The Queen of Beauty
The Century Trilogy, Book 3
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Narrated by:
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Teri Clark Linden
About this listen
Petra Durst-Benning's captivating historical novel pays homage to the trailblazing women of the early twentieth century - like Elizabeth Arden and Estée Lauder - who shaped culture, shattered convention, and strived to make the world around them more beautiful.
Despite all that Clara Berg has achieved as a wife, mother, and chemist - especially for a woman in turn-of-the-century Berlin - ending her abusive marriage comes at great cost. The judge hands her inheritance - her parents' pharmacy - over to her ex-husband. Now, with her reputation in near ruins thanks to the scandal that rocked her marriage, no reputable chemist will hire her. Worst of all, she has lost all rights to her young son and daughter. Only her dearest friends, Josephine and Isabelle, themselves no strangers to hardship, remain steadfast.
With their encouragement, Clara decides to start over in the spa town of Lake Constance, where she creates a homemade cream and launches a cosmetics revolution. Against all convention, she teaches other women and herself how to face the challenges of each new day with confidence and beauty. Soon her renown brings prestige, professional accolades, even new romance. But through it all, her heart beats for her beloved children - will success finally bring the reunion she longs for?
©2015 Petra Durst-Benning & Ullstein Buchverlag GmbH. (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Translation © 2017 Edwin Miles.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Autumn 1928. Three young women are on their way to India, each with a new life in mind. Rose, a beautiful but naive bride-to-be, is anxious about leaving her family and marrying a man she hardly knows. Victoria, her bridesmaid couldn't be happier to get away from her overbearing mother, and is determined to find herself a husband. And Viva, their inexperienced chaperone, is in search of the India of her childhood, ghosts from the past and freedom.
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Indian history takes a back seat to 3 young women
- By Richard on 05-24-16
By: Julia Gregson
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The Woman from Paris
- By: Santa Montefiore
- Narrated by: Tara Ward
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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When Lord Frampton dies in a skiing accident, a beautiful young woman named Phaedra appears at his funeral - claiming to be the Lord’s illegitimate daughter. In his will, Lord Frampton has left the priceless Frampton suite of sapphires to this interloper, confirming her claim and outraging his three adult sons and widow. Eventually, however, Phaedra’s sweet nature thaws the frosty relationships. She becomes the daughter that Antoinette Frampton never had and a wise and compassionate granddaughter to the formidable Dowager Lady Frampton.
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Worth the time...
- By Esther Cunningham on 09-28-16
By: Santa Montefiore
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Evergreen Falls
- By: Kimberley Freeman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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A long-forgotten secret, a scandalous attraction and a place where two women's lives are changed forever. 1926: Violet Armstrong is one of the few remaining members of staff working at the grand Evergreen Spa Hotel as it closes down over winter. Only a handful of guests are left, including the heir to a rich grazing family, his sister and her suave suitor. When a snowstorm moves in, the hotel is cut off and they are all trapped. No-one could have predicted what would unfold.
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Soooo Boring
- By Merford on 10-09-19
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Silver Wattle
- By: Belinda Alexandra
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In fear for their lives after the sudden death of their mother, Adéla and Klára must flee Prague to find refuge with their uncle in Australia. Later, Adéla becomes a film director at a time when the local industry is starting to feel the competition from Hollywood. But even while success is imminent, the issues of family and an impossible love are never far away.
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Groan, Snore and Wince!
- By OrangeWisteria on 02-12-12
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Despite the Falling Snow
- By: Shamim Sarif
- Narrated by: Shamim Sarif
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Now a major motion picture. After an early career amongst the political elite of Cold War Russia, Alexander Ivanov has lived in America for 40 years and has managed to bury the tragic memories surrounding his charismatic late wife, Katya - or so he believes. For into his life come two women - one who will start to open up the heart he has protected for so long; another who is determined to uncover the truth about what really happened to Katya all those years ago.
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Beautiful snow fall
- By Mary findsplaces on 05-22-20
By: Shamim Sarif
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The Lemon Tree Hotel
- By: Rosanna Ley
- Narrated by: Lucy Price-Lewis
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In the beautiful village of Vernazza, the Mazzone family have transformed an old convent overlooking the glamorous Italian Riviera into the elegant Lemon Tree Hotel. For Chiara, her daughter, Elene, and her granddaughter, Isabella, the running of their hotel is the driving force in their lives. One day, two unexpected guests check in. The first, Dante, is a face from Chiara's past, but what exactly happened between them all those years ago, Elene wonders. Isabella is preoccupied with the second guest, a mysterious young man who seems to know a lot about the history of the old convent.
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Please write another
- By Marathon on 07-20-19
By: Rosanna Ley
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The Mayfair Bookshop
- A Novel of Nancy Mitford and the Pursuit of Happiness
- By: Eliza Knight
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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1938: She was one of the six sparkling Mitford sisters, known for her stinging quips, stylish dress, and bright green eyes. But Nancy Mitford’s seemingly dazzling life was really one of turmoil: with a perpetually unfaithful and broke husband, two Nazi sympathizer sisters, and her hopes of motherhood dashed forever. With war imminent, Nancy finds respite by taking a job at the Heywood Hill Bookshop in Mayfair, hoping to make ends meet, and discovers a new life.
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Perfectly Voices, Upliftingly Fun
- By Syd Young on 04-15-22
By: Eliza Knight
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Mr. Fox
- A Novel
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Carol Boyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently....
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A Great Novel, just Poor for Audio
- By James A. Dittes on 08-13-16
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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The Beekeeper's Daughter
- By: Santa Montefiore
- Narrated by: Lucinda Clare
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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England, 1932: Grace Hamblin is growing up on the beautiful estate of the marquess and marchioness of Penselwood. The beekeeper's daughter, she knows her place and what the future holds - that is until her father dies. Her childhood friend, Freddie, has recently become her lover, and she is thankful when they are able to marry and take over her father's duties. But there is another man who she just can't shake from her thoughts.
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Fantastic!
- By AlecZander on 05-12-15
By: Santa Montefiore
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The Gown
- A Novel of the Royal Wedding
- By: Jennifer Robson
- Narrated by: Marisa Calin
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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From the internationally best-selling author of Somewhere in France comes an enthralling historical novel about one of the most famous wedding dresses of the 20th century - Queen Elizabeth’s wedding gown - and the fascinating women who made it.
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Such a disappointment...
- By Cynthia in NoCO on 05-12-19
By: Jennifer Robson
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Honor
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno, Piter Marik
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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An honor killing shatters and transforms the lives of Turkish immigrants in 1970s London. Internationally best-selling Turkish author Elif Shafak’s new novel is a dramatic tale of families, love, and misunderstandings that follows the destinies of twin sisters born in a Kurdish village. While Jamila stays to become a midwife, Pembe follows her Turkish husband, Adem, to London, where they hope to make new lives for themselves and their children. In London, they face a choice: stay loyal to the old traditions or try their best to fit in.
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Complex but Compelling
- By Cariola on 04-14-13
By: Elif Shafak
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Buddenbrooks
- The Decline of a Family
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in 1900, when Thomas Mann was 25, Buddenbrooks is a minutely imagined chronicle of four generations of a North German mercantile family - a work so true to life that it scandalized the author’s former neighbours in his native Lübeck.
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Where Have You Been All My Life, Thomas Mann?
- By Virginia Waldron on 03-30-17
By: Thomas Mann
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Beguiling the Beauty
- By: Sherry Thomas
- Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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When the Duke of Lexington meets the mysterious Baroness von Seidlitz-Hardenberg on a transatlantic liner, he is fascinated. She’s exactly what he’s been searching for - a beautiful woman who interests and entices him. He falls hard and fast - and soon proposes marriage. And then she disappears without a trace.… For in reality, the "baroness" is Venetia Easterbrook - a proper young widow who had her own vengeful reasons for instigating an affair with the duke. But the plan has backfired. Venetia has fallen in love with the man she despised - and there’s no telling what might happen when she is finally unmasked….
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Worth multiple listens
- By anonymous on 09-10-19
By: Sherry Thomas
What listeners say about The Queen of Beauty
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Missy Bee Handmade
- 10-16-22
Read the Trilogy!
Great book series. I am a ceramacist who goes through audio books like water. These are 3 of my favorites. They serve to remind me how far womwn have come. Thank you Petra Durst-Benning!
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- krats
- 03-31-18
Great read!
I enjoyed all three books in this series. They all kept my interest. I will watch for more by this author.
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- Evelyn Schumacher
- 02-23-19
Interesting, thought provoking
This author does an excellent job writing about the plight of women. I recommend this book highly.
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- Jary
- 07-12-18
Another great one.
Ms. Durst-Nemning has done it again! I just love her characters and the historical accuracy in which they exist. Strong women, overcoming seemingly insurmountablr obstacles. Doesn't get any better than that
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- N. Mohandessi
- 09-10-18
turn off the century women
this was a wonderful end for the series and had left me wishing there was more of the story of the 3 friends to read about
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- Karen
- 03-28-19
Difficult to stop listening
I loved it and I will miss the characters. I enjoy the historical aspect in her books.
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- Ann g
- 02-04-18
favorite
this was my favorite of the trilogy. .good storyline and wonderful characters. .I will miss them!
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- angry bird
- 07-17-17
Queen of Beauty
Great story to end the adventures of three friends when it had yet become a woman's world.
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- Kat
- 12-03-20
A little fatphobic
There were some scenes in the story that had fat phobia. And it was not done well. Other than that, it was an excellent story. However, I cautioned against a great deal of domestic violence, suicide, gaslighting, and other potential trigger warnings.
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- Donna Smith McG
- 07-02-17
The trilogy is finally here!
I was so happy to see that the trilogy, ending with 'The Queen of Beauty', was finally published and on audible! I listened to the previous books and felt as if it was an entire year until this one came out. I was not disappointed...
The overall story could have been about 3 hours less, it had a tendency to lag also, but listening to Teri Clark Linden had me completely intrigued.
I highly recommend this last book to everyone...I also wish the story of these amazing women wasn't over. Loved it!
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