
When We Were Bright and Beautiful
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Marin Ireland
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By:
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Jillian Medoff
About this listen
“Two parts Gone Girl, two parts Notes on a Scandal. . .will play with your expectations about who’s the villain and who’s the victim.” — Jennifer Weiner, USA Today
Longlisted for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize for Fiction
The acclaimed, bestselling author of This Could Hurt returns with her biggest, boldest novel yet—an electrifying, twisty, and deeply emotional family drama, set on Manhattan’s glittering Upper East Side, that explores the dark side of love, the limits of loyalty, and the high cost of truth.
You can have everything, and still not have enough.
Cassie Quinn may only be twenty-three, but she knows a few things. One: money can’t buy happiness, but it’s certainly better to have it. Two: family matters most. Three: her younger brother Billy is not a rapist.
When Billy, a junior at Princeton, is arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Cassie races home to Manhattan to join forces with her big brother Nate and their parents, Lawrence and Eleanor. The Quinns scramble to hire the best legal minds money can buy, but Billy fits the all-too-familiar sex-offender profile—white, athletic, and privileged—that makes headlines and sways juries.
Meanwhile, Cassie struggles to understand why Billy’s ex Diana would go this far, even if the breakup was painful. And she knows how the end of first love can destroy someone: Her own years-long affair with a powerful, charismatic man left her shattered, and she’s only recently regained her footing.
As reporters converge outside their Upper East Side landmark building, the Quinns gird themselves for a media-saturated trial, and Cassie vows she’ll do whatever it takes to save Billy. But what if that means exposing her own darkest secrets to the world?
Lightning-paced and psychologically astute as it rockets toward an explosive ending, When We Were Bright and Beautiful is a dazzling novel that asks: who will pay the price when the truth is revealed?
©2022 Jillian Medoff (P)2022 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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- Unabridged
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One year ago, Lucy’s sister, Nicki, left to meet friends at a pub in Dublin and never came home. The third Irish woman to vanish inexplicably in as many years, the agony of not knowing what happened that night has turned Lucy’s life into a waking nightmare. So, she’s going to take matters into her own hands. Angela works as a paper-pusher in the Missing Persons Unit, but wants nothing more than to be a fully fledged member of An Garda Síochána, the Irish police force. With the investigation into the missing women stalled, she begins pulling on a thread that could break the case wide open.
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Not Her Best
- By Avid series reader on 08-05-23
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Like a House on Fire
- By: Lauren McBrayer
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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After 12 years of marriage and two kids, Merit has begun to feel like a stranger in her own life. She loves her husband and sons, but she desperately needs something more than sippy cups and monthly sex. So, she returns to her career at Jager + Brandt, where a brilliant and beautiful Danish architect named Jane decides to overlook the “break” in Merit’s résumé and give her a shot.
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Been there
- By M. Barn on 05-11-22
By: Lauren McBrayer
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Drowning
- By: T. J. Newman
- Narrated by: Steven Weber, Laura Benanti
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Six minutes after takeoff, Flight 1421 crashes into the Pacific Ocean. During the evacuation, an engine explodes and the plane is flooded. Those still alive are forced to close the doors—but it’s too late. The plane sinks to the bottom with twelve passengers trapped inside. More than two hundred feet below the surface, engineer Will Kent and his eleven-year-old daughter Shannon are waist-deep in water and fighting for their lives.
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Outstanding!
- By Adanna H on 05-30-23
By: T. J. Newman
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When the Wolf Comes Home
- By: Nat Cassidy
- Narrated by: Helen Laser, Nat Cassidy
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy's father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives. As they attempt to evade the boy's increasingly desperate father, Jess slowly comes to a horrifying understanding of the butchery that follows them—the boy can turn his every fear into reality. And when the wolf finally comes home, no one will be spared.
By: Nat Cassidy
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The Poppy Fields
- A Novel
- By: Nikki Erlick
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland, Dan Bittner, Stacey Glemboski, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Welcome to the Poppy Fields, where there’s hope for even the most battered hearts to heal. Here, in a remote stretch of the California desert, lies an experimental and controversial treatment center that allows those suffering from the heartache of loss to sleep through their pain...and keep on sleeping. After patients awaken from this prolonged state of slumber, they will finally be healed. But only if they’re willing to accept the potential shadowy side effects. On a journey to this mystical destination are four very different strangers and one little dog.
By: Nikki Erlick
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Run for the Hills
- A Novel
- By: Kevin Wilson
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since her dad left them twenty years ago, it’s just been Madeline Hill and her mom on their farm in Coalfield, Tennessee. While she sometimes admits it’s a bit lonely and a less exciting life than she imagined for herself, it’s mostly OK. Mostly. Then one day Reuben Hill pulls up in a PT Cruiser and informs Madeline that he believes she’s his half sister.
By: Kevin Wilson
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The Curator
- By: Owen King
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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From New York Times bestselling author Owen King, who “writes with witty verve” (Entertainment Weekly) comes a “richly imagined” (The New York Times) Dickensian fantasy of illusion and charm where cats are revered as religious figures, thieves are noble, scholars are revolutionaries, and conjurers are the most wonderful criminals you can imagine.
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Must have the patience
- By I Feel the Need, the Need to Read book blog on 03-09-23
By: Owen King
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The Final Scene
- By: Steph Nelson
- Narrated by: Sera Chance
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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When Brooke was kidnapped on her way home from work, she thought her life was over. That was ten years ago. She’s been held captive in an isolated cabin on the Oregon coast ever since, scrambling to follow her kidnappers’ twisted instructions to the letter. Because the price of a mistake is death.
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Narration Ruined the Story
- By J. Colin on 05-28-24
By: Steph Nelson
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Good Company
- A Novel
- By: Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Flora Mancini has been happily married for more than 20 years. But everything she thought she knew about herself, her marriage, and her relationship with her best friend, Margot, is upended when she stumbles upon an envelope containing her husband’s wedding ring - the one he claimed he lost one summer when their daughter, Ruby, was five.
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But the ending....
- By JAC on 04-12-21
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Goodnight Beautiful
- A Novel
- By: Aimee Molloy
- Narrated by: Val Toomey, George Newbern, Marin Ireland, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Newlyweds Sam Statler and Annie Potter are head over heels, and excited to say good-bye to New York city and start a life together in Sam's sleepy hometown upstate. Or, it turns out, a life where Annie spends most of her time alone while Sam, her therapist husband, works long hours in his downstairs office, tending to the egos of his (mostly female) clientele. Little does Sam know that through a vent in his ceiling, every word of his sessions can be heard from the room upstairs.
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Book you will not be able to put down!
- By Deanna Mears on 10-16-20
By: Aimee Molloy
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The Last Housewife
- A Novel
- By: Ashley Winstead
- Narrated by: Alexis Van Aiken
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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While in college in upstate New York, Shay Evans and her best friends met a captivating man who seduced them with a web of lies about the way the world works, bringing them under his thrall. By senior year, Shay and her friend Laurel were the only ones who managed to escape. Now, eight years later, Shay’s built a new life in a tony Texas suburb. But when she hears the horrifying news of Laurel’s death―delivered, of all ways, by her favorite true-crime podcast crusader―she begins to suspect that the past she thought she buried is still very much alive.
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Whoa
- By Lela on 09-09-22
By: Ashley Winstead
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Nestlings
- By: Nat Cassidy
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Nat Cassidy
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Ana and Reid needed a lucky break. The horrifically complicated birth of their first child has left Ana paralyzed, bitter, and struggling: with mobility, with her relationship with Reid, with resentment for her baby. That's about to change with the words any New Yorker would love to hear—affordable housing lottery. They've won an apartment in the Deptford, one of Manhattan's most revered buildings. Reid dismisses disturbing events and Ana’s deep unease and paranoia as the price of living in New York—people are odd—but he can't explain the needle-like bite marks on the baby.
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One of my favorite new authors
- By Jess A. on 04-01-24
By: Nat Cassidy
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We Are Not Like Them
- A Novel
- By: Christine Pride, Jo Piazza
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland, Shayna Small, Kevin R. Free, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Jen and Riley have been best friends since kindergarten. As adults, they remain as close as sisters, though their lives have taken different directions. Jen married young, and after years of trying, is finally pregnant. Riley pursued her childhood dream of becoming a television journalist and is poised to become one of the first Black female anchors of the top news channel in their hometown of Philadelphia. But the deep bond they share is severely tested when Jen’s husband, a city police officer, is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager.
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These Author’s UNDERSTOOD the assignment!
- By Queenwdg on 10-25-21
By: Christine Pride, and others
What listeners say about When We Were Bright and Beautiful
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- Britta
- 01-20-23
Worth the credit
A bit cringeworthy at times and could be triggering to some. Great read overall. Well written
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- RueRue
- 04-26-23
Such a letdown
Good start, with interesting characters and a big question - did he do it ? But the whole Marcus deception ( trying to avoid spoilers here) just didn’t work, the characters all made drastic personality shifts that just wasn’t plausible, and the central relationship was really yucky. Such a letdown after a great first half.
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- lisa
- 08-19-22
Emotional roller coaster
Story was told as well as you can tell a harrowing story such as this. I’d recommend.
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- Candace Campanelli
- 02-18-23
Well written, but very disturbing.
Well written and gripping story, but very very disturbing and dark. Would’ve been better without the woke virtue signaling.
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- Ilyssa Somer
- 04-13-25
Excellent read
I liked the glimpse into the lives of those seemingly wealthy and elite people. As it unfolds the cracks appear showing that hidden behind the ivy league and philanthropy are very unhappy dysfunctional and broken people.
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- Varlis
- 08-09-22
Nuanced and interesting
This book was complex and unexpected, and I was surprised to hear the author began writing it prior to 2016 and the MeToo movement. It didn’t lean into tropes.
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- Jesse Quattrociocchi
- 08-20-22
Good book!
Took a bit to get into it but overall it was a great book and sad story. Worth the read for sure!
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- K. De Vita
- 08-17-22
Predictable
Unfortunately The twist which wasn’t told until late in the story became obvious very early on.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-10-22
Surprisingly great!
Originally got this book because I love Marin Irelands voice and the story seemed intriguing. I am very surprised to say I enjoyed the heck out of it! Lots of folks have mentioned trigger warnings so I wont, but there are definitely parts where anyone with a soul will feel anger, panic, anxiety, sadness, etc. This was absolutely worth the credit and kudos to Mrs Ireland for a wonderful performance (as always).
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- C. Getz
- 09-02-22
Smartly written, theatrical performance
Medoff’s quick pace and hard driving style I found unique. I enjoyed her story construction and riveting flow. Apart from the theme, I was personally thrusted into a menagerie of haughty characters both relatable, yet not so likable (good development), a product of the city from where they hail, big city, big egos, big messes, big falls. I liked her three-pete of certain words that not only drove home a point, but at times exemplified the meaning to the absurdity of the point toward its negation.
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1 person found this helpful