Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Fifteen Postcards

  • The Old Curiosity Shop, Book 1
  • By: Kirsten McKenzie
  • Narrated by: Tracey Llewelyn
  • Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (357 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Fifteen Postcards cover art

Fifteen Postcards

By: Kirsten McKenzie
Narrated by: Tracey Llewelyn
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £25.99

Buy Now for £25.99

Pay using card ending in
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.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Invisible by Day cover art
The Wind Chime cover art
The Forgotten Palace cover art
Glass and Steele Boxed Set: Books 1-3 cover art
The Palace of Lost Memories cover art
Time Stranger cover art
Hidden in the Mists cover art
The Little Shop of Found Things: A Novel cover art
The Lost Daughter of Venice cover art
The Curious Life of Elizabeth Blackwell cover art
A Remarkable Woman cover art
The Glass House cover art
The Red Hunter cover art
Blink cover art
The Orphan House cover art
A Time to Change cover art

Summary

History shapes those who travel through it.

Determined to save the antiques store she has inherited from ruin after the unexplained disappearance of her parents, Sarah Lester discovers a jumbled collection of vintage postcards that leads her on a journey through time.

Unprepared for the story the postcards weave about their reclusive former owner, Sarah’s life is thrown into disarray as she is transported to Victorian London, colonial New Zealand, and to the British Raj in 19th-century India.

Sarah’s journey through time could solve the mystery of her parents’ disappearance. But one impossible question remains: What will staying in the past do to her future?

©2015 Kirsten McKenzie (P)2020 Podium Audio

More from the same

What listeners say about Fifteen Postcards

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    184
  • 4 Stars
    95
  • 3 Stars
    44
  • 2 Stars
    23
  • 1 Stars
    11
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    220
  • 4 Stars
    69
  • 3 Stars
    26
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    5
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    162
  • 4 Stars
    88
  • 3 Stars
    43
  • 2 Stars
    21
  • 1 Stars
    14

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

what a find!!

I discovered this title whilst having a look at the 'included' books on audible, and am so pleased I found it! really enjoyed it, great narration, have subsequently used my next credit on book 2!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating Story

Time travelling tales can often go awry but this is an intriguing take with vivid characters & locations. It’s fast paced and from about one third of the book I couldn’t put it down. Perfect narration too. A+

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not very tasty book ‘soup’

This is a strange book that has had some energy invested into the writing, but yet still falls somewhat short.

There’s an incomprehensible and unexplained expectation by the narrator that she will find her parents in the past, despite that it’s unclear for a good part of the early chapters whether they have died or are simply absent.

In addition, the narrator has had no advance warning or previous experience/expectation of time travel and yet she only really expresses acceptance of it. Lip service to its strangeness happens later on, but the juxtaposition of it and her present-day life is never really explored in any meaningful way. I accept that it’s a fantasy tale and so not intended to be believable in the usual sense of course, but additional, unrooted, layers like this just take the work into the ridiculous.

When she does suddenly come across her father, the time travelling somehow instantly becomes something that can be done by choice, both to and fro, according to his implications (although this is not explained and he seems to work it out with her), which has not been the case at any point until their meeting.

The narrator’s voice and accent is unobtrusive (a good thing for any audio performer). However, expression (and some pronunciation) is clunky throughout and does not bear reading aloud well. Some examples are:
‘Speak with’ rather than ‘speak to’
‘Cerridge’ for carriage
Eggplant
Candy shop
‘Turniket’ instead of tourniquet

At one point, the narrator describes how her putative brother: ’took them off me’, referring to multiple gifts as opposed to jewellery or garments. Unnecessary words are frequently added: ‘as best as we can’ and ‘outside of the law’, while necessary ones are omitted: ‘she peered out her window’. Ugh.

Basic sentence construction needed a good editor to prevent instances such as: ‘She used it to leverage herself up’, ‘lever’ perhaps, but leverage is something to be used as.. Also, a description of ‘foxed dog tags’ which are implied to be metal military identification. Foxing is a term used to describe the browning and mottling of old paper and books, as well as meaning confusion or, in the 18th century, being drunk. None of these apply in this case.

Overall, despite some clear care in historical research, this is a book soup of lots of different ingredients, not many of which combine well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved it!

wonderful story
really enjoyed this book
historically fascinating
the narrator was first class.
can't wait for the follow up.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!

I was slightly apprehensive when starting this book, but any doubts were swiftly washed away!
I really loved it, and would recommend to anyone with an interest in history/mystery/fantasy! Downloading the second in the trilogy as I write this.
5 stars!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Unusual story

This was a great find. I will be following on with the next in the series.
Despite a couple of niggles about the writing style, the story carried well, though many of the descriptions and off hand comments were extremely derogatory and make the author appear incredibly snooty and ignorant but maybe that is just supposed to be the tone of the book?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

So worth the wait

I first read the boom about the time travelling Sarah Lester in 2015 and have always thought it would make a great audio book. Tracy is a fabulous narrator and brings the Kirsten’s characters and settings to life in a wonderfully, vivid way. The narration is not flat or boring but lively and keeps you interested from the first sentence. I can’t wait until book 2 comes out .

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

Really enjoyed this book; bonus is was free. Narrated brilliantly. I will definitely use my next credit on the next book in the series.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Wasn’t sure at first

When I first started listening I thought the story silly and more of a YA style. However, the writing is engaging and the narrator superbly puts across some potentially difficult accents.
Worth a listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Grrr no ending

Almost didn’t listen to this after reading mixed reviews. It did get a bit confusing at times and needed to listen to several chapters twice but on the whole I thought it a great story if a bit whimsical. The finish of the book ( I deliberately don’t say end) stopped dead as though the last pages were missing. No doubt a rouse to get one to buy the next book which I feel compelled to do.Not everyone’s cup of tea but a must if you enjoy time travel.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful