Thank You For Listening by Julia Whalen

Thank You for Listening by Julia Whalen

Julia Whelan is my favorite audiobook narrator and I don't think I'm alone, considering she's narrated more than 700 books and has even founded her own audio publishing company, Audiobrary. Thank You for Listening is not even her first novel. Her debut novel, My Oxford Year, was made into a Netflix movie and released in August of this year. I have not seen it, but the book will be going to the top of my list so that I can. It deals with addiction, body shaming, chronic illness, death, drug abuse, misogyny, dementia, grief, abandonment, and injury.

Sewanee is a Julliard trained actress who everyone expected to make it big. After landing her first substantial role, a bad decision combined with terrible timing left her career in the dust. She turned to audiobooks, where she could practice her acting chops even if she isn't in front of a camera, and gets her start with a very popular romance novelist. Years later, Sewanee has left romance behind and hasn't looked back. But the author who originally gave Sewanee a shot has her production team make an offer to Sewanee that she cannot refuse. Record the author's most recent book in weekly installments, and she would be recording with the romance world's hottest voice, the narrator Brock McNight, whose real identity is very well hidden - all for a percentage of the sales. With Sewanee's ailing grandmother needing increased (and more expensive) care, Sewanee really can't say no. Recording with Brock makes Sewanee take a deep look at what she's given up, and she begins to dream again.

When I chose to read this book, I did not know that Julia Whalen had written My Oxford Year, which I had heard good things about. Now that I've read Thank You for Listening, I'm impressed. Luckily, I heard her South African accent in The Measure (it was not her best), otherwise I'd be wondering if there's anything that Julia Whalen can't do! Sewanee is an interesting choice as a main character in a romance novel where most main characters are beautiful but somehow don't know it. Sewanee is beautiful - and she definitely knew it before she had her accident that took her eye. But just the fact that the main character is missing an eye is an incredibly refreshing choice. The characters have so much dimension, they felt very real to me. And I liked that this book somehow hits every romance trope while breaking the third wall and making fun of itself for hitting every trope. Honestly, I can't say enough about a book that, while still in the first chapter, debates between two names for a romance panel at a book convention. The options were: "Faking it - narrating love and sex in romance novels" or "Narrating romance novels - how to give good oral". Absolutely incredible.

I'm giving Julia Whalen's Thank You for Listening 4.5 stars out of 5. It gets a spice rating of .5. For a romance novel about a romance novel that hits a large number of romance tropes, it was not spicy almost at all. Julia Whalen's next project is Casanova, LLC, which happens to be the book that Brock and Sewanee narrate - suffice to say I can't wait.

For more from the author, check out her website at https://jmwhelan.com/

Pairs well with homemade mallomar cookies (I almost went with Birdie's taco dip) and eating at a Michelin star restaurant inside a Marriott!

My favorite quote: "As it was, she was simply another actress who disappeared as quickly as she had been discovered. Not a star. A shooting star."