
The Dressmakers of London
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Narrated by:
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Shiromi Arserio
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By:
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Julia Kelly
About this listen
The author of the “enthralling” (Woman’s World) The Lost English Girl returns with a heartfelt new novel about estranged sisters who inherit their late mother’s dress shop in World War II London.
Isabelle Shelton has always found comfort in the predictable world of her mother’s dressmaking shop, Mrs. Shelton’s Fashions, while her sister Sylvia turned her back on the family years ago to marry a wealthy doctor whom Izzie detests. When their mother dies unexpectedly, the sisters are stunned to find they’ve jointly inherited the family business. Izzie is determined to buy Sylvia out, but when she’s conscripted into the WAAF, she’s forced to seek Sylvia’s help to keep the shop open. Realizing this could be her one chance at reconciliation with her sister, Sylvia is determined to save Mrs. Shelton’s Fashions from closure—and financial ruin.
Through letters, the sisters begin to confront old wounds, new loves, and the weight of family legacy in order to forge new beginnings in this lyrically moving novel perfect for fans of Genevieve Graham and Lucinda Riley.
©2025 Julia Kelly (P)2025 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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By: Julia Kelly
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The Secret Photograph
- By: Siobhan Curham
- Narrated by: Amelia Sciandra
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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With a fake name written on the papers in her pocket, American photographer Clarisse Alarie knows the dangers of Paris better than most. Haunted by the sight of children being dragged away and carrying a photograph of the brown-eyed little girl everywhere she goes, Clarisse is desperate to make a difference. Soon, Clarisse is risking her life every day. Taking photographs of the terror that has overcome the beautiful city, Clarisse follows members of the Gestapo and hides in plain sight in order to gather evidence of their terrible crimes.
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Excellent!!
- By Michelle A Ralston on 04-05-25
By: Siobhan Curham
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The Secret Library of Hanna Reeves
- A Novel
- By: Christine Nolfi
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Cautious Claire Shelton, employee at a Maine antique shop, is surprised when she’s recruited to catalog the treasures of reclusive Hanna Reeves, sole descendant of the state’s most colorful shipbuilders and industrialists. Hanna’s retreat from society years ago is just one of many mysteries behind the walls of Rose Hill, her fabled estate.
By: Christine Nolfi
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A Dark and Deadly Journey
- Evelyne Redfern, Book 3
- By: Julia Kelly
- Narrated by: Marisa Calin
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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After being sidelined for a pesky gunshot wound, typist-turned-field agent Evelyne Redfern is ready for her next assignment with Britain’s secretive Special Investigations Unit. When a British Intelligence informant in Portugal mysteriously disappears just after hinting that he has vital information about German plans that could tip the balance of World War Two, Evelyne and her dashingly irksome partner, David Poole, are sent headed to Lisbon to find him.
By: Julia Kelly
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The Dressmaker
- A Novel
- By: Kate Alcott
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Tess, an aspiring seamstress, thinks she's had an incredibly lucky break when she is hired by famous designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon to be a personal maid on the Titanic's doomed voyage. Once on board, Tess catches the eye of two men, one a roughly-hewn but kind sailor and the other an enigmatic Chicago millionaire. But on the fourth night, disaster strikes. Amidst the chaos and desperate urging of two very different suitors, Tess is one of the last people allowed on a lifeboat. Tess’s sailor also manages to survive unharmed, witness to Lady Duff Gordon’s questionable actions during the tragedy.
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Good story, awful narrator
- By Victoria on 02-24-12
By: Kate Alcott
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The Lost Passenger
- A Novel
- By: Frances Quinn
- Narrated by: Heather Long
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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An immersive historical drama about a young mother who starts a new life with her son in New York after faking their deaths on the Titanic—the U.S. debut of acclaimed British novelist Frances Quinn.
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Caste Study
- By Suzanna on 05-20-25
By: Frances Quinn
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Come Fly with Me
- A Novel
- By: Camille Di Maio
- Narrated by: Carly Robins, Dominique Salvacion, Sherri Slater
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Judy Goodman and Beverly Caldwell have different reasons for putting continents and oceans between themselves and their disparate pasts, but they have the same desire—to earn a coveted position on an elite team of stewardesses for Pan American Airlines. For Judy, running away from an oppressive marriage in small-town Pennsylvania is a risk she must take. And for Beverly, leaving behind the gilded cage of New York society will allow her to pursue a future of her own making.
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Draws you in!
- By theta29 on 06-10-25
By: Camille Di Maio
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Miss Jane
- A Novel
- By: Brad Watson
- Narrated by: Tiffany Morgan
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Drawing on the story of his own great-aunt, Watson explores the life of Miss Jane Chisolm, born in rural, early-20th-century Mississippi with a genital birth defect that would stand in the way of the central "uses" for a woman in that time and place: sex and marriage. From the highly erotic world of nature around her to the hard tactile labor of farm life, from the country doctor who befriends her to the boy who loved but was forced to leave her, Miss Jane Chisolm and her world are anything but barren.
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A Love Bird, Simply Superb
- By W Perry Hall on 10-23-16
By: Brad Watson
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The Pianist's Wife
- By: Soraya M. Lane
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Berlin, 1944: Amira and Gisele have been best friends since they were children, and now Gisele is the only person who knows Amira’s secret. A secret that puts her and everyone she loves in unimaginable danger amid the daily horror and violence of Nazi Germany. With the threat of exposure drawing closer, Gisele’s suggestion that Amira marries her friend Fred, a famous pianist, might just be the lifeline she needs to keep them both safe. Because Fred has secrets too.
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Love, friendship and more
- By Sherron on 02-12-25
By: Soraya M. Lane
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The Pact
- The Blood Sisters, Book 1
- By: Roberta Kagan
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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When three little girls—Anna, Bernie, and Elica—make a pact to be blood sisters for life, they believe nothing can come between them. Anna is from an affluent Jewish family, while Bernie and Elica are from poor Austrian families who barely make ends meet. As they get older, their social differences become all too real. With infectious Jew-hate-laden rhetoric from Nazi Germany spreading into Austria, it is only a matter of time before their bond of friendship gets severely tested.
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GREAT STORY
- By Raelyn on 06-07-25
By: Roberta Kagan
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The Paris Network
- By: Siobhan Curham
- Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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When Jeanne uncovers a dusty old box in her father’s garage, her world as she knows it is turned upside down. She has inherited a bookstore in a tiny French village, just outside of Paris, from a mysterious woman named Laurence. Traveling to France to search for answers about the woman her father has kept a secret for years, Jeanne finds the store boarded up, in complete disrepair. Inside, she finds a tiny silver pendant hidden beneath the blackened, scorched floorboards. As Jeanne pieces together Laurence’s incredible story, she discovers a woman whose bravery knew no bounds.
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Well Worth Reading
- By Debbie Mathisen on 04-27-22
By: Siobhan Curham
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Watching Over You
- A Novel
- By: Simon Delaney
- Narrated by: Simon Delaney
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Alternating between London and Paris in the 1940s, the 1960s, and the present, Watching Over You explores the provenance of a collection of paintings hidden from the plundering Nazis during World War II and the fate of the families entangled in the search for the lost artworks.
By: Simon Delaney
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The Starlets
- A Novel
- By: Lee Kelly, Jennifer Thorne
- Narrated by: Gail Shalan
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Summer, 1958. Vivienne Rhodes thinks she’s finally landed her break playing Helen of Troy in Apex Pictures’ big-budget epic, A Thousand Ships, an anticipated blockbuster meant to resurrect the failing studio. Naturally, she’s devastated when she arrives on the remote Italian island of Tavalli and finds herself cast as the secondary character, Cassandra—while her nemesis, the fiancé-stealing Lottie Lawrence, America’s supposed “sweetheart,” is playing the lead role instead.
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Great story
- By Joyce C. on 01-04-25
By: Lee Kelly, and others
The sewing is correct
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Superb story and narration!
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Excellent WW2 historical fiction!
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When the girls’ mother dies and leaves the shop to both girls the sparks fly. Izzy is resentful of her sister and furious with her mother for leaving half the shop to Sylvie. Sylvie is dealing with the realization her husband is having an affair. She doesn’t want anything to do with the shop and offers to hand over her half to Izzy. Then Izzy is called up and she asks Sylvie to try to keep the shop open in her absence.
Sylvie throws herself into the business, hiding it from Horrible Hugo as Izzy calls Sylvie’s husband. Izzy is resentful that Sylvie is attempting to change the business after learning her mother has left the records in a shambles.
Much of the story consists of letters back and forth. Izzy is cold and carries years of resentment. Nothing Sylvie does although successful is acceptable to Izzy.
As the story continues both women learn something do it themselves that they would have missed if not for the strange bequest from their mother. There is also a lot of information on how British men and women dealt with the shortages. The clear class structure and Sylvie’s realization that the upper class would never accept her is thankfully a relic. There is a bit of romance and some long kept secrets that surface. Both women learn that people aren’t always what you think they are.
Other than slow start and my own frustration with Izzy’s unforgiving nature that got tiresome, it’s an excellent book and the narrator is first class
Slow Start But Worth Finishing
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Buckle up for a great story!
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Sisters and a motgers will...
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Excellent
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