Audiobook listeners and romance readers! We’re once again happy to announce AudioFile’s Best of Romance list for audiobook narration. For those who don’t know, AudioFile is a magazine available in print and online that reviews audiobooks.
You can also check out the rest of their Best Of categories!
Here’s what romances made AudioFile’s list, along with links to their reviews:
PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION by Emily Henry, read by Julia Whelan
THE PERKS OF LOVING A WALLFLOWER by Eric Ridley, read by Moira Quirk
REEL by Kenney Ryan, read by Eboni Flowers, Jakobi Diem, Nicole Small
SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE by Tia Williams, read by Mela Lee
THE HEART PRINCIPLE by Helen Hoang, read by Natalie Naudus, Brian Nishii
THE SEGONIAN by Diane Duvall, read by Kirsten Potter
Congratulations to all the winners!
Have you listened to any of the books listed? What were your favorite audiobooks this year?
I usually can’t enjoy romance in the audio format; the spoken word magnifies writing flaws that I can ignore more easily in print and I can’t skim any sex scenes I deem redundant or unromantic. But I recently stumbled across Penny Reid’s Beard Science in the excellent Audible Plus catalogue and decided to give it a go, despite being underwhelmed a few years ago by the first book in the series.
From the first five minutes I was hooked by the witty writing and the expressive narration of Joy Nash. Penny Reid’s books are looong for contemporary romance but I’ve now devoured two more, the most recent being Love Hacked. It featured another fabulous narrator in Devra Woodward and I appreciated not being able to skim ahead and ruin all the surprise, which was really important with that book. I have several more Penny Reids picked out to listen to soon.
I struggle with paying attention to audiobooks and end up missing important plot points. However, if I’ve already read the book, and it’s narrated by a good performer, I will happily listen and re-listen.
Some of my favorites in romance and adjacent:
Alyssa Cole’s Reluctant Royals series narrated by Karen Chilton. Voice like velvet, so expressive and excellent comedy timing.
Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune series narrated by Cassandra Campbell – these are cozy mysteries with romantic elements, lots of humor and southern charm. The first few are free or low priced on Kindle, then the Audible versions end up discounted too.
Just curious – would there be something similar for podcasts/audio dramas?
I listen to romance on audio all the time, at the rate of 3 or 4 books a week. I’m not working at the moment, and I listen to audiobooks in the car, at the grocery store, while doing housework, walking the dog, etc. It’s how I read when I can’t sit! And even then I listen to them when I play my tablet games.:-)
For books and audio released together in 2021, I can recommend The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting by KJ Charles, narrated by the always excellent Cornell Collins, and Roommate by Sarina Bowen, narrated by Teddy Hamilton and Stephen Dexter. The book isn’t perfect, but it’s very good and the narration is excellent. Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell is also very good,and well narrated by Raphael Corckhill. Role Model by Rachel Reid is wonderful, narrated by Cooper North.
For audiobooks released this year (books released earlier) I can recommend Lily Morton’s books, Best Man and Merry Measure, both narrated by Joel Leslie, who is prolfic and excellent!
I’m sure there are many others. Female narrators I adore include Kate Reading (amazing!),Moira Quick, and Mary Jane Wells. Male narrators I love include those above, plus Greg Boudreaux, Nicolas Boulton (narrates Laura Kinsale’s books), Iggy Toma, Michael Ferraiuolo, Nick J. Russo, Sean Crisden and Matthew Lloyd Davies ( narrates many KJ Charles books).
Viktor Slezak narrated several Sandra Brown RS books,including ENVY, and they make an excellent team. Alex Wyndham has narrated all of Stella
Riley’s excellent historical romance and historical fiction books that have made it to audio and I highly recommend them all.
I enjoyed the heck out of T Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Strength, narrated by Joel Richards – a really nice narrator for the book, especially for handling the kind of awkwardness she writes about so beautifully.
@JD The Guardian has a lot of podcast coverage. Here’s its best of 2021 from summer 2021. Might be worth looking at the recommendations in the comments on that article too, if you can bear to navigate around the rubbish.
Like many of the bitches, I spend A LOT of time listening to audiobooks. I agree with the choice of People We Meet on Vacation, (and I liked the story more than many), but then I think Julia Whelan could narrate a shopping list and make it engrossing. (Not a romance, but her narration of Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds was extraordinary). Another good 2021 audio was The Love Proof by Madeleine Henry and superbly narrated by Cassandra Campbell, and Patti Murrin did a fine job with Christina Lauren’s The Soulmate Equation. Lorelei King continued her great narration of Darynda Jones’s latest: A Good Day for Chardonnay, and Erin Mallon brought Jill Shalvis’s Love for Beginners to life with skill and talent. Lastly, newbie author Annabelle McCormack’s Windswept was beautifully narrated by Elizabeth Grace.
And while I’m here: a general observation/complaint that I wonder if others have experienced. @Oceanjasper mentioned Penny Reid’s books from the Audio Plus catalogue, but in general, I’ve been hugely disappointed by that program’s meager offerings. I was an enthusiastic subscriber to their romance package, which they eventually relabeled as escape, or something or other, before doing away with it. They inferred that their Plus catalogue would be equally inclusive, but I’ve found it far less so. Any thoughts?
@Meg Audible basically wasn’t making enough on their Audible Escape package to pay the authors and narrators fair royalties. I started following some authors who detailed the underhanded way Audible was dealing with things within and without the Escape deal, including encouraging unlimited returns up to a year after purchase. When audiobooks were returned, Audible then subtracted the royalties from the author/narrator accounts. It wasn’t Audible suffering from their policies. They also said it was “too difficult”to put returns on the authors’ dashboards,so authors rarely knew what the numbers were. Very shady. They formed a group “Adiblegate” and did win some concession from Audible, including a much more limited return policy. I think we should be able to return books we don’t like, but I don’t think it’s right to allow customers to use it like a lending library at the expense of the authors/narrators.
So now they have Audible Plus, which includes books from all genres, plus some podcasts, etc. But since it is basically included with the membership, the offerings are more limited because authors have to agree. The romance offerings are very limited and I’ve pretty much listened to everything I’m interested in already. KJ Charles does have two series on their, which is nice.
Thankfully, my library system has LOTS of romance books on audio, including many popular mm authors, which is the genre I listen to the most.
To clarify my comment about Audible Plus, I mainly meant that I like the concept of borrowing rather than using a credit for every listen, but not having to wait for a book to become available like I do with my local library audio program. I haven’t investigated the romance offerings too closely because I don’t enjoy romance in the audio format and apart from Penny Reid I don’t expect to find many other gems. But so far I’ve found heaps of great offerings of mystery, nonfiction and comedy, which is my usual audio fare.
The narrator of Rose Lerner’s “The Wife in the Attic,” Elsa Lepeci Bean, was excellent. And it was a gripping and deep book. Although the ending was a bit flawed (after all the no-one-to-trust gothicness, it’s as if the author said “Oh wait, I promised this would be a romance, didn’t I?” and abruptly lightened up), it still remains in my mind as one of the best of the year.