Natalie Naudus brings the perfect mix of heart and hilarity to this chaotic but charming holiday rom-com. In need of money and without direction, struggling animator Ellie agrees to a fake marriage with a Portland, Oregon, real estate developer. But when they arrive at his family's cabin for the holidays, she discovers his sister, Jack, is the woman she fell in love with in a day the previous Christmas--and who broke her heart. Naudus leans into the novel's over-the-top silliness, voicing Ellie with a mixture of pent-up hurt and bubbly optimism. Naudus makes the banter between Ellie and Jack sparkle, gives both of Jack's grandmas unforgettable no-nonsense voices, and delivers the emotional scenes with just enough feeling to make them seem real.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
Duration: 10 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781797150017
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
After her divorce, Roberta Jewett, with her three daughters, returns to Camden, Maine, to start a new life. Such an independent move in 1916 brings difficulties with her mother, her in-laws and the townspeople. Dukes's performance, while skillful, sometimes suffer in scenes of emotional content. His pace slows, and his reading acquires the peculiar emphasis of someone trying to get instructions across to a non-English-speaking person. The effect is disturbingly laughable. When he resumes his normal pace, the story revives and personalities emerge again, but the awkwardness remains as an odd interruption to Spencer's drama of pain and love, dispelling Dukes's carefully constructed characterizations.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Dove
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
A young Southern woman marries into an aristocratic Boston family and spends her summers at a vacation community on the Maine coast. Heavy-handed abridgment reduces this novel to an outline which denies the listener any character development. Judith Ivey offers stereotypical dialects which are discordant to a New Englander's ear. In her interpretation the Down East Mainers speak like thugs in raspy voices. Her presentation of a Boston accent is phonetically erratic and also spoken in gruff tones. The color and flavor of Maine are missing from this tasteless rendition.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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