
A Map to Paradise
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Narrated by:
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Lisa Flanagan
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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…
©2025 Susan Meissner (P)2025 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“A beautiful journey that explores the price of choices made in the heat of the moment, the importance of second chances, and the power of finding a place to belong.”–Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Friends
"A tale both tender and touching, about three complex and damaged women who despite their outward differences are all searching for that elusive thing called a home."–Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Briar Club
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Story
When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier eagerly takes in her sixteen year-old niece Tally. The girl is practically an orphan: motherless, and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands– in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm–and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda envisions that she, her husband Neil, and their two teenagers can offer the girl stability and a shot at a “normal” life, even though their own storybook lives are about to crumble.
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Not good.
- By Sandra on 03-25-16
By: Susan Meissner
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Secrets of a Charmed Life
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.
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Rare 5-Star Across the Board!
- By Imamomof4 on 06-14-15
By: Susan Meissner
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A Fall of Marigolds
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries...and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she's made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her?
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Beautiful!
- By R. Burnham on 03-29-15
By: Susan Meissner
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Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder
- A Novel
- By: Bellamy Rose
- Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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When Pomona Afton, Upper East Side hotel heiress, stumbles out of a gala and upon the scene of her grandmother’s murder, her first thought is that the society queen won’t be missed for her kind, cookie-baking ways. In fact, she was mean, greedy, and paranoid—so paranoid that she secretly slipped a clause into her will mandating that, should she die an unnatural death, all the family assets get frozen. And if the “unnatural death” isn’t explained? Those accounts stay frozen. Practically overnight, Pomona is locked out of her penthouse with no other option than to move in with a roommate.
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Amusing romcom
- By Wiki Young on 04-10-25
By: Bellamy Rose
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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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The Heart of the Matter
- A Novel
- By: Deanna Lynn Sletten
- Narrated by: Jennifer Groberg
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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There are two sides to every story, but you must be willing to listen. Marsha Winslow believes she lives a charmed life. She has a loving husband, a successful business they built together, and a beautiful home overlooking the ocean in California. But when a devastating accident occurs only days before their twentieth wedding anniversary, Marsha must face some hard truths. Her life isn’t what she believed, and it’s up to her to face reality and fix the mess it’s become.
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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 Window to the World
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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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❣️ WONDERFUL BOOK❣️
- By Marie G. on 08-04-23
By: Susan Meissner
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The Paris Express
- By: Emma Donoghue
- Narrated by: Justin Avoth
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, The Paris Express is a propulsive novel set on a train packed with a fascinating cast of characters who hail from as close as Brittany and as far as Russia, Ireland, Algeria, Pennsylvania, and Cambodia.
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Outstanding narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 03-19-25
By: Emma Donoghue
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Jane and Dan at the End of the World
- By: Colleen Oakley
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Jane and Dan have been married for nineteen years, but Jane isn’t sure they’re going to make it to twenty. The mother of two feels unneeded by her teenagers, and her writing career has screeched to an unsuccessful halt. Her one published novel sold under five hundred copies. Worse? She’s pretty sure Dan is cheating on her. When the couple goes to the renowned upscale restaurant La Fin du Monde to celebrate their anniversary, Jane thinks it’s as good a place as any to tell Dan she wants a divorce.
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Stupendously Stupid
- By Mike B. on 04-06-25
By: Colleen Oakley
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Lady in Waiting
- A Novel
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Samantha Eggar, Donna Rawlins
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Content in her comfortable marriage of 22 years, Jane Lindsay never expected to watch her husband, Brad, pack his belongings and walk out the door of their Manhattan home. But when it happens, she feels powerless to stop him and the course of events that follow Brad’s departure. Jane finds an old ring in a box of relics from a British jumble sale and discovers a Latin inscription in the band along with just one other word: Jane
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Really no-one else tried to unlock the box
- By Robyn on 07-18-17
By: Susan Meissner
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The Light We Lost
- By: Jill Santopolo
- Narrated by: Jill Santopolo
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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He was the first person to inspire her, to move her, to truly understand her. Was he meant to be the last? Lucy is faced with a life-altering choice. But before she can make her decision, she must start her story - their story - at the very beginning. Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors at Columbia University on a day that changes both of their lives forever. Together, they decide they want their lives to mean something, to matter. When they meet again a year later, it seems fated - perhaps they'll find life's meaning in each other.
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Meh.
- By L. Shoemaker on 08-28-17
By: Jill Santopolo
What listeners say about A Map to Paradise
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sue
- 03-28-25
She never lets me down.
Excellent characterization. Historically accurate. Plot is well developed. beautiful depiction of how this time in history broke women and ultimately made women stronger.
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- Marie G.
- 03-21-25
THREE WOMEN WITH SOME BIG SECRETS…
I enjoyed all three characters very much. The women, who did not start out as friends, learned what friendship really is. Circumstances put them together, and they became trusted confidants to their biggest secrets.
I learned a lot from this book about the Hollywood Blacklist and the fear that spurred it. I was born in 1961 — too little to really know much about the whole thing as I was growing up. I’m sure my MOTHER remembers. I definitely want to discuss this time period with her and the feelings Americans had about what was happening and why. I do remember hearing a lot about “Macarthy-ism,” when I was growing up, but I didn’t understand what it all meant back then (it seems so tame compared to the problems our world faces today).
I have just two small complaints about the book: In the beginning, when Melanie mets June, and her agoraphobic brother-in-law Elwood, June tells Melanie repeatedly that her business is not open to Melanie, but Melanie continues to be overly intrusive. Melanie just would NOT take “No, please mind your own business!” alone. June should have put her in her place, but I suppose that if she had, the rest of the story would have changed.
My second complaint: During a large fire when the women have five minutes to evacuate (per fire personnel), Eva spends the entire five minutes trying to get Melanie dig up a dead body and trying to tell Melanie they can dig it up, move it and re-bury it all in five minutes or less. Ridiculous! I wanted to scream, “JUST SHUT UP AND GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!”
I would have enjoyed the story more if the women had not spent so much time going over the same things (a dead body and the argument of whether what June had done out of love was morally right or wrong. It was a done deal — it didn’t MATTER if what was done was right or wrong. The women knew it was wrong; beating a dead horse would not change the situation. They also spent too much time discussing what they would do if they possessed a Time Machine. No such thing exists, so why devote so much time to it?br />
I know I sound critical, but that’s not my intention. I enjoyed the book (the narrator was excellent). Despite my complaints, I am a huge Susan Mejssner and will gladly read/listen to anything she writes!
Although I did not enjoy this book as much as I have other Susan Meissner books, I would still recommend it.
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- Anonymous User
- 04-10-25
Wonderful story and twists.Loved the historical setting.
Loved everything about it including the story, the diverse characters, historical accuracy, twists and turns. I have read many books set in WW2, so I enjoyed that this book was set around WW 1.
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- Ginger
- 03-28-25
Not my favorite from my favorite author.
I absolutely love Susan Meissner’s books but this one just didn’t do it for me!
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1 person found this helpful