
The Sky Beneath Us
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Narrated by:
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Bronwen Price
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Mhairi Morrison
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By:
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Fiona Valpy
About this listen
An inspiring, uplifting story of love and loss, courage and adventure, from the bestselling author of The Skylark’s Secret.
1927. Violet Mackenzie-Grant is embarking on her dream of studying at the Edinburgh School of Gardening for Women. She doesn’t yet know that it’s a journey that will take her to Kathmandu and beyond, deep into captivating landscapes and cultures that are worlds away from everything and everyone she’s left behind in Scotland.
2020. Daisy Laverock has dreamed of retracing the footsteps of her great-great-aunt Violet ever since discovering her long-lost journals, whose accounts of plant hunting in the 1930s inspired Daisy’s own career. Divorced, and facing an empty nest, Daisy decides to embark on the trip of a lifetime. She arrives in Nepal, ready to start trekking in the shadow of Everest. But fate, and the pandemic, have other plans.
Stranded and alone, Daisy must fall back on the kindness of strangers, taking inspiration from Violet’s determination and resilience to keep going in the darkest of times. As she gradually pieces together the fragments of Violet’s story and uncovers long-held secrets, can Daisy finally reveal a path forward to her own future?
©2024 by Fiona Valpy. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“A gifted storyteller with a unique voice. This is a beautifully written, uplifting, moving and evocative story that will stay with you! I loved it so much, I didn’t want it to end!” —Santa Montefiore
“An immersive and moving story which will stay with me for a long time. Such a compelling sense of place and beautifully drawn characters, I savored every moment.” —Freya North
“What an exquisite and unforgettable journey! I loved every shaky step, breathtaking vista, minute discovery and unexpected adventure in Katmandu, Edinburgh, Phortse and the north-west Highlands of Scotland with Daisy and her great-great-aunt Violet. Theirs are inspirational stories of love and hope lost and found as they courageously ascend paths unknown and welcome the unexpected. Meticulously researched and beautifully written with fascinating detail about botany, the Sherpa people and Nepal. As deeply satisfying as a clear view of a flower-filled valley from a mountain top.” —Penny Haw, author of Follow Me to Africa
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Story
In 1937, seventeen-year-old Ella’s life changes forever when she is sent to spend the summer on the beautiful Île de Ré and meets the charismatic, creative Christophe. They spend the summer together, exploring the island’s sandy beaches and crystal-clear waters, and, for the first time in her life, Ella feels truly free. But the outbreak of war casts everything in a new light. Ella is forced to return to Scotland, where she volunteers for the war effort alongside the dashing Angus. In this new world, Ella feels herself drifting further and further from who she was on the Île de Ré.
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Frustrating narration of a compelling story...
- By Alexis on 06-15-18
By: Fiona Valpy
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The Cypress Maze
- By: Fiona Valpy
- Narrated by: Henrietta Meire, Ruth Redman
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Tuscany, 1943. Stranded in war-ravaged Italy, Beatrice’s dream of an escapist year teaching English is shattered. Granted shelter at the Villa delle Colombe, she seeks refuge in Francesca and Edoardo’s beautiful walled garden, hidden from the outside world, with an elaborate cypress maze at its heart. But Beatrice is not the only one seeking an escape here. Francesca has brought children to the safety of the house, as well as other adults, all of them seeking sanctuary on the estate with its mysterious maze.
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A full box of tissue needed by me.
- By Cyn ND on 10-31-23
By: Fiona Valpy
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A Borrowed Path
- By: Imogen Clark
- Narrated by: Billie Fulford-Brown
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Eve returns to her family home Fox House, the tension with her mother, Agatha, is palpable. But when Eve’s daughter, Lyra, and her granddaughter, Skye, arrive unexpectedly, four generations of women under one roof set the stage for explosive revelations. Lyra seems troubled, but refuses to explain why. And when she lays claim to the crumbling cottage on the estate, Agatha drops a bombshell – she’s already promised it to a mysterious man named Dylan.
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It is predictable yet keeps you reading
- By Joann P. Marks on 06-10-25
By: Imogen Clark
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The Autumn of Ruth Winters
- A Novel
- By: Marshall Fine
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ruth Winters is retired, widowed, and resigned to spending the rest of her life alone in her suburban home. She likes her routine and uses it to avoid having to spend time with other people. She probably wouldn’t call herself fulfilled, but it’s too late now to go chasing happiness. Then three things happen at once: a beloved niece makes a big announcement, an old flame reaches out, and her estranged sister receives life-changing news.
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Ruth was a realistic character with relatable feelings.
- By Happy customer on 02-02-25
By: Marshall Fine
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The French for Love
- By: Fiona Valpy
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Gina has lost her perfect job, her boyfriend, and her favorite aunt all within the space of a few months. So when she inherits her aunt's ramshackle French house, Gina decides to pack her bags for the Bordeaux countryside - swapping English weather for blue skies, sunshine, great wine, and a fresh start. What she hasn't factored in is a hole in the roof, the most embarrassing language faux pas, and discovering family secrets she was never supposed to know.
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Love is Love
- By Darlene Timmons on 03-16-20
By: Fiona Valpy
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The Lost Letters of Aisling
- A Novel
- By: Cynthia Ellingsen
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon, Stephanie Cannon
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Rainey’s grandmother makes a startling request: Take me home. To Ireland, the country she fled post-World War II. Though they’re inseparably close, Rainey knows few of her grandmother’s secrets. Until they arrive at Aisling—the majestic estate on the southern coast of Ireland where her grandmother was raised—and Rainey discovers a collection of seventy-year-old letters in a trunk.
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Ended very abruptly
- By Jade Palmer on 05-22-24
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When We Chased the Light
- A Novel
- By: Emily Bleeker
- Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Christie’s auction house, Beverly Hills. The effects of Hollywood icon Vivian Snow are up for bid. In the collection is a set of hand-drawn postcards spanning six decades. The sender is Antonio Trombello, a soldier, POW, priest, and Vivian’s confidant. Each postcard sheds new light on a deeply private woman the public only thinks it knows.
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Why I’m only giving it three stars
- By Sbs8violet on 06-25-25
By: Emily Bleeker
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In the Midnight Rain
- A Novel
- By: Barbara O'Neal
- Narrated by: Kristen Ariza
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Biographer Ellie Connor is in Gideon, Texas, to research blues singer Mabel Beauvais who, on the verge of fame, mysteriously disappeared more than forty years ago. Gideon holds another mystery for Ellie. It’s the truth about her parents—a restless mother who died young and a father she never knew. They are an unsettled piece of Ellie’s own past. Somewhere in this town is the answer to both of her quests.
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Good story
- By Carolyn on 07-16-23
By: Barbara O'Neal
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An Echo in Time
- A Novel
- By: Boo Walker
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell, Mia Hutchinson-Shaw
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Unable to catch a break in life or love as she approaches thirty, Charli Thurman sees red lights at every crossroads. And given the Thurman family’s tumultuous history, she knows things will only get worse, unless she can break the cycle and figure out where—and when—it all went wrong. Charli is skeptical when her best friend introduces her to a “soul reader” who specializes in generational trauma. But during family constellation therapy with the guru, Charli experiences an inexplicable memory of terrible violence.
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Great love story
- By Jgerry on 12-09-24
By: Boo Walker
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What the Light Touches
- A Novel
- By: Xavier Bosch, Samantha Mateo - translator
- Narrated by: Caroline Hewitt
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Seventeen-year-old Margaux doesn’t realize one photo could change the course of her life. But in German-occupied Paris, nothing makes sense anymore. Margaux fears the worst when her lover is arrested. And when her photo appears in Nazi propaganda, her family’s reputation and prospects suffer the consequences. In 2008, Margaux has moved into a retirement home, and her granddaughter Barbara continues to live in the Paris apartment they used to share.
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Butchered names
- By TJax on 01-25-25
By: Xavier Bosch, and others
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A Piece of Heaven
- A Novel
- By: Barbara O'Neal
- Narrated by: Raquel Beattie
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Luna McGraw struggles to conquer the addictions that destroyed her marriage and caused her to lose custody of her beloved daughter, Joy. After eight years, Joy is back and Luna aims to rebuild everything that fell apart. She has a therapeutic job as a florist, a loving mother’s support, and a new man in her life who makes Luna feel things she’s been afraid to feel since forever.
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Not for me.
- By Julie Bosen on 04-22-22
By: Barbara O'Neal
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The Whisper Sister
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer S. Brown
- Narrated by: Helen Laser
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The streets of New York in 1920 are most certainly not paved with gold, as Minnie Soffer learns when she arrives at Ellis Island. Her father, who left Ukraine when Minnie was a toddler, feels like a stranger. She sleeps on a mattress on the kitchen floor. She understands nothing at school. They came to America for this? As her family adjusts to this new life, Minnie and her brother work hard to learn English and make friends. When her father, Ike, opens his own soda shop, stability and citizenship seem within reach.
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The whisper sister sent me
- By Christina E. on 10-30-24
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The Girl in the Midnight Maze
- By: Cathy Hayward
- Narrated by: Bronwen Price
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For decades Emma Bowen has hoped she and her mother, Margaret, might find a way back into each other’s lives. Even as a child, her strongest connection to her mother was a painting Margaret created before Emma was born, of a little girl lost in a maze. So when Margaret dies, gifting the painting to a total stranger, Emma is consumed by grief—for her mother, the little girl, and the relationship they never had.
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Great read
- By Colette Ivanov on 03-04-25
By: Cathy Hayward
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The Last Secret of Lily Adams
- A Novel
- By: Sara Blaydes
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett, Soneela Nankani
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
One of the brightest stars of Hollywood’s golden age was Lily Adams, the beloved picture of all-American innocence. Why she suddenly vanished from the spotlight was a mystery even to those closest to her. Upon Lily’s death seventy years later, her granddaughter, Carolyn Prior, struggles to understand a woman she loved but never really knew. Then, sifting through the memorabilia of a once-glamorous career, Carolyn comes across a letter from her grandmother.
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Great first book
- By Kurtis Montgomery on 09-11-24
By: Sara Blaydes
Very interesting
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Lovely story
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well researched story
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Plant collecting in Nepal
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The story pulled me in at the airport; laying out a snippet of a backdrop and promising story ahead. And of course, there isn’t anyone who can’t relate to problems and/or tragedies. I wondered how it would weave in and the author does a grand job of that without spoiling the overall plot.
Violets family, being upper crust show their colors right away as does Violet- struggling as a young women troubled by the constraints of her culture and her desires to be true to herself. Strong-willed and intelligent, the classes for women at botanical schools impel her forward into a future she never dreamed possible for herself.
I like how the story develops a twist from her on. The culture in Nepal and the botanical connection was a surprise for me which kept me interested.
I also love how F. Valpy ties it all together at the end - or is it a commencement?
I even listened to all the credits. I recommend any of Fiona Valpys’ novels.
Remarkable synchronization
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Liked the story line, the beautiful setting and characters.
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Strange cadence from narrator
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Boring
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I tried speeding Daisy's parts up to 1.25x speed and that helped a bit but became too annoying to flip back and forth when Violet was speaking.
I also didn't think COVID brought anything to the story overall. Honestly, I would have been fine JUST having Violet's story. It was interesting enough on its own.
Painful
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