Contemporary Women Audiobooks | Fiction

The Duchess: The Scandalous Ladies of London

"The thrilling second book in New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan’s amazing new high concept series, The Scandalous Ladies of London, which chronicles the lives of a group of affluent ladies reigning over glittering, Regency-era London, vying for position in the hierarchy of the ton. They are the young wives, widows, and daughters of London’s wealthiest families. The drama is big, the money runs deep, and the shade is real. Life is different in the ton. “I liked my husband well enough … but I like him even better dead.” It’s been a year since her wretched cad of a husband died and Valencia, the Dowager Duchess of Dedham, is finally her own woman. Flitting from party to party, freedom is sweet and life should be perfect. Until the new duke surfaces. Nothing like the haughty noblemen who populate the ton, Rhain, the newly minted Duke of Dedham, is a big brawny Welshman with an accent that makes Valencia’s knees go weak as he boldly moves into her home with his six wild unwed sisters. The rude and humorless usurper thinks her vain and spoiled. But with a pittance to her name, Valencia needs his support to remain in London and enjoy all the pleasures her new position as a merry widow has to offer. So a bargain is struck. Valencia will usher his sisters into Good Society and see them happily betrothed. In return, he’ll give her the financial security and independence she craves. But the more time they spend beneath the same roof, the more she realizes it's not safety she wants but the dangerously seductive Rhain. Valencia has vowed never to risk marriage again. And yet how can she resist the tempting man when he might be the greatest adventure of her life? "

Sophie Jordan (Author), Mary Jane Wells (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Memory of Lavender and Sage: A Novel

""A standout voice in women's fiction. I was captivated from the very first line." - Kristy Woodson Harvey, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Summer of Songbirds Perhaps the secrets of her mother's past in this tiny French town hold the key to her own future. . . Food critic Tempèsta Luddington has always felt like the odd person out in her family, ever since she lost her beloved mother at the tender age of thirteen. When her workaholic father passes fifteen years later, Tempèsta is not surprised that the majority of the considerable family money will pass to her dutiful younger brother, Wal. Still, she is left a modest remembrance from her mother, and for the first time Tempèsta has a world of choices before her. Lost in grief and hoping to reconnect with her memories and her mother's past, she uses the money to buy a ramshackle manor house in Sainte-Colombe, a small village in Provence, where her mother had grown up. But she is greeted with more questions than answers. Her welcome, especially by the town's stodgy mayor, is cold at best, and she finds herself wondering if the entire experiment was a mistake. Yet she stays, stubbornly sticking it out, slowly learning that her mother's legacy was more than just a nest egg. Through her mother and the village, Tempèsta learns the value of community and friendship, the importance of self-confidence, and the power of love and trust. What's more, she sees for herself that there is magic and beauty in the everyday-even something as simple as a sprig of lavender and sage. "For readers who love Under the Tuscan Sun and Chocolat, this is your next heartfelt, delightful read." -Jennifer Moorman, bestselling author of The Baker's Man - A dreamy escape into Southern France from bestselling author Aimie K. Runyan. - Perfect for fans of Katherine Center, Rebecca Serle, and Sarah Jio - Kate Quinn described Runyan's previous work as "a moving tale of female solidarity and courage." - Stand-alone novel of approximately 100,000 words - Includes discussion questions for book clubs"

Aimie K. Runyan (Author), Caroline Hewitt (Narrator)

Audiobook

Never Been Better

"A hilariously offbeat and tender comedy about one bipolar woman's messy search for love at a seaside wedding where no one can stay afloat. Is she falling in love, or falling apart? Dee, Misa, and Matt were the 'three musketeers' of the psych ward. A year after discharge, Dee is eager to convince everyone that she's finally turning things around. But Matt and Misa are tying the knot in Turks and Caicos, surrounded by guests who have no idea where they met, and the secrecy isn't sitting well with Dee, who has been hopelessly in love with Matt since before she got kicked out of the hospital. So, when Dee arrives at the swanky resort with her high-voltage sister, Tilley, it's now or never to confess how she feels. But disrupting her best friends' nuptials would jeopardize the entire support system that holds the trio together. When it comes to happily ever afters, how is a girl supposed to choose between love and recovery?"

Leanne Toshiko Simpson (Author), Kym Miller (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Home for Friendless Women: A Novel

"In Victorian-era Louisville, the Home for Friendless Women is run by benevolent benefactors with one mission: to reform the fallen women who live there into pious mothers and wives through religious lessons and hard work. For Ruth, a college student who's expelled after a campus sexual assault, the Home is a purgatory to endure before she can get her life back. For Belle, a queer sex worker who exchanged her bed at a brothel for one in the Home, it's a safe place to rest her feet until she can track down her missing lover. And for Minnie, the daughter of the religious couple who founded the charity, the Home is her mother's idea of a cautionary tale. But as Minnie prepares for the Home's silver anniversary party, she finds herself questioning the true cost of good intentions-and grappling with a terrible secret that has the power to unravel the Home entirely."

Kelly E. Hill (Author), Amy Landon, Gabra Zackman, Hope Newhouse, Stacy Gonzalez (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Phoenix Bride: A Novel

""Poetic, romantic, and steeped in seventeenth-century London, The Phoenix Bride is historical fiction at its best."-Mackenzi Lee, New York Times bestselling author of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue A passionate tale of plague, fire, and forbidden love from the acclaimed author of Solomon's Crown A BOOKPAGE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR It is 1666, one year after plague has devastated England. Young widow Cecilia Thorowgood is a prisoner, trapped and isolated within her older sister's cavernous London townhouse. At the mercy of a legion of doctors trying to cure her grief with their impatient scalpels, Cecilia shows no sign of improvement. Soon, her sister makes a decision born of desperation: She hires a new physician, someone known for more unusual methods. But he is a foreigner. A Jew. And despite his attempts to save Cecilia, he knows he cannot quell the storm of sorrow that rages inside her. There is no easy cure for melancholy. David Mendes fled Portugal to seek a new life in London, where he could practice his faith openly and leave the past behind. Still reeling from the loss of his beloved friend and struggling with his religion and his past, David is free and safe in this foreign land but incapable of happiness. The security he has found in London threatens to disappear when he meets Cecilia, and he finds himself torn between his duty to medicine and the beating of his own heart. He is the only one who can see her pain; the glimmers of light she emits, even in her gloom, are enough to make him believe once more in love. Facing seemingly insurmountable challenges, David and Cecilia must endure prejudice, heartbreak, and calamity before they can be together. The Great Fire is coming-and with the city in flames around them, love has never felt so impossible."

Natasha Siegel (Author), Fiona Hardingham, Matt Haynes (Narrator)

Audiobook

Between You and Us: A Novel

"When a grieving woman unexpectedly steps into a different version of her life, she must choose between the husband she loves and the daughter she lost in this brave, gripping novel. "A beautiful story that will make you rethink all the moments you've wished for a different outcome."-Johanna Rojas Vann, author of An American Immigrant Two possible lives to live. One impossible choice to make. When Leona Warlon heads across the city to meet her husband, David, for a rare dinner out, she hopes they can share a moment of relief after their year of loss. But Leona quickly realizes this is no ordinary date night. She hasn't just stepped into an upscale ristorante; she's stepped into a different version of her life. One in which her marriage is no longer tender, in which her days are pressured by her powerful in-laws, and in which her precious baby girl lived. Now Leona must weigh the bitter and sweet of both trajectories, facing an unimaginable choice: Stay in a world where tragedy hasn't struck but where the meaningful life she built with David is gone? Or return to a reality that's filled with struggle and sorrow but also deep and enduring love?"

Kendra Broekhuis (Author), Anna Caputo (Narrator)

Audiobook

Becoming Madam Secretary

"She took on titans, battled generals, and changed the world as we know it… New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray returns with a captivating and dramatic novel about an American heroine Frances Perkins. Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference. When she's not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell's Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love. But when Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. She thinks he's a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she's a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. Neither knows it yet, but over the next twenty years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House. Frances is destined to rise in a political world dominated by men, facing down the Great Depression as FDR's most trusted lieutenant-even as she struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. And when vicious political attacks mount and personal tragedies threaten to derail her ambitions, she must decide what she's willing to do-and what she's willing to sacrifice-to save a nation."

Stephanie Dray (Author), Cassandra Campbell (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Love Remedy

""Beautiful and important."-New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn When a Victorian apothecary hires a stoic private investigator to protect her business, they learn there's only one way to treat true love-with a happily ever after. When Lucinda Peterson's recently perfected formula for a salve to treat croup goes missing, she's certain it's only the latest in a line of misfortunes at the hands of a rival apothecary. Outraged and fearing financial ruin, Lucy turns to private investigator Jonathan Thorne for help. She just didn't expect her champion to be so . . . grumpy? A single father and an agent at Tierney & Co., Thorne accepts missions for a wide variety of employers-from the British government to wronged wives. None have intrigued him so much as the spirited Miss Peterson. As the two work side by side to unmask her scientific saboteur, Lucy slips ever so sweetly under Thorne's battered armor, tempting him to abandon old promises. With no shortage of suspects-from a hostile political group to an erstwhile suitor-Thorne's investigation becomes a threat to all that Lucy holds dear. As the truth unravels around them the cure to their problems is clear: they must face the future together."

Elizabeth Everett (Author), Elizabeth Jasicki (Narrator)

Audiobook

Lady Codebreaker

"Fans of Kate Quinn and Kristina McMorris will love this gripping historical novel based on the true story of the woman who used her codebreaking skills to bring down Prohibition gangsters and WWII Nazis, and who ultimately helped found the present-day CIA. Grace Smith has never been one to conform to society's expectations. She flees small-town Indiana to seek adventure-and finds more than she bargained for when she's hired by an eccentric millionaire to learn codebreaking. Soon she's using those skills to help head the government's fledgling cryptanalysis unit. During Prohibition, Grace takes up the fight against rumrunners-not to mention Al Capone himself. And as the country careens from one Great War to another, it's Grace who must crack the secrets of foreign governments, catch spies, and derail saboteurs . . . before it's too late. With wry wit and sheer grit, she forges her own path as a codebreaker, wife, mother. She's spent a lifetime going up against powerful men and winning. But as war rages and the stakes grow impossibly high, Grace faces a truly impossible choice: her family or her country?"

K.D. Alden (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe M.B.E

"'It's dark and twisted, comic and toxic. I loved it!' - Jenny Colgan, author of The Summer Skies 'A twisty tale of toxic friendships and even some sneaky sedatives added to Heinz tomato soup.' - Julie Cohen, author of Bad Men 'Shocking and compelling. I raced through it. Fabulous' - Daily Mail Muriel, a former bestselling romantic novelist, and Ruth, a journalist, are best friends. Inseparable since they were little, they've shared everything; unable to be without each other, even after the most vicious of fights. Now fate has left them living together in a North London home, with Ruth caring for Muriel in her deteriorating health, playing Scrabble, arguing and making up, passing the days in monotony, ignoring the scars of their relationship. Then one afternoon, Muriel makes a shocking and sinister announcement, sending Ruth's world into chaos. Only one thing is certain. Life, as she knows it, will never be the same again . . . The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe M.B.E is the deliciously dark debut novel from Claire Parkin. An intensely gripping story of toxic friendship, jealousy and revenge, it is perfect for fans of A Tidy Ending and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine."

Claire Parkin (Author), Jenny Funnell (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Best Way to Bury Your Husband: Four new friends. Four dead bodies. One big problem . . .

"Brought to you by Penguin. Four new friends. Four dead bodies. One big problem . . . Sally never meant to cave her husband's head in with a skillet. Or at least she didn't until suddenly, she did. But Sally isn't the only woman in town being pushed to breaking point. When coincidence brings four strangers together, a surprising solidarity is formed. So can they find the best way to bury their husbands - and get away with it? Darkly funny and with a big beating heart, The Best Way to Bury Your Husband combines four very different women, one unexpected friendship and several spades in this irresistible page-turner. 'A darkly comedic story . . . I loved it' JESSE SUTANTO ‘Poignant and funny, dark and searing’ ANDREA MARA 'Perfect for those who like feminism with their dead bodies' JULIE COHEN 'Tense, funny, moving and strangely cosy' HOLLY BOURNE ©2024 Alexia Casale (P)2024 Penguin Audio"

Alexia Casale (Author), Ambreen Razia, Ayesha Antoine, Bea Holland, Imogen Church (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Color of Light

"An emotionally moving novel of a woman in search of a new beginning and a man haunted by the past-from the New York Times bestselling author of the Tradd Street novels. At thirty-two, Jillian Parrish finally finds the courage to put herself in the driver's seat of her life. Pregnant and recently divorced, she and her seven-year-old daughter find refuge and solace on Pawleys Island, South Carolina-Jillian's only source of happy childhood memories. Summers spent at her grandmother's beach house had been Jillian's sanctuary from indifferent parents-until her best friend Lauren Mills disappeared, never to be found. Linc Rising, Lauren's boyfriend and Jillian's confidant, had been a suspect in Lauren's disappearance. Jillian had never doubted his innocence-but because her parents had whisked her back home to Atlanta, she never got a chance to tell him. Now, a resentful Linc is back on Pawleys Island-renovating the old Mills house. And as ghosts of the past are resurrected, and as Jillian's daughter begins having eerie conversations with an imaginary friend named Lauren, Jillian and Linc will uncover the truth about Lauren's disappearance and about the feelings they have buried for sixteen years..."

Karen White (Author), Brittany Pressley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Contemporary Women Audiobooks in Fiction