Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination

By: Helen Fielding

Narrated by: Josephine Bailey

At the close of the last millennium, Helen Fielding debuted the irrepressible (and blockbuster-bestselling) Bridget Jones. Now, Fielding gives us a sensational new heroine for a new era...Move over 007, a stunning, sexy-and decidedly female-new player has entered the world of international espionage. Her name is Olivia Joules (that’s "J.O.U.L.E.S. the unit of kinetic energy") and she's ready to take America by storm with charm, style, and her infamous Overactive Imagination.

How could a girl not be drawn to the alluring, powerful Pierre Ferramo-he of the hooded eyes, impeccable taste, unimaginable wealth, exotic international homes, and dubious French accent? Could Ferramo really be a major terrorist bent on the Western world’s destruction, hiding behind a smokescreen of fine wines, yachts, and actresses slash models? Or is it all just a product of Olivia Joules’s overactive imagination?

Join Olivia in her heart-stopping, hilarious, nerve-frazzling quest from hip hotel to eco-lodge to underwater cave, by light aircraft, speedboat, helicopter, and horse, in this witty, contemporary, and utterly unputdownable novel deluxe.

©2003 Helen Fielding; (P)2004 Penguin Audio and Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

"It’s hard to imagine a more appealing heroine than Olivia." —San Francisco Chronicle

"Dependably delicious . . . Pitch perfect." —Newsweek

Recklessly cosmopolitan, jet-setting, worldly, adventurous-a 340 page romp." —The Independent

"This is a girl’s own adventure - with added sauce - to rattle through in one entertaining sitting. Helen Fielding is a great comic writer." —The Spectator

"Very addictive…. Fielding’s comic talent lies in her adorable observations.... This is quintessential Fielding." —The Observer

"If Bridget Jones shaped and named a certain kind of life in the 1990s, it looks as if Olivia Joules, Helen Fielding’s new heroine, may do the same for the new decade." —The Times (London)

"Hurrah for Fielding! Yet again she’s picked up on what’s lacking in the girly train read, and whistled us up Olivia Joules: a Jane Bond heroine with a wonderfully overactive imagination…. Fielding’s prose shimmers and glares with wit, sophistication and humanity. A brilliant comic writer, Fielding’s talent exceeds any sociological explanation." —The Independent on Sunday

"Fielding is an extremely skillful and engaging writer. The book works as a fast-paced thriller - I gulped in down in one reading. But it also has great charm and, in its shy fashion, a moral theme." —The Telegraph

"The name is Joules, Olivia Joules.... Post Bridget Jones, Helen Fielding has written an action-packed thriller starring ‘a heroine for the 21st century.’ The result is a book that’s fast-moving and entertaining." —The Guardian

Fun

Great story, fun twists. A little predictable occasionally, but always entertaining. Highly recommend this one.

One of my favorite

Olivia Joules was a very nice suprise "read". Great character, supurb narration. Everyone I recommended this book to loved it as well! Well Worth it!

A delightful thriller-ette!

This is my "go to" audiobook. When I can't think of what else I'd like to listen to, or they're begging on the radio, I put this one on. Olivia is a writer for the style section, but she wants hard news. Her boss and her friend think she has an overactive imagination. Instead of hard news, she is assigned to cover a face cream launch, and then wannabe actors in LA. But could the hot "French" guy she met in Miami be an international terrorist? What's with the bell hop, anyway? And the hair-flicking Indian supermodel is up to something, for sure. Don't panic! Think. Breathe. That's number one on Olivia's rules for living, after all. Good rule to live by! The author gives the characters the perfect accents. Terrific light thriller, and great narration. I strongly recommend this one.

Excellent

Great story! Read the book and liked the audible very much.
Would highly recommend it

Femme action junk food!

If you crave a relatable female Bond- this is for you! Action, romance and intrigue in an adorable package.