Contemporary Women Audiobooks | Fiction

"'Candid and complex - and ultimately quite hopeful' Claire Lombardo 'Beautiful and deeply moving' J. Courtney Sullivan 'A story of abiding hope' Mary Beth Keane When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her four young children and her closest friend are left to struggle without the woman who centred their lives. Bill Brown finds himself overwhelmed, and Annie's best friend Annemarie is lost to old bad habits without Annie's support. It is Annie's daughter, Ali, forced to try to care for her younger brothers and even her father, who manages to maintain some semblance of their former lives for them all, and who confronts the complicated truths of adulthood. Yet over the course of the next year, while Annie looms large in their memories, all three are able to grow, to change, even to become stronger and more sure of themselves. The enduring power Annie gave to those who loved her is the power to love, and to go on without her. Written in Quindlen's emotionally resonant voice, and with her deep and generous understanding of people, After Annie is a story that ends with hope, a beautiful novel about how adversity can change us in profound ways. Praise for Anna Quindlen 'Leaves the reader feeling grateful, wide awake, lucky to be alive' Michael Chabon 'Simply impossible to forget' Alice Hoffman 'Qualities and shades of love are this writer's strong suit, and she has the unusual talent for writing about them with so much truth and heart' Elizabeth Jane Howard 'Breathtaking... Quindlen writes superbly about families, grief and betrayal. I was completely mesmerised' Lisa Jewell 'Engaging, immaculately constructed storytelling' Guardian 'One of our most astute chroniclers of modern life' New York Times Book Review 'Brave and beautiful' The Times 'Her storytelling is exemplary' Sunday Telegraph 'With relentless and dazzling brilliance, Quindlen grapples with the lancing pain and the swirls of disorientation experienced by anyone who has loved and lost' Daily Mail 'A wise, closely observed, achingly eloquent book' Huffington Post 'Overwhelmingly moving' New York Times"

Anna Quindlen (Author), Gilli Messer (Narrator)

Audiobook

Second Chance Summer

"Brought to you by Penguin. From the moment Lily Harper arrives at a remote retreat on the breath-taking Scilly Isles, she is itching to get back to civilisation - and her business. Slowing down simply isn't in her vocabulary, and so she quickly clashes with the gorgeous but dour Sam who runs the retreat. Just as Lily is about to give up and leave, she is involved in a spectacular boating accident. Rumours abound and her obituary is released online. But there are two problems: One: Lily doesn't like the person she's reading about Two: Lily isn't dead Faced with her own mortality, Lily is no longer sure she wants to return to the life she thought she loved. But will she have the courage to give the retreat, and Sam, a second chance? ©2024 Phillipa Ashley (P)2024 Penguin Audio"

Phillipa Ashley (Author), Charlotte Worthing (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Mistress Experience: Society of Sirens, Volume III

"The scandalous women of the USA Today bestselling author Scarlett Peckham’s Society of Sirens are back with the final stage in their fight for female rights—and this time the battle is to be waged in bed… She’s the most infamous harlot in London…and she’s up for auction. Thaïs Magadalene is a legend. The nation’s most notorious courtesan, she sells herself once a week, for one night only, and never to the same patron twice. Until now. To raise money for the cause of women’s rights, she has auctioned herself off for one month as mistress to the highest bidder. But the winner is not who he seems. Lord Alastair Eden is an earl, a radical politician, and a perfectionist in all things—except one. His confidence belies an unexpected secret: he doesn’t know how to please a woman in bed. He’s determined to change that before he marries. And who could be better than the most skilled lover in the country to teach him? And love is never for sale. Thaïs dreams of finding a man who will love her unconditionally, never mind her past and reputation. Eden dreams of finding a perfectly bred young lady to be his wife and helpmeet. But when a steamy month in the countryside breeds a connection both in and out of the bedchamber, the two of them must decide how much can be sacrificed for love—one’s dreams, or one’s reputation."

Scarlett Peckham (Author), Justine Eyre (Narrator)

Audiobook

How the Light Gets In: A Novel

"From New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard comes the eagerly anticipated follow-up to her beloved novel Count the Ways—a complex story of three generations of a family and its remarkable, resilient, indomitable matriarch, Eleanor. Following the death of her former husband, Cam, fifty-four-year-old Eleanor has moved back to the New Hampshire farm where they raised three children to care for their brain-injured son, Toby, now an adult. Toby’s older brother, Al, is married and living in Seattle with his wife; their sister, Ursula, lives in Vermont with her husband and two children. Although all appears stable, old resentments, anger, and bitterness simmer just beneath the surface. How the Light Gets In follows Eleanor and her family through fifteen years (2010 to 2024) as their story plays out against a uniquely American backdrop and the events that transform their world (climate change, the January 6th insurrection, school violence) and shape their lives (later-life love, parental alienation, steadfast friendship). With her trademark sensitivity and insight, Joyce Maynard paints an indelible portrait of characters both familiar and new making their way over rough, messy, and treacherous terrain to find their way to what is, for each, a place to call “home.”"

Joyce Maynard (Author), Joyce Maynard (Narrator)

Audiobook

Private Rites

"'Brilliantly audacious' GUARDIAN 'Stunning' DAZED 'Her prose sparkles' ELIZA CLARK ‘Hauntingly good’ iNEWS ’A must read’ GLAMOUR 'One of my favourite novels' JEFF VANDERMEER From the bestselling author of Our Wives Under the Sea, a haunting, heart wrenching novel of three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world. There’s no way to bury a body in earth which is flooded It’s been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway. As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world. A Book of the Year in the Guardian and Dazed ‘Armfield writes so gracefully’ THE TIMES ‘Evocative yet grounded’ OBSERVER ‘A chilling vision of a future capital that I’ve found impossible to shake’ INEWS ‘Ballard-ian in apocalyptic scope … Deeply, passionately, messily human’ PAUL TREMBLAY ‘A signature cocktail of deadpan wit and staggering beauty’ ALICE SLATER ‘Every page guillotines you with its wisdom’ TOM BENN Longlisted for the 2024 Climate Fiction Prize"

Julia Armfield (Author), Hannah Van Der Westhuysen (Narrator)

Audiobook

Serendipity: A Novel

"Named Most Anticipated by Bustle | Brit + Co. This summer, will three weekends in a Fire Island share house be enough time for Maggie Monroe to fix her life, find love, and make sure she doesn't lose her friends for good? It's been six years since Maggie followed her screenwriting dreams to Los Angeles and forgot to look back. But things in Hollywood didn't go quite to plan. Now, twenty-five and suddenly home in New York, Maggie doesn't know who she's more anxious to see: her ex-boyfriend, Mac, or her ex-best friend, Liz. For Liz, Maggie is the girl who abandoned her at the worst possible moment and an unwelcome surprise who could derail her perfect summer. Liz is recently engaged to her high school sweetheart, Cam, but Maggie's arrival brings old wounds bubbling to the surface, exposing the cracks in Liz's apparent happily ever after. When Maggie accepts her former friends' unexpected invitation to join in their summer share house, a rental named Serendipity, she knows it's the chance she needs to get her life back on track. For three weekends, Maggie, Liz, Cam, Mac, and their closest friends will take the ferry to Ocean Beach, Fire Island, for some sun-kissed bliss, if only they can avoid the drama of their past catching up to the present. With the nostalgic flavor of a stack of sepia-toned Polaroids, and perfect for fans of Emily Henry, Jennifer Weiner, and Ann Brashares, this big-hearted, page-turning story delves deep into a complicated friend group as they navigate one messy yet magical midtwenties summer."

Becky Chalsen (Author), Becky Chalsen, Brittany Pressley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Jackpot Summer

"As Seen on GMA USA Today bestseller A Skimm Reads Pick She Reads - Most Anticipated Contemporary Fiction 2024 After the Jacobson siblings win a life-changing fortune in the lottery, they assume their messy lives will transform into sleek, storybook perfection-but they couldn't be more wrong. The four Jacobson children were raised to respect the value of a dollar. Their mother reused tea bags and refused to pay retail; their father taught them to budget before he taught them to ride a bike. And yet, now that they're adults, their financial lives are in disarray. The siblings reunite when their newly widowed father puts their Jersey Shore beach house on the market. Packing up childhood memories isn't easy, especially when there's other drama brewing. Matthew is miserable at his corporate law job and wishes he had more time with his son; Laura's marriage is imploding in spectacular fashion; Sophie's art career is stalled while her boyfriend's is on the rise; and Noah's total failure to launch has him doing tech repair for pennies. When Noah sees an ad for a Powerball drawing, he and his sisters go in on tickets while their brother Matthew passes. All hell breaks loose when one of the tickets is a winner and three of the four Jacobsons become overnight millionaires. Without their mother's guidance, and with their father busy playing pickleball in a Florida retirement village, the once close-knit siblings search for comfort in shiny new toys instead of each other. It's not long before the Jacobsons start to realize that they'll never feel rich unless they can pull their family back together. "

Elyssa Friedland (Author), Thérèse Plummer (Narrator)

Audiobook

Trust Her: A Novel

""Flynn Berry is a must-read for me. Trust Her delivers her trademark blend of riveting suspense and beautiful emotional depth. You will love this novel." -Laura Dave, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me "Gripping . . . Ms. Berry is a lyrical writer who can set scenes both explosive and domestic." -Wall Street Journal Two sisters find they can't outrun their past in the riveting new thriller from the New York Times-bestselling author of Northern Spy, a Reese's Book Club pick Three years after they narrowly escaped the IRA's worst punishment for informing, Northern Irish sisters Tessa and Marian Daly have built a new life in Dublin with their young children. Though Tessa is haunted by the abrupt and violent end to her old life, she does her best to immerse herself in the joys of Finn's childhood and the rhythms of her new job at The Irish Observer. It's a small island, though, and just as quickly as they disappeared, figures from the sisters' past surface to drag them back into the conflict. Tessa is told she must track down her old handler from MI5, Eamonn, and attempt to turn him into an IRA informant, or lose everything. Tessa's reunion with Eamonn revives a host of feelings she has long attempted to bury. As their relationship intensifies and the pressure mounts, long-held secrets rise to the surface, and Tessa must navigate a treacherous landscape of shifting loyalties, all while trying to protect her beloved son. With her signature hair-raising suspense, razor-sharp prose, and rich emotional depth, Edgar Award winner Berry has crafted both an unforgettable portrait of two fierce women in the Daly sisters and her most spellbinding thriller to date."

Flynn Berry (Author), Katharine Lee Mcewan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Seven Summer Weekends

"Named An Anticipated Summer Read by Bustle ∙ Katie Couric Media ∙ SheReads ∙ New York Live ∙ Woman's World ∙ and more! A woman inherits a beach house, along with a series of weekend guests, while butting heads with the irritable (and irritatingly handsome) man next door, in this sparkling new escape from Jane L. Rosen. When a Zoom disaster upends Addison Irwin's decade-long career at a posh Manhattan advertising agency, things look bleak for the thirty-something mid-western transplant. But an unexpected inheritance from an aunt she barely remembers-a property on Fire Island, complete with guest house and artist's studio-changes everything. While debating whether to stay or sell, Addison learns that she's also inherited her aunt's list of eclectic guests, tying her to the island for seven summer weekends. Eager to convince Addison to keep the house rather than let a new buyer build a monstrosity in its place, the neighbors welcome her to their laid-back community. Well, all except the moody guy next door, who seems intent on glowering his way through life. Steadfast in her path since college, Addison is determined not to let this detour on Fire Island throw her off track. But soon, between the revolving door of weekend visitors and the up-and-down relationship with her neighbor (and his adorable dog), she finds herself in unfamiliar territory. Should she try to pick up where she left off-or embrace entirely new possibilities?"

Jane L. Rosen (Author), Emily Norman (Narrator)

Audiobook

One-Star Romance

"A struggling writer is forced to walk down the aisle at her best friend's wedding with the man who gave her book a very public one-star rating in this fresh romantic comedy from Laura Hankin. Natalie and Rob couldn't have less in common. Nat's a messy artist, and Rob's a rigid academic. The only thing they share is their devotion to their respective best friends-who just got engaged. Still, unexpected chemistry has Natalie cautiously optimistic about being maid of honor to Rob's best man. Until, minutes before the ceremony, Nat learns that Rob wrote a one-star review of her new novel, which has them both reeling: Nat from imposter syndrome, and Rob over the reason he needed to write it. When the reception ends, these two opposites hope they'll never meet again. But, as they slip from their twenties into their thirties, they're forced together whenever their fast-track best friends celebrate another milestone. Through housewarmings and christenings, life-changing triumphs and failures, Natalie and Rob grapple with their own choices-and how your harshest critic can become your perfectly imperfect match. After all, even the truest love stories sometimes need a bit of rewriting."

Laura Hankin (Author), Laura Hankin (Narrator)

Audiobook

Storm Warning

"A man living on a Florida barrier island must protect his family from both an approaching hurricane and a relentless killer. Jake Powell is racing to get off the island as a powerful hurricane approaches. When he finds his best friend Dallas, the building manager, dead from a blow to the skull, Jake realizes there's more than the storm to fear. There's a murderer on the island, maybe even still inside the nearly abandoned building. Dallas had repeatedly run afoul of the wealthy owners of the building by complaining about code violations and the precarious state of the condos. But he'd also once told Jake that every resident had a secret they'd come to Florida to escape. Had one of them killed to conceal their sins? As a dozen people shelter together in hopes of surviving the deadly hurricane, a second murder makes it all too clear: one of them is a dangerous killer."

David Bell (Author), Sean Patrick Hopkins (Narrator)

Audiobook

Jackie: A Novel

"In this mesmerizing novel about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, acclaimed author Dawn Tripp has crafted an intimate story of love and power, family and tragedy, loss and reinvention. "A brilliant, beautiful book [that] touches the soul."-Chris Bohjalian, New York Times bestselling author of The Princess of Las Vegas The world has divided my life into three: Life with Jack Life with Onassis Life as a woman who goes to work because she wants to. My life is all of these things, and it is none of these things. They continue to miss what's right in front of them. I love books. I love the sea. I love horses. Children. Art. Ideas. History. Beauty. Because beauty blows us open to wonder. Even the beauty that breaks your heart. Jackie is the story of a woman-deeply private with a nuanced, formidable intellect-who forged a legacy out of grief and shaped history even as she was living it. It is the story of a love affair, a complicated marriage, and the fracturing of identity that comes in the wake of unthinkable violence. When Jackie meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy in Georgetown, she is twenty-one and dreaming of France. She has won an internship at Vogue. Kennedy, she thinks, is not her kind of adventure: "Too American. Too good-looking. Too boy." Yet she is drawn to his mind, his humor, his drive. The chemistry between them ignites. During the White House years, the love between two independent people deepens. Then, a motorcade in Dallas: "Three and a half seconds-that's all it was-a slivered instant between the first shot, which missed the car, and the second, which did not. . . . A hypnotic burst of sunlight off her bracelet as she waved." This vivid, exquisitely written novel is at once a captivating work of the imagination and a window into the world of a woman who led many lives: Jackie, Jacks, Jacqueline, Miss Bouvier, Mrs. Kennedy, Jackie O."

Dawn Tripp (Author), Karissa Vacker, Linda Jones (Narrator)

Audiobook

Contemporary Women Audiobooks in Fiction