The Maker of Swans
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The Maker of Swans
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Narrated by:
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Mike Grady
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Imogen Wilde
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By:
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Paraic O'Donnell
About this listen
In the dead of night, shots ring out over the grounds of a sprawling English estate. The world-weary butler Eustace recognizes the gunman—his longtime employer, Mr. Crowe—and knows he must think and act quickly. Who is the man lying dead on the lawn? Who is the woman in his company? Can he clean up his master's mess like he always has before? Or will this bring a new kind of reckoning?
Mr. Crowe was once famed for his gifts—unaccountable gifts, known only to the members of a secretive order. Protected and privileged, he was courted by countesses and great men of letters. But he has long since retreated from that glittering world, living alone but for Eustace and Clara, his mysterious young ward. He has been content to live quietly, his great library gathering dust and his once magnificent gardens growing wild. He has left the past behind. Until now.
Because there are rules, even for Mr. Crowe and his kind, that cannot be broken. And this single night of passion and violence will have consequences, stirring shadows from the past. He and Eustace will be tested as never before. So too will Clara, whose own extraordinary gifts remain hidden, even from herself. If she is to save them all, she must learn to use them quickly and unlock the secret of who she is. It is a secret beyond imagining. A secret that will change everything.
©2022 Paraic O'Donnell (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Story4 out of 5 stars 52
February, 1906. As the personal secretary of the recently departed duke of Olympia - and a woman of scrupulous character - Miss Emmeline Rose Truelove never expected her duties to involve steaming through the Mediterranean on a private yacht, under the prodigal eye of one Lord Silverton, the most charmingly corrupt bachelor in London. But here they are, improperly bound on a quest to find the duke's enigmatic heir, current whereabouts unknown. Maximilian Haywood was last seen at an archaeological dig on the island of Crete.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This Book Would Have Been A Hot Mess...
- By Alexis on 10-06-16
By: Juliana Gray
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The Pale Blue Eye
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Charles Leggett
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 456
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 401
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 400
When the body of a suicide victim disappears at West Point Military Academy in 1831, only to be discovered hours later missing its heart, the Academy calls on retired detective Gus Landor to investigate. Landor is something of a legend among his peers, noted for an uncanny, Holmesian ability to read people. When Edgar Allan Poe, a new cadet, comes forth with his own cryptic conclusion—that the man Landor is looking for is a poet—Landor is intrigued and enlists Poe as his assistant.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Could not get through it
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-15
By: Louis Bayard
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Cover Her Face
- By: P. D. James
- Narrated by: Penelope Dellaporta
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 809
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 693
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Story4 out of 5 stars 685
Headstrong and beautiful, the young housemaid Sally Jupp is put rudely in her place, strangled in her bed behind a bolted door. Coolly brilliant policeman Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must find her killer among a houseful of suspects, most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill. Cover Her Face is P. D. James' electric debut novel, an ingeniously plotted mystery that immediately placed her among the masters of suspense.
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3 out of 5 stars
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OK but...
- By NoelleJ on 11-14-14
By: P. D. James
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A Strange Scottish Shore
- By: Juliana Gray
- Narrated by: Gemma Massot
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4 out of 5 stars 60
Scotland, 1906. A mysterious object discovered inside an ancient castle calls Maximilian Haywood, the new Duke of Olympia, and his fellow researcher Emmeline Truelove north to the remote Orkney Islands. No stranger to the study of anachronisms in archeological digs, Haywood is nevertheless puzzled by the artifact: a suit of clothing that, according to family legend, once belonged to a selkie who rose from the sea and married the castle's first laird. But Haywood and Truelove soon realize they're not the only ones interested in the selkie's strange hide.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Time travel escape
- By M M on 11-07-17
By: Juliana Gray
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The Essex Serpent
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Perry
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,136
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,030
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,030
When Cora Seaborne's brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one. Wed at 19, this woman of exceptional intelligence and curiosity was ill-suited for the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive 11-year old son, Francis, and the boy's nanny, Martha.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Unbearable Narrator
- By ACB on 06-08-17
By: Sarah Perry
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The Unseen
- A Novel
- By: Katherine Webb
- Narrated by: Clare Wille
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4 out of 5 stars 44
A vicar with a passion for nature, the Reverend Albert Canning leads a happy existence with his naive wife, Hester, in their sleepy Berkshire village in the year 1911. But as the English summer dawns, the Cannings' lives are forever changed by two new arrivals: Cat, their new maid, a disaffected, free-spirited young woman sent down from London after entanglements with the law; and Robin Durrant, a leading expert in the occult, enticed by tales of elemental beings in the water meadows nearby.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book!
- By Dana on 09-03-12
By: Katherine Webb
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Fludd
- A Novel
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Story4 out of 5 stars 79
One dark and stormy night in 1956, a stranger named Fludd mysteriously turns up in the dismal village of Fetherhoughton. He is the curate sent by the bishop to assist Father Angwin - or is he? In the most unlikely of places, a superstitious town that understands little of romance or sentimentality, where bad blood between neighbors is ancient and impenetrable, miracles begin to bloom. Fludd becomes lover, gravedigger, and savior, transforming his dull office into a golden regency of decision, unashamed sensation, and unprecedented action.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Small, tight irreverant novel that wryly inverts
- By Darwin8u on 07-21-13
By: Hilary Mantel
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Jack Maggs
- By: Peter Carey
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 91
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Story4 out of 5 stars 40
With scars on his back and silver in his pocket, the huge figure of Jack Maggs strides across the rich landscape of 19th century London. As this enigmatic man moves through its streets and houses, his single-minded quest to find his son will engender love, deceit, and vengeance in the lives around him.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Jack Maggs
- By Kathleen on 04-04-05
By: Peter Carey
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Instruments of Darkness
- A Novel
- By: Imogen Robertson
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 173
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 140
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Story4 out of 5 stars 141
In the year 1780, Harriet Westerman, the willful mistress of a country manor in Sussex, finds a dead man on her grounds with a ring bearing the crest of Thornleigh Hall in his pocket. Not one to be bound by convention or to shy away from adventure, she recruits a reclusive local anatomist named Gabriel Crowther to help her find the murderer, and historical suspense's newest investigative duo is born.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not The Best, But Not Too Bad...
- By MJ on 01-13-13
By: Imogen Robertson
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The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock
- A Novel
- By: Imogen Hermes Gowar
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 508
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 460
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Story4 out of 5 stars 457
In 1780s London, a prosperous merchant finds his quiet life upended when he unexpectedly receives an unusual creature - and meets a most extraordinary woman - in this much-lauded, atmospheric debut that examines our capacity for wonder, obsession, and desire. One September evening in 1785, Jonah Hancock hears an urgent knocking on his front door near the docks of London. The captain of one of Jonah’s trading vessels is waiting eagerly on the front step, bearing shocking news. On a voyage to the Far East, he sold the Jonah’s ship for something rare and far more precious: a mermaid.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Gave up
- By Isabella Piestrzynska on 10-27-18
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The Lawrence Browne Affair
- By: Cat Sebastian
- Narrated by: Gary Furlong
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 497
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 464
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 463
Lawrence Browne, the Earl of Radnor, is mad. At least that's what he and most of the village believes. A brilliant scientist, he hides himself away in his family's crumbling estate, unwilling to venture into the outside world. When an annoyingly handsome man arrives at Penkellis, claiming to be Lawrence's new secretary, his carefully planned world is turned upside down.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Historical romance without the stupid stuff
- By April on 09-28-20
By: Cat Sebastian
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The Rose Garden
- By: Susanna Kearsley
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,403
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,931
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Story4 out of 5 stars 3,957
Acclaimed author Susanna Kearsley's previous works have won the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice Award, and finaled for both the UK Romantic Novel of the Year and the RITA awards.
Eva Ward is a modern woman thrown back three centuries to 1715 - only to find that might be exactly where she belongs. There, she finds true love with Daniel Butler, but the discord surrounding Hanoverian King George plunges the lovers into a world of intrigue, treason, and romance.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing story.
- By Angel Claire on 10-07-11
By: Susanna Kearsley
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The Distant Hours
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 22 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,258
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,315
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,315
Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives one Sunday afternoon with the return address of Milderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother’s emotional distance masks an old secret.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Right Mood At The Right Time
- By Simone on 11-13-12
By: Kate Morton
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Wildest Dreams
- By: Jennifer Blake
- Narrated by: Carrie Russo
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
Joletta Caresse's beloved grandmother dies, taking with her the secret to the formula of a legendary perfume that is now the most sought-after perfume on the market. Joletta tries to track down the formula through journals written by her ancestress, Violet Fossier, who in 1854 made a grand tour of Europe. As Joletta follows Violet's itinerary across the continent, the story goes back in time, to 19th-century Europe and a scandalous love affair that is intimately bound up in the mystery of the perfume.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Made me cry
- By Amazon Customer on 02-14-23
By: Jennifer Blake
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Haunted
- David Ash Series, Book 1
- By: James Herbert
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 155
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 140
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Story4 out of 5 stars 139
A ghostly twist. Three nights of terror at the house called Edbrook. Three nights in which David Ash, there to investigate a haunting, will be victim of horrifying games. Three nights in which he will face the blood-chilling enigma of his own past. Three hideous nights before Edbrook's dreadful secret will be revealed...And the true nightmare will begin.to the surface, tormenting him, refusing to let him rest. The memory of what he once had been.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Wait For It-----Wait For It
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-09-13
By: James Herbert
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The Blue Guitar
- A Novel
- By: John Banville
- Narrated by: Gerry O'Brien
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 40
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4 out of 5 stars 38
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea and Ancient Light, a new novel - at once trenchant, witty, and shattering - about the intricacies of artistic creation and theft, and about the ways in which we learn to possess one another and to hold on to ourselves. Equally self-aggrandizing and self-deprecating, our narrator, Oliver Otway Orme, is a painter of some renown and a petty thief who does not steal for profit and has never before been caught.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Masterful
- By Amazon customer on 11-25-15
By: John Banville
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The Janissary Tree
- A Novel
- By: Jason Goodwin
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 417
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 288
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Story4 out of 5 stars 291
It is 1836. Europe is modernizing, and the Ottoman Empire must follow suit. But just before the sultan announces sweeping changes, a wave of murders threatens the balance of power in his court. Who is behind them? Only one intelligence agent can be trusted to find out: Yashim Togalu, a man both brilliant and near-invisible in this world. You see, Yashim is a eunuch.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Interesting premise, annoying narrator
- By Phillipa Somerville on 09-18-07
By: Jason Goodwin
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My Beautiful Enemy
- By: Sherry Thomas
- Narrated by: Charlotte Anne Dore
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 150
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 142
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 141
Catherine Blade's uncommon beauty and daring have taken her far in the world, but she still doesn't have the freedom to live life as she chooses. Finally given the chance to earn her independence, who should be standing in her way but the only man she's ever loved - the only person to ever betray her. Despite the scars Catherine left him, Captain Leighton Atwood has never been able to forget the mysterious girl who once so thoroughly captivated him.
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4 out of 5 stars
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my least favorite from this author, and still good
- By Christina on 09-04-14
By: Sherry Thomas
What listeners say about The Maker of Swans
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Robin
- 04-21-23
basically liked it a lot
The narrators were great… Very believable in all the voices used. That's a big deal to me that can make or break up a novel as far as I'm concerned. The story was relatively easy to follow, but when it was all over I had one question remaining and that's what became of the girl in the mirror? What was that all about that sounded like it was going to go somewhere and then it just didn't? It didn't seem to tie into the rest of the story very well… Kind of felt like that part could've been edited out and it wouldn't have hurt a thing. I would have liked to have a little bit more backstory on Clara and how she came to be there, but overall it was interesting and kept me engaged. It's been a while since I've gotten some thing from Audible that I actually wanted to listen to besides podcast so this was a Lucky find in that regard. i'd recommend it if you know where the reason then to listen to talented narrators!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Geralynn Ross
- 06-13-22
dnf
Quit 3 hours in. Didn't hold my interest. I honestly didn't care about any of the characters.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- byrdloves2read
- 10-03-24
Atmospheric but…
Lots of descriptive phrases beautifully written but I would have appreciated a story that made sense. Reads like the author was on drugs and just recorded various visions and tried to plop them into a story. Very unsatisfying.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- HMCM
- 01-14-23
Pointless
Boring. No narrative thread nor character development. Long stretches of florid writing that seems to scratch an itch the writer had rather than serve the piece. Did this author have no editor?
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