The Secret Life of Violet Grant
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Narrated by:
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Kathleen McInerney
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Written by:
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Beatriz Williams
About this listen
Passion, redemption, and a battered old suitcase full of secrets: The New York Times best-selling author of A Hundred Summers returns with another engrossing tale of lost love and female ambition that crosses generations.
Manhattan, 1964. Vivian Schuyler, newly graduated from Bryn Mawr College, has recently defied the privilege of her storied old Fifth Avenue family to do the unthinkable for a budding Kennedy-era socialite: Break into the Mad Men world of razor-stylish Metropolitan magazine. But when she receives a bulky overseas parcel in the mail, the unexpected contents draw her inexorably back into her family's past and the hushed-over crime passionnel of an aunt she never knew, whose existence has been wiped from the record of history.
Berlin, 1914. Violet Schuyler Grant endures her marriage to the philandering and decades-older scientist Dr. Walter Grant for one reason: For all his faults, he provides the necessary support to her liminal position as a young American female physicist in prewar Germany. The arrival of Dr. Grant's magnetic former student at the beginning of Europe's fateful summer interrupts this delicate détente. Lionel Richardson, a captain in the British Army, challenges Violet to escape her husband's perverse hold, and as the world edges into war and Lionel's shocking true motives become evident, Violet is tempted to take the ultimate step to set herself free and seek a life of her own conviction with a man whose cause is as audacious as her own.
As the iridescent and fractured Vivian digs deeper into her aunt's past and the mystery of her ultimate fate, Violet's story of determination and desire unfolds, shedding light on the darkness of her years abroad...and teaching Vivian to reach forward with grace for the ambitious future - and the love - she wants most.
©2014 Beatriz Williams (P)2014 Penguin AudioYou may also enjoy...
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- A Novel
- Written by: Beatriz Williams
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- Unabridged
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Performance
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New England, 2022. Three years ago, single mother Mallory Dunne received the telephone call every parent dreads—her ten-year-old son, Sam, had been airlifted from summer camp with acute poisoning from a toxic death cap mushroom, leaving him fighting for his life. Now, searching for the donor kidney that will give her son a chance for a normal life, Mallory’s forced to confront two harrowing secrets from her past: her mother’s adoption from an infamous Irish orphanage in 1952, and her own all-consuming summer romance fourteen years earlier with her childhood best friend, Monk Adams.
-
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Confusing narration
- By Richard Phelan on 2024-10-29
Written by: Beatriz Williams
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- A Novel of the Ritz Paris
- Written by: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White
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Written by: Beatriz Williams, and others
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The London House
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- Narrated by: Madeleine Maby
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Caroline Payne thinks it’s just another day of work until she receives a call from Mat Hammond, an old college friend and historian. But pleasantries are cut short. Mat has uncovered a scandalous secret kept buried for decades: In World War II, Caroline’s British great-aunt betrayed family and country to marry her German lover. Determined to find answers and save her family’s reputation, Caroline flies to her family’s ancestral home in London.
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Didn't Really Enjoy
- By Ken W. on 2023-05-06
Written by: Katherine Reay
-
A Single Thread
- A Novel
- Written by: Tracy Chevalier
- Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1932. After the Great War took both her beloved brother and her fiancé, Violet Speedwell has become a "surplus woman," one of a generation doomed to a life of spinsterhood after the war killed so many young men. Yet Violet cannot reconcile herself to a life spent caring for her grieving, embittered mother. After countless meals of boiled eggs and dry toast, she saves enough to move out of her mother's place and into the town of Winchester, home to one of England's grandest cathedrals.
-
-
Lovely story of becoming independent.
- By Susan watts on 2023-12-23
Written by: Tracy Chevalier
-
The Summer Wives
- A Novel
- Written by: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Kristin Kalbli
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, Miranda’s catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society. But there are really two clans: the summer families with their steadfast ways and quiet obsessions, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers. Then Miranda is caught in a catastrophe and banished....
-
-
Excellent Descriptive Prose
- By SusanSalomonsson on 2022-08-26
Written by: Beatriz Williams
-
A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem
- Written by: Manda Collins
- Narrated by: Mary Jane Wells
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1865: Newspaper columnist Lady Katherine Bascomb finds herself the subject of speculation when her latest article leads to an arrest in the murders plaguing London. The English believe women ought not to write about such vulgar things as crime, and a particularly attractive detective inspector is incensed that she's interfered with his investigation. To escape her sudden notoriety, Katherine heads to the country - only to witness a murder upon her arrival.
-
-
Leaves something to be desired
- By Nana on 2023-09-24
Written by: Manda Collins
What the critics say
“A riveting tale of murder and adultery.” (US Weekly)
"Another absorbing page-turner filled with romance and secrets…. Violet’s narrative will captivate readers with its intrigue and the protagonist’s struggles…” (Library Journal)
“Williams conjures up another substantive beach read steeped in history and familial intrigue.... Readers will love wallowing in the twists and turns of this irresistibly luxurious tale.” (Booklist)
What listeners say about The Secret Life of Violet Grant
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Millysgal
- 2022-02-10
Loved it.
This was a great book, and the narration was excellent. I enjoyed it a lot.
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