susanna white
- 29
- reviews
- 2
- helpful votes
- 69
- ratings
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Mistress of Rome
- Empress of Rome, Book 1
- By: Kate Quinn
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Thea is a slave girl from Judaea, passionate, musical, and guarded. Purchased as a toy for the spiteful heiress Lepida Pollia, Thea will become her mistress' rival for the love of Arius the Barbarian, Rome's newest and most savage gladiator. His love brings Thea the first happiness of her life, but that is quickly ended when a jealous Lepida tears them apart.
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If you loved the series Rome; don't miss this.
- By Dixie Diva on 12-16-15
- Mistress of Rome
- Empress of Rome, Book 1
- By: Kate Quinn
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
The TERRIBLE narration!!!!Still worth the listen.
Reviewed: 06-01-25
Here’s my original review:
Usually I wait til the end to review a book, but I can’t stand it! I love and have listened to all of Kate Quinn’s other books thus I was excited to hear this one! But sadly the narrator is so awful that I don’t think I can finish it. The story just isn’t powerful enough in the beginning to get me through to when it gets better. It’s gruesome narrative really misfit with the narration. I will keep trying for a few more chapters, but VERY DISAPPOINTED! I’m on chapter 6. How long do I suffer through? Had I read more of reviews I might not have bought it because if you read them it’s clear I’m not alone though there are enough good ones that I will continue a bit longer. If it finally gets better I will revisit this again. Otherwise this is the worst review I’ve ever given!
So…I did make it through and it was worth waiting out the beginning narration until the focus moves away from Lepita. It’s her voice in particular that makes the whole thing pretty challenging to wade through. The story picks up considerably by about Chapter 10ish. If they ever do a re-do of this with a better narration, it would improve considerably. Kate Quinn as usual knows how to spin an engaging tale. Good enough that I’ve just downloaded book 2. So we’ll see!
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Sanctuary
- The O'Brien Tales, Book 11
- By: Stacey Reynolds
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Cormac Carrington relocated to Ireland to be closer to his O'Brien kin. While exploring employment opportunities, he offers pro-bono legal aid for asylum seekers and unaccompanied children who have evacuated their homes in Ukraine. During a fundraising gala, he crosses paths with a beautiful Italian woman. They will both be pulled into the intrigue of a detained woman and her missing little brother. Set in a sprawling European city, the worldwide sickness of human trafficking will touch the O'Brien family, and they will band together to save one small child.
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love of family and country
- By Pamela R on 12-16-24
- Sanctuary
- The O'Brien Tales, Book 11
- By: Stacey Reynolds
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
Delightful Continuation!
Reviewed: 02-23-25
It has been a year or two since I read the previous tales. So nice to have them continue with fabulous narration and exciting continuation!
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999
- The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz
- By: Heather Dune Macadam, Caroline Moorehead - foreword
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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On March 25, 1942, nearly a thousand young, unmarried Jewish women boarded a train in Poprad, Slovakia. Filled with a sense of adventure and national pride, they left their parents' homes wearing their best clothes and confidently waving good-bye. Believing they were going to work in a factory for a few months, they were eager to report for government service. Instead, the young women - many of them teenagers - were sent to Auschwitz. Their government paid 500 Reich Marks (about $200) apiece for Nazis to take them as slave labor. Of those 999 innocent deportees, only a few survived.
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I don’t think you can ever fully understand
- By Shelley on 02-25-20
- 999
- The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz
- By: Heather Dune Macadam, Caroline Moorehead - foreword
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
The strength and tenacity of the bewildered girls who became women under outrageous atrocities.
Reviewed: 10-15-24
This is yet another very important listen and read. The author is writing narrative nonfiction, which does indeed make it somewhat fiction. She makes it real, using first person accounts and occasionally brings in contemporary comparisons that initially were surprising. Ultimately, this has a powerful pull as listener and reader, not allowing us to escape through the passage of time. By the end as a listener I am left feeling the weight of responsibility to learn more, keep the Holocaust alive in my own life and do everything I can to ensure our world never allows such torture again, to live my life with joy to honor those who did not have that opportunity and to find out the names and people whose lives were cruelly taken by the Nazi regime. It is a hard listen. I didn’t like that the author continually read the numbers of the people she was writing about, yet it is very clear AND important to do so. I only have to hear the numbers in a book. The prisoners had to live with them as their names for years. Required reading!
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The Women
- A Novel
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Kristin Hannah
- Length: 14 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
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WOW. Just Wow
- By Joanne DeVuono on 02-08-24
- The Women
- A Novel
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Kristin Hannah
The unveiling of the invisible
Reviewed: 09-05-24
An outstanding listen and book. WOW! Brutal in its descriptions of combat nurse life during Vietnam war. Remarkably, that is only the beginning. Like a descent from Everest, the journey once home gets tougher. Every American should read this book!
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Parallel Lives
- The Remarkable Story of a Young Jewish Family Separated by World War II
- By: Lena Rotmensz
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on a true story. Liliana is a beautiful and educated young Jewish woman. She marries Henry and becomes a mother to Rebecca. She has a full life ahead of her in Poland, or so it seems. The time period is the beginning of World War II, when the Germans invade Poland. To protect her, Liliana and Henry entrust Rebecca to their Christian friends. Shortly thereafter, Henry is among those taken to the concentration camp. Time passes, and Liliana knows little about the fate of her husband or daughter. To survive, Liliana (now known as Helena) assumes the identity of a Polish aristocrat and ...
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AI voice can't correctly pronounce ordinary words. Who monitors that before releasing???
- By Claire on 06-04-25
- Parallel Lives
- The Remarkable Story of a Young Jewish Family Separated by World War II
- By: Lena Rotmensz
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
AI Voice disappoints
Reviewed: 08-12-24
This is an interesting story though the writing is mediocre at best. The story is a good one and if written better and read by an actual human, it could have been great. I chose to listen to the end because I was curious about the plot and I also wanted to see how I felt about an AI narrator. Moving forward I will not listen to an AI narrator. I prefer a real human!
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Inside the Gas Chambers
- Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz
- By: Shlomo Venezia
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Slomo Venezia was born into a poor Jewish-Italian community living in Thessaloniki, Greece. At first, the occupying Italians protected his family; but when the Germans invaded, the Venezias were deported to Auschwitz. His mother and sisters disappeared on arrival, and he learned, at first with disbelief, that they had almost certainly been gassed. Given the chance to earn a little extra bread, he agreed to become a 'Sonderkommando', without realizing what this entailed.
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Excellent book
- By Rodney on 03-14-23
- Inside the Gas Chambers
- Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz
- By: Shlomo Venezia
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
Sheer brutality
Reviewed: 07-29-24
Like or dislike seems an inappropriate response to this book. This should be a must read for all human beings. It is an horrifying account that people should know and understand humans being capable of. There is also a very helpful history at the end of the narrative.
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Chasing Shadows
- By: Lynn Austin
- Narrated by: Stina Nielsen
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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For fans of best-selling WWII fiction comes a powerful novel from Lynn Austin about three women whose lives are instantly changed when the Nazis invade the neutral Netherlands, forcing each into a complicated dance of choice and consequence.
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EXCELLENT!l
- By Terry McNew on 06-28-21
- Chasing Shadows
- By: Lynn Austin
- Narrated by: Stina Nielsen
Powerful story, excellent narration
Reviewed: 07-11-24
The actual story of this book is powerful, heartbreaking and well written. As an atheist, there was too much religion for my taste. I’ve listened to it twice and by the end of the second listen, I struggled to get through it because of the heavy religion. On the other hand I did not live through the utter horror of the holocaust and can easily imagine that a strong belief in God would perhaps be the only way through it. I’d still recommend this book highly!
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Irena's War
- By: James D. Shipman
- Narrated by: Romy Nordlinger
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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September 1939: The conquering Nazis swarm through Warsaw as social worker Irena Sendler watches in dread from her apartment window. Already, the city's poor go hungry. Irena wonders how she will continue to deliver food and supplies to those who need it most, including the forbidden Jews. The answer comes unexpectedly.
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Well written and well read
- By Adam Basua on 10-25-24
- Irena's War
- By: James D. Shipman
- Narrated by: Romy Nordlinger
Extraordinary story
Reviewed: 06-18-24
The novel brought real history to life about a courageous woman and true story. I found the narration at times to be very distracting.
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The Life She Was Given
- By: Ellen Marie Wiseman
- Narrated by: Lori Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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On a summer evening in 1931, Lilly Blackwood glimpses circus lights from the grimy window of her attic bedroom. Lilly isn't allowed to explore the meadows around Blackwood Manor. She's never even ventured beyond her narrow room. Momma insists it's for Lilly's own protection, that people would be afraid if they saw her. But on this unforgettable night, Lilly is taken outside for the first time - and sold to the circus sideshow.
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If you're sensitive to animal cruelty don't listen
- By Emily on 08-08-17
- The Life She Was Given
- By: Ellen Marie Wiseman
- Narrated by: Lori Gardner
Gripping brutality and cruelty
Reviewed: 04-24-24
I’m gutted after listening to this take of almost unrelenting trauma told believably with what feels sadly like some of humanity’s worst broken people. It hurts to listen to it, yet like other Novels of hers, important to listen to as witness to the pain suffered and unleashed by broken people. There is one very lovely and beautiful chapter that leaves a beautiful memory. If you listen to this one, be prepared to ache!
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The Plum Tree
- By: Ellen Marie Wiseman
- Narrated by: Madeleine Lambert
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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"Bloom where you're planted," is the advice Christine Bolz receives from her beloved Oma. But 17-year-old domestic Christine knows there is a whole world waiting beyond her small German village. It's a world she's begun to glimpse through music, books - and through Isaac Bauerman, the cultured son of the wealthy Jewish family she works for.
Yet the future she and Isaac dream of sharing faces greater challenges than their difference in stations. In the fall of 1938, Germany is changing rapidly under Hitler's regime....
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A good story, terrible narration!
- By Tyler on 01-30-14
- The Plum Tree
- By: Ellen Marie Wiseman
- Narrated by: Madeleine Lambert
Riveting!!! Couldn’t stop til it was over
Reviewed: 04-13-24
Powerful gut-wrenching tale! I found the narrator annoying, but tolerable enough to listen. Would still highly recommend. An important story about WWIi and its horrors.
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