Regular price: £30.49
Laurel Lockwood lost her son once through neglect. She's spent the rest of her life determined to make up for her mistakes, and she has succeeded in becoming a committed, protective parent-maybe even overprotective. Still, she loosens her grip just enough to let Andy attend a local church social-a decision that terrifies her when the church is consumed by fire. But Andy survives...and remarkably, saves other children from the flames.
Twenty years ago, a terrible tragedy shattered the tranquility of the small Pennsylvania Dutch town of Reflection. The residents of the village have never forgiven the one woman they blamed for what happened - Rachel Huber. After the incident, Rachel left the town and cut off all ties there. But when Rachel receives the news that her estranged grandmother, Helen, is ill and needs her care, she returns to Reflection.
Into the drought-weary California town of Valle Rosa comes a stranger who promises he can make it rain. All he asks for is a place to stay and complete privacy. But he is too charismatic to maintain a low profile, and the adobe cottage he's given to live in is owned by an investigative TV reporter struggling to revive her career.
The Silent Sister is a gripping novel from Diane Chamberlain, the best-selling author of The Midwife's Confession. What if everything you believed turned out to be a lie? Riley MacPherson is returning to her childhood home in North Carolina. A place that holds cherished memories. While clearing out the house she finds a box of old newspaper articles - and a shocking family secret begins to unravel. Riley has spent her whole life believing that her older sister, Lisa, died tragically as a teenager.
Maya and Rebecca Ward are both accomplished physicians, but that's where the sisters' similarities end. As teenagers, they witnessed their parents' murder, but it was Rebecca who saved Maya from becoming another of the gunman's victims. The tragedy left Maya cautious and timid, settling for a sedate medical practice with her husband, Adam, while Rebecca became the risk taker.
Liza McCullen will never escape her past, but the unspoilt beaches and tight-knit community of Silver Bay offer the safety she craves for her young daughter, Hannah...until Mike Dormer arrives, and the peace of Silver Bay is shattered. The mild-mannered Englishman could destroy everything Liza has worked so hard to protect: not only the family business and the bay that harbours her beloved whales but also her conviction that she will never love again.
Laurel Lockwood lost her son once through neglect. She's spent the rest of her life determined to make up for her mistakes, and she has succeeded in becoming a committed, protective parent-maybe even overprotective. Still, she loosens her grip just enough to let Andy attend a local church social-a decision that terrifies her when the church is consumed by fire. But Andy survives...and remarkably, saves other children from the flames.
Twenty years ago, a terrible tragedy shattered the tranquility of the small Pennsylvania Dutch town of Reflection. The residents of the village have never forgiven the one woman they blamed for what happened - Rachel Huber. After the incident, Rachel left the town and cut off all ties there. But when Rachel receives the news that her estranged grandmother, Helen, is ill and needs her care, she returns to Reflection.
Into the drought-weary California town of Valle Rosa comes a stranger who promises he can make it rain. All he asks for is a place to stay and complete privacy. But he is too charismatic to maintain a low profile, and the adobe cottage he's given to live in is owned by an investigative TV reporter struggling to revive her career.
The Silent Sister is a gripping novel from Diane Chamberlain, the best-selling author of The Midwife's Confession. What if everything you believed turned out to be a lie? Riley MacPherson is returning to her childhood home in North Carolina. A place that holds cherished memories. While clearing out the house she finds a box of old newspaper articles - and a shocking family secret begins to unravel. Riley has spent her whole life believing that her older sister, Lisa, died tragically as a teenager.
Maya and Rebecca Ward are both accomplished physicians, but that's where the sisters' similarities end. As teenagers, they witnessed their parents' murder, but it was Rebecca who saved Maya from becoming another of the gunman's victims. The tragedy left Maya cautious and timid, settling for a sedate medical practice with her husband, Adam, while Rebecca became the risk taker.
Liza McCullen will never escape her past, but the unspoilt beaches and tight-knit community of Silver Bay offer the safety she craves for her young daughter, Hannah...until Mike Dormer arrives, and the peace of Silver Bay is shattered. The mild-mannered Englishman could destroy everything Liza has worked so hard to protect: not only the family business and the bay that harbours her beloved whales but also her conviction that she will never love again.
When the pretending ends, the lying begins.... It's the summer of 1990, and 14-year-old Molly Arnette lives with her extended family on 100 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The summer seems idyllic at first. The mountains are Molly's playground, and she's well loved by her father, a therapist famous for books he's written about a method called 'Pretend Therapy'; her adoptive mother, who has raised Molly as her own; and Amalia, her birth mother who also lives on the family land.
Eight-year-old Sophie Donohue just wanted to be like every other little girl. Which is why her mother, Janine, reluctantly agreed to let her go on the weekend camping trip with her Brownie troop. But when Janine arrives to pick up Sophie after the trip, her daughter is not with the others. Somehow, along the forested route from West Virginia, Sophie has disappeared. Sophie is no ordinary eight-year-old. She suffers from a rare disease.
Laura Brandon's promise to her dying father was simple: to visit an elderly woman she'd never heard of before. A woman who remembers nothing-except the distant past. Visiting Sarah Tolley seemed a small enough sacrifice to make. But Laura's promise results in another death: her husband's. And after their five-year-old daughter, Emma, witnesses her father's suicide, Emma refuses to talk about it - to talk at all.Frantic and guilt ridden, Laura contacts the only person who may be able to help.
Perpetual optimist Claire Harte-Mathias and her disabled husband, Jon, run a successful foundation to help people with spinal cord injuries. One night Claire witnesses a woman leaping to her death from a bridge, and the tragedy sparks murky childhood memories that leave her confused and frightened. As Claire becomes obsessed with trying to understand the power the haunting memories have over her, she's torn between blocking them from her mind entirely and trying to unearth their source.
Dr. Olivia Simon is on duty in the emergency room of North Carolina's Outer Banks Hospital when a gunshot victim is brought in. Midway through the desperate effort to save the young woman's life, Olivia realizes who she is - Annie O'Neill, the woman Olivia's husband, Paul, is in love with.
Early on the morning of her 11th birthday, on the beach beside her North Carolina home, Daria Cato receives an unbelievable gift from the sea: an abandoned newborn baby. When the infant's identity cannot be uncovered, she is adopted by Daria's loving family. Now, 20 years later, Shelly has grown into an unusual, ethereal young woman whom Daria continues to protect.
If you're a fan of Jodie Picoult, you'll love Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain, best-selling author of The Midwife's Confession.... North Carolina, 1960. Newlywed Jane Forrester, fresh out of university, is seeking what most other women have shunned: a career. But life as a social worker is far from what she expected. Out amongst the rural tobacco fields of Grace County, Jane encounters a world of extreme poverty that is far removed from the middle-class life she has grown up with.
In 1944, 23-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly ends her engagement to the love of her life when she marries a mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina. Hickory is a small town struggling with racial tension and the hardships imposed by World War II. Tess' new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife and shows no interest in making love. Tess quickly realizes she's trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out.
Three sisters, one birthday, one little problem... The three Kettle sisters have had a mortifying mishap. Their raucous, champagne-soaked birthday dinner has come to an abrupt end following a violent argument and an emergency dash to the hospital. So who started it this time? Was it angry, hurt Cat, still recovering from the 'night of the spaghetti'? Was it Lyn, so serenely successful, at least on the outside? Or was it quirky, dreamy Gemma, the sister who can't keep a secret except for the most important one of all?
Welcome to the Chapel House, the old oceanfront mansion where a group of close friends share their hopes and dreams and where love is sometimes an unexpected guest. Heartfelt and deeply moving, Private Relations won the 1989 RITA Award for Best Single Title Contemporary Novel from the Romance Writers of America.
Lara's life looks perfect on the surface. Gorgeous doting husband Massimo, sweet little son Sandro and the perfect home. Lara knows something about Massimo. Something she can't tell anyone else or everything Massimo has worked so hard for will be destroyed: his job, their reputation, their son. This secret is keeping Lara a prisoner in her marriage. Maggie is married to Massimo's brother Nico. She knows all of Nico's darkest secrets - or so she thinks. The one day she discovers a letter in the attic....
The Bird children have an idyllic childhood: a picture-book cottage in a country village, a warm, cosy kitchen filled with love and laughter, sun-drenched afternoons in a rambling garden. But one Easter weekend a tragedy strikes the Bird family that is so devastating it tears them apart. Many years later something will call them home, back to the house they grew up in - and to what really happened that Easter weekend all those years ago.
Her family's cottage on the New Jersey shore was a place of freedom and innocence for Julie Bauer - until her 17-year-old sister, Isabel, was murdered. It's been more than 40 years since that August night, but Julie's memories of her sister's death still shape her world. Now someone from her past is raising questions about what really happened that night. About Julie's own complicity. About a devastating secret her mother kept from them all. About the person who went to prison for Izzy's murder - and the person who didn't. Faced with questions and armed with few answers, Julie must gather the courage to revisit her past and untangle the complex emotions that led to one unspeakable act of violence on the bay at midnight.
I enjoyed the story, as I always do with a Diane Chamberlain book. My only complaint would be that one of the narrators read quite fast so I had to slow the speed down slightly so I could keep up without feeling out of breath!
Any additional comments?
I shall certainly look out for other books by this author. The lives of two generations of a couple of families who have adjacent holiday homes are intertwined over a period of more than 50 years, encompassing great sadness, a never completely solved mystery and, eventually, understanding and contentment. The main characters (mostly female) are both likeable and interesting and, though the story frequently meanders through the minutiae of their lives, I never lost interest. The narrators all did sterling work.
I asked for a refund the narrator was terrible and constantly said 'he said she said' I have listen to 3 of the authors other books and they were great so this is a real shame narrator should be sacked!
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
No. The person reading the character of Julie performed badly and her reading with her voice dropping at the end of every sentence was a distraction. Also, the author's continual use of 'he said', 'she said' was really tiresome.
If you’ve listened to books by Diane Chamberlain before, how does this one compare?
The worst. I have enjoyed the others, but they were read by a different reader.
How could the performance have been better?
Change the narrators
If this book were a film would you go see it?
No
Any additional comments?
Rather a long-winded tale, but really, the narrators are what spoil this book
0 of 1 people found this review helpful
I liked the characters. I thought the story was good. But the Narration nearly drove me nuts! Every 'he said, she said, I mused' and so on was done in the same tone of voice. Every single one and there were many! I would get bored drift off to sleep and have to rewind and pick up the plot. The story could have stood on its on merit and I would have added a star but not with this type of narration.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
The "he said, she said" of Julie's narrator would have been better left unsaid, very distracting! Once I stopped wincing, the book was enjoyable and the story intriguing.
11 of 13 people found this review helpful
I'm not sure who read the part of Julie, but the way " he said" "I said" "she said" was recited in such a way that I wanted to PUNCH MYSELF IN MY FACE.
I'm not sure if I should blame the author or the reader, but it became so distracting that it affected my overall impression.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful
Great story, kept me listening and interested. One of the narrators has too much vocal fray, but it is only mildly annoying.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book! Excellent character development. readers were very good as well.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
i found the story hard to get into though the last quarter of the story was hard to put down. i enjoyed the murder mystery who done it part of the story and the outcome wasn't predictable but not her best book but still worth listening
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
First let me say that I love Diane Chamberlain's novels. I have read/listened to several of them, and they are all good (Necessary Lies will always be my favorite, though). This one was a great story - the story of a mildly dysfunctional family told in two time periods - 1962 and 2003. The oldest daughter in the family was found dead in summer 1962, and a young black man was convicted of her murder. A note is found in 2003, suggesting that the wrong person was convicted of the murder. The main narrator is Julie, the middle sister, who was 12 at the time of her older sister's death. She recounts memories from the past and observations in the present to try and piece together what really happened that summer in 1962. The younger sister, Lucy, also narrates, as does their mother, Maria. The story comes together nicely by the end of book, explainining everything and identifying the real murderer. I loved the story, but was not so keen on any of the narrators--particularly Julie. As others have noted, she gave a weird spin to vowels, which was especially noticeable when she said the word "said" (which is repeated many times in a novel). It got annoying, although it didn't annoy me as much as it did others. The other two narrators also had an odd way of speaking. The Maria character sounded very stilted, and Lucy also put an odd emphasis on vowels and sounded abrupt in her speech. The narration didn't ruin the story, but it definitely left a lot to be desired. Not sure I would listen to any of these narrators again.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I enjoyed the story, the narrator and the somewhat surprising ending! I would love to listen to more of this authors books!
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
The narrator that did Julie drove me nuts but holding on to the last word in a sentence especially the word said
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
The story had lots of twists and turns and keeps you tuned in. Ending was good.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful