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.

Fantastic

Anne Hancock is an amazing artist. Love everything about this story by Grace Livingston Hill

The reader sweetens the heavy darkness of the tale

This is a story about a sweet orphan girl named Phoebe Dean who has a very hard life! She lives with a sweet half brother, but his wife is a perfect depiction of heartlessness “in the shape of a woman.” Her sharp tongue stings Phoebe’s daily life unceasingly, like a swarm of murder hornets! If that isn’t bad enough, the widower next door, who was a monster of a husband before, sets his sights unrelentingly on Phoebe, though she makes it perfectly clear she would not marry him if he were the last man on earth. Thankfully, early in the story, a good guy enters her life and also a good friend named Miranda and everything works out just as our good Lord above would have it. I enjoyed it more with this reader, because previously it was too much darkness for me but she reads really well and brings out the good points.

Wonderful

This was a wonderful story. The narrator did an excellent job. I will definitely listen to more of these books

I love this book!

Loved it! One of Grace Livingston Hill's best! And Anne Hancock is such a wonderful narrator!

Another cute story

I enjoyed this all except the reading of the n word. Miranda has got to be one of the best characters Hill invented.

Excellent book

It’s a wonderful story good character development a real warning on making little decisions do evil will do that the hate for the smallest of thefts and how they grow to monsters, it’s the little things that matter

Perfect!

Loved the story and loved the narrator!!! Amazing job and thank you! Looking forward to more hearing more books.

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.