This is everything BOOK LOVERS thought it was.

Full of deeply drawn characters, mostly believable plot lines, and sparkling banter, THANK YOU FOR LISTENING is a must for romance and book nerds everywhere. There are hilarious mishaps, email/text epistolary chapters, and a peek behind the curtain of the life of an audiobook narrator. At times the structure felt a bit wonky, and it is on the longer side, but this was a great summer read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for this review.

I started reading this book on a plane, which was so perfect given it starts on a plane! Pretty quickly I knew Sewanee was the type of character I would be friends with. She narrates audiobooks, and we follow her life as she navigates several months, and narrating a big romance project. Full of recognition of all of the tropes contained within the story -- “Snowed In.” “Just One Night.” “Epistolary.”“Mistaken Identity.” “Love Triangle.” "Second Chance” and lots of self growth as well. This was a really fun read and I'm glad I have a new author to follow! Given the topic, I kinda wish I had listened to the audiobook!

I've listened to many Julia Whelan-narrated books, but this was my first book by her! I have heard good things about My Oxford Year, so Whelan is no stranger to me. Overall, I really liked the book! I think the premise is super interesting - an actress turned audiobook narrator, navigating life after a tragic accident that has her thinking she's not deserving to take any chances on making in the acting world again. I kind of saw the love story molding its way in the book, even though the characters didn't, but I really liked the love story! The arc is more of a slow burn, but it was definitely fun and swoon-worthy. I think something to keep in mind before and during this book, that this leans on heavy than lighthearted - it deals with life post-injury, a loved one who has Alzheimer's, and broken parent relationships. But Whelan did a really great job crafting this story.

Julia Whelan is as strong of a writer as she is a narrator. I'm always delighted by her work.

I was especially delighted that this story started out with my worst nightmare. Her audiobook disconnects with her phone on an airplane without realizing it and lets just say she was not listening to a sweet little romance. I cackled. I have daymares about this exact situation at my desk at work at least once a week.

This book was so fun to get to see the behind the scenes of the audiobook industry. Carb-loading so your stomach isn't growling during recording? Limiting red wine during a romantic evening so your voice doesn't sound weird the next day? Emails back and forth to discuss how moany you want a moan to be in a recording? So many things to think about in the background of these stories I enjoy.

I'm not going to recap the plot so I don't spoil any of the fun on who Brock McNight is but boy does he give good banter. I loved that instead of the main female character having some tragic backstory that makes her as reserved in her relationships as she is, she's wearing hers right on her face. I was anxious that someone did this to her and I was so relieved that it was a freak accident.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

I throughly enjoyed Julia Whelan's debut novel, My Oxford Year, and was eager to pick up this new title. In completely aligning with my expectations, Thank You for Listening was EXCELLENT! The novel follows Sewanee (Swan-nee) an audiobook narrator who absolutely hates narrating Romance genre titles. Her best friend has just got her big break as an actress, and Sewanee is struggling because before a major accident that derailed her career, she too was on her way to her big break too. After a trip to a readers conference- including a one night encounter with a nearly perfect man- Sewanee is thrusted back into the Romance genre with an unlikely co-narrator.

This novel has everything you need in a Rom Com, minus the cheesiness. I thought it was genuinely hilarious from the first chapter (no spoilers but it does involve headphones that were mistakenly unplugged and an erotic Romance audiobook). Sawanee's character development was unique and intriguing. I felt it wrapped up unexpectedly and also exactly how I wanted it too.

Absolutely fantastic. I cannot wait to recommend this book to everyone I know, especially those who love audiobooks. This is definitely a book I feel should be listened to on audiobook. It's narrated by Julia Whelan and she does an amazing job. The story was original and unlike everything else I've read before. It keeps you entertained and I literally laughed out loud at some of the funny moments.

Julia Whelan is one of my favorite audiobook narrators so I jumped at the opportunity to read an early copy of Thank You for Listening. The fact that the plot focuses on audiobook narrators who both benefit and sometimes loathe the romance genre had me laughing and nodding in agreement throughout the novel. The writing is smart and clever, dialogue (both the real time and epistolary) is fantastic, and the secondary characters are well-written and unique. Whelan doesn't shy away from heavier matters: caring for aging loved ones, rising from the ashes of perceived failure, grieving the loss of a career are all addressed in Thank You for Listening. For me, the most profound theme revolves around seeing ourselves as we are and courageously allowing love into our lives, particularly when it would be far easier to avoid intimacy.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the early glimpse of this wonderful story. All opinions shared here are my own.

I enjoyed this one!

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books and Libro.fm for my advanced copies of Thank You for Listening.

I loved Julia Whelan's previous book My Oxford Year so naturally I've been patiently waiting for the release of this wonderful book. It did not disappoint. Not only was it written by Julia but it was narrated by her as well. She is what I like to call audiobook royalty. She is an amazing voice actor. I always get excited when I see her listed as a narrator on other books on my TBR.

I loved the characters in this book. I was most invested in the relationship between Sewanee and her grandmother Blah Blah. It was beautiful.
I did enjoy Nick and Sewanee together. They had great banter and chemistry. I for whatever reason was not as invested in them as a couple. I can't quite put my finger on it and that is why this book lost a star.

Overall- Recommend. I will always read / listen to Julia's books.

Julia Whelan is one of my very favorite audiobook narrators, she’s SO good and if I see she’s narrating a book I’m on the fence about, I immediately add it to my TBR when her name pops up. So I wasn’t sure what to expect from her as an author and y’all, she blew my mind! This was such a fantastic romance, it had everything that matters to me and more and will surely be in my top reads of the year list come December.

There was something so playful about this one, there is a lot of talk about various romance tropes and there some fun, witty and sarcastic commentary surrounding the genre as a whole. I fell in love with Sewanee and found her to be charming, hilarious and totally genuine. There is one whole section that is epistolary and seeing as that format is one of my absolute favorites I was happy!! I adored every single page of this one although I never do rereads I’ll be listening to this one in the future.

Never read this author before so this was new to me. A sweet and sometimes steamy romance; A fun read, but with some serious elements. Will check out other books by this author. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for a review.

"Thank You for Listening", by Julia Whelan, is based on two interesting characters: audiobook narrators. I have never read a book about this, and I was intrigued. In Whelan's book, Sewanee and Brock (a.k.a. Nick) are both tasked with the job of narrating a bestselling romance book. Having never met (or so they thought!), their relationship is primarily text and email based. The more they converse, the closer they get. Eventually, a sweet romance has developed and they decide to meet in person. Upon meeting, they're shocked to discover that they're not really strangers, but had a steamy one-night stand just months before starting their narrating job.

I really enjoyed their cute, flirtatious banter while texting and emailing, but something got lost in translation when they met (again) in real life. I also felt that too much time was spent on the grandmother plot rather than really fleshing out the two main characters. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I'm not 100% sure why podcasting driven romances are a new niche, but this one is just another in the trend, not a first purchase.

Apparently this is the year for great witty romances. I’m very much enjoying all these books that openly play around with romance tropes and the audiobook aspect was a nice spin.

I’m not really sure if this counts as romance or women’s fiction but either way, it had a good fun love story and also a lot of depth to the characters who all had some deep rooted issues to work through. The banter was witty and the chemistry between the main characters was palpable.

Truly adored this and highly recommend it!

I am an absolute fangirl for anything Julia Whelan writes. My Oxford Year is one of my favorite books of all time, so I was stoked to get to read an early copy of this. The chemistry and banter between the two MC's had me grinning LIKE A FOOL while reading their email and text exchanges. It made me wish I had a crush to text. I could not put this book down, I just really loved the world and the characters and needed them to be together finally.

Thanks to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for the opportunity to read and review this one before publication! Julia Whelan is one of my favorite audiobook narrators, and I hugged this by the end! The setup: Sewanee Chester is a former actress turned audiobook narrator who is wrestling with her own recent trauma. After a book conference, she meets a sweet-talking stranger over one evening, and when she gets home she gets the opportunity to do one last romance audiobook (duel recording) with the charming, illusive Brock McNight.

What I loved:
--busting out with loud laughter throughout
--deep dive into romance tropes and audiobook-making behind the scenes
--well-developed side characters with their own histories
--those chapter titles!
--smart, emotional writing

I can't wait to see the buzz when this comes out! Fans of Julia Whelan as well as Emily Henry's Book Lovers should not miss this one.

Love Julia Whalen and she is about to have anlther hit on her hands. Super fun reading about the life of an audio book reader since I never really think about them!!

This was a cute story about an industry I didn't know anything about. It's obvious Whalen knows and loves her work. It certainly made me appreciate and want to listen to more audio books. In terms of characters, I just never fully understood Sewanee and had a hard time routing for her. And while yes the coincidence was laughed at and explained as being out of a movie, it still was rather too much of a jump for me. But overall this story was a quick easy summer read.

I loved the idea of this book. I am always intrigued by books that are about books and this one was about audiobooks! Such a fun concept. This book was definitely deeper than I had expected. The cartoon-ish cover deceived me because it was a very deep book about concepts of following your dreams despite tradgedy. It was a great introduction into Julia Whelan for me and has me adding 'My Oxford Year' to the top of my TBR pile!

Thank You for Listening is my top recommendation for audiobook fans! This novel, from Avon Books, will hit store shelves on August 2nd so get those pre-orders in now.

If you aren’t familiar with Julia Whelan she is, in real life, an audiobook narrator that has narrated over 400 books. This is also Julia's second novel so you can read her backlist book, My Oxford Year (published in 2018) while you await this release.

Given the nature of her work, ideally, you will choose the audiobook format for this one. Unfortunately, I did not get to listen to this book on audiobook because I only had access to a digital copy, but Julia has done a phenomenal job promoting her narrating it so you can watch those clips on her Instagram account to get a taste for what's to come.
In Thank You For Listening, our main character, Sewanee had dreams of becoming the next big actress. When she is involved in a tragic accident though, she is forced to give up her on-camera roles and focus on acting of a different kind...working as an audiobook narrator.

The thing is that she is REALLY good at it and it has led to some really fun projects. This new career, in fact, leads her to a book convention where she has one hot steamy night with a charming stranger.
That isn't the only exciting development though because Sewanee's narration is requested by one of the most beloved romance novelists. It is this author's request that she narrates this along with one of the industry's most secretive voices- Brock McKnight.

The two must talk each other through the scenes and coach each other on narration. Whelan imagines their own steamy encounters when they have to narrate these scenes together that is just EVERYTHING you want this book to be.

Shenanigans ensue, a love triangle is made, and this character GROWS- all fun plot points for any romance lover. This book names the tropes and owns the tropes- it is perfection.

I will say, she also weaves in thoughtful side characters like her best friend who encourages her along the way, a well-developed story about Sewanee coming to terms with her disability, and financial motivations for Sewanee to take these jobs to care for her ailing grandmother.

This one left me with a BIG, GOOFY GRIN and I can't wait for you to read it.

In particular, I want to recommend this one to fans of The Ex Talk (another fun romp, but this time with an NPR setting). It has similar work chemistry and I loved the peek behind the Oz curtain at audiobook narration.

An interesting spin or background on this book. It’s about an actress who now narrates audiobooks after a tragic event in her life that made her change career directions. While at a convention in Las Vegas, she meets Nick for a one night stand. After Vegas, Sewanee is contracted to narrate a steamy romance novel with Brock McNight. While vowing never to do another romance book, she does so to make money to pay for her grandma’s care. Now Sewanee and Brock begin a texting friendship or a sexting relationship. Little do they realize that they are really Alice and Nick from Las Vegas. While Nick thinks it’s a funny and typical romantic story plot, Sewanee is not laughing. Can they follow the script and find a HEA? This romance story is written by the well-known audiobook narrator Julia Whelan. I was so enamored with her narration of Four Winds by Kristen Hannah. I believe her experience gave her the best insight to tell this story, that being a narrator is so much more than just “reading” aloud the story, it involves becoming the characters and immersing yourself whole-heartedly. While the text banter back and forth between Sewanee and Nick was a bit long for me, I realize the importance of it as an element to move the story along. Sewanee’s plight with her grandmother was very moving and pulled you into the reality away from the Hollywood scene, I could relate to that. I love how the premise of Nick and Sewannee followed the blueprint of a typical romance novel and the irony of it. Well written, this story had me glued from the first page to the end. I give it a 4 out of 5 only for when the story would sometimes jump forward and back in plot. But this is surely worth reading.
Many thanks to #netgalley #juliawhelan #thanksforlistening for the opportunity to read and review this book.