Anne Hancock has narrated 17 audiobooks on Listento.it by 8 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.8★ across 6 ratings. The most-rated is Exit Betty.
Exit Betty
Summary
Soon-to-be heiress Betty Stanhope is a runaway bride, but not for the usual reasons - she didn't flee because of a change of heart. Reluctant about the wedding at the outset, the dutiful Betty reaches the altar to find that her groom is a different man altogether and someone she's dreaded most of her life! Before the wedding can proceed, she is taken to a room to recover from her fainting spell. She finds a way to escape and has the good fortune to happen upon a quick-witted factory girl, Jane Carson, who bundles Betty, frothy wedding gown and all, to her room. They hatch a plan to move Betty to Jane's family in the country. Living with the impoverished Carsons teaches Betty many things: love of family, love of God, and the importance of standing up for herself. When her would-be groom advertises a $5,000 reward for her recovery, the wheels of good and evil are set in motion, and the chase is on!
Public Domain (P)2017 Anne Hancock
Marcia Schuyler
Summary
A runaway bride is a staple of screwball comedies, but in the 19th century, it was a source of deep shame and anguish for the bride's family and the prospective groom. When Kate Schuyler vanishes with her sea-captain lover on her wedding morning, her father offers her younger sister, Marcia, as a substitute. David Spafford accepts, and the wedding takes place, with no one the wiser until the vows are read. The couple then settles in David's hometown. No one there has met Kate, so the switch is undetected. Sweet young Marcia, who has a girlhood infatuation for David, is thrust into the role of matron, keeping house and entertaining villagers. In addition to a brokenhearted husband, she must deal with his two acerbic aunts, a bitter neighbor who had planned to marry David herself, and the town Lothario. Will this sister/brother relationship of theirs evolve into a real marriage? Will discovering the interests and values they have in common be enough to change hearts and minds? Not if the fickle Kate has her way. Now disenchanted with her own husband, she wants to reclaim the lover she had spurned.
Public Domain (P)2019 Anne Hancock
The Keeper of the Bees
Summary
Gene Stratton-Porter (A Girl of the Limberlost and Laddie) was a writer whose primary interest was the natural world. In The Keeper of the Bees, her last novel, she brought to vivid life the coastline, flora, and fauna of her adopted California. Jamie MacFarlane has returned a hero from the Great War but with a stubborn chest wound. The government has sent him to their new thermal springs hospital in California "where it was hoped that the brilliant sunshine, the fruits, and the clean air, the eternal summer of a beneficent land" would heal him. But nothing has worked, and with his parents now deceased and no one to care for him, it seems the next step is a camp rife with tuberculosis. Realizing this, Jamie begins his great adventure on foot toward the ocean. For miles, he encounters both sympathy and villainy, and just as his own strength is at its lowest ebb, he finds salvation when he encounters an elderly gentleman who's in worse shape than he is. Jamie agrees to take on the gentleman's work tending his bees, aided by his assistant, the precocious 10-year-old Little Scout. The Pacific Ocean air, ripe fruits, and exercise are certainly beneficial, but it's not until Jamie begins to think beyond his own mortality that he truly begins to heal. His natural empathy, his work among the bees, new friendships, and a mysterious young woman may be the keys to a new life and his cure. About the bees: Ever the naturalist, Stratton-Porter delivers, through Little Scout's child-like tutorial to Jamie, the clearest explanation ever written of the complicated society of these fascinating creatures.
Public Domain (P)2020 Anne Hancock
The Big Blue Soldier
Summary
Miss Marilla Chadwick has been preparing a celebration for her nephew Dick's return from the war. Her young neighbor, Mary Amber, has agreed to help but she isn't excited by the prospect. She remembers the child Dick from years before as nasty and unfeeling but it means a lot to sweet Marilla to welcome her "war hero" in style. When a telegram from Dick arrives turning down the invitation, Marilla hides it and her disappointment from her friend, pondering what to do next. Then she sees a tall, young soldier walking down the road toward her house and hatches a plan. Lyman Gage's return from the battlefields of World War I is a disaster. His girl is engaged to another man and he owes her father money from a business deal. He immediately sells his property and repays the debt, wanting nothing more to do with the pair. Broke and broken, he wanders on to a train and gets off at a country station, ambling down a road with no destination. That is, until a little old lady approaches him and asks him to dinner. Her request is curious but she's a charming lady and he's hungry, so why not? He'll happily pretend to be nephew Dick in exchange for a good meal. But things get complicated when skeptical Mary Amber soon questions his identity and suspects him of deceiving her dear friend.
Public Domain (P)2019 Anne Hancock
Dreaming the Biosphere
Summary
Biosphere rises from southern Arizona's high desert like a bizarre hybrid spaceship and greenhouse. Packed with more than 3,800 carefully selected plant, animal, and insect species, this mega-terrarium is one of the world's most biodiverse, lush, and artificial wildernesses. Only recently transformed from an abandoned ghost dome to a University of Arizona research center, the site was the setting of a grand drama about humans and ecology at the end of the twentieth century. The seeds of Biosphere 2 sprouted in the 1970s at Synergia, a desert ranch in New Mexico where John Allen and a handful of dreamers united to create a self-reliant utopia centered on ecological work, study, and their traveling experimental theater troupe, "The Theater of All Possibilities." At a time of growing tensions in the American environmental consciousness, the Synergians took on varied projects around the world that sought to mend the rift between humans and nature. In 1984, they bought a piece of desert to build Biosphere 2. Eco-enthusiasts competed to become the eight biospherians who would lock themselves inside the giant greenhouse world for two years to live in harmony with their wilderness, grow their own food, and recycle all their air, water, and wastes. Thin and short on oxygen, the biospherians stoically completed their survival mission, but the communal spirit surrounding Biosphere 2 eventually dissolved into conflict - ultimately the facility would be seized by armed U.S. Marshals. Yet for all the story's strangeness, perhaps strangest of all was how normal Biosphere 2 actually was. The story of this grand eco-utopian adventure (and misadventure) becomes a parable about the relationship between humans and nature in postmodern America. The book is published by University of New Mexico Press.
©2009 Rebecca Reider (P)2013 Redwood Audiobooks
The Emperor's Agent
Summary
Courtesan, actress, medium - spy. 1805: Europe stands poised on the brink of war. Elza is content with her life in the demi-monde, an actress and courtesan in the glittering society of France's First Empire, but when her former lover is arrested for treason, Elza is blackmailed into informing on her friends and associates. She has one alternative - to become the secret agent of the most feared man in Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte! France's invasion of England is imminent, but a spy in the camp of the Grand Army threatens the secret plans. Taking the Emperor's commission to catch the spy means playing the deadly game of spy versus counterspy. However, this is no ordinary espionage, but backed by the power of the witches of England determined to hold England's seawards against invasion. Only an agent who is herself a medium can hope to unravel their magic in time - with the life of the man Elza loves hanging in the balance. From the theaters of Paris to the sea cliffs that guard the Channel, from ballrooms and bedrooms to battlefields corporeal and astral, Elza must rely on her wits, her courage, her beauty, and her growing talents as a medium for she must triumph - or die!
©2013 Jo Wyrick (P)2014 David N. Wilson
Miranda
Summary
Strong-minded, irrepressible Miranda Griscom is content working as a live-in housekeeper for the young Spafford family. Here she is loved and appreciated in contrast to her lonely childhood as an unwanted granddaughter. When a wealthy neighbor proposes marriage so that she can care for his motherless children, she is delighted to show him the door, proud that she is “a free and independent woman who can earn her own living”. In spite of her own sad beginning, Miranda has always championed the underdog. In her youth she devised a way to thwart the schoolteacher from unfairly giving the neighborhood bad boy a beating. Years later, in a comical plan involving mesmerizing and “ghosts”, she manages to catch the person responsible for the murder that caused her friend to flee the town. The story expands from the small town to include real personages of the mid 19th century: Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph; Dr. Marcus Whitman, missionary and blazer of the Oregon Trail. But it is chiefly the story of courageous-hearted, indomitable Miranda, a unique and endearing character.
Public Domain (P)2018 Anne Hancock
The Lodger
Summary
According to legend, in 1910, Marie Belloc Lowndes attended a London dinner party where a guest told her that his mother’s butler and cook claimed they had once rented rooms to Jack the Ripper, the notorious mass murderer. The idea for The Lodger was born. Mr. and Mrs. Bunting have sunk their savings into their house with plans to let rooms. But no lodgers have materialized, and they are on the verge of penury when one foggy night, a knock on the door brings Mr. Sleuth, an unassuming gentleman whose needs are perfectly suited to the suite of rooms the Buntings have to let. They can’t believe their good fortune. Gradually, relief turns into suspicion, then dread, as Mrs. Bunting notices their savior’s strange habits are not mere eccentricities. When his late-night forays seem to coincide with the lurid headlines her husband reads to her about the grisly murders all over London, she slowly realizes she may be harboring a monster, and if he’s discovered, it will mean ruin for the Buntings. This is the original 1911 short story. Lowndes expanded it to a novel two years later, and the tale has spawned a radio play, five films, and an opera. Jack the Ripper’s identity was never discovered, but The Lodger offers a tantalizing possibility that has entertained and intrigued audiences for more than a century.
Public Domain (P)2018 Anne Hancock
The Finding of Jasper Holt
Summary
From the pen of Grace Livingston Hill comes her most romantic story: a "bad" man striving to improve himself for the woman he loves. Jean Grayson is traveling alone to visit her sister out west when a terrible accident occurs and she is saved from certain death by a stranger. Together they make their perilous way through the wilderness. His name is Jasper Holt, and their care for each other blossoms on their journey. But Holt warns Jean that when they reach the safety of their destination, she'll find that her relatives and the townsfolk have nothing good to say about him. Jean soon discovers that her savior has a notorious reputation, and no repeated appeals on his behalf do any good. The two stay apart but never lose faith in one another. Can anything bring them together again?
Public Domain (P)2020 Anne Hancock
The Dower House Mystery
Summary
Amabel Grey, a widow with a modest income, needs money. Fast. Her spoiled daughter Daphne has an opportunity to go with friends on holiday, and she's convinced it will end with a lucrative marriage proposal. But where to find 200 pounds? Amabel refuses to borrow money she knows she can't repay and visits a lawyer friend to ask about ideas for employment. She overhears a client requesting the lawyer find someone to live in his Dower House for six months. The stipend is 200 pounds! And she knows the house, having visited 20 years before. The catch? Previous tenants have been driven away by strange happenings, and the village is convinced the place is haunted. The owner wants the rumors to stop. Will strange noises, closing doors, and rising mist in the hallways intimidate the determined Amabel? Who or what is trying to scare her away and why? Listeners of The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith will again encounter Jane, her anarchist uncle, and Criminal Investigations Chief "Piggy" LeMesurier. The Dower House's inhabitants and neighbors include a long-lost love of Amabel's.
Public Domain (P)2021 Anne Hancock
Hot Target Cowboy
Summary
His loyalty is to his family. But his heart belongs to her. Eldest son Colt Garrett is the biggest, strongest, and steadiest of the Garrett brothers. Colt accepts his responsibilities, knowing his future is tied to the land. Colt has stayed centered - but when he falls in love, he falls hard. He is mesmerized by Misty Dalton, the younger sister of one of his brother's friends. Misty Dalton has held together a family plagued with problems since her mother passed away. But when the threats to her family turn deadly, Misty turns to Colt. If anybody wants to hurt Misty, they're going to have to go through the toughest of the Garrett boys first.
©2019 June Faver (P)2019 Tantor
Cowboy Christmas Homecoming
Summary
This cowboy's finally coming home for Christmas. Zach Garrett is home from war, haunted by PTSD, trying to fit in to what has become an alien world. With the holidays fast approaching, his uncle Big Jim Garrett offers him a place on the family ranch. Zach isn't sure he's up for a noisy, boisterous Garrett Christmas...until he meets beautiful Stephanie Gale, and all his protests go up in flames. Firefighter and EMT Stephanie Gale is ready for anything. She's got her life under control...until she locks eyes with Zack and realizes her heart's in a whole new kind of danger. But with a little help from Zack's long-lost army dog, maybe he and Stephanie will be able to make this a Christmas of new beginnings after all.
©2019 June Faver (P)2019 Tantor
When to Call a Cowboy
Summary
Rekindling old flames can be dangerous.... Beau Garrett may look rough around the edges, but under that exterior beats a heart of gold - a heart that was broken when his high school sweetheart disappeared days before graduation. Years have passed, but Beau's never forgotten the fiery-haired girl who left him high and dry. Dixie Moore has her reasons for being angry with Beau. When a family emergency calls Dixie back to her hometown, she brings with her an explosive secret that could divide them for good - if the culprit behind a recent crime spree doesn't get her first. It's up to Beau to unmask this dangerous criminal...and keep Dixie out of the crosshairs.
©2019 June Faver (P)2019 Tantor
Do or Die Cowboy
Summary
Putting it all on the line for love.... Cowboy musician Tyler Garrett has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put aside his rough-and-tumble rancher's lifestyle and realize his dream. He's on the road to Dallas to record a demo when that dream gets kicked sideways by a beautiful woman on the run. Leah Benson will do whatever it takes to keep her daughter safe. But when her dangerous past catches up with her, she needs a hero - and luckily for her, Tyler Garrett was born and bred for the role.
©2018 June Faver (P)2019 Tantor
The Annam Jewel
Summary
Twelve-year-old Peter Waring is an orphan with an assortment of relatives who don't quite know what to do with him. But Peter's concern is for Rose Ellen, the little girl his mother took in before she died, and for whom none of his relations feel any responsibility. They are however intrigued by Peter's legacy. His father had hidden The Annam Jewel, a mysterious and priceless object that Peter will inherit on his 25th birthday. The owner of such a valuable item is sure to face many challenges: grasping strangers and friends who covet the jewel; betrayals; perilous encounters with villains and danger to life and limb. But Peter's first task is to rescue Rose Ellen from the wretched institution where she has been sent. This takes courage, critical thinking, and a dose of chivalry to pull off. All these are qualities that he'll need soon...when the Annam Jewel takes center stage in his life.
Public Domain (P)2020 Anne Hancock
Dear Enemy
Summary
This delightful sequel to Webster's Daddy Long-Legs centers on socialite Sallie McBride, who reluctantly agrees to become director of an orphan asylum. The asylum's benefactors, her friends Judy and Jervis Pendleton, insist she is just the person to institute the sweeping reforms the institution needs. The exuberant Sallie soon begins ruffling feathers of the staff, filling the children's lives with hope and love, and locking horns with the new Scotch doctor, the Dear Enemy of the title.
Public Domain (P)2014 Ann Hancock
Phoebe Deane
Summary
This book has all the makings of a fairy tale. The lovely orphaned girl, Phoebe Deane, lives with her kind but ineffectual half-brother but is treated like an unpaid servant by his shrewish wife. A crude widower with a houseful of children is determined to have her. He repulses her but her sister-in-law helps with the scheme to get her in his clutches. Phoebe is in despair and would prefer death to living with a tyrant. Along comes a fairy godmother (the wily Miranda Griscom from Livingston Hill's Marcia Schuyler and Miranda) full of sympathy and plans to help her. And the handsome stranger Phoebe meets in the woods one day might be a key to her salvation. But the book's most serious theme, as in many of GLH's stories, is gossip: the perniciousness of it, the ease with which it is spread, and the irreparable damage it can do to innocent lives. Worrying about "what the neighbors will think" was a real threat in small-town America in the early 20th century, which we tend to think of as a simpler time. But the spreading of gossip and ruining of reputations in a small community was as lethal then as social media can be today.
Public Domain (P)2019 Anne Hancock