Francesca cover art

Francesca

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Francesca

By: Gillian Godden
Narrated by: Fiona Hasen-Bowes
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £23.99

Buy Now for £23.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Single mother Francesca is struggling to get by when an act of desperation leads to her owing a debt to notorious gangland boss Tony Lambrianu.

Tony has his own troubles - a change of image from playboy to respectable married man is needed to further his criminal career. He has women falling at his feet but none he wants to make his wife.

As Francesca is drawn deeper into the dark underworld dealings of Tony and his associates, she has to make alliances of her own to survive. And she’ll do whatever it takes to protect her small son.

This is a roller-coaster ride of high stakes, dirty tricks, loyalty and love. Strap in - it’s a hell of a trip!

©2019 Gillian Godden (P)2020 W. F. Howes Ltd Crime Crime Fiction Genre Fiction Urban Fiction Mystery

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Dangerous Games cover art
Rough Diamonds cover art
Gold Digger cover art
Revenge cover art
Nemesis cover art
Savage Sisters cover art
Slur cover art
Takeover cover art
Fearless Girl cover art
Never Go Back cover art
Ruthless Girl cover art
Her Revenge cover art
The Deal cover art
Playing with Fire cover art
Living a Lie cover art
Liars cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
when I find a book I like I tend to read them all consecutively, sadly I don't think the writer remembers book two as well as me because alot of details don't match up...Tony calls jake his brother but now he's his friend and how Tony met fran was wrong.
The narrator just does sound right for this book either, I can't even listen anymore her voice just drones on its distracting.

2 hrs in & very confused!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is double the length of the first books and dragged on because of this. The story could have been told in half the time. The narrator has changed from book to book and Tony’s accent went from being this East End London gangster in book 2 to a posh aristocratic accent in book 3. The story was enjoyable enough but I’ll take a break before listening to the 4th one.

Too long but enjoyable enough

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I stuck with this though I was tempted to shout at the irritating characters and their dillydallying about and mega self absorption . I also was tempted to shout at the narration a few times- horrid cockney accent and then the narration fell into happy clappy tweeness .
It filled a gap for me as sort of a bland background ramble as I grappled with my cross stitch!!

Frustrating characters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Started slow, didn’t think I would get to chapter 3. I’m so pleased I stayed with it as the book was full of exciting small plots. Not madly keen on the reader, took a while, her voice was not right for Francesca.

Another Example of Excellence

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I only listened on audible to it didn't really read it. Big shock at the end. But this book has so many stories in the one book. Got use to the narrator
You won't be disappointed that I promise.

Highs and lows this book is a must!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Luckily , I enjoyed the story so stuck with it. However the narration nearly put me off so many times.
The other books go from all Cockny narration to this wining voice dragging all her words out.
Really loved the story , read the 1st 2 so had to carry on & will continue the last 2 remaining books.
Well done Gillian, great author.

Brilliant 2 way story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story was OK, but the female character was portrayed as the classic pathetic female, whilst good old Tony was the hero. Threats to kill and violence were laughed off as nothing - he's just a loveable rougue with an "Italian temper". I felt like it painted women in a really bad light and really minimised the issue of violence against women. That said, it trivialised (sexual) violence in general when her assault was also laughed off and joked about. I understand that this was set a while ago when maybe this sort of thing was more acceptable and women were doormats, but I still felt that it needed much more care in it's portrayal of domestic violence and blame. I was shocked to see the author was female, tbh.

Nauseating portrayal of women

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I like the story but the narrator made it sound like Miss Marples day out. The main character Julie moans and moans and is so soppy, you wouldn’t want her as a friend, let alone lover. Tony comes across as weak and pathetic simply by the readers intonation. I had lost the will to live simply by the droaning of her voice. Thank god the remaining series is read by others. If not for the narration a good read with lots of sub plots.

Great read and follow on of a good story but the narrator made it sound like a nagging

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed this book but the narrator nearly made me give up. she has no idea of the right tone, the right pitch,

Good story line

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It took a while to get the gist of the story. There were some gritty interesting bits but the narrators voice did not capture or reflect the characters. The story droned on & in some parts made no sense

It took a while…

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews