Jane of Austin Audiobook By Hillary Manton Lodge cover art

Jane of Austin

A Novel of Sweet Tea and Sensibility

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Jane of Austin

By: Hillary Manton Lodge
Narrated by: Kate Handford
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $26.71

Buy for $26.71

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

This hip contemporary romance combines Jane Austen-inspiration and foodie fiction in a witty and engaging tale of two sisters who are forced to uproot to unfamiliar Austin, Texas, after high rent and broken relationships force them away from their San Francisco life. In this Sense and Sensibility adaptation, Jane Woodward and her sister Celia run a small tea salon in San Francisco but are forced to relocate to Austin, Texas. While trying to start fresh and settle in, Jane meets a dashing musician, Sean, who steals her heart, but not before catching the eye of another suitor, military veteran Ben Fredrickson. The sisters drift apart, lives collide, dashing men steer Jane off course, and she discovers that adjusting to a new life is trickier than she anticipated.

©2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Clean & Wholesome Contemporary Contemporary Romance Family Life Fiction Romance Heartfelt Witty Feel-Good

What listeners say about Jane of Austin

Highly rated for:

Sweet Story Engaging Storyline Excellent Narrator Enjoyable Romance Well-developed Details Complex Hero
Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    52
  • 4 Stars
    41
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    44
  • 4 Stars
    36
  • 3 Stars
    13
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    46
  • 4 Stars
    39
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Consistently Mediocre

To begin, a few words about the narrator: while she wasn't necessarily bad, she was very poorly-suited for this particular book. Ms. Handford has a distinctly Canadian accent, and, while the novel opens in San Francisco, Austin, Texas soon becomes the novel's setting; thus, many of the characters are Texans. Although Ms. Handford does give these characters "southern" accents, some of her pronunciations are still exceedingly Canadian--the word "been" comes to mind (in her pronunciation, it rhymes with "seen"; I'm not sure if you'll find many Americans who pronounce it that way, but you certainly won't find any Texans who do!).

Another note on the narrator's rendition of Texan accents: I would wager she likely isn't acquainted with many Central Texans, and likely hasn't ever visited Austin. First, a generalized (and not very adept) southern accent is not really a good approximation of what a Texan sounds like. Also, the mere fact that every single Austin character has a fairly strong southern accent would be highly unlikely, even if they are, presumably, natives. As a lifelong resident, I'd say we have as many watered-down (almost neutral) Texan accents as we have exaggerated drawls. When you think of Texan accents, you may instantly think of Matthew McConaughey or Tommy Lee Jones, but then you also have Steve Martin, and Jim Parsons, and both of the stars of Supernatural, whose voices are far less obviously Texan.

Okay, on to the story itself! I must confess, though the description was promising enough, it was probably the fact that it was set in my hometown that really lured me in. Sadly, having read it, I cannot claim to have been pleasantly surprised, and must, in fact, conclude that its setting (with references to familiar locales), is the best thing about it. Another positive is that some of the characters were fairly endearing--Callum, in particular, with Margot coming it at a close second, which is saying something, considering she is far less prominent a character than some others (namely