Any long-term listener of audiobooks will almost certainly have lists of narrators; those who are outstanding, those who are dreadful and those who fall between the two. The lists at either end of the spectrum are probably fairly short – I know mine are – and being able to add a name to the list of “narrators I would listen to if they read the phone book” doesn’t happen often. But that’s exactly what I did when I listened to Simone St. James’ Silence for the Dead a couple of years back. Mary Jane Wells gave a stupendous performance in that audiobook; differentiation, expression and nuance, pacing – all were spot on – and so naturally, I immediately went to Audible, set on an MJW glom. Unfortunately, she hadn’t recorded all that many romance audiobooks at that time, but now that list is steadily growing and you can bet I was jumping for joy when I saw her name attached to Lisa Kleypas’ new Ravenels series – her work in Cold Hearted Rake and Marrying Winterborne earned A grades for narration. In fact, all her performances have been rated highly – if you haven’t listened to her yet, then you’re missing out.
Caz
Here’s a list of all the audiobooks we’ve reviewed at AudioGals featuring Mary Jane Wells.
Knockout by Sarah MacLean
October 11, 2023
Narration: AStory: AReviewer: KaetrinPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells I enjoyed last year’s Heartbreaker so much that I was eager to listen to Knockout, the third book in the Hell’s Belles series (and I have Bombshell, book one on my TBL). That they are all narrated by Mary Jane Wells, a favourite narrator of historical romance, only made me more ...
Read moreHis Duchess by Lucinda Brant
April 5, 2023
Narration: AStory: BReviewer: CarriePublisher: Sprigleaf Pty Ltd
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells His Duchess is the second book in the Roxton Foundation series and takes place approximately nine months after the close of Noble Satyr. The three novellas in this set are vignettes into the domestic lives of Antonia and Renard, Duke and Duchess of Roxton, from their marriage to the time of ...
Read moreNoble Satyr by Lucinda Brant
March 14, 2023
Narration: AStory: A+Reviewer: CarriePublisher: Figleaf Pty Ltd
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells Note: New Recording Lucinda Brant’s Noble Satyr tells the May/December romance of Renard, the Duke of Roxton, and Antonia Moran. This new audio edition has been re-edited and has a new narrator, Mary Jane Wells, and serves as book one of the new Roxton Foundation series. This new series of novellas, which ...
Read moreDevil in Disguise by Lisa Kleypas
September 14, 2021
Narration: B+Story: BReviewer: KaetrinPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells This time of year always brings the happy arrival of a new Lisa Kleypas book to enjoy. It generally causes a bit of a scuffle among AudioGals reviewers as to who gets it – this year I was the lucky one. (There may have been a few elbows thrown.) Devil in ...
Read moreChasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas
February 18, 2020
Narration: AStory: B+Reviewer: KaetrinPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells I have so enjoyed The Ravenels series, so it is with a mixture of excitement and some sadness that I queued up Chasing Cassandra – because another book! But also because it is the last one. ☹ I had high hopes for Tom Severin and Lady Cassandra Ravenel’s story but did not ...
Read moreThe Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare
August 20, 2019
Narration: AStory: BReviewer: KaetrinPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells I have loved the two earlier books in the Girl Meets Duke series – The Duchess Deal and The Governess Game so I was excited to listen to The Wallflower Wager which is about Lady Penelope Campion, the vegetarian spinster who takes in unwanted animals and has a reputation for being… ...
Read moreDevil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas
March 5, 2019
Narration: BStory: A-Reviewer: KaetrinPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells I have a confession. I have had a book crush on West Ravenel from the very first time I met him in Cold-Hearted Rake. So I was so excited to finally listen to his book, Devil’s Daughter. Sure, it’s called “Devil’s Daughter” and not “West gets his HEA” but it means ...
Read moreThe Duke That I Marry by Cathy Maxwell
February 4, 2019
Narration: B+Story: CReviewer: CazPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells The Duke That I Marry is the final book in Cathy Maxwell’s trilogy of Spinster Heiresses novels, which features a group of three friends, all of them with massive dowries. In the first book, we were introduced to Leonie, Cassandra and Willa as they passed the time at all the various ...
Read moreThe Governess Game by Tessa Dare
October 17, 2018
Narration: AStory: B-Reviewer: CazPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells If you’re a fan of historical romances, then you’ll know pretty much what you’re going to get from a novel by Tessa Dare. Something mostly frothy and fluffy (with maybe just a little bit of darkness), plenty of humour and flirty banter, and well-written naughtiness. What you won’t get is a ...
Read moreA Match Made in Bed by Cathy Maxwell
August 29, 2018
Narration: AStory: B-Reviewer: CazPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells In A Match Made in Bed, the second instalment of Cathy Maxwell’s Spinster Heiresses series, attention turns to Miss Cassandra Holwell, the tall, bookish daughter of a rather bombastic MP. Like her two friends – heroines of the other books in the series – Cass has been ‘out’ for several seasons ...
Read moreHello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas
March 6, 2018
Narration: B+Story: B-Reviewer: KaetrinPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells One of my favourite characters from the Ravenels series has been Dr. Garrett Gibson. She’s loosely based on the actual first female doctor in Britain, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. In Hello Stranger, the fictional Garrett gets her HEA with Ethan Ransom, a detective in the Metropolitan Police who has a not-so-secret connection ...
Read moreIf Ever I Should Love You by Cathy Maxwell
January 29, 2018
Narration: A-Story: BReviewer: CazPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells Given my disappointment with Cathy Maxwell’s last series (Marrying the Duke), I wasn’t sure I was going to read or listen to any of her new Spinster Heiresses novels, but Mary Jane Wells’ name on the cover meant that I couldn’t resist picking up book one for review. If Ever I ...
Read moreLast Christmas in Paris: A Novel of World War I by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
November 20, 2017
Narration: A+Story: B+Reviewer: CazPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Alex Wyndham, Billie Fulford-Brown, Morag Sims, Gary Furlong, Derek Perkins, Greg Wagland, Antony Ferguson, Jane Copland and Mary Jane Wells Last Christmas in Paris is a beautifully written, superbly narrated epistolary novel which centres around the correspondence exchanged between three friends during the years of the First World War. I suspect the degree to ...
Read moreThe Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare
September 14, 2017
Narration: A-Story: BReviewer: CazPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells Tessa Dare’s The Duchess Deal is the first book in her new Girl Meets Duke series, and – oh, joy! – it’s narrated by Mary Jane Wells. Her ability to bring out the humour in the texts she narrates combines very well with Ms. Dare’s ability to put the humour there ...
Read moreDevil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas
March 2, 2017
Narration: AStory: B+Reviewer: CazPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells I think it’s fair to say that Devil in Spring is the most highly anticipated historical romance of 2017. I know that I – along with practically every other fan of the author and the genre – was excited at the prospect of meeting Lord St. Vincent mark II in the ...
Read moreFour Weddings and a Sixpence by Julia Quinn, Laura Lee Guhrke, Elizabeth Boyle, Stefanie Sloane
February 2, 2017
Narration: A-Story: Something New – C- / Something Borrowed – C+ / Something Blue – B+ /And a sixpence – B – Overall content grade: B-Reviewer: CazPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells I’m not a big fan of anthologies or novellas in general, because I find there are few authors who really understand how to use the shorter form to greatest effect, and I most often come away from them feeling a bit disappointed. And anthologies tend to be uneven; there will usually ...
Read moreA Date at the Altar by Cathy Maxwell
December 15, 2016
Narration: A-Story: B-Reviewer: CazPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells It’s no secret that I’ve been rather disappointed with the previous books in Cathy Maxwell’s Marrying the Duke series; my reviews of The Match of the Century and The Fairest of Them All have praised the performances given by Mary Jane Wells, but the stories themselves have been lacklustre. Part of ...
Read moreThe Fairest of Them All by Cathy Maxwell
July 18, 2016
Narration: AStory: C-Reviewer: CazPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells I’m going to confess upfront that the only reason I chose to listen to this second book in Cathy Maxwell’s Marrying the Duke series, The Fairest of Them All, is because Mary Jane Wells is the narrator. I was singularly underwhelmed by the first book, The Match of the Century, which ...
Read moreMarrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas
June 9, 2016
Narration: AStory: B+Reviewer: KaetrinPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells I had my first Lisa Kleypas historical success last year with Cold-Hearted Rake. Admittedly, it was from a very small sample – I had only tried two other historicals by Kleypas before then but had been underwhelmed by them. It was also my first experience of listening to Mary Jane Wells’ ...
Read moreMust Love Breeches by Angela Quarles
May 14, 2016
Narration: AStory: C+Reviewer: MelindaPublisher: Unsealed Room Press
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells Although I enjoy the occasional time travel novel, I chose to review Must Love Breeches on the strength of the narrator, who has become a favorite for narrating historical romance here at AudioGals. An American in contemporary London, Isabelle Rochon is attending a historical reenactment ball when she is whisked back ...
Read moreThe Match of the Century by Cathy Maxwell
December 28, 2015
Narration: A-Story: C+Reviewer: CazPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells Elin Morris has been betrothed to Gavin Whitridge, Duke of Baynton for as long as she can remember, the match engineered by both sets of parents when they were little more than children, and viewed by society as The Match of the Century, an alliance of great wealth on both sides. ...
Read moreCold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas
December 2, 2015
Narration: AStory: BReviewer: KaetrinPublisher: Harper Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells I have a confession to make. While I have loved some of Lisa Kleypas’ contemporary novels (Blue Eyed Devil is one of my favourite books), I’ve had no success with her historicals. Admittedly, until Cold-Hearted Rake, I’d only tried two – but I hated the first one with the passion of ...
Read moreInterview with Narrator Mary Jane Wells
December 2, 2015
Over the past year or so, I’ve listened to a number of recordings by Mary Jane Wells, and she has very quickly become one of my “go-to” narrators. The first time I listened to her was in Simone St. James’ Silence for the Dead and I was seriously impressed by her vocal characterisations and ...
Read moreThe Highlander’s Bride by Amanda Forester
October 14, 2015
Narration: A-Story: C+Reviewer: CazPublisher: Dreamscape Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells I don’t have a very good track-record with Highlander Romances. I haven’t read or listened to a great many, it’s true, but those I have read have tended to have identical plotlines (boy-meets-girl-from-opposing-clan, boy-and-girl-hate-each-other, boy-and-girl-fall-in-luurve – that sort of thing), so I’ve been wary about choosing review titles with the word ...
Read moreThe Groom Says Yes by Cathy Maxwell
September 1, 2015
Narration: AStory: C+Reviewer: Caz
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells This is the final book in Cathy Maxwell’s Brides of Wishmore trilogy, but I don’t think it’s necessary to have listened to the previous books in order to understand or enjoy this one. The Groom Says Yes boasts a fairly straightforward story with an added touch of mystery concerning the threat ...
Read moreHis Wicked Reputation by Madeline Hunter
August 18, 2015
Narration: A-Story: B+Reviewer: CazPublisher: Blackstone Audio
Read moreThe Other Side of Midnight by Simone St. James
June 8, 2015
Narration: AStory: APublisher: Blackstone Audio
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells Simone St. James’ fourth novel, The Other Side of Midnight, is an absolutely superb listen all round. The story is fascinating, beautifully-written and well-plotted with a twist I didn’t see coming; and paired with a wonderfully engaging and superbly acted performance from Mary Jane Wells, I was in audio heaven for ...
Read moreDevil’s Lady by Patricia Rice
February 6, 2015
Narration: A-Story: BReviewer: CazPublisher: Audible, Inc
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells Mary Jane Wells is a narrator relatively new to the world of historical romance, but she has already earned herself a place on my “narrators to trust” shelf. Her performance in Simone St. James’ recent Silence for the Dead was terrific, and I enjoyed listening to her in Sarah MacLean’s Ten ...
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I couldn’t agree more, Caz. Mary Jane Wells has become one of my top ten narrators. The narration in Lisa Kleypas’ books is brilliant. I will follow your advice and listen to The Other Side of Midnight, the Madeleine Hunter’s and Devil’s Lady. Off I go to spend my Audible credits.
Enjoy! It’s such a shame Blackstone didn’t keep using her for the other books in the Hunter series (and that they switched to Justine Eyre for the most recent Simone St. James book). I really don’t understand why publishers do that, when they have a really great narrator on board.
I haven’t reviewed it here, but she’s good in Sarah MacLean’s Ten Ways to be Adored…
Simone st. James is one of my favourite authors. Once you start on the otherside of midnight you’ll want to read the others! Too bad MJW doesn’t narrate all her books :(
Totally agree. I just finished listening to Marrying Winterbourne, and so was so good that I listened again. She makes Winterbourne sound so sexy that I don’t believe Alex Wyndham or Nicholas Boulton could have done it better. As an American, I wouldn’t know whether her Welsh accent was accurate, but I loved it! I hope she keeps doing Kleypas’s series. Definitely ranks up there with Landor and Reading!
I’ve just finished listening to an audio that had many characters with Scottish/Irish accents and I couldn’t help sitting here thinking “If only they’d got MJW to do this one…”
What would be wonderful for the next Kleypas would be for them to get Roz Landor in to read the prologue… won’t happen, but it’s a lovely idea :)
She is one of my favourite romance narrators along with Kate Reading.
She makes the men sound very cool and suave with deep voices that aren’t cheesy in the least. And for a romance novel it’s perfect.
I really wish they’d ditch Ashford McNab (sorry if you like her!) because I feel like I can’t listen to a great deal of books because of her and Rosalyn Landor who just aren’t my cup of tea.
..doesn’t mean I won’t read them though!
I don’t dislike Ashford MacNab, but her performances are very ‘samey’ and she’s not in the same league as MJW. Rosalyn Landor, however, I’d listen to reading the phone book, so well have to agree to differ, there :)
Oh absolutely!
I feel the same way about Kate Reading and I’ve read some people don’t like her either.
I love variety of different narrators so people can get a real feel of audio books and find out who’s voices they like, and who maybe they take a pass on.
Love, love, love Mary Jane Wells! She has perfect timing and understands the nuances of sarcasm and witty phrasing!! I now listen to books because of her and wish some of my favorite authors would have her re read their books! I hope Lisa Kleypas keeps her for her future projects!