Author and Golden Voice Julia Whelan uses aspects of her own career to tell the story of Sewanee, an actress turned romance audiobook narrator who is recovering emotionally from a tragic accident. Having moved on to other genres, Sewanee resurrects her old pseudonym to narrate a beloved romance writer’s last novel and, in doing so, works with the industry’s most popular and secretive male narrator. The two form a deep connection over texts and emails, but when their identities are revealed, everything comes into question. Details of audiobook narration are balanced with palpable emotion voiced in an impressive range. This is best exemplified when a waiter exclaims that he can’t believe Sewanee voiced every character in an audiobook, and Whelan deepens her register, slipping into the male protagonist’s voice to prove it.
Pub Date: 2022
Duration: 11 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063095588
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
After her divorce, Roberta Jewett, with her three daughters, returns to Camden, Maine, to start a new life. Such an independent move in 1916 brings difficulties with her mother, her in-laws and the townspeople. Dukes's performance, while skillful, sometimes suffer in scenes of emotional content. His pace slows, and his reading acquires the peculiar emphasis of someone trying to get instructions across to a non-English-speaking person. The effect is disturbingly laughable. When he resumes his normal pace, the story revives and personalities emerge again, but the awkwardness remains as an odd interruption to Spencer's drama of pain and love, dispelling Dukes's carefully constructed characterizations.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Dove
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
A young Southern woman marries into an aristocratic Boston family and spends her summers at a vacation community on the Maine coast. Heavy-handed abridgment reduces this novel to an outline which denies the listener any character development. Judith Ivey offers stereotypical dialects which are discordant to a New Englander's ear. In her interpretation the Down East Mainers speak like thugs in raspy voices. Her presentation of a Boston accent is phonetically erratic and also spoken in gruff tones. The color and flavor of Maine are missing from this tasteless rendition.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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