Maria Grace has 18 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 8 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.9★ across 16 ratings. The most-rated is Mistaking Her Character.
Mistaking Her Character
Summary
Lady Catherine de Bourgh is prepared to be very generous when it comes to medical care for her sickly daughter, Anne - generous enough to lure noted physician Dr. Thomas Bennet to give up his London practice and move his family to Rosings Park. But his good income comes with a price: complete dependence on his demanding patroness’s every whim. Now the Bennet family is trapped, reliant on Lady Catherine for their survival. Their patroness controls every aspect of the Bennet household, from the shelves in the closet to the selection of suitors for the five Bennet daughters. Now she has chosen a husband for headstrong Elizabeth Bennet - Mr. George Wickham. But Lady Catherine’s nephew, Fitzwilliam Darcy, is not so sure about his aunt’s choice. He is fascinated by the compassionate Elizabeth who seems to effortlessly understand everyone around her, including him. Lady Catherine has other plans for Darcy, though, and she forbids Elizabeth to even speak to him. As Anne’s health takes a turn for the worse, Darcy and Elizabeth are thrown together as Dr. Bennet struggles to save Anne’s life. Darcy can no longer deny the truth - he is in love with Elizabeth Bennet. But Lady Catherine will do anything to stop Darcy from marrying her - even if it means Elizabeth will lose everything she loves.
©2015 Maria Grace (P)2019 Maria Grace
Longbourn: Dragon Entail (A Pride and Prejudice Variation)
Summary
Darcy thought his problems were over when Pemberley hatched and successfully imprinted on humans. But baby dragons prove far more difficult than any dragon lore prepared him for. Only Elizabeth Bennet's notes offer him any help. When his imperious Aunt Catherine takes matters into her own hands, things take a turn for the worse and Pemberley’s life hangs in the balance. He desperately needs more of Elizabeth’s help, but she ignores all of his requests. Elizabeth, though, has problems of her own. After the Bennet family dragon sent Pemberley away, life at Longbourn was supposed to return to normal and Elizabeth get on with the all-important business of marrying the heir to her father’s estate. Except that he is the last man in the world whom she could ever be prevailed on to marry - a bumbling, addle-pated dragon-hater who demands she gives up the dragons she lives for. Can she, with the help of her dragon friends, find her way back to Pemberley before they both suffer their fate from the Dragon Entail? Jane Austen meets Anne McCaffrey's Dragon Riders of Pern. A must-listen for Pern fans.
©2017 Maria Grace (P)2019 Maria Grace
The Trouble to Check Her
Summary
Lydia's last chance. Will she improve when someone takes the trouble to check her? Running off with Mr. Wickham was a great joke - until everything turned arsey-varsey. That spoilsport Mr. Darcy caught them and packed Lydia off to a hideous boarding school for girls who had lost their virtue. It would improve her character, he said. Ridiculous, she said. Mrs. Drummond, the school’s headmistress, has shocking expectations for the girls. They must share rooms, do chores, attend lessons, and engage in charitable work, no matter how well born they might be. She even forces them to wear mobcaps! Refusal could lead to finding themselves at the receiving end of Mrs. Drummond's cane - if they were lucky. The unlucky ones could be dismissed and found a position...as a menial servant. Everything and everyone at the school is uniformly horrid. Lydia hates them all, except possibly the music master, Mr. Amberson, who seems to have the oddest ideas about her. He might just understand her better than she understands herself. Can she find a way to live up to his strange expectations, or will she spend the rest of her life as a scullery maid?
©2016 Maria Grace (P)2020 Maria Grace
All the Appearance of Goodness
Summary
What is a young woman to do? One handsome young man has all the goodness, while the other the appearance of it. How is she to separate the gentleman from the cad? When Darcy joins his friend, Bingley, on a trip to Meryton, the last thing on his mind is finding a wife. Meeting Elizabeth Bennet changes all that, but a rival for his affections appears from a most unlikely quarter. He must overcome his naturally reticent disposition if he is to have a chance of winning her favor. Elizabeth's thoughts turn to love and marriage after her sister, Mary's, engagement. In a few short weeks she goes from knowing no eligible young men, to being courted by two. Both are handsome gentleman, but one conceals secrets and the other conceals his regard. Will she determine which is which before she commits to the wrong one?
©2013 Maria Grace (P)2014 Maria Grace
Snowbound at Hartfield: A Sweet Tea Novella - Pride and Prejudice Sequel
Summary
Colonel Fitzwilliam should have been happy facing retirement. No more Napoleon, no more tromping the Continent, and his distant cousin had unexpectedly left him an estate. What was more, two of his favorite people, Darcy and Elizabeth, were travelling with him to visit his new home. But the colonel wasn’t happy, not when he was forced to watch Darcy exchanging enamored glances with his wife. No, he wanted to pitch his cousin out the window. It didn’t help when Darcy kept lecturing him on the joys of wedded life - as if women like Elizabeth Darcy grew on every tree. Then the snow started. Now they were stranded at the home of George and Emma Knightley, another intolerable, blissfully wedded couple who wanted nothing more than to see his bachelor days come to an end. Thank heavens they never thought of matching him with the proud spinster who had also been caught in the storm. That would have been utterly intolerable. Or would it? A Jane Austen-inspired sweet Regency romance.
©2017 Maria Grace (P)2019 Maria Grace
Twelfth Night at Longbourn
Summary
Twelfth Night - a night for wondrous things to happen. At least for other people. In the months after her sisters' weddings, nothing has gone well for Kitty Bennet. Since Lydia's infamous elopement, her friends have abandoned her, and Longbourn is more prison than home. Not even Elizabeth's new status as Mrs. Darcy of Pemberley can repair the damage to Kitty's reputation. More than anything else, she wishes to leave the plain ordinary Kitty behind and become Catherine Bennet, a proper young lady. Her only ray of hope is an invitation to Pemberley for the holidays. Perhaps there she might escape the effects of her sister's shame. Getting to Pemberley is not as simple as it sounds. First she must navigate the perils of London society, the moods of Georgiana Darcy, and the chance encounter with the man who once broke her heart. Perhaps though, as Catherine, she might prove herself worthy of that gentleman's regard. But, in an instant all her hopes are dashed, and her dreams of becoming Catherine evaporate. Will Kitty Bennet's inner strength be enough to bring her heart's desire? On an ordinary night perhaps not, but on Twelfth Night, it just might be enough.
©2013 Maria Grace (P)2014 Maria Grace
The Future Mrs. Darcy
Summary
The regiment has come to camp in Meryton. Many young ladies are pleased, but not all share their enthusiasm. Among them is Mr. Carver, who decides to remove his family from Meryton's savage society. He puts the blame, not on the militia officers, but on the shoulders of the Bennet family. The flirtations and boisterous ways of the youngest sisters are too much to be borne. Not even Jane’s renowned beauty and charm can make up for them. Elizabeth denies the allegations at first, but rapidly uncovers the shocking truth. The Carvers are not the only family to cut the Bennets from their acquaintance. Their reputations have been materially damaged and soon the family borders on social ruin. The news is too much for Mrs. Bennet, who collapses from the shock. So, Elizabeth and her sisters must manage the estate until she recovers, a task for which none of them is prepared. Their duty becomes even more challenging when Mr. Bennet is called away on business and allows Lydia to stay with the colonel’s wife, surrounded by officers. Warned by Mr. Pierce, the local curate, that several of the officers have unsavory designs on the local girls, Elizabeth must find a way to honor her father, rein in her sister, and salvage the family’s reputation, all in the most ladylike way possible.
©2012 Maria Grace (P)2013 Maria Grace
Darcy's Decision
Summary
Six months after his father's passing, Fitzwilliam Darcy still finds solace in his morning reflections at his parents' graves. Only in the quiet solitude of the churchyard does he indulge his grief. None but his unlikely mentor recognize the heartache and insecurity plaguing him as he shoulders the enormous burden of being Master of Pemberley. Not all are pleased with his choice of adviser. Lady Catherine complains Darcy allows him too much influence. Lord Matlock argues, "Who is he to question the God-appointed social order?" But the compassionate wisdom Darcy finds in his counselor keeps him returning for guidance even though it causes him to doubt everything he has been taught. In the midst of his struggles to reinvent himself, his school chum Charles Bingley arrives. Darcy hopes the visit will offer some respite from the uproar in his life. Instead of relief, Darcy discovers his father's darkest secret staring him in the face. Pushed to his limits, Darcy must overcome the issues that ruined his father and, with his friends and mentor at his side, restore his tarnished birthright.
©2012 Maria Grace (P)2013 Maria Grace
Netherfield: Rogue Dragon: A Pride and Prejudice Variation
Summary
Elizabeth Bennet thought she was prepared to do anything to make the Dragon Conclave accept her beloved young dragon, Pemberley, into the Blue Order, but she had not anticipated it would leave her banished from her ancestral home and betrothed to none other than Mr. Darcy. But before Elizabeth and Darcy wed, they must find a dangerous rogue dragon before it provokes a war amongst the dragons and brings the fragile peace between dragons and mankind to a catastrophic end. Nothing written in the annals of dragon lore has prepared Elizabeth to manage a dragon not governed by the Blue Order. Dragons have always loved her, but this one finds her arrogant, selfish, and insensitive to others. With only her instincts to guide her, she must convince the rogue of her good intentions before the Blue Order loses patience and decides on more drastic measures. Called away to the other side of the kingdom, trying to settle the dragons' unrest, Darcy learns the nature of the force poisoning the rogue dragon against Elizabeth. One nearer and dearer than they could have imagined. Can Elizabeth and Darcy convince with rogue dragon to cooperate before darker forces turn it against them, without destroying the fragile bonds uniting the couple?
©2018 Maria Grace (P)2020 Maria Grace
The Darcys' First Christmas
Summary
Elizabeth anxiously anticipates her new duties as mistress of Pemberley. Darcy is confident of her success, but she cannot bring herself to share his optimism. Unexpected guests unsettle all her plans and offer her the perfect Christmastide gift, shattered confidence. Can she and Darcy overcome their misunderstandings and salvage their first Christmastide together? From the award winning author of Given Good Principles, Remember the Past and Mistaking Her Character, Sweet Tea short stories offer the perfect bite to transport listeners back to the Regency era for the first days of new love.
©2015 Maria Grace (P)2019 Maria Grace
From Admiration to Love
Summary
Sweet, Austen-inspired treats, perfect with a cup of tea. Full of hope and ripe with possibility, Christmastide tales refresh the heart with optimism and anticipation. After the debacle of the previous holiday season, Darcy and Elizabeth joyfully anticipate Christmastide 1813, Georgiana’s come out at Pemberley’s Twelfth Night Ball culminating the season. With months of planning behind the event, even Lady Matlock is satisfied and sends Colonel Fitzwilliam to represent the family, assuring there will be no repeat of the previous Christmastide. On St. Nicholas’, Anne de Bourgh and Lady Catherine arrive on Pemberley’s doorstep - never a good sign - demanding sanctuary against the de Bourghs who (according the Lady Catherine) are trying to retake Rosings Park for their family with plans to seduce and marry Anne. Needless to say, Darcy and Fitzwilliam are skeptical. Not long afterwards, three gentlemen suitors appear at Pemberley, hoping to court Anne and obliging Darcy to offer holiday hospitality. Anne adores the attention whilst Lady Catherine makes her displeasure known, throwing Pemberley into turmoil that threatens the Twelfth Night Ball. Can Darcy and Elizabeth, with a little help from Fitzwilliam, soothe Lady Catherine’s nerves, see Anne to a respectable match, and still salvage Georgiana’s come out? From the award-winning author of Given Good Principles, Remember the Past, and Mistaking Her Character, Sweet Tea short stories offer the perfect bite to transport listeners back to the Regency era for the first days of new love.
©2017 Maria Grace (P)2019 Maria Grace
Pemberley: Mr. Darcy's Dragon: A Pride and Prejudice Variation
Summary
England is overrun by dragons of all shapes and sizes. Most people are blissfully unaware of them and the Pendragon Treaty that keeps the peace between human and dragon kind. Only those born with preternatural hearing, like Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet are able to hear and converse with dragonkind. When the first firedrake egg laid in a century is stolen from Pemberley, the fragile dragon peace teeters on collapse. Darcy has no choice but to chase down the thief, a journey that leads him to quaint market town of Meryton and fellow Dragon Keeper, Elizabeth Bennet. Elizabeth shares a unique bond with dragons, stronger than anything Darcy has ever experienced. More than that, her vast experience and knowledge of dragon lore may be the key to uncovering the lost egg. But Elizabeth can’t stand Darcy’s arrogance and doesn’t trust him to care properly for a precious baby firedrake. After all, he already lost the egg once. What’s to prevent it from happening again? Can he win her trust and recover the stolen egg before it hatches and sends England spiraling back into the Dark Ages of Dragon War? Jane Austen meets Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern. A must-listen for Pern fans.
©2016 Maria Grace (P)2019 Maria Grace
The Attentions of a Most Affectionate Mother: A Pride and Prejudice Sequel
Summary
Mary goes to the library looking for escape, not love. With three daughters married in a single year, one would think that Mrs. Bennet’s matchmaking ploys would diminish. One would be wrong. Very wrong. To avoid her mother’s affectionate arts, Mary takes refuge at Clarke’s library. There, in the reading room, she can forget the trials of Longbourn, lost in the pages of her favorite books. The strategy works - surprisingly well in fact - until the morning a tall, handsome stranger wants the same book she has already checked out - a text she needs to help a friend. Instead of politely waiting until she is finished with it, as a proper gentleman would, he insists she give it up to him immediately. When she rejects his demands - the audacity of it all! - he refuses to take no for answer, and appears on Longbourn’s doorstep. Now Mama has seen him, matchmaking is not far behind. Mary is determined to escape Mama’s machinations at all costs. But, maybe, just maybe, this time Mama is right.
©2018 Maria Grace (P)2019 Maria Grace
A Less Agreeable Man: Pride and Prejudice Variation
Summary
Dull, plain, and practical, Mary Bennet was the girl men always overlooked. Nobody thought she’d garner a second glance, much less a husband. But she did, and now, she’s grateful to be engaged to Mr. Michaels, the steady, even-tempered steward of Rosings Park. By all appearances, they are made for each other, serious, hard-working, and boring. Michaels finds managing Rosings Park relatively straightforward, but he desperately needs a helpmate like Mary, able to manage his employers: the once proud Lady Catherine de Bourgh who is descending into madness and her currently proud nephew and heir Colonel Fitzwilliam, whose extravagant lifestyle has left him ill-equipped for economy and privation. Colonel Fitzwilliam had faced cannon fire and sabers, taken a musket ball to the shoulder and another to the thigh, stood against Napoleon and lived to tell of it, but barking out orders and the point of his sword aren’t helping him save Rosings Park from financial ruin. Something must change quickly if he wants to salvage any of his inheritance. He needs help, but Michaels is tedious and Michaels’ fiancée, the opinionated Mary Bennet, is stubborn and not to be borne. Apparently, quiet was not the same thing as meek, and reserved did not mean mild. The audacity of the woman, lecturing him on how he should manage his barmy aunt! The fact that she is usually right doesn’t help. Miss Bennet gets under his skin, growing worse by the day until he finds it very difficult to remember that she's engaged to another man. Can order be restored to Rosings Park, or will Lady Catherine’s madness ruin them all? Final volume of The Queen of Rosings Park series. Jane Austen-inspired sweet Regency romance.
©2017 Maria Grace (P)2020 Maria Grace
The Dragons of Kellynch
Summary
In order to secure her future, a young lady must marry well. One would think Anne Elliot, a baronet’s daughter, would find the marriage mart far easier to navigate than a more ordinary woman. One would be wrong. After refusing a poor, but otherwise perfect sailor, on the advice of her friend Lady Russell, Anne finds an unhappy choice before her: marry deathly dull Charles Musgrove or hope against hope that another suitable proposal might come her way before she becomes a spinster on the shelf. Anne’s disgracefully independent choice to refuse Charles’ offer turns her world entirely arsey-varsey and not in the expected turned upside down sort of way. She begins to see things...hear things...things like dragons. And once one sees dragons, one talks to them. And when one talks to them, nothing is ever the same again. Must a young lady marry well if she hears dragons? A must-listen gas lamp dragon fantasy! Jane Austen meets Anne McCaffrey with a touch of Harry Potter!
©2020 Maria Grace (P)2020 Maria Grace
A Jane Austen Christmas: Regency Christmas Traditions
Summary
Many Christmas traditions and images of "old fashioned" holidays are based on Victorian celebrations. Going back just a little further, to the beginning of the 19th century, the holiday Jane Austen knew would have looked distinctly odd to modern sensibilities. How odd? Families rarely decorated Christmas trees. Festivities centered on socializing instead of gift-giving. Festivities focused on adults, with children largely consigned to the nursery. Holiday events, including balls, parties, dinners, and even weddings celebrations, started a week before Advent and extended all the way through to Twelfth Night in January. Take a step into history with Maria Grace as she explores the traditions, celebrations, games and foods that made up Christmastide in Jane Austen's era. Packed with information and rich with detail from period authors, Maria Grace transports the listener to a longed-for old fashioned Christmas. Non-fiction
©2014 Maria Grace (P)2019 Maria Grace
Kellynch: Dragon Persuasion
Summary
Keeping a hibernating dragon should have been a simple thing. Should have been, but it was not. Apparently, nothing involving dragons was ever simple, at least not for Anne Elliot, junior keeper to dragon Kellynch. With the estate in debt, Anne’s father in denial, and the dragon’s treasure missing, Kellynch’s awakening is shaping up to be nothing short of catastrophe. Not to mention, there was the pesky matter of her own broken heart and resentment against the old friend who had caused it. Captain Frederick Wentworth had spent his life making something of himself in the navy. With the war that kept him employed at an end and a small fortune in prize money, he found himself beached and at loose ends. What was he to do with himself now - take a wife like Laconia, his dragon friend, insisted? Not when none compared to the woman who had broken his heart. Working as an agent of the Blue Order, managing dragon matters across England, seemed a much better alternative. At least until investigating one such matter sent him directly in the path of Anne Elliot, the woman who had ruined him for all others. Now a royal dragon rages, a sleeping dragon lurks, and too many treasures have gone missing. Can Anne and Wentworth lay aside resentment, pride, and heartbreak to prevent Kellynch’s awakening from ending in bloodshed - or worse? Jane Austen meets Pern in a fantastical regency romp bound to delight fans of Jane Austen and Anne McCaffrey alike. Book six in the Jane Austen's Dragons series.
©2020 Maria Grace (P)2020 Maria Grace
A Proper Introduction to Dragons
Summary
Most people were blissfully unaware that England was overrun by dragons. Only those born with preternatural hearing could hear and converse with dragonkind, and even those rarely came into their hearing before they were fifteen. It was not Elizabeth’s fault that she discovered the truth about dragons when she was only four years-old. It was also not Elizabeth’s fault that the old tatzelwurm, Rumblkins, who lived in the woods near Longbourn House befriended her. Really, he would have attached himself to anyone who fed him dried cod and scratched behind his ears. So clearly, it could not be her fault when Rumblkins led her to a nest of endangered fairy dragon eggs that the Pendragon Treaty compelled her to save. Unfortunately her father does not agree. Thomas Bennet, dragon-lore expert, faithful member of the dragon-hearing society, the Blue Order, and Keeper of the local wyvern, Longbourn, has a dragon-sized problem on his hands. At eleven years-old, his second-oldest daughter is hopelessly fascinated with all things dragon-related. But his wife and other daughters lack the ability to hear dragons, so the world of the Blue Order must remain hidden from them. Now faced with an abandoned clutch of fairy dragon eggs to care for, the careful balance he walks between the needs of his jealous estate dragon, Elizabeth’s incorrigible draw toward dragons and continued secrecy from the rest of the family hangs in jeopardy. If only Elizabeth would be a more conventional child! But how can a girl who shuns traditional ladylike pursuits to play with dragons ever be conventional? Does dragon-hearing society have a place for such an oddity as her? Prequel to Pemberley: Mr. Darcy's Dragon Jane Austen meets Anne McCaffrey - a must for lovers of Dragon Riders of Pern fans.
©2018 Maria Grace (P)2020 Maria Grace