The Beloved Girls Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Harriet Evans (Author), Siobhan Redmond (Narrator), Review (Publisher)

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The outstanding new novel from the Sunday Times Top 10 best-selling author of The Garden of Lost and Found.

'It's a funny old house. They have this ceremony every summer.... There's an old chapel, in the grounds of the house. Half-derelict. The Hunters keep bees in there. Every year, on the same day, the family processes to the chapel. They open the combs, taste the honey. Take it back to the house. 'Half for them' - my father winced, as though he had bitten down on a sore tooth. 'And half for us.'

Catherine, a successful barrister, vanishes from a train station on the eve of her anniversary. Is it because she saw a figure - someone she believed long dead? Or was it a shadow cast by her troubled, fractured mind?

The answer lies buried in the past. It lies in the events of the hot seismic summer of 1989, at Vanes - a mysterious West Country manor house - where a young girl, Jane Lestrange, arrives to stay with the gilded, grand Hunter family, and where a devastating tragedy will unfold. Over the summer, as an ancient family ritual looms closer, Janey falls for each member of the family in turn. She and Kitty, the eldest daughter of the house, will forge a bond that decades later is still shaping the present....

'We need the bees to survive, and they need us to survive. Once you understand that, you understand the history of Vanes, you understand our family.'

Listening Length

18 hours and 34 minutes
Author

Harriet Evans
Narrator

Siobhan Redmond
Audible release date

19 Aug. 2021
Language

English
Publisher

Review
ASIN

B095J9GHH1
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	18 hours and 34 minutes
Author	Harriet Evans
Narrator	Siobhan Redmond
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.co.uk Release Date	19 August 2021
Publisher	Review
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B095J9GHH1
Best Sellers Rank	13,521 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 154 in Psychological Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 459 in Psychological Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals) 1,927 in Psychological Fiction (Books)

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5 star		41%
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2 star		5%
1 star		4%

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Gillian Brown

Irritating

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 October 2021

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I really wanted to like and enjoy this book having read tow others by this author. I thought the whole thing was ridiculous especially the handsome Gallic husband! The pace was slow and by the end I didn’t really care what happened to any of the characters. The bee thing seemed to drone on for ever and the repetition of the rhyme was tedious.

Sorry but not for me.

33 people found this helpful

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ivyjar

Very repetitive

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 November 2021

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This book was far too long and very repetitive. It was obvious what was going to happen, in fact even spelled out for us, but took a very long time and there was nothing surprising at the end. The first few chapters were good, but then it became hard going and the rhyme was repeated over and over again.

14 people found this helpful

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M. Fraser

Dark, Unsettling and absolutely AMAZING!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 September 2021

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As with a lot of Harriet’s book’s it’s really difficult to try and summarise the synopsis without spoilers as they are always so complexly written, but I am going to give it a shot with this one….!

Catherine has it all but her past is rapidly catching up with her and she is beginning to wonder if she is slowly losing her mind as she’s seeing ‘ghosts’ she knows cannot be real. She knows the secrets she has buried deep within are vying to escape and understands they will hurt the ones she holds dear so there’s only one choice she can make……to leave.

Years before deep in the West Country Janey arrives to stay with the Hunter family after the death of her Father. Having only visited once before as a child her memories of the family are somewhat rose tinted, so when she arrives to a luke-warm reception from ‘Kitty’ the daughter who she’d previously thought of as a friend it signals the start of a mysterious summer that she will always remember.

The Hunter family focus each and every summer is firmly on the success of The Ceremony, an almost ‘cult-like’ harvesting of honey from the bees that reside in a nearby abandoned chapel. Steeped in family history and woven with secrets, mystery and tragedy , participation isn’t optional; for the family & that includes Janey even though she has no idea what is expected of her. It seems like a simple summer tradition, but it could prove to be more deadly than anyone ever expected.

Harriet is a masterful writer of the ‘big house’, family saga and in The Beloved Girls she uses this expertise mixed with a huge dollop of dark, atmospheric writing that I am all here for. It’s atmospheric, thriller style vibes were often unsettling in the best possible way and definitely kept me turning the pages whilst firmly hanging on the edge of my seat. This story certainly felt like Evan’s was giving us something extra and a bit different from her usual style, but it certainly works for her and I loved immersing myself in every second.

The pacing of this book is quite slow, but in a good way, with Evan’s drip feeding the morsels of information to you need to know slowly and steadily throughout the chapters. I was utterly absorbed in the multiple POV’s from the beginning as we see the story carefully constructed, I particularly enjoying the nostalgic nods to the 80’s haven grown up at that time. Told across three timelines, present day (2018), 1959 & the late 80’s, we as the reader are able to piece together a full picture of both character and story and I really enjoyed the level of depth and understanding of the main characters we are given allowing me to become invested in their stories. There are multiple aspects to this story including insightful commentary on topics which include society, discovering your true identity and family relationships, all of which is delivered in Evans’ easy to digest signature writing style.

The Beloved Girls is certainly a book you need to take your time reading, enjoying and absorbing each page whilst surmising where the story will take you; it definitely kept me on my toes throughout, unable to guess the ending. It was an extremely emotional read that really gave me everything I was looking for and more to boot; just perfection! I say it every time, as Harriet’s books just keep getting better and better, but The Beloved Girls has quickly become my favourite of her novels to date………..until she unveils her next offering that is! Dar

8 people found this helpful

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Herts bookworm

My kind of book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 February 2022

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This book has all of the ingredients I love - a mystery set in 2018 when Catherine, a successful barrister disappears from St Pancras station just as she is about to board a Eurostar train en route to celebrate her wedding anniversary in Paris. She has been troubled by a recent criminal case which she hadn’t wanted to take, and which she lost. She thinks she is seeing someone from her past, someone who who she believes is dead and when she catches sight of her at the Eurostar barrier she makes an excuse to her husband and just disappears.
The story then goes back to 1989 when Janey arrives at Vanes for the summer shortly after the death of her father. Her only previous visit was covered in the prologue, when she and her beloved father paid a brief visit during which she became very close to Kitty, one of the twins who lived there. When she returns in 1989 at the invitation of Kitty’s mother Sylvia, however, Kitty is very hostile to her. It becomes clear that Janey has been invited in order to play the part of one of the Beloved Girls in a bizarre ceremony where honey is harvested from the ancient chapel in the grounds of the house. My heart went out to Janey, whose own mother had never taken any interest in her and who clearly did not want her encroaching on her life with her second husband, as despite feeling so obviously unwelcome she had nowhere else to go.
As the summer progresses various secrets are revealed - the characters in the novel are not particularly nice and some are extremely unpleasant, entitled snobs. Kitty’s father Charles is particularly unpleasant and even his children dislike him.
The novel then goes back to 1959 and explains the history between Sylvia, Janey’s father Simon and Charles.
I loved the way that the layers of the story were peeled away to reveal the secrets and how they influenced all the later actions, including what happened in Italy in WW2.
To say more would risk giving away spoilers but if you enjoy thought provoking books with mysteries and twists in the plot, you will not be disappointed in this.

6 people found this helpful

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D. C. A. Price

Not for me

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 December 2021

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I’m so sorry to be giving a poor review to a Harriet Evans novel but I really don’t like the direction her novels have gone in. After reading her first novel around ten years ago with “Going Home” she was my favourite writer and I eagerly awaited each new book. Well-written romantic/family novels, but as she has now started writing more in the manner of the new popular psychological thrillers, very bleak and not an ounce of humour, I shan’t be buying any more. I started reading this book on Christmas Day and wish I hadn’t - so depressing. But others clearly enjoyed the book so … just have to accept I’ve lost a favourite writer.

6 people found this helpful

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MaxK

Simply outstanding

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 August 2021

Verified Purchase

I couldn't stop reading this wonderful book. It captured perfectly the periods described - especially the late 80's - but it is the depth of characterisation that stayed with me. I was desperate to find out how everything turned out. Thank you for a brilliant read.

7 people found this helpful

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The Beloved Girls Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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