Grab the Essential Full Audiobooks in Fiction, Contemporary Women

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/676047 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Year of Goodbyes and Hellos Author: Kelly Irvin Narrator: Jeremy Childs, Jessica Holtan Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 11 hours 57 minutes Release date: December 5, 2023 Genres: Contemporary Women Publisher's Summary: In a novel inspired by the author’s own cancer experience, two sisters seek a new balance in work, family, and love when one receives a diagnosis that sets the clock ticking. Determined to save Sherri’s life, Kristen drops everything to guide her sister on the harrowing cancer treatment journey. When she’s unable to balance the strain of caring for her patients, being a wife and mother, and her frantic efforts to save her sister, Kristen’s carefully balanced life crumbles, starting with her marriage. Desperate to regain her footing, she vows to rebuild her broken relationships . . . as soon as she’s sure Sherri will beat the odds stacked against her. Unlike her sister, Sherri Reynolds has worked to cultivate balance in her life. Her children, her job as a teacher, and her strong faith keep her grounded—until her diagnosis sends her spiraling into the scary world of what-ifs and unknown outcomes. Sherri faces the agonizing realization that family history may be about to repeat itself. With the clock ticking, she’s determined to use whatever time she has left to heal old wounds and restore relationships. The Year of Goodbyes and Hellos is a novel that will have readers reaching for the tissue box again and again as the author uses her own experience of living with ovarian cancer for seven years (and counting) to provide first-hand knowledge of sitting in the chair when the diagnosis is first delivered and the repercussions that follow. - Poignant contemporary Christian fiction - Stand-alone novel - Book length: 113,000 words - Includes discussion questions for book clubs

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/672461 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Welcome Home, Stranger: A Novel Author: Kate Christensen Narrator: Xe Sands Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 44 minutes Release date: December 5, 2023 Genres: Contemporary Women Publisher's Summary: “Kate Christensen’s new novel, Welcome Home, Stranger, is a revelation, offering characters as real as your family and friends, a rich, vividly drawn setting, grab-you-by-the-throat drama and always, lurking in the shadows, a fierce authorial intelligence. What more could you ask?”—Richard Russo, author of Somebody’s Fool “To the great literature of going home again we can now add Kate Christensen’s superb new novel Welcome Home, Stranger, a triumph of intelligence and wit (which will surprise none of her many fans). The prodigal here is a brilliant journalist grieving the loss of a very difficult mother while attempting peace with those she left behind: a resentful sister and an ex-lover who can be neither trusted nor forgotten. A spellbinding book from one of our best chroniclers of the very American struggle to strive for excellence while still living in community with others.”—Ann Packer, author of The Children’s Crusade “A deeply endearing story about confronting one’s past and constructing a new future—under extreme duress. . . . Welcome Home, Stranger . . . arrives at the most lovely ending of a novel I’ve read all year.''—Washington Post[ From the PEN-Faulkner Award-winning author of The Great Man comes a novel about grief, love, growing older, and the complications of family that is the story of a fifty-something woman who goes home—reluctantly—to Maine after the death of her mother. Can you ever truly go home again? An environmental journalist in Washington, DC, Rachel has shunned her New England working-class family for years. Divorced and childless in her middle age, she’s a true independent spirit with the pain and experience to prove it. Coping with challenges large and small, she thinks her life is in free fall–until she’s summoned home to deal with the aftermath of her mother’s death. Then things really fall apart. Surrounded by a cast of sometimes comic, sometimes heartbreakingly serious characters—an arriviste sister, an alcoholic brother-in-law and, most importantly, the love of her life recently married to the sister’s best friend–Rachel must come to terms with her past, the sorrow she has long buried, and the ghost of the mother who, for better and worse, made her the woman she is. Lively, witty, and painfully familiar, this sophisticated and emotionally resonant novel from the author of The Great Man holds a mirror up to modern life as it considers the way some of us must carry on now.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/672459 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Meet the Benedettos: A Novel Author: Katie Cotugno Narrator: Therese Plummer Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 46 minutes Release date: December 5, 2023 Genres: Contemporary Women Publisher's Summary: An A-list movie star moves to Los Angeles—next door to a family of five eligible sisters—in this irresistible novel where The Kardashians meets Pride and Prejudice, from the NYT bestselling author of Birds of California Every family is complicated, and the Benedettos are no exception. A few years after a reality TV show skyrocketed them to pop-culture fame, the five twentysomething sisters are living together in their parents’ crumbling McMansion, nearly broke and teetering towards rock-bottom. Lilly, the sensible second-eldest sister, is all too aware that her family is viewed as a spectacle, but she’s focused on holding herself and her family together, and unlike her siblings she tends not to care what the world thinks. The Benedettos’ fortunes finally appear to be brightening when Charlie Bingley, the dashing star of Captain Fantastic, moves into their Los Angeles neighborhood with his friend Will Darcy in tow. It isn’t long before Charlie falls for the warm and lovely eldest sister, June. Lilly has no such luck: the arrogant and judgmental Will Darcy, a man plagued by his own private demons, seems ready to clash with her at every turn--yet the two can’t seem to stay away from each other. And while the Benedettos’ matriarch sets to work encouraging a potential match between Charlie and June, there are plenty of others in the community who are determined to steer these eligible young men away from a ridiculous family of reality show has-beens... Katie Cotugno brings a big, boisterous cast of characters to life in this deliciously sprawling LA story—a thoroughly fresh and modern tale about a family that’s “famous for being famous,” the ways that preconceived notions make fools of us all, and how unexpected romance can bloom despite the odds.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/672446 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale Author: Virginia Kantra Narrator: Damian Gildea, Rachel L. Jacobs, Christian Coulson Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 11 hours 45 minutes Release date: December 5, 2023 Genres: Contemporary Women Publisher's Summary: A woman learns to follow her own road in this heartwarming novel inspired by The Wizard of Oz by New York Times bestselling author Virginia Kantra.   Dorothy “Dee” Gale is searching for a place to belong. After their globe-trotting mother’s death, Dee and her sister Toni settled with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em in Kansas, where Dee attends graduate school. But when Dee’s relationship with a faculty member, a bestselling novelist, ends in heartbreak and humiliation, she’s caught in a tornado of negative publicity. Unable to face her colleagues—or her former lover—Dee applies to the writing program at Trinity College Dublin.   Dee’s journey to Ireland leads her to new companions: seemingly brainless Sam Clery—who dropped out of college and now runs a newsagent’s shop—is charming and hot, in a dissolute, Irish poet kind of way; allegedly heartless Tim Woodman—who stiffly refused to take back his ex-fiancée—seems stuck in his past; and fiercely loyal Reeti Kaur, who longs for the courage to tell her parents she wants to teach underprivileged girls rather than work in the family business.   In a year of opportunities and changes, love and loss, Dee is mentored by powerful women in the writing program, challenging her to see herself and her work with new eyes. With her friends, Dee finds the confidence to confront her biggest fears—including her intimidating graduate advisor, who may not be so wicked after all.   Faced with a choice with far-reaching consequences, Dee must apply the lessons she’s learned along the way about making a family, finding a home...and recognizing the power that’s been inside her all along.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/672462 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Flores and Miss Paula: A Novel Author: Melissa Rivero Narrator: Gisela Chipe, Liliana Montenegro Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 5 minutes Release date: December 5, 2023 Genres: Contemporary Women Publisher's Summary: A Recommended Book From: The Washington Post * Today * Sunset Magazine * Country Living * Good Housekeeping  A wry, tender novel about a Peruvian immigrant mother and a millennial daughter who have one final chance to find common ground Thirtysomething Flores and her mother, Paula, still live in the same Brooklyn apartment, but that may be the only thing they have in common. It’s been nearly three years since they lost beloved husband and father Martín, who had always been the bridge between them. One day, cleaning beneath his urn, Flores discovers a note written in her mother’s handwriting: Perdóname si te falle. Recuerda que siempre te quise. (“Forgive me if I failed you. Remember that I always loved you.”) But what would Paula need forgiveness for? Now newfound doubts and old memories come flooding in, complicating each woman’s efforts to carve out a good life for herself—and to support the other in the same. Paula thinks Flores should spend her evenings meeting a future husband, not crunching numbers for a floundering aquarium startup. Flores wishes Paula would ask for a raise at her DollaBills retail job, or at least find a best friend who isn’t a married man. When Flores and Paula learn they will be forced to move, they must finally confront their complicated past—and decide whether they share the same dreams for the future. Spirited and warm-hearted, Melissa Rivero’s new novel showcases the complexities of the mother-daughter bond with fresh insight and empathy.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/678561 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Second Chance Year Author: Melissa Wiesner Narrator: Helen Laser Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 21 minutes Release date: December 5, 2023 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 2.75 of Total 4 Genres: Contemporary Women Publisher's Summary: In this unforgettable story full of charm, wit—and just a bit of magic—a woman down on her luck is given a second chance at fixing her life and trying one year all over again. Perfect for readers of Josie Silver and Rebecca Serle.  Sadie Thatcher’s life has fallen apart in spectacular fashion. In one fell swoop, she managed to lose her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend—all thanks to her big mouth. So when a fortune teller offers her one wish, Sadie jumps at the chance to redo her awful year. Deep down, she doesn’t believe magic will fix her life, but taking a leap of faith, Sadie makes her wish, opens her eyes, and . . . nothing has changed. And then, in perhaps her dumbest move yet, she kisses her brother’s best friend, Jacob. When Sadie wakes up the next morning, she’s in her former apartment with her former boyfriend, and her former boss is expecting her at work. Checking the date, she realizes it's January 1 . . . of last year.  As Sadie navigates her second-chance year, she begins to see the red flags she missed in her relationship and in her career. Plus, she keeps running into Jacob, and she can’t stop thinking about their kiss . . . the one he has no idea ever happened. Suddenly, Sadie begins to wonder if her only mistake was wishing for a second chance.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/679060 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Couple in the Photo Author: Helen Cooper Narrator: Naomi Frederick Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 45 minutes Release date: December 5, 2023 Genres: Contemporary Women Publisher's Summary: A LibraryReads Pick Be careful who you sleep with...They've already made their bed. Lucy and her husband, Adam, have been best friends with another couple, Cora and Scott, for years. The four are practically family—they vacation together, co-own a beach cottage, and their children are inseparable. So Lucy is devastated when, while looking at a colleague’s photos of a trip to the Maldives, she spots a picture of Scott, apparently on vacation with another woman. Then she learns that the woman in the photo has gone missing. Lucy can’t help but fear that Scott was involved. But searching for answers might uncover secrets about Scott, Cora, and even her own husband that could destroy the picture-perfect lives they have built together. Or maybe she was never part of the picture at all. Is it possible everyone knows more than they are letting on? If so, what are the consequences of exposing the truth?

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/674831 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Rebecca, Not Becky: A Novel Author: Catherine Wigginton Greene, Christine Platt Narrator: Nicole Lewis, Christine Lakin Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 13 hours 17 minutes Release date: December 5, 2023 Genres: Contemporary Women Publisher's Summary: In the vein of Such a Fun Age, a whip-smart, compulsively readable novel about two upper-class stay-at-home mothers—one white, one Black—living in a ''perfect'' suburb that explores motherhood, friendship, and the true meaning of sisterhood amidst the backdrop of America’s all-too-familiar racial reckoning. De’Andrea Whitman, her husband Malik, and their five-year-old daughter, Nina, are new to the upper-crust white suburb of Rolling Hills, Virginia—a move motivated by circumstance rather than choice. De’Andrea is heartbroken to leave her comfortable life in the Black oasis of Atlanta, and between her mother-in-law’s Alzheimer's diagnosis, her daughter starting kindergarten, and the overwhelming whiteness of Rolling Hills, she finds herself struggling to adjust to her new community. To ease the transition, her therapist proposes a challenge: make a white girlfriend.  When Rebecca Myland learns about her new neighbors, the Whitmans, she's thrilled. As chair of the Parent Diversity Committee at her daughters’ school, she’s championed racial diversity in the community—and what could be better than a brand-new Black family? It’s serendipitous when her daughter, Isabella, and Nina become best friends on the first day of kindergarten. Now, Rebecca can put everything she’s learned about antiracism into practice—especially those oh-so-informative social media posts. And finally, the Parent Diversity Committee will have some… well, diversity.   Following her therapist’s suggestion, De’Andrea reluctantly joins Rebecca’s committee. The painfully earnest white woman is so overly eager it makes De’Andrea wonder if Rebecca’s therapist told her to make a Black friend! But when Rolling Hill’s rising racial sentiments bring the two women together in common cause, they find it isn’t the only thing they have in common. . . .

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/666851 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Talk of Coyote Canyon Series: #2 of Coyote Canyon Author: Brenda Novak Narrator: Amy Mcfadden Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 12 hours 9 minutes Release date: November 28, 2023 Genres: Contemporary Women Publisher's Summary: She’s not here to make friends. She’s here to make trouble. With her piercings, tattoos and spiky blond hair, Ellen Truesdale doesn’t quite fit in with the other folks in Coyote Canyon—and that’s just fine with her. She’s only here to put her father out of business, as payback for abandoning her when she was young. Or is she more interested in finally proving that she was worth keeping? Either way, she’s struggling to keep her rival well-drilling company afloat. And being a single woman in a male-dominated field has started to take a toll. So when Hendrix Durrant steps in to help, Ellen has no choice but to let him—even though he happens to be her father’s business partner and therefore her enemy. But the closer she works with him, the more she sees what she’s been missing…in life and love. And once she lets go of her anger long enough to learn the truth about her past, she might just find the family she’s always wanted. Coyote Canyon Book 1: Talulah's Back in Town Book 2: The Talk of Coyote Canyon Book 3: The Messy Lives of Jane Tanner

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/672537 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Balancing Act Series: #2 of Lake in the Clouds Author: Emily March Narrator: Kellen Boyle, Leanne Woodward, Eliana Marianes Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 17 minutes Release date: November 28, 2023 Genres: Contemporary Women Publisher's Summary: Return to Lake in the Clouds, Colorado, with this feel-good, emotional story about family, healing, and second chances from a New York Times bestselling author!     Genevieve Prentice is learning that reinventing herself is a bit like downsizing a house. Deciding what to keep and what needs to go gets complicated. After settling into life in Lake in the Clouds, Colorado, with her sister’s help, she’s finally finding her balance. But Genevieve’s newfound steadiness is threatened when her daughter Willow unexpectedly arrives carrying a mountain of emotional baggage. Willow Eldridge needs a fresh start, but that can’t happen until she comes clean about her family’s secrets. Thankfully, between caring for her two young children and planning her brother’s wedding, Willow has plenty of reasons to delay the uncomfortable heart-to-heart with her mother. Yet when Willow grows close to her kind but standoffish neighbor and suspects he is keeping secrets of his own, she realizes there’s no moving forward without facing what came before… Can Genevieve and Willow jettison the pain of the past to create the future they so desperately crave? Beneath the crystal blue skies of Lake in the Clouds, anything seems possible.