Book had an interesting premise but eventually fell flat for me. Maybe it’s that I’ve just read too many books with similar tropes. Still, am interested in whatever Julia Whelan does next.

I flew through this one and absolutely loved it. The story wasn't always what I was expecting, in the best way possible, although there were a couple of predictable moments. I'm a big big fan of Julia Whelan's writing, although I'm in the minority that hasn't listened to many of her audiobooks (sorry bookstagram), and hope we'll see more from her in the future.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

5/5 stars

This was such a fun read! It was hilarious right off the bat and I had a hard time putting it down. It was also really well written, very heartfelt and a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. Overall I loved it and I look forward to reading her next book.

Sewanee is a successful audiobook narrator who fell into the business after an tragic accident left her unable to pursue her burgeoning acting career. She used to narrate romances but gave up on them many years ago because she doesn't believe in happpily-ever-afters the genre promises. So when she's offered to narrate one last romance for a very large sum of money, she has to think hard about it. When she realizes that she can use the money to help her grandmother- who's suffering dementia- to settle in to a retirement home that can care for her better, she goes for it.

She's paired with Brock McKnight- a legendary but mysterious romance audiobook narrator. Initially they exchange emails than phone numbers- just to plan and coordinate their parts in the book, but they begin a relationship that grows, sharing sexy banter and baring their deepest secrets.

What follows is a novel that is part romance and part relationship fiction- a hearty mix of fantastical romantic situations paired with everyday issues like dealing with surviving a serious physical injury, to living with a disability, working through career transitions, and having a beloved family member with dementia.

Trends I noticed in this book were:
1) friendship was a central theme here
2)the 2 main characters are in the publishing/literary industry.

These are 2 themes I've seen popping up a LOT lately in books- which is a good thing because I'm a fan.

This book was absolutely phenomenal. OMG. If you haven’t read it yet (do it!) but I would 10000% recommend the audiobook. Blew me away with how well done it was. I loved reading a book featuring audiobook narrators. Typically when I read a book where the character is in the book industry, it’s usually as an author, so it was amazing reading from this perspective.

And the friendly/flirty banter between the love interest…amazing.

I don’t want to give much away here and spoil anything.

Beautiful read. Absolutely adored.

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from Thank You For Listening beyond a romance between two audiobook narrators and an excellent performance from Julia Whelan, but it absolutely delivered on both those things and MORE. I laughed, I cried. It was better than cats.

This lives for me in that gray area between contemporary fiction and romance, because it focuses so much on Sewanee and her life outside of her romance with Nick. She’s grieving a lot—her acting career, the person she was before her accident, her relationship with her father, her grandmother whose dementia is worsening—and it made for some tear-jerking moments. But there’s also a lot of wit and levity, an excellent, really fleshed out cast of side characters (especially aided by Whelan’s performance), and the romance is *perfection*. Nick is SO FINE and the banter between him and Sewanee is excellent. There’s even an epistolary section! Be still my heart!!

I’d definitely recommend this one to fans of Beach Read, Seven Days in June, or Abby Jimenez’s work as romance-heavy fiction (with an HEA!) that centers on the fmc and her personal journey. I’d also HIGHLY recommend you listen to the audiobook, because I adore the way Julia Whelan brings her characters to life. (Plus there’s a great moment where a guy talking to Sewanee doesn’t believe that she does all of the characters’ voices, including the men’s, in the audiobooks she narrates, which is particularly funny to listen to from Whelan.)

CW: Dementia, injury, sexual content, death, grief, attempted suicide, addiction, racism

Sewanee, an audiobook narrator takes a lucrative job working on a romance novel after swearing off all “happily-ever-after (HEA)” romance books. While working with her co-narrator, the most sought after male voice in the business, she starts to reevaluate her career and her outlook on life after losing her dream of making in big as an actress. I really enjoyed the characters in the novel. Brock/Nick was charming and believable and Sewanee was understandably bitter but not over the top cynical. I also appreciated the deeper themes throughout the story that made it more than a typical rom-com novel.

Thank You for Listening is a super-sweet romance - with multiple love stories happening at the same time - stories of romance and stories of family. Highly recommended!

I loved this one. It's a love letter to romance. I mean, our awesome heroine, Sewanee, says something along the lines of, "Falling off the romance tree and hitting all the trope branches on the way down," and it is the perfect description of exactly what the plot of this book does. Which Whelan does masterfully because there is not a single thing in this book that I could possibly criticize.
Sewanee is an audiobook narrator that refuses to do romance books because she thinks they give people false expectations. She has a one-night stand with an Irish hottie while participating in a book convention in Vegas and then moves on with her complicated life. When she gets a very profitable request to record the last romance by an old friend who recently passed away just when she needs the money, she starts to collaborate with the hottest male voice in romance and slowly build a relationship that's as deep and complete as any she could have with the people she sees every day. Many more things happen and it's all so fun to discover as it goes along that I'm not going to talk any more about the plot besides saying, once again, that it's an incredibly fun read. Even with a certain very important reveal being obvious from a mile away.
Sewanee and Brock make an excellent romantic couple because they truly complement each other and make each other see things from a different perspective even when the other is convinced that they know what's right. Their interactions are always full of great emotions and are what drive the plot to such great depths.
I can honestly and without any doubt say that this is one of the best, most memorable romances I've ever read.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyage for the brilliantly romantic read!

Julia Whalen does it again. I think I loved this book even more than her first novel. I loved the characters and the sheer meta madness of this novel. Read it, listen to, I don’t care, just get this book into your life now.

Really really enjoyed this however if you have the option I would recommend it on audio. I’m pretty sure Julia Whelan wrote some of the side characters just so she could show off her amazing voice talents so it’s worth a listen. This story was really fun, predictable as any romance should be but it did have some fun surprises. Some parts were a bit too steamy for me but that’s my only complaint.

I am always appreciative to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc of this book! Overall I enjoyed the story and the connection that the author clearly has to the subject. There were a few things that I predicted right away and a few of the repetitive writing pieces that annoyed me, but overall it was a good story. There were also parts that I enjoyed a lot, especially the main characters relationship to her grandmother. Although I did not complete the arc before the date, it did give me the opportunity to listen to Julia Whelan narrate her own story.

BOOK REVIEW

BOOK: Thank You For Listening
AUTHOR: Julia Whelan
FORMAT: Audiobook
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
DID I CRY: No
PUB DATE: 8/2/22
RATING: 7/10
3.5 stars

Thank you so much @harperaudio @librofm for my #gifted advanced copy of THANK YOU FOR LISTENING, out 8/2!

MY THOUGHTS

It’s no secret that Julia Whelan is one of the most loved individuals in the book world. Most know her as their favorite audiobook narrator (including myself) and it comes as a surprise to most that she is an author as well! Though this is not her first book, it was my first time reading a book by her. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

First of all, we need to talk about how Julia, an audiobook narrator, wrote a book about an audiobook narrator. It was ICONIC. There were so many little tidbits weaved into the story about the behind-the-scenes of audiobook narration & I loved learning more about it. The MC was extremely likable, demonstrating admirable qualities for the reader to resonate with. I found this book to be laugh out loud funny at times as well, and with Julia narrating, I felt the humor and emotion was so seamlessly and effortlessly conveyed. The love story was also fun to follow and it was realistic to me; the course of events felt modern and not some unreachable fairytale-esque sequence of events.

My qualm for this book I think primarily was my lack of connection to the story. Not necessary that I didn’t feel it was relatable, I just felt like for me it felt sort of surface level and I didn’t really care either way what happened. I wanted more about Sewanee and her past, I wanted more about Adaku, I wanted more about her grandmother, and I wanted more about the love story. As fun and interesting as it is to touch upon so many different themes (love, resilience, family, humor, friendship, career, trauma), sometimes a little bit of everything makes it hard to delve deeper to a desired level into anything.

Overall I definitely recommend! This book has rave reviews already and is quickly becoming a bookstagram darling! If you’re going to read it, I highly recommend the audiobook for the full experience.

Julia Whelan is one of my favorite narrators and she just wrote a book about an audiobook narrator. Awesome! I adored this book because of the characters, the wit, and multiple emotional scenarios.

Sewanee and her best friend have their lives planned out. They will have fame and fortune acting. Then tragedy strikes Sewanee and she finds herself resetting her goals while watching her best friend rise. She soon begins reading audiobooks and is very good at it. Romance isn't for her anymore but is swayed to do one more for a friend. She is paired with the most famous male romance narrator, Brock McKnight (great name). A chemistry starts to smolder. Meanwhile she heads to Vegas for the Audie Awards. She has a one-night stand and can't shake him from her mind. Two love interests and hilarity ensues when they collide.

Sewanee has a close relationship with her ailing grandmother and a tenuous one with her father. The progression and growth of these relationships was touching and added to an otherwise typical romance novel. I liked Sewanee's will to overcome self-doubt because of her accident and move forward.

Thank you NetGalley, Avon Books and Julia Whelan for the opportunity to read the arc.

This was pretty, good but I didn't love it. I think after reading I would have really enjoyed listening to the audiobook and keep it really on theme. I may try again via that format in the future and see how I feel.

I will always love the romance genre, but just merely like this one.

Ooh this one was so much fun! A book about audiobook narrators? Sign me up! The banter between Sewanee and “Brock” was hilarious, especially their email threads. I loved the side plot of Sewanee and her relationship with her grandmother. A fun romance read that also had some depth. I’d read another from the audiobook Queen!

I'm not a big fan of audiobooks; the main reason being is that you are able to multi-task while listening to them. I don't want to read a steamy love scene while matching socks or giving the dog a bath while I'm listening to a really good whodunit. I want to hold a book.

That being said, I found the whole storyline fascinating. The author, a very popular audiobook narrator herself, gives us a glimpse into that world. And based on a couple of the steamier scenes in the book, I'd honestly consider listening to this.

I have to say, I thought I had the whole book figured out. I did figure out part of it, but not the whole thing and was happily surprised. I thought the book was fun and well-written. It was also tasteful and oh boy, does it keep your interest. All the characters were likeable and I was happy with the ending.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to read and review this book. All opinions are mine and expressed freely.

I enjoyed this book, but I think it would’ve been better on audio. I just couldn’t get invested in any of the characters, and I felt like there was way too much going on. I liked Brock, but I didn’t think he and Sewanee had great chemistry. With all of the side stories, it also didn’t feel like a romance book. That being said, it was funny and entertaining overall.

Thank You for Listening is a wonderful romantic comedy about Sewanne Chester, an audiobook narrator heading to LA to hang out with her best friend and attend a bookcon that she’s hosting a panel for and she meets an extremely charming man who spends the night with her. She gets home after and learns that she’s being offered a lot of money to narrate a famous romance author’s last novel with the world’s most famous male narrator Brock McNight. She at first doesn’t want to do it because she’s a huge romance skeptic but then she learns that her grandma is going to need an extremely expensive place to stay as her health is failing fast and now that money would help with keeping her grandmother in a place she’s comfortable and safe. What happens next as she and Brock start to record their parts separately from across the country is hysterical and heartwarming.

This story had me laughing out loud and tearing up in the best way possible. Knowing that the author both wrote and narrated this fantastic story about family, friendship and love. I absolutely loved the main characters especially when they were talking, texting and email with each other because those scenes had me in stitches in the sidesplitting parts and blushing in the steamier parts. I love how the author included every single beef I’ve had with the romantic genre like the ridiculous descriptions especially in the sex scenes and the crazy tropes. I love how she understands how listeners have to deal with the dreaded fear of people learning that you’re listening to romance with smut in it and how that most likely won’t happen but it’s still quite terrifying nonetheless. I loved being able to peek inside the interesting world of audiobook narration and the way the two main characters recorded the episodes was so amusing and eye opening. Thank you to Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the digital copy of the book. I recommend this book to anyone who loves amazingly witty banter, extremely well developed characters, and the perfect narrator.

Listening to this as an audio book is truly the way to experience this novel. Julia Whelan is the quintessential audiobook narrator, and listening to her narrate a book she wrote about a romance between two audiobook narrators. This was such a sweet book, I thought the main characters were so likeable - I enjoyed their arc and how each character evolved throughout the novel.