An audiobook about audiobook narrators written by an audiobook narrator. So much fun! I began reading this but it is true, the audio is the true experience and Julia Whelan is a master. Sewanee is an actress turned audiobook narrator after a horrible accident. After a steamy Las Vegas evening with a mysterious stranger, she takes on a new project to help pay for her grandmother’s care. This new project happens to be a audio duet with a widely known and loved romance narrator, Brock McNight. Secrets emerge, connections form, and dreams are realized. And let’s not forget her best friend! This is such a fun read for audiobook listeners and book lovers alike. I loved the connections forged both IRL and through text/emails. The relationship between Sewanee and her best friend, father, and grandmother gave the story add depth and layers that everyone can relate to

If you’re a fan of contemporary romances in audio, chances are you’re already familiar with Julia Whelan’s work behind the microphone. After turning her hand to writing romance in 2019 with My Oxford Year, she’s back with Thank You For Listening, an emotionally gripping, touching and yet fun story about two audiobook narrators who unexpectedly fall in after a chance encounter.

The amazingly-named Sewanee – Swan - Chester is proud of her job as an audiobook narrator, especially as it allows her to stretch her acting muscles while looking after her dementia-stricken grandmother. She’s largely given up on acting in the physical realm after an on-set injury killed her rising acting career, but being a famous personality in the audiobook world means personal appearances, which also means going to conventions to promote her talent. When a handsome man sweeps her off of her feet for a one-night stand in Las Vegas, she thinks that that’s all there’ll be to it.

Sewanee is surprised to be offered the chance to narrate a romance novel by a recently-deceased bestselling author. She normally rejects romance novel jobs because her first love ended tragically, but then she learns the man who’ll be voicing her character’s love interest is none other than Brock McNight. Brock is a popular voice with a mysterious past and a face the public has never seen. Sewanee naturally wants to find out more about him, so she decides to join the project. But when she learns Brock’s real identity, she’s thrown for a loop.

If you know anything about romance novels, you already know how Sewanee’s one-night stand and Brock’s mysterious self come together, but Thank You For Listening builds up a steamy, banter-filled and spicy-fun romance between them so quickly that it doesn’t matter if you get there before the story does. At least for the first half of the book. I liked Sewanee, but it was hard for me to like ‘Brock’ after a while; I mean, the man’s a non-reader who narrates books for a living! When they stooped to jumping to the worst conclusions about one another because it’s romance and ‘tis the plot, I had to groan. I wanted more of everything I liked about their relationship to stretch deeper into the book.

Also problematic is the sheer amount of plot in the book. There’s a lot going on - Sewanee’s career, her grandmother’s illness, her unresolved trauma. Add on career issues, stuff going on with her parents and a whole lot of other baggage, and it’s really too much. It could have done with being around a hundred pages shorter, which would have prevented the odd end-of-book crash. But even with that factored in, Thank You For Listening is a pretty satisfying ride overall.

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If you want a book to give you some insight to being an audiobook narrator, this was a fun fiction that gave a glimpse. Julia Whalen is one of my favorite narrators and I enjoyed her romance book about an audiobook narrator.

I enjoyed the backstory of Sawanee and her journey to finding a new life after her accident. I really enjoyed hearing about her working with Brock to create an audiobook with dual POV and the process of recoding it.

Julia Whelan is the best audiobook narrator ever. So I was absolutely thrilled to learn she also writes. Even better, this book features main characters who narrate audiobooks and describes the fandom community around narrating. And if that weren't enough, Julia Whelan narrated the audiobook edition!

The tone is a mix between rom-com and more serious aspects. There are some quite amusing parts dissecting what makes a romance novel. It felt very meta and fun to read and consider what I consider the essential elements of the genre and how realistic they are. There's great banter between the protagonists with lots of amusing innuendo. And there are also tougher, more emotional parts about family, loss, and caring for an aging relative.

I wish the chapters were shorter. I especially loved Chapter 9 titled Epistolary, as I always enjoy texts and emails included in books. But it was really long and made it tough to find my place when switching back and forth between formats.

I loved getting to know Sewanee. And I would love to read a sequel with her best friend starring.

Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy and to LibroFM for the advanced listener copy of this book. These opinions are my own.

Thank You For Listening is a love letter to romance readers - and more specifically to audiobook romance readers. Julia Whelan is one of my favorite audiobook narrators and I loved her other book My Oxford Year as well so I was super excited for this and it did not disappoint!

I don’t want to say anything about the plot. I didn’t k or anything when I started and loved just seeing what would happen. Our main character - like our author - is an audiobook narrator but beyond that the author’s note assures us it isn’t autobiographical. I highly recommend downloading this audiobook and popping it in your ears as soon as possible!

Thank you to the publisher, Netgalley and Libro.fm for the advance reading and listening copies.

Thank you Netgalley & Avon & Harper Voyager for This advanced copy of this book. Here are my thoughts on this book.
I loved the romance between both Sewanee & Nick . Their banter with each other but also their growth in regards to letting their walls down. Swan had a lot of relationships within this story line and each one helped make her who she is. Nick was honestly my favorite character and felt like I could relate to him the most.
Although the romance was beautiful, I believe it did not get as much time to shine as everything else. This book felt a tad too chaotic for me , but it’s understandable given what Swan was going through. I just could not get behind her character though and found myself really becoming annoyed with her behaviors and always projecting her own issues onto others.
I did appreciate how the author portrayed dementia/Alzheimer’s in the story and I could truly feel my heart break for Sewanee because she already lost so much due to her own accident, but losing her grandmother to the disease was gut wrenching . I did not mind this story at all , it was a tad too slow for my liking and the romance was very short lived I feel. I did like the surprise twist about Nick and his alter ego. I rated this 3 stars .

If you like fun banter, quirky characters, healing & colleagues/ one night stand to lovers then this story is for you. Watch for it when it comes out on August 6th,2022.

Thank you to the author, Netgalley and Avon for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is the first book I’ve read by Julia Whelan and I can say I love her as much as an author as I do a narrator.

The story was heartwarming. I loved all of the characters. I appreciated greatly that they were diverse. The love story was captivating (in all of it’s different iterations). I am not sure I have wished or rooted for a couple to get their HEA as much as I did in ‘Thank You for Listening”.

I thought the behind the scenes glimpse into the world of audiobooks (which I LOVE) was incredibly fascinating! I can relate to the emotion of strongly connecting to the person voicing the characters and I can’t wait to enjoy this story again when it is available in audio format!

The only small critique for me was during the final pursuit, the will they/won’t they end up together, I wished would’ve resulted in one final love scene of sorts. The build up was there and the characters intense pull to one another was so strong that I think it would’ve felt complete.

I cannot wait to circle back to Whelan’s first novel and anticipate future releases!

RATING: 3/5 STARS

This was a unique book and I thoroughly enjoyed the romance! I did find myself skimming some parts but I overall enjoyed this glimpse into the world of audiobook narration.

Fun romance novel perfect for summer reading by the pool. I enjoyed reading this and appreciate the opportunity.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is my first exposure to Julia Whelan’s work and I simply loved it. The meta aspects of the romance tropes and the world of audiobooks/narrators was a fun setting. I was enamored with Sawanee and delighted she found her Nick/Brock. I found myself invested in all of the characters and their journeys.

I really enjoyed Thanks For Listening. It was a really unique story set up, and being an avid reader, it was fun to read something so “different “… There were a lot of texts and emails, and the author really knew how to write those, so they didn’t become monotonous. Give this one a whirl …

This was an absolutely delightful rom-com. The writing was superb and I can only imagine how spectacular it will be on audio. It was written partly in textual communication and in some ways reminded me of You’ve Got Mail. I would LOVE to see this made into a movie. Overall, I loved it and highly recommend if you’re in the mood for an enjoyable romance.

Is there anything better than a Julia Whelan book narrated by Julia Whelan?

How about one about an audiobook narrator???

That’s right, this delightful romcom features a darling audiobook narrator who doesn’t believe in HEAs. Sewanne had a tragic accident while perusing acting that led her to narration but has she really let go of that dream? She also refuses all romance books until she gets an offer she can’t refuse in order to help her beloved Grandma. Once her life becomes a romance book, she has a hard time believing any of it is real.

Ok y’all, this book was a delight. I loved how this book makes fun of romance books and tropes while being a romance book. The banter between Sewanne and Nick was super fun while texting and swoon worthy in person.

And while this book is funny, it deals a lot of tough topics. My gran lost her memory just like Blah and it was heartbreaking to see. Thankfully I never saw her at her worst like Sewanne did, but I know it happened similarly.

I loved the woman’s fiction vs romance debate because that’s what this book felt like (and the style that I prefer to read).

I wanna know, did she write the character’s accents because that’s what she wanted to perform? Or is that who they were and then she decided the voices? Or at they one in the same? Either way, top notch narration!

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @avonbooks for the advanced copy. I was holding out reading, hoping for the audio copy, and right as I picked this up to read, it became available on audio from @librofm so thank you!!!

"You are going to have to stop thinking you're more than the damaged version of yourself"

I loved this one. Other than the weird name choices for the characters I have nothing negative to say. MC is name is Sewanne (Swan-ee) and everyone in the book calls her grandmother Blah-Blah because she couldn't say Barbara when she was little and the name stuck.

This book starts with a bang. Sewanee experiences one of the biggest fear of a romance audiobook listeners: The earphone malfunction resulting with a steamy scene being heard by everyone around you in a public space:) And also, if you've been following me on IG you'd know I love Julia's male voice. I think it is so freaking sexy. There is a scene where she has trouble convincing people she narrates all the characters in books. She clearly nods to herself in some parts of the books.

Since the book is written by the queen of audiobooks there is so much to love in this book if you are an audiobook junkie like me. You learn about audiobook production process, prepping for a recording (making word lists, finding the correct pronunciation, identifying the emotional arc of the story, marking breath points in syntactically challenging passages, mapping relationships between characters, and developing voices and accents) about brilliant stage names or pseudonyms of romance narrators, there is some audio inside jokes.

I loved Sewanee from the first scene. She is a bit prickly, she doesn't want to narrate romance novels because she doesn't believe in the way romance novels portrayed real life, she doesn't beieve in HEAs. She ends up accepting a job offer because she needs money for her grandma's assisted living expenses.

This book is essentially women's fiction with a strong romance plotline. Sewanee learns to come to terms with the ending of her acting career while watching her friends rise to stardom. She has a facial deformation as a result of a freak accident. She also have a troubled relationship with her father.

Romance storyline is so sweet. it is basically Fated Mates stuff:) This book uses lots of romance tropes and makes fun of this fact. "It Fells like we fell out of a Romance tree and hit every trope on the way down: Snowed In, Just One Night, Epistolary, Mistaken Identity, Love Triangle, Second Chance. but no contrived fight over a pointless misunderstanding to make them realize what they had and almost lost.
There is a chapter of email and text exchanges between the MC and the love interest (I loved him btw) that made me grin so hard. The chapter was so funny, full of sexual innuendos.

This book is just my jam. I cannot wait to re-read it in audio format.

Full disclosure - This is my first time reading Julia Whelan, but not my first time listening to her. But you know how a good actor can make you feel things? Imagine a great actor recording her own book that SHE WROTE!! So many feels. I laughed, I gasped, and I got misty. The range of her accents (and her male voices) is next level.

This book works in so many ways. An audiobook narrator ends up on her own romance journey, full of all of the tropes she's so reticent about. (Like literally SO many tropes and they all spoil the story sooooo...). But I loved every bit of it, even the sad parts... And there were plenty of sad parts - from the story of how Sewanee lost her eye to her grandmother's journey with dementia - but it's also so uplifting and cozy. Annnnnnnnd the STEAM. Make sure your phone is *actually* connected to your phone, you've been warned.

*Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review and LibroFM for the gifted audiobook*

Thank You For Listening is literally everything I love in a book wrapped up in one delightful package. I couldn’t devour it fast enough, and now my only regret is that I can’t read it again for the first time. You know it’s a good book when you can’t stop thinking about it, and this one has been living rent free in my imagination since I finished it almost a week ago.

Julia Whelan, one of my favorite audiobook narrators, has written a romance about audiobook narrators who fall in love. AND she narrates the audiobook, which was FABULOUS. The angst was super low (which was a nice change of pace) and the humor and heart were strong, and I just absolutely loved it. There’s a book convention, audiobook shenanigans, texting banter, family drama, and a big reveal at the end that made me smile even bigger than before.

I don’t know what else to say other than you need to read this book AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Run. Don’t walk. And if you are an audiobook fan, I’d HIGHLY recommend listening to this one. Haha!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my advance reader copy and Libro.fm for my advance listening copy. I already want to listen to it again.

STOP EVERYTHING AND READ THIS BOOK!! Narrator extraordinaire Julia Whelan has absolutely hit it out of the park with her sophomore novel, Thank You for Listening. I want to be best friends with the main character, Sewanee Chester (sorry, Adaku), who is also an audiobook narrator (although the author's note tells us this is in no way autobiographical).

To be honest, I was unsure about this one initially, because My Oxford Year was not my favorite (I was in the minority here) but I am so glad I picked this one up because it was certainly a top read of the year for me.

Thank you to Avon for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to readers. This was such a delightful read! There are laugh out loud portions as well as heartrending family scenes. It also gives audiobook fans a glimpse behind the production of this format. The book centers on an audiobook narrator who is asked to read a book by one of her favorite people as a final request to the author. The concern is that it is a Romance and the narrator does NOT read romance. When life encroaches, she must decide whether to open herself up for the possible. I want to thank NetGalley for the advance e-ARC.

Thank You For Listening is the first book I read from Julia Whelan. I tried reading My Oxford Year years ago, but that ended up being a DNF for me. Thank You For Listening explores the world of audiobook production, acceptance, and self-discovery. I really loved one small subplot that focused on the behind the scenes and more insight about audiobook production, narrators who use their real names versus pseudonym, narrating different genres, and what narrators do to bring the story to life to readers. If the whole book was based on that and the budding romance between the main characters, I would have really liked it. The plot was really intriguing. However, it felt longer than necessary as there were way too many subplots which overpowered the main plot. I did like the format of the story where there was a small mix of emails and texts. This was my favorite part as I felt that we really got the learn more about the main characters’ pasts and their dreams. The pacing of the storyline felt off. There were some moments where there was too much happening and other times where it dragged out. The male main character was underdeveloped. I felt that we didn’t know much about him. Though I had mixed feelings about this book, Julia Whelan does a great narrating her book.

This was a fun story! I could completely see this as a rom com movie! I loved the characters and their banter. This is a story that will definitely lift your mood!