You Can Select Any Audiobook in Fiction, Contemporary Most Popular

You Can Select Any Audiobook in Fiction, Contemporary Most Popular

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You Can Select Any Audiobook in Fiction, Contemporary Most Popular episodes

  • The Numbered Account Audiobook by Ann Bridge
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    Title: The Numbered Account
    Subtitle: Julia Probyn, Book 3
    Author: Ann Bridge
    Narrator: Elizabeth Jasicki
    Format: Unabridged
    Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
    Language: English
    Release date: 05-13-13
    Publisher: Audible Studios
    Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 5 votes
    Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
    Publisher's Summary:
    Julia Probyn, like most people, knew very little about anonymous numbered accounts in Swiss Banks. Until her cousin, Colin Munro, asked her to look into the matter of one containing a fortune, for his fiancée Aglaia Armitage, left to her by her Greek grandfather. Then Julia learned a great deal. But besides bonds and debentures, old Mr. Thalassides, proved to have left documents of vital interest to the British Secret Service, and to other Powers as well, in the vault with them. When these disappear, the hunt begins... Ann Bridge brings her characteristic wit, suspense and sense of adventure to the third book in the Julia Probyn series.
    Ann Bridge (1889-1974), or Lady Mary Dolling (Sanders) O'Malley was born in Hertfordshire. Bridge's novels concern her experiences of the British Foreign Office community in Peking in China, where she lived for two years with her diplomat husband. Her novels combine courtship plots with vividly-realized settings and demure social satire. Bridge went on to write novels around a serious investigation of modern historical developments. In the 1970s Bridge began to write thrillers centred on a female amateur detective, Julia Probyn, as well writing travel books and family memoirs. Her books were praised for their faithful representation of foreign countries which was down to personal experience and thorough research.
    Members Reviews:
    Of their time
    Sadly, these Julia Probyn mysteries are rife with gentle, endemic racism and steeped in very conservative sun-never-sets-on-the-empire political thinking. It's too bad, because they're pretty charming in their own way. Julia is a glorious sleepy blonde who looks too stupid to be of any account, but has a fine, curious mind. She is helpful in a volunteer capacity to British intelligence, in between various small romances. They're mildly funny, in an unexacting way, and tidy travelogues as wellbut if you are sensitive to racist characterizations or find the unthinking superiority of the upper classes irritating, these books are not for you.
    14 hr 10 min
  • The Hope of Spring Audiobook by Wanda E. Brunstetter
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    Title: The Hope of Spring
    Subtitle: The Discovery, Book 3 - A Lancaster County Saga
    Author: Wanda E. Brunstetter
    Narrator: Heather Henderson
    Format: Unabridged
    Length: 2 hrs and 1 min
    Language: English
    Release date: 04-01-13
    Publisher: Oasis Audio
    Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 31 votes
    Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
    Publisher's Summary:
    Without Luke, Meredith is trying to piece her life back together, while in a hospital miles away, a young man is fighting for his life... The young man found beaten in a bus station is still unresponsive. A compassionate nurse prays for the man she calls Eddie and often quotes scriptures to him.
    Can her voice pull him out of the dark place hes been in for so long? After nearly losing her baby, Meredith Stoltzfus has never been so scared. Her parents are supportive, but they have younger children to care for. And while her rekindled friendship with Jonah Miller is a blessing, she aches for Luke and the love they shared. She needs Luke at her side, and her baby will need a father. Can Meredith manage to provide for herself and her baby - alone?
    Members Reviews:
    to to short
    This book wasnt for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
    maybe when its buy 1 get 2 free
    What did you like best about this story?
    love the story line.Can't wait to finish the book its more like chapters your left hanging.
    What does Heather Henderson bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?
    shes very good with the amish language.
    If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Hope of Spring?
    none....add
    Any additional comments?
    finish the book not the chapter.
    Where is the rest of the book? It was only 2 hrs long!
    Dislike:
    I did not expect to pay 7.25 for a book lasting only 2 hrs. :(
    2 hr 1 min
  • Dream of Fair to Middling Women Audiobook by Samuel Beckett
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    Title: Dream of Fair to Middling Women
    Subtitle: A Novel
    Author: Samuel Beckett
    Narrator: Peter Ganim
    Format: Unabridged
    Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
    Language: English
    Release date: 03-22-13
    Publisher: Audible Studios
    Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 13 votes
    Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
    Publisher's Summary:
    This is Samuel Beckett's first novel and "literary landmark" (St. Petersburg Times) - a savory introduction to the Nobel Prize-winning author. Written in the summer of 1932, when the 26-year-old Beckett was poor and struggling to make ends meet, Dream of Fair to Middling Women offers a rare and revealing portrait of the artist as a young man. Later on, Beckett would call the novel "the chest into which I threw all my wild thoughts". When he submitted it to several publishers, all of them found it too literary, too scandalous, or too risky, and it was sadly never published during his lifetime.
    In this stunning first novel, Belacqua - a young version of Molloy, whose love is divided between two women, Smeraldina-Rima and Alba - "wrestles with his lusts and learning across vocabularies and continents, before a final 'relapse into Dublin'" (New Yorker). Youthfully exuberant and visibly influenced by Joyce, Dream of Fair to Middling Women is a work of extraordinary virtuosity. Beckett delights in the wordplay and sheer joy of language that mark his later work. Above all, the story brims with the black humor that, like brief stabs of sunlight, pierces the darkness of his vision.
    Editorial Reviews:
    Listeners take note: Peter Ganims explosive, incandescent performance of Dream of Fair to Middling Woman: A Novel, the classic first novel - posthumously published - from literary superstar and infamous playwright Samuel Beckett, is an event not to be missed.
    Ganim pulls out all the stops as he rages and wrestles with love and lust, truly embodying protagonist Belacqua, a man caught between two women in a work too scandalous to achieve publication before Beckets death. Ganim seems especially in tune with Becketts youthful energy, attacking the authors complex syntax and sly humor with verve and delight, and filling his performance with inflections of joy and despair so tangible they seem to take life as you listen.
    Members Reviews:
    Early, polysyllabic Beckett
    A one-star review should not be allowed to stand alone for this book, though I may provide inadequate challenge. A fan in particular of early Beckett, i.e. of "Murphy," and of the first part of "Watt" which features a certain Mr. Hackett, I found this exuberant, flamboyant exercise in quasi-poetic comic prose almost their equal. There are individual sentences to savor, for words-as-music (if one consider string quartets and oompah bands both musical), that describe outrageously comic situations and personae with an almost ferocious originality. Yes, the work's style, certainly the hero's stream-of-consciousness interlude, owes quite a bit to Joyce, but Beckett's signature dark humor is already richly manifest. Bleakness expressed in richness, buffoonery in elegant phrases, in color and obvious love of the medium. Beckett may have outdone Joyce in a cheeky display of authorial devices whereby he breaks boundaries of fiction and inserts himself, reveals the writing process, etc.
    8 hr 9 min
  • Mary and O'Neil Audiobook by Justin Cronin
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    Title: Mary and O'Neil
    Author: Justin Cronin
    Narrator: Edoardo Ballerini
    Format: Unabridged
    Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
    Language: English
    Release date: 03-12-13
    Publisher: Random House Audio
    Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 37 votes
    Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
    Publisher's Summary:
    Mary and ONeil frequently marveled at how, of all the lives they might have led, they had somehow found this one together. When they met at the Philadelphia high school where theyd come to teach, each had suffered a profound loss that had not healed. How likely was it that they could learn to trust, much less love, again?
    Justin Cronins poignant debut traces the lives of Mary Olson and ONeil Burke, two vulnerable young teachers who rediscover in each other a world alive with promise and hope. From the formative experiences of their early adulthood to marriage, parenthood, and beyond, this novel in stories illuminates the moments of grace that enable Mary and ONeil to make peace with the deep emotional legacies that haunt them: the sudden, mysterious death of ONeils parents, Marys long-ago decision to end a pregnancy, ONeils sisters battle with illness and a troubled marriage. Alive with magical nuance and unexpected encounters, Mary and ONeil celebrates the uncommon in common lives, and the redemptive power of love.
    Critic Reviews:
    "A literary love story...about the fragility of good fortune and the accidental ways of finding happiness." (USA Today)
    "An astonishingly good first novel...fully engaging from the first paragraph. What a gift: to be able to live alongside these people for a while. (Ann Patchett, Chicago Tribune)
    "Justin Cronin must have been a novelist in an earlier life. What else could account for the mature insight and the beautifully controlled technique we find in his debut novel?...Cronin succeeds, touchingly and tenderly, in portraying life itself as a triumph of hope over experience." (The Boston Globe)
    Members Reviews:
    GREAT
    I loved it. this is my new favorite author. this is the fifth book I have listened to in less than a month. I can't get enough of him.
    mundane
    Like most people, life has highs and lows. People vary in their ability to cope. We can learn from some a new skill, but others are just ordinary, illiciting neither praise nor censure. The characters in this book are dull. They do not stimulate thought. The only nice thing was the relationship between brother and sister. I finished it only because it has been a habit of mine to finish any book I start because I can speed read. While I enjoy audible books, I do not have time to waste long hours with something that bores me. I guess it is time to change my habits. This author has written other books I enjoyed, but I cannot recommend this one.
    Wanted to like it.
    I seriously need something funny to read after this one. I want to read about something other than death and loss and trauma. I was not expecting that this would be a narrative which strings together the many tragedies of a life. And not much else.
    The narrator had a rather sing-song quality which I found difficult to listen to right from the start.
    If your life is a bowl full of cherries and you need a reality check, this is for you. Not for me, at least not this week.
    8 hr 35 min
  • Identity Audiobook by Milan Kundera
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    Title: Identity
    Author: Milan Kundera
    Narrator: Richmond Hoxie
    Format: Unabridged
    Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
    Language: English
    Release date: 02-21-13
    Publisher: Canongate Faber Audio
    Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes
    Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
    Publisher's Summary:
    There are situations in which we fail for a moment to recognize the person we are with, in which the identity of the other is erased while we simultaneously doubt our own. This also happens with couples - indeed, above all with couples, because lovers fear more than anything else "losing sight" of the loved one. With stunning artfulness in expanding and playing variations on the meaningful moment, Milan Kundera has made this situation - and the vague sense of panic it inspires - the very fabric of this novel.
    Here brevity goes hand in hand with intensity, and a moment of bewilderment marks the start of a labyrinthine journey during which the reader repeatedly crosses the border between the real and the unreal, between what occurs in the world outside and what the mind creates in its solitude. Of all contemporary writers, only Kundera can transform such a hidden and disconcerting perception into the material for a novel, one of his finest, most painful, and most enlightening - which, surprisingly, turns out to be a love story.
    Members Reviews:
    Identities in the Making
    The story of Chantal and Jean-Marc, as told by Milan Kundera, is an old one, but it merits retelling. It reminds us what we are and how we got that way, and it enriches our understanding of the over-used and too often trivialized idea of relationship.
    Whether or not the eyes are windows to the soul, they serve quite well as mirrors. We see ourselves reflected in the eyes and responses of others. We put ourselves in their place and ask what would have produced these reflections, what would have elicited these responses. Our interpretations, over time and with many others, constitute our identities. We see ourselves not as others see us, but as we interpret their responses upon seeing us. If we are fortunate, we are able to temper our interpretations with our own accounts of ourselves, identities already formed and strengthened in the world we share with others. We also recognize that being loved, valued, and cared for is not dependent on perfection, and we may retain these gifts even as we become old, frail, and ugly.
    If we are fortunate, we have others to whom we are close, with whom we interact frequently, who respond in ways that enable us to feel intelligent, attractive, effective, helpful, compassionate -- in a word, good. Otherwise, we may share the world with those whose responses we interpret, whether correctly or not, to mean that we are stupid, ineffectual, unattractive, and of no real value. If we are fortunate, however, we may also see the that the interpretations we attribute to unkind or indifferent others may be misunderstood, erroneous, and self-serving, and our established knowledge of ourselves may be out of synch with what we take to be others' dismissal or condemnation. We seek remedies through rebellion or escape, through seeking out and interacting with those who appreciate us.
    Perhaps the least fortunate among us are those who are close to no one, forced to rely on incidental, passing responses, or lack of same, that provide a fragile, uncertain identity that is unstable, easily shaken, disagreeably malleable, and really non-existent.
    3 hr 53 min
  • Nancy's Theory of Style Audiobook by Marta Acosta
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    Title: Nancy's Theory of Style
    Author: Marta Acosta
    Narrator: Patricia Fructuoso
    Format: Unabridged
    Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
    Language: English
    Release date: 02-17-13
    Publisher: Marta Acosta
    Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes
    Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
    Publisher's Summary:
    Lively young socialite Nancy Carrington-Chambers has always believed an excellent sense of style and strict attention to detail are what it takes to succeed, but her own husband Todd is showing symptoms of incurable tackiness, so Nancy flees their McMansion for her posh San Francisco apartment. She knows her event planning company, Froth, is a real winner, but she must prove herself by reinventing the turgid Barbary Coast Historical Museum fundraiser. Luckily, Nancy now has the perfect assistant. Derek Cathcart is British, impeccably dressed, gorgeous, and clearly gay-so why does Nancy find him so attractive?
    Before Nancy can unravel her feelings, her irresponsible cousin Birdie abandons her little daughter with Nancy and takes off. Nancy, Derek, and Eugenia make an unlikely "family", but strangely it seems incredibly right. Now Nancy's parents are pressuring her to return to Todd, and she still has to pull off a spectacular party. For someone who's always known exactly where she's going, Nancy is in dangerously uncharted waters.
    Irresistibly funny and romantic, Nancy's Theory of Style shows that happiness and love - just like fashion - aren't about playing it safe.
    Members Reviews:
    Overall the story was good.
    I've listened to all 4 books in the Casa Dracula series witched introduced me to Nancy. So, right from the beginning I knew what was going to happen. It was hard not to loose patients with Nancy or interest in the book. About a third of the way into it I started to just enjoy the story for what it was. I found the last part of the book the most entertaining.
    10 hr 40 min
  • Reflections of Grey: Book Three of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles Audiobook by J. C. Phelps
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    Title: Reflections of Grey: Book Three of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles
    Author: J. C. Phelps
    Narrator: Jessica Geffen
    Format: Unabridged
    Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
    Language: English
    Release date: 12-27-12
    Publisher: Jean Wise
    Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 23 votes
    Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
    Publisher's Summary:
    The past and the future merge....
    Thinking she had learned all the secrets her friends and family could possibly hide, Alex realizes there are plenty more to be found out.
    Having never been good at telling lies, when she's asked to go undercover she's not sure she can manage the job. Plus, the job is at a strip joint owned by the Russian mafia.
    Will she be able to keep up the lie? Does she want to?
    Reflections of Grey is the third book in The Alexis Stanton Chronicles.
    Color Me Grey - Book One of The Alexis Stanton Chronicles
    Shades of Grey - Book Two of The Alexis Stanton Chronicles
    Reflections of Grey - Book Three of The Alexis Stanton Chronicles
    Members Reviews:
    Alexis continues to grow as a character
    I will admit it. I love this series, and Reflections doesn't disappoint. Alexis started out in Color Me Grey as a young, a little bit spoiled, a little bit flaky, woman with an interesting background and an interesting new opportunity as the lone female member of a Private Military Organization.
    Through the first and second books we watched as Alexis learned and grew, as a soldier and as a woman. Each was a true treat to read, and this third edition does not disappoint. Secrets are revealed, mysteries are solved, and Alexis truly grows into who she was always meant to be.
    the wrap-up of this volume of the series would, should J.C. have decided to end the series at this point, be a clean break. Ends are tied, relationships are brought to fulfillment and relationships between the partners are high and tight. Mr. Black is still my favorite character besides Alexis (White is just a little too prissy for my tastes!) but all of the characters, whether you like them or not, are well written.
    Though kids and family are taking up J.C.'s time right now, according to her Facebook page, she has written lately that she is working on a new edition, and I can hardly wait to read it! I got these books for my Nook, then when they came out on Audio I immediately jumped on them and have not been disappointed.
    Enjoy!
    7 hr 22 min
  • Need Audiobook by Sherri Hayes
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    Title: Need
    Subtitle: Finding Anna
    Author: Sherri Hayes
    Narrator: Susanna Burney, Benjamin Elliss
    Format: Unabridged
    Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
    Language: English
    Release date: 11-20-12
    Publisher: The Writer's Coffee Shop
    Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 68 votes
    Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
    Publisher's Summary:
    As Brianna comes to terms with the realization that she is no longer a slave, she must figure out what she wants for her life. Forgetting her past isn't an option. It is an integral part of who she is now, and it will forever shape her view of life. The one thing she knows is that she cannot imagine her life without the man who saved her, but can she be what he needs?
    Stephan never imagined falling in love with the woman he rescued, but the thought of her no longer being part of his life is physically painful. The scars from her past continue to haunt her, and he is helpless to stop them. All he can do is try to help her work through the traumas of her past. Can he be everything she needs and help her move on?
    The two must figure out how to navigate not only their relationship with each other, but also the outside world. A friend from Brianna's past shows up where she least expects them, and Uncle Richard continues to enforce his well-meaning agenda to get Brianna more traditional help. As forces, both friend and foe, threaten to tear them apart, Stephan and Brianna have to navigate the turbulent waters and find what they need in each other.
    Members Reviews:
    Awful!! So disappointed
    To be completely fair I should preface this review with a qualifier ~I couldn't get through the whole thing~.
    Book one of this series wasn't spectacular, but it was okay. This may be the worst second installment in history.
    Anna's inner dialogue makes her sound like an ill-bred golden retriever. She is depicted as being so damaged and so traumatized that it makes Stephen's desire to make her his submissive creepy.
    The final straw for me came about two hours into the listen ( nothing erotic having happened up to that point) when she is so broken she can't manage to say his name without sounding it out like it was swahili.
    Submissives are wonderful because they are strong and empowered by their service and sexual freedoms. That is nowhere near what this is.
    Stephan and Anna - the story continues ...
    This book follows on from Slave. Anna makes the decision to stay with Stephan and become his submissive.
    Even though Anna is still haunted by her time with Ian she does start to embrace her new life but she still suffers panic attacks, is unable to cope with crowds and would have difficulty living in anything but a very controlled environement. Consequently her life is still very isolated - though I guess this is how Stephan wants it anyway.
    One of my issues with the book is that it does tend to portray Anna as child-like, especially in her vocabulary, thoughts and self-perception. I'm not sure if this is due to the narrator's influence or if Anna's personality would still come across this way if I read the book in it's written state.
    Because I see her as a child, I now view Stephan's behaviour as predatory. Possibly that isn't fair - but that's where it is.
    Again this book finishes on a cliff-hanger.
    So Great
    Well Anna continues to cry for everything. But other than that it was good. Her father finds her so I can't wait to read about what happens
    continuation from Slave...
    I was so glad whem Need finally came to Audible. If you like cliff hangers, listen to these books. I am a reviewer who said wait for the next book to come out regarding SLAVE.
    8 hr 14 min
  • The Mystery of Mercy Close Audiobook by Marian Keyes
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    Title: The Mystery of Mercy Close
    Author: Marian Keyes
    Narrator: Niamh Daly
    Format: Unabridged
    Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
    Language: English
    Release date: 09-13-12
    Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
    Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 73 votes
    Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
    Publisher's Summary:
    The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Marian Keyes heartbreaking stunner of a novel, The Mystery of Mercy Close, read by the actress Niamh Daly.
    I employ this thing called The Shovel List. A shovel...? No. A Shovel List. Its more of a conceptual thing. Its a list of all the people and things I hate so much that I want to hit them in the face with a shovel.
    Meet Helen - youngest of the Walsh sisters and a law unto herself. Shes easily bored, has an inability to filter her thoughts and was fired from every job she ever had before she found her true calling as a private investigator. But times are tough for PIs, and Helens had no choice but to take on the search for AWOL boyband has-been Wayne Diffney: The Wacky One. Its not all bad this game of Wheres Wayne.
    It may have brought her charming crook of an ex Jay Parker back into her life, but its giving her an excuse to avoid the usual Walsh family dramas and the intense looks from her gorgeous boyfriend Artie that make her heart beat wildly with lust and panic in equal measure. But most of all its an excellent distraction from the huge swarm of black vultures gathering over her head. If she hides out in her targets empty house on Mercy Close for long enough maybe theyll go away...But as Helen begins to unravel the mysteries secreted on Mercy Close she discovers a kindred spirit in a man unwilling to be found. Could someone be telling her to look a little closer to home?
    Members Reviews:
    if u love marian keyes, you'll find this boring
    Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
    out of everything she's written, this flops (sorry Marian)
    What was most disappointing about Marian Keyess story?
    I know Marian has suffered major depression, I have too ... I empathise. But your fans have a certain level of fun, excitement + a smidge of naughty/dodgy behaviour of your characters to keep your fans amused.
    But for the author to use the key protaganist, Helen, one of the Walsh sisters to go through severe depression and what she did, experienced etc. I felt Marian Keyes was using this character as a cathartic to go through her own experiences and issues.
    Fair enough for her. But not for her readers/listeners .. we want to be enterained and pay to read/listen, and not feel we're sharing the same kind of mental overhaul she went through, and then she got paid tons of bucks to write this book.
    If she wasnt a bestselling author, and sent this book to every publisher in the world, it wouldnt have been published by anyone.
    Sorry, Marian, but its true, and deepdown you know this. You cant's turn out this kind of pap, when your fans have devoured your last 8 books with glee.
    Which character as performed by Niamh Daly was your favorite?
    the key character - Helen, Niamh was exciting and kept me listening, through a very predictable plod of a tale. It's not the narrater's fault that she had a bad read to narrate. Without her, I would've let it go and just skipped to the end within the 1st hour.
    Could you see The Mystery of Mercy Close being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?
    No
    Any additional comments?
    I know Marian has suffered major depression, I empathise.
    15 hr 27 min
  • No Child of Mine Audiobook by Susan Lewis
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    Title: No Child of Mine
    Author: Susan Lewis
    Narrator: Julia Franklin
    Format: Unabridged
    Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
    Language: English
    Release date: 07-05-12
    Publisher: Random House Audiobooks
    Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 28 votes
    Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
    Publisher's Summary:
    Alex Lakes day job is all about helping people, especially children. She cares about them passionately and does everything in her power to rescue them from those who mean them harm.
    When the case of three-year-old Ottilie Wade comes to her attention, Alex finds herself completely unable to detach from the child the way she should. She feels an overpowering need to make a real difference in little Ottilies life, but no one is prepared to believe that Ottilie is in danger.
    In the end, Alex makes a decision that has consequences for her, her family and Ottilie - consequences that no one, least of all Alex, could have foreseen.
    Members Reviews:
    Couldn't stop reading!
    This was my first novel by Susan Lewis, and I was not disappointed. I appreciated the author's writing style drawing parallels between past and present. Also, the narrator was perfect for this book.
    Loved it.
    Oh my! What a novel! This is the first time I have read Susan Lewis, so I wasn't so sure whether I would like it. However one very telling review on Goodreads from a reader I really respect - Laurel-Rain, had given it 5 stars so that was a good start!
    It's a long book, so it took me a few weeks to listen to it. It is set in a small town in England. The narration was excellent and held my attention all the way through. The only very picky thing I have to comment on was the accent of a certain character who came to visit Alex. Sorry - but that is not a New Zealand accent!
    But what of the content? Well it engaged me all the way through. Alex is a social worker, and a very good one. She cares about the children she works with. She puts in long hours and it is often heart breaking and difficult. She has to contend with situations where sometimes her life is at risk. She herself had a very distressing beginning to her young life and so knows first hand being left orphaned.
    She has a few minor enemies, nothing outstanding, but enough to niggle and cause damage in small but significant ways. As well as working she is into drama and enjoys directing the local club. She is in a relationship with Jason as the book opens, but even as the book opens that looks a little shaky.
    Alex trusts her instincts, and she follows up a phone call about Ottilie Wade and senses that all is not well with the child. The mother is very strange and the father is domineering and seemingly holding down a very respectable job as a deputy head at a local school. The more Alex knows of him the more she suspects. She soon is keeping a close eye on Ottilie, but things move slowly and social workers have to play by the book.
    When one terrible night things go pear-shaped in a big way, the press go after Alex in a big way, blaming her for what has happened. As they do! They are out to sensationalise it all and Alex has to hide away at the rectory hoping it will quieten down soon. And she has put herself in a very compromising place. Go Alex!
    I will certainly be listening to or reading the follow up book to this one, although with a little break in between!
    Gripping storytelling
    I have never listened to or read Susan Lewis before this but was persuaded to download this audiobook after listening to a free chapter. I am so glad I did as it is definitely one of my most memorable listens of the year and probably my fastest listen.
    16 hr 58 min

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