
A Watershed Year
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $10.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Amy McFadden
About this listen
Lucy never confessed her love to her best friend Harlan before he passed away. Two months after his funeral, she is haunted by the power of things left unsaid. But then she receives the first of his e-mails arranged to be sent after his death. So begins the year that everything changes - Lucy's watershed year. In an e-mail, Harlan says something that consumes her: He's certain Lucy is destined for motherhood. In her grief, she suddenly rediscovers hope, journeying to Russia to adopt a four-year-old boy. Just as they're learning to trust each other, they must face a threat that might shatter their fragile little family forever.
Susan Schoenberger's breathtaking and powerful story of love, loss, redemption and what it means to be a mother will leave you in awe as Lucy, in the depths of her despair, somehow finds joy and embraces the beauty of second chances.
©2011 Susan Schoenberger (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Virtues of Oxygen
- By: Susan Schoenberger
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby, Laural Merlington
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the award-winning author of A Watershed Year comes a heartrending story of unlikely bonds made under dire straits. Holly is a young widow with two kids living in a ramshackle house in the same small town where she grew up wealthy. Now barely able to make ends meet editing the town's struggling newspaper, she manages to stay afloat with help from her family. Then her mother suffers a stroke, and Holly's world begins to completely fall apart.
-
-
Emotionally moving and uplifting
- By RueRue on 08-20-14
-
Earth's the Right Place for Love
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Berg
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Berg
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nola McCollum is the most desirable girl in Arthur’s class, and he is thrilled when they become friends. But Arthur wants far more than friendship. Unfortunately, Nola has a crush on the wrong Moses—Arthur’s older brother, Frank, who is busy pursuing his own love interest and avoiding the boys’ father, a war veteran with a drinking problem and a penchant for starting fights. When a sudden tragedy rocks the family’s world, Arthur struggles to come to terms with his grief. In the end, it is nature that helps him to understand how to go on. But what can he do about Nola?
-
-
Meh
- By Kindle Customer on 04-02-25
By: Elizabeth Berg
-
Beyond the Moonlit Sea
- A Novel
- By: Julianne MacLean
- Narrated by: Amanda Leigh Cobb, Graham Halstead, Reba Buhr
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Olivia Hamilton is married to the love of her life, Dean, a charismatic pilot who flies private jets for the rich and famous. But when he vanishes over the Bermuda Triangle, Olivia’s idyllic existence unravels. After years of waiting, Olivia must eventually let go of the fragile hope that her beloved husband might still be alive.
-
-
Fantastic book! Loved it!
- By Tasha Lynn on 07-05-22
By: Julianne MacLean
-
An Unusual Boy
- By: Fiona Higgins
- Narrated by: Melle Stewart
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Julia Curtis is a busy mother of three, with a husband often away for work, an ever-present mother-in-law, a career, and a house that needs doing up. Her 14-year-old daughter, Milla, has fallen in love for the first time, and her youngest, Ruby, is a nine-year-old fashionista who can out-negotiate anyone. But Julia’s 11-year-old son, Jackson, is different. Different to his sisters. Different to his classmates. In fact, Jackson is different from everyone. And bringing up a child who is different isn’t always easy.
-
-
amazing
- By Sandra P. on 04-25-21
By: Fiona Higgins
-
Gone with the Wind
- By: Margaret Mitchell
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens
- Length: 49 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, Margaret Mitchell's great novel of the South is one of the most popular books ever written. Within six months of its publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind had sold a million copies. To date, it has been translated into 25 languages, and more than 28 million copies have been sold. Here are the characters that have become symbols of passion and desire....
-
-
Got the Accents Right
- By Noel on 04-27-10
-
Little Fires Everywhere
- By: Celeste Ng
- Narrated by: Jennifer Lim
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned - from the layout of the winding roads to the colors of the houses to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist and single mother - who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter, Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons.
-
-
Boring and Drawn Out!!!
- By M. Ryder on 10-05-17
By: Celeste Ng
-
The Virtues of Oxygen
- By: Susan Schoenberger
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby, Laural Merlington
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the award-winning author of A Watershed Year comes a heartrending story of unlikely bonds made under dire straits. Holly is a young widow with two kids living in a ramshackle house in the same small town where she grew up wealthy. Now barely able to make ends meet editing the town's struggling newspaper, she manages to stay afloat with help from her family. Then her mother suffers a stroke, and Holly's world begins to completely fall apart.
-
-
Emotionally moving and uplifting
- By RueRue on 08-20-14
-
Earth's the Right Place for Love
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Berg
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Berg
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nola McCollum is the most desirable girl in Arthur’s class, and he is thrilled when they become friends. But Arthur wants far more than friendship. Unfortunately, Nola has a crush on the wrong Moses—Arthur’s older brother, Frank, who is busy pursuing his own love interest and avoiding the boys’ father, a war veteran with a drinking problem and a penchant for starting fights. When a sudden tragedy rocks the family’s world, Arthur struggles to come to terms with his grief. In the end, it is nature that helps him to understand how to go on. But what can he do about Nola?
-
-
Meh
- By Kindle Customer on 04-02-25
By: Elizabeth Berg
-
Beyond the Moonlit Sea
- A Novel
- By: Julianne MacLean
- Narrated by: Amanda Leigh Cobb, Graham Halstead, Reba Buhr
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Olivia Hamilton is married to the love of her life, Dean, a charismatic pilot who flies private jets for the rich and famous. But when he vanishes over the Bermuda Triangle, Olivia’s idyllic existence unravels. After years of waiting, Olivia must eventually let go of the fragile hope that her beloved husband might still be alive.
-
-
Fantastic book! Loved it!
- By Tasha Lynn on 07-05-22
By: Julianne MacLean
-
An Unusual Boy
- By: Fiona Higgins
- Narrated by: Melle Stewart
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Julia Curtis is a busy mother of three, with a husband often away for work, an ever-present mother-in-law, a career, and a house that needs doing up. Her 14-year-old daughter, Milla, has fallen in love for the first time, and her youngest, Ruby, is a nine-year-old fashionista who can out-negotiate anyone. But Julia’s 11-year-old son, Jackson, is different. Different to his sisters. Different to his classmates. In fact, Jackson is different from everyone. And bringing up a child who is different isn’t always easy.
-
-
amazing
- By Sandra P. on 04-25-21
By: Fiona Higgins
-
Gone with the Wind
- By: Margaret Mitchell
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens
- Length: 49 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, Margaret Mitchell's great novel of the South is one of the most popular books ever written. Within six months of its publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind had sold a million copies. To date, it has been translated into 25 languages, and more than 28 million copies have been sold. Here are the characters that have become symbols of passion and desire....
-
-
Got the Accents Right
- By Noel on 04-27-10
-
Little Fires Everywhere
- By: Celeste Ng
- Narrated by: Jennifer Lim
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned - from the layout of the winding roads to the colors of the houses to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist and single mother - who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter, Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons.
-
-
Boring and Drawn Out!!!
- By M. Ryder on 10-05-17
By: Celeste Ng
-
The Great Believers
- By: Rebecca Makkai
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.
-
-
A story for all time
- By Carla jo Thompson on 08-06-18
By: Rebecca Makkai
-
Heft
- By: Liz Moore
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne, Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forrmer academic Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn’t left his rambling Brooklyn home in a decade. Twenty miles away in Yonkers, seventeen-year-old Kel Keller navigates life as the poor kid in a rich school and pins his hopes on what seems like a promising baseball career - if he can untangle himself from his family drama.
-
-
Intriguing--Captivating--Altering
- By Mel on 04-19-12
By: Liz Moore
-
Barefoot
- A Novel
- By: Elin Hilderbrand
- Narrated by: Rachael Warren
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From marriage, infidelity, and the mayhem of motherhood to scandal, tragedy, and illness - three women seek peace and comfort in Nantucket as they cope with life's challenges. Three women - burdened with small children, unwieldy straw hats, and some obvious emotional issues - tumble onto the Nantucket airport tarmac one hot June day. Vicki is trying to sort through the news that she has a serious illness. Her sister, Brenda, has just left her job after being caught in an affair with a student. And their friend Melanie, after seven failed in vitro attempts, is pregnant at last.
-
-
OMG...spoiler alert:
- By Abby Mamacos on 10-09-17
By: Elin Hilderbrand
-
Who Do You Love
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Weiner
- Narrated by: Sarah Steele, JD Jackson
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rachel Blum and Andy Landis are eight years old when they meet late one night in an ER waiting room. Born with a congenital heart defect, Rachel is a veteran of hospitals, and she's intrigued by the boy who shows up all alone with a broken arm. He tells her his name. She tells him a story. After Andy's taken back to the emergency room and Rachel's sent back to her bed, they think they'll never see each other again.
-
-
Performer
- By Christine C. on 01-14-17
By: Jennifer Weiner
-
All Fall Down
- By: Jennifer Weiner
- Narrated by: Tracee Chimo
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Allison Weiss is a typical working mother, trying to balance a business, aging parents, a demanding daughter, and a marriage. But when the website she develops takes off, she finds herself challenged to the point of being completely overwhelmed. Her husband’s becoming distant, her daughter’s acting spoiled, her father is dealing with early Alzheimer’s, and her mother’s barely dealing at all.
-
-
Annoying
- By Jessica on 06-17-15
By: Jennifer Weiner
-
The Last Romantics
- A Novel
- By: Tara Conklin
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 1981, the young Skinner siblings - fierce Renee, dreamy Caroline, golden boy Joe, and watchful Fiona - lose their father to a heart attack and their mother to a paralyzing depression, events that thrust them into a period they will later call “the Pause”. Caught between the predictable life they once led and an uncertain future that stretches before them, the siblings navigate the dangers and resentments of the Pause to emerge fiercely loyal and deeply connected. Two decades later, the Skinners find themselves again confronted with a family crisis....
-
-
Maybe the best book I ever read
- By Plundered treasure on 02-16-19
By: Tara Conklin
-
Walking on Broken Glass
- By: Christa Allan
- Narrated by: Sasha Dunbrooke
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leah Thornton’s life, like her Southern Living home, has great curb appeal. But a paralyzing encounter with a can of frozen apple juice in the supermarket shatters the façade, forcing her to admit that all is not as it appears. When her best friend gets in Leah’s face about her refusal to deal with her life and her drinking, Leah is forced to make a decision. Can this brand-conscious socialite walk away from the country club into 28 days of rehab?
-
-
Good listen
- By Jennifer on 01-19-22
By: Christa Allan
-
Breaking Night
- A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard
- By: Liz Murray
- Narrated by: Liz Murray
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Liz Murray was born to loving but drug-addicted parents in the Bronx. In school she was taunted for her dirty clothing and lice-infested hair, eventually skipping so many classes that she was put into a girls' home. At age 15, Liz found herself on the streets when her family finally unraveled. She learned to scrape by, foraging for food and riding subways all night to have a warm place to sleep. Then, when Liz's mother died of AIDS, she decided to take control of her own destiny.
-
-
unbelievably inspiring
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-12
By: Liz Murray
-
Left Neglected
- By: Lisa Genova
- Narrated by: Sarah Paulson
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah Nickerson is like any other career-driven supermom in Welmont, the affluent Boston suburb where she leads a hectic but charmed life with her husband Bob, faithful nanny, and three children—Lucy, Charlie, and nine-month-old Linus.
-
-
Left Neglected?
- By Pamela Harvey on 01-06-11
By: Lisa Genova
-
Fly Away Home
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Weiner
- Narrated by: Judith Light
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the number-one New York Times best-selling author, a novel about three very different women who become friends while seeking refuge in an old beach house.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Jayne Greeley on 07-25-10
By: Jennifer Weiner
-
A Scattered Life
- By: Karen McQuestion
- Narrated by: Teri Clark Linden
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In A Scattered Life, Karen McQuestion proves to be an adept chronicler of unforgettable female characters. Poignantly written, she thoughtfully examines how women love, learn, and come to accept themselves and others, as well as life’s often harsh realities of deception and loss. Skyla Plinka has all she could ask for - at least that’s what her mother-in-law Audrey thinks. On most days, Skyla agrees, yet there’s a part of her that longs for her free-spirited days before husband, child, and the humdrum life of rural Wisconsin.
-
-
just ok
- By Amazon Customer on 05-11-16
By: Karen McQuestion
-
We Never Asked for Wings
- A Novel
- By: Vanessa Diffenbaugh
- Narrated by: Emma Bering, Robbie Daymond
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For 14 years Letty Espinosa has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children - Alex, now 15, and Luna, six - in their tiny apartment on a forgotten spit of wetlands near the bay. But now Letty's parents are returning to Mexico, and Letty must step up and become a mother for the first time in her life.
-
-
Worth the time, overall good
- By Kaycee on 08-23-15
What listeners say about A Watershed Year
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Debbie
- 01-21-15
Russian Adoption, Love and Family
This is a great listen, a human story of facing cancer and the death of a loved one and the aftermath of picking up the pieces of life and the emptiness that comes after loss. This book about Lucy, a college professor, who teaches religion and has an odd interest in all the Catholic saints is funny, quirky, and deeply emotional. She nurses her best friend until he dies of cancer. Then grief stricken, she goes to Russia to adopt a little boy. The circumstances of adopting from a Russian orphanage are strange and scary . . . and I can truly relate to them, as adoption in Romania was the same . . . greasing the palms of the officials, and not knowing one day to the next if you would ever get out of the country with your child. You will grow to love Lucy, her parents and friends . . . and most of all little Matt. It is a clean story, full of heart.
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- Holly Mo
- 01-27-15
Healthy Snack
I habitually devour books, which is why I often review books as if they were food. Some books (Gone With the Wind, for example) are fulfilling meals, leaving you satisfied, and perhaps over-stuffed. Some meals are desserts, quick, fun, but not necessarily improving your mind. Some are like over-cooked canned vegetables; halfway through, you just can't bring yourself to stomach any more.
I'd say this book reminds me of a healthy snack. It was relatively short, and I feel that I've come away from it with some thought-provoking ideas.
I'll warn potential readers, if you are looking for a pick-me-up, this probably isn't the book for you. The main character is dealing with her best friend's cancer diagnosis, and his isn't the only funeral in the story. I found myself wiping away tears several times (a testament to the book being well-written).
It ends happily, and the book is sprinkled with comedic and sweet moments. Overall, I enjoyed it.
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- Angee Sorensen
- 09-11-15
Beautiful Story
Amazing story! love ❤ wins! Family is not always blood, but choice! Life is precious
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kathy in CA
- 02-16-15
Ugh, chick-lit again, and a bad case of the blahs!
This book was so utterly disappointing for me. So many words, such minutiae and so much triviality. It seemed like such a promising story line. International adoption is a real interest of mine. I felt like this book never took off, that was stuck on the tarmac for hours and hours. I didn't see much character development and thus, I didn't feel for any of the characters, at all. The endless nonsense about the saints--ugh, what type of plot gimmick is that? It wasn't educational or informative or even interesting, just quirky filler to me.
Add Lucy and Harlan's friendship and her year of endless grieving for what never ever was, for what she was actually afraid to even acknowledge. And how far-fetched was what Lucy learned about Harlen at the end? Really? (I am not going to say more as I don't want to spoil it for anyone.)
As for the narrator, I have mixed feelings. She did the foreign voices well but she got very shrill whenever there was any emotional dialogue. In addition, I really didn't enjoy the way she portrayed Lucy. Too much emphasis in her voice. It made Lucy seem downright annoying to me most of the time.
And yet, I plodded on and on even though I knew how it would end beforehand. There was something that kept me going. Therefore, I am giving it three stars across the board. And yet, I will not seek this author out again.
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- Desertdiva19
- 04-17-14
Different type of romance fiction
What did you love best about A Watershed Year?
I loved that Lucy dealt with the lost of her friend Harlan by embracing life!
What was one of the most memorable moments of A Watershed Year?
One of the best moments was when Matt calls Lucy mama for the first time. It brought tears to my eyes.
Have you listened to any of Amy McFadden’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
no
If you could take any character from A Watershed Year out to dinner, who would it be and why?
Harlan because his heart was so full of love for others.
Any additional comments?
Good book for escape. Well developed characters and not as predictable as some books.
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- Holly Thompson
- 02-01-15
Excellent narrator
Not only did I enjoy the story, the narrator being amazing just enhanced the whole experience. She could very distinctly give male characters their voice, plus she had three Russian characters who spoke accented English, AND a young boy with a Russian accent learning English. Very impressive and very well done.
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
- Andrea Renee Cox
- 03-18-16
Exquisite story; fantastic narration.
by Andrea Renee Cox
Exquisite tale of heart-wrenching grief and the joy that blossoms from the deepest pain. Unique author's voice: perspective, fresh analogies, and tug on emotions.
Narrator Amy McFadden inflected perfect amount of emotion into her reading. Very skilled at accents, including Chinese and Russian.
Only reasons I am not giving five stars: many mentions of beer/alcohol and heavy attention to praying to saints (instead of directing prayers to God).
Overall, great story with memorable characters and plenty of surprises. Will be looking for more from author Susan Schoenberger in the near future.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!