Nuala O'Connor imagines the real life of Belle Bilton, star of the music hall in late-nineteenth-century London, who marries above her station only to have to defend the marriage when her father-in-law tries to engineer a divorce. Narrator Jayne Entwistle's lovely English accent captures Belle's charm and her resolve to overcome adversity--an untitled birth, a relationship with a fraudulent American baron, an out-of-wedlock child, and an unwanted divorce adjudicated by an all-male jury. Entwistle expertly straddles the line of conveying the self-absorption of Belle's thoughts while retaining the listener's desire to see this plucky girl triumph over the men. Entwistle does it all--Victorian slang, an American pretender, a crusty judge, Irish lawyers, and a myriad of distinctive characters with class accents that range from Cockney to posh.
Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
Duration: 12 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9780525591009
Publisher: Penguin Audio
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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