An entertaining romantic comedy that pokes fun of the romance genre while having interesting characters. Thoroughly enjoyable read.

I loved this book! The audiobook narrator premise, the love story, the banter, the characters backstories - all of it was so interesting. I found myself laughing out loud during multiple parts. I did think the snowed in chapter belonged earlier in the book, but once I realized it was a flashback it worked for me. Plus the epilogue? Swoon!!

There is heavy romance in this book but no spice, except the audio narration where I laughed, really hard.

If you love a good HEA, flawed characters, and growth, you’ll enjoy this one.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this steamy tale. The premise seems familiar, but the way the author did it, with these characters was nice. I absolutely loved the grandmother in the book!

I really enjoyed this one! This was my first book by the author and I'm looking forward to reading more of their work. Thank you NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC!

10 stars! I loved this book. It was my first one from this author. It had everything and the ending was perfect. The epilogue was simply beautiful and on point. I look forward to reading more stories from this author.

Sewanee is a former actress turned successful audiobook narrator, who lost one eye in a tragic accident. With help from her bestie Adaku, Sewanee learns to accept herself and find love again when she agrees to narrate her first romance novel. The witty dialog between Sewanee and her beau really shines. So does the touching relationship that she has with her grandmother BlahBlah (Barbara), who has dementia.

I'm not usually a reader of romance novels, nor do I listen to them on audiobooks. I selected Thank You For Listening as a light, quick vacation read. I loved it! Not a traditional romance, with two main characters who absolutely reject Happily Ever After, but nonetheless are drawn together, with all their personal failures and failings. Laugh out loud funny, in parts, and yes, the author plays to the usual romance tropes, but so much more than a romance. Good fun, a quick read, and a flawed and personable female main character. Recommended.

"Thank You for Listening" is a stay up all night, hate to put down romance. While including the mystery identity theme, it reaches far beyond that. TYfL explores Sewanee’s – Swan to her friends – new life since her career as a screen actress ended and she transitioned to being a successful audiobook narrator. Sewanee spends one miraculous night with a stranger she meets at a conference in Las Vegas, the same weekend an old friend author requests that Swan return to the romance genre to read her last book. Sewanee teams up with the hottest male voice in audiobooks, a man whose identity is secret to all, and finds herself connecting with him personally at the same time her thoughts return to her single romantic night in Vegas. Sewanee’s personal relationships, career development, self-understanding bring notes of truth to her character, while the romance brings luscious fantasy to the fore. The narrator’s own voice creation expertise only enhances the listener’s experience.

I love a good contemporary romance, and this a great one! I love learning about audio narrators for books. That was an interesting angle to this story.

Though, I could not WAIT for them to get finally together and it took awhile for it to happen.

I cannot wait to read more from this author!

Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan was the perfect book for book lovers! The play on different romance tropes felt like a nod to a knowing reader. The characters felt fleshed out and their intentions were obvious. I was a huge fan of the banter and chemistry between the leads Sewanee and Nick. I am already looking forward to a re-read via audio with fingers crossed that Julia Whelan narrates. This book was an absolute delight and Julia Whelan has gone from an auto-listen narrator to also an auto- buy author!

A fantastic story about the life of an audio book narrator. A former actress whose accidental injury has changed her life. It drew me in from the beginning and kept me hooked.
Family, friends and romance all feature prominently. Great story, wonderful characters.

This is a compulsive read for sure. No big surprises for me, but the storyline moved at a nice pace and kept my attention. I liked the mix of elements: sensitive topics (Alzheimer's, post-trauma emotional stress, childhood trauma), extended family caregivers, burnout, friendship, lots of romance tropes juxtaposed against the MC's recording a romance audiobook, humor, redemption, and tender moments. There are a couple of steamy scenes and some steamy conversations/banter in the context of recording the romance audiobook. Both of the MC's are written in a way that they are flawed, but easy to support and cheer on. Sewanee was remarkably both strong and vulnerable. Her arc was really well fleshed out. The characters were shaped by their past, but learn the power of choosing their future in spite of past trauma. While there were definitely messy, toxic conversations, there was also realistic redemption. The ending (which I loved) was a fun play off of the overall theme of the book.

Thank you Avon and Harper Voyager and #NetGalley for the ARC e-copy of #ThankYouforListening

Inside look at the creation of audio books like never before, this sassy tale takes you on a wild ride of romance and family dynamic too.

I enjoyed this book very much; it is an amazingly multi-faceted story. The focus throughout is on the main character, Sewanee “Swan” Chester. She is the child of a dysfunctional family: a second tier actor for a grandmother with Alzheimer’s, a globe-trotting mother, and an unhappy and lonely father. Swan works as a voice actor recording novels on tape under her pen name, Sarah Westholme. Though Swan tries to convince herself that she is basically happy, she is not.

Swan’s problem is that she has serious self-image issues that are the result of a tragic accident that left her face disfigured and ended her promising career as an actor. Her best friend, Adaku Obi continually tries to move Swan beyond the accident and accept herself as who she is now and can be in the future. Swan resists.

While at a conference in Las Vegas, Swan has an almost accidental encounter with an attractive and personable man who does accept her for who she is—despite the disfigurement. The night, however, seems doomed to be a one-night-stand. As a result of her trip to Las Vegas, Swan gets a great job reading the final work of one of the country’s best romance writers. Even through Swan has long since given up the romance genre, she is persuaded to take the job because she can work together with the top male reader, Brock McNight.

As Swan and Brock navigate the two-voice reading from across the continent, Swan, Adaku, her grandmother, and occasionally Brock engage in a philosophical debate about the issues Swan is dealing with. It becomes clear that self-image issues are not unique to Swan, but her grandmother and father as well. Happiness and resolution can only come for Swan when she makes the leap and accepts her post-accident self and move on into a hopeful future.

The only thing that bugged me about the book is that a large portion of the middle of the book took the form of text messages between Swan and Brock. Some of it seemed to slow the movement of the book and I found it tedious at times. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the read and loved the character of Swan.

I am grateful to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book with my promise of offering an hones review.

Two audiobook narrators find love in this meta take on contemporary publishing.
Romance enthusiasts always roll their eyes when critical readers mock the “predictability”
of the genre. In her long-anticipated sophomore novel, top-tier narrator Whelan (Educated,
The Great Alone, and 2022’s Book Lovers) has a ball skewering the tired objections
of romance skeptics as she takes us deep into the world of the field she knows so well.
Actress-turned-narrator Sewanee is still recovering from a terrible accident that scarred
her inside and out when she’s cast alongside the sexy and secretive Brock McKnight in a
coveted project. Whelan clearly enjoys playing with the genre’s familiar tropes—snowed
in, just one night, mistaken identity, and more. With wittily named chapter titles (don’t
miss them!) and great supporting characters, this sometimes steamy romance shows our
heroine forgiving herself and finding true love. Open door.

Much loved audiobook narrator Julia Whelan has brought us a delectably adorable rom-com in which our two main characters are...audiobook narrators. Write what you know! From the opening chapter in which our protagonist Sewanee, on a flight to Las Vegas, is fumbling to shut off her explicit audiobook so the entirety of the plane isn't listening along, I was absolutely hooked, and laughed the whole way through. There are a handful of romance tropes strewn about in "Thank You for Listening", sometimes being made fun of, and yet, it was never ever cheesy.. Witty banter, believable chemistry, and loveable side characters abound, I was rooting for Sewanee the whole way through. She navigates her way back to herself after a tragic accident years ago, while a happily ever after that she never asked for is being thrust upon her. Five star romance, a perfect summer read. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first book written by Julia Whelan and she has a great writing style! This story focuses on Sewanee, an aspiring actress that had an accident resulting in her losing an eye. She changes gears and has a successful career narrating audiobooks but doesn’t like the unrealistic expectations set in romance books so tries to focus on serious novels. She then gets a great opportunity to narrate a book for a famous romance author. This book was a great romcom, good banter, and her grandma is a blast! I love audiobooks so it was fun to see behind the scenes of the process and how much goes into each project. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy.

[Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.]

📖 Q: who was the last new to you author you tried & was it love, dislike, or indifference? 😬

I can be pretty daring and/or reckless depending on how you look at it 😆 about requesting ARCs so I decided to take a chance with Julia Whelan’s Thank You for Listening without having read The Oxford Year.

Initially I was caught off-guard by the opening—which is the heroine listening to a passage from a badly written romance novel—& by her disdain for a genre that I love. But I figured better things were coming and they did, as said MC, Sewanee Chester, learns what romance novels have to offer readers & what romance IRL has to offer her.

Thank You for Listening features two audiobook narrators who meet & connect IRL under misleading or vaguely given identities & then reconnect via email & text for a big romance audiobook job without realizing they’ve previously hooked up before.

So feelings—& half truths & lies—get pretty messy in this one, although everything eventually works out for that Happy Ending I was hoping for.

Thank You For Listening deals with heavier topics like Sewanee’s eye loss from a plane propeller accident, her grandmother’s memory loss, her father’s past cheating etc. but there’s a great, supportive friendship & sweet moments between the leads—as well as a cute epistolary exchange—that balance those with lightness.

This book wasn’t love for me but I do think there’s a lot to appreciate!

4 ⭐️. Release date: 08/02.


CWs: Grandmother & memory loss. Father cheated in the past. Propeller accident leading to the loss of Sewanne’s eye. Sewanee is sometimes self-conscious about the scar & sometimes struggles with her feelings about how her life has changed since then. There’s a line about remembering thinking “why they had bothered saving her” after her accident.


[ID: a white woman wearing a green shirt & jean shorts stands in front of a wooden table where an ebook rests on an open book. Above is a bouquet of pink carnations & to the upper left is a set of black headphones.]

What a delight. After listening to Julia Whelan voice so many books, it was fun to read her work, about a voice over artist, no less. A romance that pokes a bit of fun at the HEA (happily ever after) tropes while still providing the meet cute, crossed wires and other fun. No silly misunderstandings for the sake of drama - just adults finding each other in a meaningful way.

A delightful story full of love, loss, resilience and heart from the queen of audiobooks. I loved My Oxford Year and Whelan's sophomore book does not disappoint. The world building is great and it was so much fun to hear the tricks & tips that are used to make sure each recording sounds its best.
This book has a lot of romantic tropes worked into the story but they all worked for me and they're all used pretty effortlessly and nothing feels forced or clunky. The chemistry sizzles on the page and you'll root for Sewanee to get her HEA. Ultimately this is a story about love: loving the ones who support you, loving the ones who accept you as you are and most importantly loving yourself.

Many thanks to Avon & Harper Voyage and Netgalley for the ARC.