Three compelling stories involving three time periods, a Gilded Age mansion, secrets, a ruby necklace, and love receive outstanding performances by Susan Bennett and Morgan Hallett. A mystery spanning generations connects Olive, Lucy, Kate, and the Pratt mansion in Manhattan. Bennett portrays Olive, the Pratts’ maid in 1890, as a determined woman who is hoping for justice for her father and hiding her affair with the Pratts’ son. Bennett switches personas seamlessly, giving Olive’s daughter, Lucy, a jazzy 1920s attitude full of flapper flash. Hallett holds it all together as Kate, the only woman doctor at Stornaway Hospital during WWII. Her depiction of Kate is at once no-nonsense yet soft-hearted. Credible coincidences, captivating characters, and the narrators’ authentic period diction fit together seamlessly.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2016
Duration: 13 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781490698120
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Ayla, one of the "others," is adopted by a clan of Neanderthal cave people. She struggles to conform to their ways, but her advanced human traits overwhelm and threaten their primitive culture in this initial installment of an immensely popular series. Although the story might benefit from abridgment, Rowena Cooper easily carries out the formidable task of enlivening the mostly silent and stereotypical characters with consistent, diverse personalities and human dimension. Through skillful phrasing and inflection, she maintains the reader's interest and suspense, especially with Ayla and her plight, throughout this rambling and imaginative story.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America/ Chivers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This lyrical, sensual novel of woman's lot in Manchu, China, is as well researched as it is well written. Authentic in tone, it's nonetheless written for Westerners by a Western expert on China. Moreover, Susan Clark performs the demanding text superbly, with only occasional signs of fatigue. For the most part she not only sustains the quaint diction and Asian atmosphere, but also, creates whole worlds with her voice. She acts the book, rather than reads it, and, in so doing, turns a pretty trifle into a stupendous beauty.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 4 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Audio Literature
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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