Fiona Hardingham has narrated 148 audiobooks on Listento.it by 107 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 2,843 ratings. The most-rated is I Owe You One.
I Owe You One
Summary
New York Times Best Seller “A gem of a novel." (Jodi Picoult, number one New York Times best-selling author of A Spark of Light and Small Great Things) From the author of Surprise Me comes an irresistible story of love and empowerment about a young woman with a complicated family, a handsome man who might be “the one”, and an IOU that changes everything. Fixie Farr has always lived by her father’s motto: “Family first”. And since her dad passed away, leaving his charming housewares store in the hands of his wife and children, Fixie spends all her time picking up the slack from her siblings instead of striking out on her own. The way Fixie sees it, if she doesn’t take care of her father’s legacy, who will? It’s simply not in Fixie’s nature to say no to people. So when a handsome stranger in a coffee shop asks her to watch his laptop for a moment, she not only agrees - she ends up saving it from certain disaster. To thank Fixie for her quick thinking, the computer’s owner, Sebastian, an investment manager, scribbles an IOU on a coffee sleeve and attaches his business card. Fixie laughs it off - she’d never actually claim an IOU from a stranger. Would she? But then Fixie’s childhood crush, Ryan, comes back into her life, and his lack of a profession pushes all of Fixie’s buttons. As always, she wants nothing for herself - but she’d love Seb to give Ryan a job. No sooner has Seb agreed than the tables are turned once more and a new series of IOUs between Seb and Fixie - from small favors to life-changing moments - ensues. Soon Fixie, Ms. Fixit for everyone else, is torn between her family and the life she really wants. Does she have the courage to take a stand? Will she finally grab the life, and love, she really wants? Praise for I Owe You One “This book is a shot of pure joy!” (Jenny Colgan, author of The Bookshop on the Corner) "A humorous exploration of family life, finding love and the difficulties of coming into one’s own as a young professional woman.... The entertaining cast of characters...will certainly remind readers why nineteen years after her first hit Kinsella remains one of the reigning queens of women’s fiction.” (The Washington Post) “I Owe You One is another impossibly delightful story by Sophie Kinsella, a must-read for her die-hard fans and new readers alike.” (PopSugar)
©2019 Sophie Kinsella (P)2019 Random House Audio
An Ember in the Ashes
Summary
Set in a terrifyingly brutal Rome-like world, An Ember in the Ashes is an epic fantasy debut about an orphan fighting for her family and a soldier fighting for his freedom. It's a story that's literally burning to be told. Laia is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire's greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim they will help to save her brother from execution. Elias is the academy's finest soldier - and secretly its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he's ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor. When Laia and Elias' paths cross at the academy, they find that their destinies are more intertwined than either could have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself.
©2015 Sabaa Tahir (P)2015 Listening Library
My Not So Perfect Life
Summary
Part love story, part workplace drama, this sharply observed novel is a witty critique of the false judgments we make in a social-media-obsessed world. New York Times best-selling author Sophie Kinsella has written her most timely novel yet. Everywhere Katie Brenner looks, someone else is living the life she longs for, particularly her boss, Demeter Farlowe. Demeter is brilliant and creative, lives with her perfect family in a posh townhouse, and wears the coolest clothes. Katie's life, meanwhile, is a daily struggle - from her dismal rental to her oddball flatmates to the tense office politics she's trying to negotiate. No wonder Katie takes refuge in not-quite-true Instagram posts, especially as she's desperate to make her dad proud. Then, just as she's finding her feet - not to mention a possible new romance - the worst happens. Demeter fires Katie. Shattered but determined to stay positive, Katie retreats to her family's farm in Somerset to help them set up a vacation business. London has never seemed so far away - until Demeter unexpectedly turns up as a guest. Secrets are spilled and relationships rejiggered, and as the stakes for Katie's future get higher, she must question her own assumptions about what makes for a truly meaningful life. Sophie Kinsella is celebrated for her vibrant, relatable characters and her great storytelling gifts. Now she returns with all of the wit, warmth, and wisdom that are the hallmarks of her best sellers to spin this fresh, modern story about presenting the perfect life when the reality is far from the truth.
©2017 Sophie Kinsella (P)2017 Random House Audio
Surprise Me
Summary
Number-one best-selling author Sophie Kinsella's emotionally charged new stand-alone novel about marriage and family and how those we love and know best can sometimes surprise us the most. After being together for 10 years, Sylvie and Dan have all the trimmings of a happy life and marriage; they have a comfortable home, fulfilling jobs, and beautiful twin girls and communicate so seamlessly, they finish each other's sentences. However, a trip to the doctor projects they will live another 68 years together, and panic sets in. They never expected "until death do us part" to mean seven decades. In the name of marriage survival, they quickly concoct a plan to keep their relationship fresh and exciting: They will create little surprises for each other so that their (extended) years together will never become boring. But in their pursuit to execute Project Surprise Me, mishaps arise, and secrets are uncovered that start to threaten the very foundation of their unshakable bond. When a scandal from the past is revealed that questions some important untold truths, they begin to wonder if they ever really knew each other after all. With a colorful, eccentric cast of characters, razor-sharp observations, and her signature wit and charm, Sophie Kinsella crafts a humorous yet thoughtful portrait of a marriage and shines a light on the danger of not looking past the many layers of the ones you love to discover how infinitely fascinating - and surprising - they truly are.
©2018 Sophie Kinsella (P)2018 Random House Audio
A Torch Against the Night
Summary
The Number-One New York Times Best Seller One of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time Book two in the New York Times best-selling series A USA Today best seller A Wall Street Journal best seller “Spectacular.” (Entertainment Weekly) “Fresh and exciting...Tahir has shown a remarkable talent for penning complex villains.” (A.V. Club) "Even higher stakes than its predecessor...thrilling." (Publishers Weekly, starred review) “[An] action-packed, breathlessly paced story.” (Booklist, starred review) Set in a rich, high-fantasy world inspired by ancient Rome, Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes told the story of Laia, a slave fighting for her family, and Elias, a young soldier fighting for his freedom. Now, in A Torch Against the Night, Elias and Laia are running for their lives. After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire. Laia is determined to break into Kauf - the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison - to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars' survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom. But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene - Elias’ former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike. Bound to Marcus' will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own - one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape...and kill them both.
©2016 Sabaa Tahir (P)2016 Listening Library
Journey to the Center of the Earth: A Signature Performance by Tim Curry
Summary
Journey to the Center of the Earth is one of literature’s earliest works of science fiction. It vividly animates a fantastical subterranean world as an intrepid crew, led by the eccentric Otto Lidenbrock, traverses the planet’s core and its various bizarre obstacles: giant mushrooms and insects, a herd of mastodons, prehistoric humans, a treacherous pit of magma, and more. Tim Curry, narrator of the customer favorite A Christmas Carol, returns for an encore performance that delivers a range of distinct character voices and captures the energy and enthusiasm of a time when scientific exploration was a brand new adventure.
Public Domain (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
The Suspect
Summary
An instant national bestseller "Utterly engrossing.... I lived inside this book for two days - and I’m still thinking about it. Superb!" (Shari Lapena, number one internationally best-selling author of The Couple Next Door) Featured on Glamour’s “The Best Books of 2019 (So Far)” list Featured in The Globe and Mail's "Six hot thrillers to get you through the big cold of January" One of New York Post’s best books of the week Featured as Marie Claire’s February Interactive Monthly Book Club pick The New York Times best-selling author of The Widow returns with a brand new novel of twisting psychological suspense about every parent's worst nightmare.... When two 18-year-old girls go missing in Thailand, their families are thrust into the international spotlight - desperate, bereft, and frantic with worry. What were the girls up to before they disappeared? Journalist Kate Waters always does everything she can to be first to the story, first with the exclusive, first to discover the truth - and this time is no exception. But she can't help thinking of her own son, whom she hasn't seen in two years, when he left home to travel. As the case of the missing girls unfolds, they will all find that even when it seems far away, danger can lie closer to home than one might think....
©2019 Fiona Barton (P)2019 Penguin Random House Canada
A Reaper at the Gates
Summary
"Thrilling and hard to put down, readers will absolutely devour Tahir's latest." (BuzzFeed) An Entertainment Weekly Summer Reads pick! "The perfect summer read." (The Washington Post) The highly anticipated third book in number-one New York Times best-selling author Sabaa Tahir's Ember Quartet. Beyond the Martial Empire and within it, the threat of war looms ever larger. Helene Aquilla, the Blood Shrike, is desperate to protect her sister's life and the lives of everyone in the Empire. But she knows that danger lurks on all sides: Emperor Marcus, haunted by his past, grows increasingly unstable and violent while Keris Veturia, the ruthless Commandant, capitalizes on the Emperor's volatility to grow her own power - regardless of the carnage she leaves in her path. Far to the east, Laia of Serra knows the fate of the world lies not in the machinations of the Martial court but in stopping the Nightbringer. But in the hunt to bring him down, Laia faces unexpected threats from those she hoped would help her and is drawn into a battle she never thought she'd have to fight. And in the land between the living and the dead, Elias Veturius has given up his freedom to serve as Soul Catcher. But in doing so, he has vowed himself to an ancient power that demands his complete surrender - even if that means abandoning the woman he loves.
©2018 Sabaa Tahir (P)2018 Listening Library
Sharp Ends
Summary
Sharp Ends is the ultimate collection of award-winning tales and exclusive new short stories from the master of grimdark fantasy, Joe Abercrombie. Violence explodes, treachery abounds, and the words are as deadly as the weapons in this rogue's gallery of sideshows, backstories, and sharp endings from the world of the First Law. The Union army may be full of bastards, but there's only one who thinks he can save the day single-handed when the Gurkish come calling: the incomparable Colonel Sand dan Glokta. Curnden Craw and his dozen are out to recover a mysterious item from beyond the Crinna. Only one small problem: No one seems to know what the item is. Shevedieh, the self-styled best thief in Styria, lurches from disaster to catastrophe alongside her best friend and greatest enemy, Javre, Lioness of Hoskopp. And after years of bloodshed, idealistic chieftain Bethod is desperate to bring peace to the North. There's only one obstacle left - his own lunatic champion, the most feared man in the North: the Bloody-Nine…. For more from Joe Abercrombie, check out: The First Law Trilogy The Blade Itself Before They Are Hanged Last Argument of Kings Standalone Novels in the First Law World Best Served Cold The Heroes Red Country
©2016 Joe Abercrombie (P)2016 Hachette Audio
Letters from an Astrophysicist
Summary
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has attracted one of the world’s largest online followings with his fascinating, widely accessible insights into science and our universe. Now, Tyson invites us to go behind the scenes of his public fame by unveiling his candid correspondence with people across the globe who have sought him out in search of answers. In this hand-picked collection of 100 letters, Tyson draws upon cosmic perspectives to address a vast array of questions about science, faith, philosophy, life, and of course, Pluto. His succinct, opinionated, passionate, and often funny responses reflect his popularity and standing as a leading educator. Tyson’s 2017 best seller Astrophysics for People in a Hurry offered more than one million readers an insightful and accessible understanding of the universe. Now, revealing Tyson’s most candid and heartfelt writing yet, Letters from an Astrophysicist introduces us to a newly personal dimension of Tyson’s quest to understand our place in the cosmos. The full list of narrators includes Victor Bevine, Gabriel Vaughan, Lauren Fortgang, Neil Hellegers, Kevin Free, Vikas Adam, Nick Sullivan, Gabra Zackman, Allyson Johnson, Brandon Rubin, and Piper Goodeve.
©2019 Neil deGrasse Tyson (P)2019 Audible, Inc.
Love Your Life
Summary
From the number one New York Times best-selling author of I Owe You One, an utterly delightful novel about a woman who ditches her dating app for a writer's retreat in Italy - only to find that real love comes with its own filters. Call Ava romantic, but she thinks love should be found in the real world, not on apps that filter men by height, job, or astrological sign. She believes in feelings, not algorithms. So after a recent breakup and dating app debacle, she decides to put love on hold and escapes to a remote writers' retreat in coastal Italy. She's determined to finish writing the novel she's been fantasizing about, even though it means leaving her close-knit group of friends and her precious dog, Harold, behind. At the retreat, she's not allowed to use her real name or reveal any personal information. When the neighboring martial arts retreat is canceled and a few of its attendees join their small writing community, Ava, now going by "Aria". meets "Dutch", a man who seems too good to be true. The two embark on a baggage-free, whirlwind love affair, cliff-jumping into gem-colored Mediterranean waters and exploring the splendor of the Italian coast. Things seem to be perfect for Aria and Dutch. But then their real identities - Ava and Matt - must return to London. As their fantasy starts to fade, they discover just how different their personal worlds are. From food choices to annoying habits to sauna etiquette...are they compatible in anything? And then there's the prickly situation with Matt's ex-girlfriend, who isn't too eager to let him go. As one mishap follows another, it seems while they love each other, they just can't love each other's lives. Can they reconcile their differences to find one life together?
©2020 Sophie Kinsella (P)2020 Recorded Books
A Sky Beyond the Storm
Summary
Prepare for the jaw-dropping finale of Sabaa Tahir's beloved New York Times best-selling An Ember in the Ashes fantasy series, and discover: Who will survive the storm? Picking up just a few months after A Reaper at the Gates left off.... The long-imprisoned jinn are on the attack, wreaking bloody havoc in villages and cities alike. But for the Nightbringer, vengeance on his human foes is just the beginning. By his side, Commandant Keris Veturia declares herself empress, and calls for the heads of any and all who defy her rule. At the top of the list? The Blood Shrike and her remaining family. Laia of Serra, now allied with the Blood Shrike, struggles to recover from the loss of the two people most important to her. Determined to stop the approaching apocalypse, she throws herself into the destruction of the Nightbringer. In the process, she awakens an ancient power that could lead her to victory - or to an unimaginable doom. And deep in the Waiting Place, the Soul Catcher seeks only to forget the life - and love - he left behind. Yet doing so means ignoring the trail of murder left by the Nightbringer and his jinn. To uphold his oath and protect the human world from the supernatural, the Soul Catcher must look beyond the borders of his own land. He must take on a mission that could save - or destroy - all that he knows.
©2020 Sabaa Tahir (P)2020 Listening Library
Kushner, Inc.
Summary
This program includes a foreword read by the author. The first explosive audiobook about Javanka and their infamous rise to power. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are the self-styled prince and princess of America. Their swift, gilded rise to extraordinary power in Donald Trump’s White House is unprecedented, unconstitutional, and dangerous. In Kushner, Inc., investigative journalist Vicky Ward digs beneath the myth the couple has created that depicts themselves as the voices of reason in an otherwise crazy presidency and reveals that Jared and Ivanka are not just the president’s chief enablers, they are, like him, disdainful of rules, of laws, and of ethics. They are entitled inheritors of the worst kind; their combination of ignorance, arrogance, and an insatiable lust for power has caused havoc all over the world and threatens the democracy of the United States. Ward follows their trajectory from New Jersey and New York City to the White House, where the couple’s many forays into policy making and national security have mocked long-standing US policy and protocol. They have pursued a personal agenda that is making them very rich while their actions have mostly gone unchecked. In Kushner, Inc., Ward holds Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump accountable: She unveils the couple’s secret self-serving transactional motivations and how those have propelled them into the highest levels of the US government where no one, the president included, has been able to stop them.
©2019 Vicky Ward (P)2019 Macmillan Audio
The Scorpio Races
Summary
With her trademark lyricism, Maggie Stiefvater turns to a new world, where a pair are swept up in a daring, dangerous race across a cliff—with more than just their lives at stake should they lose.
©2011 Maggie Stiefvater (P)2011 Scholastic Audio
But What If We're Wrong?
Summary
New York Times best-selling author But What If We're Wrong? visualizes the contemporary world as it will appear to those who'll perceive it as the distant past. Chuck Klosterman asks questions that are profound in their simplicity: How certain are we about our understanding of gravity? How certain are we about our understanding of time? What will be the defining memory of rock music 500 years from today? How seriously should we view the content of our dreams? How seriously should we view the content of television? Are all sports destined for extinction? Is it possible that the greatest artist of our era is currently unknown (or - weirder still - widely known but entirely disrespected)? Is it possible that we "overrate" democracy? And perhaps most disturbing, is it possible that we've reached the end of knowledge? Klosterman visualizes the contemporary world as it will appear to those who'll perceive it as the distant past. Kinetically slingshotting through a broad spectrum of objective and subjective problems, But What If We're Wrong? is built on interviews with a variety of creative thinkers - George Saunders, David Byrne, Jonathan Lethem, Kathryn Schulz, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian Greene, Junot Díaz, Amanda Petrusich, Ryan Adams, Nick Bostrom, Dan Carlin, and Richard Linklater, among others - interwoven with the type of high-wire humor and nontraditional analysis only Klosterman would dare to attempt. It's a seemingly impossible achievement: a book about the things we cannot know, explained as if we did. It's about how we live now, once "now" has become "then".
©2016 Chuck Klosterman (P)2016 Penguin Audio
And I Darken
Summary
This vividly rendered novel is like HBO's Game of Thrones if it were set in the Ottoman Empire. Ambitious in scope and intimate in execution, the story's atmospheric setting is rife with political intrigue, with a deftly plotted narrative driven by fiercely passionate characters. Fans of Victoria Aveyard's The Red Queen, Kristin Cashore's Graceling, and Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes won't want to miss this visceral, immersive, and mesmerizing novel, the first in a trilogy. No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets. Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, who's expected to rule a nation, Radu feels that he's made a true friend - and Lada wonders if she's finally found someone worthy of her passion. But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against - and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point. From New York Times best-selling author Kiersten White comes the first book in a dark, sweeping new series in which heads will roll, bodies will be impaled, and hearts will be broken.
©2016 Kiersten White (P)2016 Listening Library
Asymmetry
Summary
A singularly inventive and unforgettable debut novel about love, luck, and the inextricability of life and art, from 2017 Whiting Award winner Lisa Halliday. Told in three distinct and uniquely compelling sections, Asymmetry explores the imbalances that spark and sustain many of our most dramatic human relations: inequities in age, power, talent, wealth, fame, geography, and justice. The first section, "Folly", tells the story of Alice, a young American editor, and her relationship with the famous and much older writer Ezra Blazer. A tender and exquisite account of an unexpected romance that takes place in New York during the early years of the Iraq War, "Folly" also suggests an aspiring novelist's coming-of-age. By contrast, "Madness" is narrated by Amar, an Iraqi-American man who, on his way to visit his brother in Kurdistan, is detained by immigration officers and spends the last weekend of 2008 in a holding room in Heathrow. These two seemingly disparate stories gain resonance as their perspectives interact and overlap, with yet new implications for their relationship revealed in an unexpected coda. A stunning debut from a rising literary star, Asymmetry is an urgent, important, and truly original work that will captivate any listener while also posing arresting questions about the very nature of fiction itself.
©2018 Lisa Halliday (P)2018 Simon & Schuster
Lovely War
Summary
Listen to the novel New York Times best-selling author of The Alice Network Kate Quinn called "easily one of the best novels I have read all year". A critically acclaimed, multilayered romance set in the perilous days of World Wars I and II, where gods hold the fates - and the hearts - of four mortals in their hands. They are Hazel, James, Aubrey, and Colette. A classical pianist from London, a British would-be architect turned soldier, a Harlem-born ragtime genius in the US Army, and a Belgian orphan with a gorgeous voice and a devastating past. Their story, as told by goddess Aphrodite, who must spin the tale or face judgment on Mount Olympus, is filled with hope and heartbreak, prejudice and passion, and reveals that, though war is a formidable force, it's no match for the transcendent power of love. Hailed by critics, Lovely War has received seven starred reviews and is an indie best seller. Author Julie Berry has been called "a modern master of historical fiction" by Bookpage and "a celestially inspired storyteller" by The New York Times, and Lovely War is truly her masterwork.
©2019 Julie Berry (P)2019 Listening Library
Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All
Summary
Perfect for anyone fascinated by the royal wedding, Netflix's The Crown, or Wolf Hall, this is a pitch-perfect reimagining of the romance and tragedy of Henry VIII and his six wives, told from multiple points of view by some of your favorite authors. If you were one of King Henry VIII's six wives, who would you be? Would you be Anne Boleyn, who literally lost her head? Would you be the subject of rumor and scandal like Catherine Howard? Or would you get away and survive like Anna of Cleves? Meet them and Henry's other queens - each bound for divorce or death - in this epic and thrilling novel that reads like fantasy but really happened. Watch spellbound as each of these women attempts to survive their unpredictable king as he grows more and more obsessed with producing a male heir. And discover how the power-hungry court fanned the flames of Henry's passions...and his most horrible impulses. Whether you're a huge fan of all things Tudor or new to this jaw-dropping saga, you won't be able to get the unique voices of Henry and his wives - all brought to life by seven award-winning and best-selling authors - out of your head. This is an intimate look at the royals during one of the most treacherous times in history. Who will you root for, and who will you love to hate? One of the NYPL top 10 best books of the year. "Ambitious and exciting." (Bustle) "A clever, feminist reimagining of one of English history's most fascinating moments." (Refinery29) "These stories of love, lust, power and intrigue never fail to fascinate." (Shelf Awareness) Who's who: M. T. Anderson - Henry VIII Candace Fleming - Katharine of Aragon, wife #1 Stephanie Hemphill - Anne Boleyn, wife #2 Lisa Ann Sandell - Jane Seymour, wife #3 Jennifer Donnelly - Anna of Cleves, wife #4 Linda Sue Park - Catherine Howard, wife #5 Deborah Hopkinson - Kateryn Parr, wife #6
©2018 Candace Fleming (P)2018 Listening Library
My Plain Jane
Summary
Move over, Charlotte Brontë. The authors of the New York Times best-selling My Lady Jane are back with an irreverent spin on Jane Eyre - a tale of mischief, romance, and supernatural mayhem perfect for fans of The Princess Bride or A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. You may think you know the story. Penniless orphan Jane Eyre begins a new life as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she meets one dark, brooding Mr. Rochester - and, listener, she marries him. Or does she? Prepare for an adventure of Gothic proportions in this standalone follow-up to My Lady Jane, which was called “an utter delight” (ALA Booklist, starred review), and “an uproarious historical fantasy that’s not to be missed” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
©2018 Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers