We haven’t had a giveaway in a while, I don’t think. So let’s fix that, shall we?
Up for giveaway, we have three CD copies each of Forever Your Earl and Scandal Takes the Stage by Eva Leigh. They are books one and two, respectively, in The Wicked Quills of London historical romance series, both of which have been reviewed here on SBTB!
Forever Your Earl received an A grade from Redheadedgirl:
The second book, Scandal Takes the Stage, earned an A- grade from Carrie:Zoe Archer has been one of my favorite authors since that one time she basically saved my sanity (even if she was also the indirect cause of one of the worst reading experiences of my life). No matter what, I can always count on her for strong, determined heroines with all sorts of agency, and heroes that also were strong and worthy and respectful of the women that chose them. While I like the adventure romances of Zoe Archer very much, you can all imagine my grabby hands when she announced that she was going to write straight historicals under the name Eva Leigh.
This is the first one of that series, and it was totallllly worth the wait.
Scandal Takes the Stage did not hit me on quite the same emotional level, but my guess is that by the end of the Wicked Quills of London series everyone will have their own favorite book that hits them right in the feels, which is part of what makes romance so fun and so unique as a genre. The characters are engaging, the dialogue (while not as funny as the dialogue in Forever Your Earl), is just as smart, and the love story is compelling. I can’t wait for the next book.
Standard disclaimers apply: We’re not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18. Hopefully, you have some comfortable headphones, though we caution you against wearing them while sleeping, lest you end up in a tangled mess in the morning. Reading and daydreaming encouraged while commuting. Comments will close Friday 11 November 2016, noon EST and the six winners will announced same day.
Ready to enter? Leave a comment and tell us your favorite audiobook experiences! Which books have amazing narrators?
Best of luck!
Update: Here are our lucky winners and thanks to everyone who commented and participated!
I love to listen to audiobooks while doing housework-dishes, laundry, etc. They makes boring chores bearable!
I love Neil Gaiman and listening to him narrating his own books. Ocean at the end of the lane got so intense I had to take a break before I could continue listening to the story.
My mother loved audiobooks which made buying gifts at Christmas a lot easier. She used to take my son on short vacations and introduced hi, to several books which are still favourites of his today on the drive.
I like them when I’m making jewellery or embroidering.
The BBC radio dramas of P.G. Wodehouse’s stories make Jeeves and Wooster come alive for me in a way that they (oddly) often don’t when I read them. They make transatlantic flights much easier to handle!
Listening to it on audiobook was also the only way I managed to get through The Golden Compass; after never managing to finish the book I stayed up into the wee hours cleaning the house to listen to all the cassettes (clearly this was in the age of dinosaurs)!
I love audiobooks for long drives – for a while, one day a week I was driving 6 hours (3 hours each way) through the backwoods of nowhere for work, and a good audiobook would entertain me over two drives. The trick was finding a book that was entertaining enough to keep me engaged, but not so entertaining that it would distract me from my primary job of making sure I didn’t hit any of the moose that tended to wander across the road.
I have very fond memories of the Fairy Tale books by Eloisa James, read by Susan Duerden. She has the perfect voice for these books!
Richard Armitage reading Georgete Heyer’s Sylvester. Sa-woon.
Best audiobook by far? The Cinnamon Bear. Perfect for the upcoming holidays…. Anyone else listened to this one?
I haven’t listened to too many but my favorite so far was Flowers from the Storm. Not sure of the narrator’s name but he was perfect.
I usually listen to nonfiction on audio. Mary Roach has some of the most thought provoking books out there. Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers, totally challenged all my thoughts on death and dying.
I have an hour commute each way to work – not bad by most standards but tedious after a long day at work. I listen to audiobooks almost exclusively during the commute and have enjoyed listening to Davina Porter (Outlander series and St. Cyr series), Susan Ericksen (In Death series), Alexandra Harris (Anne Bishop’s The Others series) and Grover Gardner (David Rosenfelt’s series featuring Andy Carpenter) to name a few.
I also enjoyed Linda Howard’s two books about Blair Mallory (“To Die For” and “Drop Dead Gorgeous”) which had a different narrator for each book. The change in narrators was a bit jarring since the books are written in first person.
I have not tried an audio book, so I can’t really say what they are like
I have so many fond memories of driving between DC & my hometown listening to Agatha Christie mysteries. David Suchet does a lot of the narration, and they are the perfect roadtrip companion– engaging but not too heavy.
I agreed to watch my friend’s dogwhile she went on her honeymoon. I only made it through the two daily walks by listening to the Help. I really enjoyed the fact that they use a different actress for each of the main characters. It gave the book a lot of extra depth. I eagerly watched the movie so I could see my favorite scenes brought to life only to find that they were cut out! The book IS always better.
I usually listen while doing housework (stirring the strawberry jam! 🙂 ) or on my way from work. Since I listen in my native language the list of my fav narrators won’t tell you much, but let me assure you that we have top class audio actors in Poland 🙂
It’s going back a while, but Elizabeth Montgomery (yes, the star of BEWITCHED) read BEAUTY’S PUNISHMENT and BEAUTY’S RELEASE, two of Anne Rice’s erotica series The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty. It’s a shame they’re only on cassette tape…
Can’t do audiobooks, either due to hearing loss or distractibility, but close friends love ’em. Annnnnd Christmas is coming and the goose is pretty skinny.
I listen to audiobooks when I do basically anything. Getting ready for the day, working, cleaning, cooking, driving. I’m to the point that I’ll have books in 3 formats: ebook, paper, and audio. One that really sticks out to me is Justine Eyre’s performance of ‘Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover’. She did the antsy so well.
ahemm… *angst
My favorite audiobook narrator is Barbara Rosenblatt. She narrates the Amelia Peabody Series. She’s fantastic and really brings the characters alive!
I love The Martian. I have listened to it twice already and am thinking of starting it again. People coming together to solve a problem is the cure for what ails us in this election season.
Some of my favourite audios are The Wall of Winnipeg and Me, The Martian and I’m a fan ot Tessa Dare and Lisa Kleypas. Thanks!
The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters narrated by Barbara Rosenblat!!! Wonderful books with a narrator that brings everything to life.
I resisted audiobooks forever. Now, I listen to a book 4 hours a day while I exercise and during my commute. Love them.
The Psy/Changeling series and Immortals After Dark series are my favorites. I just went through a complete re-listen of the Psy/Changeling series and I love to listen to them as much as read them.
Listening to Susan Erickson doing J.D. Robb books and Grover Gardner do Lois McMasters Bujold books
I haven’t really spent much time with audiobooks, but listening to the Librivox version of The Faerie Queene really helped get me through my Ph.D. exam readings.
I’ve always loved listening to radio plays, so the abridged Falco (Roman detective) novels by Lindsey Davis starring Anton Lesser (his voice is to die for) are wonderful. But the first books that hooked me as far as audio are concerned are Garrison Keillor’s Lake Woebegon, narrated by the man himself. Glorious stuff.
I’ll second P.G. Wodehouse, narrated by Martin Jarvis. Anything Jarvis narrates is pretty wonderful, including Dickens and Galsworthy, as well as Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens and children’s books such as Just William (absolutely perfect!), Professor Brainstorm and Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Tales.
My favorite experience was listening to Devil in Winter. It’s one of my favorite romances and the audio made it even better. The narrator was PERFECT.
I discovered that audiobooks made my commute (even though it’s short, it’s traffic-y) feel good. I can feel productive, like when I did a German language course, or entertained, like when I listen to Richard Castle books–because they’re written to be very meta with regard to the TV show Castle, it was basically like watching a fun TV show while I drove, but safely. Now I’m listening to Freakonomics, learning things that are informative but delivered conversationally. It’s been too long since I’ve listened to romance audiobooks, though, and I’d love to listen again, although Rosalyn Landor has spoiled me for any other romance narrator (who IS the narrator, by the way?).
I LOVE the audiobook of Sabriel by Garth Nix. It’s narrated by Tim Curry, who is a damn treasure. I just love the story, the narration, everything.
My favorite was listening to all 5 of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series while driving cross-country with my dog. They were read by Douglas Adams himself, and he was *wonderful*. He did voices for the characters! I found myself having to rewind in order to listen to parts of it again because I missed it from laughing too hard. 🙂
I love The Martian’s audiobook and Anything ready John Lee, but especially Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Gray.
Sissy Spacek reading “To kill a mockingbird”. A beautiful voice telling a story nome of us ever forget.
I love the Harry Potter audiobooks, read by Jim Dale. Wish I could get the Stephen Fry version, though! I listen to audiobooks doing housework, knitting, and before I go to sleep…
Forgetting I had the windows down and volume up at a stoplight during a rather intense moment in Joanna Bourne’s Rogue Spy. That guy on the motorcycle in the next lane is probably still recovering.
As a rule, I only listen to nonfiction. I used to compete in speech forensics, so I’m constantly critiquing the narrator when I listen to prose. Also leading to embarrassing moment in the car when I realized other drivers were watching me excoriate the person who was narrating a Black Dagger Brotherhood book – when I wasn’t laughing out loud.
As to nonfiction? I’d say American On Purpose by Craig Ferguson has been my favorite. Funny and touching.
Because of time constraints, I consume the majority of my reading via audiobooks, and I find that the narrator’s style is always influential. Sometimes I truly have to grit my teeth, and I actually try to visualize the words in front of me while I listen in order to drown out the narrator’s mannerisms. But other times I am completely enthralled. Two in particular I adore: Kirsten Potter reading Joanna Bourne’s books and Steven Crossley reading Mary Jo Putney’s Lost Lord series. They both add so much to the reading experience that I find myself imagining their voices when I’m actually reading the books myself! But out of the romance realm, I agree with other commenters that Jim Dale was phenomenal with the Harry Potter books.
I worked at my college library as a book shelver. We could listen to what every we wanted to well we shelved the books. I listened to many audiobooks, but the one I remeber the most was To Desire a Devil by Elizabeth Hoyte. I had just finished along day of school and had been asked to shelve from 7 to 9 at night. The Library was packed full of students who were studing. I had so far been able to make it through listen to the book without embarcing myself and then we hit the sex sense and OMG I almost bit of my tongue trying to keep a straight face. I listen to the whole sex sense and mangaed to keep a blank face, but I get the feeling that to the rest of the students who happened to look up and see me I must have looked like a zombie or like I was being torurted. It is one of the best memories I have and has not detured me from listening to romance audiobooks. Keep Calm and LIsten On!!!
I got to listen to audio books at work. So I listen to a lot of books. My favs were The In Death books by JD Robb
The narrator of the Rivers of London books had a phenomenal voice–I could listen to him read anything. I listen to audiobooks and podcasts while I drive and walk the dog, and it’s funny how certain stories get linked to certain places in my mind. I’m realizing I might be more of an aural and kinesthetic learner than I thought…
I’ve got me some LONG commutes during the week and can say that thanks to Audible, I have literally not road raged a single time in two years. Anything read by Roslyn Landor or Nicholas Boulton is awesome, and Richard Armitage’s voice (ok, Richard Armitage’s everything) can do no wrong.