Anne Dover has narrated 77 audiobooks on Listento.it by 39 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 118 ratings. The most-rated is The Throwaway Children.
The Throwaway Children
Summary
Rita and Rosie Stevens are only nine and five years old when their widowed mother marries a violent bully called Jimmy Randall and has a baby boy by him. Under pressure from her new husband, she is persuaded to send the girls to an orphanage, not knowing that the papers she has signed will entitle them to do what they like with the children. And it is not long before the powers that be decide to send a consignment of orphans to their sister institution in Australia. Among them - without their family's consent or knowledge - are Rita and Rosie, the throwaway children.
©2016 Diney Costeloe (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Aveoth
Summary
Jillian Milzner has lived a life on the run. Her biological sperm donor has made it clear he wishes she'd never been born. Most kids get presents from their dads growing up. He sent thugs to make death threats to ensure she never tries to find him. He needn't have bothered, since she wants nothing to do with Decon Filmore. His father, however, thinks Jill might be useful. Things go from bad to worse when her grandfather's goons snatch her up to deliver her to a man both terrifying...and straight out of her sexiest daydreams. Lord Aveoth isn't surprised to hear from Decker Filmore. The man is desperate to make the GarLycan lord call off the hunt for his life, and equally determined to reclaim his VampLycan clan. To achieve both goals, he'll offer Aveoth yet another half-human granddaughter from his bloodline. It's lonely being a lord of a clan, so Aveoth agrees to the meeting - and he's instantly attracted to Jill. He's also angry to learn she's been brought to him against her will, but he still wants to keep her. Even if it exposes his darkest secret...which could tear his clan apart.
©2017 Laurann Dohner (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
The Orphan Sisters
Summary
A heartbreaking, enthralling and utterly unforgettable World War 2 story of two young sisters cruelly abandoned by their mother at an orphanage. 1929: four-year-old Etty and eight-year-old Dorothy are abandoned at Blakely Hall orphanage by their mother, never to see her again. With no other family to speak of, the sisters worship their beloved mam - and they are confused and heartbroken to be deserted by her when they need her the most. 1940: Etty and Dorothy are finally released from the confines of Blakely Hall - but their freedom comes when the country is in the grip of World War Two and its terrors. Amidst a devastating backdrop of screaming air-raid sirens and cold nights huddled in shelters, the sisters are desperate to put their broken childhoods behind them. But trouble lies ahead. Dorothy must bid good-bye to her beloved husband when he’s sent to war, and Etty must nurse a broken heart as she falls in love with the one man she can never be with. Etty and Dorothy survived the orphanage with the help of one another, and neither sister can forget the awful betrayal of their mother, which has haunted them their whole lives. But when a shocking secret about their painful childhood comes to light, will the sisters ever be the same again?
©2019 Shirley Dickson (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing
After Auschwitz
Summary
A story of heartbreak and survival by the stepsister of Anne Frank. Eva was arrested by the Nazis on her 15 birthday and sent to Auschwitz. Her survival depended on endless strokes of luck, her own determination and the love and protection of her mother, Fritzi, who was deported with her. When Auschwitz was liberated, Eva and Fritzi began the long journey home. They searched desperately for Eva's father and brother, from whom they had been separated. The news came some months later. Tragically, both men had been killed. Before the war, in Amsterdam, Eva had become friendly with a young girl called Anne Frank. Though their fates were very different, Eva's life was set to be entwined with her friend's for ever more, after her mother, Fritzi, married Anne's father, Otto Frank, in 1953. This is a searingly honest account of how an ordinary person survived the Holocaust. Eva's memories and descriptions are heartbreakingly clear; her account brings the horror as close as it can possibly be. But this is also an exploration of what happened next, of Eva's struggle to live with herself after the war and to continue the work of her stepfather, Otto, ensuring that the legacy of Anne Frank is never forgotten.
©2018 Eva Schloss (P)2014 Soundings
One Quiet Woman
Summary
From the beloved and best-selling Anna Jacobs comes a new Lancashire-based saga. Lancashire, 1930: Leah Turner's father has been killed in an accident at the laundry, and since her mother died years ago it falls to her to become sole provider for her little sister. But women's wages are half those of men, and pawning the few belongings she has left will keep their vicious rent collector at bay for only a few weeks, so even if she finds a job, they'll lose their home. Out of the blue, Charlie Willcox, the local pawnbroker, offers her a deal. His brother Jonah, an invalid since being gassed in the Great War, needs a wife. Charlie thinks Leah would be perfect for the job. The idea of a marriage of convenience doesn't please Leah, but she finds Jonah agreeable enough, and moving with him to the pretty hamlet of Ellindale may be the only chance of a better life for her sister. But other people have plans for the remote Pennine valley, and the two sisters find themselves facing danger in their new life with Jonah. Can the three of them ever look to a brighter future?
©2017 Anna Jacobs (P)2017 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
The Yorkshire Shepherdess
Summary
Amanda Owen has been seen by millions on ITV's The Dales, living a life that has almost gone in today's modern world, a life ruled by the seasons and her animals. She is a farmer's wife and shepherdess, living alongside her husband, Clive, and seven children at Ravenseat, a 2,000 acre sheep hill farm at the head of Swaledale in North Yorkshire. It's a challenging life but one she loves. In The Yorkshire Shepherdess, she describes how the rebellious girl from Huddersfield, who always wanted to be a shepherdess, achieved her dreams. Full of amusing anecdotes and unforgettable characters, the book takes us from fitting in with the locals to fitting in motherhood, from the demands of the livestock to the demands of raising a large family in such a rural backwater. Amanda also evokes the peace of winter, when they can be cut off by snow without electricity or running water, the happiness of spring and the lambing season, and the backbreaking tasks of summertime - haymaking and sheepshearing - inspiring us all to look at the countryside and those who work there with new appreciation.
©2017 Amanda Owen (P)2017 Macmillan Digital Audio
The House by the Fjord
Summary
When Anna Harvik goes to Norway in 1946 this beautiful country is still recovering from five cruel years of Nazi Occupation. Her late husband was a pilot in the Royal Norwegian Air Force and she has come to visit his homeland and meet his family, in spite of being in doubt about how she will be received. She stays with Molly, who with other English war-brides makes her welcome. On her fist day a lawyer, Alex Ringstad, comes with what is virtually a command from her father-in-law that she accept ownership of an old house that has a unique history. In spite of many difficulties, she finds love and much more in the country that becomes her own.
©2011 Rosalind Laker (P)2011 Soundings
Star of the North
Summary
Marjorie is the pretty one of the Preston sisters. So pretty that when a performer at her sister's music room breaks her leg, Marjorie is asked to fill in as the assistant to the singer Denby Sinclair. He offers to take her with him, away from Lancashire and into London theatres.
It seems as if her dreams will come true, but Denby is not what he seems. He has a dangerous secret which, if it were to be revealed, would ruin her. Marjorie, however, is reckless and will take any risk for a chance to work on the stage. And when disaster strikes, she is left alone and away from the North. Can she regain her heart's desire and find happiness again? Just as it seems she has overcome her troubles, another danger arises in Hedderby, one that threatens her and her family.
©2006 Anna Jacobs (P)2006 Isis Publishing Ltd
Down Weavers Lane
Summary
Anna Jacob's riveting new Lancashire saga introduces an unforgettable heroine. Emmy Carter's mother is a prostitute - and her life has made Emmy determined to avoid the same fate. But Emmy is beautiful, so attracts unwanted attention; her mother's protector has his eye on her, as does evil Marcus Armistead, her employer's nephew. Marcus is excited by Emmy's virginity and has her kidnapped, but Emmy hits him over the head and escapes. Marcus, further enraged, kills her mother and becomes even more determined to rape Emmy, but the combined efforts of the local parson and Emmy's young suitor manage to keep her safe from harm. Finally Emmy sees Marcus get his just desserts, finds out who her father was and attains the respectability she has so longed for.
©2005 Anna Jacobs (P)2009 Isis Publishing Ltd
Bright Day Dawning
Summary
Gwynna had fallen from grace once, bearing a stillborn child out of wedlock. Determined to have a respectable future, she finds a position for herself as a nursemaid at Hungerton House. But just as she begins to find her feet, the secrets of her past are revealed. She is swiftly dismissed but not before she becomes the target of a lascivious groom. And even afterwards she is pursued by Hungerton, an evil old man who wishes to send her back to the gutters. She returns home to Hedderby, only to find the small Lancashire town reeling after the arson attack on the local pub and music hall, The Pride. Her only ally is a talented carpenter, also once employed by Hungerton. His former employer will stop at nothing, however, to bring him back to the estate. Will money buy revenge and destroy two lives, or will the young lovers find a way to achieve their dreams?
©2007 Anna Jacobs (P)2007 Isis Publishing Ltd
The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones & Other Victorian Scandals
Summary
A grisly book dedicated to the crimes, perversions and outrages of Victorian England, covering high-profile offences - such as the murder of actor William Terriss, whose stabbing at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre in 1897 filled the front pages for many weeks - as well as lesser-known transgressions that scandalised the Victorian era. The tales include murders and violent crimes but also feature scandals that merely amused the Victorians. These include the story of a teenage man who married an actress, only to be shipped off to Australia by his disgusted parents; and the Italian ice-cream man who meant only to buy his sweetheart a hat but ended up proposing marriage instead. When he broke it off, his fiancée's father sued him, and the story was dubbed the 'Amusing Aberdeen Breach of Promise Case'. Also present is the gruesome story of the murder of Patrick O Connor, who was shot in the head and buried under the kitchen flagstones by his lover, Maria Manning, and her husband, Frederick. The couple's subsequent trial caused a sensation, and even author Charles Dickens attended the grisly public hanging. Drawing on a range of sources from university records and Old Bailey transcripts to national and regional newspaper archives, Michelle Morgan's research sheds new light on well-known stories as well as unearthing previously unknown incidents.
©2018 Michelle Morgan (P)2018 Little, Brown Book Group
A Mother's Journey
Summary
Hull, 1940. Widowed Edie Copeland has just arrived on Exchange Street, heavily pregnant and with heavy suitcase in tow. She left York after tragedy struck to make a fresh start, but she's a stranger to this street, and her new landlord doesn't hesitate to remind her of this, widow or not. Luckily, the neighbours are a little more welcoming, and Edie is soon made to feel at home by the Maguires and the Scuttles. As air raids sound, and the war feels closer than ever, the community has to stick together. But Edie is hiding something, and she doesn't know how much longer her secret is safe. Is the past going to catch up with her? And will Edie still be able to call Exchange Street home when the truth comes out?
©2019 Donna Douglas (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group
Pemberley
Summary
Pemberley is Mr Darcy’s splendid house, and it is there that, amidst their relatives one Christmas, his pride and his wife Elizabeth’s prejudice find themselves once again provoked. Told with stylish irony combined with insights into the emotions and mores of 18th-century English high society, Pemberley is an elegant and diverting social comedy, a novel of genuine originality.
©1993 Emma Tennant (P)2014 Soundings
The Body on the Train
Summary
London, 1929. In the darkness before dawn, a railway porter, unloading a special train from Yorkshire, discovers a man's body, shot and placed in a sack. There are no means of identification to be found and as Scotland Yard hits a dead end, they call on the inimitable Kate Shackleton, a local sleuth, confident her local knowledge and investigative skills will produce results. But it's no easy task.
Suspicion of political intrigue and fears of unrest in the Yorkshire coalfields impose secrecy on her already difficult task. The murder of a shopkeeper around the same time seems too much of a coincidence. The convicted felon was found with blood on his hands, but it's too tidy, and Kate becomes convinced the police have the wrong man.
By then it's too late. Kate finds herself in a den of vipers. The real killer is still at large, and having tinkered with Kate's car, nearly causes her to crash. Not only that, but Scotland Yard has turned their back on her. As Kate edges toward the shocking truth, she's going to need all the strength and resourcefulness she can muster to uncover this sinister web of deceit.
©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Bad Penny
Summary
One wild night in the 1930s, midwife Patty Peel is called to attend a birth on the opposite side of Liverpool. She pedals off into the storm and delivers a baby girl in a filthy slum dwelling, just as the mother dies. The drunk and violent father tells Patty to get rid of it so she takes the child away, meaning to deliver it to the nearest orphanage. However, Patty spent her entire childhood in an institution, except for the frequent occasions when she ran away, and cannot bear to hand the baby over. But she has few friends and despises all the men around her, so how can she hope to bring up the baby alone?
©2002 Katie Flynn (P)2003 Soundings
One Perfect Family
Summary
The fourth book in Anna Jacobs' beloved Ellindale series. Lancashire, 1934. When Tam Crawford is unexpectedly bequeathed some money, he can finally realise his dream of settling down in the beautiful village of Ellindale. Tam knows he can be impulsive - his nickname isn't Crazy Tam for nothing! - but this time he is determined not to be ruled by his big heart and hot head. Yet somehow, within just one day, he has taken on a fiancée and two children to keep them out of the poorhouse - or worse. Despite their unconventional start, as Tam and his new family get to know and love each other, they come to realise that his act of charity is the best thing that could have happened to all of them. But there are still problems, and they struggle to find somewhere to live. Tam and his makeshift family are not the only ones facing difficulties. Local benefactor Finn Carlisle's attempts to help the unemployed are being sabotaged by an unscrupulous local councillor, and Tam's cousin-by-marriage Hilda Kerkham has been widowed and is struggling even to feed her son. Will the people of Ellindale be able to help one another in these hard times?
©2019 Anna Jacobs (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
The Midwives of Raglan Road
Summary
Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Midwives of Raglan Road by Jenny Holmes, read by Anne Dover. Summer, 1936. Newly trained midwife Hazel Price returns to the Yorkshire streets of her childhood, only to find that her modern methods and 'stuck-up' ways bring her into conflict with her family and other formidable residents of Raglan Road. Determined, Hazel battles on, assisting with home deliveries and supporting the local GP. The days are long and hard, but Hazel brings knowledge and compassion to the work she loves. Then tragedy strikes, and accusations fly on Raglan Road. Will Hazel's reputation survive? And what of John Moxon, the man she is beginning to fall for - whose side will he take in the war between the old ways and the new? A heartwarming, nostalgic tale of triumph over adversity that listeners of Katie Flynn, Donna Douglas and Call the Midwife will adore.
©2018 Jenny Holmes (P)2018 Random House Audiobooks
The Waiting Rooms
Summary
Decades of spiralling drug resistance have unleashed a global antibiotic crisis. Ordinary infections are untreatable, and a scratch from a pet can kill. A sacrifice is required to keep the majority safe: no one over 70 is allowed new antibiotics. The elderly are sent to hospitals nicknamed ‘The Waiting Rooms’, hospitals where no one ever gets well. Twenty years after the crisis takes hold, Kate begins a search for her birth mother, armed only with her name and her age. As Kate unearths disturbing facts about her mother’s past, she puts her family in danger and risks losing everything. Because Kate is not the only secret that her mother is hiding. Someone else is looking for her, too.
©2020 Eve Smith (P)2021 Isis Publishing Ltd
Beyond the Blue Hills
Summary
Laura Collins is struggling to make a good life for her daughters, Tess and Tina. So when she is offered a good job, with accommodation, she is delighted. Life is very different for the Brewsters who live on Manor Farm in Herefordshire. Danny plans to marry one day so that he can take over the farm, whilst his cousin, Phil, longs to escape the world of farming as soon as possible. War changes all their plans. Tina is evacuated and Tess joins the Land Army. Danny and Phil join the RAF and end up on the same airfield, falling in love with the same girl…
©2006 Katie Flynn (P)2007 Soundings
When Christmas Bells Ring
Summary
Liverpool, 1938. It’s Christmas in the Courts, and single mother Rosheen Clarke and her mischievous twin daughters, April and May, have no idea of the cataclysmic events which will soon overtake them. When war is declared, April and May are evacuated to the countryside, and Rosheen joins the WAAF, where she befriends fellow Liverpudlian Cassie Valentine. While Rosheen worries about what trouble the twins will cause next, Cassie is fighting her love for her childhood friend, Andy. Because ever since he joined the RAF, he has become arrogant and remote. Will their love be another casualty of war? Cassie and Rosheen support each other as best they can, but it will be many years before the Christmas bells ring out again.
©2015 Katie Flynn (P)2015 Soundings