
The Great Pretenders
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Alexandra Harris
-
By:
-
Laura Kalpakian
About this listen
The daughter of Hollywood royalty, Roxanne Granville is used to getting what she wants - even if she has to break the rules. But after a falling-out with her grandfather, a powerful movie mogul, she has to face life on her own for the first time....
Roxanne forges a career unique for women in the 1950s, becoming an agent for hungry young screenwriters. She struggles to be taken seriously by the men who rule Hollywood and who often assume that sexual favors are just a part of doing business. When she sells a script by a blacklisted writer under the name of a willing front man, more exiled writers seek her help. Roxanne wades into a world murky with duplicity and deception, and she can’t afford any more risks.
Then she meets Terrence Dexter, a compelling African-American journalist unlike anyone she’s ever known. Roxanne again breaks the rules and is quickly swept up in a passionate relationship with very real dangers that could destroy everything she’s carefully built.
Roxanne Granville is a woman who bravely defies convention. She won’t let men make all the rules and won’t let skin color determine whom she can love.
The Great Pretenders is a riveting, emotional novel that resonates in today’s world and reminds us that some things are worth fighting for.
©2019 Laura Kalpakian (P)2019 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
11-22-63
- A Novel
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson
- Length: 30 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King - who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer - takes listeners on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.
-
-
I Owe Stephen King An Apology
- By Kelly - Write Well Academy on 04-16-12
By: Stephen King
-
Beautiful Ruins
- By: Jess Walter
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot - searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.
-
-
My mind wandered
- By Ella on 11-25-12
By: Jess Walter
-
West of Sunset
- A Novel
- By: Stewart O'Nan
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1937 F. Scott Fitzgerald was a troubled, uncertain man whose literary success was long over. In poor health, with his wife consigned to a mental asylum and his finances in ruins, he struggled to make a new start as a screenwriter in Hollywood. By December of 1940, he would be dead of a heart attack. Those last three years of Fitzgerald's life, often obscured by the legend of his earlier Jazz Age glamour, are the focus of Stewart O'Nan's gorgeously and gracefully written novel.
-
-
An engrossing listen
- By Melvyn Kirtley on 02-05-15
By: Stewart O'Nan
-
South of Broad
- By: Pat Conroy
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leopold Bloom King has been raised in a family shattered - and shadowed - by tragedy. Lonely and adrift, he searches for something to sustain him and finds it among a tightly knit group of outsiders. Surviving marriages happy and troubled, unrequited loves and unspoken longings, hard-won successes and devastating breakdowns, as well as Charleston, South Carolina’s dark legacy of racism and class divisions, these friends will endure until a final test forces them to face something none of them are prepared for.
-
-
Authors Need to Review Pronunciations
- By Pamela on 02-23-10
By: Pat Conroy
-
Bridge to Haven
- By: Francine Rivers
- Narrated by: Kate Forbes
- Length: 17 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To those who matter in 1950s Hollywood, Lena Scott is the hottest rising star to hit the silver screen since Marilyn Monroe. Few know her real name is Abra. Even fewer know the price she' s paid to finally feel like she' s somebody. To Pastor Ezekiel Freeman, Abra will always be the little girl who stole his heart the night he found her, a wailing newborn abandoned under a bridge on the outskirts of Haven.
-
-
Francine Rivers is the best for a reason.
- By Candace on 05-06-14
By: Francine Rivers
-
Summer Island
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty-four-year-old Ruby Bridge is a not-too-successful comedienne who uses her mother, a nationally-syndicated "moral and spiritual counselor" as the main fodder for her cynical, rather bitter humor. Her mother Nora, long divorced from Ruby's father, is a woman whose past is just about to catch up with her - in the form of blackmail by a former lover.
-
-
Disappointed
- By Lisa on 04-10-20
By: Kristin Hannah
-
11-22-63
- A Novel
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson
- Length: 30 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King - who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer - takes listeners on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.
-
-
I Owe Stephen King An Apology
- By Kelly - Write Well Academy on 04-16-12
By: Stephen King
-
Beautiful Ruins
- By: Jess Walter
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot - searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.
-
-
My mind wandered
- By Ella on 11-25-12
By: Jess Walter
-
West of Sunset
- A Novel
- By: Stewart O'Nan
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1937 F. Scott Fitzgerald was a troubled, uncertain man whose literary success was long over. In poor health, with his wife consigned to a mental asylum and his finances in ruins, he struggled to make a new start as a screenwriter in Hollywood. By December of 1940, he would be dead of a heart attack. Those last three years of Fitzgerald's life, often obscured by the legend of his earlier Jazz Age glamour, are the focus of Stewart O'Nan's gorgeously and gracefully written novel.
-
-
An engrossing listen
- By Melvyn Kirtley on 02-05-15
By: Stewart O'Nan
-
South of Broad
- By: Pat Conroy
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leopold Bloom King has been raised in a family shattered - and shadowed - by tragedy. Lonely and adrift, he searches for something to sustain him and finds it among a tightly knit group of outsiders. Surviving marriages happy and troubled, unrequited loves and unspoken longings, hard-won successes and devastating breakdowns, as well as Charleston, South Carolina’s dark legacy of racism and class divisions, these friends will endure until a final test forces them to face something none of them are prepared for.
-
-
Authors Need to Review Pronunciations
- By Pamela on 02-23-10
By: Pat Conroy
-
Bridge to Haven
- By: Francine Rivers
- Narrated by: Kate Forbes
- Length: 17 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To those who matter in 1950s Hollywood, Lena Scott is the hottest rising star to hit the silver screen since Marilyn Monroe. Few know her real name is Abra. Even fewer know the price she' s paid to finally feel like she' s somebody. To Pastor Ezekiel Freeman, Abra will always be the little girl who stole his heart the night he found her, a wailing newborn abandoned under a bridge on the outskirts of Haven.
-
-
Francine Rivers is the best for a reason.
- By Candace on 05-06-14
By: Francine Rivers
-
Summer Island
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty-four-year-old Ruby Bridge is a not-too-successful comedienne who uses her mother, a nationally-syndicated "moral and spiritual counselor" as the main fodder for her cynical, rather bitter humor. Her mother Nora, long divorced from Ruby's father, is a woman whose past is just about to catch up with her - in the form of blackmail by a former lover.
-
-
Disappointed
- By Lisa on 04-10-20
By: Kristin Hannah
-
The High Tide Club
- A Novel
- By: Mary Kay Andrews
- Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney
- Length: 16 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 99-year-old heiress Josephine Bettendorf Warrick summons Brooke Trappnell to Talisa Island, her 20,000-acre remote barrier island home, Brooke is puzzled. Everybody in the South has heard about the eccentric millionaire mistress of Talisa, but Brooke has never met her. Over the course of a few meetings, Josephine spins a tale of old friendships, dark secrets, betrayal, and a long-unsolved murder. She wants Brooke to help her make amends with the heirs of the women who were her closest friends....
-
-
Too politically correct
- By Caroline on 06-06-18
By: Mary Kay Andrews
-
The One-in-a-Million Boy
- By: Monica Wood
- Narrated by: Chris Ciulla
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records-obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for one of his son's unfinished Boy Scout badges. For seven Saturdays Quinn does yard work for Ona Vitkus, the spry 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly.
-
-
Loved it
- By Justin on 10-20-16
By: Monica Wood
-
The Bette Davis Club
- By: Jane Lotter
- Narrated by: Sue Pitkin, Tessa Marts
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The morning of her niece's wedding, Margo Just drinks a double martini and contemplates the many mistakes she's made in her fifty-odd years of life. Spending three decades in love with a wonderful but unattainable man is pretty high up on her list of missteps, as is a long line of unsuccessful love affairs accompanied by a seemingly endless supply of delicious cocktails.
-
-
Sharp, Clever and Elegant... and funny as hell!
- By Chip Atkinson on 01-17-17
By: Jane Lotter
-
A Visit from the Goon Squad
- By: Jennifer Egan
- Narrated by: Roxana Ortega
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jennifer Egan’s spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other’s pasts, the listener does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs, over many years, in locales as varied as New York, San Francisco, Naples, and Africa.
-
-
Deep and dazzling novel, brilliantly read!
- By J. W. Coop on 06-29-19
By: Jennifer Egan
-
The Tender Bar
- A Memoir
- By: J. R. Moehringer
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper, Daniel Thomas May
- Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
J.R. Moehringer grew up captivated by a voice. It was the voice of his father, a New York City disc jockey who vanished before J.R. spoke his first word. Sitting on the stoop, pressing an ear to the radio, J.R. would strain to hear in that plummy baritone the secrets of masculinity and identity. Though J.R.'s mother was his world, his rock, he craved something more, something faintly and hauntingly audible only in The Voice.
-
-
I Love this Book
- By Corey on 07-30-21
By: J. R. Moehringer
-
The Godfather Returns
- A Novel
- By: Mark Winegardner
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 20 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty-five years ago, Mario Puzo's great American tale, The Godfather, was published, and popular culture was indelibly changed. Now, in The Godfather Returns, acclaimed novelist Mark Winegardner continues the story, the years not covered in Puzo's best-selling book or in Francis Ford Coppola's classic films.
-
-
Puzo lives
- By Janet C. Walker on 11-21-04
By: Mark Winegardner
-
The Tin Horse
- A Novel
- By: Janice Steinberg
- Narrated by: Kate McGregor-Stewart
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
has been more than 60 years since Elaine Greenstein’s twin sister, Barbara, ran away, cutting off contact with her family forever. Elaine has made peace with that loss. But while sifting through old papers as she prepares to move to Rancho Mañana - or the 'Ranch of No Tomorrow' as she refers to the retirement community - she is stunned to find a possible hint to Barbara’s whereabouts all these years later. And it pushes her to confront the fierce love and bitter rivalry of their youth.
-
-
The Tin Horse redefines black sheep of the family
- By Victoria on 10-12-13
By: Janice Steinberg
-
Native Speaker
- By: Chang-rae Lee
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry Park has spent his entire life trying to become a true American—a native speaker. But even as the essence of his adopted country continues to elude him, his Korean heritage seems to drift further and further away. Park's harsh Korean upbringing has taught him to hide his emotions, to remember everything he learns, and most of all to feel an overwhelming sense of alienation. In other words, it has shaped him as a natural spy.
-
-
Great novel. Strange narrator choice.
- By Andy P on 08-10-22
By: Chang-rae Lee
-
Stars over Sunset Boulevard
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Pass on this
- By Lulew on 03-24-17
By: Susan Meissner
-
Another Side of Paradise
- A Novel
- By: Sally Koslow
- Narrated by: Ana Clements
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1937 Hollywood, gossip columnist Sheilah Graham’s star is on the rise while literary wonder boy F. Scott Fitzgerald’s career is slowly drowning in booze. But the once-famous author, desperate to make money penning scripts for the silver screen, is charismatic enough to attract the gorgeous Miss Graham, a woman who exposes the secrets of others while carefully guarding her own.
-
-
Narrator interfered with my enjoyment of the book
- By Suzanne Stokes on 10-11-18
By: Sally Koslow
-
All She Ever Wanted
- By: Lynn Austin
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A three-time Christy Award winner, Lynn Austin crafts rousing tales of hope and redemption. All She Ever Wanted stars Kathleen Seymour, a woman who seems to have it all, though she hides a dark family secret. To her horror, everything comes crashing down when she loses her job and her daughter is caught shoplifting. Desperate to regain control over her life, Kathleen returns to her estranged family to mend her severely broken relationships before it is too late.
-
-
Pure Enjoyment
- By Carla on 03-26-13
By: Lynn Austin
-
Mother Daughter Traitor Spy
- A Novel
- By: Susan Elia MacNeal
- Narrated by: Caroline Hewitt
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
June 1940. France has fallen to the Nazis, and Britain may be next—but to many Americans, the war is something happening “over there.” Veronica Grace has just graduated from college; she and her mother, Violet, are looking for a fresh start in sunny Los Angeles. After a blunder cost her a prestigious career opportunity in New York, Veronica is relieved to take a typing job in L.A.—only to realize that she’s working for one of the area’s most vicious propagandists. Overnight, Veronica is exposed to the dark underbelly of her new home, where Nazis are recruiting Americans.
-
-
Exquisite narration
- By HoneyBadger on 01-18-23
Critic reviews
"What a good book! Engagingly readable, full of Golden Age of Hollywood glitz - and a wonderful story of idealism, courage and the price of love. Enjoyed every page!" (Diana Gabaldon, number-one New York Times best-selling author of Outlander)
"In her riveting new novel, Laura Kalpakian has given us a heroine to cheer for in this juicy tale of Hollywood. Roxanne Granville’s journey from diffident daughter of privilege to boundary-shattering career woman who takes on both the Hollywood blacklist and the racial prejudices of the early Civil Rights era is breathtaking and moving, even epic.” (Melanie Benjamin, New York Times best-selling author of The Girls in the Picture)
“[An] empowering, beautifully written story transports readers to 1950s-era Hollywood.” (Woman’s World)
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
I Give It to You
- A Novel
- By: Valerie Martin
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jan Vidor, an American writer and academic, rents an apartment in a Tuscan villa for the summer, she plans to spend her break working on a novel about Mussolini. Instead, she finds herself captivated by her aristocratic landlady, the elegant, acerbic Beatrice Salviati Bartolo Doyle, whose family has owned Villa Chiara for generations. Jan is intrigued by Beatrice’s stories of World War II, particularly by the tragic fate of her uncle Sandro, who was mysteriously murdered in the driveway of the villa at the conclusion of the war.
-
-
Reading story book
- By Kindle Customer 2 on 05-31-24
By: Valerie Martin
-
The Talented Miss Farwell
- A Novel
- By: Emily Gray Tedrowe
- Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of the 1990s, with the art market finally recovered from its disastrous collapse, Miss Rebecca Farwell has made a killing at Christie's in New York City, selling a portion of her extraordinary art collection for a rumored 900 percent profit. Dressed in couture YSL, drinking the finest champagne at trendy Balthazar, Reba, as she's known, is the picture of a wealthy art collector. To some, the elusive Miss Farwell is a shark with outstanding business acumen. To others, she's a heartless capitalist whose only interest in art is how much she can make.
-
-
Fascinating premise, boring book
- By Michael on 12-09-20
-
Red Letter Days
- By: Sarah-Jane Stratford
- Narrated by: Ilyana Kadushin, Sarah-Jane Stratford
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amid the glitz and glamour of 1950s New York, Phoebe Adler pursues her dream of screenwriting. A dream that turns into a living nightmare when she is blacklisted - caught in the Red Menace that is shattering the lives of suspected Communists. Desperate to work, she escapes to London, determined to keep her dream alive and clear her good name. There, Phoebe befriends fellow American exile Hannah Wolfson, who has defied the odds to build a career as a successful television producer in England.
-
-
Subpar
- By Birdy on 09-15-22
-
No Heaven for Good Boys
- A Novel
- By: Keisha Bush
- Narrated by: Samba Schutte
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six-year-old Ibrahimah loves snatching pastries from his mother’s kitchen, harvesting string beans with his father, and searching for sea glass with his sisters. But when he is approached in his rural village one day by Marabout Ahmed, a seemingly kind stranger and highly regarded teacher, the tides of his life turn forever.
-
-
Captivating
- By Amazon Customer on 02-05-21
By: Keisha Bush
-
Aria
- A Novel
- By: Nazanine Hozar
- Narrated by: Neeky Dalir
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the 1950s in a restless Iran, a country rich in oil but deeply divided by class and religion. The government is unpopular and corrupt and under foreign sway. One night, an illiterate army driver hears the pitiful cry of a baby abandoned in an alley and menaced by ravenous wild dogs. He snatches up the child and takes her home, naming her Aria - the first step on an unlikely path from deprivation to privilege. Over the next two decades, the orphan girl acquires three mother figures whose secrets she will learn only much later.
By: Nazanine Hozar
-
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
- By: Anissa Gray
- Narrated by: January LaVoy, Adenrele Ojo, Bahni Turpin, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Butler family has had their share of trials - as sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian can attest - but nothing prepared them for the literal trial that will upend their lives. Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with, and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will. They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband, Proctor, are arrested, and in a heartbeat, the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace.
-
-
Loved It!
- By Amazon Customer on 02-22-19
By: Anissa Gray
-
I Give It to You
- A Novel
- By: Valerie Martin
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jan Vidor, an American writer and academic, rents an apartment in a Tuscan villa for the summer, she plans to spend her break working on a novel about Mussolini. Instead, she finds herself captivated by her aristocratic landlady, the elegant, acerbic Beatrice Salviati Bartolo Doyle, whose family has owned Villa Chiara for generations. Jan is intrigued by Beatrice’s stories of World War II, particularly by the tragic fate of her uncle Sandro, who was mysteriously murdered in the driveway of the villa at the conclusion of the war.
-
-
Reading story book
- By Kindle Customer 2 on 05-31-24
By: Valerie Martin
-
The Talented Miss Farwell
- A Novel
- By: Emily Gray Tedrowe
- Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of the 1990s, with the art market finally recovered from its disastrous collapse, Miss Rebecca Farwell has made a killing at Christie's in New York City, selling a portion of her extraordinary art collection for a rumored 900 percent profit. Dressed in couture YSL, drinking the finest champagne at trendy Balthazar, Reba, as she's known, is the picture of a wealthy art collector. To some, the elusive Miss Farwell is a shark with outstanding business acumen. To others, she's a heartless capitalist whose only interest in art is how much she can make.
-
-
Fascinating premise, boring book
- By Michael on 12-09-20
-
Red Letter Days
- By: Sarah-Jane Stratford
- Narrated by: Ilyana Kadushin, Sarah-Jane Stratford
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amid the glitz and glamour of 1950s New York, Phoebe Adler pursues her dream of screenwriting. A dream that turns into a living nightmare when she is blacklisted - caught in the Red Menace that is shattering the lives of suspected Communists. Desperate to work, she escapes to London, determined to keep her dream alive and clear her good name. There, Phoebe befriends fellow American exile Hannah Wolfson, who has defied the odds to build a career as a successful television producer in England.
-
-
Subpar
- By Birdy on 09-15-22
-
No Heaven for Good Boys
- A Novel
- By: Keisha Bush
- Narrated by: Samba Schutte
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six-year-old Ibrahimah loves snatching pastries from his mother’s kitchen, harvesting string beans with his father, and searching for sea glass with his sisters. But when he is approached in his rural village one day by Marabout Ahmed, a seemingly kind stranger and highly regarded teacher, the tides of his life turn forever.
-
-
Captivating
- By Amazon Customer on 02-05-21
By: Keisha Bush
-
Aria
- A Novel
- By: Nazanine Hozar
- Narrated by: Neeky Dalir
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the 1950s in a restless Iran, a country rich in oil but deeply divided by class and religion. The government is unpopular and corrupt and under foreign sway. One night, an illiterate army driver hears the pitiful cry of a baby abandoned in an alley and menaced by ravenous wild dogs. He snatches up the child and takes her home, naming her Aria - the first step on an unlikely path from deprivation to privilege. Over the next two decades, the orphan girl acquires three mother figures whose secrets she will learn only much later.
By: Nazanine Hozar
-
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
- By: Anissa Gray
- Narrated by: January LaVoy, Adenrele Ojo, Bahni Turpin, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Butler family has had their share of trials - as sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian can attest - but nothing prepared them for the literal trial that will upend their lives. Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with, and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will. They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband, Proctor, are arrested, and in a heartbeat, the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace.
-
-
Loved It!
- By Amazon Customer on 02-22-19
By: Anissa Gray
-
Annelies
- A Novel
- By: David R. Gillham
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, David R. Gillham
- Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anne Frank is a cultural icon whose diary painted a vivid picture of the Holocaust and made her an image of humanity in one of history’s darkest moments. But she was also a person - a precocious young girl with a rich inner life and tremendous skill as a writer. In this masterful new novel, David R. Gillham explores with breathtaking empathy the woman - and the writer - she might have become.
-
-
Wow!
- By Amazon Customer on 02-29-20
By: David R. Gillham
-
The Charmed Wife
- By: Olga Grushin
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cinderella married the man of her dreams - the perfect ending she deserved after diligently following all the fairy-tale rules. Yet now, 13 and a half years later, things have gone badly wrong, and her life is far from perfect. One night, fed up and exhausted, she sneaks out of the palace to get help from the witch who, for a price, offers love potions to disgruntled housewives. But as the old hag flings the last ingredients into the cauldron, Cinderella doesn't ask for a love spell to win back her Prince Charming. Instead, she wants him dead.
-
-
Warning
- By Ijw on 01-26-21
By: Olga Grushin
-
The Great Offshore Grounds
- A Novel
- By: Vanessa Veselka
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the day of their estranged father’s wedding, half sisters Cheyenne and Livy set off to claim their inheritance. It’s been years since the two have seen each other. Cheyenne is newly back in Seattle, crashing with Livy after a failed marriage and a series of personal and professional dead ends. Livy works refinishing boats, her resentment against her freeloading sister growing as she tamps down dreams of fishing off the coast of Alaska. But the promise of a shot at financial security brings the two together to claim what’s theirs.
-
-
Epic Family (blood and chosen) Saga
- By Kait on 09-19-20
By: Vanessa Veselka
-
The Lost Diary of Venice
- A Novel
- By: Margaux DeRoux
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the wake of her father's death, Rose Newlin finds solace in her work as a book restorer. Then, one rainy Connecticut afternoon, a struggling painter appears at her door. William Lomazzo brings with him a 16th-century treatise on art, which Rose quickly identifies as a palimpsest: a document written over a hidden diary that had purposely been scraped away. Yet the restoration sparks an unforeseen challenge when William - a married man - and Rose experience an instant, unspoken attraction.
-
-
Engrossing!
- By S. Aaron on 07-27-20
By: Margaux DeRoux
-
The Chosen One
- By: Walt Gragg
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two months ago, a new leader arose in the Islamic world, the Mahdi - or the Chosen One. He has rallied fundamentalist Muslim forces across the Middle East who have driven deep into Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Standing against them is an allied force made up primarily of the American military. It's a desperate fight. From armored battles in the desert to American carriers desperately dodging waves of cruise missiles, the Mahdi proves to have many tricks up his sleeve.
-
-
Predictable
- By Amazon Customer on 03-25-20
By: Walt Gragg
-
Atomic Love
- By: Jennie Fields
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chicago, 1950. Rosalind Porter has always defied expectations - in her work as a physicist on the Manhattan Project and in her passionate love affair with colleague Thomas Weaver. Five years after the end of both, her guilt over the bomb and her heartbreak over Weaver are intertwined. She desperately misses her work in the lab, yet has almost resigned herself to a more conventional life.
-
-
Gripping storytelling
- By DTB on 06-18-22
By: Jennie Fields
-
Henry, Himself
- A Novel
- By: Stewart O'Nan
- Narrated by: Richmond Hoxie
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A member of the greatest generation looks back on the loves and losses of his past and comes to treasure the present anew in this poignant and thoughtful new novel from a modern master.
-
-
Nothing Happens If You're Okay With That 3.5*
- By Sharlotte on 03-06-20
By: Stewart O'Nan
-
Finding Jane Fairfax
- By: Robbin J. Peterson
- Narrated by: Noah Wall
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jane Fairfax knows she is truly fortunate. Most orphans face lives of hardship, whereas she was adopted by doting surrogate parents who elevated her place in Society and love her as their own. Yet even they cannot shield her from the grim realities of life without a suitable marriage. In moments of despair, Jane comforts herself with a well-worn memory: that of a young man whose kind words when they were children once soothed her heartbreak. But now that boy has grown into a dashing gentleman—and their lives could not be more distant.
-
-
Fits Seamlessly as a Prequel to Emma
- By Avid Reader Abigail on 12-25-24
-
We Wish You Luck
- A Novel
- By: Caroline Zancan
- Narrated by: Kristen Sieh
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It doesn't take long for the students on Fielding campus to become obsessed with Hannah, Leslie, and Jimmy. The three graduate students are mysterious, inaccessible, and brilliant. Leslie, glamorous and brash, has declared that she wants to write erotica and make millions. Hannah is quietly confident, loyal, elegantly beautiful, and the person they all want to be; and Jimmy is a haunted genius with no past. After Simone - young best-selling author and erstwhile model - shows up as a visiting professor, and after everything that happened with her, the trio only become more notorious.
-
-
This book is very boring
- By Anonymous User on 09-13-21
By: Caroline Zancan
-
The Upstairs House
- A Novel
- By: Julia Fine
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ravaged and sore from giving birth to her first child, Megan is mostly raising her newborn alone while her husband travels for work. Physically exhausted and mentally drained, she’s also wracked with guilt over her unfinished dissertation - a thesis on mid-century children’s literature. Enter a new upstairs neighbor: the ghost of quixotic children’s book writer Margaret Wise Brown - author of the beloved classic Goodnight Moon -whose existence no one else will acknowledge.
-
-
Footnotes were super distracting
- By Anonymous User on 04-03-21
By: Julia Fine
-
Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune
- By: Roselle Lim
- Narrated by: Catherine Ho
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lush and visual, chock-full of delicious recipes, Roselle Lim’s magical debut novel is about food, heritage, and finding family in the most unexpected places.
-
-
An angsty listen
- By MaBiche on 03-26-21
By: Roselle Lim
-
Should We Stay or Should We Go
- A Novel
- By: Lionel Shriver
- Narrated by: Hannah Curtis
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When her father dies, Kay Wilkinson can’t cry. Over 10 years, Alzheimer’s had steadily eroded this erudite man into a paranoid lunatic. Surely one’s own father passing should never come as such a relief. Both medical professionals, Kay and her husband Cyril have seen too many elderly patients in similar states of decay. Although healthy and vital in their early 50s, the couple fears what may lie ahead. Determined to die with dignity, Cyril makes a modest proposal.
-
-
Innovative storyline
- By Richard.odell on 08-20-21
By: Lionel Shriver
What listeners say about The Great Pretenders
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ash
- 10-05-19
Good book and easy to stop and start
The reading performance was fantastic! So many characters represented well vocally.
Some of the writing is a little repetitive without meaning.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Evonne
- 05-14-20
OUTSTANDING
I was drawn in from the start.. considering the state of the world at the moment, prejudices & racism ; 1956 wasnt that long ago and we still have a long way to go.. but this book reminded what really matters. The setting of the story in Hollywood's golden age was as vivid as if I lived in that time myself. Kudos
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Peter
- 11-20-20
Disappointing
The topic--racial tensions during the 1950s--is an important part of the history of this country's institutional racism. The setting--the Hollywood film industry during the Red-baiting of that period--is an important part of the history of this country's polarized politics. Alas, the writing does not do justice to the topic, although it does a more reasonable job of portraying the setting. As limited as the book is, the narration is even more mediocre.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!