Olivia Mackenzie-Smith has narrated 8 audiobooks on Listento.it by 8 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.2★ across 38 ratings. The most-rated is The Rumor.
The Rumor
Summary
“Keeps you guessing until the final page.” (Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train) “A rollercoaster ride to the very last sentence.” (Fiona Barton, author of The Widow) “Everyone will be talking about The Rumor.” (Shari Lapena, author of The Couple Next Door) When a single mother hears a shocking rumor outside her son’s school, she never intends to pass it on. But one casual comment leads to another...and now there’s no going back. Rumor has it that a notorious killer, who committed a brutal crime as a child, has been living a new life under an assumed identity in Joanna’s seaside town. So who is the criminal hidden in their midst? Suspicion falls on everyone. As Joanna becomes obsessed with the case, her curiosity will expose her son and his father to the supposedly reformed murderer - who may be ready to kill again. She will learn how dangerous one rumor can become...and just how far she must go to protect those she loves. She is going to regret the day she ever said a word. Praise for The Rumor “A brilliant premise with a killer twist. The Rumor depicts the prejudices and secrets that simmer in a small seaside town to devastating effect.” (Colette McBeth, author of An Act of Silence) “This mystery has an unusual and resonant theme - how a single rumor can morph into a completely unmanageable, deadly force.... [There’s] psychological acuity throughout and [an] astonishing ending.” (Booklist)
©2019 Lesley Kara (P)2019 Random House Audio
The Great Successor
Summary
The behind-the-scenes story of the rise and reign of the world's strangest and most elusive tyrant, Kim Jong Un, by the journalist with the best connections and insights into the bizarrely dangerous world of North Korea. Since his birth in 1984, Kim Jong Un has been swaddled in myth and propaganda, from the plainly silly - he could supposedly drive a car at the age of three - to the grimly bloody stories of family members who perished at his command. Anna Fifield reconstructs Kim's past and present with exclusive access to sources near him and brings her unique understanding to explain the dynastic mission of the Kim family in North Korea. The archaic notion of despotic family rule matches the almost medieval hardship the country has suffered under the Kims. Few people thought that a young, untested, unhealthy, Swiss-educated basketball fanatic could hold together a country that should have fallen apart years ago. But Kim Jong Un has not just survived, he has thrived, abetted by the approval of Donald Trump and diplomacy's weirdest bromance. Skeptical yet insightful, Fifield creates a captivating portrait of the oddest and most secretive political regime in the world - one that is isolated yet internationally relevant, bankrupt yet in possession of nuclear weapons - and its ruler, the self-proclaimed Beloved and Respected Leader, Kim Jong Un.
©2019 Anna Fifield (P)2019 Hachette Audio
Paris for One and Other Stories
Summary
From the number-one New York Times best-selling author of Me Before You and After You, a sensational collection featuring the title novella and eight other stories. Quintessential Jojo Moyes, Paris for One and Other Stories is an irresistibly romantic collection filled with humor and heart. Nell is 26 and has never been to Paris. She's never even been on a romantic weekend away - to anywhere - before. Traveling abroad isn't really her thing. But when Nell's boyfriend fails to show up for their mini-vacation, she has the opportunity to prove everyone - including herself - wrong. Alone in Paris, Nell finds a version of herself she never knew existed: independent and intrepid. Could this turn out to be the most adventurous weekend of her life? Funny, charming, and irresistible, Paris for One is vintage Moyes - as are the other stories that round out the collection. Read by Fiona Hardingham, Susan Duerden, Jayne Entwistle, Olivia Mackenzie-Smith, and Katharine McEwan.
©2016 Jojo Moyes (P)2016 Penguin Audio
The Strength Switch
Summary
Unlock your children's potential by helping them build their strengths. This game-changing book shows us the extraordinary results of focusing on our children's strengths rather than always trying to correct their weaknesses. Most parents struggle with this shift because they suffer from a negativity bias, thanks to evolutionary development, giving them "strengths blindness". By showing us how to throw the "strengths switch", Lea Waters demonstrates how not only can we help our children build resilience, optimism, and achievement but we can also help inoculate them against today's pandemic of depression and anxiety. As a strengths-based scientist for more than 20 years, 10 of them spent focusing on strengths-based parenting, Waters has seen how this approach enhances self-esteem and energy in both children and teenagers. Yet more on the plus side: Parents find it a particularly exciting and rewarding way to raise children. With many suggestions for specific ways to interact with your kids, Waters demonstrates how to discover strengths and talents in our children, how to use positive emotions as a resource, how to build strong brains, and even how to deal with problem behaviors and talk about difficult situations and emotions. As revolutionary yet simple as Mindset and Grit, The Strength Switch will show parents how a small shift can yield enormous results. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2017 Lea Waters (P)2017 Penguin Audio
Call Me Evie
Summary
A 17-year-old struggles to remember the tragic night that changed her life forever in this twist-filled debut novel of psychological suspense for fans of Sharp Objects and The Last Time I Lied.
Evie and her uncle Jim have just moved to an isolated cabin in a remote beach town - a far cry from their hometown of Melbourne. But Evie isn't her real name. And Jim isn't really her uncle.
Jim tells Evie she did something terrible back home, that he's hiding her to protect her. But Evie can't remember anything about that night - for all she knows, he's lying. As fragments of her memory return, she starts to wonder if Jim is really her savior...or her captor.
In a riveting novel that fearlessly plumbs the darkest recesses of the mind, J. P. Pomare explores the fragility of memory and the potential in everyone to hide the truth - even from themselves.
©2019 JP Pomare (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Greetings from Witness Protection!
Summary
Nicki Demere is an orphan and a pickpocket. She also happens to be the US Marshals' best bet to keep a family alive.... The marshals are looking for the perfect girl to join a mother, father, and son on the run from the nation's most notorious criminals. After all, the bad guys are searching for a family with one kid, not two, and adding a streetwise girl who knows a little something about hiding things may be just what the marshals need. Nicki swears she can keep the Trevor family safe, but to do so she'll have to dodge hit men, cyberbullies, and the specter of standardized testing, all while maintaining her marshal-mandated B-minus average. As she barely balances the responsibilities of her new identity, Nicki learns that the biggest threats to her family's security might not lurk on the road from New York to North Carolina but rather in her own past. Jake Burt's debut middle-grade novel Greetings from Witness Protection! is as funny as it is poignant.
©2017 Jake Burt (P)2017 Listening Library
The Midnight Dress
Summary
Quiet misfit Rose doesn't expect to fall in love with the sleepy beach town of Leonora. Nor does she expect to become fast friends with beautiful, vivacious Pearl Kelly, organizer of the high school float at the annual Harvest Festival parade. It's better not to get too attached when Rose and her father live on the road, driving their caravan from one place to the next whenever her dad gets itchy feet. But Rose can't resist the mysterious charms of the town or the popular girl, try as she might. Pearl convinces Rose to visit Edie Baker, once a renowned dressmaker, now a rumored witch. Together Rose and Edie hand-stitch an unforgettable dress of midnight blue for Rose to wear at the Harvest Festival - a dress that will have long-lasting consequences on life in Leonora, a dress that will seal the fate of one of the girls. Karen Foxlee's breathtaking novel weaves friendship, magic, and a murder mystery into something moving, real, and distinctly original.
©2013 Karen Foxlee (P)2013 Listening Library
The Music Advantage
Summary
An expert in cognitive development and music education reveals the remarkable and surprising benefits that playing - or even appreciating - music offers to children. The latest cognitive research has revealed something extraordinary: Learning music and listening to music can grow and repair our brains at any age. Here, Dr. Anita Collins explains how music has the potential to positively benefit almost all aspects of a child's development, whether it's through formal education or mindful appreciation; simply clapping in time can assist a young child who is struggling with reading. It turns out that playing music is the cognitive equivalent of a full-body workout. Dr. Collins lays out the groundbreaking research that shows how playing an instrument can improve language abilities, social skills, concentration, impulse control, emotional development, working memory, and planning and strategy competence, from infancy through adolescence. She also provides real-life stories to show the difference that music learning can make, as well as practical strategies for parents and educators to encourage a love of music in their kids. This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF that contains further reading suggestions for each chapter from the book.
©2021 Dr. Anita Collins (P)2021 Penguin Audio