Phoebe Deane

By: Grace Livingston Hill

Narrated by: Anne Hancock

Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's Summary

This book has all the makings of a fairy tale. The lovely orphaned girl, Phoebe Deane, lives with her kind but ineffectual half-brother but is treated like an unpaid servant by his shrewish wife. A crude widower with a houseful of children is determined to have her. He repulses her but her sister-in-law helps with the scheme to get her in his clutches. Phoebe is in despair and would prefer death to living with a tyrant. Along comes a fairy godmother (the wily Miranda Griscom from Livingston Hill's Marcia Schuyler and Miranda) full of sympathy and plans to help her. And the handsome stranger Phoebe meets in the woods one day might be a key to her salvation.  

But the book's most serious theme, as in many of GLH's stories, is gossip: the perniciousness of it, the ease with which it is spread, and the irreparable damage it can do to innocent lives. Worrying about "what the neighbors will think" was a real threat in small-town America in the early 20th century, which we tend to think of as a simpler time. But the spreading of gossip and ruining of reputations in a small community was as lethal then as social media can be today.

Public Domain (P)2019 Anne Hancock

Love this series!

This is the second book in the Miranda series. It was every bit as good as the first. The plot was interesting and of course the ending was great. We have listened to these during our car travels lately, even my husband likes them. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good romance and also likes to see the good guys win in the end.

Love the author & narrator

Grace's characters and story lines are sweet and endearing with a touch of humor. I've never been disappointed. So nice to listen to a stories with happy endings, no sex or swearing. The quality of Anne Hancock's voice just adds so much.

Gentle entertainment

The plot may be sentimental and contrived, but the writing is most appealing, and it is beautifully read. To tackle the issue of toxic masculinity, and the cruel unfairness of an honour culture upon young women, in the context of an intensely patriarchal culture, is a fine achievement, and delicately performed. Light and gentle, but not without some real backbone.