Audiobooks Narrated by Marion Von Stengel

LoveReading Top 10

1. The Mermaid of Black Conch

   March 1976: St Constance, a tiny Caribbean village on the island of Black Conch, at the start of the rainy season. A fisherman sings to himself in his pirogue, waiting for a catch - but attracts a sea-dweller he doesn't expect. Aycayia, a beautiful young woman cursed by jealous wives to live as a mermaid, has been swimming the Caribbean Sea for centuries. And she is entranced by this man David and his song. But her fascination is her undoing. She hears his boat's engine again and follows it, and finds herself at the mercy of American tourists, landed on the island for the annual fishing competition. After a fearsome battle, she is pulled out of the sea and strung up on the dock as a trophy. It is David who rescues her, and gently wins her trust - as slowly, painfully, she starts to transform into a woman again. But transformations are not always permanent, and jealousy, like love, can have the force of a hurricane, and last much longer The novel's characters are an unlikely mix: a mermaid, a fisherman, a deaf boy, a Caribbean artist and sweetman and a benevolent white landowner. Miss Arcadia Rain's own love story is interwoven with Aycayia and David's and the rivalries and affections in both family and community are brought brilliantly to life. Themes of unconditional love, friendship, family and loss, are examined without sentimentality. Roffey manages to write convincingly about a mermaid, a 'legend drawn from the sea', returned to land, to survive, heal and live again, as a real woman in modern times.

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2. Firefly Lane

   In the summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the "coolest girl in the world" moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all - beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn; Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer's end they've become TullyandKate. Inseparable. So begins Kristin Hannah's magnificent novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the mainstay of their lives. From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success...and loneliness. All Kate really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn't know is how being a wife and mother will change her...how she'll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she'll envy her famous best friend.... For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship - jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they've survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart...and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test. Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone's Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it's the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It's about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you - and knows what has the power to hurt you...and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you'll never forget...one you'll want to pass on to your best friend.

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3. A Wedding in the Country: From the #1 bestselling author of uplifting feel-good fiction

   Brought to you by Penguin. Romance, friendship, joy and the possibility of happy endings: the heartwarming new novel by number one bestseller, Katie Fforde. Lizzie has just arrived in London, determined to make the best of her new life. Her mother may be keen that she should have a nice wedding in the country to a Suitable Man chosen by her. And Lizzie may be going to cookery school to help her become a Good Wife. But she definitely wants to have some fun first. It is 1963 and London is beginning to swing as Lizzie cuts her hair, buys a new dress with a fashionably short hemline, and moves in with two of her best friends, one of whom lives in a grand but rundown house in Belgravia which has plenty of room for a lodger. Soon Lizzie's life is so exciting that she has forgotten all about her mother's marriage plans for her. All she can think about is that the young man she is falling in love with appears to be engaged to someone else ... 'Thank goodness for Katie Fforde, the perfect author to bring comfort in difficult times. She really is the queen of uplifting, feel good romance.' AJ PEARCE © Katie Fforde 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

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4. The City of Tears

   'A gorgeously written, utterly absorbing epic . . . I absolutely loved it' - Lucy Foley 'This is historical fiction to devour. Nobody does it like Kate Mosse' - Anthony Horowitz, on The Burning Chambers 'A novel with vast scope and ambition, brilliantly achieved . . . I was utterly immersed in this spell-binding story' Rosamund Lupton, author of Sister June 1572: for ten, violent years the Wars of Religion have raged across France. Neighbours have become enemies, countless lives have been lost, and the country has been torn apart over matters of religion, citizenship and sovereignty. But now a precarious peace is in the balance: a royal wedding has been negotiated by Catherine de’ Medici and Jeanne d’Albret, an alliance between the Catholic Crown and Henri, the Huguenot king of Navarre. It is a marriage that could see France reunited at last. Meanwhile in Puivert, an invitation has arrived for Minou Joubert and her family to attend this historic wedding in Paris in August. But what Minou does not know is that the Joubert family’s oldest enemy, Vidal, will also be there. Nor that, within days of the marriage, on the eve of the Feast Day of St Bartholomew, Minou’s family will be scattered to the four winds and one of her beloved children will have disappeared without trace . . . A breath-taking novel of revenge, persecution and loss, sweeping from Paris and Chartres to the City of Tears itself – the great refugee city of Amsterdam – this is a story of one family’s fight to stay together, to survive and to find each other, against the devastating tides of history . . . Following on from the Sunday Times number one bestseller, The Burning Chambers, Kate Mosse’s The City of Tears is the second thrilling historical epic in The Burning Chambers series, for fans of Ken Follett and Dan Brown.

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5. Jews Don’t Count

   How identity politics failed one particular identity. ‘Jews Don’t Count is a supreme piece of reasoning and passionate, yet controlled, argument. From his first sentence, the energy, force and conviction of Baddiel’s writing and thinking will transfix you…as readable as an airport thriller…a masterpiece.’ STEPHEN FRY Jews Don’t Count is a book for people who consider themselves on the right side of history. People fighting the good fight against homophobia, disablism, transphobia and, particularly, racism. People, possibly, like you. It is the comedian and writer David Baddiel’s contention that one type of racism has been left out of this fight. In his unique combination of close reasoning, polemic, personal experience and jokes, Baddiel argues that those who think of themselves as on the right side of history have often ignored the history of anti-Semitism. He outlines why and how, in a time of intensely heightened awareness of minorities, Jews don’t count as a real minority: and why they should.

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6. The Betrayals

   From the Number 1 bestselling author of THE BINDING ‘Another triumph’ Erin Kelly ‘Totally addictive’ Joanna Glen ‘A rich delight’ Sandra Newman ‘Just beautiful’ Joanna Cannon ‘Dizzyingly wonderful’ The Times If everything in your life was based on a lie Would you risk it all to tell the truth? At Montverre, an exclusive academy tucked away in the mountains, the best and brightest are trained for excellence in the grand jeu: an arcane and mysterious contest. Léo Martin was once a student there, but lost his passion for the grand jeu following a violent tragedy. Now he returns in disgrace, exiled to his old place of learning with his political career in tatters.   Montverre has changed since he studied there, even allowing a woman, Claire Dryden, to serve in the grand jeu’s highest office of Magister Ludi. When Léo first sees Claire he senses an odd connection with her, though he’s sure they have never met before.   Both Léo and Claire have built their lives on lies.  And as the legendary Midsummer Game, the climax of the year, draws closer, secrets are whispering in the walls…

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7. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action ( Intl Ed)

   Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their successes over and over? People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers might have little in com- mon, but they all started with why. Their natural ability to start with why enabled them to inspire those around them and to achieve remarkable things. In studying the leaders who've had the greatest influence in the world, Simon Sinek discovered that they all think, act, and communicate in the exact same way-and it's the complete opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY. Any organization can explain what it does; some can explain how they do it; but very few can clearly articulate why. WHY is not money or profit-those are always results. Why does your organization exist? Why does it do the things it does? Why do customers really buy from one company or another? Why are people loyal to some leaders, but not others? Starting with WHY works in big business and small business, in the nonprofit world and in politics. Those who start with WHY never manipulate, they inspire. And people follow them not because they have to; they follow because they want to. Drawing on a wide range of real-life stories, Sinek weaves together a clear vision of what it truly takes to lead and inspire. This book is for anyone who wants to inspire others or who wants to find someone to inspire them.

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8. The Friendship Formula: Add great friends, subtract enemies and multiply your happiness

   Friendship is such an important part of our lives but how much to we really know about it? The Friendship Formula shows readers how to create and maintain longlasting, nurturing and functioning friendships. Friendship is a beautiful thing but there are lots of difficult times in life where it can be tricky to navigate: when friendship becomes toxic; how to break up with a friend; what to do if a friend 'ghosts' you and surviving friendship betrayal; how motherhood can impact on female friendships; friendship grief and how to cope with losing a friend. This book shows you how applying kindfulness to the difficult side of friendship can help you mend your heart, move on and get the best out of those friendships that really matter.

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9. Clap When You Land

   Winner of Best Narration by the Author at the Audie Awards 2020 for WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH Finalist in Best Young Adult Audiobook at the Audie Awards 2020 for WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH The stunning new novel in verse from the 2019 Carnegie Medal winning and Waterstones Book Prize shortlisted author of THE POET X Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people... In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance - and Papi's secrets - the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they've lost everything of their father, they learn of each other. In a dual narrative novel in verse that brims with both grief and love, award-winning and bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.

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10. Girl A

    NARRATED BY HOLLIDAY GRAINGER, STAR OF STRIKE AND THE CAPTURE THE BOOK THAT WILL DEFINE A DECADE ‘Sensational. Gripping, haunting, and beautifully written’ RICHARD OSMAN ‘The biggest mystery thriller since Gone Girl’ ELLE ‘Incendiary, beautifully written debut’ Guardian ‘Psychologically astute, adroitly organised, written with flair’ Sunday Times ‘An astonishing achievement.’ JESSIE BURTON ‘Gripping, beautifully written perfection.’ SOPHIE HANNAH ‘A masterpiece.’ LOUISE O’NEILL ‘Fantastic.’ PAULA HAWKINS ‘Girl A,’ she said. ‘The girl who escaped. If anyone was going to make it, it was going to be you.’ Lex Gracie doesn’t want to think about her family. She doesn’t want to think about growing up in her parents’ House of Horrors. And she doesn’t want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped. When her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can’t run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of Horrors into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her six siblings – and with the childhood they shared. Beautifully written and incredibly powerful, Girl A is a story of redemption, of horror, and of love. RIGHTS SOLD IN 27 TERRITORIES SOON TO BE A TV SHOW DIRECTED BY JOHAN RENCK (Chernobyl) ‘Terrifyingly gripping’ SUSIE STEINER ‘Beautiful’ ADELE PARKS ‘Incredibly well written, devastating in a good way, and intriguing to the last page’ LIZ NUGENT ‘I was obsessed by it. As close to perfect as thrillers get’ JOHN MARRS ‘A gripping debut’ Oprah magazine One of Marie Claire, Waterstones and Grazia’s best books for 2021 COMING JANUARY 2021: PRE-ORDER YOURS NOW

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