I haven't (yet) read Julia Whelan's first book, My Oxford Year, but I've heard good things about it. And I'm a big fan of her narrations of audiobooks - there's a reason she's at the top of the "favorite narrators" lists of so many audiobook listeners. And yes, I do love a good romance novel. So I knew I wanted to listen to her narrate her romance about an audiobook narrator - a subject where her knowledge could add so much to the story.
And wow, did she ever deliver on both fronts. The story and the writing was just so much fun - smart and sad and sexy, full of heart and just really entertaining. Whelan has written wonderful supporting characters for her main character, Sewannee (Swan) Chester in the form of family and her lifelong best friend. Swan is a former actress and a successful audiobook narrator who doesn't like narrating romances because she's lost her belief in happily ever after. When she's enticed into narrating "just one more romance book" to solve a family financial crisis, the job comes with the opportunity to work long-distance with the mysterious Brock McNight, the narrator with the McDreamy voice whose true identity is a mystery. The usual elements of a romance novel are there and the journey is a delight. The peek behind the scenes of the world of publishing, audiobooks, and book conventions adds an extra dimension to the whole package.
Thanks to Netgalley and Avon for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

Thank you so much to Avon and Netgalley for providing an e-arc of this! All thoughts and opinions are still my own.

Wow... Julia Whelan's talent never ceases to blow me away. I listened to this on audio, and I can't recommend picking this up on audio enough.

This story is a pretty even balance between contemporary and romance. This focuses on Sawanee's personal journey as well as her romance with Nick and thought the emphasis on both was done fantastically.

Sawanee is an audiobook narrator who has gone through some very traumatic life changes over the last few years. Because of that, her goals, dreams, and self confidence are severely impacted and she is a little lost and directionless. Throughout this, we grow to understand her defenses and watch her tear down her self-imposed walls and limitations.

The support of Sawanee's friends and family was amazing. This is one of those stories where you fall in love with the side characters as much as the main characters. Her best friend was ride or die and I loved everything about her.

Alongside that we're getting a very tongue in cheek romance between her and Nick. I loved how Julia Whelan played into romance tropes and made this story so self aware. Since Sawanee is in romance, she is constantly comparing events to romance novels and it was just a really fun spin.

Overall I just a had a really good time with this story. I thought it was well balanced, well paced, and Julia Whelan's narration skills are unparalleled. If you're an audiobook lover, I highly recommend giving this one a try!

Everyone knows @justjuliawhelan is the best of all audiobook narrators, but did you know that she is also an incredible writer? In her newest book, Thank You for Listening, life imitates art when her main character is a audiobook narrator!

Sewanee is a former actress turned audiobook narrator after an major accident leaves her without an eye. She has found success and is able to care for her ailing grandmother when she meets a handsome stranger one night in Las Vegas. They enjoy one incredible night together and then part ways.

Sewanee narrates many genres, but she does not do romance. When she’s approached to do a huge author’s last romance book with mega star narrator Brock McKnight, she has to really think about it. But this job also comes with a huge paycheck that would help care for her grandmother in the next level of care.

As she and Brock get closer during work, but through email and phone calls only, does Sewanee see that not all romance is bad? I absolutely loved the relationship between Sewanee and Brock. Maybe it’s because they are anonymous and can really be themselves, but they have incredible chemistry.

The book also features Sewanee’s best friend, Adaku who is also an actress. I enjoyed their friendship since both women tell it like it is. They can be real and honest with each other and they have a long history. But the book also discusses what it’s like in the show business industry for a black woman. I found this all really fascinating.

Thank you so much to @libro.fm, @avonbooks, @harperaudio and Julia for my gifted ALC and ebook. Thank you for listening is on sale now and I highly recommend the audiobook to hear Julia! 👸🏻

What’s better than books about books? This book is about audiobooks. And romance books. And has a romance in it. And some of the best witty banter I’ve ever read. The chemistry between the MCs is off the charts. They are together so much in the book it’s simply delicious and I loved it.

I had no idea my favorite female audiobook narrator Julia Whelan is also a writer! This book is a romance that uses a subject close to her heart: the MC is an audiobook narrator who falls for an audiobook narrator. I love audiobooks so much and it's fun to learn the behind the scenes stuff about the industry, but the love story is really good!

Sewanee is a talented VO actress who gets an offer to narrate June French’s final romance novel w/ Brock McKnight, the sexiest voice in the biz. It's an offer she can't refuse despite not doing romance novels. She has a lot going on: her grandmother has Altzheimers, she has a difficult relationship with her Dad, her Mom is off traveling with her new partner, and she had a terrible accident 7 years prior which cut her acting career short. When she starts working with Brock he gives her life just like their banter and connection gave me life while reading it. Email and text conversations in books is one of my favorite devices and the flirty exchanges in these is top notch.

I’m not going to spoil anything because there are a bunch of surprises in this, but I was super hooked and I can't recommend it enough. Listen to it if you can, Whelan does an amazing job as usual.

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Thanks so much to NetGalley & Avon Books for the ARC !!!

Thank you for Listening took me on an emotional journey.

You have to be open to the possibilities.

I loved reading Sewanee and Nick’s story. They are two realistic, flawed and complicated characters. They are both stuck in a life they aren’t happy with after their lives moved in an unexpected direction. They are vulnerable and afraid to take a chance.

This is an intriguing story that had me quickly turning the pages to find out what would happen next because I was never quite sure what direction it would go. It held me captive from start to finish. This story took me through many emotions: falling in love, family dysfunction and losing your dreams,

There are also some interesting and colorful secondary characters included in the story. I especially loved Sewanee’s grandmother, she was a hoot. Julie Whelan writes a beautiful and touching story.

I LOVED THIS! Sweet, emotional, hilarious, romantic, and an absolute delight! I love that this book centers on audiobooks because I love listening to audiobooks and I found it fascinating learning more about the process. The romance is just top-notch and sexy and so real!

Thank you for Listening by Julia Whelan was such a fun read. This book just had the best overall balance for everything you would want and need in a story. I can not say enough good things about this authors storytelling. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to more books by this author in the future. Five star +

This book was delightful. Julia Whelan is my number one audiobook narrator and I was way too excited when I saw Thank You For Listening was written by her!

Sewanee Chester, former actress, current jaded audiobook narrator is sucked back into the world of romance books when a flurry of events leads her back to a time she has since given up on. Mixed with friend drama, family drama, and workplace drama, Thank You For Listening is a sweet romance book that also lets the reader peek into the world of audiobook narration.

Sewanee was a good MC and I REALLY liked the male MC. I think there could have been a bit less family drama (a lot of conflicts with multiple family members) and a bit more romance (multiple fade to black scenes). But, overall the banter was fun and the HEA was satisfying (it is a romance book after all).

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the eARC.

#ThankYouForListening:⁣
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Thank you (partner) @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks @avonbooks for the gifted physical copy and headphones! Thank you @harperaudio and @librofm for the gifted audiobook!⁣
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You thought you swooned over Julia Whelan’s voice in Book Lovers as Charlie Lastra? Wait til y’all meet Brock McNight. 👀 👀 Julia Whelan is back, but this time, it’s her own book she’s reading from! Y’all already know I love a JW narration, so why wouldn’t I love a JW narration + plot? ⁣
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Her voice of BlahBlah was SO GOOD. Ugh, I could literally see the crinkle by her eyes when talking about the golden years of Hollywood. There’s one thing I’ll always love about Whelan is that she can be a full cast all by herself.⁣
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The story itself with Sewanee was very unique and I really enjoyed it. It gave me some Birds of California and Malibu Rising feels (both also read by Julia Whelan) You couldn’t help but cheer for Sewanee to finally see herself the way the rest of the world still saw her. ⁣
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Overall, a wonderful hit from my favorite audiobook reader about.. well, an audiobook reader! I enjoyed the different background about narration as we don’t ever get to see that. A unique story for sure. Thanks again @bibliolifestyle, @williammorrowbooks, @avonbooks, @harperaudio, and @librofm for the copies. Thank You For Listening is out now! ⁣
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QOTD: Sewanee has an alias as a narrator. She used the trusty algorithm as her first pet and the street she grew up on. I guess mine would be Brownie Kirkwood. What would yours be?

Julie is a fan favorite as an audiobook narrator and she’s clearly equally talented at putting words onto paper.
This was such a fun read as it took us behind the scenes of the audiobook world with the main character an audiobook narrator who was a former actress still coming to grips with an accident from years ago and how it molded her and her relationships today…which is not necessarily where she wants to be.
Great characters, romance, friendship, behind-the-scenes and plenty of twists to keep the pages turning!
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

08/02/22 New Release!

Please hear me out on this one before coming at me 😬

1. I was over the moon excited to listen to this after seeing the rave 4-5 ⭐️ reviews on here!

2. I was even more hyped that the MC Sewanee was disabled! ( being chronically ill I believe that romantic partners with disabilities should be written about WAY more often!) I am ALL FOR romances with characters that aren’t cut from a cookie cutter mold.

3. I know that Julia Whelan is a beloved Audio Book Narrator & Actress. I’ve enjoyed her voice a good amount of times as well so I was intrigued!

However this book was a total miss for me.

A. The romance between Sewanee & Brock always seemed forced.

B. I don’t think either character had a very enjoyable personality.

C. The twists that come out were quite cringe (spoiler free so I’ll keep this basic & say for instance why he really approached her to begin with)

“Why had he chosen her? She realized her hair had fallen forward in a way that had hidden her eye patch.”

D. The back & forth banter wasn’t very humorous for me, but a bit dull.

E. There were FAR too many side stories : her grandmother in the nursing home, her strained relationship with her father, her best friend’s career, her mother & stepfather’s romance, June’s backstory etc.

F. In comparison with another book that I listened to about audio book narrators, “The Ex Talk” it wasn’t nearly as good.

G. There were zero steamy parts IMO. 😬

H. The book was too long & repetitive. I actually sped up the last 15-20% so I could be finished.

I. The odd names were very distracting Seawanee aka “Swan”, “Blah Blah,” Adaku…

“The human voice is the thread that connects one soul to another. “

“I don’t know when but eventually you’re gonna to have to stop thinking you’re nothing more than a damaged
version of yourself.”

Thank you #partners @librofm @netgalley & @harperaudio for a #gifted ALC in exchange for my honest review. I know this one is loved by many !
📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖

💭As discussed in Chapter 2 what would your stripper name be?
Name of your first pet & the street you grew up on.
👉🏻Mine would be Sassy Maine -I think it’s kinda sexy! 💁🏻‍♀️

The lights flashed, the coins rattled, the people cheered; some in elation and others in frustration. Vegas had an allure about it that just drew her in. It wanted to capture every little piece of her, but she didn’t have any pieces left. She sat at the bar and sipped her drink, the ice clinking against the glass when she returned it empty to the counter. She felt a presence sit next to her; another human being caught in the Vegas seduction.

Thank You for Listening just captured every little piece of my heart. Sewanee’s character is an audiobook narrator, who after starting in romance has now abandoned the genre. She doesn’t believe in happily ever afters anymore. That is until an opportunity she can’t refuse lands in her inbox.

This book is an emotional roller coaster that will leave you breathless and believing in love, and reiterate why romance isn’t always about the happily ever afters; it’s about the connection we as humans crave. Plus, it has You’ve Got Mail vibes throughout the story and I couldn’t keep myself from smiling. It’s not all light and fluffy romance though and there are some tough topics navigated in this book, so please go in with a bit of caution.

I highly recommend giving this book a read if you’re a romance fan (forced proximity, second chance, snowed in tropes), a You’ve Got Mail fan, and just want a wonderful book to read.

This newest release by Julia Whelan (also, the best audiobook narrator out there) is 5 stars!. Her first book, My Oxford Year, left me wanting more and this book did not disappoint.

Sewanee is an actress turned audiobook narrator. Starting her narrator career in romance, Sewanee transitioned to realistic fiction after an accident left her believing that “happily ever after” endings aren’t an actuality, but she gets pulled back into the romance world when she received an offer she can’t turn down.

There are some books that give you all the feels, and then there are others that GIVE YOU ALL THE FEELS, and for me that is Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan. She narrates her own audiobook (I mean why wouldn't she), and I think you should for sure listen to this in order to get the full experience. She is my favorite narrator, and now I know she is going to be one of my favorite authors as well. I was laughing one minute and crying the next, and this took me on a ride of emotions like no other. I loved every single one of her characters, and while I know the story offers just a tiny taste of what it's like to be an audiobook narrator, I couldn't have been more fascinated. There is really a ton of work that goes into it that I hadn't thought of and being that Whelan is so good at what she does, I'm sure she does her due diligence just like our MC Sewanee.

Besides all of the audiobook greatness that permeated this read, I loved Sewanee's grandma and the ladies at her care home the most. The voices Whelan created for each of her characters, not just them, were spot on and amazing, and she still does the best male voice of any narrator I've heard. Thank You for Listening also runs the gamut when it comes to different tropes packed into one book, and I thought it was a nice touch the way Whelan acknowledges that. I felt very seen when they mention readers who listen at 3x speed as well and nuggets like that permeate the entire story. There is also a great section after the book titled "On Autobiography", and I was very glad she included that part in the audio as well. Make sure you don't miss that or this gem of a book that is romance but so much more. If you don't love straight-up romance, Thank You for Listening is a great choice since it's about a whole lot more than that. Now if only I could be friends with Whelan...

Thank you to the publishers for my advanced listening and reader copies of this book. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

Bleh, I struggled with this book a lot and didn’t finish it. I am a voracious romance reader, and I just felt like this story had too many subplots going on and I couldn’t get into the romance that I thought I was getting with this book.

Unfortunately, this was a bust for me.

I received a complimentary copy via NetGalley and voluntarily left a review.

LOVED this one! Main character Sewanee was injured in an accident 5 or so years before the book began, in which she lost her eye. Unable to continue her budding acting career, she has become a successful audiobook narrator, but has kept herself a bit apart from the world, especially from pursuing relationship. But an uncharacteristic encounter in Las Vegas, and then a growing correspondence with her new co-narrator of a romance book, has her considering putting herself out there again. But just as much as the romance plots, the book is also about her relationship with her grandmother whose memory is fading, her divorced parents, and her best friend who she adores but can’t help being jealous of.

All the characters were just terrific, and the book hit all the emotions from funny to sad but always heartfelt and entertaining. It’s also very meta - Whelan herself os a famous audiobook narrator, plus it’s meta because Sewannee has voiced many romance novels so the characters make lots of witty references to romance tropes, plus the chapters are titled with plot structure words and start with both real quotes about writing and faux quotes from a romance writer in the book! If I had to compare this book to the style of other authors, I’d say Katherine Center, with a pinch of the meta romance references of Book Lovers by Emily Henry.

I might be the only person out there who has never listened to an audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan - only because I have never listened to an audio novel! But now I really want to listen to one of hers! Plus go back and read her first book, plus anything she writes in the future.

4.5 stars

This would have been a great book to listen to – Julia Whelan is an amazing narrator, plus it being about an audiobook narrator, come on! but I didn’t get the audio from netgalley, and what was I supposed to do, wait for it??? when I had the ebook from netgalley??? As if. And I’m glad I didn’t wait, the ebook was fabulous and I adored it. loved every single thing about it. I loved the two main characters, I loved the side characters (Blah! Adaku!), I loved the relationship between Sewanee and Nick, loved all the tropes, honestly just loved every single second and highly highly recommend. Swan is probably one of my favourite main characters ever. I hope they make this into a movie…..

I rarely listen to audiobooks and had not previously heard of Julia Whelan (who is apparently a well-known actress and narrator) but I adored this wonderful love story. It had pretty much everything I look for a good romance - wonderful, well-rounded characters who had real faults and concerns, humor, heart, amazing chemistry between two people who, as far as they knew, had never met IRL, a great slow burn, sweet consideration between the two leads, and an in-depth and knowledgeable look at the nuts and bolts of audiobook recording. Plus bonus points for the epistolary sections and banter. The book also did a great job in putting MCs on equal footing in their personal lives, wanting to move on to new challenges, yet somewhat stuck in their present circumstances and outlook.

In addition to the central relationship, there was plenty more going on with Sewanee’s best friend really starting to break through in her acting career, and her grandmother slowly sinking into dementia. At one point in the book, there was a humorous discussion of the difference between women’s fiction and romance and I feel like the author did a great job straddling that line while still keeping more to the romance side of the fence. Although there was a lot going on, the plot lines felt well fleshed out and vivid. The book was a pleasure to read and now I’m thinking I should probably check out one of the author’s audiobook titles and give it a try. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

Everyone has been raving about this book for weeks now, so you already know that I have high expectations for this book. And yet, I was disappointed. Let me explain.

First, I had high expectations for this book. Everyone was saying this book was a solid romance book. It has all of the tropes with its slow burn romance and second chance trope. But none of these tropes apply to this book. It was more of a you got mail movie vibes.

Second, the pace of the book was too slow for my taste. I was fifty percent in, and still waiting for something to happen. There was not much romance happening. It was more toward the end when we get to read about the romance, which is disappointing.

Third, the main characters were not appealing to me at all. I found them a bit boring to read. Nothing in their personality attracted my attention. They both needed something more. Don’t know what, but something.

And last, I kept finding myself bored with this book. I know it’s bad to say, but I just wasn’t entertained. I tried my hardest to keep reading on. It just wasn’t for me.

2.5/5 stars— Having retired her Romance narrating days, former actress turned audiobook narrator Sewanee Chester finds herself back to her old roots. How you may ask? Before she passes on, one of the biggest names in romance, June French requests that Sewanee co-narrate one of her romance series with none other than THE Brock McKnight, the swoony male heartthrob in the Romance audiobook industry.

What happens when hard truths are revealed between them along the way? I enjoyed the banter between Sewanee and Brock. Sewanee is a nonbeliever in everything romance stands for but Brock attempts to break through her cynicism. I wouldn’t say I fell in love with them as a couple but the roles they played in each other’s lives showed when it came to their own individual healing.

Now, I requested this one on a whim due to the buzz I kept hearing about it. The story itself is very meta as the author is known as THE audiobook queen in real life. Unfortunately, I didn’t vibe with this one as much as I would’ve liked. It just didn’t feel cohesive, too many side stories being incorporated that made it feel haphazard at times and not as fully developed. The storyline of the ill grandmother and deadbeat dad, the more successful actress best friend, the mom and stepdad in another country, etc etc. At one point, literally one chapter was just hours of mainly dialogue between the two main characters which definitely threw me off a bit.

Once we got to the last third, I really was feeling the disconnection and detachment from the book. I practically was skimming through the rest just so I could finish it.

I don’t know if my experience would’ve been better if I listened to this on audiobook instead. But the fact that I’m not much of an audiobook person to begin with, I don’t really think it would’ve changed my mind all that much.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.