The Genre I Love to Read—and Why It Works So Well in Audio

June is Audiobook Month, which feels like the right time to admit something: while I especially enjoy narrating nonfiction and children’s stories, romance has long been one of my favorite genres to read—and listen to.

My first romance novel was probably a Sweet Valley High book. I do not remember which one, which may be because I assume I read them all. Then, in eighth-grade English, I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time.

And that was it.

I was hooked.

I still return to Pride and Prejudice about once every decade, and I still love it. The wit. The restraint. The misunderstandings. The slow recognition that first impressions are not always trustworthy. It is a love story, yes, but it is also a story about listening, observing, misreading, reconsidering, and finally understanding.

Maybe that is why romance works so well in audio.

A good romance is not only about what happens. It is about what is almost said; what is misunderstood; what is held back; what changes in the space between one conversation and the next.

That gives a narrator a lot to work with.

In romance, pacing matters. A pause can carry embarrassment, longing, irritation, or hope. A line that looks simple on the page may need to land with humor, defensiveness, tenderness, or all three. The listener has to hear not only the words but also the emotional current beneath them.

That is one of the reasons I understand why romance continues to perform so strongly in audio. Audiobooks are no longer a niche format: according to the Audio Publishers Association, U.S. audiobook revenue reached $2.43 billion in 2025, and 58% of U.S. adults have listened to an audiobook. Fiction remains especially strong, accounting for 71% of audiobook sales, and romance remains one of the top audiobook genres.

That does not surprise me.

Stories about connection, vulnerability, tension, and transformation are especially powerful when heard.

Maybe that is also why I have been thoughtful about the kinds of books I pursue as a narrator.

I love romance novels. I love reading them, listening to them, returning to them, and letting them remain a source of pleasure. And sometimes, when you love something that much, you do not necessarily want to turn it into work.

Narration is joyful, but it is also labor. It means analyzing the text, making performance choices, sustaining characters, editing audio, checking consistency, and living with the material in a very detailed way. That kind of attention can deepen appreciation for a story, but it can also change your relationship with it. I don't want to dig too deep into them. I just like the way they make me feel.

So for now, I am happy to let romance remain one of the genres I reach for as a reader and listener. As a narrator, I am often drawn to nonfiction because I love clarity, structure, and helping listeners understand complex ideas. I love children’s stories because they invite imagination, warmth, rhythm, and play.

But as a romance reader and audiobook listener? I understand exactly why the genre works so well in audio.

In many ways, romance asks some of the same questions that good narration asks:

Are we really listening?

Do we understand what is beneath the words?

Can a shift in tone change what we think we know?

Can a voice help us feel the truth of a story before the characters are ready to say it out loud?

For me, Pride and Prejudice remains the perfect example. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy do not simply fall in love. They listen badly. They judge quickly. They misunderstand each other. They revise their opinions. Eventually, they learn to hear each other more truthfully.

That kind of emotional movement is made for voice.

A good love story is not only read.

It is felt.

And sometimes, the right voice makes us want to hear the story all over again.

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Source note: According to the Audio Publishers Association’s 2026 research, U.S. audiobook revenue reached $2.43 billion in 2025; 58% of U.S. adults have listened to an audiobook; fiction accounted for 71% of audiobook sales; and romance remained one of the top audiobook genres.