Posts Tagged ‘Audiobooks’
Monday, May 20th, 2013
It’s time for another All Reviews column here at Speaking of Audiobooks. Eight audiobooks are up for review including Laura Kinsale’s The Prince of Midnight (no link yet for the audio), Rachel Gibson’s Simply Irresistible, Julie James’ Love Irresistibly, Julie Garwood’s Prince Charming, Cynthia Eden’s Die for Me, J.D. Robb’s Calculated in Death, Jeaniene Frost’s Twice Tempted, and Sophie Kinsella’s Wedding Night.
The Prince of Midnight – Laura Kinsale
Narrated by Nicholas Boulton
Review written by Lea Hensley
It’s finally here. Romance listeners have eagerly awaited The Prince of Midnight, the first audio release from Laura Kinsale’s fascinating backlist. Earlier this year, Ms. Kinsale announced that her entire backlist (twelve titles) would be released in audio during 2013 and into 2014 and now we have a taste of Kinsale’s skillful writing combined with Nicholas Boulton’s talented performance. It’s sheer audio perfection. (more…)
Tags: All About Romance, Audiobooks, Cynthia Eden, j.D. Robb, Jeaniene Frost, Julie Garwood, Julie James, Laura Kinsale, Rachel Gibson, Sophie Kinsella, speaking of audiobooks
Posted in audio books, Lea Hensley | 2 Comments »
Monday, April 15th, 2013
When making a decision to buy an audiobook, the cover doesn’t influence my choice one way or another. If I want a particular audiobook, I’ll buy it, and if I don’t like the cover, I’ll remind myself that with my iPod, I’ll seldom see it.
But can an attractive or catchy cover influence me to take a second look at a book by an author unfamiliar to me? Or does a non-appealing cover have the power to repel me enough that I won’t consider taking a deeper look at an unknown author? The answer to both of those questions is a “most definitely.” Do those second looks lead to an audio purchase? I admit that it seldom does but if a cover speaks to me, I’m often inspired to take a closer look at the synopsis and reviews.
When you consider that choosing the right audiobook is a series of decisions as one must consider the author, narrator, and the publisher’s history of production quality as well as the synopsis and reviews, I think a case can be made that audiobook covers need to make an even stronger statement than their fellow print versions. After all, their duty is to attract listeners despite the fact that both the author and narrator may be unfamiliar to the buyer. And that’s what a cover is to me – a sales job. Can they entice me to stop and look just a little longer? (more…)
Tags: All About Romance, Audiobooks, romance novel covers, speaking of audiobooks
Posted in audio books, Lea Hensley | 38 Comments »
Monday, March 25th, 2013
It’s time for another All Reviews column here at Speaking of Audiobooks. Six audiobooks are up for review including Rachel Gibson’s It Must Be Love, Pamela Clare’s Breaking Point, Julie Garwood’s The Secret, Jayne Ann Krentz’s Dream Eyes, Diana Miller’s Dangerous Affairs, and Maya Bank’s Rush.
It Must be Love by Rachael Gibson
Narrated by Rebecca Tripp
Review written by Carrie
I’ve read all Gibson’s books and was excited about listening to It Must Be Love on audio. I’m pleased to say the narrator is a win, but certain aspects of the plot make the book less enjoyable than I remembered.
Gabrielle, our heroine, mixes herbal remedies and essential oils and talks about auras and karma. She meditates and chants and attempts to find her peaceful center. The street festival in our local university town would be an ideal place to find Gabrielle, and perhaps that’s also true for Boise, Idaho where the book is set. While many of the beliefs Gabrielle espouses are still quite popular, the New Age phenomenon was much more prominent in pop culture when the book was published in 2000. (more…)
Tags: All About Romance, Audiobooks, Diana Miller, Jayne Anne Krentz, Julie Garwood, Maya Banks, Pamela Clare, Rachel Gibson, speaking of audiobooks
Posted in audio books, Lea Hensley | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, January 8th, 2013
It looks like 2013 will be one of the best years yet for historical romance listening with many popular print books finally scheduled for audio release.
Julie Garwood
It starts this month with the release of Julie Garwood’s The Secret, a book that has made every AAR Top 100 Romances Poll since it started in 1998. It’s classic Julie Garwood and one many recall from their early days of romance reading with its original 1992 publication date. And it is being narrated by one of my favorites for historical romance – Susan Duerden.
Brilliance has scheduled the majority of Garwood’s backlist (that is not already in audio format) for release in 2013. A month ago, we saw the release of Prince Charming (Rosalyn Landor) with projected release dates for: (more…)
Tags: All About Romance, Audiobooks, Elizabeth Hoyt, Julie Garwood, Karen Marie Moning, Laura Kinsale, loretta chase, Nora Roberts, Pamela Clare, robyn carr, speaking of audiobooks, Thea Harrison
Posted in audio books, Book news, Lea Hensley, Uncategorized | 26 Comments »
Friday, December 28th, 2012
I became addicted to audiobooks about seven years ago and haven’t looked back. Before I had a membership at audible (thank you Lea, for the recommendation) I listened to audiobooks on CDs. Because CDs were quite costly, I primarily stuck with audiobooks by my favorite authors such as Jayne Ann Krentz, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Nora Roberts, and Linda Howard. I was unwilling to take a chance on newer authors. However, sometimes even with those favorites, the audio version was a risk in the hands of a less-than-desirable narrator.
Thanks to my audible membership I’m able to sample books before I download them, to make certain that I actually like the narrator. And thanks to Lea’s wonderful Speaking of Audiobooks columns, I’m now alerted to new-to-me narrators. As Lea wrote in her very first Speaking of Audiobooks column back in June of 2009, it’s all about the narrator. Over the last seven years I’ve discovered such wonderful narrators as Tanya Eby, Kate Reading, Xe Sands, Justine, Eyre, Susan Ericksen, and Anna Fields. (more…)
Tags: Alan Bradley, All About Romance, Audiobooks, Jayne Entwistle, Sophie Kinsella
Posted in LinnieGayl AAR | 25 Comments »
Wednesday, October 31st, 2012
Here at Speaking of Audiobooks, we have bragged on Audible in the past, encouraged others to give Audible a try, alerted listeners to Audible specials, and followed Audible’s romance releases day by day – reporting back to fellow listeners, both here and our affiliated Romance Audiobooks Goodreads group, those unexpected releases we know will cause excitement. And we have wondered out loud many times just why Audible doesn’t provide a comprehensive Coming Soon list for all genres and romance in particular.
Well, change is a coming. A few months ago at Audible, I started noticing a few future releases (with preorder ability) tucked in a corner here and there if the book was part of an ongoing series. Good. Then I noticed Audible had increased their Coming Soon section on their Home Page with the ability to sort by genre. Better. And then I realized you could preorder those Coming Soon titles. Even better. (more…)
Tags: Audible, Audiobooks, Karen Marie Moning, Pamela Clare, Tantor Audio
Posted in audio books, Lea Hensley | 5 Comments »
Friday, October 5th, 2012
It’s time for another All Reviews column here at Speaking of Audiobooks. Eight audiobooks are up for review including: Karen Rose’s No One Left to Tell, Susan Wiggs’ Dockside, Kerry Greenwood’s The Castlemaine Murders, Maya Banks’ Never Love a Highlander, Christine Warren’s Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale, Sally MacKenzie’s The Duchess of Love, Elizabeth Lowell’s Beautiful Sacrifice, and Sherryl Wood’s Waking Up in Charleston.
No One Left to Tell – Karen Rose
Review written by Kaetrin
Narrated by Marguerite Gavin
Paige Holden is a trainee Private Investigator working pro bono for Maria Munoz, the mother of Ramon, currently in prison for the murder of a woman six years earlier. Maria is convinced that Ramon is innocent and asks Paige to look into it. Early one Tuesday morning, Elena Munoz (Ramon’s wife) is killed in front of Paige and thus starts the roller coaster ride that is No One Left to Tell.
(more…)
Tags: All About Romance, Audiobooks, Christine Warren, Elizabeth Lowell, Karen Rose, Kerry Greenwood, Maya Banks, Sally MacKenzie, Sherryl Woods, Susan Wiiggs
Posted in audio books, Lea Hensley | 13 Comments »
Monday, August 20th, 2012
If you’ve been an audiobook enthusiast for long, you know that the industry exploded with the availability of digital downloads. As a result, the number of romance releases increased sharply and the selection only gets better with each passing month. As one of those enthusiasts and a fan of romance, I pay close attention to those audio publishers who historically have offered a significant selection of romance audio and continue to do so. You know, those publishers who take the time to choose quality narrators for their titles as well as discover those authors that make romance listeners sit up and take notice. Here’s to giving a shout-out to those publishers who are doing a particularly fine job of it.
Before we start, I’ll add a disclaimer – I’m using numbers from Audible. I’m aware that there are audiobooks from years ago in audio cassette or CD format that have yet to hit the digital download market. But since we’re discussing the move in the romance audio industry over the past few years, I feel the Audible numbers are adequate for this discussion.
(more…)
Tags: Audiobooks, Romance, speaking of audiobooks
Posted in audio books, Lea Hensley | 17 Comments »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2012
If you’ve been a regular reader of Speaking of Audiobooks this past year, you’re probably aware that our upcoming releases list is compiled from a variety of sources. Building this month’s list proved to be more challenging than usual. Although there are dozens of genuine first-time releases, it’s also a month full or rereleases in hiding, so beware. Amazon seems to be taking great pains to hide previous audio releases. For years, I’ve started with Amazon when building our upcoming releases list before gathering release dates from various production company/publishers sites. Over the past months, I’ve noticed that Amazon is increasingly introducing old titles as new (a long-time practice in publishing – I know) while also including larger numbers of non-romance audios in the romance category. Don’t trust Amazon’s upcoming romance audio release list for that HEA romance listeners expect.
FictionDB and I are spending more and more time together these days ascertaining a book’s category and the whole process feels a bit like looking under every rock to find a simple piece of information. So, here’s to those truly new romance audio releases…I think. Please let me know if one slipped by me! Now if we could only convince Audible to share a complete list of its upcoming titles.
(more…)
Tags: Audiobooks, speaking of audiobooks
Posted in audio books, Lea Hensley | 16 Comments »
Monday, July 9th, 2012
Mention Linda Howard in a romance discussion forum and you’ll see highly favorable comments from her legion of fans. Look closer and you’ll probably discover that her fans are seriously partial to one style of her writing over another. You’ll find one group loving her series books while others swear by her lighter romantic suspense books and yet others fondly recall her frontier/westerns. Fans are often disturbed that she doesn’t continue writing a certain type of book and may wish for the old days when she wrote the Mackenzie series or the likes of Midnight Rainbow – all series titles.
Writing romance for three decades now, Howard has penned series romance, contemporary, romantic suspense (both light and dark), frontier/western, paranormal, time-travel, and urban fantasy. She has written more than fifty titles (the number is hard to verify since she has co-authored some books). Best I can discover, thirty-six of her print books have been released in unabridged audio format with another five of her earliest books as abridgements.
Just as we have changed over the years, Howard’s writing has done the same. She is not an author who stays still and you never know exactly what to expect with her next release. And that is part of the magic of Linda Howard. She always has a surprise around the corner. Just when you think her books are tending to contain too much suspense and too little romance, she’ll turn around and hit us with the likes of the laugh-out-loud To Die For. She’ll give us the darkness and separation of Death Angel only to deliver the humor and lighter contemporary romance in Veil of Night.
(more…)
Tags: Audiobooks, linda howard
Posted in audio books, Authors, Lea Hensley | 8 Comments »
