On a Midnight Clear

By: Lily Morton

Narrated by: Joel Leslie

Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

It can safely be said that Lord Barnaby Greenwood is not having the best of Christmases.

He’s penniless, up to his eyeballs in debt, and about to lose his estate. Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that when a local property developer offers a lot of money to buy King’s Wood from him, Barnaby is very tempted. But his father had always impressed on him that the green wood was sacred and must be protected at all costs, so he finds himself saying no.

He knows this will result in the loss of his home, but duty comes before everything. However, that fateful decision leads instead to a magical Christmas for Barnaby, complete with an old god who grants him a favour, and a beautiful statue that comes to life.

Cosmo is perfect for him. He’s funny and kind and completely enraptured with Barnaby, and for the first time in his life, Barnaby falls in love. But how can this lead to anything but heartache, when on the last stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, Cosmo will go back to being a statue and take Barnaby’s heart with him?

From best-selling author Lily Morton comes a truly magical romantic comedy.

©2021 Lily Morton (P)2022 Lily Morton

enjoyed it

📖 Story comment: Good pace, likeable characters, what I call an easy listen.
Quirky Christmas story with a hint of Christmas magic - I particularly enjoyed what goes on with the statues... although i'll probably behave differently around them now ( .... you know,... just in case 😜),

Not particularly complicated so it's a good listen while wrapping presents or doing some cooking without losing track of the story.

🎧 Narrator comment: Joel Leslie doing what he does best, nailed the characters and their personalities and bought the story to life. As always, an enjoyable performance

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📌 Where does it fall on my personal scale? 7
• 1 not my thing • 2 didn't like the narration • 3 didn't keep my attention • 4 was good, but once was enough • 5 enjoyed it • 6 will listen again if i'm in the mood for the narrator [4⭐] • 7 goes on the "re-listen" list [4⭐] • 8 kept me up past bed-time [4.5⭐] • 9 recommended to family/friends [4.75⭐] • 10 own it in all formats [5⭐] • 11 keep a copy with me at all times [5⭐]
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A brilliant Christmas story...

brilliantly narrated by Joel Leslie again. I will read or listen to this tale of magic and love, or magical love, for many Christmases to come, hopefully. The story is exceptionally British, atmospheric and as always imbued with Lily's wonderful brand of humour and snark.

4.25 stars- Captures the magic of love

On a Midnight Clear is a beautiful holiday fantasy that captures the magic of the season, love, and believing anything is possible. I really enjoyed this story when I first read it, and I again found myself becoming fully immersed while listening to it. The narrator captures the wonder and vibrancy of this story perfectly, bringing more life to each scene and character to create a wonderful treat for the ears.

I really loved both Barnaby and Cosmo. Barnaby’s strident dedication to his family’s home and those he employs is admirable, as is his resilient spirit. Cosmo is just as lovely, with an earnest desire to experience it all and leave those around him in a better place. While there’s plenty of romance and a bit of conflict surrounding Barnaby’s financial concerns and Cosmo’s dwindling time with Barnaby, On a Midnight Clear is definitely light on angst and heavy on the sweet, swoony moments.

If you are looking for a story to sweep you away and enjoy a bit of magic with your romance, On a Midnight Clear is definitely worth your time.

A perfect Christmas story

Lily and Joel, like Cosmo and Barnaby, are magic together. This sweet story full of magic and humor is a perfect winter listen.

Christmas Magic

Never scuff at Christmas magic, or the witching hour.
If you let yourself believe you will get rewarded.

Amazing sweet and a little quirky. And absolutely perfect.
Great narration.

Didn’t hate it

Seemed cute at first and then it just got goofy. Lord Barnaby often came across as a wimp being pushed around by his staff and Cosmo a space alien. You’d think that if he’d really spent all those years listening to Barnaby like he says, he’d be better able to communicate. I also grew very tired of the “my Barnaby”. It was just too cheesy.

Another winner

Lily Morton and Joel Leslie have delivered yet again. There's nothing quite as good as an adult fairy tale with statues coming to life and bad guys choosing a better path. Then there's the delectable romance! I loved every minute of this audio book.

Ruined by the narrator

First of all, this had been on my TBR seems like FOREVER! I planned on reading in print, but accidentally purchased the audio version. So whatever, I guess.

Seemed like a cute story, but the narrator was WAY over the top in his delivery. Just ridiculously over the top. To the point where I was concentrating on him and not the story. I just had to stop about twenty percent in.

Overall, I pretty much gave up on the whole thing.

Asweet story

This story will become a season favorite for me, but don't wait for Christmas to listen your first time. This is a wonderful story about love, a little magic, 🔥 and that one person perfect for you.

Lyrical

I love everything she writes, but this one stole my heart. I read it just after the Christmas holidays, and Christmas tends to make me melancholy. If you are ever feeling sad, or as if the world is not a happy place, listen to this book or read it. It will restore your faith in life.

On a midnight clear

I loved this when it was released as a book and love it just as much on audible. 🥰

Magical and heartwarming Christmas story

Lily's writing was fantastic as always. The characters were well written, and I enjoyed the lightheartedness of the story. Accompanied by the spectacular narration Joel Leslie always provides, this book is sweet and absolutely delightful!

Glorious

Absolutely adorable.

A gentle, charming love story infused with magic. An underlying hint of melancholy pervades the first 89% of the book but the final two chapters are filled with sheer joy.

Joel Leslie does an excellent job infusing Cosmo with joy and wonder and yet still allowing the tale's melancholy background to peek through. Even though I had read the book in ebook form I still cried several times in the retelling.

I'm sure this will become an audio I revisit many times over.

Warms the Heart

Another fantastic book from Lily Morton, her usual humour and snark and full of love. Not to mention mystical creatures that lurk in the woods. Brilliant.

A sweet magical Christmas story

3.5 Stars

On a Midnight Clear was a mixed bag for me, there were parts I really enjoyed and others I struggled with. The narrator plays a big role in my enjoyment of a book, I've listened to a lot of audiobooks narrated by Joel Leslie and some I have loved and others not so much, this one was a not so much and I think I would have enjoyed the story more if I had read it rather than listened to it because I didn't get on with how he narrated the characters.

That being said, the story was sweet and full of magic. I enjoyed the mythology behind the story and liked the idea that the statues come alive every night for an hour and get to mingle with each other.

Cosmo was very sweet and enthusiastic about everything around him which was what Barnaby needed, a little magic in his life and a new way of looking at things. I wish I had Cosmo's ability to use magic to fix everything and help people's moods. Barnaby was a little sad to begin with, especially how isolated he was from the villagers and how they behaved towards him because they thought he was rich and didn't care about the village, being he'd lived there all his life I was surprised he didn't have more friends and had no one to share his problems with within the community. But at least through magic, he had his beloved statue come to life and change his world.

A no angst, sweet Christmas novella with a happy ever after.

What a charming story!

I read On a Midnight Clear with my eyes when it was released a year ago. I was very happy to receive a review copy of the audiobook performed by the wonderful Joel Leslie. He always does such a good job performing Lily’s books. There isn’t a lot more that I can say about this story that I didn’t already say in my original review (excerpt shown below).

On a Midnight Clear is a Christmas themed story but I think it would be perfect to read any time of the year. It’s one of the most charming stories I’ve read in quite a while. I love the way that Lily Morton blended this contemporary story into a magical world.

As has been with the other books I’ve read by Lily Morton, this story was filled with rich, descriptive language as well as a good bit of humor. I literally LOL’d more than once and my husband wanted to know what was so funny.

I really can’t say enough good things about this sweet and sexy story. I loved everything about it.

A copy of this audiobook was provided to me at my request; my review was voluntary and not influenced by the author or narrator.

***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***

A bit too sugary and easy solutions

When I read this it wasn't one of my favorite stories of Lily's, so why ask for a copy of the audiobook? Well I'm a weird creature and sometimes things that annoyed me when I read something, after time passed and listened to the same story I found that I quite liked it. 80% is due to the magic that is a narrator's talent to give life and depth to a character (certainly more than I can with how I read sometimes) and 20% is the mood I'm currently in.

This time though, no matter how much I enjoyed Joel Leslie's narration, how he brought forth Cosmo's love of life, Barnaby's affection to indulge Cosmo anything, and how even their chemistry was a bit more obvious, the magic that this story should be just wasn't there again or at times it was just too much. Just too easy and too sugary sweet.

What a delightful story

I enjoyed this wonderful and refreshing story. It has been a surprisingly good read and I throughly enjoyed it

A lovely Festive Tale

This is a lovely festive tale which I thoroughly enjoyed reading last year and was top of my books of the year. I have been eagerly awaiting the audio book for my car journeys. It is still a lovely tale with a good performance by Joel Leslie albeit using the same upper class English voice that I thought Barnaby was Dylan and I’ve had to train my mind to switch this off. I love this author who writes British books full of British wit, sarcasm and humour but why do we have to have Americanisms from the mouths of British characters? All in all though, still one of my favourite books.

A lovely Christmas tale

This story left me warm and happy. Love the way Cosmo says Barnaby’s name, lovely jubbly xx