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The Beast's Garden

By: Kate Forsyth
Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
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Publisher's Summary

Ava fell in love the night the Nazis first showed their true nature to the world. A retelling of the Grimms' Beauty and the Beast, set in Nazi Germany.

It's August 1939 in Germany, and Ava's world is in turmoil. To save her father, she must marry a young Nazi officer, Leo von Löwenstein, who works for Hitler's spy chief in Berlin. However, she hates and fears the brutal Nazi regime and finds herself compelled to stand against it.

Ava joins an underground resistance movement that seeks to help victims survive the horrors of the German war machine. But she must live a double life, hiding her true feelings from her husband even as she falls in love with him. Gradually she comes to realise that Leo is part of a dangerous conspiracy to assassinate Hitler.

As Berlin is bombed into ruins, the Gestapo ruthlessly hunt down all resistance, and Ava finds herself living hand to mouth in the rubble of the shell-shocked city. Both her life and Leo's hang in the balance.

Filled with danger, intrigue and romance, The Beast's Garden, a retelling of the Grimm brothers' Beauty and The Beast, is a beautiful, compelling love story set in a time when the world seemed on the brink of collapse.

©2015 Kate Forsyth (P)2015 Audible, Ltd
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: Romance

What listeners say about The Beast's Garden

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An excellent novel based on life in Berlin during

The story is based in Berlin Germany and is about the life of those who opposed Hitler and all he stood for. The story is well written and I was deeply moved by the portraying of live in Germany at this terrible time. The story moves along a a good pace with action and emotion in every chapter. I would recommend this book to all who would like to understand what life was like in Berlin dur ww2.
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3 people found this helpful

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Fantastisch :-)

Very much enjoyed this well researched story. It brought this difficult historical period to life. This was heightened by the authors artistic flair in descriptive language and creating her own tale within the historical truths.

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1 person found this helpful

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Fascinating story

This was a compelling novel. The characters and descriptions were well researched. It was difficult to put it down and I couldn’t wait to get back to it. Prior to listening to this story I knew a bit about this topic but this was more descriptive and informative about what happened in Berlin in WW2. It gave me greater understanding of a cross section of the population, their families and friends and their attitudes. I hope there is a sequel. Highly recommended.

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Excellent!!

Just beautifully written, I loved it all. You will not regret the purchase of this book and will likely recommend it to others just as I have..

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A modern classic

loved the voice of the story. loved the device of fairytale throughout. loved accuracy of historical truth of Nazi Berlin woven into a fiction. i read this over and over

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Wow! Unexpectedly Loved this!

I love Kate Forsyth's Fantasy books and The Beast's Garden was a departure for me into her historical fiction. I'm ao glad I took a chance because I absolutely loved it!

This book was thoughtful, courageous, and full of respect. You can feel how much research went into the pages to ensure the details were accurate. The characters were perfectly flawed, rich, and believable. Bravo to the narrator! She gave a flawless performance with accents and tone that captivate you from the first sentence.

Definitely will listen again and highly recommend.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Slightly unbelievable at times

Great narrator, loved the different accents, characters and voices. The story was at times unbelievable. Never heard the point of view from the German side of WW2 before so eye opening.

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  • Joy
  • 02-09-2016

Thrills. Romance. Shocking tales of Nazi Germany!

This book was captivating from beginning to end. Jennifer Vuletic's narration was fabulous. I chose this book mostly because she was the narrator. She certainly didn't disappoint. The story was gripping and very informative about the evil done by the Nazis. I thoroughly recommend this book.

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    4 out of 5 stars

Fantastic narrator

The narrator is amazing.
The story is very harrowing. The author has researched the story well and is based on real events during WWII.

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  • kestergayle
  • 06-12-2015

Excellent story and beautifully narrated

I found this book to be very compelling. An obscure fairy tale told against the backdrop of WWII Berlin. This is a version of beauty and the beast, but not the one we are so familiar with from Disney Studios. This is the tale told by the Brothers Grimm, where the heroine follows her beloved, who has been transformed into a lark, for seven years. At the end of the seven years she must outwit the witch who has put the spell on him in order to release her beloved from that spell.

Arva and Leo are the lovers, and the story begins on the night of broken glass when Jewish businesses, synagogues, and homes were broken into and destroyed. Arva is a beautiful girl, a singer who.lives with her father and two half sisters. They take in a Jewish family with whom they've been life-long friends because the Jews are not allowed to stay in their own home any longer. Arva and the family's son, Rupert, are essentially brother and sister. They both love music, especially American Jazz and Swing, which is illegal in Nazi Germany. This passion eventually gets them, especially Rupert, into serious trouble. Arva asks Leo, who is a German Army officer for help, even though she's not sure she can trust him. This is the basic premise of the story, and from that point we get taken deeper and deeper into the horrors and deprivations of that awful war.

It's a wonderful story, but very dark and viscerally wrenching in it's journey. It's interesting to note that all of the characters (With the exception of Arva and her family and friends.) and historical happenings are real people and actual events. The timeline is accurate, and I recognized several major and minor historical personages as I read.

This is literary fiction at its finest, and is NOT a story for the squeamish or easily disturbed. It details the horrors, madness, and brutality of war in a cold-blooded fashion. The author pulls no punches about those occurrences. But it's also a story of humanity at its finest and most loving. A story of undying love, of self-sacrifice, and the redemption we can only achieve through love. If you appreciate beautiful writing, outstanding narration, and characters you won't soon forget, I think you'll love this one.

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28 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Howie
  • 14-01-2016

Great Historical Fiction....

Based around the real events inside the Nazi machine, the numerous assasination plots and the number of near misses. Interesting events inside the Abwehr, the SS, Heidrich's assasination combined with struggles of those marked for death by the Nazis.. Highly recommend for historical fiction fans with a bit of background on WW2.

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15 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Lisbeth
  • 14-05-2016

Ridiculous Ending!

The author clearly did her research and this book took me to and from work in my car with enjoyment. The narrator was also good and with the exception of her grating "little kid voice" I liked her style. I have to give this book 4 stars for being an engrossing story. But the end was so utterly implausible that I just couldn't go that extra star. I won't be a spoiler, but it could NEVER have happened. Ever.

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12 people found this helpful

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  • R. Solomon
  • 29-04-2016

Interesting Read

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were compelling and I was captivated by the historical storyline. It was written so well & I look forward to reading other books by the author.

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6 people found this helpful

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  • Syd Young
  • 12-08-2017

Way More than the Cover

I met this author this summer au the US Historical Novel Society 2017 semi-annual conference in Oregon. Everyone was oohing and ahing over her, and then she got up at the final Dinner and told an old Irish Tale that was handed down in her family. She was amazing so I bought this book. It's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast (actually, the Grimm Brother's version) set in Nazi Germany. It was wonderful and so much more than I thought I'd get based on the cover. Also, I loved the Narrator. Forsyth is Not just a story-teller, but a writer. She is also a heck of a researcher. (This book includes many many historical figures, including some side glances of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.) I am officially a fan. Don't miss this.

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5 people found this helpful

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  • Isla Books
  • 04-05-2016

A story not soon forgotten

The writing, the story, the narration were all sublime. This story has left it's mark on me,.













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4 people found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 03-03-2017

Heart Wrenching and Beautiful

Lovely and just short of 5 stars for me...story is wonderfully researched, but a bit slow at times. Writing is beautiful and lyrical. I felt the characters and relationships could have been more developed, especially with the length of the novel as well as certain plot holes, and that is the only thing that kept it from being 5 stars for me. Overall, I was absolutely entranced by the prose and the atmosphere. My first Kate Forsyth novel and I will definitely read more!! Also, the narrator, Julie Vuletic, is absolutely phenomenal!!!! She did an absolutely fantastic job with the various array of accents and personalities of the characters - so, so good!!!!

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  • Janice Smith
  • 12-07-2017

Great narration!

I loved this book. It has everything. Suspense, action, romance and intrigue. Also you will learn more facts about the Nazis and WWII.

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  • Susan M Aspinall
  • 19-11-2015

Too many voice changes

I enjoyed the story very much but found the narration annoying. I would have preferred the narrator to just read the story rather than use different voices and accents.

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  • D H
  • 23-11-2018

The Beast's Garden By: Kate Forsyth

WW2, German Resistance, the nature of evil. Plots to kill Hitler. Historical. I liked this book very much. The events, locations and most of the characters (officers) are real people. Except the main characters. The book relates what was happening in Berlin, the "camps" and surrounding areas...and the war.
I would LOVE to visit and stroll in the Tiergarten in Berlin. Tiergarten = animal park= beasts garden?
I listened to the audio version on a long road trip. Got me there and back.

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1 person found this helpful

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