
Cruel Beautiful World
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Narrated by:
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Xe Sands
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By:
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Caroline Leavitt
About this listen
Caroline Leavitt is at her mesmerizing best in this haunting, nuanced portrait of love, sisters, and the impossible legacy of family.
It's 1969, and 16-year-old Lucy is about to run away with a much older man to live off the grid in rural Pennsylvania, a rash act that will have vicious repercussions for both her and her older sister, Charlotte. As Lucy's default caretaker for most of their lives, Charlotte's youth has been marked by the burden of responsibility, but never more so than when Lucy's dream of a rural paradise turns into a nightmare.
Cruel Beautiful World examines the intricate, infinitesimal distance between seduction and love, loyalty and duty, and explores what happens when you're responsible for things you cannot make right.
©2016 Caroline Leavitt (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Huge Juliet Blackwell / Xe Sands Fan
- By Sandra Dunn on 11-18-17
By: Juliet Blackwell, and others
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The Bird Sisters
- By: Rebecca Rasmussen
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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When a bird flies into a window in Spring Green, Wisconsin, sisters Milly and Twiss get a visit. These spinster sisters have spent their lives nursing people and birds back to health. But back in the summer of 1947, Milly and Twiss knew nothing about trying to mend what had been accidentally broken. Milly was known as a great beauty with emerald eyes and Twiss was a brazen wild child who never wore a dress or did what she was told.
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This was a disappointing book!
- By Diane on 06-11-12
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One Simple Refrain
- By: Nancy Ann Healy
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Dr. Jillian Byers only considered two careers: indie rock sensation or physician. Both dreams led her to Los Angeles. She never plotted a course that led back home. With her father's health declining, Jillian picks up her life and returns to Crystal, Maine. At first, it seems time has stood still in her hometown. It doesn't take long for Jillian to realize nothing is quite the way she remembers.
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Feels like a safe home
- By Amazon Customer on 04-18-22
By: Nancy Ann Healy
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Descent
- By: Tim Johnston
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, R.C. Bray
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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From the day Caitlin vanishes the lives of her family members are irrevocably altered, each assuming blame for that day's tragic events. As the initial days of hope are replaced by weeks of anxiety and despair, they find themselves increasingly isolated, each wondering: Is she still alive? Will we ever know what happened?
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Even a Monkey Knows the Value of a Stick
- By tooonce72 on 01-09-15
By: Tim Johnston
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Girls' Weekend
- By: Cara Sue Achterberg
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Dani, Meg, and Charlotte have bonded over babies, barbeques, and backyards, but when they escape for a girls' weekend away, they can't bring themselves to return to lives that don't seem to fit anymore. All three of these women thought they would be different. None of them thought they'd be facing down 40 and still wondering when life starts. What they do when they realize where they're headed is both inspiring and wildly entertaining.
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A little depressing
- By Terrence B Cooper on 04-12-17
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Spare Change
- Wyattsville Series, Book 1
- By: Bette Lee Crosby
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden, Amy Melissa Bentley
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Small-town gossip never much bothered Olivia Westerly. As a single career woman, she's weathered her share. It's easy to ignore the raised eyebrows over her late-in-life marriage to Charlie Doyle. But after he drops dead on their honeymoon, the whispers are salt on her raw grief. Especially when an orphaned, 11-year-old-boy shows up on her doorstep, looking for the grandfather he never met. Behind Ethan Allen Doyle's wary blue eyes lie heavily guarded emotions that unexpectedly tug on Olivia's heart, and she finds herself wanting to win his trust.
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Love it!
- By Valerie on 03-16-25
By: Bette Lee Crosby
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Why the Sky Is Blue
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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What options does a Christian woman have after she's brutally assaulted by a stranger...and becomes pregnant? That's the heartrending situation Claire Holland faces. Happily married and the mother of two when she is attacked, Claire begins an incredible journey on the painful pathway to trusting God in all things. When Claire's husband, Dan, confesses he can't be a father to the expected child, Claire's decision to put the baby up for adoption creates a sense of tremendous loss for Claire.
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Best Read in a Long Time
- By Lori J. Little on 08-30-19
By: Susan Meissner
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Summer Again: A St. Caroline Novel
- St. Caroline Series, Book 1
- By: Julia Gabriel
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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The town of St. Caroline had never felt like home to Sterling Matthew. Even though the Matthew family could date their residence back nearly 100 years, Sterling had grown up in boarding schools - and promptly decamped for the ski slopes of Europe after college. When his father falls ill, his mother calls him home to run the family business, the renowned Chesapeake Inn. What Sterling finds, though, is a business on shaky financial footing and a staff resistant to the radical changes he has to make. No matter. He'll do what needs to be done...and then leave St. Caroline for good.
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Love on the Chesapeake
- By Kay on 02-28-19
By: Julia Gabriel
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See Jane Snap
- By: Bethany Crandell
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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See Jane smile. Thirty-nine-year-old Jane Osborne appears to the world like she has a charmed life. Her daughter attends private school. Jane chairs the PTA. Even her marriage to Dan, the handsome, prominent surgeon, is blissfully happy. Her universe is stable, and her future is fixed...just like that smile. Because it’s all a ruse. Unbeknownst to anyone, after eighteen years of marriage, Dan’s revealed that he’s been living a double life and is in love with a man. But for the sake of his career, Jane must keep that secret, secret.
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Whoa! good one
- By lucy on 09-19-21
By: Bethany Crandell
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Ruby
- A Novel
- By: Ann Hood
- Narrated by: Khristine Hvam
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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After a college student speeding in a blue Honda Civic kills her husband of less than a year, Olivia is completely lost. One hot summer day, she walks into the beachfront Rhode Island cottage she and David bought the previous August—the place where they had planned to someday start a family—and finds a stranger sitting at her kitchen table. Pregnant fifteen-year-old Ruby is looking for a safe haven for herself and her baby-to-be. Olivia takes her in, desperate to assuage her grief through human connection, even with a troubled teenager.
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Boring
- By Amy B on 12-27-24
By: Ann Hood
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The Vanishing
- By: Wendy Webb
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Recently widowed and rendered penniless by her Ponzi-scheming husband, Julia Bishop is eager to start anew. So when a stranger appears on her doorstep with a job offer, she finds herself accepting the mysterious yet unique position: caretaker to his mother, Amaris Sinclair, the famous and rather eccentric horror novelist whom Julia has always admired...and who the world believes is dead.
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Convoluted
- By LaurelOlivia on 04-11-14
By: Wendy Webb
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The Paris Key
- By: Juliet Blackwell
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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As a girl, Genevieve Martin spent the happiest summer of her life in Paris, learning the delicate art of locksmithing at her uncle's side. But since then, living back in the States, she has become more private, more subdued. She has been an observer of life rather than an active participant, holding herself back from those around her, including her soon-to-be ex-husband. Paris never really left Genevieve, and, as her marriage crumbles, she finds herself faced with an incredible opportunity.
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Not a cozy murder mystery but a cozy slice of life
- By sams on 10-23-15
By: Juliet Blackwell
What listeners say about Cruel Beautiful World
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Occam's Whiskey Bottle
- 07-12-24
Absolutely fantastic
I completed this book in 1.5 days, I was sad that it ended. I’ll be checking out this authors other books!
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- ST
- 10-27-24
Great Listen
I really enjoyed this book. The pace was great and the storyline exciting. The narrator did a great job as well. Overall, an excellent listen!
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- Kat Gerke
- 02-26-25
Sad but beautiful story
This story takes the reader on a journey. Along the way is happiness, adventure, heartbreak, and growth. As always, Xe Sands give a stellar performance.
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- Leah
- 10-15-16
Kept me listening intently
I was hooked from the first chapter. Surprised in places. Thanks to the wonderful narration, I felt like I was in the story. Definitely recommend.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Rosie P
- 10-27-16
Narration spoils this book
The story was interesting but the narrator's cadence is reminiscent of a 1940's Micky Spillane movie. Very inappropriate to the story and very disturbing.
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4 people found this helpful
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- M. Pounds
- 11-06-17
Engaging Listen
I love it when I find a book that I want to listen to every chance I get. I don’t find them often, but this was one. I actually found the narration mesmerizing and thought the performance set the tone of the story.
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2 people found this helpful
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- cindy baucom
- 07-08-24
Loved this
This was a great book. I really like this author.
Also Xe Sands is my favorite narrator of all time.
Worth the listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Love my audiobook
- 05-15-24
Loved it from beginning to end.
Loved this story from beginning to end. Reread to see what I missed! Xe Sands it perfect for this story
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- Nancy
- 10-14-17
Could not finish listening - narration not for me
I rarely stop a book before I finish, but I found myself dreading this one, and I realized it was the narration. The narrator sounds uncertain and tentative, all the characters speak in the same way (not surprisingly, tentative and uncertain!) The way she modulates her voice caused a lot of volume issues for me, too -- the lack of emphasis on certain words made their volume fall way below the others, and I was constantly trying to figure out what had been said.
I can't say a lot about the story. It might have been glorious, but the narration was so distracting I couldn't really get into it at all.
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1 person found this helpful
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- sandra L. Pingatore
- 11-17-23
seasons of life
iris was portrayed is a dignified manner. I like how the story included love at a more mature age.
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