Sarah: Oh my god, Amanda. I listened to a sample of Richard Armitage reading Wanderlust.
Jesus Christ.
Amanda: RIGHT?! It’s a total ovary punch.
Sarah: I think other people’s panties melted, too. JESUS, RICHARD
Amanda: Has he spoken in French yet?
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: When Joy and Griffin start flirting, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much.
Elyse: I just listened to the sample and I’m pregnant.
Amanda: I’ve been listening to it since last weekend. It’s great.
Elyse: Can we just select some actors and make it a requirement that they narrate romance novels? Like for every movie you do, you have to narrate a book.
…
We kept recommending audiobooks to one another, and decided we had to share them with everyone. Upon doing some “research” (it was so difficult) we have some recommendations of lovely, famous voices reading great books. Oh, and there are samples! GLORIOUS SAMPLES!
Classics
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: BBC Radio 4 did a full cast production featuring Felicity Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch, and David Tennant.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: Sarah says, “Rosamund Pike, who played Jane in the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice, narrates this one and it’s fucking scrumptious.”
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: The amazing Thandie Newton narrates this one. Sarah says her narration is also very scrumptious. I’m obsessed with Newton in her role as Maeve in Westworld.
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery: While I never got into the series, I think choosing Rachel McAdams as a narrator was a really good fit.
Romance
Georgette Heyer: Richard Armitage does the narration for Venetia, The Convenient Marriage, and Sylvester. They are abridged, which is unfortunate, but the narration is still terrific. A perfect reason to binge on Heyer audiobooks, right?
Here’s a sample of Venetia:
Stud Finder by Lauren Blakely: A contemporary romance novella with dual narrators, with one of them being Jessie Metcalfe of Passions and Desperate Housewives fame.
Midnight Untamed by Lara Adrian: A paranormal romance novella in the Midnight Breeds series, narrated by Blair Underwood from L.A. Law, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Quantico.
Blood on the Bayou by Heather Graham: A novella in Graham’s Cafferty & Quinn series with the Dermot Mulroney as the narrator.
Beauty and the Mustache by Penny Reid: Joy Nash is the narrator for this one and she’s soon to be the star in the TV adaptation of Dietland, for which I am very excited.
Bonus
Want to hear Tom Hiddleston read a poem by e.e. cummings?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjZouExnxPI&app=desktop
Sarah: David Tennant also narrates the How to Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell. He also does one of the voices in the movies as a sort of cameo (he’s Spitelout, Snotlout’s father, if you’re curious).
Amanda: The Star Wars anthology, From a Certain Point of View, has a huge cast of narrators including Neil Patrick Harris and Jon Hamm.
Sarah: Here, for fun, is Richard Armitage singing.
What do you think of celebrity narrators? Do you want more of them? Which are your favorites? Also, tell us your dreamcast of actors for your favorite romances!
@Liz, I signed up for the romance package on Audible. I quite like it. A good variety of titles and genres, and you can “keep” them in your library for as long as you have the subscription. Given that I usually listen to romance or historical fiction, the subscription offers me a lot of choices without having to spend that precious credit on something I may not like.
Oh God, yes. I only just watched North and South a few weeks ago. Thank God I did because in April apparently they came off Netflix. Like, why? He has such a great voice. Audible has a few promos with him in. He’s also just narrated a comic book – I think it’s Wolverine.
Alex Kingston narrating du Maurier’s Rebecca. Alex Kingston narrating anything. The phone book, I don’t care.
Armie Hammer reading Call Me By Your Name! I’d listen to it at night when I was having insomnia and … let’s just say it definitely didn’t succeed helping me get to sleep.
I have found it difficult to enjoy romances in audio form but I LOVED Glitterland narrated by Nicholas Boulton..
I enjoy police procedural mysteries and my favourites are by Adrian McKinty narrated by Gerard Doyle.
It’s funny how a voice actor can change everything. I actually tried reading Wanderlust before your podcast about it and I just couldn’t get into it. After the podcast, I downloaded it and boy was I glad I did. Even now,when I feel like the book is dragging on, I keep listening because THAT VOICE!
David Tennant also narrates My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher, which is a middle-grade book but with all-ages appeal. I’ll add another vote to James Marsters reading The Dresden Files – I wasn’t even interested in that book until I saw that he was narrating, and I really enjoyed it. I also liked Claire Danes reading The Handmaid’s Tale (I read it before the show came out, so I wasn’t bothered by her voice being different from Elizabeth Moss, but I can see how it would if I had already watched the show.) Anne Heche narrates the Stephen King novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which I listened to about 15 years ago and it still haunts me. Tim Curry narrated at least one of the Lemony Snicket books in the Series of Unfortunate Events, which was great! Also, someone mentioned Barbara Rosenblat as a favorite narrator and I agree – I LOVE her reading of Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason. My other favorite narrators are Rebecca Lowman and Orlagh Cassidy – I think I’d listen to them read anything!
This one isn’t Romance, but Jesse Eisenberg does a fantastic job in Holly Black’s Curse Worker’s series.
Speaking of delicious Brits reading poetry, allow me to direct you here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL7SE8HLet0
This review got me to finally try out audio books. It turns out that this particular book didn’t do it for me (combination of me not really buying the premise and cringing at Richard Armitage’s nasal American accent), but I’m glad for the extra push into audio since I’ve found some that I really like and it makes driving and gardening much nicer. So thanks!
Ditto to many a I’ve. James Marsters reading The Dresden Files is what finally hooked me on audiobooks. Someone i’ve Not seen mentioned is Andi Arendt and Sebastian York, who often co-narrate Lauren Blakey’s books. Not actors, though, but great. Ditto on Sarah Vowell reading her nonfiction books. She was the voice of Violet in The Incredibles, even through she was a writer/historian first.