleagues in the OSS find themselves up to their necks in battles every bit as fierce as the ones just ended. The first is political - the very survival of the OSS, with every department from Treasury to War to the FBI grabbing for its covert agents and assets. The second is on a much grander scale: the possible next world war, against Joe Stalin and his voracious ambitions.

To get a jump on the latter, Frade has been conducting a secret operation, one of great daring - and great danger - but to conduct it and not be discovered, he and his men must walk a perilously dark line. One slip, and everyone becomes a casualty of war.

Members Reviews:

Classic W.E.B. and Brick's narration wins big.

This is a wonderfully entertaining addition to the extremely enjoyable OSS series. The author(s) rank at the top of the military-historical fiction genre and this story continues the well-deserved legacy. Scott Brick is one of my favorite narrators possessing a polished ease of delivery that makes any story he reads come to life. This is, as I had hoped for and expected, another carefully researched and detailed narrative. The characters are tightly and skillfully interlaced with the actual historical timeline. I was extremely pleased with the story, the excellent quality of the audio production and Mr. Brick's exceptional skills as a narrator. Highly recommended and a must-read for W.E.B. fans.

Victory and Honor

Scott Brick does a great job narrating this series. This was a good book, the pace moved right along and their was some action but much less than other books in the series. This book had much more suspense involved in the storyline. This is one of the few Griffin books that brought a tear to my eye toward the end of the book. I had just read a book about Harry Truman creating the CIA so when it showed up in the story line I felt very knowledgeable. Can not wait for the next book in the series. You will not waste a book credit if you choose this book.

victory and honor

very good book just like all the rest i have listened to i wish they would get more of the corp series

Outstanding Read

First book I have listened to of the honor bound series. Will not be the last. Well performed, well written and exciting historical fiction. Enjoyed the characters, the plot and writing. Did not want it to end.

Is That All There Is?

This was a great story, but did I miss something? Clete has two kids, Peter has one, all sorts of things have happened and we only know about them because of brief mentions in passing. Why is this only 10 hours when all the other books are over 20 hours. I gave this a good rating, but I feel like I've been shorted.

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Title: The Dark Enquiry

Subtitle: A Lady Julia Grey Novel

Author: Deanna Raybourn

Narrator: Ellen Archer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-21-11

Publisher: Harlequin Books S.A.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 539 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Partners now in marriage and in trade, Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane have finally returned from abroad to set up housekeeping in London. But merging their respective collections of gadgets, pets, and servants leaves little room for the harried newlyweds themselves, let alone Brisbane's private enquiry business.

Among the more unlikely clients: Julia's very proper brother, Lord Bellmont, who swears Brisbane to secrecy about his case. Not about to be left out of anything concerning her beloved - if eccentric - family, spirited Julia soon picks up the trail of the investigation.

It leads to the exclusive Ghost Club, where the alluring Madame Sraphine holds evening séances - and not a few powerful gentlemen in thrall. From this eerie enclave unfolds a lurid tangle of dark deeds, whose tendrils crush reputations and throttle trust.

Shocked to find their investigation spun into salacious newspaper headlines, bristling at the tension it causes between them, the Brisbanes find they must unite or fall. For Bellmont's sake and more, they'll face myriad dangers born of dark secrets, the kind men kill to keep.

Members Reviews:

I think this series is getting better and better!

I have become so tremendously fond of these characters that I want to continue right away to accompany them on their next adventure. I'm sorry to have reached the point in this series that I must wait for the next book!

I am so glad that Deanna Raybourn is not letting these books dissolve into bodice-ripping romance! I was concerned that when Lady Julia and Brisbane finally had a book in which they were both in the same room together most of the time that the romantic scenes would outweigh the mystery. Raybourn is maintaining an excellent balance of allowing her readers to know the depth of the feelings between our protagonists, but not getting graphic about it. Hurrah! Great fun!

I thoroughly enjoyed the story with its twists and turns and an excellent wrapup at the end. Highly recommended for a lighter weight mystery read. The late Victorian setting adds to the charm. Reading the series in order is best, but I think that this one could be enjoyed as a stand alone.

Another Great Lady Julia Gray Novel

This is the fifth book in the Lady Julia Gray series by Deanna Raybourn and it very much lives up to the quality of the rest of the series. I bought the first audiobook in the series on the recommendation of my fabulous local librarian. She was right! It is a marvelous series with one book after the other continuing to capture and hold my interest. I listened to the first five books in the series over an eight day period. I can't say I have a favorite out of this series as they have all been equally great stories and fun listens. I very much enjoy the reader Ellen Archer. She has a great cadence and vocally interprets the characters very well. I can hardly wait for book 6. Don't hesitate to try any book in this series!

Yes! Lady Julia is back and I'm loving it!

I love this series! If you have never read the first book, go read it first. This is book #5, so to truly enjoy it you need to read the others.

Ok for the fans of Lady Julia. I know she can sound whiney and act so so stubbornly, but she does act a little more mature in this one. (I love her whining and stubbornness, she is a great character)

The story is outstanding! I was actually surprised in the end by this one.

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Title: The Final Storm

Subtitle: A Novel of the War in the Pacific

Author: Jeff Shaara

Narrator: Paul Michael

Format: Unabridged

Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-17-11

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 434 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The Final Storm opens a new front in Jeff Shaaras gripping chronicle of World War II as soldiers, sailors, and marines sacrifice all for one final push toward decisive victory in the fierce maelstrom of the Pacific theater.

As the war in Europe winds down in the wake of the Normandy invasion, the United States has turned its vast military resources toward an all-out effort against the Japanese. In the spring of 1945, Japans empire has been pressed slowly back toward its home islands, and the Americans mount a furious assault on the last great stepping-stone to Japan itself - the heavily fortified island of Okinawa. The three-month battle will feature some of the most vicious combat of the entire war, as American troops confront an enemy that would rather be slaughtered than experience the shame of surrender.

With a narrative dexterity befitting his status as a master storyteller, Shaara relates the story of the struggle for Okinawa through the eyes of combatants on both sides: Private Clay Adams, a young marine whose brother Jesse has already earned his share of glory as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne in Europe; Admiral Chester Nimitz, who must unite rival army and marine commanders into a cooperative effort; General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., the American ground commander trying to live up to the legacy of his father, who led Confederate troops during the Civil War; and General Mitsura Ushijima, the Japanese general in charge of defending the island, who understands what Tokyo will not believe: that his own fight to the death will only delay the inevitable - as the Americans continue their advance toward the home islands and ultimate victory.

With the fights raging across the Pacific, a different kind of campaign is being waged in extraordinary secrecy: the development of a weapon so powerful, not even the scientists who build it know just what they are about to unleash. Colonel Paul Tibbets, one of the finest bomber pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps, is selected to lead the mission to drop the horrific new weapon on a Japanese city. As the new president, Harry S Truman, mulls his options, and a Japanese physician named Okiro Hamishita cares for patients at a clinic near the city of Hiroshima, citizens on the home front await the day of reckoning that everyone knows is coming.

A fitting conclusion to one of the most riveting sagas in military fiction, The Final Storm illuminates the heroism and sacrifice that defined the war in the Pacific, bringing the conflict to life as only Jeff Shaara can.

Members Reviews:

too restrictive

A good read for sure on a very limited segment of the war in the Pacific. It is disappointing however that the author is not devoting more time to a more sweeping narrative of the war in the Pacific. I may be spoiled by Jeff Shaara's more thorough series, particularly in his account of the Civil War.

How can he keep it up

This book is an exiting "conclusion" of Jeff Shaara's World War 2 trilogy, making it, in fact, a quadrilogy. Just as exiting and horrifying as his other books, this tells a story of a different kind of war then the trilogy. The japanese are fare more death-defying then the germans, so the battle in the pacific are so much more brutal and terrifying, then in Europe. Seeing women sacrificing their lives to kill the marines, suicide-attacks and other horrible tactics, truly is different then the other books.

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Title: Doc

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Mary Doria Russell

Narrator: Mark Bramhall

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-03-11

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 883 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The year is 1878, peak of the Texas cattle trade. The place is Dodge City, Kansas, a saloon-filled cow town jammed with liquored-up adolescent cowboys and young Irish hookers. Violence is random and routine, but when the burned body of a mixed-blood boy named Johnnie Sanders is discovered, his death shocks a part-time policeman named Wyatt Earp. And it is a matter of strangely personal importance to Doc Holliday, the frail 26-year-old dentist who has just opened an office at No. 24, Dodge House.

Beautifully educated, born to the life of a Southern gentleman, Dr. John Henry Holliday is given an awful choice at the age of 22: die within months in Atlanta or leave everyone and everything he loves in the hope that the dry air and sunshine of the West will restore him to health. Young, scared, lonely, and sick, he arrives on the rawest edge of the Texas frontier just as an economic crash wrecks the dreams of a nation. Soon, with few alternatives open to him, Doc Holliday is gambling professionally; he is also living with Mária Katarina Harony, a high-strung Hungarian whore with dazzling turquoise eyes, who can quote Latin classics right back at him. Kate makes it her business to find Doc the high-stakes poker games that will support them both in high style. It is Kate who insists that the couple travel to Dodge City, because Thats where the money is.

And that is where the unlikely friendship of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp really begins - before Wyatt Earp is the prototype of the square-jawed, fearless lawman; before Doc Holliday is the quintessential frontier gambler; before the gunfight at the O.K. Corral links their names forever in American frontier mythology - when neither man wanted fame or deserved notoriety.

Editorial Reviews:

Mary Doria Russell's last two novels have been works of historical fiction, and Doc demonstrates that she's clearly found her groove in the genre. The premise of the book is at once both iconic and imaginative, treating the beginnings of friendship between Doc Holliday and the Earp clan several years before all the fuss at the O.K. Corral. These are not hardened lawmen, but struggling young men with simple dreams of financial stability and good health. Mark Bramhall does an impeccable job with the voice work, taking on these enormously well known characters and adding a sensitive depth of uncertainty. After all, at this moment in history, John Henry Holliday is just a dentist who plays a bit of poker, and Wyatt Earp is merely a part-time officer of the peace who is hoping to breed racehorses. They are thrown together out of concern for a mutual acquaintance, John Horse Sanders, a mixed-race man who died in a fire but who may have been murdered before the fire got started.

It's a straightforward Western mystery with a surprising amount of intricate narration. Mark Bramhall is a prize when it comes to character acting, so he handles the various Southern accents, from Georgia to Texas to Kansas, without even breaking a sweat. But everyone knows Doc Holliday died of consumption at a young age. Doc's dialogue is riddled with hacking, coughing, spluttering and spitting. Bramhall manages to insert all of these credibly, yet without disrupting the flow of the story or ruining Doc's many profound punch lines. It's particularly a treat to hear him voicing Doc's fiery gypsy whore, Kate.

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Title: Katherine

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Anya Seton

Narrator: Wanda McCaddon

Format: Unabridged

Length: 23 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-18-11

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 864 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Set in the vibrant 14th century of Chaucer and the Black Death, the classic romance Katherine features knights fighting in battle, serfs struggling in poverty, and the magnificent Plantagenets - Edward III, the Black Prince, and Richard II - who ruled despotically over a court rotten with intrigue.

Within this era of danger and romance, John of Gaunt, the king's son, falls passionately in love with the already married Katherine. Their well-documented affair and love persist through decades of war, adultery, murder, loneliness, and redemption. This epic novel of conflict, cruelty, and untamable love has become a classic since its first publication in 1954.

Critic Reviews:

"Seton breathes life into this little-documented historical fact a glorious example of romance in its most classic literary sense." (The Austin Chronicle)

Members Reviews:

If you like Philippa Gregory's novels, try this!

"Katherine," the story of Katherine Swynford, the mistress and eventual wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, is a glorious example of historical fiction. Intrinsically romantic, but firmly based on known history, "Katherine" throws light on a great love story that took place during the fascinating period in English history spanning the reigns of Edward III and Richard II. Ms. Seton is a wonderful writer and provides enough detail to allow you to feel a part of the Middle Ages, including the warmth of the nobles' ermine and glitter of the knights' gold-inlaid armor, as well as the reek of the pigyard just outside the castle keep. Moreover, she does not force her protagonists to voice overtly modern sentiments, which is such a common fault in historical novels written today. I'm willing to bet that some of our greatest new authors, like Philippa Gregory, have a treasured copy of "Katherine" in their bookshelves.

Wonderful the 2nd time around, forty years later!

"Katherine" was the first work of historical fiction that I ever read - when I was about 13 and I discovered it in my high school library. I absolutely adored it, and borrowed it so frequently that I don't think anyone else had a chance to read it! It was the beginning of a life long love affair with historical fiction, especially fiction set in the English royal courts and tinged with romance (though I'm not a " mass market historical romance" fan) .

A few years ago, I found the same hard cover version from my old library in a used book store and bought it, rereading it many times. And the older I get (I'm now 52), the more I appreciate this wonderful story of a love that survives the years.

So, I was delighted to find that "Katherine" is now available as an audio book. And it's terrific. Wanda does the story justice with a lovely reading. Immerse yourself in it, and be whisked back to 14th century England and a great story of politics, family, intrigue, and love. I know you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

Left me wanting more Anya Seton

I almost didn't get this book because it was written in the 1950s and I was afraid it might be stuffy and dated, but I took a chance and was well rewarded. Excellent historical fiction; just right if you want some romance and a good story with your fiction but not the cheesy bad writing and predictability of a bodice-ripper. My only complaint is that there are no other Anya Seton books available on Audible.

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Title: Letters from Rifka

Author: Karen Hesse

Narrator: Angela Dawe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-20-10

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 49 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Rifka knows nothing about America when she flees from Russia with her family in 1919. But she dreams that in the new country she will at last be safe from the Russian soldiers and their harsh treatment of the Jews. Throughout her journey, Rifka carries with her a cherished volume of poetry by Alexander Pushkin. In it, she records her observations and experiences in the form of letters to Tovah, the beloved cousin she has left behind.

Strong-hearted and determined, Rifka must endure a great deal: humiliating examinations by doctors and soldiers, deadly typhus, separation from all she has ever known and loved, murderous storms at sea, detainment on Ellis Island - and is if this is not enough, the loss of her glorious golden hair.

Based on a true story from the author's family, Letters from Rifka presents a real-life heroine with an uncommon courage and unsinkable spirit.

Members Reviews:

Not my favorite but worth the read.

Quick read, good story about immigration. Not my typical choice of genre, I read it for assignment.

Great Story

Great use of words and emotion. Very good book. Gives you a great perspective of what it was like back then

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Title: The Confusion

Subtitle: Books Four & Five of The Baroque Cycle

Author: Neal Stephenson

Narrator: Simon Prebble, Katherine Kellgren, Kevin Pariseau, Neal Stephenson (introduction)

Format: Unabridged

Length: 34 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-10-10

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1056 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

In the year 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves, including one Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe, devises a daring plan to win freedom and fortune. A great adventure ensues that will place the intrepid band at odds with the mighty and the mad, with alchemists, Jesuits, great navies, pirate queens, and vengeful despots across vast oceans and around the globe.

Back in Europe, the exquisite and resourceful Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, master of markets, pawn and confidante of enemy kings, onetime Turkish harem virgin, is stripped of her immense personal fortune by Frances most dashing privateer. Penniless and at risk from those who desire either her or her head (or both), she is caught up in a web of international intrigue, even as she desperately seeks the return of her most precious possession -- her child.Meanwhile, Newton and Leibniz continue to propound their grand theories as their infamous rivalry intensifies. And Daniel Waterhouse seeks passage to the Massachusetts colony in hopes of escaping the madness into which his world has descended.

The Baroque Cycle, Neal Stephensons award-winning series, spans the late 17th and early 18th centuries, combining history, adventure, science, invention, piracy, and alchemy into one sweeping tale. It is a gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive historical epic populated by the likes of Isaac Newton, William of Orange, Benjamin Franklin, and King Louis XIV, along with some of the most inventive literary characters in modern fiction.

Audibles complete and unabridged presentation of The Baroque Cycle was produced in cooperation with Neal Stephenson. Each volume includes an exclusive introduction read by the author.

Critic Reviews:

[Stephenson] might just have created the definitive historical-sci-fi-epic-pirate-comedy-punk-love story. (Entertainment Weekly)

Monumental combines adventure with Big Ideas and lots of intrigue. (Locus)

Vast, splendid, and absorbing. (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

The Confusion

This is really a pirate adventure with a lot of historical fact, speculation, liberty and down-right fiction thrown in. It's very well written and read. A bit overlong in some of the description and detail, but the reading really makes an excellent job of hiding that.

I would strongly recommend that the listerner begins at the beginning of the Baroque Cycle and sees it through to the end, as most of the plot lines begin before, and finish well after, this book. Although it could be argued that this is a standalone listen I do not believe you would be doing the story any justice be stopping at the end of this book.

The reading and production of this is excellent. The characterisations are broad and consistent, with lots of emotion and humour conveyed.

Maybe a bit too aptly named

I really enjoyed Quicksilver, originally the first of a trilogy of which this is meant to be the second book. Perhaps there were some warning signs in the fact that it was difficult to make out which book this was and how it fitted in the cycle. To say it is a sprawling novel would be an understatement. It is at times almost infuriatingly pleased with its own cleverness and it could easily have been half the length. And yet the whole thing just carries you along.

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Title: Year of Wonders

Author: Geraldine Brooks

Narrator: Geraldine Brooks

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-06-10

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 887 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love. As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."

Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. Written with stunning emotional intelligence and introducing "an inspiring heroine" (The Wall Street Journal), Brooks blends love and learning, loss and renewal into a spellbinding and unforgettable read.

Members Reviews:

Narration suicide!

Year of Wonders is a gripping tale & was well written. But,....and this is a BIG but, as many have stated previously, a writer should never read their own work. Well, OK, if Will Patton ever decides to write a book, please, let him read it too. But in this case, with all due respect to Miss Brooks, someone else should have narrated this important, powerful story. Her voice is thin & watery for starters. She has no ability to change her voice to even hint that another was speaking. At times she sounded like a bored school kid doing an oral report, sometimes trailing off at the end of sentences. There were moments when I felt she might just as well have said 'Yada, yada, yada' or 'blah. blah, blah' for all the enthusiasm she showed. Truly, it was the worst narration I've chosen to sit through. If the story hadn't been as good I'd have given up an hour in. I thought about giving up many times. The fact that I didn't testifies to the strength of the book itself. I know not everyone can read like Davina Porter of 'Outlander' fame, but come on! This was weak & uninspired despite a story that should have fanned at least a little heat. I wish I could say more about what I liked about the story itself, but the reading of it totally overshadowed everything else for me.

Great Story- Awful Narrator

Would you try another book from Geraldine Brooks and/or Geraldine Brooks?

I believe I would have loved this story if the reader had not been a nasal laconic reader. Although I finished the entire book, it was difficult because of the reader. I know it was read by the author so that is her portrayal of what she imagined the characters to be, but it prohibited me from fully appreciating the story. She is a talented author, but should have left the reading to someone else.

Extraordinary, Deeply Felt Historical Fiction

Any additional comments?

Brooks puts the reader right into the middle of a 17th century English village that has been struck by the plague. Based on real events, the story recounts the village's decision to seal itself off from the surrounding countryside in order to contain the sickness. The first person point of view is from an intelligent, thoughtful young widow who keeps sheep and works as a maid to the Rector and his wife.

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Title: Captive Queen

Subtitle: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine

Author: Alison Weir

Narrator: Rosalyn Landor

Format: Unabridged

Length: 19 hrs and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-13-10

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 311 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Renowned for her highly acclaimed and best-selling British histories, Alison Weir has in recent years made a major impact on the fiction scene with her novels about Queen Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey. In this latest offering, she imagines the world of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the beautiful 12th-century woman who was queen of France until she abandoned her royal husband for the younger man who would become king of England.

In a relationship based on lust and a mutual desire for great power, Henry II and Eleanor took over the English throne in 1154, thus beginning one of the most influential reigns and tumultuous royal marriages in all of history. In this novel, Weir uses her extensive knowledge to paint a most vivid portrait of this fascinating woman.

Critic Reviews:

A Tudor specialist, popular British historian Weir has ventured, with great success, into the increasingly expansive world of historical fictionThe history itself is inherently dramatic, augmented here by Weirs usual lush detail, which stimulates rather than detracts from the well-paced narrative. (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

Why the Negativity?

I don't understand why everyone is slamming this book. I enjoyed it. The narrator was excellent and the book was accurate. I think because Wier mostly writes nonfiction, most people were expecting this in her novel. I like this one better than 'Innocent Traitor'. For all those who were complaining about the amount of sex in the book, what do you expect? They had nine children (?) including the two sons who died, and Henry was notorious for his mistresses. Family drama, Beckett and her imprisonment all portrayed well, including Richard's rumored homosexuality. I would recommend for any Eleanor fan, this gives a well rounded opinion, showing both her strength and shortcomings. She is still the heroine, so stop your whining.

It Read Like Living with Queen Eleanor

I loved this book and this is one of the best historical fiction novels I have ever "read". Alison Weir not only has a great ability to tell a beautiful story but to also weave in the true details in a way that make it engaging and wanting to know more about other characters you meet. I was looking up historical accounts of her story and was finding that anything with actual fact, really did happen. The only difference between fact and fiction was the specific dialogue (except for what King Henry said about Thomas Beckett).

I wish my history classes were like this because it was like watching a TV show in my head about all the captivating things this queen and strong woman did in Middle Age England.

I could not stop listening!

Would you listen to Captive Queen again? Why?

Yes, I love historical stories about kings and queens. This was well written and expertly narrated. The story covers not just a romance, but the history and Weirs point of view for the life of a rich and intriguing women living through a male dominated life. Her trials and tribulations were great, but in the end, with the love of her many children, she was able to rise above it all.

What does Rosalyn Landor bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

The emotions and fire of the Queen

Very sad Love story

A wonderful love story that turns to a very sad love lost story. I love the old England history and the Kings & Queens the rule the lands.

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Title: Island Beneath the Sea

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Isabel Allende

Narrator: S. Epatha Merkerson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-27-10

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 870 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue, Zarit - known as Tt - is the daughter of an African mother she never knew and one of the white sailors who brought her into bondage. Though her childhood is one of brutality and fear, Tt finds solace in the traditional rhythms of African drums and in the voodoo loas she discovers through her fellow slaves.

When 20-year-old Toulouse Valmorain arrives on the island in 1770, its with powdered wigs in his baggage and dreams of financial success in his mind. But running his fathers plantation, Saint Lazare, is neither glamorous nor easy. It will be eight years before he brings home a bride - but marriage, too, proves more difficult than he imagined. And Valmorain remains dependent on the services of his teenaged slave.

Spanning four decades, Island Beneath the Sea is the moving story of the intertwined lives of Tt and Valmorain, and of one woman's determination to find love amid loss, to offer humanity though her own has been battered, and to forge her own identity in the cruellest of circumstances.

Critic Reviews:

"In a many-faceted plot, Allende animates irresistible characters authentic in their emotional turmoil and pragmatic adaptability. She also captures the racial, sexual, and entrepreneurial dynamics of each society in sensuous detail while masterfully dramatizing the psychic wounds of slavery. Sexually explicit, Allende is grace incarnate in her evocations of the spiritual energy that still sustains the beleaguered people of Haiti and New Orleans." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

excellent listen

When I decided on this book I wasn't really sure how I would enjoy the subject but it had good reviews and was on the NY Times bestseller list. But with a setting first in Haiti with the French in charge in the late 1700's, slavery, the slave rebellion, a move to New Orleans of both French and slaves along with excellent writing by the author I found I really did enjoy it. Both from an historical and human perspective, it was easy to keep listening and the book just rolled along.

good story, ok narration

I couldn't stop listening. Ideal audiobook for me: good story, well written and not too heavy. Good to listen to while you're doing something else. The narration wasn't wonderful, any French names/words were butchered, but it didn't bother me too much.

Don't Overlook This Book

My favorite listen of the summer. It makes you start to understand why Haiti is the doormat of the world and hard to embrace...why they are what they are now in total impoverishment.

I love historical novels as it is a great way to get the history down. And this book does not disappoint.

Good story but the narration was a bit off

Being a Spanish major who has studied abroad to Chile, I was introduced to Isabel Allende's work while in college. Of the books that I have read by her, The House of the Spirits and Mi Pais Inventado (My Invented Country), I have enjoyed how Allende ties in history with an intriguing story. I have to say that I did not quite enjoy this novel as much as the others. This could be because I am not as involved emotionally with the history of Hispanola and the slave revolt as I am with Chilean history. I did, however, gain an appreciation for what it would have been like for a slave or non-white during this time and how many attitudes in Haiti, Santo Domingo, and the United States have come to be.