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!

I really enjoyed this book. It was difficult to review without spoiling anything because a lot happened and it was so throughly entertaining. The story was written in a way that made it easy to see yourself in it. My interest did drift a few times but never for long.

The characters were super relatable and fun to read as they interacted with each other. I laughed out loud throughout the entire book but especially during the conversations between “Sarah” and “Brock.” This was my first book by this author but I loved that the book centered around a topic they knew well.

Voluntarily reviewed after receiving a free copy courtesy of NetGalley, the Publisher and the author, Julia Whelan.

This was a cute read and was a fun, meta “look behind the curtains” at the audiobook publishing industry.

This book is DULL DULL DULL. No other way to put it. The characters really do not speak to me. Sewanee is so 1D. A protagonist needs to carry a book more. The only part of the book that captured my attention were the emails between Brock and Sewanee. Though cute, the email portion was likely more entertaining only due to its brevity. The fact that this book tried every single romance trope just makes it trite, not charming. I could not wait for this book to end. So boring. Not worth anyone’s time.

Great writing, interesting characters. Could have used some more steam.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

This was such a good book. I really like Sewanee and Nick and I felt I learned from both characters. I also thought the secondary characters were funny. The information about the Audiobook industry was interesting especially the exchanges about how to read certains scenes. I also enjoyed the way the characters went about separating their identities from their work and life.

I found "Thank You for Listening" a bit unusual--which is not necessarily a bad thing. There seemed to be a lot of . . . movement, maybe? in the book; several locations, lots of characters and switchups of narrative, emails, and texts. It could have easily been confusing, but somehow the author made it work. I managed to keep up with the action, once I loosened up and reconciled myself to it, and ended up enjoying it all. The book is pretty lighthearted, in spite of some heavy baggage lugged around by the characters, and it is best taken that way.

The main character is a book narrator, a profession I knew nothing about. I did enjoy this glimpse into the world of narration, though, and couldn't help wondering how much of the MC's life reflects the reality of the profession.

Why four stars instead of five? I don't know, exactly--maybe the messiness of it all, even with the author's deft handling. Maybe I need to read another book by this author before I make up my mind, but I was a teensy bit unsettled when I finished it. And maybe that's not a bad thing, either.

One of my favorites of 2022! A terrific story about love, friendship, and hard-earned happiness, set in the world of audiobooks, with many knowing winks to romance genre tropes. Just wonderful.

5️⃣ ⭐️ BOOK

We all know and love Julia Whelan for being our absolutely favorite and go to audiobook reader. Every year she reads the books that land on the best seller list for weeks on end. While these stories are fabulous and would be great books without her, she is definitely one of the reasons why they stay on the best seller list for a extended length of time. Not only can she transport you to another place when she narrates, but the girl can write too!!

Her sophomore novel, Thank You For Listening is by far my favorite romance, not love story (as she comically addresses the difference in the book🤪), of 2022! There is so much to love and for a book and genre about living Happily Ever After there is not one thing I would change. 💏

💗Why I Love This One More Than Other Romances💗
🔆The main characters, Sewanee and Brock, are a breath of fresh air. I appreciate that Whelan showcases a woman with a physical disability at the forefront and explores the up and downs life would take when the disability takes away all that has defined you.
🔆Sewanne (Swam) is an audiobook reader as a profession in the novel. I love that we get insights into the daily routine and ins and outs of that booming business.
🔆The Banter…so good!! I have harped on other novels with their annoying banter that makes you want to punch yourself, but this one is perfect amount of banter filled with sexual tension and humor.
🔆 The secondary characters in this romance are the perfect compliment to the protagonists. They are equally as developed as the main storyline. Between her grandma Blah (Barbara) and her crazy friends at the upscale nursing home, Swan’s best friend Adaku, and her mom and her eccentric lover you will fall in love with all of them as much as you do Swan and Brock.
🔆A well developed story line!! Sometimes romances are fluffy and cringy (which sometimes we are in the mood for), but this felt close to real life with a perfect sprinkle of serendipity.

Add this delightful, laugh out loud, and unputdownable novel about finding love and finding yourself to your TBR! You will be happy you did! 💗

Julia Whelan, everyone’s favorite audiobook narrator, nailed her second book. I enjoyed the addition of the authors note at the end, explaining that while the audiobook aspect of the book itself wasn’t entirely based on her experiences, her experiences influenced her writing.
I love romance books that have a deeper emotional aspect behind the characters connection that create conflict, and this book completely fits in with this category.

In Thank You for Listening, author Julia Whelan writes about a topic she is very familiar with as an audiobook narrater, creating her main character, Sewanee Chester, as an award-winning audiobook narrator, although Sewanee is unsure if that is the direction she wants her career to maintain. Sewanee was an up and coming actress with a promising future when a fateful accident derailed her hopes and dreams. As she's pondering her future possibilities, she agrees to narrate a romance out of a feeling of obligation and respect to the author who was supportive early in her career. From there, the hilarity ensues as she must work remotely with the mysterious and charming Brock McKnight, a famed and lusted-after romance narrater, who is also questioning his line of work and pondering his future. The book is heartfelt, hilarious, inspiring, sizzling and heartbreaking. It covers topics of how to deal with a life that is not on the trajectory you had anticipated, connecting with family (even those who are difficult to connect with), and creating the future where you will have little regrets because you valued what is important. I loved that Sewanee was close to her grandmother --their relationship was so special and Grandma "Blah Blah" was indeed the star she always longed to be! The "twists" were not surprising, but I loved the road there and the stories along the way! The ending was perfect!

Like 97% of audiobook listeners, Julia Whelan one of my favorite narrators (tied for 1st with Bahni Turpin) so when I found out that she had a romcom ABOUT an audiobook narrator coming out, I clicked request on Netgalley so fast they didn’t even see me coming. And I couldn’t have been more thrilled when Libro.fm offered this on audio as part of their influencer program last month.

If it’s an option for you, I strongly recommend you read this one as an audiobook. I can’t wait for launch events, because I’m so excited to hear Whelan talk about the specific choices she made for this book, as an audiobook narrator, knowing that she’d be narrating it. I know the wide array of accents must have been purposeful, but what else. Julia, tell us your secrets!

Sewanee (pronounced swan-ee) Chester is an audiobook narrator who used to narrate romance under a pseudonym, but has since left them, and her own ideas about happily-ever-afters behind. When it turns out that the late author who helped her get her start had specifically requested she narrate her final project, and that the generous compensation will help her take care of her grandmother, Sewanee decides to make a return to romance narration. She quickly connects with co-narrator Brock McNight, comfortable that neither of them know the other’s true identity. Although, maybe Brock isn’t as much of a stranger as Sewanee thought.

This was a delight. It’s trope-laden in the best possible way, with humor, heart, and a lot of accents. I enjoyed the witty banter, the various forms of communication, and the chemistry between the main characters. Though this is a romance and there’s only so much that’s unpredictable, I enjoyed the way that things unfolded and don’t want to spoil it too much.

I can’t speak to the disability rep (Sewanee lost an eye in an accident that changed the trajectory of her acting career) here, but wanted to make a note of it.

Readers should be aware that there are mentions of accidental injury/medical trauma, and dementia on the page.

Thanks to Avon and Harper Voyager via libro.fm and NetGalley for an eARC/ALC to review.

4.5 stars rounded to 5.