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  • Rose Cottage

  • Written by: Mary Stewart
  • Narrated by: Jilly Bond
  • Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
  • 3.4 out of 5 stars (5 ratings)

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Rose Cottage

Written by: Mary Stewart
Narrated by: Jilly Bond
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Publisher's Summary

The last of Mary Stewart's beloved romantic mystery novels, Rose Cottage bears all the romance and intrigue she is known for.

Summer, 1947. Kate Herrick, a war widow, returns to her childhood home for a final visit before the house is sold. But Rose Cottage is not the idyllic paradise she remembers from her youth and someone has been there before her. As Kate uncovers an old secret that haunts the home she thought she knew, she is forced to confront a dark truth from her own past....

Beyond the weedy garden with its riot of rose bushes, nothing had changed. And someone was crossing the bridge to approach the garden gate. Someone I knew well....

©1997 Mary Stewart (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

What the critics say

"A comfortable chair and a Mary Stewart: total heaven. I'd rather read her than most other authors." (Harriet Evans)

What listeners say about Rose Cottage

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  • BBP
  • 2020-04-18

Good story; painful narration

I am a Mary Stewart fan so of course I enjoyed the story. I found the narration so hard to listen to that I bought the Kindle version and switched to that as often as I could. The narrator has a lovely voice but the Scottish accents were so shrill as to hurt my ears and so sing-song as to often make the characters sound simple minded. When the London heroine returned to her childhood home the narrator had her switch immediately to a full on local dialect so thick it sounded fake. And then she switched back and forth from conversation to conversation and sometimes even in the same sentence until I honestly began to wonder if part of the mystery was that she had a split personality. It wasn’t written to sound that way.

It seems to me that the current trend in audiobooks is to emphasize “voices” rather than simply doing a well read story. It is totally possible to read a well-written story and impart drama, suspense, humor, and the feel of different characters without the difficult extremes of volume and the fake sound of vocal imitations.

5 people found this helpful

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  • Georganna
  • 2020-01-27

Love it

I’ve been reading Mary Stewart’s books since I was a teenage, and that was a long time ago. “Rose Cottage” is my favorite. I’m so glad Audible finally has her unabridged books available!

5 people found this helpful

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  • Kindle Customer
  • 2021-07-20

Loved it !

Lovely story! I always love Jilly Bond's narration ! I purposefully look for books that have her narration. She us very talented and has the unique ability to give all the characters individual voices. Not an easy task.

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  • Darrin
  • 2020-12-31

Happy Sighs

Just the most charming story to listen to while laid up with a bad cold! Jilly Bond brings this book to life❤️

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  • Rose
  • 2020-01-03

Love the book but not a huge fan of the narrator.

I love Mary Stewart’s books, and this one is no exception. I did find the narration a bit disconcerting as it seemed she gave pretty much everyone a Scottish accent. 🙁
Or I think that’s what it was supposed to be. Anyways. I’d have liked it better with less “voices,” as it took away from my enjoyment of the story.

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  • A Reader
  • 2022-04-23

Excellent Narrator

I have seen reviews that stated the narrator was terrible. I found her to extremely good and would not hesitate to listen to any book she is performing.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 2022-01-30

I adore Mary Stewart

Mary Stewart has a way of entwining her stories about you, with gentle and full words, dripping with the atmosphere of her England. I always sigh with deep contentment and read them again and again. Rose Cottage, and Touch Not the Cat are my favourites.

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  • Claudia Lyon
  • 2020-03-12

Lovely Story!

This is a good book with a little mystery and intrigue for added flavor. Loved it!

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  • karin ketterson robinson
  • 2023-02-23

I remember seeing this on the shelf

I remember seeing this on the shelf in my childhood home along with other Mary Stewart books. My Mom, who was an avid reader had them all. Now, at my grandmother stage of life, I decided to read one.
It was lovely, a sweet story with a bit of mystery thrown in. It is one of those books that if you have the right narration, and Jilly Bond was just that, it will wash over you with a gentle warmth. It is not fast paced or shocking, just a good story told well.

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  • K. Karleskint
  • 2022-03-23

suspenseful...and a giggle at the end!

wish there were more...and maybe a book to follow where the story went later down the road.