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    Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination
    Unavailable
    Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination
    Unavailable
    Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination
    Audiobook9 hours

    Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination

    Written by Helen Fielding

    Narrated by Josephine Bailey

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    At the close of the last millennium, Helen Fielding debuted the irrepressible (and blockbuster-bestselling) Bridget Jones. Now, Fielding gives us a sensational new heroine for a new era...Move over 007, a stunning, sexy-and decidedly female-new player has entered the world of international espionage. Her name is Olivia Joules (that's "J.O.U.L.E.S. the unit of kinetic energy") and she's ready to take America by storm with charm, style, and her infamous Overactive Imagination.

    How could a girl not be drawn to the alluring, powerful Pierre Ferramo-he of the hooded eyes, impeccable taste, unimaginable wealth, exotic international homes, and dubious French accent? Could Ferramo really be a major terrorist bent on the Western world's destruction, hiding behind a smokescreen of fine wines, yachts, and actresses slash models? Or is it all just a product of Olivia Joules's overactive imagination?

    Join Olivia in her heart-stopping, hilarious, nerve-frazzling quest from hip hotel to eco-lodge to underwater cave, by light aircraft, speedboat, helicopter, and horse, in this witty, contemporary, and utterly unputdownable novel deluxe.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 10, 2004
    ISBN9780786553624
    Unavailable
    Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination
    Author

    Helen Fielding

    Helen Fielding was born in Yorkshire. She worked for many years in London as a newspaper and TV journalist, travelling as wildly and as often as possible to Africa, India and Central America. She is the author of Cause Celeb, Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. She co-wrote the screenplays for the movies of Bridget Jones's Diary and The Edge of Reason, starring Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. She now works full-time as a novelist and screenwriter and lives in London and Los Angeles.

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    Reviews for Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination

    3/5

    523 ratings27 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Refreshing! Although the characters seem somewhat superficial, the plot is quite thrilling and it gets better and better as we read along! I enjoyed the tricks and the suspence eventhough some of it is predictable. I appreciate Helen Fielding's light style! A good read!
    • 1/5
      If I book just isn't enjoyable for me, I still try to finish it in hopes that I might find some redeeming quality. Unfortunately, I couldn't make myself read the entire thing. It was just too painful.
    • 4/5
      Olivia Joulles is not a book that gets off to the best of starts, but you need to put your apprehension aside and read it, damn you!

      I have to admit that I love this book. Sadly, I don't own it (hints, people). It's a tale of a very overactive imagination in the hands of a journalist. I must admit to having similar thought processes to those mentioned in this book whereby Olivia assumes that seemingly normal people are spies and terrorists out to get her. Of course, this wouldn't be quite so brilliant if it didn't turn out that some of her crazy imaginings came true!
    • 1/5
      Had to make this one a DNF right around the time she discovered her room was bugged. I just couldn't get into it at all, and it was a sequence of random events happening to this one (somewhat stupid) person and I just didn't care what was going on.
    • 4/5
      A stronger editorial hand was needed for the "jump-cut" sections of the book (and yes, a film/video term is very appropriate given that HF clearly had movie options in mind when she write this book;) and while not great literature, it was silly, fun and entertaining.
    • 5/5
      Did you love Bridget Jones' Diary?Helen Fielding has hit the pages again; this time with a new character but just as many funny circumstances.Olivia Joules is a young British woman who has had to fight to make her way, alone, in the world. She has that fiesty British determination to rise above her circumstances. Orphaned at the age of fourteen, she changed her name from Rachel Pixley to the much more romantic Olivia Joules.She has a list of "Rules for Living" that helps her to remain grounded in reality...most of the time. And yet...sometimes...sometimes she gets in over her head. Olivia Joules is a writer for the Sunday Times. She yearns for the chance to writesomething a bit less "fluffy". If only her editor would assign her to somethingmore important.Grab this book and join Olivia on the adventure that lies ahead. You won't believe what she gets herself into.
    • 3/5
      Olivia Joules is a freelance journalist who desperately wants to get out of writing style stories and do serious news. Unfortunately, her overactive imagination tends to create stories that have no factual back-up. While working on an article in Florida, Olivia gets pulled into a situation wilder than her imagination could have created.My general reaction to this book is "meh". There were a few funny moments but in comparison with the Bridget Jones books, this one suffers greatly. The book also requires a massive suspension of disbelief from about the mid-point on. I also didn't feel particularly attached to Olivia which made it difficult to really care about the plot development. It was a quick and easy read but not overwhelmingly awesome or funny.
    • 3/5
      'It's me', she whispered urgently into the receiver.Olivia, it's the middle of the bloody night!''I know, I know. Sorry. But it's very important.''OK, what? Don't tell me. You've discovered Miami is a giant hologram designed by aliens? You're getting married to Elton John?''No', said Olivia. She began to have second thoughts about asking Kate's advice if she was going to be like this.'What? Come on.''I think I've found Osama Bin Laden!'Has multi-lingual freelance journalist Olivia Joules really stumbled upon the notorious terrorist hiding in plain sight as a Hollywood producer, or is she letting her imagination run away with her as usual? A strange mixture of fluff and Al Quaeda terrorism.
    • 3/5
      At the beginning this book had the feel of a pretty decent cozy mystery but then it started to loose focus.
    • 4/5
      Really funny, exciting and hot, a little bit like a Bond movie but for girls and in book shape. Funny pictures too in the version I read.
    • 5/5
      I know I sound like a psychopath. But I laughed so much reading this novel. And I want to be her.
    • 5/5
      Olivia is a journalist-turned-spy who is sent around the world to expose a smokescreen for Al-Qaeda: the entertainment industry. A fun read!
    • 1/5
      A great disappointment...if I didn't have a policy of finishing every book I start, I wouldn't have.
    • 4/5
      This entertaining book from the author of Bridget Jones and her books reminded me somewhat of Greene's Man in Havana--the spy who wasn't a spy but was led/duped/coerced into spying. It was fun and light, and seriously fluffable.
    • 5/5
      Freaking brilliant! Outrageously untrue, action/adventure/romance(just a tinsy bit). Joules is a journalist with the curiosity of a tiger cub and the courage to back it up. SHE"S AWESOME and my new favorite hero. Outstandingly British, stiff upper lip, situation well in hand and all that. Absolutely WoNderFUL!!!
    • 2/5
      I thought Bridget Jones's Diary, and The Edge of Reason were both vg, so I was expecting this book to rock. Instead...what's the opposite of rock? Pebble? It's chick lit meets spy, only falls far short of Charlie's Angels.On Wikipedia it says, "In the UK edition, there are comic-strip type pictures of Olivia that relate to her espionage activities." That might actually help.
    • 2/5
      Not even entertaining.
    • 4/5
      Olivia Joules is a reporter that believes she is destined for more exciting things than covering the latest fashion show or beauty event. Unfortunately she reads more into situations than is called for and ends up as something of a joke. Then one day her imagination runs away with her and saves her life, only to lead her into a far more dangerous series of events.She travels ostensibly for a beauty story to Miami, LA, the Caribbean and Egypt, following the story but also following someone she believes is a terrorist. Dealing with guns, sharks, people trying to kill her and of course people not believing a word she says. The imaginative way she deals with bugging devices brings a smile to my lips every time I think of it.I can't compare this story to Bridget Jones having never read the book or watched the film, but the humour appealed to me so much. The snappy dialogue and the flights of fancy all screamed aloud that Helen Fielding somehow "knew me", and so with that connection came probably the easiest read I've had in years.It's never going to shake the world, it won't change long held opinions, but it made me laugh a lot, hopefully if you decide to read this story it will brighten your day too.
    • 4/5
      My daughter got this from the library while we were on vacation, and passed it on to me to read before she returned it. She loved it. I wasn't quite as enamored.I didn't hate it, either. It was a fun read, but didn't have a whole lot of substance to it. I had to roll my eyes at all the Amazon reviews trashing the book because it mentioned Osama Bin Laden. One of these days, I'll have to write down my theory about things like that.Anyway, Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination is like a comedy version of the movie Conspiracy Theory. Olivia is a journalist who sees conspiracies and Big Stories everywhere, and finally stumbles on to one, by sheer accident.My main complaint about the story is that it was too firmly straddling the fence between being a semi-serious James Bond-type story and being an over-the-top Stephanie Plum-type story. If it had leaned more either way, I'd have been much happier with it. Instead, we're asked to believe, for example, that the CIA would recruit her on the spot as an agent because of her overactive imagination and without the support of the entire book being completely over-the-top, things like that just fall flat.The romance, too, was too wishy-washy. I'd have been happier with it being focused on either less or more, or even left out completely. As it was, I couldn't believe in it, and it felt out of place.I did, however, love Olivia's "Rules for Living." (#1: "Don't panic." #2: "No one is thinking about you. They're thinking about themselves, just like you.") In fact, I think they made the book for me. Without them, I'd probably have given the book 3 or 3.5 stars. Not just that the rules were present, but what they were, and how Olivia referred to them at times throughout the story.
    • 1/5
      If I book just isn't enjoyable for me, I still try to finish it in hopes that I might find some redeeming quality. Unfortunately, I couldn't make myself read the entire thing. It was just too painful.
    • 1/5
      As I suspected all along, Bridget Jones was a fluke. Fielding is an abysmal writer who managed a runaway success by combining an Austen classic with a modern writing style. She was incredibly lucky and would have been well served to retire with her good fortune intact. Unfortunately, she chose to write another novel.Without Austen to plagiarize, all Fielding has left is her own poor imagination and lack of ability.. sad, really.
    • 5/5
      "Ahahah!! AAHHAHAHA!!!" you think. "SHE'S BACK!"Alas, no, it's not another Bridget Jones (wise decision on Ms. Fielding's part). Olivia Joules is self-assured and smart as a whip, with not even a hint of frump. But, like our friend Bridge, she is a bit loony. Olivia works as a freelance journalist, and is always getting chastised by her boss for her overactive imagination (locust plague in Africa, etc.). She goes to Miami to cover a product launch and is swept up into the life of Pierre Feramo, who is handsome, rich, good looking, and probably not French.After the explosion of a Nursing Home/Cruise Ship, Olivia begins thinking that maybe Pierre Feramo and his crew are not all that they seem to be. So what does she do? She asks for an extension in Miami to cover another story...All I can say about this book is "PLEASE, SIR, I WANT SOME MORE" (even though I know a woman wrote it). It's one of those get-lost-in, can't-put-down, type of stories. I literally had to make myself stop reading so I would go to sleep. It was that good.I really love the writing style, especially the little descriptions of little things. That's a lovely little thing that she does.The characters are really very... well characteristic of themselves. I mean you get to know them, how they look, how they move, what they'll think of this or that... They were really very well developed. I liked them all, especially Olivia (which is pretty important, you know). She is just so mischievous for a woman around her age (I never really figured out what that is).The only thing that bugged me about the book was that at the end, a character, Scott, kept calling her "baby". "Ok, baby, you're on" or stuff like that. It was SOOO annoying but maybe Fielding finds that appealing... or it's like some stereotype she has about American men or something.I would have really loved to see an alternate resolution because I really liked a certain character that didn't make it to a *ahem!* certain end of a certain story.Anyway, lovely book, lovely people, lovely writing, lovely, lovely, lovey love love.
    • 4/5
      People looking for another Bridget Jones' style book are obviously dissapointed, because this isn't it.Despite that, while it starts off a bit pretentious, it turns into a wonderfully funny, engaging read.I'll admit I almost gave up on this book at first, but kept on going and ended up loving it in the end.
    • 1/5
      Surprisingly awful book. I didn't appreciate a lot of the stereotypes that she seemed to lean heavily on in this work.
    • 3/5
      Not near as good as the Bridget Jones books, this character is still fun, but too far from reality in the situations she finds herself. It was different from what I was expecting.
    • 2/5
      This book get an an extra half star because it saved me from being killing people, stuck in an airport waiting for my plane. 36 hours passed and I smelt horribly and felt even worse, luckily I had this book to keep my rage focused everywhere.If you come by my house you can have it.
    • 1/5
      Very disappointed by this book. Started off Walter Mitty-esque, but degenerated quickly. Sub-par to Fielding's earlier works.