The Queen of Audiobooks delivered with her own second book, Thank You for Listening and of course, I highly recommend listening to the story so you can hear the expert at work!

Sewanee Chester is a former actress turned audiobook narrator after an accident changed her life, and her looks. She’s great at her job which allows her to stay close by her grandmother who is increasingly needing more care. Sewanee reluctantly agrees to attend a book convention in Las Vegas and while there, meets a handsome stranger who she spends a fun night with.

Once Sewanee is back home in LA, she focuses on her next project, co-narrating a romance book under her previous pseudonym with Brock McKnight, the mystery man narrator readers can’t get enough of. The two communicate digitally, talking about the book, happily ever afters, and as time goes on, get to know each other a bit better. When they discuss finally meeting up in person, Sewanee is forced to confront fears and feelings she’s hidden for a long time. As she works through this, she’s thrown for a loop when other information is revealed too.

I don’t always think romcoms are actually funny but this one delivered. Despite Sewanee and Julia sharing career paths, Thank You for Listening is not autobiographical, but it’s still one you shouldn’t miss, a fun and cute story!

An adult romance perfect for audiobook fans written by the audiobook narrator queen Julia Whelan.
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Sewanee Chester is a well-known audiobook narrator/former actress. She used to be very popular with romance books but after a grisly accident, she refused to record romance or act anymore. Now she records anything and everything not romance. When she has to attend a convention in Las Vegas, a late night has her meeting a mysterious man and spending the night together, only for him to leave her in bed. Back in LA, Sewanee is offered a romance recording job she can’t pass up, but she has to record it with THE BEST male audiobook romance narrator in the business. Someone who loves to remain anonymous. After months of texting while recording separately, the two agree to meet up. But a family emergency has her cancelling, only to get the shock of her life.
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This was unlike any adult romance I’ve ever read before. Whelan is my favorite narrator, bar none so when I saw she had her own book out about audiobooks no less, I was in. This is of course 5 ⭐️ for me. Whelan has such a unique way of writing with particular details that make the book special and memorable. She just moved up to the top of my favorite writers AND narrators.

CW: memory loss/Alzheimer’s, eye trauma/loss of vision, death of a grandparent, racism/microaggressions

What a delightful book! Clever, funny, enchanting. Loved almost everything about it including the extras! This will make a great movie!

I was hoping for a HEA for blah blah, by far the best character ever, a page out of the assisted living archives like no other. I liked the ending wrap up as well. Funny? though the Nick and “Sarah” plus best friend story line didn’t draw me in at all. I’ll definitely be looking for Julia Whelan narrated audiobooks.

Audiobook lovers all know Julia Whelan's voice from her massive narration resume. So it only makes sense that after reading so many books, Julia Whelan is quite capable of writing her own.

I actually loved her first book, My Oxford Year, despite it being *so not* my kind of plot. But Thank You for Listening is better!

Sewanee is a very successful audiobook narrator, after a tragic accident derailed her acting career (and her love life). When she reluctantly agrees to narrate a best-selling author's final romance novel to afford her grandmother's memory care, she instantly connects with her co-narrator, the mysterious Brock McNight. Through their text relationship and the other events in her life, a part of Sewanee that she believed was long dead begins to wake up again.

Readers will love not only the lovely, slowly blossoming romance (or maybe the quick and spicy one-night-stand Sewanee has early on), but also the wry, meta nods to audiobook narration and romance fandom. Julia Whelan is able to write laugh-out-loud moments and on the next page, gut-wrenching emotion that hits you viscerally.

There was quite a lot going on in this book: Sewanee's struggles with self-confidence after her accident, taking care of her grandmother BlahBlah, her fraught relationship with her father, her relationship with her physically distant but loving mother, her audiobook AND acting careers, her friendship with Adaku, Adaku's struggles to make it in Hollywood, Nick's past, etc. I do think this could have been pared back just a bit. It only felt a little too long, but VERY jam-packed. I thought, for instance, some of the scenes with the kooky older residents of BlahBlah's home were superfluous.

When I finished. though, I was left with a deeply satisfied, perfeclty content feeling. I just wanted to hug this book, which was really annoying because I was reading an eArc on my phone (thanks, NetGalley!), and hugging a phone feels weird. I loved Sewanee's journey and I love Julie Whelan's writing! This gets everything but five stars from me.

I had a blast with Thank You for Listening.

An avid audiobook listener, this one almost felt like cat nip. It stars Sewanee Chester, someone who never dreamed of being an audiobook narrator yet has found a satisfying career in it. (Not to mention, success -- she won last year's Best Female Narrator award.)

Sewanee used to narrate romance under a pen name but hasn't in years when she's asked to take on a (posthumous) project narrating for beloved romance author, June French. That project just so happens to be split between her and a popular male narrator, the mysterious Brock McNight -- no one knows who he is, but everyone loves him (and his voice).

I'm purposely being a bit vague because the way the story unfolded was a delight, but you also have a strong friendship, dear grandmother, and epistolary elements to look forward to. Suffice it to say, this is the sort of book I read more slowly than usual in an effort to savor it. (Of course, audiobook pro Julia Whelan's narration of her own novel is excellent.)

This was a unicorn of a book, written with both heart and intelligence. The characters were great, and hallelujah, the plot was interesting and unique. It checked all the boxes for those who like this genre, but really approached it in a different way. For the love of all that is holy, could we please have more like this!

I loved this one! As many people know, Julia Whelan is the QUEEN of audiobook narration. When I found out she was also an author I was immediately interested. This story, funny enough, is about an actress turned audiobook narrator, kind of like Julia herself. I loved the banter between Swan and her love interest. I loved the character growth not only for Swan but for many other characters in the story. I loved the LOVE as well! It felt genuine and real. I could have done without the last part of the epilogue. It felt a little unnecessary and too much of trying to “close the loop.” But overall this was such an easy, enjoyable and happy ever after read.

"Thank You for Listening" has easily become one of my favorite reads of the year. It is an endearing story of life and love and passion and romance, with characters who feel so vividly human and relatable. Our main character, Sewanee, provides a raw take on healing from trauma and pivoting your dreams when things don't work out as planned the first time.

Julia Whelan's writing is so smart and engaging, you will not want to put this down.

🎧 I truly LOVED this romcom! Thank You for Listening is an incredible book!

🎧 Julia Whelan, the author and narrator of Thank You For Listening, is so talented! When I initially began reading, I intended to read just one chapter…. fast forward to several hours later, and I’ve read the entire physical book while simultaneously listening to the audiobook. Oops 😅

🎧 Thank You For Listening is a spicy romcom about audiobook narrators written by a renowned audiobook narrator layered with witty banter, intrigue, mystery, and elements from a few of my favorite romances like Hidden Identity, Office Romance, One Night Stand, Pen Pal Romance, Snowed In, only one bed (sort of), and an open door romance that kept me turning page after page.

🎧 I recommend Thank You For Listening to anyone that enjoys audiobooks. Also, if you are torn between which format, I highly recommend the audiobook version or a combination of the physical book and audiobook for the ultimate reading experience. (Bonus: The audiobook is narrated by Julia Whelan.)

Thank you to LibroFM, Harper Audio, Avon Books and Netgalley for the #gifted ALC & e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I LOVED this! If you love romance and you love audio books. This is one of the few books that give me the same feeling Emily Henry’s do. Blahblah, Stu, and Adaku are perfect side characters. Throughout it reads more like women’s fiction than romance. Still, they get they HEA (which as the book makes clear is very, very important!) highly recommend, and even more obsessed with Julia Whelan's narration than I was before!

Super slow burn but the witty banter keeps you interested! This book is beautifully written, and the character development was excellent. This book is filled with sweet, swoony moments.

I wish I had read this sooner! What an excellent read for the summer! I am not always a huge romance reader, but this book was perfection!

Sewanee, or Swan as everyone calls her, was an up and coming actress until she has an accident leaving her disfigured. This makes her shift gears in her career and she narrates audio books. She began her narration journey reading Romance books, but has moved on to be one of the best in the business reading lots of bestsellers. When June French, a romance writer, dies the estate contacts Swan to have her read one last romance book with the King of Romance narrators, Brock McNight. No one knows who Brock is in real life, but every one loves his voice.

This story was so much more than the description! Swan has a best friend, Adaku, who has started to become the IT actress in Hollywood. And then there is Swan's grandmother, BlahBlah. BlahBlah is starting to have memory issues and needs more assistance causing a bigger rift between Swan and her dad, Henry. And finally there is Swan's mom, Marilyn and her boyfriend, Stu, living life in a condo on a cruise ship sailing the world. These characters felt real from the moment I began the book. I loved all of them and loved the way the book ended.

This book is perfect to pick up if you need a good laugh or want to be reminded of the magic in the world. I look forward to reading more by Whelan.

This book was a little bit of a slow start for me but I am glad I stuck with it because halfway through I became more engaged and really enjoyed it. It was extremely interesting to get a behind-the-scenes look at audiobooks and how they are recorded. I loved the characters and felt they all had a great deal of depth. My favorite character was sadly a secondary character, Stu, who we did not see much of.

I could not put this book down! Julia Whelan is a favorite audiobook narrator of mine and she beautifully portrays her characters' lives and how they approach the work all while weaving in family, love and friendship. This HEA is is exactly what I needed.

I loved this story! I have been looking forward to this one for so long as Julia Whelan is my favorite audiobook narrator. She did not disappoint,. I read and listened and loved listening to her read her book! She does so many voices and it's majorly impressive. The story was touching, hot, funny, lovey and beautiful. It's everything I knew it would be and more. I didn't want it to end. Looking forward to more books by Julia in the future! In the meantime, I'm just going to go listen to every book she narrates. :)

Thanks NetGalley and Avon & Harper Voyager for access to this ARC.

First off, if you read this book listen to it on audio. Julia Whelan is hands down the best audiobook narrator out there. This story is about a young woman in the audiobook industry and her hatred of the romance genre. Without spoiling too much she is offered a job to narrate a popular romance series and through doing so she goes through her journey of love and heart ache.
This story was sweet and emotional. I enjoyed it from start to finish. I could listen to Julia Whelan’s voice for hours upon hours.

Wowwwwww I loved this.Thank You For Listening is not a typical romance novel but god I loved it so much. I think it was definitely a “right book at the right time” and my soul just needed this story in this season of my life. Things I loved -
- MC’s name is Sewanee after a town in Tennessee not far from where I live. Yee haw!
- Sewanee and Blah-Blah’s relationship (yes her name for her grandma is Blah-Blah and it was honestly one of my favorite parts of the book?)
- The witty banter.
- How one second I would be literally laughing out loud and the next I would have tears in my eyes!
- The importance of having friends and people in your corner. A found family, if you will.
- All of the FUNNY takes on the romance genre.
- Learning to find oneself after unspeakable tragedy.
- Sewanee’s mom and her boyfriend Stu. 😍
- And really just the overall theme of “happily ever after” is not a destination that we reach one day and everything is suddenly solved and we never have any issues ever again. It’s knowing that life will be hard, there will be tragedy and heartbreak, but we can still build our own HEA with the right people around us. 💝

Thank you so much to Avon and Harper Voyager for my advanced copy of this book. It is one of my top reads of this year and I’ll be thinking about it for a long time. 💞

This was another fantastic read from Julia Whelan!! I would, however, warn some readers that this reads more like womens fiction with a strong romance element. That being said, I really enjoyed this story and the behind the scenes look at the world of narration, secret identities/pen names and the whole audiobook industry in general. Learning more about Sewanee and how one decision changed her whole life trajectory and how she's learning to navigate the world and her career with new obstacles and limitations was really interesting. The story was a little heavier than I expected. Between Sewanee's grandmother in senior care living, the strained relationship with her father and her insecurities about her trauma/disfigurement, it evoked some pretty strong emotions.

On the romance side of the story, I feel like everything played out nicely and, although there wasn't a lot of on page time with Brock and Sewanee, I felt their connection and loved the banter between them. I recommend this to anyone who doesn't mind a slow-burn, mildly sexually explicite romance with a strong focus on character growth.

*I received an early copy from NetGalley for voluntary review

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would! It was a cute story of audiobook narrator, Sawanee and her personal and professional journey, including coming to terms with her connection to romance stories.

Some parts were obviously predictable, but I didn’t mind. The dialogue was adorable, the characters were real and flawed and sweet, and the story flowed so well.

Julian Whelan once again does not disappoint!