
Penelope in Retrograde
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $26.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Eva Kaminsky
-
Written by:
-
Brooke Abrams
About this listen
In this witty and heartfelt debut from author Brooke Abrams, a romance writer with a passion for astrology reluctantly travels home for Thanksgiving to make amends with her estranged family…and possibly manifest her own happily ever after.
Romance writer Penelope Banks can write the perfect love story, but when it comes to family, all she’s got is a rough draft. Penny shelved the idea of fitting in with her high-achieving family years ago, but when her new business venture—a romance bookstore—is at risk of closing before its doors have opened, she’s forced to ask for help from the one place she never expected. Home.
Penny’s prepared for the usual Thanksgiving lineup: her perfect sister, meddling nana, matchmaking mother, and workaholic father. The guest she didn’t anticipate? Her ex-husband, Smith. After an awkward rideshare with Smith leaves Penny questioning why the romance in her life exists only in her novels, Penny adds some fiction to reality and turns her father’s colleague into the perfect fake boyfriend.
With only four days to mend damaged relationships, and her bookstore’s future at stake, all the stars must align for Penny to finally write a happily ever after for herself and her family.
©2023 Brooke Abrams (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.You may also enjoy...
-
Flirty Little Secret
- Written by: Jessica Lepe
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez, Will Collyer
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
School counselor Lucy Galindo has a secret. To her coworkers, friends, and even family, she’s shy, sweet, and constantly struggling to hold off disaster (read: manage her anxiety and depression). But online? She’s bold, confident, and always knows what to say—it’s how she’s become the wildly popular @TheMissGuidedCounselor. It’s also why she keeps her identity anonymous. Her followers would never trust the real Lucy with their problems.
-
-
Perfect for fans of You've Got Mail!
- By Amanda on 2024-03-26
Written by: Jessica Lepe
-
The Last Close Call
- Written by: Laura Griffin
- Narrated by: Stephanie Németh-Parker
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forensic genealogist Rowan Healy has made a name for herself by helping investigators trace the family trees of violent criminals who have eluded justice for years. But the pressure of police cases left her burned out, and she’s shifted her focus to helping adoptees find their biological parents.
-
-
Ok .. predicable
- By C Koscak on 2024-04-21
Written by: Laura Griffin
-
The Happiness Plan
- Written by: Susan Mallery
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heather is happy . . . ish. She has a successful business, a cute but contemptuous cat, and best friends Daphne and Tori who know where she’s broken and love her anyway. So why does she feel crushed when her ex gets serious about someone new? No problem, she has a plan. More connections will hold her together while her world falls apart, so she finally reaches out to the stranger who might be her dad.
-
-
disappointed
- By Charge$It on 2024-07-07
Written by: Susan Mallery
-
Make a Scene
- Written by: Mimi Grace
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Emmanuel Ingram
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Retta Majors is having a bad day - but that’s to be expected when your ex gets engaged to your cousin. Instead of (totally) freaking out, Retta decides to attend the wedding with her amazing, faithful, and handsome boyfriend. One problem....He doesn’t exist.
-
-
Good overall
- By Astrid on 2024-11-21
Written by: Mimi Grace
-
A Reason to See You Again
- A Novel
- Written by: Jami Attenberg
- Narrated by: Stacey Glemboski
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The women of the Cohen family are in crisis. Triggered by the death of their patriarch, Rudy, the glue that held them all together, everyone’s lives soon take a dramatic turn. Shelly, the younger of the two Cohen sisters, runs off to the West Coast to immerse herself in the emerging (and lucrative) world of technology. Her sister, Nancy, gets married at the age of twenty-one to a traveling salesman with a shadowy lifestyle, while their mother, Frieda, hurls herself into a boozy, troubled existence in Miami, trying to forget the past even as it haunts her.
-
-
Well written but not to my taste
- By Budb on 2025-02-13
Written by: Jami Attenberg
-
How to Plot a Payback
- Written by: Melissa Ferguson
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Steve West
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Successful screenwriter Finn Masters just landed his dream job writing for Neighbors, one of Hollywood's highest-rated, longest-running sitcoms. The only downside? It will put him back in proximity of the show’s universally adored, optimistic, altruistic star, Lavender Rhodes, who has been inadvertently ruining his life since they were school chums in England. But she doesn't even know she destroyed his acting career and wrecked his relationship with the love of his life.
-
-
Fantastic, lovely, book
- By Asim on 2024-05-28
Written by: Melissa Ferguson
-
Flirty Little Secret
- Written by: Jessica Lepe
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez, Will Collyer
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
School counselor Lucy Galindo has a secret. To her coworkers, friends, and even family, she’s shy, sweet, and constantly struggling to hold off disaster (read: manage her anxiety and depression). But online? She’s bold, confident, and always knows what to say—it’s how she’s become the wildly popular @TheMissGuidedCounselor. It’s also why she keeps her identity anonymous. Her followers would never trust the real Lucy with their problems.
-
-
Perfect for fans of You've Got Mail!
- By Amanda on 2024-03-26
Written by: Jessica Lepe
-
The Last Close Call
- Written by: Laura Griffin
- Narrated by: Stephanie Németh-Parker
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forensic genealogist Rowan Healy has made a name for herself by helping investigators trace the family trees of violent criminals who have eluded justice for years. But the pressure of police cases left her burned out, and she’s shifted her focus to helping adoptees find their biological parents.
-
-
Ok .. predicable
- By C Koscak on 2024-04-21
Written by: Laura Griffin
-
The Happiness Plan
- Written by: Susan Mallery
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heather is happy . . . ish. She has a successful business, a cute but contemptuous cat, and best friends Daphne and Tori who know where she’s broken and love her anyway. So why does she feel crushed when her ex gets serious about someone new? No problem, she has a plan. More connections will hold her together while her world falls apart, so she finally reaches out to the stranger who might be her dad.
-
-
disappointed
- By Charge$It on 2024-07-07
Written by: Susan Mallery
-
Make a Scene
- Written by: Mimi Grace
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Emmanuel Ingram
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Retta Majors is having a bad day - but that’s to be expected when your ex gets engaged to your cousin. Instead of (totally) freaking out, Retta decides to attend the wedding with her amazing, faithful, and handsome boyfriend. One problem....He doesn’t exist.
-
-
Good overall
- By Astrid on 2024-11-21
Written by: Mimi Grace
-
A Reason to See You Again
- A Novel
- Written by: Jami Attenberg
- Narrated by: Stacey Glemboski
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The women of the Cohen family are in crisis. Triggered by the death of their patriarch, Rudy, the glue that held them all together, everyone’s lives soon take a dramatic turn. Shelly, the younger of the two Cohen sisters, runs off to the West Coast to immerse herself in the emerging (and lucrative) world of technology. Her sister, Nancy, gets married at the age of twenty-one to a traveling salesman with a shadowy lifestyle, while their mother, Frieda, hurls herself into a boozy, troubled existence in Miami, trying to forget the past even as it haunts her.
-
-
Well written but not to my taste
- By Budb on 2025-02-13
Written by: Jami Attenberg
-
How to Plot a Payback
- Written by: Melissa Ferguson
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Steve West
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Successful screenwriter Finn Masters just landed his dream job writing for Neighbors, one of Hollywood's highest-rated, longest-running sitcoms. The only downside? It will put him back in proximity of the show’s universally adored, optimistic, altruistic star, Lavender Rhodes, who has been inadvertently ruining his life since they were school chums in England. But she doesn't even know she destroyed his acting career and wrecked his relationship with the love of his life.
-
-
Fantastic, lovely, book
- By Asim on 2024-05-28
Written by: Melissa Ferguson
-
Eternally Yours
- Written by: Kenya Wright
- Narrated by: Morae Brehon
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Romance author Maya finds herself trapped in a never-ending time loop, reliving the same luxurious masquerade party night after night. But there's a twist—someone keeps trying to kill her. Each time she dies, she wakes back up in the limo heading to the party, and she's determined to uncover the mystery of her predicament. Enter Ethan Vanderbilt, an erotically handsome and intimidating billionaire who becomes obsessed with possessing Maya. When he also gets caught in the time loop, the two must work together to unravel the mystery and find a way out.
-
-
Wanted to like it more
- By Julia on 2024-05-18
Written by: Kenya Wright
-
The Friend Zone
- Written by: Abby Jimenez
- Narrated by: Teddy Hamilton, Erin Mallon
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kristen Petersen doesn't do drama, will fight to the death for her friends, and has no room in her life for guys who just don't get her. She's also keeping a big secret: facing a medically necessary procedure that will make it impossible for her to have children. Planning her best friend's wedding is bittersweet for Kristen - especially when she meets the best man, Josh Copeland. He's funny, sexy, never offended by her mile-wide streak of sarcasm, and always one chicken enchilada ahead of her hangry. Even her dog, Stuntman Mike, adores him. The only catch: Josh wants a big family.
-
-
Thumbs down overall
- By Amazon Customer on 2019-07-11
Written by: Abby Jimenez
-
Silver Alert
- Written by: Lee Smith
- Narrated by: Caitlin Davies
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aging Herb’s charmed life with his dear wife, Susan, in their Key West house is coming undone. Susan now needs constant care, and Herb is in denial about his own ailing health. The one bright spot is the arrival of an endlessly optimistic manicurist calling herself Renee. She sings to Susan during manicures, gets her to paint, and brings her a sense of contentment. But then Herb and Susan’s adult children arrive to stage an intervention on their stubborn, independent father, and as a consequence, Renee’s gig with Susan—and her grand plans for her own life—start to unravel as well.
Written by: Lee Smith
-
Let's Pretend This Will Work
- A Novel
- Written by: Maddie Dawson
- Narrated by: Helen Laser
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After too many dates, thirtysomething Mimi Perkins is still single, unmoored, and longing for love. So when Ren Yardley—a handsome, divorced fellow drama teacher and single father—falls in love with her and proposes, she’s sure this is at last the good news her psychic predicted. Soon after proposing, Ren receives the devastating news that his ex-wife has been in a debilitating car accident, prompting him to temporarily move back into his former home to care for her and his daughters.
-
-
Absolutely love this
- By Heba on 2025-01-30
Written by: Maddie Dawson
-
Hunting Game
- Written by: Candice Fox
- Narrated by: Krysten Ritter, Anthony Mackie, Tony Goldwyn, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Prepare to be captivated by acclaimed crime writer Candice Fox’s gripping audio thriller, Hunting Game. Featuring an all-star cast including Krysten Ritter, Anthony Mackie, and Tony Goldwyn, you’re about to enter a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. NYPD Detective Esme 'Es' Compran (Krysten Ritter) finds herself torn between her duty and her own desperate circumstances when a child is kidnapped. The victim's father, Jack Dengate (Tony Goldwyn), is a controversial big pharma CEO whose company's price hikes on life-saving drugs have dire consequences for Es' ailing daughter.
-
-
Dull Story
- By thomas olson on 2023-12-14
Written by: Candice Fox
-
Housemoms
- A Novel
- Written by: Jen Lancaster
- Narrated by: Maria McCann, EJ Lavery, Jeremy Carlisle Parker
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How fast can charity fundraiser CeCe Barclay’s unimpeachable society life come tumbling down? One minute she’s speaking before Chicago’s glitterati. The next, her financier husband is wanted for embezzlement. Her assets seized and her fall mortifyingly public, CeCe grasps for refuge—and employment—as a sorority housemom at Eli Whitney University, her daughter Hayden’s alma mater.
Written by: Jen Lancaster
-
Mayluna
- A Novel
- Written by: Kelley McNeil
- Narrated by: Amanda Leigh Cobb, Kevin Kemp
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1990s, Carter Wills was the lead singer of the English alt-rock band Mayluna, securing his place among music legends. His tortured-heart lyrics struck a chord. And so did his secret connection to a woman whose love changed all their lives. Who was she? Evie Waters’s two grown children discover an iconic photo in an old magazine of a “mystery girl” with Carter: their mother. It all started in a wistful time and place for Evie, her twenty-fifth summer.
-
-
Loved it!
- By AndreaR on 2024-08-21
Written by: Kelley McNeil
-
The Little House
- Written by: Philippa Gregory
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was easy for Elizabeth. She married the man she loved, bore him two children and made a home for him which was the envy of their friends. It was harder for Ruth. She married Elizabeth’s son and then found that, somehow, she could never quite measure up. Isolation, deceit and betrayal fill the gaps between the two individual women and between their different worlds. In this complex thriller, Philippa Gregory deploys all her insight into what women want and what women fear, as Ruth confronts the shifting borders of her own sanity.
-
-
Interesting
- By Haiku_Queen on 2024-06-28
Written by: Philippa Gregory
-
These Still Black Waters
- Jess Lambert, Book 1
- Written by: Christina McDonald
- Narrated by: Angela Dawe, Erin Bennett, Ellen Quay
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a violent home invasion, Neve Maguire returns with her daughter to Black Lake, her childhood summer home, hoping for a fresh start. But when the body of a woman is found floating among the reeds in the lake behind her house, she fears she has made a horrible mistake. Neve is hiding secrets, though. Detective Jess Lambert can tell. Recently back after her own personal tragedy, Jess knows what it’s like to live with skeletons in your closet, and she’s sure Neve has a few of her own.
-
-
Draggs....
- By Michelle on 2024-07-15
Written by: Christina McDonald
-
Calico
- Written by: Lee Goldberg
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella, Eric Conger
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's a saying in Barstow, California, a decaying city in the scorching Mojave desert . . . The Interstate here only goes in one direction: Away. But it's the only place where ex-LAPD detective Beth McDade, after a staggering fall from grace, could get another badge . . . and a shot at redemption. Over a century ago, and just a few miles further into the bleak landscape, a desperate stranger ended up in Calico, a struggling mining town, also hoping for a second chance.
-
-
Don’t waste your money!
- By Amazon Customer on 2024-03-08
Written by: Lee Goldberg
-
Hunted
- Written by: Darcy Coates
- Narrated by: Angela Dawe
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
22-year-old Eileen goes missing while hiking in the remote Ashlough Forest. Five days later, her camera is discovered washed downriver, containing bizarre photos taken after her disappearance. Chris wants to believe Eileen is still alive. When the police search is abandoned, he and four of his friends create their own search party to scour the mountain range. As they stray further into the dark forest and the unsettling discoveries mount, they begin to believe they’re not alone in the trees and that Eileen’s disappearance wasn’t an accident.
-
-
Wow! FANTASTIC audiobook!
- By peaco2 on 2024-04-12
Written by: Darcy Coates
-
The Daughters of Block Island
- A Novel
- Written by: Christa Carmen
- Narrated by: Linda Jones
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After arriving on Block Island to find her birth mother, Blake Bronson becomes convinced she’s the heroine of a gothic novel—the kind that allowed her intermittent escape from a traumatic childhood. How else to explain the torrential rain, the salt-worn mansion known as White Hall, and the restless ghost purported to haunt its halls? But before Blake can discern the novel’s ending, she’s found dead, murdered in a claw-foot tub. The proprietress of White Hall stands accused.
-
-
so infuriatingly silly and implausible
- By Northern AB Sunshine on 2024-04-16
Written by: Christa Carmen
What the critics say
“Rounded out by a quirky cast…the book will leave readers with a real sense of the family dynamics at play here. Abrams' writing shows a lot of promise.”—Booklist (starred review)
“An ex-husband, a fake boyfriend, and a snarky, weed-growing grandma are just a few of the guests at the Banks’s family Thanksgiving that make Brooke Abrams’s debut unputdownable. Penelope in Retrograde will make you laugh a lot, cry a little, and want to call your dysfunctional family to tell them you’ll be home for the next holiday. Spice Girl’s Honor.”—Ali Brady, author of The Beach Trap
“Penelope in Retrograde sucked me in from the very first page! Abrams’s voice is a standout—she had me laughing on one page and tearing up on the next. With sparkling wit and characters I want to be best friends with, Abrams has crafted a story that cuts right to the heart of what it means to be a family, and she does it beautifully. This book is perfect for anyone who has ever struggled to find their place. Abrams has penned a brilliant debut, and I can’t wait to see what she does next!”—Falon Ballard, author of Just My Type
What listeners say about Penelope in Retrograde
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dean Jones
- 2024-03-24
Loved it!!
This book is bright, fresh and amusing. I loved the characters, the story and the narration is superb. It's a great listen!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Alexandra Daignault
- 2024-04-13
Could Not Get Through It
I just could not get into this book and the lead in was super long. I really wanted to like it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!