This Rec League comes from Anne, who wanted a part two of audiobook recommendations. Our previous audiobook Rec League dropped in 2016!
I am an avid audiobook listener and am always searching for new narrators. I know that you posted a couple Rec League requests about audiobooks, but the most recent one that I found was from 2016 and I wondered if you would consider an updated Rec League request for audiobooks. It turns out that I have worked my way thru most of the recs from 2016, which is the other reason for my request.
Amanda: What newer books can we recommended?
Tara: I’m pretty sure the audiobook for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor-Jenkins Reid ( A | BN | K ) wrecked me harder in audio than it would have on my Kindle or in print.
Similarly, Letters Never Sent by Sandra Moran ( A | BN | K ) is incredible in audio. It’s a past/present novel, not a romance although it has a love story. CW/TW for a botched abortion pre-Roe and marital rape in one scene. If you can stomach it, it’s an incredible book that I’ve never forgotten.
I also love all of Ann McMan’s books in audio, because Christine Williams always narrates them and her voice is perfect for the tone. Some of them are romances, some not.
If people are into sapphic romances in general and are looking for good narrators, popular ones that I personally enjoy include Lori Prince, Abby Craden, and Angela Dawe.
Sarah: cracks knuckles
I just finished the Speedwell series on audio, and Angele Masters is terrific.
I always recommend the Peter Grant series narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, because his narration is stellar.
And of course Kevin R. Free and the Murderbot books. The production wasn’t always terrific (I swear there’s one where he burps a little and the production left it in?) But his performance is wonderful, especially ART.
I haven’t listened yet but have heard much praise for Mary Jane Wells’ performance of Sarah MacLean’s Hell’s Belles series.
Wells also narrated Artfully Yours by Joanna Lowell and the sample I listened to was very good.
Shana: I just finished Ana Maria and the Fox on audiobook, and it was zippy and swoony. I was really impressed with the narrator’s accent work. I also burned through the horror novella What Moves the Dead and while it terrified me—I screamed for the first time while listening to a book—the narrator is excellent.
When I listened to For Her Consideration ( A | BN | K ) the narrator gave the love interest this slippery, gravely voice that was ridiculously sexy. Definitely recommend!
If you don’t mind multiple narrators, I loved both Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute, and Rebecca Roanhorse’s epic fantasy novel, Black Sun. ( A | BN | K | AB )
Also, Zenzi Williams is one of my favorite romcom narrators because of her comic timing. She makes a good book extra fun, and has me laughing at books I might have just found mildly funny in print. The Missed Connection by Denise Williams ( A | BN | K ) is one of my favorites she’s read.
What audiobooks would you recommend? Tell us below!
Kate Reading has done all the Sherry Thomas ‘Lady Sherlock’ series and I just LOVE her narration (so much I fangirled and stalked her on IG to tell her so). Plus was that my library actually carries them, yay!
I love listening to Graphic Audio audiobooks which have a full cast and sound effects…they don’t work for everyone, a friend finds them too distracting, but I love them! I especially recommend the Fred the Vampire series (authored by Drew Hayes), as well as Ilona Andrews’ Innkeepers series. They have begun the Kate Daniels series in Graphic Audio and I am so excited! Spells, Swords, & Stealth by Drew Hayes is also another fun series (book 1 is called NPCs).
My non-Graphic Audio audiobook recs include the Bergman Brothers series by Chloe Leise, the Until Him/Her series by Aurora Rose Reynolds, Elizabeth Hunters 7th & Main series, and Dianne Duvall’s Immortal Guardians (and the spin off series Aldebarian Alliance). Jenn Burke’s Not Dead Yet series was fantastic as was Ilona Andrews’ Edge series.
My very favorite audiobooks though include the Harry Potter series (Jim Dale is knows as the man of a thousand voices and I spent an amazing six months working my way through the series)…these may have been mentioned in the earlier rec league but I had to mention them just in case! I also loved, loved, loved Under the Whispering Door narrated by Kirt Graves. The print book wasn’t working for me, but the audio book was one of the best I have experienced. Another oldie but goodie (if you are okay with middle grade suggestions) is Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson’s book Science Fair. I have listened to it more than once and cackle out loud each time.
Anything Mary Jane Wells narrates is my fave. She did a fab work with Tessa Dare’s Girl Meets Duke series was my intro. She brings every one of the characters to life!!
Angela Dawe’s narration of Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling Trinity is amazing.
Highly recommended:
Lily Chu’s THE STAND-IN and THE COMEBACK read by Phillipa Soo.
Daniel O’Malley’s Rook Files (THE ROOK, STILETTO, BLITZ) read by Moira Quirk. Quirk also narrates Tamsyn Muir’s The Locked Tomb Trilogy (Gideon the Ninth, etc.)
Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ NATURAL BORN CHARMER read by Anna Fields. Fields read a number of SEP’s books; her wry narration was perfect IMO.
Rachel Aaron’s Detroit Free Zone series read by Emily Woo Zeller; also Aaron’s Heartstriker series read by Vikas Adam. Dragons all around!
I feel like fantasy and historical belong to the narrators. Contemporary in audio is less likely to work for me but there have been some fantastic stand-outs recently:
Emma Barry’s new book Funny Guy is insanely good. 100% of my friends who spent any part of their 20s in NYC, LA or Chicago share a mantra: NO boys who “do comedy”! So a book with a comedian MMC was going to have a high bar to clear, but Barry nailed it as always. The audiobook is so fun. I burned through it in like 2 days.
Alisha Rai’s new YA has a perfect audiobook. I was concerned it would hue too closely to the While You Were Sleeping plot points and get frustrating but OMG the way While You Were Dreaming dances past every trap to stay grounded and exciting.
Bolu Babolola’s short story collection Love In Color is PERFECT!
ALL of Farah Heron’s contemporaries have excellent audiobooks. I hope her first release, The Chai Factor gets the audiobook treatment one day. It’s towards the top of my list of most wished for audiobooks along with Meridith Duran’s backlist and Celia Lake’s entire catalog
Julia Whelan’s narration of Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds was absolutely amazing. She also did a phenomenal job with The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. And of course, her narration of her own books, especially Thank you for Listening, is as good as it gets.
In no particular order:
A Proposal They Can’t Refuse was good; sweet, steamy, and full of immigrant family trauma. Be warned: this book left me very hungry with the descriptions of food and wanting to go whisky tasting.
The Crazy Rich Asians trio: If you’re willing to hear increasingly escalating shenanigans and endless descriptions of couture, have at it! However, the narrator changes from Crazy Rich Asians to China Rich Girlfriend (book 1 – book 2) and it’s jarring. At least it was to me as I binged them for SRP. I liked the first narrator much more than the second.
The Pink Carnation books. Kate Reading’s voice is lovely.
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. Full cast audio! Yes, it’s a middle grade read, but full cast!
The Books of Bayern, also by Shannon Hale. I do not remember if the book is full cast, or just a talented, Mel Brooks of a narrator.
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. The narration is really quiet, but Fangirl is… special to me.
The Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld is read by ALAN CUMMING! Middle Grade read, alternate WWI history with a world filled with genetically fabricated animals and a girl who dresses as a boy to join the Royal Air Navy in honour of her deceased Da.
Sarah Addison Allen novels, but particularly The Peach Keeper.
The #1 audiobook (and book) I will always recommend to everyone is The Diviners by Libba Bray. It’s narrated by just one person, January LaVoy, but she manages to make it seem like a full cast recording and the production is incredible. You feel as if you’ve been transported directly into the story while listening to it.
My job involves driving 6-7 hours every day and I’ve found that historical mystery audiobooks are the genre that best keeps my ADHD brain from wandering too much.
My most recent obsession has been the Lady Darby mysteries by Anna Lee Huber, starting with the first book, The Anatomist’s Wife. I’m about to start book 11, which just released on June 20th, and I’m a little bit devastated about not having any more.
I also really enjoyed the audiobooks for Ashley Weaver’s Electra McDonnell series, book 1 being A Peculiar Combination. I also liked her Amory Ames series, though I will note that book 1 has a different narrator to the rest of the series, which really pissed me off, as I much preferred the first narrator and it took me some time to warm up to the new one.
I remember the audiobooks for Katherine Schellman’s Lily Adler Mysteries being quite good as well.
As for non hysterical mysteries:
The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead had a fantastic audiobook though be sure to look into content warnings for that one, more so than any of the others I’ve listed here.
Truly Deviousby Maureen Johnson A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson were some fun YA mysteries with solid audiobooks.
And an audiobook/book I didn’t expect to love nearly as much as I did was Sangu Mandanna’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. Such a charming read and I felt like the narrator matched the tone of the book perfectly.
I should note that due to the aforementioned ADHD brain, I listened to almost all of these on 2x-2.75x speed so YMMV.
Turns out I have a lot (a lot) of recs most of which have some level of romance.
Historical, Steampunk Fantasy:
*Lancaster’s Luck series by Anna Butler narrated by Gary Furlong (5 stars all around)
Urban Fantasy:
*Soulbound series by Hailey Turner narrated by Gary Furlong (This series has ALL the angst. I really enjoyed book one but haven’t continued because my angst tolerance is kinda low.)
*San Amaro Investigations series by Kai Butler narrated by Greg Tremblay
*Psycop series by Jordan Castillo Price narrated by Gomez Pugh (maybe paranormal mystery?)
Mystery:
*The ABCs of Spellcraft series Jordan Castillo Price narrated by Gomez Pugh (paranormal mystery but humorous)
*Madison Square Murders by C.S. Poe narrated by Kale Williams
*Holmes and Moriarity series by Josh Lanyon narrated by Kevin R. Free (JL is hit and miss for me because I usually find the romance lacking. This was a hit.)
*The Calleshire Chronicles by Catherine Aird narrated by Derek Perkins (No romance.)
*Corinna Chapman Mysteries by Kerry Greenwood narrated by Louise Siversen (These are older but I checked that they weren’t listed in the 2016 Rec League.)
*Miss Seeton Mysteries by Heron Carvic narrated by Phyllida Nash (No romance.)
*The Case Files of Henri Davenforth by Honor Raconteur with dual narrators (Mystery in a fantasy world. I don’t usually care for dual narration but this worked well for me. No romance.)
*Leonidas the Gladiator Mysteries by Ashley Gardner narrated by Hillary Huber (Historical mystery. No romance yet.)
*Death at Bishop’s Keep by Robin Paige/Susan Wittig Albert narrated by Helen Johns (Victorian Mystery, beginning of a romance.)
Fantasy:
*The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison narrated by Kyle McCarley (No romance. Some people say it has romance, but it’s just a barely there smidgen.)
*Books of the Raksura by Martha Wells narrated by Christopher Kipiniak (These are older but I checked that they weren’t listed in the 2016 Rec League.)
*City of Bones by Martha Wells (Also older but not listed in the 2016 list. No romance and I was happy(!) about that.)
Historical Paranormal:
*The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal by KJ Charles narrated by Gary Furlong
Romantic Suspense?:
*Death and the Devil series by L.J. Hayward narrated by Rowan Scott
My favorite audiobook narrator is Khristine Hvam, who narrates Michelle Sagara’s Chronicles of Elantra among other things. That series does not have much of a romantic arc, though — go in expecting a police procedural high fantasy with cranky immortals.
I really loved Iluminae: The Illuminae Files, Book 1. Since the book is “Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents – including emails, maps, files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more,” I thought the production and the cast were fantastic.
(Rant: my one pet-peeve with certain narrators is when they mispronounce words, usually Spanish – for example, La Jolla pronounced like “La JOL-la” rather than “La HOY-uh.” Just disconcerting to my ears.)
I’m one who needs relatively low angst and plot tension in an audiobook, or a beloved frequently read story. Otherwise I have too much time to worry, since listening takes much longer for me to get through a book.
Recently I’ve enjoyed:
Barbara Hambly’s Silver Screen Mysteries narrated by Pilar Weatherspoon (historical mysteries)
Olivia Atwater’s Longshadow narrated by Madeline Leslay (fantasy/historical)
Alison Goodman’s The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies narrated by Kristin Atherton (historical)
Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries narrated by Ell Potter and Michael Dodds (hmm the dual narration may have worked well for me because it was almost epistolary/journal entries) (fantasy/historical)
Lois McMaster Bujold’s Penric and Desdemona series of novellas, narrated by Grover Gardner (fantasy)
Martha Wells’ Murderbot series over and over and over
Ross Gay’s two books of essays (Inciting Joy, The Book of Delights), narrated by author (nonfiction essays, poet author)
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenuous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, narrated by author (nonfiction, ecology science). I found her calm reading effective, might be too calm for some.
I’m not sure I’ve got recommendations, but I like this idea of doing second editions of rec leagues. Please continue this trend.
@Gwen – “Otherwise I have too much time to worry, since listening takes much longer for me to get through a book.” Me too! I usually have to read a book first so I know where it’s going before I listen to it.
@Gwen & @MaryK — yep, there have been audiobooks with sections I wanted to be able to skim, to skip lightly through bad stuff. On at least one occasion I set the audiobook aside till I could get a library copy, do that, and go back to the audio.
I’ve been doing a re-listen of some of my Georgette Heyer audiobooks and she has a bunch of different but equally excellent narrators.
Phyllida Nash – THE TALISMAN RING, VENETIA, and COTILLION
Eve Mattheson – THE NONESUCH and LADY OF QUALITY
Daniel Philpott – THE UNKNOWN AJAX
I also re-listened to a couple other favorites recently:
VEIL OF NIGHT by Linda Howard narrated by Clarinda Ross
THE PARFIT KNIGHT by Stella Riley narrated by Alex Wyndham (he does all of her audiobooks and it is a good partnership of material and narrator)
THE SPYMASTER’S LADY – by Joanna Bourne narrated by Kirsten Potter (Kirsten Potter’s voice is so rich, I’ll get an audiobook sometimes because she is the narrator moreso than the book itself)
FYI – The Phyllida Nash versions of Georgette Heyer are no longer available in electronic versions. They aren’t in Audible or the library apps. I can still access the ones I’d already purchased but the ones in my wishlist are no more.
I’ve noticed Audible is starting to have some of them with a new narrator so I guess the rights expired on the PN versions. There are still some PN MP3 CDs out there for purchase but they won’t be around forever.
Speaking of Georgette Heyer audiobooks, my library has two (abridged, alas) narrated by Richard Armitage, A CONVENIENT MARRIAGE and VENETIA. Such a gorgeous voice–it made for such a wonderful listen I didn’t mind that the versions for abridged.
I listen to audiobooks all the time, enough so I only notice the narrator if they’re not good. There are only a few I’ve been so annoyed by that I had to stop listening.
Some of the best narrators have been mentioned here. I also really like Jason Clarke.
It took me a while to like Justine Eyre. Her vocal fry style bothered me at first, but I have grown to appreciate her voice. Maybe because so many of the books she does are so good? Julia Anne Long, for one.
I don’t usually listen to audiobooks, but one I’ve played at least a couple of times is “Circe”, narrated by Perdita Weeks. It’s so good. She’s so good.
I doubt anyone will see this, but I did think of an audiobook narrator recommendation that I haven’t seen here or anywhere that I can think of. I read the first book in Mia Marlowe’s Order of the Muse series, which was narrated by Zara Hampton Brown, and I cannot put into adequate enough words how well her narration fit the story! If you’re going to read this book, get it on audio! The same goes for the rest of the series.