Not all of us get our daily dose of romance through physical books or e-reading. Some prefer to stock up on audiobooks, whether it’s for a long drive or designated gym time.
We received an email from Reader Marci, requesting a few great audiobook recommendations or favorite narrators:
Sarah: We did a post awhile back, which has a bunch of recommendations. But I think a new rec post would be helpful, especially for summer road trips.I was wondering if you would consider doing a recommendation post about audiobooks? Are there any that you or your readers love and consider keepers? Any favorite narrators?
I enjoy audiobooks but don’t often re-listen to them. The ones that I have re-listened to are the Harry Potter series narrated by Jim Dale and the Amelia Peabody series narrated by Barbara Rosenblat. I’ve got some Audible credits to use and was looking for some new suggestions.
I want to make sure to mention the Nalini Singh Psy-Changeling series, which is terrific on audio, as is Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison, which I listened to on a road trip.
Lorelei King does a superb job with the Charley Davidson series by Darynda Jones, beginning with First Grave on the Right ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ). And I know Ilona Andrews’ narrator, Renee Raudman, has many fans (myself included – you can hear our podcast interviews with her here, in episode 68 and in episodes 101 and 102). She narrates the Kate Daniels series, beginning with Magic Bites.
I also have Rosamund Pike reading Pride and Prejudice because I couldn’t spend that Audible credit quickly enough after listening to the sample. Her narration is wonderful.
But I know you have suggestions – many many suggestions. What are your favorites? Are there any audiobooks you just loved? Who are some of your favorite narrators?
Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard.
It is BANANAS and I loved every minute. It was the most exciting book I’ve ever listened to.
Coming in a very close 2nd is The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne. So swoon worthy. And the narraror’s effortless switch between accents and languages = me jealous
Loretta Chase romances read by Kate Reading,especially Mr. Impossible.
The St. Cyr mysteries read by Davina Porter are really good.
I prefer Nalini Singh’s Archangel series over the Psy/Changling and I second Thea Harrison’s Dragon Bound and all the other audios in the Elder series. Oracle Moon is my favourite, the narrator Sophie Eastlake is fantastic!
I also love most of Georgette Heyer’s audio books: Frederica, Venetia, The Nonesuch and The Grand Sophy all have excellent narrators.
My go-to audiobooks are the Troubleshooters Series by Suzanne Brockmann. All of her books are great but the ones read by Renee Raudman and Patrick Lawler are awesomely entertaining. Suzanne Brockmann even mentions she likes Patrick’s voice so much, she actually wrote singing as a character trait of one of her heroes to include in the audiobooks. Pretty cool.
I’d recommend Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, narrated by Davina Porter. Just be sure not to accidentally get the unabridged version instead. The Outlander series is what got me started on Audible in the first place.
Other favorite narrators: Orlagh Cassidy, Carrington MacDuffie – although the books I’ve listened to by them are more in the chick lit/women’s fiction style, not necessarily romance.
Also, for those of you without na Audible subscription, you can usually pick up the audio version for only a couple dollars if you already have the Kindle version.
Richard Armitage reading Georgette Heyer – even though they are abridged I don’t mind because… well, Richard Armitage!
SBTB previously recommended Lucy Parker’s “Act like it” which has just come out on audiobook (read by Billie Fulford-Brown) and is fantastic.
Rachel Aaron’s Dragon series read by Vikas Adam is shaping up nicely.
Jody Taylor’s Chronicles of St Mary’s time traveling series narrated by Zara Ramm are quite entertaining.
If the original reader liked Amelia Peabody as a heroine then they might like Marie Brennan’s Lady Trent series narrated by Kate Reading.
Flowers From the Storm by Laura Kinsale, narrated by Nicholas Boulton. Sheer perfection! Caveat: you’ll want to listen to the rest of her backlist narrated by Mr. Boulton.
Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase, narrated by Kate Reading. Same as above
Pamela Clare’s audiobooks narrated by Kaleo Griffith
Beautiful Player by Christina Lauren. Sebastian York has one of the sexiest voices ever.
Thea Harrison’s Dragon Bound narrated by Sophie Eastlake.
Shelley laurenston in audio is hilarious.
Enjoy!
I listen to a lot of audiobooks during my drive to work, but I tend to go with suspense novels – they keep me engaged during the drive.
It’s not a “romance” per se, but I love Grover Gardner as narrator of Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga, especially “A Civil Campaign”.
Rosalyn Landor has narrated quite a few romance audiobooks. She has a great voice and I usually enjoy books I listen to with her. John Lee might be one of my favorite narrators, but he hasn’t done many romances (that I’ve noticed). He has done two of my favorite books, “Shades of Gray: the Road to High Saffron” and “The City and the City”, if you’re looking for something completely different.
Where to start…
I enjoy listening to the St Cyr Mysteries by C.S. Harris, and Thea Harrison’s Dragon Bound series. If you like urban fantasy, I recommend the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire, which are narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal, who also narrates her own series, the Glamourists Histories.
My list of recommended series includes the J.D Robb In Death series narrated by Susan Ericksen, and Elizabeth Hoyts’ Maiden Lane series, and Jennifer Ashley’s McKenzie Family series.
If you are looking for some humour, Molly Harper’s Naked Werewolf series or Half Moon Hollow Series (Vampires) both narrated by Amanda Ronconi
Patricia Brigg’s Mercy Thompson series narrated by Lorelei King is great, although it’s not technically a romance (although there is a slow romance arc in the series).
I second the recommendations for the Outlander books (Davina Porter is wonderful), and anything read by Nicholas Boulton. The Kresley Cole Immortals After Dark series is also well done. In non-romance, Shogun is really good, as is Bill Bryson’s A Short Histroy of Nearly Everything.
Not romance, but the Temeraire series read by Simon Vance is really great.
Audiobooks and odd genre classification on Audible is what helped me accidentally trip my way into romance!
Susan Elizabeth’s older books are done by Anna Fields. Anna Fields was an amazing narrator and I love the Chicago Stars books basically because of her.
Rosalyn Landor does a lot of historicals and she is a rockstar. I’ve listened to her do Julia Quinn, Sarah MacLean, Courtney Milan, and Eloisa James. My favorite of hers is What Happens in London by Julia Quinn. She jumps from British to French to Russian accents seamlessly.
Thirding all the Nicholas Boulton recommendations. He is STELLAR.
Jim Dale also reads “The Night Circus” and I cannot recommend it highly enough. I probably listen to it 3-4 times a year and it’s just utterly perfect.
I also adored Jenny Sterlin’s narration of “Sorcerer to the Crown”. She gets Prunella and Zacharias just right.
Kate Reading narrates the Pink Carnation series and they are fantastic. Kristen Potter does a fantastic job with Joanna Bourne’s Spymasters series, and I really like Renee Raudman’s narration of Ilona Andrews’ Edge series (haven’t started on the Kate Daniels series yet).
I’ll second the “Beautiful” series by Christina Lauren, read by Sebastian York. It is super hot.
A fantasy with romantic elements: “Uprooted” by Naomi Novik, was the best audiobook I listened to last year. It read like a YA novel, but had adult themes, and was so beautifully narrated in a Russian accent, it underlined the fairytale ambiance of the book.
@Amy Renee:
I think you meant to warn buyers not to accidentally get the abridged version? 🙂 Anyway, I third or fourth the recommendation of Outlander with Davina Porter narrating. There’s also a blog which covers this topic, but I’ll have to find the url.
And Google searching reveals that it’s the All About Romance Blog which has a category all on Audio books. http://www.likesbooks.com/blog/?cat=174
And I haven’t actually listened to these, but based on the fact that everyone here is recommending performances by Kate Redding and that I enjoyed these books in the past, I feel comfortable recommending the Wilderness Series by Sara Donati. These are very much in the historical fiction with romantic elements category and take place in New York when it was the frontier. These are often positioned as the next step for fans of Outlander, especially because of the mentiones of Claire and Jamie approved by Gabaldon, but I think these stand on there own.
I hoard audiobooks, mostly purchased during Audible sales/Whispersync deals, yet I have a really hard time focusing on them! One notable exception is The Witness by Nora Roberts narrated by Julia Whelan. The narration sucked me right in to the story. I think she’s narrated other NR romatic suspense novels.
Any of Georgette Heyer’s read by: Phyllida Nash, Caroline Hunt, Richard Armitage, or Daniel Philpott. Cornelius Garrett I also like, but he may be more of an acquired taste for some. Daniel Hill (who thankfully reads only one: The Toll Gate) is awful.
Carole Boyd is also excellent. Sadly, her version of Nightingale Wood (by Stella Gibbons, same author as Cold Comfort Farm) is no longer on Audible. But she reads many others, including South Riding and the Josephine Tey mystery (which has strong romantic elements) Brat Farrar.
I second the recommendation of Kate Reading.
The incredible actress Juliet Stephenson reads at least some of Jane Austen’s works (she may have done all). She’s a wonderful reader.
My favourites have all been mentioned except for the Beautiful and Wild Seasons series by Christina Lauren, narrated by a great combination of voices including Grace Grant, Sebastian York, Jonathan Cole and Deacon Lee.
Rosalyn Landor is a good narrator of many romances. Kate Reading is enjoyable as well.
The narrator for Courtney Milan’s ‘Unraveled’ is excruciatingly awful, however. Good book but the narrator was so awful That I returned the audio book and simply read the book.
Audiobooks that I enjoyed: Elizabeth Hoyte’s ‘The Leopard Prince’, Elizabeth Hoyte’s ‘To Beguile a Beast’, Lisa Kleypas’ ‘Secrets of a Summer Night’, Maya Banks’ ‘Never Seduce a Scot’, and Lori Brighton’s ‘To Please a Lady’
Lord of Scoundrels read by Kate Reading is hands down the best audiobook I’ve listened to. I had been reading that book for several years before the audio came out, and the narration actually adds to the story.
I really enjoy the narration for Briggs’s Mercy Thompson (as mentioned above), and also her Alpha and Omega series. I believe she also has a high fantasy book series, which is not my thing, but I tried because they’re narrated by Joe Mangianello.
other favorites: Kristen Ashley’s books (each series has its own narrator, I don’t think there has been one I couldn’t listen to), The Marked Men series (dual narration, two narrators!), Jennifer Armentrout’s Wait for You series (again, two narrators).
I have to strongly disagree with the person who recommended Uprooted as an audio, unless it was re-released. I have tried listening to it myself, and know a few others who have tried, but it was almost painful for me to listen to because it was difficult to understand. The book itself seemed great, but I couldn’t put up with the narration.
And while I’m mentioning narrators I don’t enjoy, Emily Durante, who unfortunately did several of Nora’s books and has a baby voice. *shudders*
I’m just getting into audiobooks and I have to say that the narrator’s voice is really important. I couldn’t get through Brooklyn because the narrator’s voice just wasn’t doing it for me. I had a similar problem with The Other Daughter.
I loved the narrator for the Magic Ex Libris books by Jim C. Hines, although I wasn’t crazy about the ending of the first book.
I’m in the middle of listening to Julie James’s Something About You and the narrator does a great job with that one.
Last, I enjoyed listening to The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig. I’ve only listened to that Pink Carnation book, but I imagine the narrator is the same for all of those.
I LOVE ROMANCE AUDIOBOOKS! I think I listen to about 120 a year. Goodness that sounds like a lot. Anyway, here are some recs…
Love by the Numbers Series by Sarah MacLean
The Hathaways Series by Lisa Kleypas
The Maiden Lane Series by Elizabeth Hoyt
The MacKenzies and MacBrides Series by Jennifer Ashley
The Survivors Club Series by Mary Balogh
The Hard Ink Series by Laura Kaye
Anything by Laura Kinsale
Hard Rock and Mister O by Lauren Blakely
My favorite narrators are…
Mary Jane Wells
Rosalyn Landor
Ashford Mc/MacNab (she spells it both ways)
Carmen Rose
Sebastian York
Nicholas Boulton
I agree that the narrator can make a big difference in listening to an audio book. James Marsters (he is the actor who played Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) narrates most of the Dresden files books by Jim Butcher. I know that these aren’t romance books, but he makes it easy to listen.
I second the recs for Anna Field’s narration of the older SEP books and the Richard Armitage narration of some of the Georgette Heyer books (even though they are abridged).
Thank you for this post! In addition to reading, I listen to audiobooks almost every day, but I mostly listen to UF/SFF, with the rare romance thrown in. I’m going to take meticulous notes on everyone’s reccies here.
This week, I did, however, listen to Josh Lanyon’s Somebody Killed His Editor, the first book in the Holmes & Moriarity m/m romance/mystery series, and it was very good. I’d read the book some time back, and I think I prefer the audio version. The narrator made the main character sound less whiny and more self-deprecating and humorous. I’ve got the next book queued up for after I spend the weekend listening to Simon Vance narrate the final Temeraire book. Sigh.
Loving this post! I discovered audiobooks as a way to feed my romance and knitting addictions at the same time and now I always have one on the go. I love Karen White as a narrator, she does all of Julie James’ books and some of Kristan Higgins, as well. Also an ensemble cast does One Plus One by Jojo Moyes and it was awesome!
The Lady Julia series by Deanna Rayborn is excellent as well as Tasha Aelxander’s Lady Emily – both are mystery with some romance. Alex Wyndham narrates Lucinda Brant’s Alec Halsey and Roxton Family series and is amazing – on par with Nicholas Boulton.
I love listening to the audiobooks for Shelly Laurenston/GA Aiken – they are laugh out loud funny. Also really enjoyed The Bollywood Affair’ and the j.D. Robb series. Also if you like History – strongly recommend any of David McCullough’s books. His books are interesting and personal. Loved the history of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal the best.
Finally, I always recommend World War Z – great audiobook and read. The movie was horrible and about the only thing it had in common was the title nothing else is the same (seriously – only the title was the same). Listen to the book and think about the Ebola outbreak last year and how governments reacted and he nailed it. Max Brroks wrote the book thinking about epidemics, how it spreads, government and human reactions and adapted it with zombies. Heard him speak at a military event – explaining how he was inspired – it was fascinating looking at it from a political and human aspect.
Oops – misspelled author name – it’s Max Brooks.
I listen to audiobooks on my commute to and from work and so I loooove these recs.
The narrator is so important. A bad one can make even the best book intolerable.
I need to recommend the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. Not romance at all……….but the best narration ever by Jayne Entwhistle.
I strongly recommend Tom Hiddleston’s reading of The Red Necklace. More of a YA romance, I guess. Don’t really know or care. I’m about five hours into it and I really can’t say for certain what’s happening because my ears are in a constant state of eargasms (especially when using headphones) 🙂
I will listen to anything Sebastian York is reading. He has the sexiest voice. He has read several books by Kate Evans. One of my favorite audiobooks is Vanilla on Top. The narration is really good as well as the story. That book is funny and hot a combination I love, but is sometimes hard to find. You know it’s good when your kids tell you you’re laughing too loud.
You are killing me with this post! I’m bookmarking and reviewing! I read every comment before suggesting the Night Huntress Series by Jeaniene Frost. I’m not certain these are strictly romance, but since people mentioned the Mercy Thompson series and the Kate Daniels series, they fit! All of the Cat & Bones (Night Huntress) books are narrated by Tavia Gilbert. She’s awesome! Jeaniene has more books that are spin-offs of the Night Huntress series (Night Huntress World, I think) about the secondary characters in the orignial books. Tavia Gilbert reads all of those as well.
I can third/fourth? Dragon Bound. That narrator reminds me of Tavia Gilbert, but Tavia is better.
I highly recommend the All Souls Trilogy series, beginning with A Discovery of Witches, written by Deborah Harkness & narrated by Jennifer Ikeda. Ms. Ikeda does a remarkable job with all the characters & accents & really helps bring the books to life.
Noah Michael Levine is a fantastic narrator! He did the audio version of my Regency romance, THE WEAVER TAKES A WIFE, and even did Ethan Brundy’s (the titular Weaver’s) Cockney accent. One chapter had twelve(!) speaking parts (I know; I counted them), and every one of them has a different voice. What an amazing talent!
That will teach me to check my spelling. I meant Kate Reading of course. Lol. 🙂 My recommendation in comment 17 still stands though.
Reading these posts really makes me want to try audiobooks again. As a little kid, my favorite thing was being read to, but once I learned to read, nope, nope, nope. However, I have to say that I love Jill Conner Browne’s Sweet Potato Queens books on audio, read by Jill her ownself.
Since everyone’s taste varies widely between favorite narrators and book suggestions, I’ll suggest something that may prove helpful. Look into Audie Award Finalists Audiobooks. The Audio Publishers Association honors distinction in audiobook and spoken-word entertainment with the Audies, the only awards program in the United States devoted solely to the audio format.This way you can look into a specific genre, category or narrator style (female vs male or full cast vs single narrator) to help with finding the perfect audiobook for you. Use audible.com to listen to a brief sample before purchasing.
2015 Past Winners: http://www.booklistreader.com/2015/05/29/book-awards/2015-audie-award-winners-announced/
2016 Finalists: http://www.booklistreader.com/2016/02/09/audiobooks/the-years-best-audiobooks-2016-audie-award-finalists/