
White Picket Fences
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
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $18.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Bernadette Dunne
-
By:
-
Susan Meissner
About this listen
When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier eagerly takes in her sixteen year-old niece Tally. The girl is practically an orphan: motherless, and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands– in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm–and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda envisions that she, her husband Neil, and their two teenagers can offer the girl stability and a shot at a “normal” life, even though their own storybook lives are about to crumble.
Seventeen-year-old Chase Janvier hasn’t seen his cousin in years, and other than a vague curiosity about her strange life, he doesn’t expect her arrival will affect him much–or interfere with his growing, disturbing interest in a long-ago house fire that plagues his dreams unbeknownst to anyone else. Tally and Chase bond as they interview two Holocaust survivors for a sociology project, and become startlingly aware that the whole family is grappling with hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won’t make them go away. Will Tally’s presence blow apart their carefully-constructed world, knocking down the illusion of the white picket fence and reveal a hidden past that could destroy them all–or can she help them find the truth without losing each other?
©2009 Susan Meissner (P)2009 Random HouseListeners also enjoyed...
-
Lady in Waiting
- A Novel
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Samantha Eggar, Donna Rawlins
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Content in her comfortable marriage of 22 years, Jane Lindsay never expected to watch her husband, Brad, pack his belongings and walk out the door of their Manhattan home. But when it happens, she feels powerless to stop him and the course of events that follow Brad’s departure. Jane finds an old ring in a box of relics from a British jumble sale and discovers a Latin inscription in the band along with just one other word: Jane
-
-
Really no-one else tried to unlock the box
- By Robyn on 07-18-17
By: Susan Meissner
-
Widows & Orphans
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When attorney Rachael Flynn learns her bighearted younger brother has been arrested, she at first takes it in stride; Joshua has been in trouble before when his zeal for helping the downtrodden and disadvantaged pitted him against the law. But this time, the charge is murder and he's confessed to the crime. Certain that he's innocent, Rachael begs Joshua to let her represent him, but her brother refuses her offer of counsel.
-
-
disappointing
- By jenh on 05-13-21
By: Susan Meissner
-
Shape of Mercy
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two women, the ailing Abigail Boyles and exuberant, wealthy Lauren Durough, are brought together by their love of books and the discovery of a diary written by a young woman, Mercy Hayworth, who was burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials. Her inspiring, yearning, romantic diary proves to be an inspiration to both Abigail and Lauren, teaching them to cherish friendships, love, and life. Readers will be similarly uplifted by Susan Messner's finely wrought tale.
-
-
Fascinating stories (3 interwoven together)
- By Gerig on 11-13-16
By: Susan Meissner
-
A Sound Among the Trees
- A Novel
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young bride, Susannah Page was rumored to be a Civil War spy for the North, a traitor to her Virginian roots. Her great-granddaughter Adelaide, the current matriarch of Holly Oak, doesn’t believe that Susannah’s ghost haunts the antebellum mansion looking for a pardon, but rather the house itself bears a grudge toward its tragic past.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Kimberlie Parker on 07-11-17
By: Susan Meissner
-
Only the Beautiful
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
California, 1938—When she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresser’s daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvert’s spacious house with a secret, however—Rosie sees colors when she hears sound. She promised her mother she’d never reveal her little-understood ability to anyone, but the weight of her isolation and grief prove too much for her. Driven by her loneliness she not only breaks the vow to her mother, but in a desperate moment lets down her guard and ends up pregnant.
-
-
Seeing the world in colors…
- By Bridgeman Family on 03-04-24
By: Susan Meissner
-
A Fall of Marigolds
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries...and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she's made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her?
-
-
Beautiful!
- By R. Burnham on 03-29-15
By: Susan Meissner
-
Lady in Waiting
- A Novel
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Samantha Eggar, Donna Rawlins
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Content in her comfortable marriage of 22 years, Jane Lindsay never expected to watch her husband, Brad, pack his belongings and walk out the door of their Manhattan home. But when it happens, she feels powerless to stop him and the course of events that follow Brad’s departure. Jane finds an old ring in a box of relics from a British jumble sale and discovers a Latin inscription in the band along with just one other word: Jane
-
-
Really no-one else tried to unlock the box
- By Robyn on 07-18-17
By: Susan Meissner
-
Widows & Orphans
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When attorney Rachael Flynn learns her bighearted younger brother has been arrested, she at first takes it in stride; Joshua has been in trouble before when his zeal for helping the downtrodden and disadvantaged pitted him against the law. But this time, the charge is murder and he's confessed to the crime. Certain that he's innocent, Rachael begs Joshua to let her represent him, but her brother refuses her offer of counsel.
-
-
disappointing
- By jenh on 05-13-21
By: Susan Meissner
-
Shape of Mercy
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two women, the ailing Abigail Boyles and exuberant, wealthy Lauren Durough, are brought together by their love of books and the discovery of a diary written by a young woman, Mercy Hayworth, who was burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials. Her inspiring, yearning, romantic diary proves to be an inspiration to both Abigail and Lauren, teaching them to cherish friendships, love, and life. Readers will be similarly uplifted by Susan Messner's finely wrought tale.
-
-
Fascinating stories (3 interwoven together)
- By Gerig on 11-13-16
By: Susan Meissner
-
A Sound Among the Trees
- A Novel
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young bride, Susannah Page was rumored to be a Civil War spy for the North, a traitor to her Virginian roots. Her great-granddaughter Adelaide, the current matriarch of Holly Oak, doesn’t believe that Susannah’s ghost haunts the antebellum mansion looking for a pardon, but rather the house itself bears a grudge toward its tragic past.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Kimberlie Parker on 07-11-17
By: Susan Meissner
-
Only the Beautiful
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
California, 1938—When she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresser’s daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvert’s spacious house with a secret, however—Rosie sees colors when she hears sound. She promised her mother she’d never reveal her little-understood ability to anyone, but the weight of her isolation and grief prove too much for her. Driven by her loneliness she not only breaks the vow to her mother, but in a desperate moment lets down her guard and ends up pregnant.
-
-
Seeing the world in colors…
- By Bridgeman Family on 03-04-24
By: Susan Meissner
-
A Fall of Marigolds
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries...and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she's made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her?
-
-
Beautiful!
- By R. Burnham on 03-29-15
By: Susan Meissner
-
Secrets of a Charmed Life
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.
-
-
Rare 5-Star Across the Board!
- By Imamomof4 on 06-14-15
By: Susan Meissner
-
The Last Year of the War
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 16 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa 14-year-old in 1943 - aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal US resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity. The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles.
-
-
Historical Fiction at its Best!
- By KAT M K on 04-06-19
By: Susan Meissner
-
As Bright as Heaven
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Cassandra Morris, Tavia Gilbert, Jorjeana Marie, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters - Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa - a chance at a better life. But just months after they arrive, the Spanish flu reaches the shores of America.
-
-
As Bright as Heaven
- By Amazon Customer on 05-03-18
By: Susan Meissner
-
A Bridge Across the Ocean
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Kim Bubbs
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
February, 1946. World War Two is over, but the recovery from the most intimate of its horrors has only just begun for Annaliese Lange, a German ballerina desperate to escape her past, and Simone Deveraux, the wronged daughter of a French Résistance spy. Now the two women are joining hundreds of other European war brides aboard the renowned RMS Queen Mary to cross the Atlantic and be reunited with their American husbands. Their new lives in the United States brightly beckon until their tightly held secrets are laid bare in their shared stateroom.
-
-
Don't like ghost stories
- By connie nance on 03-18-17
By: Susan Meissner
-
The Nature of Fragile Things
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins, Jason Culp
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin's silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin's odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn't right.
-
-
The Nature of Fragile Things is a 5 star listen!
- By Kathy… send to help my husband to sleep!! on 02-04-21
By: Susan Meissner
-
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
-
When We Had Wings
- By: Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris, Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this sweeping story based on the true experiences of nurses dubbed "the Angels of Bataan," three women shift in and out of each other's lives through the darkest days of the war, buoyed by their unwavering friendship and distant dreams of liberation.
-
-
A sanitized view of the Japanese in WWII.
- By Mary on 04-04-23
By: Ariel Lawhon, and others
-
Why the Sky Is Blue
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What options does a Christian woman have after she's brutally assaulted by a stranger...and becomes pregnant? That's the heartrending situation Claire Holland faces. Happily married and the mother of two when she is attacked, Claire begins an incredible journey on the painful pathway to trusting God in all things. When Claire's husband, Dan, confesses he can't be a father to the expected child, Claire's decision to put the baby up for adoption creates a sense of tremendous loss for Claire.
-
-
Best Read in a Long Time
- By Lori J. Little on 08-30-19
By: Susan Meissner
-
A Window to the World
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the dramatic story of two young girls, Megan and Jen, who meet in first grade and quickly become inseparable friends. Inseparable, that is, until one of them is snatched away by kidnappers as the other young girl watches helplessly. The remaining child grows up with the haunting memory of her friend's abduction...and absence from her life. Then, 16 years later, the stunning truth of the disappearance is revealed. And once again, lives are changed forever.
-
-
PERFECT❣️ WONDERFUL BOOK❣️
- By Marie G. on 08-04-23
By: Susan Meissner
-
The Book of Lost Friends
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Wingate
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss, Sullivan Jones, Robin Miles, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling author of Before We Were Yours comes a dramatic historical novel of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives.
-
-
I want more!!!
- By Mrstlg on 04-11-20
By: Lisa Wingate
-
A Girl Called Samson
- A Novel
- By: Amy Harmon
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1760, Deborah Samson is born to Puritan parents in Plympton, Massachusetts. When her father abandons the family and her mother is unable to support them, Deborah is bound out as an indentured servant. From that moment on, she yearns for a life of liberation and adventure. Twenty years later, as the American colonies begin to buckle in their battle for independence, Deborah, impassioned by the cause, disguises herself as a soldier and enlists in the Continental Army.
-
-
Alternate facts
- By Kay on 04-20-23
By: Amy Harmon
-
When Crickets Cry
- By: Charles Martin
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It begins on the shaded town square in a sleepy Southern town. A spirited seven-year-old has a brisk business at her lemonade stand. But the little girl’s pretty yellow dress can’t quite hide the ugly scar on her chest. Her latest customer, a bearded stranger, drains his cup and heads to his car, his mind on a boat he's restoring at a nearby lake. The stranger understands more about the scar than he wants to admit. And the beat-up bread truck careening around the corner with its radio blaring is about to change the trajectory of both their lives.
-
-
Soooo boring...and preachy.
- By Melanie on 03-05-20
By: Charles Martin
Critic reviews
“I loved looking into the heart of this family whose life looks perfect only from the outside. Meissner’s characters are so real, so haunted by the past, and so in denial for reasons of self-defense that you will be swept away till the final page. You’ll find it hard not to wonder, as one of the elderly characters did, if remembering is a choice that takes courage.”–Julie L. Cannon, author of Truleove & Homegrown Tomatoes, ’Mater Biscuit, Those Pearly Gates, and The Romance Readers’ Book Club
“To step into a Susan Meissner book is to be blessed by a craftsman’s tender touch. In Susan’s hands, we move carefully into compassion, entering the ordinary lives of people who could be our neighbors, ourselves, each doing what we can to staunch the pain of memory. This book opens a gate in the white picket fences of our lives, helping transform memory and secrets so we are no longer held hostage by the past. Beautifully written by a keen observer of the human condition, White Picket Fence will keep you reading into the night and make you sigh with satisfaction at the end.”–Jane Kirkpatrick, award-winning author of A Flickering Light
“This compelling story with its wonderful cast of characters offers hope to all of us who live less than perfect lives behind our white picket fences. Susan Meissner skillfully weaves together parallel storylines to show how healing can come when we risk sharing our secret pain with others.”–Lynn Austin, author of Until We Reach Home
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Shape of Mercy
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two women, the ailing Abigail Boyles and exuberant, wealthy Lauren Durough, are brought together by their love of books and the discovery of a diary written by a young woman, Mercy Hayworth, who was burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials. Her inspiring, yearning, romantic diary proves to be an inspiration to both Abigail and Lauren, teaching them to cherish friendships, love, and life. Readers will be similarly uplifted by Susan Messner's finely wrought tale.
-
-
Fascinating stories (3 interwoven together)
- By Gerig on 11-13-16
By: Susan Meissner
-
A Sound Among the Trees
- A Novel
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young bride, Susannah Page was rumored to be a Civil War spy for the North, a traitor to her Virginian roots. Her great-granddaughter Adelaide, the current matriarch of Holly Oak, doesn’t believe that Susannah’s ghost haunts the antebellum mansion looking for a pardon, but rather the house itself bears a grudge toward its tragic past.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Kimberlie Parker on 07-11-17
By: Susan Meissner
-
The Last Year of the War
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 16 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa 14-year-old in 1943 - aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal US resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity. The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles.
-
-
Historical Fiction at its Best!
- By KAT M K on 04-06-19
By: Susan Meissner
-
Secrets of a Charmed Life
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.
-
-
Rare 5-Star Across the Board!
- By Imamomof4 on 06-14-15
By: Susan Meissner
-
Why the Sky Is Blue
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What options does a Christian woman have after she's brutally assaulted by a stranger...and becomes pregnant? That's the heartrending situation Claire Holland faces. Happily married and the mother of two when she is attacked, Claire begins an incredible journey on the painful pathway to trusting God in all things. When Claire's husband, Dan, confesses he can't be a father to the expected child, Claire's decision to put the baby up for adoption creates a sense of tremendous loss for Claire.
-
-
Best Read in a Long Time
- By Lori J. Little on 08-30-19
By: Susan Meissner
-
A Bridge Across the Ocean
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Kim Bubbs
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
February, 1946. World War Two is over, but the recovery from the most intimate of its horrors has only just begun for Annaliese Lange, a German ballerina desperate to escape her past, and Simone Deveraux, the wronged daughter of a French Résistance spy. Now the two women are joining hundreds of other European war brides aboard the renowned RMS Queen Mary to cross the Atlantic and be reunited with their American husbands. Their new lives in the United States brightly beckon until their tightly held secrets are laid bare in their shared stateroom.
-
-
Don't like ghost stories
- By connie nance on 03-18-17
By: Susan Meissner
-
Shape of Mercy
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two women, the ailing Abigail Boyles and exuberant, wealthy Lauren Durough, are brought together by their love of books and the discovery of a diary written by a young woman, Mercy Hayworth, who was burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials. Her inspiring, yearning, romantic diary proves to be an inspiration to both Abigail and Lauren, teaching them to cherish friendships, love, and life. Readers will be similarly uplifted by Susan Messner's finely wrought tale.
-
-
Fascinating stories (3 interwoven together)
- By Gerig on 11-13-16
By: Susan Meissner
-
A Sound Among the Trees
- A Novel
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young bride, Susannah Page was rumored to be a Civil War spy for the North, a traitor to her Virginian roots. Her great-granddaughter Adelaide, the current matriarch of Holly Oak, doesn’t believe that Susannah’s ghost haunts the antebellum mansion looking for a pardon, but rather the house itself bears a grudge toward its tragic past.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Kimberlie Parker on 07-11-17
By: Susan Meissner
-
The Last Year of the War
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 16 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa 14-year-old in 1943 - aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal US resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity. The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles.
-
-
Historical Fiction at its Best!
- By KAT M K on 04-06-19
By: Susan Meissner
-
Secrets of a Charmed Life
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.
-
-
Rare 5-Star Across the Board!
- By Imamomof4 on 06-14-15
By: Susan Meissner
-
Why the Sky Is Blue
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What options does a Christian woman have after she's brutally assaulted by a stranger...and becomes pregnant? That's the heartrending situation Claire Holland faces. Happily married and the mother of two when she is attacked, Claire begins an incredible journey on the painful pathway to trusting God in all things. When Claire's husband, Dan, confesses he can't be a father to the expected child, Claire's decision to put the baby up for adoption creates a sense of tremendous loss for Claire.
-
-
Best Read in a Long Time
- By Lori J. Little on 08-30-19
By: Susan Meissner
-
A Bridge Across the Ocean
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Kim Bubbs
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
February, 1946. World War Two is over, but the recovery from the most intimate of its horrors has only just begun for Annaliese Lange, a German ballerina desperate to escape her past, and Simone Deveraux, the wronged daughter of a French Résistance spy. Now the two women are joining hundreds of other European war brides aboard the renowned RMS Queen Mary to cross the Atlantic and be reunited with their American husbands. Their new lives in the United States brightly beckon until their tightly held secrets are laid bare in their shared stateroom.
-
-
Don't like ghost stories
- By connie nance on 03-18-17
By: Susan Meissner
-
As Bright as Heaven
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Cassandra Morris, Tavia Gilbert, Jorjeana Marie, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters - Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa - a chance at a better life. But just months after they arrive, the Spanish flu reaches the shores of America.
-
-
As Bright as Heaven
- By Amazon Customer on 05-03-18
By: Susan Meissner
-
A Window to the World
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the dramatic story of two young girls, Megan and Jen, who meet in first grade and quickly become inseparable friends. Inseparable, that is, until one of them is snatched away by kidnappers as the other young girl watches helplessly. The remaining child grows up with the haunting memory of her friend's abduction...and absence from her life. Then, 16 years later, the stunning truth of the disappearance is revealed. And once again, lives are changed forever.
-
-
PERFECT❣️ WONDERFUL BOOK❣️
- By Marie G. on 08-04-23
By: Susan Meissner
-
A Map to Paradise
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter’s agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open windows. He’s her sole confidante, though, as she and her housekeeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation. Then one early morning Melanie and Eva spot Elwood’s sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don’t see Elwood at all anymore.
-
-
Not my favorite from my favorite author.
- By Ginger on 03-28-25
By: Susan Meissner
-
A Fall of Marigolds
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries...and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she's made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her?
-
-
Beautiful!
- By R. Burnham on 03-29-15
By: Susan Meissner
-
Lady in Waiting
- A Novel
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Samantha Eggar, Donna Rawlins
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Content in her comfortable marriage of 22 years, Jane Lindsay never expected to watch her husband, Brad, pack his belongings and walk out the door of their Manhattan home. But when it happens, she feels powerless to stop him and the course of events that follow Brad’s departure. Jane finds an old ring in a box of relics from a British jumble sale and discovers a Latin inscription in the band along with just one other word: Jane
-
-
Really no-one else tried to unlock the box
- By Robyn on 07-18-17
By: Susan Meissner
-
Only the Beautiful
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
California, 1938—When she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresser’s daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvert’s spacious house with a secret, however—Rosie sees colors when she hears sound. She promised her mother she’d never reveal her little-understood ability to anyone, but the weight of her isolation and grief prove too much for her. Driven by her loneliness she not only breaks the vow to her mother, but in a desperate moment lets down her guard and ends up pregnant.
-
-
Seeing the world in colors…
- By Bridgeman Family on 03-04-24
By: Susan Meissner
-
The Nature of Fragile Things
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins, Jason Culp
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin's silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin's odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn't right.
-
-
The Nature of Fragile Things is a 5 star listen!
- By Kathy… send to help my husband to sleep!! on 02-04-21
By: Susan Meissner
-
Widows & Orphans
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When attorney Rachael Flynn learns her bighearted younger brother has been arrested, she at first takes it in stride; Joshua has been in trouble before when his zeal for helping the downtrodden and disadvantaged pitted him against the law. But this time, the charge is murder and he's confessed to the crime. Certain that he's innocent, Rachael begs Joshua to let her represent him, but her brother refuses her offer of counsel.
-
-
disappointing
- By jenh on 05-13-21
By: Susan Meissner
-
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
-
When We Had Wings
- By: Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris, Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this sweeping story based on the true experiences of nurses dubbed "the Angels of Bataan," three women shift in and out of each other's lives through the darkest days of the war, buoyed by their unwavering friendship and distant dreams of liberation.
-
-
A sanitized view of the Japanese in WWII.
- By Mary on 04-04-23
By: Ariel Lawhon, and others
-
Under the Light of the Italian Moon
- By: Jennifer Anton
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nina Argenta doesn’t want the traditional life of a rural Italian woman. The daughter of a strong-willed midwife, she is determined to define her own destiny. But when her brother emigrates to America, she promises her mother to never leave. When childhood friend Pietro Pante briefly returns to their mountain town, passion between them ignites while Mussolini forces political tensions to rise. Just as their romance deepens, Pietro must leave again for work in the coal mines of America. Nina is torn between joining him and her commitment to Italy and her mother.
-
-
Bravo!
- By BlueBoots6 on 05-01-24
By: Jennifer Anton
-
Broken Country
- By: Clare Leslie Hall
- Narrated by: Hattie Morahan
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.
-
-
Excellent storytelling
- By A.E.C. on 03-15-25
What listeners say about White Picket Fences
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- D. Stokes
- 09-22-24
Entertaining
This book took me a while to get through because it went slow through the parts that were not of interest I.e. Amanda! I found the historical context very interesting. I think Susan does a great job with history.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- elli
- 05-20-23
Somewhat disappointed
Not much depth to the characters. It felt like they were presented to make the story work, but it didn’t do it for me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- DottieLou Brems
- 02-03-22
Xx
End joyed the story, but the author left a secret between Chase and his Mother. The burden of that is too great for a teen. Too bad that could not have been resolved.
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
- Sandra
- 03-25-16
Not good.
This is the first of this author's books that I haven't enjoyed. Boring , predictable and the narrator was annoying.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful