Contemporary Women Audiobooks | Fiction

"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean comes this heartwarming Christmas story of a family who comes together during the holiday season as they learn a powerful lesson about love and to live each year of their lives as if it were their last. A fourteenth wedding anniversary is nothing to sneeze at, Elliott Banner knows, but it's not exactly a landmark year—like fifteen, or twenty, when he plans to take his wife, Laura, to Paris. But when a headache on the drive home from their anniversary date—two days before Christmas—turns out to be more than a migraine, he wishes he had celebrated every year as though it were their last. In this poignant, touching, uplifting story, a woman calmly gathers her family around her during the Christmas holiday to celebrate their lives together—both past and future—and to truly count their blessings. A family history unfolds in a single night in this deeply affecting story that speaks volumes about love, trust, and letting go—a perfect holiday read that underscores the true meaning of the season. “Mitchard’s gift is her ability to present her characters in a compassionate light, even when revealing them at their weakest moments.”—Us Weekly"

Jacquelyn Mitchard (Author), Jacquelyn Mitchard (Narrator)

Audiobook

Sunny Chandler's Return: A Novel

"The unforgettable story of a woman who returns to her small hometown in the South-and finds that the sins of her past are right where she left them, from Sandra Brown author of more than fifty New York Times bestselling novels. Never. Sunny Chandler always said she'd never go back to the tiny town where she grew up. It was just three years ago that she was at the center of a notorious scandal-and the good folks of Latham Green, Louisiana, made it clear they'd never let her forget it. So Sunny packed up and headed for New Orleans, and now she wouldn't give up city life for the world. But when she's invited to her best friend's wedding, Sunny has no choice but to go home. And with her return come the whispers . . . the looks . . . the rumors she tried to escape. It doesn't take Sunny long to see that Latham Green has nothing new to offer. Except maybe Ty Beaumont. The moment Ty and Sunny first meet at a party, he can see she's no ordinary woman. With her dazzling hair, and eyes the color of gold, she's a flesh-and-blood fantasy-and Ty vows he'll have her in his bed before the week is out. Yet even when he turns on his southern charm, Sunny makes it clear she's not interested. Sure, a night with Ty would be wilder than Bourbon Street at Mardi Gras. But Sunny's not in town to become some good ol' boy's latest conquest, no matter how sexy he is. Little does she know that Ty isn't used to taking no for an answer-and he isn't about to start now. Soon what began as an innocent flirtation becomes a tantalizingly slow, skillfully deliberate, and overwhelmingly seductive pursuit that even Sunny finds hard to resist. But resist him she will. For Sunny is harboring an agonizing secret-the painful truth of why she left Latham Green the way she did. What she really needs now is a friend-and that's when she discovers there may be more to Ty Beaumont than meets the eye. Despite his roguish facade, Sunny comes to see he has a heart of gold. Still, she doesn't know if she can trust another person with her secret heartbreak-not even the one man who may be able to heal it."

Philip Melanchthon (Author), Beth McDonald (Narrator)

Audiobook

Johnny Angel

"In her fifty-eighth bestselling novel, Danielle Steel tells the breathtaking story of a mother's love and a son's gift, of the tragedy that nearly destroyed a family...and the miracle that saved them. Johnny Angel With a word or a smile, seventeen-year-old Johnny Peterson could light up a room, fill his mother's heart with pride, and inspire the best in those around him. A star athlete and class valedictorian, tall, lanky Johnny had a future filled with promise--until he stepped into a car on prom night, dazzling in his rented tux, and in an instant, it was all taken away. In the months that follow, Johnny's family and high school sweetheart, Becky, struggle to put together the pieces of their shattered lives. No one is more devastated than Johnny's mother, Alice, whose oldest son owned her heart from the day he was born. But amid the heartache, something miraculous is about to happen to the Peterson family, something that will alter the course of each of their lives. When a sudden illness sends Alice to the hospital, a glorious vision comes to her in her dreams. There, standing before her, is Johnny himself, with that familiar twinkle in his eye, gently urging his bewildered mother to be strong for her splintered family. For Alice, seeing her marvelous lost boy is a miracle she can't quite believe but is more than willing to embrace. In the weeks to come, Johnny will appear in the most unlikely places, visible only to the two people who need him most: his nine-year-old brother, locked in a silent world, whose special needs Johnny always seemed to understand…and his mother, who has always nurtured her family, but who now needs a guardian angel of her own. Through a season of hope and healing, Johnny will walk by his mother's side, leaving miracles in his wake, leading his parents, his girlfriend, his sister, and his brother out of their grief. But as Alice is about to discover, Johnny has returned not just to help those he loves, but to uncover a purpose even he cannot comprehend--one that will change them all forever. An unforgettable story of loving and letting go, of mixed blessings and second chances, Johnny Angel is a celebration of life, hope, and forgiveness. It will make you laugh and cry…and hold your loved ones just a little bit closer."

Danielle Steel (Author), Joseph Siravo (Narrator)

Audiobook

Not Even For Love

"On the surface, Jordan Hadlock has it all. A great job managing the English newsstand in the old quarter of Lucerne, Switzerland. Rich and renowned Swiss industrialist Helmut Eckherdt is intent on marrying her, even though she hasn't said yes. What more could she ask for? A clap of thunder and a pounding on her door soon give her an answer. Reeves Grant appears seeking shelter from a sudden downpour, but the real storm is inside Jordan and the passion they share that night. The next morning he disappears without a trace. Still reeling from the encounter, Jordan plays hostess at Helmut's lavish dinner party, where Helmut announces that he and Jordan are to be wed -- at the very same moment she spies Reeves Grant snapping pictures of the event and her new 'fiancé.' Now Jordan is moving toward the altar with a man she likes but doesn't love. And working on a feature of the wealthy Helmut -- often only inches away from her -- is photojournalist Reeves Grant, bringing with him all the memories of the emotions she felt one special night. Not Even For Love captures the wild fluctuations between doubt and desire in complex relationships while offering the engrossing tale of a woman who must learn to trust her instincts to discover exactly who she is and what she wants."

Philip Melanchthon (Author), Karen Ziemba (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Rana Look: A Novel

"The author of forty-five New York Times bestselling novels, Sandra Brown is one of the romance world’s most acclaimed writers. Rendezvous magazine has praised her as a novelist whose “larger than life heroes and heroines make you believe all the warm, wonderful, wild things in life.” Now, in the classic romantic tradition her fans have come to love, here is another sexy and extraordinary tale of passion--the story of a woman who gives up fame and fortune...and discovers true love in the last place she expected to find it. The Rana Look The modeling world called it the Rana Look...the exotic, one-of-a-kind allure that only supermodel Rana Ramsey could deliver. With her green eyes, olive skin, and wildly lustrous auburn hair, Rana posed for ad campaigns and strutted down runways all over the world, naming her own price to sell everything from cosmetics to women’s lingerie. But all of that suddenly ended one day when she looked her demanding mother-manager in the eye and said, “Enough.” That was the day Rana packed her things and left New York--and modeling--forever. Settling in Miss Ruby’s boardinghouse in Galveston, Texas, Rana finds success with her own business--and cultivates a new look to go with her new life. Now her beautiful eyes are shielded behind tinted glasses, her famous figure hidden under shapeless dresses, her trademark wild hair falling straight down her back. Rana knows she’ll never attract a man this way, and that’s just fine with her--that is, until Ruby’s nephew, football star Trent Gamblin, moves in to nurse his injured shoulder. Ruggedly handsome, charming, and undeniably charismatic, Trent is the kind of man that Rana finds irresistible...the kind of man she is certain would never look twice at a woman as ordinary as the new Rana. But to her surprise, Trent seems unfazed by her Plain Jane look. For he is drawn to a beauty that Rana can’t hide. He is determined to learn the mystery behind the elusive, reclusive boarder with the secret past. To do so, he proposes an unusual pact: they will only be friends, nothing more.As the days pass, Rana and Trent are drawn together in a sensual idyll unlike anything either of them has ever known. But the outside world cannot be kept at bay forever. And Rana fears that when Trent learns the truth about her past, he’ll feel betrayed and deceived. Even worse, he’ll never be able to see her as she truly is. Then an unexpected tragedy strikes, and the stakes seem higher than ever. Now they must look deep into each other’s heart to determine if their relationship is just an impossibly erotic dream--or a dream of love come true."

Philip Melanchthon (Author), Eliza Foss (Narrator)

Audiobook

All is Vanity: A Novel

"In All is Vanity, Margaret and Letty, best friends since childhood and now living on opposite coasts, reach their mid-thirties and begin to chafe at their sense that they are not where they ought to be in life. Margaret, driven and overconfident, decides the best way to rectify this is to quit her job and whip out a literary tour de force. Frustrated almost immediately and humiliated at every turn, Margaret turns to Letty for support. But as Letty, a stay-at-home mother of four, begins to feel pressured to make a good showing in the upper-middle-class Los Angeles society into which her husband's new job has thrust her, Margaret sees a plot unfolding that's better than anything she could make up. Desperate to finish her book and against her better nature, she pushes Letty to take greater and greater risks, and secretly steals her friend's stories as fast as she can live them. Hungry for the world's regard, Margaret rashly sacrifices one of the things most precious to her, until the novel's suspenseful conclusion shows her the terrible consequences of her betrayal. Widely celebrated for her debut novel, Drowning Ruth, Christina Schwarz once again proves herself to be a writer of remarkable depth and range. Like Drowning Ruth, All is Vanity probes into the mysteries of the human heart and uncovers the passions that drive ordinary people to break the rules in pursuit of their own desires."

Christina Schwarz (Author), Blair Brown (Narrator)

Audiobook

Standing in the Rainbow: A Novel

"Good news! Fannie's back in town-and the town is among the leading characters in her new novel. Along with Neighbor Dorothy, the lady with the smile in her voice, whose daily radio broadcasts keep us delightfully informed on all the local news, we also meet Bobby, her ten-year-old son, destined to live a thousand lives, most of them in his imagination; Norma and Macky Warren and their ninety-eight-year-old Aunt Elner; the oddly sexy and charismatic Hamm Sparks, who starts off in life as a tractor salesman and ends up selling himself to the whole state and almost the entire country; and the two women who love him as differently as night and day. Then there is Tot Whooten, the beautician whose luck is as bad as her hairdressing skills; Beatrice Woods, the Little Blind Songbird; Cecil Figgs, the Funeral King; and the fabulous Minnie Oatman, lead vocalist of the Oatman Family Gospel Singers. The time is 1946 until the present. The town is Elmwood Springs, Missouri, right in the middle of the country, in the midst of the mostly joyous transition from war to peace, aiming toward a dizzyingly bright future. Once again, Fannie Flagg gives us a story of richly human characters, the saving graces of the once-maligned middle classes and small-town life, and the daily contest between laughter and tears. Fannie truly writes from the heartland, and her storytelling is, to quote Time, 'utterly irresistible.'"

Fannie Flagg (Author), Kate Reading (Narrator)

Audiobook

Thursday's Child: A Novel

"With forty-four New York Times bestselling novels to her credit, Sandra Brown is one of romance’s best-loved authors. She has been hailed by Rendezvous magazine as an author whose “larger than life heroes and heroines make you believe all the warm, wonderful, wild things in life.” Sexy, funny, and wonderfully romantic, here is the unforgettably sensuous story of a woman too smart to fall in love — and the man determined to prove her wrong. Thursday’s Child Allison Leamon knew that pretending to be her identical twin sister was a bad idea. For although the two redheads looked exactly alike, they couldn’t be more different. How could a no-nonsense scientist like Allison possibly fool anyone into thinking that she was the bubbly, vivacious Annie? Trading her sensible shoes for strappy sandals, her eyeglasses for contacts, and her lab smock for a chiffon dress, Allison was determined to try her best. Her first challenge was a dinner date with Annie’s fiancé, Davis. But what Allison didn’t expect was the presence of Davis’s best friend. Allison was far too logical to believe in love at first sight, but there was nothing logical about the way she was responding to Spencer Raft. The dark-haired, blue-eyed mystery man had an assurance that Allison found positively maddening. And by the end of the evening, she couldn’t help feeling that Spencer had been attracted to a carefully constructed illusion. She was certain that the handsome adventurer wouldn’t give her a second look if he knew her as she really was. But Spencer Raft was a man of many talents — and seeing below the surface of things was one of them. He sensed the flesh-and-blood woman beneath the elaborate charade, and after years of wandering the world in search of excitement, he knew he had finally found what he had been looking for. But first this incurable romantic had to convince an intractable skeptic that there was more to love than what she could study in a laboratory. And what better way than to propose a passionate experiment of his own? On board his yacht, Spencer and Allison would fulfill their wildest fantasies and deepest desires; but when their blissful idyll was over, would it all prove to be no more than a pleasant interlude — or the real thing?"

Philip Melanchthon (Author), Eliza Foss (Narrator)

Audiobook

Fat Cat and Friends

"Featuring Margaret MacDonald's storytelling accompanied by Richard Scholtz's autoharp and dulcimer, this recording is full of lively, playful fare. These selections are ideal for expanding into song, dance, and creative drama. Includes stories adapted from MacDonald's picture books, Fat Cat (Denmark) and Mabela the Clever (Limba, Sierra Leone), as well as several from her resource collection Shake-it-up Tales."

Margaret Read Macdonald (Author), Margaret Read Macdonald (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Woman Betrayed

"THEY WERE THE PICTURE PERFECT FAMILY With a twenty-year marriage, two terrific kids, and a successful career, Laura Frye has everything she could ask for...until her husband Jeff mysteriosly disappears. Beside herself with worry, Laura maintains that the Jeff she knew would never leave voluntarily. But what about the Jeff she didn't know? As her husbands many secrets come to light, Laura is left with a shocking picture of a man she married...and a world that is falling apart. Shaken to the very core, Laura looks for ways to hold her family together and rebuild her life. What she finds is a strength she never knew she had, and a love she thought she had lost forever."

Barbara Delinsky (Author), Linda Emond (Narrator)

Audiobook

Good Harbor

"Anita Diamant, whose rich portrayal of the biblical world of women illuminated her acclaimed international bestseller The Red Tent, now crafts a moving novel of contemporary female friendship. Good Harbor is the long stretch of Cape Ann beach where two women friends walk and talk, sharing their personal histories and learning life's lessons from each other. Kathleen Levine, a longtime resident of Gloucester, Massachusetts, is maternal and steady, a devoted children's librarian, a convert to Judaism, and mother to two grown sons. When her serene life is thrown into turmoil by a diagnosis of breast cancer at fifty-nine, painful past secrets emerge and she desperately needs a friend. Forty-two-year-old Joyce Tabachnik is a sharp-witted freelance writer who is also at a fragile point in her life. She's come to Gloucester to follow her literary aspirations, but realizes that her husband and young daughter are becoming increasingly distant. Together, Kathleen and Joyce forge a once-in-a-lifetime bond and help each other to confront scars left by old emotional wounds."

Anita Diamant (Author), Linda Emond (Narrator)

Audiobook

La Cucina

"Since childhood, Rosa Fiore-daughter of a sultry Sicilian matriarch and her hapless husband-found solace in her family's kitchen. La Cucina, the heart of the family's lush estate, was a place where generations of Fiore women prepared sumptuous feasts and where the drama of extended family life was played out around the age-old table. When Rosa was a teenager, her own cooking became the stuff of legend in this small community that takes pride in the bounty of its landscape and the eccentricity of its inhabitants. Rosa's infatuation with culinary arts was rivaled only by her passion for a young man, Bartolomeo, who unfortunately belonged to another. After their love affair ended in tragedy, Rosa retreated first into her kitchen and then into solitude, as a librarian in Palermo. There she stayed for decades, growing corpulent on her succulent dishes, resigned to a loveless life. Then, one day, she meets the mysterious chef, known only is L'Inglese, whose research on the heritage of Sicilian cuisine leads him to Rosa's library, and into her heart. They share one sublime summer of discovery, during which L'lnglese awakens the power of Rosa's sensuality, and together they reach new heights of culinary passion. When L'lnglese suddenly vanishes, Rosa returns home to the farm to grieve for the loss of her second love. In the comfort of familiar surroundings, among her, growing family, she discovers the truth about her loved ones and finds her life transformed once more by the magic of her cherished Cucina. Exuberant and touching, La Cucina is a magical evocation of life's mysterious seasons and the treasures found in each one. It celebrates family, food, passion, and the eternal rapture of romance."

Lily Prior (Author), Lisa Passero (Narrator)

Audiobook

Contemporary Women Audiobooks in Fiction