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    The Last Pearl
    The Last Pearl
    The Last Pearl
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Last Pearl

    Written by Leah Fleming

    Narrated by Anne Dover

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    FROM THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF THE CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER AND DANCING AT THE VICTORY CAFE, this is a beautiful novel about one magnificent gem, and three lives bound together by fate ...

    1879, York.Greta Costello must rely on her wits to survive. She finds refuge as a Saturday girl for an old jeweller, Saul Abrahams, and her eye for detail, her long fingers and appreciation of beauty persuade Saul to train her as a pearl stringer. This skill will lead her through hardship and pain towards a new life.

    1879, Scotland. Jem Baillie knows the immense power of a perfect pearl. His father was a fisher on a tributary of the Tay river in Perthshire, Scotland, and together they found the rarest of pearls, a great white pearl they call Queenie. When this is stolen from them, Eben vows revenge.

    Spanning generations and continents, tracing the rivers of Scotland and the Mississippi, The Last Pearl is a sweeping novel of desire and revenge, of family and freedom, and of one woman's journey to open the shell she has built around herself to reveal the true beauty within.

    Praise for Leah Fleming
    'I enjoyed it enormously.It's a moving and compelling story about a lifetime's journey in search of the truth' RACHEL HORE
    'A born storyteller' KATE ATKINSON
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio UK
    Release dateJun 30, 2016
    ISBN9781471146787
    Author

    Leah Fleming

    Leah Fleming was born in Lancashire and was married with three sons and a daughter. She wrote from an old farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales and an olive grove in Crete.

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    Reviews for The Last Pearl

    4.5/5

    281 ratings28 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved it! The ending was perfection in itself.
    • 5/5
      The events set in real history of the times added excitement and drama.
    • 5/5
      Excellent reading I just didn’t want to put it down
    • 4/5
      The story was awesome. The recording not so much. It kept stopping
    • 5/5
      What an amazing story. I was so sad when I got to the end
    • 5/5
      Just a great escape story… I learned a lot about pearls.
    • 3/5
      I like the story, but the end of nearly every chapter being cut off was annoying & disappointing
    • 5/5
      I loved this book as it kept my interest from the first page to the last!
    • 3/5
      A good story with rain, did characters for me what is recording?, almost every chapter is cut short, any missed the last 23 words which totally ruined my experience.,
    • 5/5
      Great story line. Kept me coming back for more. I highly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      Really good book.Great storyline and beautifully narrated. Recommended to all.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful story full of twists and turns! The narrator was superb!
    • 5/5
      I loved the narrater, but somtimes the end of a chapter was curt off... A bit frustrating :)
    • 2/5
      This woman was mistreated by her husband, then her family & loved ones give her grief for hard work & determination to make it on her own?! The book was okay until the end chapters revealed ridiculous attitudes toward a hard-working woman/mother. Ugh.

      The book started in the late 1800s, but was published in 2016. C’mon author, you can do better than that.

      Also, the last words were cut off for every chapter.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful book about struggles, lost loves and finding love again.
    • 4/5
      Great story. And always an awesome narrator in Anne Dover. However there seems to be a production issue in that the last couple of words of the chapters were being cut off (audiobook).
    • 4/5
      Annoying that last words of each chapter are missing. Otherwise ??
    • 5/5
      Wonderful learning g about pearls and the beliefs about them and Scotland always a treat
    • 3/5
      Good story, took me a while to get into it, though. Didn't like the voice of the performer too much, but that's a matter of personal taste. The quality of the recording is the worst I have ever come across in an audio book. Lots of times the last words of a chapter are cut off, then the new chapter begins and one does not really know if one has missed something important.
    • 5/5
      Great read! Loved it! Lots of twists and turns. Excellent
    • 3/5
      First off the audio was choppy at the end of some chapters the story held my interest but the Greta character was so whiney and dramatic I am not impressed with her the story is short on romance with a little bit of mystery and a lot of struggles and hardship the winner for this book is the narrator ohh Ann Dover is so excellent she makes everything sounds grand
    • 5/5
      The story and reader were great but sometimes the ends of sentences and chapters were dropped or skipped.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I loved the story I couldn’t let it go but was a little disappointed at some times it ended before they had finished and went on to the next tape.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The story was wonderful. My only criticism was the recording cut many chapters off.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I enjoyed The Last Pearl very much.
      The rich history, unique storyline, and diverse characters made for a book I wasn't in a hurry to finish. For the first time in a while , I did not feel like I'd had my fill of the story as it neared the end... I was thoroughly satisfied with the ending, but was so invested and interested in the lives of these characters - their travels, their struggles, their sacrifices and accomplishments - that I would have loved to stay in their world a little longer.

      I found the narrator's pace, voice, and various accents to be quite lovely and pleasing, and look forward to hearing her in future audiobooks. As mentioned in other reviews, the recording does cut off the tail end of almost every chapter, though I didn't find it nearly as significant as I was expecting it to be. It catches you off guard for a bit, but none of the story is lost as it's usually just the last half of the last word, and you do get used to it.

      I would definitely recommend this audiobook as a satisfying and enriching listen.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      The book content would have received five stars. However, the production was hugely defective and disappointing due to dropping the last half of a sentence or two or three sentences at the end of chapters. I have never experienced an audiobook doing this.
      The narration was excellent!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This was a wonderful story that kept me coming back and wanting to hear more. Lots of suspense as well as a bit of a moral to the story. Well done and well read.
      Only problem is the last word or two is clipped at the end of every chapter.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      I didn’t like this book because it cuts off last words in every chapter!!