The Scarlet Sisters
My nanna's story of secrets and heartache on the banks of the River Thames
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The Scarlet Sisters
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Narrated by:
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Annie Aldington
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By:
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Helen Batten
About this listen
‘Oh my goodness - another girl, Mrs Swain!'
Clara's normal iron composure broke, and she screamed, ‘No! That's not the bloody deal!' And that was how my nanna, Bertha Swain, entered the world.
When Helen Batten's marriage breaks down, she starts on a journey of discovery into her family's past and the mysteries surrounding her enigmatic nanna's early life.
What she unearths is a tale of five feisty redheads struggling to climb out of poverty and find love through two world wars. It's a story full of surprises and scandal - a death in a workhouse, a son kept in a box, a shameful war record, a clandestine marriage and children taken far too soon. It's as if there is a family curse.
But Helen also finds love, resilience and hope - crazy wagers, late-night Charlestons and stolen kisses. As she unravels the story of nanna and her scarlet sisters, Helen starts to break the spell of the past and sees a way she might herself find love again.
©2015 Helen Batten (P)2015 Random House AudioBooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
As Britain stands alone against a monstrous enemy, the inhabitants of Pearl Street face hardship and heartbreak with courage and humour. The war touches each of them in a different way: for Annie Poulson, a widow, it means never-ending worry when her twin boys are called up and sent to France; Sheila Reilly's husband, Cal, faces the terror of U-Boat attacks; Eileen Costello is liberated from a bitter, loveless marriage when her husband is sent to Egypt.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful
- By Tansy Adderley on 10-03-18
By: Maureen Lee
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Under Heaven's Shining Stars
- By: Jean Grainger
- Narrated by: Alan Smyth
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 133
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 114
For three young boys, Liam, Patrick, and Hugo, life in Ireland of the 1960s proves to be both idyllic and flawed. Living in close proximity but leading vastly different lives, the bonds of friendship bind these young men as they grow, dream, and navigate the storms of youth.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Modern Irish Catholic Tale
- By Jane Meddaugh on 12-19-20
By: Jean Grainger
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GI Brides
- The Wartime Girls Who Crossed the Atlantic for Love
- By: Duncan Barrett, Nuala Calvi
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 184
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 166
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 165
The "friendly invasion" of Britain by over a million American G.I.s bewitched a generation of young women deprived of male company during the Second World War. With their exotic accents, smart uniforms, and aura of Hollywood glamour, the G.I.s easily conquered their hearts, leaving British boys fighting abroad green with envy. But for girls like Sylvia, Margaret, Gwendolyn, and even the skeptical Rae, American soldiers offered something even more tantalizing than chocolate, chewing gum, and nylon stockings: An escape route from Blitz-ravaged Britain.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful true stories of very brave women
- By Cindy on 05-12-15
By: Duncan Barrett, and others
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The Woman at 72 Derry Lane
- By: Carmel Harrington
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 774
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 708
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 704
On a leafy suburban street in Dublin, beautiful, poised Stella Greene lives with her successful husband, Matt. They're the perfect couple in every way, and Stella appears to have it all. Next door, at number 72, however, lives Rea Brady. Gruff, bad tempered and rarely seen besides the twitching of her net curtains, rumour has it she's lost it all...including her marbles, if you believe the neighbourhood gossip. But appearances can be deceiving, and when Stella and Rea's worlds collide they realise they have much in common.
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5 out of 5 stars
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So much emotion, I was not prepared
- By RedLady on 08-29-18
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The Forgotten Secret
- By: Kathleen McGurl
- Narrated by: Melanie MacHugh
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 138
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 115
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 117
It’s the summer of 1919, and Ellen O’Brien has her whole life ahead of her. Young, in love and leaving home for her first job, the future seems full of shining possibility. But war is brewing, and before long, Ellen and everyone around her are swept up by it. As Ireland is torn apart by the turmoil, Ellen finds herself facing the ultimate test of love and loyalty. A hundred years later and Clare Farrell has inherited a dilapidated old farmhouse in County Meath.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Forgotten Secret
- By Amazon Customer on 08-31-20
By: Kathleen McGurl
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The District Nurses of Victory Walk
- By: Annie Groves
- Narrated by: Alex Tregear
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
Alice Lake has arrived in London from Liverpool to start her training as a District Nurse, but her journey has been far from easy. Her parents think that she should settle down and get married, but she has already had her heart broken once and isn’t about to make the same mistake again. Alice and her best friend, Edith, are based in the East End, but before they’ve even got their smart new uniforms on, war breaks out, and Hitler’s bombs are raining down on London.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A Look at the Role of the District Nurse
- By Jean on 04-30-19
By: Annie Groves
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An Orphan’s War
- By: Molly Green
- Narrated by: Julie Masey
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4 out of 5 stars 48
Liverpool, 1940. When her childhood sweetheart, Johnny, is killed in action, Maxine Grey loses more than her husband - she loses her best friend. Desperate to make a difference in this awful war, Maxine takes a nursing job at London’s St Thomas’ hospital. She takes comfort in the attentions of a handsome surgeon, but Edwin Blake isn’t all he seems. And as the Blitz descends on the capital, Maxine faces more heartache. When she returns to Liverpool, she harbours a secret.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Orphan's War by Molly Green
- By customers coins on 05-04-19
By: Molly Green
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The Nightingale Girls
- By: Donna Douglas
- Narrated by: Penelope Freeman
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 103
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
Three very different girls sign up as trainee nurses at a big London teaching hospital in 1934. Dora leaves her overcrowded, squalid working-class home for a better life. But has she got what it takes to keep up with other, better-educated girls? And will her hated stepfather ever let her go? Helen is born for the job; her brother is a doctor, her all-powerful mother a hospital trustee. But will Helen’s secret misery be her downfall? An aristocratic rebel, Millie’s carefree attitude will find her up in front of Matron again and again. Will she ever care enough to make a nurse? Or will she go back to the glamorous life she was born to?
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2 out of 5 stars
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For young girls
- By deborah jernigan on 12-31-16
By: Donna Douglas
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An Orphan in the Snow
- By: Molly Green
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
Liverpool, 1941. Troubled by a dark family history and the pain of seeing her country torn apart by war, young June Lavender finds new hope when she takes a job at the Dr Barnardo's children's home. There she meets Lizzie McRae, a little girl who is the spitting image of June's sister, who died tragically years before. Against the matron's wishes, the two girls form an unexpected bond as June tries to get the traumatised orphan to speak.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The title doesn't fit the story
- By mrsmlbj on 11-23-22
By: Molly Green
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Mosaic
- By: Diane Armstrong
- Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
- Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 208
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 167
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 171
>i>Mosaic is compelling storytelling at its best - from the fascinating details of Polish-Jewish culture and the rivalries and dramas of family life, to its moving account of lives torn apart by war and persecution, this an extraordinary true story of a family, and of one woman's journey to reclaim her heritage.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely excellent!
- By Roberta on 09-22-11
By: Diane Armstrong
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The Little Orphan Girl
- By: Sandy Taylor
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 109
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 107
When Cissy Ryan’s real mother comes to claim her from the workhouse, it’s not how she imagined. Her family’s tumbledown cottage has ice on the inside of its windows and is in an isolated, poverty-stricken village in the muddy Irish countryside. But when Cissy is allowed to help neighbour Colm Doyle and his horse named Blue on their milk round one morning, Cissy starts to feel as though friendship could get her through anything.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful heart breaking story.
- By kanga2012 on 07-08-20
By: Sandy Taylor
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Call the Midwife
- A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
- By: Jennifer Worth
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9,422
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,489
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8,463
At the age of 22, Jennifer Worth left her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in postwar London’s East End slums. The colorful characters she met while delivering babies all over London - from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lived to the woman with 24 children who couldn't speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city’s seedier side - illuminate a fascinating time in history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The best book I've listened to this year
- By Richard on 06-12-13
By: Jennifer Worth
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The Tea Rose
- By: Jennifer Donnelly
- Narrated by: Jill Tanner
- Length: 28 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,986
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,829
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,816
East London, 1888 - a city apart. A place of shadow and light where thieves, whores, and dreamers mingle, where children play in the cobbled streets by day and a killer stalks at night, where bright hopes meet the darkest truths. Here, by the whispering waters of the Thames, Fiona Finnegan, a worker in a tea factory, hopes to own a shop one day, together with her lifelong love, Joe Bristow, a costermonger's son. With nothing but their faith in each other to spur them on, Fiona and Joe struggle, save, and sacrifice to achieve their dreams.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow. Wow wow wow!
- By I like to shop on 04-26-16
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There'll Be Blue Skies
- By: Ellie Dean
- Narrated by: Annie Aldington
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
When sixteen-year-old Sally is evacuated to the English south coast, she is terrified by what lies ahead of her. All she knows are the sights and sounds of London's East End – but Sally swallows her tears as they leave the familiar landmarks behind, knowing that she has to be a Grown-Up Girl and play mother to her six-year-old brother Ernie. Playing mother is nothing new for Sally – their real mother Florrie, a good-time girl, hasn't even come to the station to wave them off and Ernie, crippled at an early age by polio, is used to depending on his older sister.
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2 out of 5 stars
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The audible reading was poor
- By Connie Palla on 03-02-19
By: Ellie Dean
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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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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 117
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 101
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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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4 out of 5 stars
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Complex but Compelling
- By Cariola on 04-14-13
By: Elif Shafak
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East of the Sun
- By: Julia Gregson
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues
- Length: 19 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 161
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 112
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Story4 out of 5 stars 113
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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1 out of 5 stars
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Indian history takes a back seat to 3 young women
- By Richard on 05-24-16
By: Julia Gregson
What listeners say about The Scarlet Sisters
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- loriann
- 12-29-23
The story of, if families, history and love
This by far is the best book I’ve ever listened to. I absolutely did not want it, and as I felt grief coming in for the characters, I would lose when the book ended. 
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Christine Pusateri
- 08-17-19
when a book finds you
Sometimes a book finds you when you're least expecting it. I needed this book about strong females who overcome life's challenges, love, lost, and multiple generations rolled into one. I love the prospective of the characters as well makes you feel like your in their kitchen having tea and learning their secrets.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- J. Hill
- 06-18-22
Excellent Read, well worth the credit!
Well read, well said, thought provoking. Kept my attention. Great reader! Hope this author continues to write.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Elana L.
- 07-23-23
not what I expected
couldn't even finish it, wasted credit. I wish I could exchange it for something else.
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