Audiobooks Narrated by Maxine Mitchell

LoveReading Top 10

1. Over My Dead Body

   An unputdownable story of murder, revenge and betrayal from international number one bestseller Jeffrey Archer. THE CLOCK IS TICKING IN THIS ROLLERCOASTER RIDE OF A THRILLER… In London, the Metropolitan Police set up a new Unsolved Murders Unit – a cold case squad – to catch the criminals nobody else can. In Geneva, millionaire art collector Miles Faulkner – convicted of forgery and theft – was pronounced dead two months ago. So why is his unscrupulous lawyer still representing a dead client? On a luxury liner en route to New York, the battle for power at the heart of a wealthy dynasty is about to turn to murder. And at the heart of all three investigations are Detective Chief Inspector William Warwick, rising star of the Met, and ex-undercover operative Ross Hogan, brought in from the cold. But can they catch the killers before it’s too late? Praise for Jeffrey Archer: ‘Probably the greatest storyteller of our age’ Mail on Sunday 'Peerless master of the page turner' Daily Mail 'If there were a Nobel Prize for storytelling, Archer would win' Daily Telegraph ‘Archer is a master entertainer’ Time Jeffrey Archer’s previous novel Nothing Ventured was a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller w/c 28th March 2020.

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2. The Whalebone Theatre: The instant Sunday Times bestseller

   Brought to you Penguin. 'Maudie, why are all the best characters men?' Maudie closes the book with a clllump. 'We haven't read all the books yet, Miss Cristabel. I can't believe that every story is the same' Cristabel Seagrave has always wanted her life to be a story, but there are no girls in the books in her dusty family library. For an unwanted orphan who grows into an unmarriageable young woman, there is no place at all for her in a traditional English manor. But from the day that a whale washes up on the beach at the Chilcombe estate in Dorset, and twelve-year-old Cristabel plants her flag and claims it as her own, she is determined to do things differently. With her step-parents blithely distracted by their endless party guests, Cristabel and her siblings, Flossie and Digby, scratch together an education from the plays they read in their freezing attic, drunken conversations eavesdropped through oak-panelled doors, and the esoteric lessons of Maudie their maid. But as the children grow to adulthood and war approaches, jolting their lives on to very different tracks, it becomes clear that the roles they are expected to play are no longer those they want. As they find themselves drawn into the conflict, they must each find a way to write their own story... © Joanna Quinn 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

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3. Bridgerton: Romancing Mister Bridgerton: Bridgertons Book 4

   The fourth book in Julia Quinn's globally bestselling, Regency-set, Bridgerton Family series, now the inspiration for the Netflix series Bridgerton created by Shondaland. Welcome to Colin and Penelope's long-awaited story... Everyone knows that Colin Bridgerton is the most charming man in London. Penelope Featherington has secretly adored her best friend's brother for...well, it feels like forever. After half a lifetime of watching Colin Bridgerton from afar, she thinks she knows everything about him, until she stumbles across his deepest secret, and fears she doesn't know him at all. Colin Bridgerton is tired of being thought of as nothing but an empty-headed charmer, tired of the notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, who can't seem to publish an edition without mentioning him. But when Colin returns to London from a trip abroad, he discovers nothing in his life is quite the same - especially Penelope Featherington! The girl who was always simply there is suddenly the girl haunting his dreams. When he discovers that Penelope has secrets of her own, this elusive bachelor must decide. Is she his biggest threat - or his promise of a happy ending? 'Light, pacy and full of feisty heroines' Guardian on the Bridgerton series 'Julia Quinn's Bridgerton books take all of the classic tropes we know and love . . . and gives them a thoroughly modern twist. I can't focus on anything else' Stylist

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4. Lapvona

   Brought to you by Penguin. In the land of Lapvona, the lord of the land Villiam is cheating the local villagers of their food, their water, their livelihoods. Grotesque and ridiculous, he marries the pregnant and tongueless ex-nun Agata, whom he believes will make him God, and his son will be the second Christ. It's a land of murder, cannibalism, incest and rape. Despite all of the characters' individual inadequacies and madness, you find yourself completely engrossed in each character's fate, be it Marek, Jude, Agata, Villiam, Lispeth, Ina, Father Barnabas. It's an anti-fairytale within a fairytale - maybe this is what hell on earth looks like? Is it an indictment of humanity, of religion, of grotesque despots? An original work of brilliance - singular, funny, horrifying and entertaining in equal measure. © Ottessa Moshfegh 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

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5. You Are Not a Before Picture: How to finally make peace with your body, for good

   An urgent, enlightening and empowering guide to disavowing diet culture and learning to make peace with our bodies, from body confidence and anti-diet advocate, Alex Light. When we look in the mirror, so many of us see a ‘before’ picture: the miserable person in the side-by-side shot waiting for the ‘glow-up’ (read: weight loss) that will bring true happiness. But it’s not our fault that we see our bodies as projects in need of constant work: this is just one of the beliefs that has been ingrained in us by diet culture. We have been taught to view ourselves as a collection of ‘problem’ areas for which the billion-dollar diet industry holds the solutions. Step-by-step, You Are Not A Before Picture provides a framework for changing the way we view ourselves and the world around us. Working with experts in the fields of psychotherapy, fitness and nutrition, Alex empowers readers to interrogate their underlying beliefs, challenge the external and internal forces that are holding us back, and finally find freedom in our bodies, for good. Alex Light was a number 4 Sunday Times Non Fiction bestseller in the w/e June 19th 2022

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6. Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, 10th-Anniversary Edition

   How maverick companies have passed up the growth treadmill - and focused on greatness instead. It's an axiom of business that great companies grow their revenues and profits year after year. Yet quietly, under the radar, a small number of companies have rejected the pressure of endless growth to focus on more satisfying business goals. Goals like being great at what they do, creating a great place to work, providing great customer service, making great contributions to their communities, and finding great ways to lead their lives. In Small Giants, veteran journalist Bo Burlingham takes us deep inside fourteen remarkable companies that have chosen to march to their own drummer. They include Anchor Brewing, the original microbrewer; CitiStorage Inc., the premier independent records-storage business; Clif Bar & Co., maker of organic energy bars and other nutrition foods; Righteous Babe Records, the record company founded by singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco; Union Square Hospitality Group, the company of restaurateur Danny Meyer; and Zingerman's Community of Businesses, including the world-famous Zingerman's Deli of Ann Arbor. Burlingham shows how the leaders of these small giants recognized the full range of choices they had about the type of company they could create. And he shows how we can all benefit by questioning the usual definitions of business success. In his new afterward, Burlingham reflects on the similarities and learning lessons from the small giants he covers in the audiobook.

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7. The Murders at Fleat House

   The Murders at Fleat House is a suspenseful and utterly compelling crime novel from the author of the multimillion-selling The Seven Sisters series, Lucinda Riley. The sudden death of a pupil in Fleat House at St Stephen’s – a small private boarding school in deepest Norfolk – is a shocking event that the headmaster is very keen to call a tragic accident. But the local police cannot rule out foul play and the case prompts the return of high-flying Detective Inspector Jazmine ‘Jazz’ Hunter to the force. Jazz has her own private reasons for stepping away from her police career in London, and reluctantly agrees to front the investigation as a favour to her old boss. Reunited with her loyal sergeant Alastair Miles, she enters the closed world of the school, and as Jazz begins to probe the circumstances surrounding Charlie Cavendish’s tragic death, events are soon to take another troubling turn. Charlie is exposed as an arrogant bully, and those around him had both motive and opportunity to switch the drugs he took daily to control his epilepsy. As staff at the school close ranks, the disappearance of young pupil Rory Millar and the death of an elderly classics master provide Jazz with important leads, but are destined to complicate the investigation further. As snow covers the landscape and another suspect goes missing, Jazz must also confront her personal demons . . . Then, a particularly grim discovery at the school makes this the most challenging murder investigation of her career. Because Fleat House hides secrets darker than even Jazz could ever have imagined . . .

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8. Modern Romance: An Investigation

   Penguin presents the unabridged, audio download edition of Modern Romance, written and read by Aziz Ansari. People today have more romantic options than at any point in human history, and thanks to social media, smartphones and online dating, our abilities to connect with these options are staggering. Yet we also have to face new and absurd dilemmas, such as what to think when someone doesn't reply to your text but has time to post a photo of a pizza on Instagram. But this transformation of our romantic lives cannot be explained by technology alone. Whereas once most people would find a decent person who probably lived in their neighbourhood and marry by the age of 23, today we spend years of our lives on a quest to find our soulmate. While Ansari has long aimed his comedic insight at modern relationships, here he teamed up with award-winning sociologist Eric Klinenberg to research dating cultures from Tokyo to Buenos Aires to Paris, crunch the quantitative data and interview some of the world's leading social scientists. The result is an unforgettable tour of the romantic landscape.

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9. Counterfeit

   HUSTLERS meets BIG LITTLE LIES in the heist of the summer… A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ‘Propulsive and captivating’ Vogue ‘Darkly comedic’ Daily Mail Meet Ava: rule-abiding lawyer who has ticked all of life’s boxes. She’s married to a successful surgeon and has just taken an indefinite career break to raise her adorable toddler. A picture-perfect life. Meet Winnie: Ava’s old college roommate. Once awkward, quiet and apparently academically challenged, she left Stanford in a shroud of scandal. But now, she is charismatic, wealthy and has returned to town dripping in designer accessories. An actual perfect life. When the two women bump into one another at a local coffee shop, it seems like fate has intervened: Winnie’s new-found success is courtesy of a shady business and she needs a favour; Ava is realising she is not built for the stay-at-home life. But what starts as one favour turns into two, then three, and soon Ava is in far deeper than she ever imagined. Now Ava has to make the ultimate decision: cut and run, or risk it all? ‘Entertaining, luxurious … innovative and subversive’ NEW YORK TIMES ’Riveting and energetic’ BALLI KAUR JASWAL ’Clever, sharp, and slyly funny’ KIRKUS REVIEWS ’Will keep you breathless to the last page’ CLAIRE MESSUD ’Sly, subversive … incisive’ BOOKLIST NetGalley readers LOVE Counterfeit ‘One of the best books I’ve read all year’ * * * * * ‘Gripping … ingenious’ * * * * * ‘Amusing, addictive story that kept me reading all night’ * * * * * ‘Mysterious, suspenseful and twisty … had me on the edge of my seat’ * * * * * * ‘Fresh, observant and somehow … an incredible story without a wasted word’ * * * * * ‘I absolutely loved this book … highly recommend’ * * * * * ‘Devoured this in a night or two … funny, sad and eye-opening’ * * * * * ‘This book refused to allow me to put it down!’ * * * * * ‘Amusing, addictive … kept me reading all night’ * * * * *

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10. Richer Than Sin

    From New York Times bestselling author Meghan March comes a brand new saga of forbidden love and second chances.A Riscoff and a Gable can never live happily ever after. Our family feud is the stuff of legends.Ten years ago, Whitney Gable caught me off guard with her long legs and grab-you-by-the-balls blue eyes.I didn't know or care what her name was.Like any Riscoff worth the family name, I went after what I wanted. We burned like a flash fire until she married another man.She hates me, and she should.I objected on her wedding day.Now she's home, with those same long legs and man-eater stare, but there's no ring on her finger.They say a Riscoff and a Gable can never live happily ever after . . . but I'm not done with Whitney Gable.I'll never be done with her.

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