The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue

A Novel

By: Barbara O'Neal

Narrated by: Carly Robins, Kim Staunton, Allyson Johnson, Susan Dalian

Four women face the turning points of their lives in a warm and wise novel about choices and second chances by the USA Today bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids.

A loving wife and a mother of three accomplished children, forty-six-year-old Trudy Marino has an uncomplicated life—until she’s blindsided by her husband’s affair. But in Trudy’s close-knit neighborhood, she’s not alone in navigating the sudden surprises in a woman’s life.

Her neighbor Roberta has just lost her husband of sixty-two years and struggles with bittersweet memories and grief. Roberta’s granddaughter Jade is a divorcée who has taken up a cathartic new hobby to get over her cheating ex. And there’s Shannelle, whose creative aspirations are fracturing her marriage.

Then Trudy meets Angel, a sensual young man with the vulnerable heart of a poet who awakens her to invigorating new sensations. With a bracing confidence and three dear friends coming together in confusion, anger, and hope, Trudy is encouraged to take control of her life, to reflect on the choices she didn’t make, and to fulfill the youthful dreams she abandoned. As a new world opens up, Trudy can only marvel at where to go from here.

Revised edition: This edition of The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue includes editorial revisions.

©2004, 2014, 2024 by Barbara Samuel. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“A robust cast delivers a dynamic performance of this slice-of-life story. [Trudy] bonds with four eccentric women from Kitchen Avenue.… Though each woman is portrayed by a single narrator, creating personal connections with listeners, this doesn't overshadow the overall relationship among them.”—AudioFile Magazine

“[O’Neal’s] writing is, quite simply, splendid. . . . These women are as familiar as your next-door neighbor and as exotic as the goddesses who archetype their lives. [O’Neal] soars with genius in the humanity of her storytelling.”–BookPage

“Warmhearted . . . [O’Neal’s] characters are warmly drawn and sympathetic, their problems real and believable.”–Publishers Weekly

Favorite in a while!

did not want it to end. wonderful women I would love to meet! I may just start over and listen again!

I didn’t want it to end

All of this authors books I don’t seem to want to end. Her storytelling just stays with me

I adore this story!

I love how she just transports you into this world. Beautiful. A story of strength and hope with goddess magic sprinkled in! 💚

Dreary, depressing and dull

I usually like Barbara O’Neal’s work but I couldn’t take this one. I’m nearly 4 hours in and it’s been a struggle to get this far. I keep waiting for the story to take a direction, but at nearly half way, there’s still no sight of anything actually moving. Maybe it’s just me! I am going to stop listening; I’ve quit a book only once before. I just can’t wait longer for something interesting to occur. If it wasn’t also dreary and depressing I might hang on longer to see if maybe the story could redeem itself from also being incredibly dull.

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Disjoined scattered story line
Hard to follow dialog. Cast of characters not fully developed . Reads like a sleazy soap opera. Poorly written Poorly narrated. Would not recommend. Mmmmmmmmmmmm