The Paris Gown
A Novel
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
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.29
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Saskia Maarleveld
-
By:
-
Christine Wells
About this listen
“A glorious showstopper of a novel! With its glittering characters, intricately woven plot and chapters full of gorgeous Dior dresses, The Paris Gown will be turning all heads this year."—Natasha Lester, New York Times bestselling author of The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard
From perennially popular historical novelist Christine Wells, the delightful tale of three young women in 1950s Paris who share a single dazzling Christian Dior gown.
Paris, 1955
Three friends—Claire, Gina, and Margot—who parted as very young women with their whole lives ahead of them, reunite in Paris years later, determined to start life anew.
Parisian Claire has been working hard to become a Michelin-starred chef one day, but ever since the heady time she spent in the company of socialites Gina and Margot, her dream has been to own a Dior gown. This seemed like a far-off fantasy, until the eccentric and wealthy Madame Vaughn, who lives above Claire’s family brasserie, abruptly leaves Paris, asking Claire to mind her apartment. More bafflingly, Madame Vaughn also makes Claire a very special gift: a stunning Dior gown.
Meanwhile Gina, a cool American blue blood, lands on Claire’s doorstep nursing a broken heart and a broken engagement after her father lost all of the family money in a risky business venture. A journalist aspiring to be a novelist, Gina has returned to Paris in the hopes of pursuing her dream. But when her father begs her to attend the United States Embassy ball in the hopes of persuading Hal Sanders, her former fiancé, to invest in her father’s new business venture, she is torn. She wants to help her father, but seeing Hal again will be exquisitely painful. And what on earth is she going to wear?
Warm-hearted Claire insists Gina wear the Dior gown to the ball, and after some hesitation, Gina accepts. At Dior for Gina’s fitting, who should assist them but Margot, the friend they thought had gone back to Australia to be married. But Margot is living in Paris and working at Dior under an assumed name, and clearly, she is not happy to have been found.
Is their close friendship at an end? Or will the wonder and delight of the Dior gown bring these young women back together?
Gorgeous, perfectly fitted, lustrous and luxurious, the Dior gown has the power to change lives—as these three remarkable women are about to discover…
“Decadent French cuisine, a haute couture gown, and the streets of Paris create an elegant backdrop for this warm and uplifting story. In The Paris Gown, Christine Wells has lovingly crafted a tale of the resiliency of female friendship and the healing power of chasing one’s dreams.”—Stephanie Marie Thornton, USA Today bestselling author of Her Lost Words, USA Today bestselling author of Her Lost Words
"Wells excels at bringing midtwentieth-century Paris to life in a touching tale that emphasizes the value of true friendship."—Booklist
©2024 Christine Wells (P)2024 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Resistance Bakery
- By: Siobhan Curham
- Narrated by: Lauryn Allman
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paris, 1943. The scent of fresh baguettes hangs in the air as Coralie unbolts the door to her bakery with trembling fingers. She must get out of the city. Hiding her precious leather recipe book inside her coat, she promises never to let the secret locations of the people she worked tirelessly to save fall into German hands… Present day. Raven is unhappy about being shipped off to the other side of the country for the summer to stay with the mysterious French grandmother she barely knows.
By: Siobhan Curham
-
The Royal Windsor Secret
- A Novel
- By: Christine Wells
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cleo Davenport has heard the whispers: the murmured conversations that end abruptly the second she walks into a room. Told she was an orphan, she knows the rumor—that her father is none other than the Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne. And at her childhood home at Cairo’s Shepheard’s Hotel, where royals, rulers, and the wealthy live, they even called her “The Princess.” But her life is turned upside down when she turns seventeen. Sent to London under the chaperonage of her very proper aunt, she’s told it’s time to learn manners and make her debut.
-
-
Slow start- a wonderful journey in the end
- By Sailormommy on 01-06-24
By: Christine Wells
-
The Forgotten Names
- A Tale of Heroism and Reclaiming Identity in Nazi-Occupied France
- By: Mario Escobar
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Five years after the highly publicized trial of Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher of Lyon,” law student Valérie Portheret began her doctoral research into the 108 children who disappeared from Vénissieux fifty years earlier, children who somehow managed to escape deportation and certain death in the German concentration camps. She soon discovers that their rescue was no unexplainable miracle.
-
-
Heartbreaking and Heartwarming
- By K. on 10-11-24
By: Mario Escobar
-
A Traitor in Whitehall
- A Mystery
- By: Julia Kelly
- Narrated by: Marisa Calin
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1940, England: Evelyne Redfern, known as “The Parisian Orphan” as a child, is working on the line at a munitions factory in wartime London. When Mr. Fletcher, one of her father’s old friends, spots Evelyne on a night out, Evelyne finds herself plunged into the world of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s cabinet war rooms. However, shortly after she settles into her new role as a secretary, one of the girls at work is murdered, and Evelyne must use all of her amateur sleuthing expertise to find the killer.
-
-
Okay, but needed help
- By Olivia Street on 11-20-24
By: Julia Kelly
-
Scandalous Women
- A Novel of Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann
- By: Gill Paul
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1966, NYC: Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls hits the bookstores and she is desperate for a bestseller. It’s steamy, it’s a page-turner, but will it make the big money she needs? In London, Jackie Collins’s racy The World Is Full of Married Men launches her career. But neither author is prepared for the price they will pay for being women who dare to write about sex. Jacqueline and Jackie are lambasted by the literary establishment, deluged with hate mail, and even condemned by feminists. In public, both women shoulder the outcry with dignity; in private, they are crumbling.
-
-
Perfection
- By sarah stephens on 09-19-24
By: Gill Paul
-
The Answer Is No
- A Short Story
- By: Fredrik Backman, Elizabeth DeNoma - translator
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
- Length: 1 hr and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
-
-
Narrator doesn’t get Backman’s satire or rhythm
- By joey1603 on 12-01-24
By: Fredrik Backman, and others
-
The Resistance Bakery
- By: Siobhan Curham
- Narrated by: Lauryn Allman
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paris, 1943. The scent of fresh baguettes hangs in the air as Coralie unbolts the door to her bakery with trembling fingers. She must get out of the city. Hiding her precious leather recipe book inside her coat, she promises never to let the secret locations of the people she worked tirelessly to save fall into German hands… Present day. Raven is unhappy about being shipped off to the other side of the country for the summer to stay with the mysterious French grandmother she barely knows.
By: Siobhan Curham
-
The Royal Windsor Secret
- A Novel
- By: Christine Wells
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cleo Davenport has heard the whispers: the murmured conversations that end abruptly the second she walks into a room. Told she was an orphan, she knows the rumor—that her father is none other than the Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne. And at her childhood home at Cairo’s Shepheard’s Hotel, where royals, rulers, and the wealthy live, they even called her “The Princess.” But her life is turned upside down when she turns seventeen. Sent to London under the chaperonage of her very proper aunt, she’s told it’s time to learn manners and make her debut.
-
-
Slow start- a wonderful journey in the end
- By Sailormommy on 01-06-24
By: Christine Wells
-
The Forgotten Names
- A Tale of Heroism and Reclaiming Identity in Nazi-Occupied France
- By: Mario Escobar
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Five years after the highly publicized trial of Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher of Lyon,” law student Valérie Portheret began her doctoral research into the 108 children who disappeared from Vénissieux fifty years earlier, children who somehow managed to escape deportation and certain death in the German concentration camps. She soon discovers that their rescue was no unexplainable miracle.
-
-
Heartbreaking and Heartwarming
- By K. on 10-11-24
By: Mario Escobar
-
A Traitor in Whitehall
- A Mystery
- By: Julia Kelly
- Narrated by: Marisa Calin
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1940, England: Evelyne Redfern, known as “The Parisian Orphan” as a child, is working on the line at a munitions factory in wartime London. When Mr. Fletcher, one of her father’s old friends, spots Evelyne on a night out, Evelyne finds herself plunged into the world of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s cabinet war rooms. However, shortly after she settles into her new role as a secretary, one of the girls at work is murdered, and Evelyne must use all of her amateur sleuthing expertise to find the killer.
-
-
Okay, but needed help
- By Olivia Street on 11-20-24
By: Julia Kelly
-
Scandalous Women
- A Novel of Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann
- By: Gill Paul
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1966, NYC: Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls hits the bookstores and she is desperate for a bestseller. It’s steamy, it’s a page-turner, but will it make the big money she needs? In London, Jackie Collins’s racy The World Is Full of Married Men launches her career. But neither author is prepared for the price they will pay for being women who dare to write about sex. Jacqueline and Jackie are lambasted by the literary establishment, deluged with hate mail, and even condemned by feminists. In public, both women shoulder the outcry with dignity; in private, they are crumbling.
-
-
Perfection
- By sarah stephens on 09-19-24
By: Gill Paul
-
The Answer Is No
- A Short Story
- By: Fredrik Backman, Elizabeth DeNoma - translator
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
- Length: 1 hr and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
-
-
Narrator doesn’t get Backman’s satire or rhythm
- By joey1603 on 12-01-24
By: Fredrik Backman, and others
-
One Woman's War
- A Novel of the Real Miss Moneypenny
- By: Christine Wells
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World War II London: When Victoire “Paddy” Bennett first walks into the Admiralty’s Room 39, home to the Intelligence Division, all the bright and lively young woman expects is a secretarial position to the charismatic Commander Ian Fleming. But soon her job is so much more, and when Fleming proposes a daring plot to deceive the Germans about Allied invasion plans he requests the newlywed Paddy's help. She jumps at the chance to work as an agent in the field, even after the operation begins to affect her marriage. But could doing her duty for King and country come at too great a cost?
-
-
Wells does it again!!
- By Kurtis Montgomery on 01-27-23
By: Christine Wells
-
The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard
- By: Natasha Lester
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
French countryside, Present Day: Blythe Bricard is the daughter of famous fashion muses but that doesn't mean she wants to be one. She turned her back on that world, and her dreams, years ago. Fate, however, has a different plan, and Blythe will discover there is more to her iconic mother and grandmother than she ever knew.
-
-
great read!
- By Kellie S. on 03-18-24
By: Natasha Lester
-
Christmas with the Queen
- A Novel
- By: Hazel Gaynor, Heather Webb
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Gary Furlong, Esther Wane
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
December 1952. While the young Queen Elizabeth II finds her feet as the new monarch, she must also find the right words to continue the tradition of her late father’s Christmas Day radio broadcast. But even traditions must evolve with the times, and the queen faces a postwar Britain hungry for change.
-
-
Wonderful story and fantastic performances
- By J. Roan on 12-20-24
By: Hazel Gaynor, and others
-
The Last Train from Paris
- By: Juliet Greenwood
- Narrated by: Sarah Durham
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Iris, each visit to her mother in St Mabon’s Cove, Cornwall has been the same—a serene escape from the city. But today, as she breaths in the salt air on the doorstep of her beloved childhood home, a heavy weight of anticipation settles over her. Iris knows she’s adopted, but any questions about where she came from have always been shut down by her parents, who can’t bear to revisit the past. Now, Iris can’t stop thinking about what she’s read on the official paperwork: BABY GIRL, FRANCE, 1939 – the year war was declared with Nazi Germany.
-
-
A telling of sacrifice and selflessness in a terrible time
- By Karen on 07-13-24
By: Juliet Greenwood
-
The British Booksellers
- By: Kristy Cambron
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A tenant farmer’s son had no business daring to dream of a future with an earl’s daughter, but that couldn’t keep Amos Darby from his secret friendship with Charlotte Terrington…until the reality of the Great War sobered youthful dreams. Now decades later, he bears the brutal scars of battles fought in the trenches and their futures that were stolen away. His return home doesn’t come with tender reunions, but with the hollow fulfillment of opening a bookshop on his own and retreating as a recluse within its walls.
-
-
I liked the characters
- By reader on 07-21-24
By: Kristy Cambron
-
The Royal Librarian
- By: Daisy Wood
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Windsor, 1940: War rages, and as bombs rain down across Britain, nowhere is safe: not even a royal palace. Secretly tasked with foiling a suspected plot, Sophie Klein is placed in the Royal Library at Windsor castle, where the princesses reside. But when she learns that Windsor is compromised, Sophie must sacrifice everything she knows to save the future queen of England. Philadelphia, Present day: Digging into her great aunt’s family tree, Lacey Turner comes across a mysterious book bearing the stamp of Windsor Castle’s royal bindery. But how did it come to be in her family’s possession?
-
-
mystery
- By Gary on 11-27-24
By: Daisy Wood
-
The Booklover's Library
- By: Madeline Martin
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job. She and her beloved daughter Olivia have always managed just fine on their own, but with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her with a job.
-
-
New Fan of Historical Fiction
- By JenGray on 12-17-24
By: Madeline Martin
-
The German Daughter
- By: Marius Gabriel
- Narrated by: Hannah Brown
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Norway, 1940. Liv has lived a quiet life on her family farm, dreaming of a happy life after the war is finally over. But all of her dreams vanish when the Nazi soldiers arrive in her village and a senior officer see something special in her... something that Hitler and the high command in Berlin is desperate to have at any cost. England, 1968. Agnes, although made orphan from the war, has grown up happy in the quiet wealth of the English countryside, raised by her adoring grandfather to be a perfect lady.
-
-
Not just another WWII Book
- By Leslie on 11-04-24
By: Marius Gabriel
-
Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl
- By: Renée Rosen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1938, and a young woman selling face cream out of a New York City beauty parlor is determined to prove she can have it all. Her name is Estée Lauder, and she’s about to take the world by storm, in this dazzling new novel from the USA Today bestselling author of The Social Graces and Park Avenue Summer.
-
-
Lots of fun
- By Robin on 05-01-23
By: Renée Rosen
-
The House on Biscayne Bay
- By: Chanel Cleeton
- Narrated by: Caroline Hewitt, Frankie Corzo
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the Great War finally behind them, many Americans flock to South Florida with their sights set on making a fortune. When wealthy industrialist Robert Barnes and his wife, Anna, build Marbrisa, a glamorous estate on Biscayne Bay, they become the toast of the newly burgeoning society. Anna and Robert appear to have it all, but in a town like Miami, appearances can be deceiving, and one scandal can change everything.
-
-
You will NOT regret this book!
- By Marleny R. on 08-12-24
By: Chanel Cleeton
-
The Royal Nanny
- A Novel
- By: Karen Harper
- Narrated by: Melanie Crawley
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
April 1897: A young nanny arrives at Sandringham, ancestral estate of the Duke and Duchess of York. She is excited, exhausted - and about to meet royalty. So begins the unforgettable story of Charlotte Bill, who would care for a generation of royals as their parents never could. Neither Charlotte - LaLa, as her charges dub her - nor anyone else can predict that eldest sons David and Bertie will each one day be king. LaLa knows only that these children, and the four who swiftly follow, need her steadfast loyalty and unconditional affection.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Jasper Van Wyk on 08-05-20
By: Karen Harper
-
The Widows of Champagne
- By: Renee Ryan
- Narrated by: Karen Peakes
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Champagne, 1939. Gabrielle Leblanc Dupree is taking her family's future into her hands. While she should be preparing for a lavish party to celebrate two centuries of champagne making, she secretly hides Chateau Fouché-Leblanc's most precious vintages behind a fake wall in the cellar in preparation for the looming war. But when she joins the resistance, the coveted champagne isn't the most dangerous secret her cellar must conceal.
-
-
Good but a bit religious
- By Far North on 03-31-23
By: Renee Ryan
Related to this topic
-
Booked for the Holidays
- By: Liz Maverick
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky, Andrew Eiden
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When mystery author D. B. Ziegler is late delivering her book, Abi Schore steps in to help. Surely she can give her favorite author moral support over the holiday break and get the manuscript to her boss at Tea & Sympathy Publishing in time for the new year. When Abi shows up on Ms. Ziegler’s doorstep bearing holiday treats, she’s met by the author’s handsome grandson Dov, who reveals a startling plot twist. His grandmother isn’t able to finish the book and Dov promised he’d complete it so fans won’t be disappointed—a task that’s harder than he ever imagined.
-
-
What a gem!
- By Joanna N. on 11-14-24
By: Liz Maverick
-
The Grandmother
- By: Jane E. James
- Narrated by: Anna Cordell, Max Dinnen
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two little girls stand with their heads bowed in my living room. I’m told they’re my granddaughters. Daisy is nine, and Alice seven. Daisy is the spitting image of her mother. This is the first time I’ve met them since my daughter and I fell out after she married that waste of space, Vince. They’ve come to live with me because their mother — my daughter — was murdered. In her own home while they slept close by. I think Vince killed her. But the police can’t prove it. I’ve always known he was no good. He treated my daughter like dirt. I said he’d cheat on her — but she wouldn’t listen.
-
-
Good story bad language
- By Patti on 12-18-24
By: Jane E. James
-
Mr. and Mrs. Christmas
- By: Michelle Stimpson
- Narrated by: Marcella Cox, Ian Hackney
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's no place like home for the holidays ... especially for Lesley Carver. Life in the big city just wasn't her jam and now she's back in Hickory Falls, working at the family diner and helping her mom after she took a tumble. Lesley longs to build a life here, working at the cafe, selling her handmade ornaments and ... er, apparently reviving her high school crush on her best friend’s older brother. Only one problem, her mom wants her to leave Hickory Falls far behind.
-
-
Loved the book!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-15-24
-
Holiday Hideaway
- A Short Story
- By: Mary Kay Andrews
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 1 hr and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tilly Farriday isn’t feeling very jolly this season. Recently divorced and broke, she’s squatting in one of her rental agency’s properties until her new home is ready. The sprinkles on top of the burnt Christmas cookie that is her life? The new owner shows up early, forcing Tilly to hide in the attic to save her job…and what remains of her dignity.
-
-
I ain’t afraid of no ghosts
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 10-31-24
By: Mary Kay Andrews
-
A Christmas Carol
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Hugh Grant
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1843, it tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a mean and unpleasant man who dislikes people generally and Christmas especially. One Christmas Eve he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come and given a glimpse of the many homes and lives which Scrooge has touched in his wretched life to date. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.
-
-
Christmas Classic Given New Life
- By E-Hank3 on 12-26-20
By: Charles Dickens
-
A Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance by Tim Curry
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Tim Curry
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Signature Performance: Tim Curry rescues Charles Dickens from the jaws of Disney with his one-of-a-kind performance of the treasured classic. Our listeners loved this version so much that it inspired our whole line of Signature Classics.
-
-
Wonderful!!!
- By Alia on 12-11-09
By: Charles Dickens
-
Booked for the Holidays
- By: Liz Maverick
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky, Andrew Eiden
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When mystery author D. B. Ziegler is late delivering her book, Abi Schore steps in to help. Surely she can give her favorite author moral support over the holiday break and get the manuscript to her boss at Tea & Sympathy Publishing in time for the new year. When Abi shows up on Ms. Ziegler’s doorstep bearing holiday treats, she’s met by the author’s handsome grandson Dov, who reveals a startling plot twist. His grandmother isn’t able to finish the book and Dov promised he’d complete it so fans won’t be disappointed—a task that’s harder than he ever imagined.
-
-
What a gem!
- By Joanna N. on 11-14-24
By: Liz Maverick
-
The Grandmother
- By: Jane E. James
- Narrated by: Anna Cordell, Max Dinnen
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two little girls stand with their heads bowed in my living room. I’m told they’re my granddaughters. Daisy is nine, and Alice seven. Daisy is the spitting image of her mother. This is the first time I’ve met them since my daughter and I fell out after she married that waste of space, Vince. They’ve come to live with me because their mother — my daughter — was murdered. In her own home while they slept close by. I think Vince killed her. But the police can’t prove it. I’ve always known he was no good. He treated my daughter like dirt. I said he’d cheat on her — but she wouldn’t listen.
-
-
Good story bad language
- By Patti on 12-18-24
By: Jane E. James
-
Mr. and Mrs. Christmas
- By: Michelle Stimpson
- Narrated by: Marcella Cox, Ian Hackney
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's no place like home for the holidays ... especially for Lesley Carver. Life in the big city just wasn't her jam and now she's back in Hickory Falls, working at the family diner and helping her mom after she took a tumble. Lesley longs to build a life here, working at the cafe, selling her handmade ornaments and ... er, apparently reviving her high school crush on her best friend’s older brother. Only one problem, her mom wants her to leave Hickory Falls far behind.
-
-
Loved the book!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-15-24
-
Holiday Hideaway
- A Short Story
- By: Mary Kay Andrews
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 1 hr and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tilly Farriday isn’t feeling very jolly this season. Recently divorced and broke, she’s squatting in one of her rental agency’s properties until her new home is ready. The sprinkles on top of the burnt Christmas cookie that is her life? The new owner shows up early, forcing Tilly to hide in the attic to save her job…and what remains of her dignity.
-
-
I ain’t afraid of no ghosts
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 10-31-24
By: Mary Kay Andrews
-
A Christmas Carol
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Hugh Grant
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1843, it tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a mean and unpleasant man who dislikes people generally and Christmas especially. One Christmas Eve he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come and given a glimpse of the many homes and lives which Scrooge has touched in his wretched life to date. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.
-
-
Christmas Classic Given New Life
- By E-Hank3 on 12-26-20
By: Charles Dickens
-
A Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance by Tim Curry
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Tim Curry
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Signature Performance: Tim Curry rescues Charles Dickens from the jaws of Disney with his one-of-a-kind performance of the treasured classic. Our listeners loved this version so much that it inspired our whole line of Signature Classics.
-
-
Wonderful!!!
- By Alia on 12-11-09
By: Charles Dickens
-
George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
-
-
A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
-
The Plight Before Christmas
- By: Kate Stewart
- Narrated by: Joe Arden, Maxine Mitchell
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clark Griswold was onto something...at least with his annual holiday meltdown. And since the last three weeks of my life have been riddled with humbug—another breakup, a broken toe, an office promotion I deserved and didn’t get—I’m not at all in the mood to celebrate nor have the happ, happ, happiest Christmas EVER.
-
-
Gaslighting and games
- By FMC on 12-22-22
By: Kate Stewart
-
He's Gone
- By: Rebecca Collomosse
- Narrated by: Victoria Blunt, Cicely Whitehead, Joe Eyre
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
My fiancé brought me tea and scrambled eggs in bed that morning, and we snuggled together, talking about buying our rings, and about our perfect wedding next year. Then we headed into town. He held my hand and gazed at the ring I liked best, a smile spreading slowly over his face. Then a glass of bubbly to celebrate. I felt flushed, excited and ready for the rest of my life with the man I loved. We race to get on the train home. It screams to a halt and I run towards its open doors. Made it. I think he’s right behind me — but when I turn around, he’s gone.
-
-
Disappointing plot
- By TerriSweeta on 12-04-24
-
The Answer Is No
- A Short Story
- By: Fredrik Backman, Elizabeth DeNoma - translator
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
- Length: 1 hr and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
-
-
Narrator doesn’t get Backman’s satire or rhythm
- By joey1603 on 12-01-24
By: Fredrik Backman, and others
-
Starship Troopers
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up—and definitely not the infantry. But now that he’s in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids. Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn’t kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job.
-
-
The definitive version!
- By Kristopher G. Hesson on 10-03-24
-
Dead Med
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso, Scott Merriman
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Heather McKinley dreamed of becoming a doctor, she imagined curing sick kids and sporting pink stethoscopes. She never anticipated the sleepless nights, grueling exams, and endless labs. And she certainly never knew that her medical school earned the nickname Dead Med thanks to the tragic history of students overdosing on illegal drugs. But Heather would never consider doing anything like that. That is, until her longtime boyfriend dumps her, she finds herself failing anatomy, and her world starts to crumble.
-
-
Hmm
- By Morgan Meaux on 08-22-24
By: Freida McFadden
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Royal Windsor Secret
- A Novel
- By: Christine Wells
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cleo Davenport has heard the whispers: the murmured conversations that end abruptly the second she walks into a room. Told she was an orphan, she knows the rumor—that her father is none other than the Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne. And at her childhood home at Cairo’s Shepheard’s Hotel, where royals, rulers, and the wealthy live, they even called her “The Princess.” But her life is turned upside down when she turns seventeen. Sent to London under the chaperonage of her very proper aunt, she’s told it’s time to learn manners and make her debut.
-
-
Slow start- a wonderful journey in the end
- By Sailormommy on 01-06-24
By: Christine Wells
-
Sisters of the Resistance
- A Novel of Catherine Dior's Paris Spy Network
- By: Christine Wells
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paris, 1944: The war is nearly over, but for members of the Resistance in occupied France, it is more dangerous than ever before. Twenty-five-year-old Gabby Foucher loathes the Nazis, though as the concierge of 10 rue Royale, she does her best to avoid conflict - unlike her bolder sister Yvette, who finds trouble at every turn.
-
-
NOT about Catherine Dior
- By Amazoncustomer on 08-09-21
By: Christine Wells
-
The Paris Inheritance
- By: Natalie Meg Evans
- Narrated by: Daphne Kouma
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paris, 1940. Clutching a delicate silver dove-shaped brooch–the last gift from her beloved Otto, with a message of love engraved in the back–Lally flees her home in Paris. With her closest friend by her side, she dodges the Nazi gunfire echoing all around the city streets. But as they become more and more desperate during the darkest days Europe has ever known, one must make a terrible sacrifice for them both to survive…
-
One Woman's War
- A Novel of the Real Miss Moneypenny
- By: Christine Wells
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World War II London: When Victoire “Paddy” Bennett first walks into the Admiralty’s Room 39, home to the Intelligence Division, all the bright and lively young woman expects is a secretarial position to the charismatic Commander Ian Fleming. But soon her job is so much more, and when Fleming proposes a daring plot to deceive the Germans about Allied invasion plans he requests the newlywed Paddy's help. She jumps at the chance to work as an agent in the field, even after the operation begins to affect her marriage. But could doing her duty for King and country come at too great a cost?
-
-
Wells does it again!!
- By Kurtis Montgomery on 01-27-23
By: Christine Wells
-
Yesterday's Tides
- By: Roseanna M. White
- Narrated by: Pilar Witherspoon
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1942, Evie Farrow is used to life on Ocracoke Island, where every day is the same—until the German U-boats haunting their waters begin to wreak havoc. And when special agent Sterling Bertrand is washed ashore at Evie's inn, her life is turned upside down. While Sterling's injuries keep him inn-bound for weeks, making him even more anxious about the man he's tracking, he becomes increasingly intrigued by Evie, who seems to be hiding secrets of her own.
-
-
Wow!!
- By r. tein on 08-02-23
-
Scandalous Women
- A Novel of Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann
- By: Gill Paul
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1966, NYC: Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls hits the bookstores and she is desperate for a bestseller. It’s steamy, it’s a page-turner, but will it make the big money she needs? In London, Jackie Collins’s racy The World Is Full of Married Men launches her career. But neither author is prepared for the price they will pay for being women who dare to write about sex. Jacqueline and Jackie are lambasted by the literary establishment, deluged with hate mail, and even condemned by feminists. In public, both women shoulder the outcry with dignity; in private, they are crumbling.
-
-
Perfection
- By sarah stephens on 09-19-24
By: Gill Paul
-
The Royal Windsor Secret
- A Novel
- By: Christine Wells
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cleo Davenport has heard the whispers: the murmured conversations that end abruptly the second she walks into a room. Told she was an orphan, she knows the rumor—that her father is none other than the Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne. And at her childhood home at Cairo’s Shepheard’s Hotel, where royals, rulers, and the wealthy live, they even called her “The Princess.” But her life is turned upside down when she turns seventeen. Sent to London under the chaperonage of her very proper aunt, she’s told it’s time to learn manners and make her debut.
-
-
Slow start- a wonderful journey in the end
- By Sailormommy on 01-06-24
By: Christine Wells
-
Sisters of the Resistance
- A Novel of Catherine Dior's Paris Spy Network
- By: Christine Wells
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paris, 1944: The war is nearly over, but for members of the Resistance in occupied France, it is more dangerous than ever before. Twenty-five-year-old Gabby Foucher loathes the Nazis, though as the concierge of 10 rue Royale, she does her best to avoid conflict - unlike her bolder sister Yvette, who finds trouble at every turn.
-
-
NOT about Catherine Dior
- By Amazoncustomer on 08-09-21
By: Christine Wells
-
The Paris Inheritance
- By: Natalie Meg Evans
- Narrated by: Daphne Kouma
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paris, 1940. Clutching a delicate silver dove-shaped brooch–the last gift from her beloved Otto, with a message of love engraved in the back–Lally flees her home in Paris. With her closest friend by her side, she dodges the Nazi gunfire echoing all around the city streets. But as they become more and more desperate during the darkest days Europe has ever known, one must make a terrible sacrifice for them both to survive…
-
One Woman's War
- A Novel of the Real Miss Moneypenny
- By: Christine Wells
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World War II London: When Victoire “Paddy” Bennett first walks into the Admiralty’s Room 39, home to the Intelligence Division, all the bright and lively young woman expects is a secretarial position to the charismatic Commander Ian Fleming. But soon her job is so much more, and when Fleming proposes a daring plot to deceive the Germans about Allied invasion plans he requests the newlywed Paddy's help. She jumps at the chance to work as an agent in the field, even after the operation begins to affect her marriage. But could doing her duty for King and country come at too great a cost?
-
-
Wells does it again!!
- By Kurtis Montgomery on 01-27-23
By: Christine Wells
-
Yesterday's Tides
- By: Roseanna M. White
- Narrated by: Pilar Witherspoon
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1942, Evie Farrow is used to life on Ocracoke Island, where every day is the same—until the German U-boats haunting their waters begin to wreak havoc. And when special agent Sterling Bertrand is washed ashore at Evie's inn, her life is turned upside down. While Sterling's injuries keep him inn-bound for weeks, making him even more anxious about the man he's tracking, he becomes increasingly intrigued by Evie, who seems to be hiding secrets of her own.
-
-
Wow!!
- By r. tein on 08-02-23
-
Scandalous Women
- A Novel of Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann
- By: Gill Paul
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1966, NYC: Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls hits the bookstores and she is desperate for a bestseller. It’s steamy, it’s a page-turner, but will it make the big money she needs? In London, Jackie Collins’s racy The World Is Full of Married Men launches her career. But neither author is prepared for the price they will pay for being women who dare to write about sex. Jacqueline and Jackie are lambasted by the literary establishment, deluged with hate mail, and even condemned by feminists. In public, both women shoulder the outcry with dignity; in private, they are crumbling.
-
-
Perfection
- By sarah stephens on 09-19-24
By: Gill Paul
-
The Resistance Bakery
- By: Siobhan Curham
- Narrated by: Lauryn Allman
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paris, 1943. The scent of fresh baguettes hangs in the air as Coralie unbolts the door to her bakery with trembling fingers. She must get out of the city. Hiding her precious leather recipe book inside her coat, she promises never to let the secret locations of the people she worked tirelessly to save fall into German hands… Present day. Raven is unhappy about being shipped off to the other side of the country for the summer to stay with the mysterious French grandmother she barely knows.
By: Siobhan Curham
-
The Thirteenth Husband
- By: Greer Macallister
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tearing through millions of dollars, four continents, and a hearty collection of husbands, real-life heiress Aimée Crocker blazed an unbelievable trail of public notoriety, private pain, and the kind of strong independent woman the 1880s had never seen. Her life was stranger than fiction and brighter than the stars, and she whirled through her days as if she was being chased. Greer Macallister brilliantly takes us into a world you won’t soon forget.
-
-
Unbelievable but compelling listen!
- By Reading Grandma on 09-27-24
-
The Four
- A Novel
- By: Ellie Keel
- Narrated by: Ell Potter
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We were always The Four. From our very first day at High Realms. The four scholarship pupils. Outsiders in a world of power and privilege. And, according to everyone else, we were dangerous. It would have made our lives a lot easier if Marta had simply pushed our prefect Genevieve out of our bedroom window that day. Certainly, it would have been tragic. She would have died instantly. But Marta didn’t push her then, or–if you choose to believe me–at any other time. If she had, all of what we went through would not have happened.
-
-
Disclaimer - graphic self harm & sexual abuse
- By Customer890 on 11-07-24
By: Ellie Keel
-
A Song of Courage
- By: Rachel Wesson
- Narrated by: Harrie Dobby
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Connie Fitzwalter never imagined that her passion for music would lead her into a world of danger and intrigue. When her old family friend, Stephen, who works for the foreign office, tells Connie the true scale of the violence against Jewish people in Germany and Austria, she can stand aside no longer. Together, Stephen and Connie devise a daring mission to help families escape the clutches of Nazi persecution. Under their cover as music enthusiasts traveling to high-society concerts in Europe, Connie and her sister Dottie begin by smuggling money and valuables for families over the border.
-
-
Sorrow
- By Heather on 08-18-24
By: Rachel Wesson
-
The Booklover's Library
- By: Madeline Martin
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job. She and her beloved daughter Olivia have always managed just fine on their own, but with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her with a job.
-
-
New Fan of Historical Fiction
- By JenGray on 12-17-24
By: Madeline Martin
-
Storybook Ending
- A Novel
- By: Poppy Alexander
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For children’s book author Imogen, an idyllic life in the English countryside seems like the perfect fit for her and her husband. But when tragedy strikes, Imogen is left widowed, and finds herself moving into Storybook Cottage alone with only her monstrously narcissistic cat for company. After discovering she is pregnant, Imogen grows determined to embrace a new start in Middlemass, with its duckpond, cricket matches and village fêtes. The only thing Imogen can’t seem to shake is her neighbor—a brooding, artisan blacksmith named Gabriel—who she can’t quite decide is friend or foe.
-
-
Fantastic Fabulous Loved
- By t-squared on 08-23-24
By: Poppy Alexander
-
The Silence Factory
- A Novel
- By: Bridget Collins
- Narrated by: Bridget Collins, Ned Porteous
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1820: Sophia Ashmore-Percy reluctantly accompanies her husband James to a remote Greek island, where he searches for rare biological specimens. Once there, however, she sets on her own voyage of discovery—stumbling across the very creature he is looking for, making an unexpected connection with a local woman, and ultimately reconsidering her marriage, life, and own desires. Decades later, audiologist Henry Latimer is sent to the home of industrialist Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy and tasked with curing the man’s young daughter, Philomel, of her deafness.
-
-
Oddly entertaining
- By joann kenyon on 10-15-24
By: Bridget Collins
-
The Phoenix Crown
- A Novel
- By: Kate Quinn, Janie Chang
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Katharine Chin
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.
-
-
A Queen of the Night
- By Syd Young on 02-15-24
By: Kate Quinn, and others
-
The Woman Who Painted the Seasons
- A Biographical Novel about Lee Krasner, Who Had an Eye for Genius and a Passion for Art
- By: Penny Fields-Schneider
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 21 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lee Krasner was determined to be an artist. With single-minded passion she pursued her dream. By her twenties she was Hans Hofmann's best student, and a vanguard of America's first art movement, along with de Kooning, Kline and Pollock. But for most of the twentieth century, art was a man's world, and even her peers failed her. Another obstacle for Lee was her marriage to Jackson Pollock, whose star shone so brightly, it cast a shadow over everything around it, eventually self-destructing.
-
A Pair of Wings
- A Novel
- By: Carole Hopson
- Narrated by: Alaska Jackson
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A few years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, Bessie was working the Texas cotton fields with her family when an airplane flew over their heads. It buzzed so low she thought she could catch it in her hands. Bessie was fearless. She knew there was freedom in those wings. The daughter of a woman born into slavery, Bessie answers the call of the Great Migration. She moves to Chicago, where she wins the backing of two wealthy, powerful Black men—Robert Abbott, creator and publisher of the Chicago Defender, and Jesse Binga, the founder of Chicago’s first Black bank.
-
-
5 Stars
- By Monica Grace on 11-17-24
By: Carole Hopson
-
The Black Swan of Paris
- A WWII Novel
- By: Karen Robards
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrated singer Genevieve Dumont is both a star and a smokescreen. An unwilling darling of the Nazis, the chanteuse’s position of privilege allows her to go undetected as an ally to the resistance. When her estranged mother, Lillian de Rocheford, is captured by Nazis, Genevieve knows it won’t be long before the Gestapo succeeds in torturing information out of Lillian that will derail the upcoming allied invasion. The resistance movement is tasked with silencing her by any means necessary - including assassination.
-
-
Where to Start?
- By celeste curley on 10-05-20
By: Karen Robards
-
The Forgotten Names
- A Tale of Heroism and Reclaiming Identity in Nazi-Occupied France
- By: Mario Escobar
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Five years after the highly publicized trial of Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher of Lyon,” law student Valérie Portheret began her doctoral research into the 108 children who disappeared from Vénissieux fifty years earlier, children who somehow managed to escape deportation and certain death in the German concentration camps. She soon discovers that their rescue was no unexplainable miracle.
-
-
Heartbreaking and Heartwarming
- By K. on 10-11-24
By: Mario Escobar
What listeners say about The Paris Gown
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marie G.
- 09-18-24
ADORED THIS BOOK ABOUT ENDURING FRIENDSHIP AND LOVE…
After reading Christine Wells’ book, “Sisters of the Resistance” (twice, back-to-back!) I KNEW I had to find out what other books this author has written.
This book, “The Paris Gown,” is what I found. It was so good I gobbled it up in one day (and as soon as I submit this review, I’ll be listening to it a second time).💕
This book is about three friends, Claire, Margo and Gina. They were friends as young girls. Later as young adults, they lost touch for a bit, but then they find their way back to each other again. It isn’t long (as usually happens with TRUE friends) that it was as if no time or distance had ever been between them — they just picked up their friendship where they left off and then went forward.
Of course, their problems were longer those of silly, idealistic girls who didn’t have a care in the world; they were now adults with adult size problems.
Claire desperately wants to become one of the top chefs in Paris. Gina wants to be a famous novelist, and Margo wants to remain hidden from an abusive husband. She already has a dream job working at the famous House of Dior. This was where Claire and Gina found Margo hiding out.
As young girls, the three friends used to stand outside couture showroom looking at the beautiful dresses, dreaming of what it would be like to own an original Dior dress. As adults, they still dreamed of owing a Dior dress, but none of them could afford one.
Claire is asked to live in and take care of a rich friend’s large, elegant apartment for a year while she’s away. She tells Claire in a letter that she had one last fitting for an evening gown from Dior, and that she wants Claire to go to that fitting and then keep the gown as her own.
Claire and her two friends move into the big apartment together and are living happily together as they each pursue their dream.
The dress is a common bond between them. Gina is the first to wear it to a special occasion. There, she meets the man who eventually becomes the love of her life.
Margo, who has been lying low in hopes her abusive husband isn’t looking for her, is next to wear the dress. She too meets the man of her dreams, but she knows she has no future with him. First and and foremost because technically she’s still married. He is a relative of the Queen of England, and as such, is prohibited from marrying someone who has been divorced. Margo hasn’t even made it to the divorce stage yet.
Although the dress was a gift to Claire, she is the last to wear it. Her father sells the restaurant the family has owned for over 60 years where Claire is the chef. Suddenly, she has lost her job AND her apartment above the family’s restaurant. That’s when fate steps in and Claire’s friend asks her to take care of her apartment and live there.
The restaurant has been bought by a chef Claire has worked with and doesn’t like (yet secretly has a crush on). He fired her once from his restaurant — to find out that it’s HIM that has bought the family restaurant is almost more than she can take. Before long, sparks are flying.
Through it all, the women are there supporting each other. They celebrate the good things and get each other through the tough times. It takes years, but Claire DOES eventually get to wear the dress that was given to her originally — at her wedding.
There are two reasons I loved this book much. All my life, it’s been my girlfriends who have gotten me through the hardest times in my life — the loss of two children and two husbands. Even though we are all spread across the country now, our friendship endures. We are ALWAYS there for each other, no matter what.
Our lives are busy now with husbands, kids, aging parents and jobs, so we rarely see each other any more, but we all know we are only a phone call away. If any of us really needed help or support, there isn’t one of us that wouldn’t drop everything, jump on a plane and be wherever we are needed. They’ve done it for me and I’ve done it for them. We will be closer than sisters until the last of us dies.
The other thing I loved about both books by this author is so much revolves around Christian Dior, his designs and the timeless, enduring elegance of his creations.
In a time where so many women show up in public in bikini thongs and flip flops, leaving absolutely NOTHING to the imagination, it’s wonderful to go back in my memory to a time where fashion MEANT something; women dressed like ladies, gentlemen wore suits, open doors for ladies and there was a sense of propriety. Sadly, those days are long gone.
This book was narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, my #1 favorite Audible voice talent. Not only does she have a lovely somewhat “smokey” voice, but she is absolutely BRILLIANT at accents! I know anytime I see a book with her name on it, it’s going to be a great read!
I highly, highly recommend this book (and the other book by this author, “The Sisters of the Resistance”). Both were fantastic!❤️
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Katie LaFrance
- 08-28-24
Amazing story, with my favorite narrator
I love all things Dior- so when I saw what this book was about, I couldn’t wait to listen! I listened to the whole audiobook in one day and loved every minute! If I could give it 10 stars, I would! Great story and the narrator did amazing as usual! ❤️
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!