The Midwife's Confession

By: Diane Chamberlain

Narrated by: Angela Dawe, Cassandra Campbell, Abby Craden, Xe Sands, Cris Dukehart

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Dear Anna, What I have to tell you is difficult to write, but I know it will be far more difficult for you to hear, and I'm so sorry.

The unfinished letter is the only clue Tara and Emerson have to the reason behind their close friend Noelle's suicide. Everything they knew about Noelle - her calling as a midwife, her passion for causes, her love for her friends and family - described a woman who embraced life. Yet there was so much they didn't know.

With the discovery of the letter and its heartbreaking secret, Noelle's friends begin to uncover the truth about this complex woman who touched each of their lives - and the life of a desperate stranger - with love and betrayal, compassion and deceit.

©2011 Diane Chamberlain (P)2013 Tantor

One narrator ruined the entire book for me

The premise of this book sounded interesting to me, especially since two of my favorite voiceover artists, Xe Sands and Cassandra Campbell were doing part of the narrating. Both were outstanding, as always.

I’ve been doing voiceover work for decades, and the moment I hear an obnoxious narrator, I immediately return the book, no matter how highly it’s rated.

So…the moment I heard the horrible screeching voice of the woman portraying Noel, I knew I could not tolerate listening to her for another moment. It was truly worse than nails on a chalkboard. It made me dislike the character immediately, which could have been the point from the start.

For the first time ever, I chose to stick with this book because i knew eventually Xe would appear and make it much more pleasurable. Too bad it was so late in the story.

But every single time that woman started shouting, (somehow she managed to be simultaneously monotonous while shouting her lines,) I cringed through the entire chapter and doubled the speed hoping to make it less painful. I know I missed important parts because to me it felt like the book was all over the place.

Here’s what i really want to know. Who would cast her with this stellar group of performers?? And why oh why in the world did someone not tell her how to pronounce midwifery at the very least???? It’s the subject of the book! Yet she repeated it incorrectly over and over and over, like she wanted people to cover their ears. I hope someone learned a valuable lesson with this book. It could have been so much better. I’ll make sure to avoid anything she narrates in the future.

Loved this book!

Every book by this author I have read has been so good and always leaves me wanting to start another!

Good, but not stellar

This one sat in my Audible library for several years before I finally decided to listen to it. I just kept pushing it to the side for some reason. It was a good book, but not stellar. It had several plot twists, but nothing that surprised or shocked me. I think the author prepares the reader well in advance if one is listening well. Having read and liked other Diane Chamberlain books, I'm glad I finished this one as well.

Great Story

If the narrator for Noelle had been any good at all it would have been a perfect listen. It was painful listening to those chapters and I actually felt angry. I’m not sure who I was angry with. And what really bothered me the most was that she MISPRONOUNCED midwifery. Apparently many readers weren’t bothered by this narrator so don’t skip over this wonderful book.

Good read

Noelle’s voice was hard to listen to in the beginning. However , overall good storyline the twist and turns were perfectly timed to keep me interested

Great, great story!

It's been quite a while since I've listened to a book that I couldn't stop. I would sneak while at work or drive slowly home! It was great. Very well written, wonderful story!

Good, but maddening..

This story definitely kept me going, more so for me to find closure with some of the characters. I felt there were too many point of views, and the voice of Noelle was a little grating on my ears, and lacked any emotion.. which maybe was fitting since she’s an such an awful character. I felt her ending was so cowardly. Ugh, I really couldn’t stand her, horrible horrible person.

Interesting story. One narrator was terrible!

I have read one other of Chamberlain's novels, and it was up to my expectations. This story has twists and plausible but still hard to imagine plot elements. The characters were good and their perspectives were unique and interesting.

The narrator for the part of Noel was so grating to my ears. I hated her portions of the audio book, and really wanted to skip over them. Her voice and speech patterns were just hard to listen to. Other narrators were fine, and different from each other, so it was easy to hear the different characters distinctively.

not as good as I had hoped

Would you try another book from Diane Chamberlain and/or the narrators?

The narrator did the best she could with the material, although she did mispronounce midwifery....by using a long i

Would you ever listen to anything by Diane Chamberlain again?

not sure

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Inflection and feeling that might not have otherwise been possible

Was The Midwife's Confession worth the listening time?

sort of--the story felt a bit contrived to me and some of the medical aspects were questionable to me as a nurse

Unbearable narration

The voice of the woman that read Noelle's part ruined the book for me. It was like nails on a chalkboard listening to her speak.