
The Golden Hour
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Cassandra Campbell
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Saskia Maarleveld
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By:
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Beatriz Williams
About this listen
The New York Times best-selling author of The Summer Wives and A Certain Age creates a dazzling epic of World War II-era Nassau - a hotbed of spies, traitors, and the most infamous couple of the age, the duke and duchess of Windsor.
The Bahamas, 1941. Newly widowed Leonora “Lulu” Randolph arrives in Nassau to investigate the governor and his wife for a New York society magazine. After all, American readers have an insatiable appetite for news of the duke and duchess of Windsor, that glamorous couple whose love affair nearly brought the British monarchy to its knees five years earlier. What more intriguing backdrop for their romance than a wartime Caribbean paradise, a colonial playground for kingpins of ill-gotten empires?
Or so Lulu imagines. But as she infiltrates the duke and duchess’ social circle and the powerful cabal that controls the islands’ political and financial affairs, she uncovers evidence that beneath the glister of Wallis and Edward’s marriage lies an ugly - and even treasonous - reality. In fact, Windsor-era Nassau seethes with spies, financial swindles, and racial tension, and in the middle of it all stands Benedict Thorpe: a scientist of tremendous charm and murky national loyalties. Inevitably, the willful and wounded Lulu falls in love.
Then, Nassau’s wealthiest man is murdered in one of the most notorious cases of the century, and the resulting cover-up reeks of royal privilege. Benedict Thorpe disappears without a trace, and Lulu embarks on a journey to London and beyond to unpick Thorpe’s complicated family history: a fateful love affair, a wartime tragedy, and a mother from whom all joy is stolen.
The stories of two unforgettable women thread together in this extraordinary epic of espionage, sacrifice, human love, and human courage, set against a shocking true crime...and the rise and fall of a legendary royal couple.
This audiobook includes an episode of the Book Club Girl Podcast, featuring an interview with Beatriz Williams about The Golden Hour.
©2019 Beatriz Williams (P)2019 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
June 1946. As the residents of Winthrop Island prepare for the first summer season after the sacrifice of war, a glamorous new figure moves into the guest cottage at Summerly, the idyllic seaside estate of the wealthy Peabody family. To Emilia Winthrop, daughter of Summerly’s year-round caretaker and a descendant of the island’s settlers, Olive Rainsford opens a window into a world of shining possibility. While Emilia spent the war years caring for her incapacitated mother, Olive traveled the world, married fascinating men, and involved herself in political causes.
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An easy listen with some great twists
- By internetgenius on 03-05-24
By: Beatriz Williams
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A Certain Age
- A Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Mia Barron, Barbara Goodson, Adrienne Rusk
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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As the freedom of the Jazz Age transforms New York City, the iridescent Mrs. Theresa Marshall of Fifth Avenue and Southampton, Long Island, has done the unthinkable: She's fallen in love with her young paramour, Captain Octavian Rofrano, a handsome aviator and hero of the Great War. An intense and deeply honorable man, Octavian is devoted to the beautiful socialite of a certain age and wants to marry her.
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Boring, Slow and Terrible Narration
- By Britnee Joy on 07-11-16
By: Beatriz Williams
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The Summer Wives
- A Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Kristin Kalbli
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, Miranda’s catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society. But there are really two clans: the summer families with their steadfast ways and quiet obsessions, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers. Then Miranda is caught in a catastrophe and banished....
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Oh hum!
- By Ruth M. Penson on 07-26-18
By: Beatriz Williams
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The Paris Dressmaker
- A Novel of WWII
- By: Kristy Cambron
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Paris, 1939. Maison Chanel has closed, thrusting haute couture dressmaker Lila de Laurent out of the world of high fashion as Nazi soldiers invade the streets and the City of Lights slips into darkness. Lila’s life is now a series of rations, brutal restrictions, and carefully controlled propaganda while Paris is cut off from the rest of the world. Yet in hidden corners of the city, the faithful pledge to resist. Lila is drawn to La Resistance and is soon using her skills as a dressmaker to infiltrate the Nazi elite.
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Excellent in all ways
- By Amazon Customer on 02-23-21
By: Kristy Cambron
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The Paris Seamstress
- By: Natasha Lester
- Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins
- Length: 14 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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1940: As the Germans advance upon Paris, young seamstress Estella Bissette is forced to flee everything she's ever known. She's bound for New York City with her signature gold dress, a few francs, and a dream: to make her mark on the world of fashion. Present day: Fabienne Bissette journeys to the Met's annual gala for an exhibit featuring the work of her grandmother - a legend of women's fashion design. But as Fabienne begins to learn more about her beloved grandmother's past, she uncovers a story of tragedy, heartbreak, and family secrets that will dramatically change her own life.
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This book would makes for a mindless read.
- By I. Miller on 10-19-18
By: Natasha Lester
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Fast Girls
- A Novel of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Team.
- By: Elise Hooper
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker, Kristyl Dawn Tift, Reba Buhr, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed author Elise Hooper explores the gripping, real-life history of female athletes, members of the first integrated women’s Olympic team, and their journeys to the 1936 summer games in Berlin, Nazi Germany. In the 1928 Olympics, Chicago’s Betty Robinson competes as a member of the first-ever women’s delegation in track and field. Destined for further glory, she returns home feted as America’s golden girl until a nearly fatal airplane crash threatens to end everything.
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Don't skip epilog
- By Zona Trahan on 03-23-21
By: Elise Hooper
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Overseas
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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When twenty-something Wall Street analyst Kate Wilson attracts the notice of the legendary Julian Laurence at a business meeting, no one’s more surprised than she is. Julian’s relentless energy and his extraordinary intellect electrify her, but she’s baffled by his sudden interest. Why would this handsome British billionaire—Manhattan’s most eligible bachelor—pursue a pretty but bookish young banker who hasn’t had a boyfriend since college?
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Rare Find!
- By bluebelle on 05-16-12
By: Beatriz Williams
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When We Were Young & Brave
- A Novel
- By: Hazel Gaynor
- Narrated by: Rosie Jones, Imogen Church
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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China, December 1941. Having left an unhappy life in England for a teaching post at a missionary school in northern China, Elspeth Kent is now anxious to return home to help the war effort. But as she prepares to leave China, a terrible twist of fate determines a different path for Elspeth, and those in her charge. Ten-year-old Nancy Plummer has always felt safe at Chefoo School, protected by her British status.
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heart wrenching And inspiring!!
- By Justin Drogoszewski on 11-22-20
By: Hazel Gaynor
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Cocoa Beach
- A Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky, Alex Wyndham
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Burdened by a dark family secret, Virginia Fortescue flees her oppressive home in New York City for the battlefields of World War I France. While an ambulance driver for the Red Cross, she meets a charismatic British army surgeon whose persistent charm opens her heart to the possibility of love. As the war rages, Virginia falls into a passionate affair with the dashing Captain Simon Fitzwilliam, only to discover that his past has its own dark secrets - secrets that will damage their eventual marriage and propel her back across the Atlantic.
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Whelp. I dunno.
- By J. Jones on 08-23-17
By: Beatriz Williams
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The Moonflowers
- A Novel
- By: Abigail Rose-Marie
- Narrated by: Abigail Reno
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Tig Costello has arrived in Darren, Kentucky, commissioned to paint a portrait honoring her grandfather Benjamin. His contributions to the rural Appalachian town and his unimpeachable war service have made him a local hero. But to Tig, he’s a relative stranger. To find out more about him, Tig wants to talk to the person who knew her grandfather best: Eloise Price, the woman who murdered him fifty years ago.
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Excellent
- By Jen Novak on 12-28-24
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The London House
- By: Katherine Reay
- Narrated by: Madeleine Maby
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Caroline Payne thinks it’s just another day of work until she receives a call from Mat Hammond, an old college friend and historian. But pleasantries are cut short. Mat has uncovered a scandalous secret kept buried for decades: In World War II, Caroline’s British great-aunt betrayed family and country to marry her German lover. Determined to find answers and save her family’s reputation, Caroline flies to her family’s ancestral home in London.
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The bones of the story were great
- By Carmen Gibson on 01-26-22
By: Katherine Reay
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The Lost Summers of Newport
- A Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Brittany Pressley, Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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2019: Andie Figuero has just landed her dream job as a producer of Mansion Makeover, a popular reality show about restoring America’s most lavish historic houses. Andie has high hopes for her latest project: the once glorious but gently crumbling Sprague Hall in Newport, Rhode Island, summer resort of America’s gilded class—famous for the lavish “summer cottages” of Vanderbilts and Belmonts. But Andie runs into trouble: the reclusive heiress who still lives in the mansion, Lucia “Lucky” Sprague, will only allow the show to go forward on two conditions.
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If only Andie wasn’t part of the story…
- By jullee on 05-31-22
By: Beatriz Williams, and others
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The Porcelain Moon
- A Novel of France, the Great War, and Forbidden Love
- By: Janie Chang
- Narrated by: Katharine Chin, Saskia Maarleveld, James Chen
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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France, 1918. In the final days of the First World War, a young Chinese woman, Pauline Deng, runs away from her uncle’s home in Paris to evade a marriage being arranged for her in Shanghai. To prevent the union, she needs the help of her cousin Theo, who is working as a translator for the Chinese Labour Corps in the French countryside
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Very enthralling story
- By Kevin Wickline on 07-04-23
By: Janie Chang
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The Secret Life of Violet Grant
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Passion, redemption, and a battered old suitcase full of secrets: The New York Times best-selling author of A Hundred Summers returns with another engrossing tale of lost love and female ambition that crosses generations.
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USE YOUR CREDIT ON ANOTHER BOOK
- By KBS on 05-11-18
By: Beatriz Williams
The only thing I would change about this book is the way the author uses the “f” word occasionally which does not fit well in the rich, elegant dialogue to me.
This book weaves 2 family stories a generation apart in different locals. It’s pretty much a seesaw back and forth between the 2 each chapter, which can be confusing to the reader or listener (audio book). I’ve noticed more and more contemporary authors adopting this style of writing.
Likeable characters and awesome narrators. Doesn’t disappoint. This was my 3rd book by Beatrix Williams. Recommend especially if you like WW2 stories.
A real good page turner
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I need to listen to the last hour again...
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Highly recommend.
Loved it!
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What a Wonderful Book
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Tangled
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Liked it a lot.
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20 stars to this reader
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it was ok
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Fantastic!
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Beautiful!
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