A Map to Paradise
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Narrated by:
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By:
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Susan Meissner
About this listen
1956, Malibu, California: Something is not right on Paradise Circle.
With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter’s agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open windows. He’s her sole confidante, though, as she and her housekeeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation.
Then one early morning Melanie and Eva spot Elwood’s sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don’t see Elwood at all anymore. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone?
As they try to find out if something has happened to him, unexpected secrets are revealed among all three women, leading to an alliance that seems the only way for any of them to hold on to what they can still call their own. But it’s a fragile pact and one little spark could send it all up in smoke…
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Story
Here is the dramatic story of two young girls, Megan and Jen, who meet in first grade and quickly become inseparable friends. Inseparable, that is, until one of them is snatched away by kidnappers as the other young girl watches helplessly. The remaining child grows up with the haunting memory of her friend's abduction...and absence from her life. Then, 16 years later, the stunning truth of the disappearance is revealed. And once again, lives are changed forever.
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Perfect, perfect, perfect!
- By Pamela in Oregon on 11-23-18
By: Susan Meissner
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A Bridge Across the Ocean
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Kim Bubbs
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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February, 1946. World War Two is over, but the recovery from the most intimate of its horrors has only just begun for Annaliese Lange, a German ballerina desperate to escape her past, and Simone Deveraux, the wronged daughter of a French Résistance spy. Now the two women are joining hundreds of other European war brides aboard the renowned RMS Queen Mary to cross the Atlantic and be reunited with their American husbands. Their new lives in the United States brightly beckon until their tightly held secrets are laid bare in their shared stateroom.
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Don't like ghost stories
- By connie nance on 03-18-17
By: Susan Meissner
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The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau
- By: Kristin Harmel
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, Annabel: take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance. But one night in 1942, it all went wrong.
By: Kristin Harmel
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Shape of Mercy
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Two women, the ailing Abigail Boyles and exuberant, wealthy Lauren Durough, are brought together by their love of books and the discovery of a diary written by a young woman, Mercy Hayworth, who was burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials. Her inspiring, yearning, romantic diary proves to be an inspiration to both Abigail and Lauren, teaching them to cherish friendships, love, and life. Readers will be similarly uplifted by Susan Messner's finely wrought tale.
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Fascinating stories (3 interwoven together)
- By Gerig on 11-13-16
By: Susan Meissner
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The Book Club for Troublesome Women
- By: Marie Bostwick
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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By early 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan, Viv Buschetti, and Bitsy Cobb, suburban housewives in a brand-new "planned community" in Northern Virginia, appear to have it all. The fact that "all" doesn't feel like enough leaves them feeling confused and guilty, certain the fault must lie with them. Things begin to change when they form a book club with Charlotte Gustafson—the eccentric and artsy "new neighbor" from Manhattan—and read Betty Friedan's just-released book, The Feminine Mystique.
By: Marie Bostwick
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The Story She Left Behind
- A Novel
- By: Patti Callahan Henry
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Theo Solomon
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more insatiable: her beautiful mother.
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A Window to the World
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Here is the dramatic story of two young girls, Megan and Jen, who meet in first grade and quickly become inseparable friends. Inseparable, that is, until one of them is snatched away by kidnappers as the other young girl watches helplessly. The remaining child grows up with the haunting memory of her friend's abduction...and absence from her life. Then, 16 years later, the stunning truth of the disappearance is revealed. And once again, lives are changed forever.
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Perfect, perfect, perfect!
- By Pamela in Oregon on 11-23-18
By: Susan Meissner
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One Good Thing
- A Novel
- By: Georgia Hunter
- Narrated by: Eva Feiler, Georgia Hunter
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
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1940, Emilia Romagna. Lili and Esti have been best friends since meeting at the University of Ferrara; when Esti’s son Theo is born, they become as close as sisters. There is a war being fought across borders, and in Italy, Mussolini’s Racial Laws have deemed Lili and Esti descendants of an ‘inferior’ Jewish race, but life somehow goes on—until Germany invades northern Italy, and the friends find themselves in occupied territory.
By: Georgia Hunter
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Stars over Sunset Boulevard
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Los Angeles, present day. When an iconic hat worn by Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind ends up in Christine McAllister's vintage clothing boutique by mistake, her efforts to return it to its owner take her on a journey more enchanting than any classic movie.... Los Angeles, 1938. Violet Mayfield sets out to reinvent herself in Hollywood after her dream of becoming a wife and mother falls apart, and she lands a job on the film set of Gone with the Wind.
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Pass on this
- By Lulew on 03-24-17
By: Susan Meissner
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A Sound Among the Trees
- A Novel
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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As a young bride, Susannah Page was rumored to be a Civil War spy for the North, a traitor to her Virginian roots. Her great-granddaughter Adelaide, the current matriarch of Holly Oak, doesn’t believe that Susannah’s ghost haunts the antebellum mansion looking for a pardon, but rather the house itself bears a grudge toward its tragic past.
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Wonderful
- By Kimberlie Parker on 07-11-17
By: Susan Meissner
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Why the Sky Is Blue
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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What options does a Christian woman have after she's brutally assaulted by a stranger...and becomes pregnant? That's the heartrending situation Claire Holland faces. Happily married and the mother of two when she is attacked, Claire begins an incredible journey on the painful pathway to trusting God in all things. When Claire's husband, Dan, confesses he can't be a father to the expected child, Claire's decision to put the baby up for adoption creates a sense of tremendous loss for Claire.
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Best Read in a Long Time
- By Lori J. Little on 08-30-19
By: Susan Meissner
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The Girls of the Glimmer Factory
- By: Jennifer Coburn
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
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Two childhood friends are reunited at a Jewish settlement in Czechoslovakia, the camp promised as a safe place to wait out the war, and each sees the other as a means to save what they love most. Hannah and Hilde were friends long ago, but when fate brings them back together at Theresienstadt, they are adversaries. At this so-called model ghetto, the Nazis plan to make a propaganda film to convince the world that the Jewish people are living well in Nazi-run camps. But Hannah and her fellow prisoners have other ideas.
By: Jennifer Coburn
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The Last Year of the War
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 16 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa 14-year-old in 1943 - aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal US resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity. The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles.
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Historical Fiction at its Best!
- By KAT M K on 04-06-19
By: Susan Meissner
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Beach House Rules
- By: Kristy Woodson Harvey
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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When Charlotte Sitterly’s husband is arrested for a white-collar crime, she and her daughter Iris are locked out of their house by the FBI and—what’s potentially even worse—thrust into the spotlight of @JuniperShoresSocialite, the town’s snarky anonymous Instagram account. Cut off from her bank accounts and feeling desperate, Charlotte takes up an acquaintance’s offer to stay at a beachfront former bed-and-breakfast that’s home to a community of single mothers and draws plenty of gossip in the small coastal North Carolina town.
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The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club
- A Novel
- By: Martha Hall Kelly
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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2016: Thirty-four-year-old Mari Starwood is still grieving as she travels to Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. She’s come all the way from California with nothing but a name on a piece of paper: Elizabeth Deveraux, the famous but reclusive Vineyard painter. When Mari makes it to Mrs. Devereaux’s stunning waterfront farm under the guise of taking a painting class with her, Mrs. Deveraux begins to tell her the story of the Smith sisters, who once lived there. As the tale unfolds, Mari is shocked to learn that her relationship to this island runs deeper than she thought.
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The Antidote
- A Novel
- By: Karen Russell
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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From Pulitzer finalist, MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and bestselling author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove Karen Russell comes a gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing—not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the dust bowl drought, but beneath its own violent histories.
By: Karen Russell
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As Bright as Heaven
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Cassandra Morris, Tavia Gilbert, Jorjeana Marie, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters - Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa - a chance at a better life. But just months after they arrive, the Spanish flu reaches the shores of America.
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As Bright as Heaven
- By Amazon Customer on 05-03-18
By: Susan Meissner
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Only the Beautiful
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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California, 1938—When she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresser’s daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvert’s spacious house with a secret, however—Rosie sees colors when she hears sound. She promised her mother she’d never reveal her little-understood ability to anyone, but the weight of her isolation and grief prove too much for her. Driven by her loneliness she not only breaks the vow to her mother, but in a desperate moment lets down her guard and ends up pregnant.
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Love this book!
- By Imbmpc on 07-26-23
By: Susan Meissner
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Isola
- A Novel
- By: Allegra Goodman
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Allegra Goodman
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian’s servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue.
By: Allegra Goodman