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  • The Telephone Box Library

  • By: Rachael Lucas
  • Narrated by: Anna Cordell
  • Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (324 ratings)
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The Telephone Box Library cover art

The Telephone Box Library

By: Rachael Lucas
Narrated by: Anna Cordell
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Summary

The Cotswolds: the perfect retreat for a stressed-out teacher. And Lucy has found just the right cottage for a bargain rent. All she has to do is keep an eye on Bunty, her extremely feisty 90-something neighbour....

With her West Highland terrier Hamish at her side, Lucy plans to relax and read up on the women of nearby Bletchley Park. But the villagers of Little Maudley have other ideas and she finds herself caught up in the campaign to turn a dilapidated telephone box into a volunteer-run library.

Along the way, she makes friends with treehouse designer Sam and finds herself falling for the charms of village life. And it seems Bunty has a special connection to Bletchley and the telephone box, one that she's kept secret for decades....

The Telephone Box Library is an uplifting story about fresh starts and new beginnings, set in a picturesque Cotswold village, by best-selling author Rachael Lucas.

©2020 Rachael Lucas (P)2020 W. F. Howes

What listeners say about The Telephone Box Library

Average customer ratings
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Mixed feelings

This story, despite having a several subplot, is really just about an old lady who lived through the war. it is clearly the subplot the author is most interested in writing and it takes up a lot of the space. The library phone box thing is a tiny blip, the love story is so unsatisfying, it would have been better not to include it at all. The two characters take such a long time to even
notice each other. Aside from a good meet-cute, most of their scene's together are so lackluster with very (very) ordinary conversation that goes nowhere.
When finally things do start to happen in the last quarter of the book, the author can't keep it up and back we go to the old lady and the WI and the bonfire and a million little subplots that never mattered much. My biggest problem was Sam. For a man in love, he is a complete numpty with zero initiative. There are insecure 13 year old boys who are more proactive about telling the girl they like her. The plot never really warms up enough to make you turn the page. I gave up 20 minutes before the end, that's how unexciting it was
Sorry. but I think this will be my first and last book by this author

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Lovely story.......

This story was charming, engaging and very satisfying. The only criticism I have is that, on this occasion, I think I would have preferred to read the book not listen to it. The narrator was not one of the best I have listened to, putting the accent on the wrong word in a sentence or mispronouncing words and just generally very bland. The main female lead, Lucy, was made to sound like she could hardly be bothered to appear in the story!
However, the story itself kept me listening and was full of attractive and well created characters. Good listening for Lockdown.
Had someone like Karen Cass narrated, it would have been 5 stars all round.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Feel good

A lovely feelgood book with some interesting history included in it too. Well worth a listen

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Relaxing and fun

A very well written and narrated story of discovery, based on kind characters, lovely escapism during lockdown.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Good story

It was an enjoyable story, but I cant understand why the part about disabled children needed to be included. It just reinforced segregation and congregation a missed opportunity to show disabled children in a positive light

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful

Lovely book which made me smile, laugh and shed a tear. The more I heard the more I wanted to hear.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

lightweight fluff

This book contained so many themes: history, single parenting, fostering, the realities of teaching, the demise of libraries, the value of village as community, any of which could have been developed to give it a bit more meat. Instead, they were all juggled as background and left disappointingly thin in favour of the predictable romance.
Some well drawn village characters, the ones we can all relate to, but the dialogue felt clunky and Lucy and Sam's interminable dithering and self doubt irritating. Quite a lot of thematic and linguistic repetition left me wondering why the book had not been more thoroughly edited?

However, the plot was so easy to follow that the story could be considered entertaining for those who are wanting something light. But I did not find it a satisfying or engaging listen.
The narrator managed to portray each character separately through voice, although some greater nuance in places would have been good.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A feel good uplifting listen!

I really enjoyed listening to this, got through it far too quickly as I wanted to listen any chance I got! I didn’t appreciate a snake being in the story line, but thankfully it was merely mentioned a few times and didn’t do a lot of moving! Other than the snake I really enjoyed the storyline. A feel good uplifting read.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

awful

Honestly I have listened to LOTS of books on Audible but this is up there with some of the worst.
There are so many characters introduced in the first hour I became so confused who was who and the narrator is awful. No expression and pausing mid sentences. Can not listen to anymore!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A nice little novel

Though it's nothing exceptional, I really liked this novel. It is well-written and very well narrated

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