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Once Upon a River
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
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What listeners say about Once Upon a River
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- C. Long
- 13-11-19
Delightful!
I stumbled onto this book by accident. I was getting tired of books being recommended for me based on my listening history, so I went rouge, searching through books I never usually seek out and saw this. The great reviews convinced me to try it and....
What a delight! The story was so well crafted, so unusual and magical that the book i had hoped would keep me occupied for a week or so, was devoured in two days between work and real life!
Juliet Stevenson was superb. The perfect storyteller.
My only sadness is that the Thirteenth tale by the same author, is not available for purchase as an audible book in my country and already I am feeling bereft of a good audio book!
Would totally recommend.
25 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 21-01-19
Wonderful!
Tales within a tale! The characters brought to life by Juliet’s superb narration. This book will stay in my thoughts for quite sometime. Thank you Diane and Juliet for the pleasure I had in listening to this book.
24 people found this helpful
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- Dale W.
- 30-07-19
Far too slow.
This is the first book I have not finished.
Well read with good voices. There are no humorous moments, it’s all a bit dull and serious.
Story is not complicated, girl is lost, who does she belong to? That’s the problem. We then meander to everybody’s private lives. I found it too easy not to listen.
9 people found this helpful
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- jlbenefield
- 04-02-19
Great story
Loved it- a gentle tale which kept me listening wonderfully narrated will now look for more by the same author
18 people found this helpful
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- Dia P
- 04-02-19
Wonderful listen!
I haven't even reached the half of it, but I love it tremendously. Lovely story and fantastic performance by Juliet Stevenson!
18 people found this helpful
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- Vicky Hall
- 14-11-19
Highly recommended
The most beautiful tale I have listened to yet on Audible....mesmerising and will stay with me forever!
6 people found this helpful
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- Susan B.
- 29-01-19
Serendipity
I came across this by accident because I was searching for books read by Juliet Stevenson who is one of my favourite readers. It was 16 hours of delight. I loved every minute of it. Juliet Stevenson is a wonderful performer and the story had me completely absorbed. There were one or two moments in the final hour where the book could have been drawn to a close and left one wondering, which might have been more literary, but I was so involved that I wanted every loose end tied up and the author managed to do this and still leave something to wonder about.
20 people found this helpful
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- polo
- 02-02-19
Slow to get going
I nearly gave up as it took me a while to get into. The story was good and the narration excellent.
10 people found this helpful
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- SMC
- 18-04-19
Far too long for the story content
Really dissapointed with this book, as, from the 5* reviews I had read, I was expecting to be enthralled and captivated from the outset to the end.
The narrator is all that kept me listening to be honest, the first few chapters were promising but after that I found that the story did not really move on, and none of the characters held my imagination.. in fact, at the end of the book if asked to describe one character I liked, would have found it hard to connect to any of them
The odd thing is that the final summing up chapters gave a bit more interest which is why my headline says the book went on for far too long going nowhere, for the complete story contents.
Sorry my first book of this author does not encourage further reading.
13 people found this helpful
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- R. J. Gladden
- 01-03-19
Not my cup of tea apart from Juliet Stevenson
I didn’t really enjoy this book as I had great difficulty getting into the characters apart from the main protagonists. But, Juliet Stevenson’s narration kept me going right until the end and it was truly spellbinding, it was almost as though there was a full cast of actors performing. Now, only 24 hours after finishing listening, I am struggling to remember what happened at the end. However, perhaps that’s just me as lots of other reviewers absolutely loved it.
6 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 10-03-21
Succes
Once you take the chance on this story, it'll pay you back double. A very good story, and very nicely read.
1 person found this helpful
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- Earnest
- 12-12-19
Enchanting, watery story.
Although I did get a little muddled by how many children drowned or did not,( my fault no doubt),I did become engrossed in all the tales of families and life on a river.
Being familiar with the Collodion photographic technique, I was also appreciative of how the author integrated this important development in the history of image capture.
The actor’s voice characterizations were so apt and skilled. No wonder Ms Stevenson has been much “used” on stage, screens and audio.
1 person found this helpful
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- MsHolistic
- 08-11-19
thoroughly enjoyed.
although i really enjoyed this book, it took me 3 hours to get 'in' to it and with all the names it become a but confusing at times. The book as a whole is wonderfully written and the accents were really enjoyable.
1 person found this helpful
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- Bea
- 09-02-19
A most stunning novel!
If you are planning to read just one book this year, let it be Once Upon the River!! Stories, magic and beautiful language you will find in it .... Ms Stevenson's narration is an absolute delight!
1 person found this helpful