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  • Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas

  • Being a Jane Austen Mystery, Book 12
  • By: Stephanie Barron
  • Narrated by: Kate Reading
  • Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (55 ratings)

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Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas

By: Stephanie Barron
Narrated by: Kate Reading
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Summary

Christmas Eve, 1814. Jane Austen has been invited to spend the holiday with family and friends at the Vyne, the gorgeous ancestral home of the wealthy and politically prominent Chute family. As the year fades and friends begin to gather beneath the mistletoe for the twelve days of Christmas festivities, Jane and her circle are in a celebratory mood: Mansfield Parkis selling nicely; Napoleon has been banished to Elba; British forces have seized Washington, DC; and on Christmas Eve, John Quincy Adams signs the Treaty of Ghent, which will end a war nobody in England really wanted.

Jane, however, discovers holiday cheer is fleeting. One of the Yuletide gathering dies in a tragic accident whose circumstances Jane immediately views with suspicion. If the accident was in fact murder, the killer is one of Jane's fellow snowbound guests. With clues scattered amid cleverly crafted charades, dark secrets coming to light during parlor games, and old friendships returning to haunt the Christmas parties, whom can Jane trust to help her discover the truth and stop the killer from striking again?

©2014 Stephanie Barron (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
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What listeners say about Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Spoiled by narration.

I downloaded this title as it was included in my membership and I do enjoy Jane Austen's novels, although she is far from my favourite classical author (Dickens, Conan Doyle and Hardy, should you care to know) and was hoping for a novel with seasonal atmosphere and a decent mystery. I don't agree that Barron's writing style captures that of Austen in the least as some reviewers state. Rather, it seemed very obviously a contemporary author's spin on Austen's style. Perhaps I am being too literal. It did capture Christmassy details and the characters were well developed and I really did quite like Jane and Cassandra. However, as with just so many books I've listened to, the narrator ruined it for me with her bizarre inflection of soeech, that appeared mid-sentence and at the end as though something revealing was afoot- there wasn't.
I really cannot imagine the process by which audiobook narrators are chosen. It's as though anyone with a clear and decent speaking voice is deemed perfect for the task, when there's so much more to it than that. I do not require a performance akin to the afternoon play on Radio 4, nor am I a primary school pupil who must have vivid and distinct voices for every character. I just want to listen to the book being read well enough to allow the story to take centre stage and in no way does the reader achieve this. I found myself becoming increasingly irritated by her strange narrative that kept pulling me out of the story. And correcting her pronunciation out loud, at which point, I thought switching it off was the better option. Really disappointing.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Like listening to a shopping list!

Not a bad story but totally ruined by the narration. The narrator’s voice was utterly devoid of emotion & she had a strange intonation at the end of sentences which made it sound like she was reading a shopping list. Glad it was a freebie!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating!

Couldn’t stop. A day thoroughly well spend. Such a great story. Will be listening to more by this author.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great!

I don't normally jump into a series without reading from the first book but I did it here and I really enjoyed this one. I'm definitely going to check out the first 11 books!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fun

I enjoyed this creative license with Jane Austen - it was engaging & well done, and well narrated.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Spoiled by the narrator

Suggest you listen to the sample as the vstyle of the narration seems to be either loved or loathed. Personally, it was too off-putting to allow me to enjoy listening

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