'Tis the Season

Variations on a Jane Austen Christmas

By: Susan Adriani, Jan Ashton, Julie Cooper, Amy D'Orazio, Jenetta James, KaraLynne Mackrory, Lucy Marin, Elizabeth Rasche, Mary Smythe

Narrated by: Stevie Zimmerman

Length: 25 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

'Tis the Season is a collection of stories inspired by the beloved characters of Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice. This collection is comprised of the following nine novellas:

• Heart Enough by Amy D’Orazio
• A Yuletide Dream by Julie Cooper
• In the Spirit Intended by Jan Ashton
• Stranded at Pemberley by Jenetta James
• Christmas at Blackthorn Manor by Lucy Marin
• Call It Hope by Susan Adriani
• Welcome Home by Mary Smythe
• The Pink Daffodil by Elizabeth Rasche
• Misgivings & Mistletoe by KaraLynne Mackrory

©2021 Quills & Quartos Publishing (P)2021 Quills & Quartos Publishing

Wonderful

Best narrator. Best authors. Beautiful stories. Worthy of many re-listenings. I hope we’re privileged to see another collection like this in the future.

perfect bite-sized stories

These are not really short stories. they are closer to 'novellettes', i suppose. Written by a collection of authors, this tells the ODC love story in variations which take place amid Christmas festivities. There's even a lovely story with Mary Bennet as the central character. All were well written abs (of course) well narrated. A great purchase for my commute and a little escape within my busy existence. It was a very serendipitous use of my kindle credit! Warm, fuzzy, witty -- perfect!

Marvelous collection

Each and every one was a joy to listen to. Stevie Zimmerman is the best as usual. To get all these great authors together in one book was delightful.

Some favorite Authors

A lovely book wth several Christmas themed tales written by some amazing authors. One tale focused on Mary Bennet. Delightful. Stevie's narration is of course spectacular as she brings our favorite characters to life with inflection, emotion and her pure talent. A lovely long read for the season and any time one feels the Spirit injected into RL.

Great collection

I loved all the stories in this collection. All these seasonal Christmas delights. Great Jaff

Enjoyable

I love Christmas stories and enjoy a good Austen retelling so it seemed like a good fit to pick up this audiobook that combines the two. I think most, if not all, of these authors are new to me. I hoped to find new JAFF authors of interest to me to read in the future. And I did. While there were a few stories I didn't enjoy as well, I did enjoy most of them. I suppose if I were averaging I would have to rate the anthology as a whole lower but the stories that I enjoyed made the overall experience positive for me so I still give this 5 stars.
Stevie Zimmerman is a fabulous narrator for this audiobook. Her work also contributes to the 5 star rating. I don't know if I've ever had a complaint for her narration. Wonderful job as per usual.

HEART ENOUGH by Amy D’Orazio : I like to read clean romance so I got worried early on in this book when Elizabeth & Jane are talking about the marriage bed and it comes out that Jane and Bingley have already consummated their relationship. I hate stories that are all about sex. Luckily for me, that was the worst of it and I could enjoy the rest of the story. I felt sorry for D&E as the timing for their romance was just never right. Unfortunately, better communication would have assisted in their cause. 4 stars

A YULETIDE DREAM by Julie Cooper: I quite liked this mash up of P&P, A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life. The apparitions did their job in showing Darcy the error of his ways and he did a fine job of changing his mindset. It was an enjoyable listen. 5 stars

IN THE SPIRIT INTENDED by Jan Ashton: I enjoyed this story too. I really liked Darcy and his attempts to be kind despite other people's folly. I kind of wish I had a clear answer to what Wickham's intentions are or what is really going on with him. But I guess I can use my imagination. 5 stars

STRANDED AT PEMBERLEY by Jenetta James: This story was more dramatic than the stories previous to it in this anthology. Beginning with a serious carriage accident certainly was an attention grabbing moment to start this drama. And the fact that there was not an immediate recovery continued the angst throughout. I enjoyed watching Lizzy learn to better understand Darcy and Darcy's admiration for her. Lizzy's tender care for Georgiana was truly something to fall in love over. But I would have liked to have learned what happened with the bleeding boy in the accident. 5 stars

CHRISTMAS AT BLACKTHORN MANOR by Lucy Marin: I never enjoy storylines that have Jane or Elizabeth married to someone other than Bingley and Darcy, respectively. I know others do enjoy that but it always feels wrong to me. And while there was nothing wrong with the writing of this story, I could not love Jane's subplot in this. There was a good deal of angst in both Jane's and Elizabeth's storylines. It was one of those situations where the angst for Lizzy and Darcy could have been resolved with a simple conversation long before it did finally occur. Of course then the story would have been much shorter- haha. 3.5 stars

CALL IT HOPE by Susan Adriani: I didn't really like the characters in this story. Most of Darcy's relatives were heavy drinking and crass in language. I didn't even like the colonel that much. And the conflict of the story could have been resolved so much earlier by a simple conversation. I also had a hard time buying that Lady Catherine would have had anything less than perfection in her meals. She likes to be praised and admired even if she has bad taste in furnishings. More than once I nearly stopped reading. 2 stars

WELCOME HOME by Mary Smythe: Interesting plot device to have Darcy have a vision of his future with Elizabeth. I liked how their relationship moved forward through the rest of the story.
Contains marital bed intimacy and some innuendo, also an attempted seduction. 3 stars

THE PINK DAFFODIL by Elizabeth Rasche: Let me start by saying that I have pink daffodils in my garden and they are quite lovely. I love P&P fanfiction that makes Mary the central character of the story. I haven't run into many of them so I consider them unique. I love watching her move from being overly pious and a rather annoying character to blossoming and lovely. The real change seemed a long time coming in this story but eventually got there. However, I could not figure out how Arthur felt any attraction to her initially . She was not very likable in the beginning. He sensed something in her that I could not. I loved it. 5 stars

MISGIVINGS & MISTLETOE by KaraLynne Mackrory: This story had the angst for Darcy & Elizabeth that one finds in canon in their not knowing the heart of the other person. It seemed their emotions soared high and then dropped low and back once again through out. I enjoyed the story. 5 stars

So many great authors!

What’s not to love? So many great authors telling variations of most beloved characters. Also 1 of my favorite narrators. Only half way through and already a favorite. If you love pride and prejudice, then you must have these stories added to your library. I highly recommend!