Greatest Collection of Audiobooks in Fiction, Historical - No Catch, Easy and Legally

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Title: On Her Own Two Feet

Author: Pam Evans

Narrator: Penelope Freeman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-28-14

Publisher: Headline Digital

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Bringing the Keep Fit movement vividly to life in 1940s' London, Pam Evans' family saga will inspire and enthral anyone who has ever dared to dream of a better life.

In the middle of a party to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of King George V, in 1935, Mollie Fisher's good-for-nothing husband walks out on his wife and baby girl. Luckily, Mollie has a loving family to turn to for help. Mollie's mother, Marge, is delighted to look after baby Esme while Mollie goes out to work.

Meanwhile, her nan, Nora, encourages Mollie to join a local keep fit class, which opens her eyes to a whole new world. Determined to better herself, Mollie qualifies as a fitness instructor and starts to run her own classes for the local community, where she befriends a group of women she would never have known existed. But with the outbreak of the Second World War and the ever-present danger of losing her loved ones in the London bombings, it takes courage for Mollie to stand on her own two feet....

Members Reviews:

Absolutely Brilliant!

Would you consider the audio edition of On Her Own Two Feet to be better than the print version?

Definitely the audio version. Penelope Freeman is a magnificent narrator and there are so many people I counted 12or 13 and each one has a different voice. I felt like I knew them all and was taking it back loads of times because I wanted to hear bits again. I was sad to see them go.' (or that the story ended).

Who was your favorite character and why?

Cora was my favourite character with her funny ways and her snooty voice, at 1st I felt like Mollie, I didn't like her at 1st, then It was if I became her friend because the narrator was such a professional she made you feel like they were your neighbours or something.

What does Penelope Freeman bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you had only read the book?

Well like I said only a professional could make you feel like you know the people and that is what she is and did, so much so that at the end of the story I knew just what some of them were going to say and how they would speak when someone came back after a long time. I won't say who or what so it does not spoil it for you. It definitely was not predictable.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

yes, lots. I laughed, cried, was happy and sad, was shocked and surprised.

Any additional comments?

The story was absolutely brilliant. I will definitely be buying another Pam Evans book again.

Very slow.

This is the first totally negative review I have ever written about a book but, quite honestly, I found it to be tedious with weak and overly sentimental storylines which seemed to just drag on and on. The characters seemed to me to be unconvincing and often insipid. The narrator did not help as I thought the accents were overdone. I persevered for as long as possible as I hate giving up on a book but had to do so eventually.

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Title: Blitz

Author: Molly Lefebure

Narrator: Annie Aldington

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-14-14

Publisher: Hachette Audio UK

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

War would change them forever. When World War II broke out, no one could predict the impact it would have on their lives.

As the conflict begins to take its toll, the lives of four families become entwined. The Duchamps, the Spurgeons, the Sowersbys, and the Tooleys are all faced with personal struggles while the world around them is torn apart. Families become fragmented, love is found, and the young are forced to grow up too quickly - but all are determined to remain defiant and united against the upheaval. An emotive and heartwarming novel, Blitz! creates a vivid portrait of a courageous Britain under fire - strong, brave, and in the end triumphantly alive.

Members Reviews:

Magnificent

Beautifully written. Beautifully read. Deeply experienced. I felt I could taste the moment: the courage, the endurance, the comradeship. The worst of times, but perhaps too the best of times.

missing Chapter

I enjoyed listening to this read by Annie Aldington but there was just one thing that spoilt it . Chapter 7 was fine, chapter 8 was so short it lasted just 16 seconds the rest of the book was ok

Enjoyable book bad ending though.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, (apart from ending) it just makes you think how lucky we are living today. Also how much we owe to the thousands that risked and lost their lives and all the injured and maimed people, who totally devoted their lives so we can enjoy a freedom today. I felt I knew the characters personally.

I was very disappointed with the ending, I felt it just ended suddenly!!

I enjoyed the narration, I would just say to Annie you read very fast particularly at the beginning and it made me feel rushed and I had to rewind a few times, however that being said I thought your voices were excellent and apart from your speed I felt it was read well and you obviously put a lot if effort in.

I would recommend this book, however I warn you that the ending to me just seem to stop suddenly.

Slow & complicated

Very disappointed with this story. It is a slow and very complicated story with a lot of quotes that I do not understand at all. It also ended abruptly and I was left with lots of unanswered questions :(

Takes a bit to get into but then engaging.

I liked how the characters were all connected - eventually but it took a long time. It was hard to 'know' the characters until at least half way. Funny, then I thought the story was over before we got to the end of all that was to happen.

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Title: Love, Love Me Do

Author: Mark Haysom

Narrator: Katie Scarfe, David Thorpe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-31-14

Publisher: Hachette Audio UK

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

1963: The year the Beatles first top the charts. The year Martin Luther King has a dream.

The year Truman Bird moves his family from their home in Brighton to a dilapidated caravan in the Ashdown Forest - then disappears. Truman's a charmer, a chancer, a liar. He's always got away with it, too. But now he's gone a dangerous step too far and only has one day to put things right - before he loses everything.

For Truman's wife, Christie, life has not turned out the way she'd imagined. How has she, that young girl of not that many years ago, ended up like this? In a caravan. With three children. And an absent husband.

Honest and unsettling, yet ultimately uplifting, this unique, wise, and addictive British debut weaves themes of love, betrayal, family, and childhood, and shows that even though life has a habit of getting in the way of dreams, people find their own extraordinary ways of bouncing back.

Members Reviews:

Four Stars

Nice entertaining story

Four Stars

Very good

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Title: At Break of Day

Author: Elizabeth Speller

Narrator: Gordon Griffin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-03-14

Publisher: Hachette Audio UK

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

In the summer of 1913, the world seems full of possibility for four very different young men. Young Jean-Baptiste dreams of the day he'll leave his Picardy home and row down-river to the sea.

Earnest and hard-working Frank has come to London to take up an apprenticeship in Regent Street. His ambitions are self-improvement, a wife and, above all, a bicycle.

Organ scholar Benedict is anxious yet enthralled by the sensations of his synaesthesia. He is uncertain both about God and the nature of his friendship with the brilliant and mercurial Theo.

Harry has turned his back on his wealthy English family, has a thriving business in New York and a beautiful American wife. But his nationality is still British.

Three years later, on the first of July 1916, their lives have been taken in entirely unexpected directions. Now in uniform they are waiting for dawn on the battlefield of the Somme. The generals tell them that victory will soon be theirs but the men are accompanied by regrets, fears and secrets as they move towards the line.

Critic Reviews:

"A heart-wrenching, beautifully written, moving and timely novel that will absorb you completely" (Sunday Mirror)

"Elizabeth Speller has a wonderful feel for the era . . . a heart-rending story of shattered hopes and dreams" (The Times)

Members Reviews:

A tale which carries the reader along. The use ...

A tale which carries the reader along. The use of language is Dickensian. It is plain yet provocative and poignant. Major themes such as the futility of conflict are considered in a discreet manner. More please Ms. Speller

What a story...

This year - 2014 - is the 100th year anniversary of the beginning of The Great War. It has been marked by the issuance of many books about the war - from military, political, historical, and personal perspectives. Each book, whether fiction or non-fiction, almost seems better than the last. There's a lot of good writing going on and I'm pleased to include British novelist Elizabeth Speller's new book, "The First of July", on that list. This book was also published under the title "At Break of Day".

Elizabeth Speller is the author of two previous novels about the time, "The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton" and "The Return of Captain John Emmett". (She's also written a family memoir called "The Sunlight on the Garden" which was a strangely readable look at her very odd family.) Anyway, in "The First of July", Speller tells us about that first, terrible day in 1916, the beginning of the Battle of the Somme.

July 1st, 1916 has been called the bloodiest day in British history. An article in Wiki puts it this way: "1 July 1916 was also the worst day in the history of the British Army, which had c. 60,000 casualties, mainly on the front between the Albert-Bapaume road and Gommecourt, where the attack failed disastrously, few British troops reaching the German front line".

Speller has taken the battle on that day and using the four soldiers - three British and one French of whom she has given us the back stories - she writes of unbelievable physical and emotional pain, heroism, valor, and...fear. Who among us would not have felt the fear of battle?

These are characters whom Speller has drawn with incredible nuance; characters who we follow with a sense of dread and foreboding.

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Title: The Spring of Kasper Meier

Author: Ben Fergusson

Narrator: Leighton Pugh

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-03-14

Publisher: Hachette Audio UK

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Winner of the Historical Writers Association Debut Crown Award 2015

The war is over, but Berlin is a desolate sea of rubble. There is a shortage of everything: Food, clothing, tobacco. The local population is scrabbling to get by. Kasper Meier is one of these Germans, and his solution is to trade on the black market to feed himself and his elderly father. He can find anything that people need, for the right price. Even other people.

When a young woman, Eva, arrives at Kasper's door seeking the whereabouts of a British pilot, he feels a reluctant sympathy for her but won't interfere in military affairs. But Eva is prepared for this. Kasper has secrets, she knows them, and she'll use them to get what she wants. As the threats against him mount, Kasper is drawn into a world of intrigue he could never have anticipated. Why is Eva so insistent that he find the pilot? Who is the shadowy Frau Beckmann and what is her hold over Eva?

Under constant surveillance, Kasper navigates the dangerous streets and secrets of a city still reeling from the horrors of war and defeat. As a net of deceit, lies, and betrayal falls around him, Kasper begins to understand that the seemingly random killings of members of the occupying forces are connected to his own situation. He must work out who is behind Eva's demands, and why - while at the same time trying to save himself, his father, and Eva.

Members Reviews:

Great descriptive writing but frustratingly long winded.

A story providing a historical insight into conditions in Berlin after WW2, however after such a contorted plot the end seemed rather tame.

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Title: Pauper's Gold

Author: Margaret Dickinson

Narrator: Anne Dover

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-05-14

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Hannah Francis has been forced to leave her beloved mother and the life she knows in the silk mill town of Macclesfield and is set to become an apprentice at a cotton mill in the Derbyshire dales. It is a cruel blow for such a young girl, but her three travelling companions are even younger than she is, and Hannah is determined to keep their spirits up and remain in good cheer.

Once she is settled in the mill, Hannah discovers that the hours of work are long, and the daily routine is dangerous, arduous, and harsh, but her bright singing and capacity for joy lighten the load for everyone. Hannah soon becomes a favourite with the other mill workers. Friendships are forged and an innocent love starts to blossom. But can such a fragile love survive cruel reality?

It is not long before she attracts the eye of Edmund Critchlow, the man who owns them all, body and soul - the man from whom no pretty mill girl is safe. Times are hard in the cotton industry as civil war rages across America affecting even the mill owner and the lives of all his workers....

Members Reviews:

Paupers Gold

Excellent book, with a story which will touch your heart. Hannah had to go in the workhouse with her Mother, it wasn't long before she was sent to work at a mill, with a very cruel man in charge. You hear how Hannah coped with the highs & lows of life there, running away when it just got too bad, but she would return years later to get her revenge

Fab!

What a great read!! The best I have had in a long time. Paints a great picture and the characters are so well pressed

a good story

What made the experience of listening to Pauper's Gold the most enjoyable?

a story of the hardships of a girl that sent to work in a mill the struggle she has but is triumphant in the end

Who was your favorite character and why?

Hana a good woman

Which character as performed by Anne Dover was your favourite?

Hana

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

it was a bit sad

Any additional comments?

a good read if you like historical books

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Title: Cross of Fire

Subtitle: The Juno Letters, Book 2

Author: L. W. Hewitt

Narrator: Gary Regal

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-04-14

Publisher: L.W. Hewitt, MBM

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

As Nazi-occupied France collapsed under the Allied onslaught in 1944, Gela Pientka defiantly kept a bloody truth that could topple governments and destabilize world currencies. To protect her family, she took the frightening secret to her grave. Gala's journal, however, exposes a stunning discovery - a corrupt "money train," supported by murder and slavery, fueled by the foul stench of greed. Powerful international forces seek to destroy the last evidence of their treason by silencing everyone who discovers the secret. Truth is fighting back - fighting to reunite a family ripped apart by the Holocaust, fighting to restore honor - carrying the Cross of Fire as a weapon against the forces of evil.

Members Reviews:

A decades old mystery revealed

Cross of Fire is an interesting novel about unearthing the events a woman experienced during World War II. Gela has a secret that she took to her grave recently, but a present day author is set to find out that secret. I liked the way the author of the book would go back and forth between present day and the past in order to tell the story and move the plot along. The mystery deepens as a shadowy group of rich and powerful people tries to prevent the secret from being uncovered. What could this woman have known that would affect people even today? The author did a great job of making you feel as though you were on the search in the story. It made me realize just how chaotic that time of history was and how much fear there was especially for the people in Europe. Itâs a good book for those who might be history buffs or just enjoy a good mystery.

Beautifully Written.

"Cross of Fire" tells the story of Gela, who first appeared as an elderly woman in Hewitt's "The Juno Letters." In this novel, we learn about Gela's incarceration at the Natzweiler concentration camp in France. She is forced to inventory to merchandise on the Nazi "Money Train" which includes stolen artwork, antiques, and a huge cache of counterfeit gold. Told in a narrative the travels back and forth from the present to the horrors of WWII, Gela's story is gripping and moving. This is a great tale for all readers.

Good reading if you have read the 1st book it ties up loose ends

The next step in the trilogy. Find out what happened to the characters from the Juno Letters

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Title: No Kisses for Daddy

Author: Neal Fortner

Narrator: Dan McGowan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 06-02-14

Publisher: Neal Fortner

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

No Kisses for Daddy is a historical fiction novel that begins in the early 1930's in a small town on the Albemarle Sound of North Carolina called Clementine. The main character, Jeremiah, lives in this small southern town. His friendship with JD, an African-American, is frowned upon in this provincial southern community. Lydia, another friend, is quite taken with Jeremiah at an early age. The three youngsters formed a bond. Before reaching adulthood, all three friends leave Clementine and develop interesting lives of their own.

In the book, Jeremiah encounters bullies, thieves, hobos, inept soldiers, promiscuous women, and guerrilla partisans in the woods of Europe. His life takes many twists and turns as he leaves childhood and becomes a man during World War II. This once timid boy experiences a metamorphosis that correlates with the hard times. As a result, this novel provides a lesson about history and humanity.

Members Reviews:

Story is engaging and the author does a good job of evoking the settings and situations

âNo Kisses for Daddyâ is the self published, first entry for the author and a respectable entry at that. It follows Jeremiah Stokes from his preteen days in the fictional small North Carolinian town of Clementine, through his brief experience as a rail-traveling hobo and into his career as a bomber pilot in World War II. We are also afforded brief glances in the lives of his two childhood friends, Jacob Daniels âJDâ James and Missouri âLydiaâ Butts. Story is engaging and the author does a good job of evoking the settings and situations, allowing us to sympathize with the characters more easily. I especially enjoyed how Fortner ties the interests of the three friends together through the unexpected appearance of airmail pilot Hobart Lattimore.

While I am not really familiar enough with it to make a responsible assessment, Iâve never really been a fan of the self publishing path. A truly good book is the result of the team effort and a self-published book misses out on many of the benefits those team members bring to the table. I think that the greatest suffering for âNo Kisses for Daddyâ stems from the apparent lack of attention by a fiction editor. Editing fiction is about much more than grammar and punctuation. A fiction editor clears the figurative obstacles from the narrativeâs stream bed, allowing the story to gain and maintain the momentum that possesses in the authorâs mind. The work that lands on the fiction editorâs desk may be a sediment-encrusted rough gemstone or it may be a freshly cut gem, but both products still require a significant effort before they are considered a finished product. An experienced fiction editor brings years of experience to their work and can advise the author on things that a regular editing pass would easily miss. In âKisses,â one of those bumps, for me, was that none of the characters used contractions in their spoken dialog. I found that it jeopardized the evocation of the setting and actually prevented me from enjoying the book as much as I normally would have.

Writing a novel is hard, and Neal Fortner has clearly paid his dues. While âNo Kisses for Daddyâ would clearly have benefited from the ministrations of one or more people experienced in the world of historic fiction, it still stands as an enjoyable window into the life of a mid 20th century young man.

Disclaimer: I am a friend of the author; we attend the same church.

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Title: Figures in Blue

Author: Ted Morrissey

Narrator: Fred Wolinsky

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-22-14

Publisher: Twelve Winters Press

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Figures in Blue is the story of Esteban Espiritu, a young Spanish artist who is commissioned to paint the portrait of Kristena von Lichtenberg, an elderly Baroness living in a deteriorating mansion that overlooks a provincial German village. However, Esteban uncovers a local mystery regarding the disappearance of her brutish husband, the Baron. The novelette is set in the beginning of the 20th century and references classical mythology.

Members Reviews:

Highly recommended

When I first heard Ted Morrissey read from Figures in Blue, I knew I had to buy this book. I was not disappointed. This book captivated me from the first word and when I reached the end left me wanting more. I have a few minor quibbles with the book -- the cataloguing of the artists tools and the slight overusage of the adverb richly -- but they did not detract from the tale Morrissey spins. Morrissey's tale of the young painter Esteban and the Baroness Kristena von Lichtenberg is infused with mystery and suspense. The rich details and language draws the reader into their world and holds you there long after you have closed the book. A perfect length for a train ride, the ambiguous ending allows the reader to draw their own conclusion as to how this masterful tale ends.

Another great read by Ted Morrissey

Carefully constructed characters artfully woven into a clever tale make this novelette a little gem! A page turner with twists and turns right up to the end...

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Title: The Return of the Mildew Gang: An Inspector Cauldron Classic Crime Novel

Subtitle: The Mildew Gang Trilogy, Book Two

Author: S. Fowler Wright

Narrator: Chris Macdonnell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-09-14

Publisher: Wildside Press LLC

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The activities of the infamous drug-running gang founded by Cornelius Mildew may have been hampered in The Mildew Gang, but the king of crime is still alive and well-and still threatening to take his revenge. Scotland Yard whisks the two young people responsible away from London, where they'll presumably be safe-but when they're attacked once again by Mildew's henchmen, they return to the big city to help bring about his downfall. After a harrowing escape from a burning building, Billie and Eustace must either keep running-or turn to Inspector Cauldron for help. Will Cornelius Mildew outwit the law once again?