Romance Listens— Five Audio Books to light your loins and ears aflame!
This isn’t not a Richard Armitage fan blog…
Dear Listeners,
Pre-Covid, yours truly had an insane commute. Back in the halcyon days before the pandemic, where I rode buses and trains and walked to work, I would shuffle through podcasts and news outlets in the morning and listen to romances to unwind on the way home. It was a delight, it was wonderful. It was a good way to get reading and a good way to wash the workday away. It was, in a word, TRANSPORTING.
Good audio romance is all the best parts of text romance with the bonus of some pretty goddamn hot sounding people gently pouring sex whispers, moans, shouts, or whatever into your ears. It is sensual, so much so that I often found myself blushing and terrified that my earbuds would hop out of my phone and expose me to the train at the most explicit scene.
Sometimes that terror made the listening hotter, the fear of being caught being a common kink and all.
Anyway—if you’re tired of the bad news bonanza and want to dip into something a little sexier—here are my top romance audio book picks.
editor’s note: all of the images link to their respective title on Audible, but keep in mind many libraries have digital audiobook lending programs.
You can listen to the episode that inspired this conversation, about “Ten Week Turnabout” here.
Wanderlust by Lauren Blakely
Narrated by Richard Armitage and Grace Grant
I’ll be honest, I got this book for Richard Armitage. Long time listeners know I’m not a huge contemporary romance fan—but I fucking love Thorin OakenShield aka #hotdwarf, and I have long loved the grumbly emphasis that Richard Armitage infuses his vowels with. I have a small obsession with the BBC adaptation of North and South where Armitage steals the show with his intensity, his deep-water pool of a voice, and if there was an ASMR channel of just him talking I’d die.
This book takes place in Paris where a British tour guide meets a Texan chemist and sparks fly. I love this audio book because it is so hot—the sex scenes will singe your ears! And the head hopping between heroine and hero feels organic and playful when voiced by these two talented actors—never jarring, never unearned. The book itself also unfolds like a delicately wrapped confection from the pâtisserie so strongly featured—I found myself genuinely engrossed in their budding romance and the obstacles in their way. The love affair between the two characters is like a summer rainstorm; instant and refreshing.
Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale
Narrated by Nicholas Boulton
It should come as no surprise that this barnstormer is just as good in audio form. When we spoke with friend of the pod Melonie Johnson about this gem, she clued us in on the audio work that Kinsale herself pioneered for the romance genre. Kinsale knew there would be big bucks in audio tracks for novels and created her own studio and hired the one and only Nicholas Boulton. This forward-thinking author can craft a business as well as she can craft a line—because from prologue to “the end” this audiobook DELIVERS.
Boulton as all the characters doesn’t falsetto his voice for the heroine, but he does gruff up for our hero. And I realized in the listening that where other male narrators patronize female characters (and sometimes the genre) Boulton really takes the challenge and delicacy of romance to heart and delivers a stunning performance of a world class work.
You can listen to our discussion of this novel with Melonie Johnson here.
Hunted by Meagan Spooner
Narrated by Saskia Maarleveid and Will Damron
I know this work is technically a YA—but if you are jonesing for a true Beauty and the Beast retelling with a 17th century Imperial Russian twist look no further. To describe this scene setting as lush is an understatement, to describe this beast as a shifter is closer to the Baba Yaga truth. I loved every turn of this book, maybe especially because the ‘beast’ as narrated by Will Damron, features so little and only as atmosphere for half the novel. Making the hero function in shadow and whisper and growl in the audio version ratchet up the tension by 1000.
Listen on a cold dark night.
The Write Escape by Charish Reid
Narrated by Shari Peele
Do you want to escape? How does a solo honeymoon to Ireland sound right now? EXACTLY. Download this Emerald Isle gem, that is both very fun and very heart warming. I wasn’t sold on Shari Peele’s Irish accent to start but it gets there—almost as our heroine begins to feel less like a fish out of water and more like a woman falling in love.
Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin
Narrated by Roshni Shukla
Full disclosure I downloaded this book for the episode we did—in order to hear the names pronounced correctly. I wanted to get it right. I only needed the preview to do so, but because of the empathy and joy of Roshni Shukla’s performance I went ahead and got the full book.
Listeners shouldn’t be surprised to hear that I prefer explicit romances—open door, lights on, bed rocking, walls shaking—so a sweet romance isn’t a usual grab. But ohhhhhh. The longing as narrated by Shukla in this book is like watching Darcy and Wentworth on any BBC adaptation. It is searingly written and voice acted—it aches. And I was made to ache—AND I LOVED IT. Give yourself the gift of this pining pair.
You can listen to our discussion of this novel here.
The Novelization of Romeo and Juliet by The Bard
Narrated by Richard Armitage
While not a technical romance I HIGHLY recommend this novelization. Armitage plays a lot here with accents and breath, which makes it a fascinating and surprising listen even as you know the moves. Further the novelization flushes out some side characters you might be interested in particularly Nurse and Lady Capulet. Honestly, I love fanfiction—full stop—and am fascinated when fanfiction can be sold as ‘literature’. I am always curious about the moves publishers and authors make in terms of denying fanfictions relevance while also selling it.
It’s a quality listen on its own and raises interesting questions about the intersections of fan culture and literature.