Every month, AudioFile Magazine reviewers and editors select the best new audiobooks just for BookTrib’s readers. These award-winning June audiobooks are just what you need for some relaxing poolside listening!
THE ART OF CATCHING FEELINGS by Alicia Thompson
Read by Kristen Sieh | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Penguin Audio | 10.5 hrs.]
Kristen Sieh bats it out of the park with this lively performance. It begins with Daphne heckling baseball player Chris at a game, making him cry, and then sending an apology through social media. When Daphne begins a job working for his very team, she’s torn between keeping up the facade or confessing. In this classic “liar-revealed” story, Sieh keeps it fresh with a hearty performance full of gusto. She builds a natural chemistry between both characters, and their authenticity will grab listeners.
CAMINO GHOSTS: Camino, Book 3 by John Grisham
Read by Whoopi Goldberg, John Grisham [Note] | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Random House Audio | 10.25 hrs.]
Whoopi Goldberg proves to be the perfect voice for John Grisham’s fascinating mystery about a haunted island off the coast of Florida settled by escaped enslaved people in the 1700s and now marked for development into a casino resort. She captures the courage and determination of the characters as, each in their own way, they try to save the uninhabited and inhospitable Dark Isle.
THE QUEEN OF FOURTEENTH STREET by Barrie Kreinik
Read by Barrie Kreinik, Orlagh Cassidy, Imani Jade Powers, Elisabeth Rodgers, James Fouhey | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Hachette Audio | 1.5 hrs.]
A talented cast of voice actors, including playwright Barrie Kreinik, dazzles in this audio original. The play tells the story of Eva Le Gallienne, a queer actor and director who founded a repertory theater in New York City in the 1920s. Kreinik is stunning as Eva, capturing her intense, larger-than-life personality. The remaining actors portray her various girlfriends, company actors, mentors, friends, and others. The production’s impeccable sound design brings 1930s New York to life. This is audio theater at its absolute best.
DREADFUL by Caitlin Rozakis
Read by Keval Shah | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Tantor Media | 11.5 hrs.]
Keval Shah fully understands the assignment when he narrates this funny, sexy, action-packed story of good vs. evil. It’s never a good day when one wakes up with no memory and then learns one is an evil wizard. With all the problems his previous self left him with, Dread Lord Gavrax has picked a fine time to start being “good.” Shah’s cheeky tone and British accent set the scene beautifully in this completely unserious fantasy world. His character voices sound cartoonishly evil, seductive and feminine, prim and proper, or groveling as needed.
NOT IN LOVE by Ali Hazelwood
Read by Callie Dalton, Jason Clarke
AudioFile Earphones Award
[Penguin Audio | 12 hrs.]
Narrators Callie Dalton and Jason Clarke mesmerize listeners with this enemies-to-lovers romance. Rue Siebert has a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, where she is working on a promising food science start-up. Along come the vexingly handsome Eli Killgore and his business partners, who threaten to take over the company. Dalton and Clarke transition seamlessly between the characters’ dialogue, creating expressive, unique voices. Listeners will be fully immersed in Rue and Eli’s love story as they put aside their hostilities and find a life together.
IT HAD TO BE YOU: Under Suspicion, Book 8 by Mary Higgins Clark, Alafair Burke
Read by January LaVoy | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Simon & Schuster Audio | 7.75 hrs.]
In the last of the Under Suspicion audiobooks, narrator January LaVoy introduces listeners to the perfect family: Sara and Richard Harrington and their twin sons. The story begins with a flashback to the eve of the twins’ college graduation party. Before the party ends, Sara and Richard are shot to death, and the twins are suspects—but are never charged. This tightly plotted whodunit lends itself to LaVoy’s style and impeccable timing. She keeps listeners involved with the twists and turns by giving each character a distinctive voice and rhythm.
WHEN AMONG CROWS by Veronica Roth
Read by Helen Laser, James Fouhey, Tim Campbell | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Macmillan Audio | 4.5 hrs.]
Helen Laser, James Fouhey, and Tim Campbell narrate a dark fantasy novella about a trio seeking an audience with the legendary witch Baba Jaga. The novella is short, but the narrators bring each character to life with surprising depth. The world-building, based on Polish folklore, in modern Chicago is epic. This explosively addictive fairy tale examining cultural heritage makes for an engaging listening experience.
A LETTER TO THE LUMINOUS DEEP by Sylvie Cathrall
Read by Claire Morgan, Joshua Riley, Justin Avoth, Kit Griffiths | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Hachette Audio | 12.5 hrs.]
Twists and turns, flashbacks, and surprising revelations are handled deftly by the four excellent narrators of this epistolary novel. While it’s a work of speculative fiction, there is also mystery, light romance, fascinating underwater world-building, and magical academia. The four narrators bring the letters to life in the voices of their 15 writers. Of particular note is Justin Avoth, whose regal tones and posh accents help delineate the characters he voices.
BEN & ME: In Search of a Founder's Formula for a Long and Useful Life by Eric Weiner
Read by Eric Weiner | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Simon & Schuster Audio | 11.75 hrs.]
This portrait of Founding Father Ben Franklin is part biography, part travelogue, and part personal commentary. Author Eric Weiner narrates in an easy to follow pace. As he walks in the footsteps of Franklin in the various places where he lived, Weiner’s narration is like an ongoing conversation with the listener. Any audiobook that can make an hour of weeding the garden fly by is a real winner.
THE SILENCE by Mary McGarry Morris
Read by Cassandra Campbell | AudioFile Earphones Award
[HighBridge Audio | 11.5 hrs.]
Golden Voice Cassandra Campbell narrates this emotional story about justice. Eight-year-old Ruth fought with and abandoned her friend Ceely in the woods; then Ceely was murdered. When the unnamed murderer comes back to town years later, Ruth seeks to achieve justice for Ceely. Campbell ratchets up the tension as Ruth exhibits more desperation and irrational behavior as time runs out. She portrays the accused murderer as smooth on the surface but internally overwrought.
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