Fabi is our resident audiobook lover. While I think she reads more than listens, I know she’s started listening to audiobooks regularly on her daily commutes and she’s hooked!
And here are a few “Fabi” details about her love of audiobooks:
➜ I like audio books too. I always have one going anytime I’m driving. … Since I only get an hour or two of listening time/day Mon-Fri, it forces me to savor the book instead of fly through it like I normally would. Well, not as fast as some of you do…but still.
➜ the least expensive Audibles I find are the ones that have Whispersync for the books I already have on my Kindle library. Since the tbr is so big, there’s always something there I haven’t gotten to read yet. Sometimes I picked up a free Kindle book and can add Audible to it for $1.99. I use that tool that Maryse posts above to help me find Audible versions of books I already own with. You just have to sample the narrator first to make sure it’s a good one.
➜ …right off the top of my head, Lover at Last: Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 11 was a huge favorite of mine. But, you have to have followed the series to get the full impact, even though it’s a stand alone novel inside the series.
➜ for my new audible listen, I’m going to start Jan30′s recommendation, Seven Years. It sounds like it’s a complete series now and the books may read as stand alones anyway. I didn’t even check on the narrator before buying this one. lol I think I’m a little giddy with wanting to start new books this weekend. …. I’m loving it. Nicole Poole is a fantastic narrator.
➜ Audio books – depending on the narrator can either add to a book or detract from it. Right now I’m listening to Donna Grant’s Dark King narrated by Antony Ferguson. He has a Scottish accent that adds unbelievable authenticity to the story… Of course, I don’t know if it was a real Scottish accent or not. But it seemed he had a harder time with the American accent of the only American character than he did with the Scottish ones. Of course it was PNR with dragons and such.
➜ Tom Hiddleston is the BEST voice I’ve EVER heard from a narrator. Too bad he did so few of them before he became a hot shot actor. You should listen to a sample. *swoon*
➜ the Audible subscription is cost-effective only if you use it enough to make it so. I’ve discontinued it and restarted it a couple of times based on how much I use audio books at the time. Some audio books cost well into the $20′s, so the credit that you pay $14 for is cost-effective as long as you “buy” at least one of those per month. Mostly, it’s 1 credit = 1 book. Never use your credit on a $1.99 book because that would be throwing money away. Credits will roll over for a few months if there isn’t a good expensive book you want in a particular month. …The last one I used a credit on was Marked in Flesh. The price is $24.50 so by using a credit I saved about $10 on it. The next one I want to use a credit on is $17.14 (30% reduced because of the subscription and still $3 more than the monthly subscription costs). I used to go through a couple of audio books a week so I had a higher credit subscription back then as well as taking advantage of their sales and bonus credit buys.
➜ Now I don’t spend as much time driving and read more on my Kindle so I take advantage of the Whispersync bargains we get when we already own the Kindle version of the book. That was long…hope it made sense.
➜ I also subscribe to Audible but I save those credits for expensive books. …You definitely got the hang of those Audible credits. I use mine on the expensive books and fill in during the month with the $1.99 whispersync ones on my Kindle tbr. If I remember correctly, I think they’ll offer you one more reduced rate period after the initial one. I’m not 100% sure because when I did it some years ago I had the highest monthly subscription book number because I was commuting such long distances. It was way better than listening my constantly off key singing. Ha!
AND!!! She’s prepared a favorite audiobooks list just for us!!!
“This was harder than I thought it would be. First because I couldn’t sort by rating on Audible.com but second and most importantly, a lot of my 5*s were part of a series. I tried not to include any more of those. Then…I ran into the fact that you’ve probably already read all my 5* romance books, so I threw in some that were outside the romance genre for you to look at.
*shrug* here’s my list and I’m sticking to it. lol”
Caine’s Reckoning: Hell’s Eight Series, Book 1 by Sarah McCarty – 4* story, 5* narration “…the Hell’s Eight series is hot hot hot!”
The Second Ship: The Rho Agenda, Book 1 by Richard Phillips – 5* story, 5* narration (not sure it has any romance :-/)
Dangerous Highlander: Dark Sword, Book 1 by Donna Grant – 5* story, 5* narration
Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger – 5* story, 5* narration (good, funny and cute)
Desired by Nicola Cornick – 5* story, 5* narration (historical romance NOT a debutante)
The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett – 5* story, 5* narration (holy crap this fantasy series is good, but only a slight nod to romance in this first book)
WWW: Wake by by Robert J. Sawyer – 5* story, 5* narration (amazeballs, no romance, but favorite author with a wild ride of a story)
Halfway to the Grave: Night Huntress, Book 1 by Jeaniene Frost – 5* story, 5* narration (Bones…)
Daemon by Daniel Suarez – 5* story, 5* narration (possibly the best technothriller I’ve ever read)
Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child – 5* story, 5* narration (horror, thriller)
Hominids: The Neanderthal Parallax, Book 1 By Robert J. Sawyer – 5* story, 5* narration (the strangest, most unique romance I’ve ever read, all-time favorites list)
Finally, for whatever it’s worth, my top 3 wish list items on audible are:
- The Beast: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward (getting this one on the 18th because I have to listen to this narrater – he’s simple the voice of the BDB for me)
Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson (because I can’t believe I’ve waiting this long to read this one)- Blood Destiny: Blood Curse Series book 1 by Tessa Dawn
“By the way, everything on audible is on a half-price sale until the 18th of this month!
good thing Maryse doesn’t have a character limit on here – tehehee”



















































































