Question: Who Are Your Fav Female Audiobook Narrators?

Posted May 28, 2015 by Melanie in Question / 45 Comments

RRQuestion
 

Last week Carmel talked about her favorite male narrators. This week, I’m going to talk about my favorite female narrators. I found that I listen to more female than male narrators, not because I have anything against male narrators, some of my favorites are male, but that female narrators seem to hold the larger market share in my favorite genres of urban fantasy and paranormal romance. I look for a narrator who can do a lot of different voices that fit the characters and adds to the tone to the story. I need a female narrator who can do, not only male voices, but several different male voices. I like to be able to distinguish between each character without thinking about it.

One of the first narrators that really made me love audiobooks was Lorelei King. I first found her when I revisited the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. I had already read the books and wanted to revisit. She really brought out the humor and Mercy’s toughness in the series. I later picked up the Charley Davidson series on audio after seeing that Lorelei King was the narrator. Just when I thought she couldn’t do anything better than Mercy, she did with Charley. Her ability to bring out the hilarity of Charley and her wacky family will bring to tears to my eyes (both funny and sad) on more than one occasion. ย She also narrates the popular Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, though I haven’t tried that one yet.

From there, I’ve branched out to other series, though King set the bar pretty high. Renรฉe Raudman is another female that is very high on my list. She narrates all of the current series by Ilona Andrews. She brings Kate and Curran to life with their passion, bantering and snarkiness. She is a narrator that I would be more than happy to pick up more book if she was listed as the narrator.

Two more narrators who are great with some of my favorite humorous PNR and UF series are Amanda Ronconi, who narrates all of Molly Harper’s books and Johanna Parker who narrates for Shelly Laurenston, Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse books and SPI Files series by Lisa Shearin. They both have great ability to add to the author’s hilarity and bring out the fun that will have me laughing out loud at completely inappropriate times.

Lauren Fortgang does a wonderful job with the assassin we all know and love in Gin Blanco in Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassins series. Marguerite Gavin is mostly know to be me for her voices of Rachel Morgan and the gang in Kim Harrison’s The Hollows. But I want to try her narration of the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn. Tavia Gilbert, is one of my favorites doing all of Jeaniene Frost’s books to date. I also listened to her narrate The Accidental Demon Slayer by Angie Fox.

Allison McLemore has a very unique voice that is perfect for my favorite White Trash Zombie written by Diana Rowland. She has the ability to make Angel sound Southern without adding a weird twang that some people add in with a Southern accent. Bahni Turpin, is another narrator that is perfect for her character in Chess, Terrible and Bump in Downside Ghosts by Stacia Kane. Her ability to pull off the weird slang from Downside and Bump, in particular, never ceases to amaze me. I’m really hoping to be getting a new book here soon.

Hillary Huber, Karen White and Kimberly Alexis are very strong narrators too. I’ve listened to multiple series from all of these. They are able to tailor their narration to fit the series/story they are narrating at the time.

As you can see, I have a really hard time narrowing this list down. These are all narrators that I would be willing to try a completely new-to-me author for a series/book if they were the narrators for the audios. I have every bit of faith that these women would bring the story to life. There are many narrators that are not on this list, but I had to stop somewhere or you guys would get really bored with me. There are probably even more that I haven’t even found yet.

So, Who Are Your Fav Female Audiobook Narrators?

Melanie Signature

I’m Melanie and I live in Ohio. I have two horses and a dog. I’m an animal lover, avid book reader and audiobook listener. I like to live vicariously through fictional characters. I enjoy reading and listening to mostly fictional books in the paranormal genre, including Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance and Horror. My favorite paranormal creatures are shifters, doesn’t matter the flavor.

Twitter Google+  

Related Posts

Tags: , ,

45 responses to “Question: Who Are Your Fav Female Audiobook Narrators?”

  3. Dolly  

    There are several in your list I also enjoy and some I haven’t “heard” yet. I can throw two more into the mix…
    Khristine Hvam is a favorite with me. She narrates the Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter. The series that brought her to my attention is the Cast series by Michelle Sagara. I would have given up on that series if not listening to Ms Hvam read one book to me!
    The other that’s not on your list is Susan Erickson. She narrates the In Death series by J. D. Robb and a lot of Nora Roberts books.
    Isn’t it great that just by listening to a certain narrator, the reader can just get excited about a book or series?

  4. daryl

    Hi Lauren fortganger defiantly but I also enjoy saskia marliveld who narrates most of Hellen Harper’s books

  8. Danya  

    I’m a big fan of Amanda Ronconi and Renee Raudman, too! They have very different styles but they both bring beloved characters to life, I find. My favourite female audiobook narrator is Mary Robinette Kowal (who is actually a professional writer as well as a voice actress), particularly her work on Seanan McGuire’s “October Daye” series. It sounds like you’d really like those, Melanie – they’re great UF and Mary Robinette Kowal does a phenomenal job with male characters’ voices.
    Danya recently posted…Review: Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs

    • Melanie  

      I’ve found narrators that I enjoy, but don’t read many books in my favorite genres. I have that issue with Karen White. She does mostly contemporary romances and I don’t listen to many of them. I found her with the Sin Brother series, which is romantic suspense, which is more up my alley, especially with the paranormal aspects. I’ll have to check to see if Davina Porter has anything I might be interested in. Thanks!
      Melanie recently posted…Review: The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe

  10. Karin Anderson  

    I love several of your choices, but I’m actually not a fan of Renee Raudman. Granted, I’ve only listened to her Contemporary narrations, so I should probably try some of her paranormal/sci-fi/fantasy books.

    Also, Lauren Fortgang’s narration of the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo is fabulous. She is actually my favorite narrator, period.

    I would add Alison Larkin (especially if you love british accents w/ lots of distinct voices). She narrates the London Steampunk series by Bec McMaster and really blew me away.

    • Melanie  

      Mostly, I’ve listen to Renee Raudman do Ilona Andrews. I think they make a great team. I think the only other time I’ve listened to her, she did one or two of the Demonica series by Larissa Ione.

      I’ve been wanting to check out the London Steampunk series. I’ll be sure to add it as an audio. Thanks. ๐Ÿ™‚
      Melanie recently posted…Review: The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe

  11. Bookworm Brandee  

    I’m going to be checking out a few of your favs, Melanie, as im planning on revisiting Kate & Curran and i just might try Mercy on audio for a revisit as well. I haven’t listened to many books yet but two of your favs are on my list…Amanda Ronconi and Marguerite Gavin. I also adore Kirsten Potter who i found when i listened to Maya Banks’ Montgomery & Armstrongs series. It’s HR. And she rocks a Scottish accent. ๐Ÿ™‚
    Bookworm Brandee recently posted…Review ~ Paradise City ~ CJ Duggan

    • Melanie  

      I love Scottish accents. I don’t listen to many HR, or really any. The only one close was KMM Highlander series and I only listened because of the accents that the narrator did. Kate Daniels is one of my all-time favorite series on audio. I’ve listen to a little from Kirsten Potter. She almost made the list, but I had to stop somewhere. I probably could’ve added another 5 or 6 to the list without even thinking hard. ๐Ÿ™‚
      Melanie recently posted…Review: The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe

  13. Melissa (Books and Things)  

    You have listed ALL of my favorites. I’m going to listen to the Mercy series on audio when the Charley Davidson series is done. I’ve heard people don’t like mixing the characters voices at the same time so I’m going to divide them that way. I also love Renรฉe Raudman. You mention others I would also mention but those two are my top faves.
    Melissa (Books and Things) recently posted…On My Wishlist: Trailer Park Fae by Lilith Saintcrow

    • Melanie  

      I don’t know that I could go straight from Mercy to Charley, but there is usually enough months in between that it doesn’t bother me. I usually have one of each per year, so not too bad. Now, when I first started listening to The Accidental Demon Slayer by Angie Fox. I did have to remind myself that it wasn’t Cat talking. It only took a few minutes to settle into Lizzie.
      Melanie recently posted…Review: The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe

  14. Anya Breton  

    Marguerite Gavin on Kitty Norville is pretty good. I listened to 2 of the Hollows with her as narrator as well.

    Two others I like are: Rebecca Gibel on the Splintered series. and Khristine Hvam on Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

    I couldn’t stand Rebecca for the first 20minutes or so and then she seriously grew on me. She narrates R. L. Naquin’s Monster Haven books, too, and I adore R. L. Naquin.

    The same goes for Leigh Bardugo on Shadow & Bone, she grew on me after being initially meh.

    • Melanie  

      I listened to Ms. Gavin narrate all The Hollows book (except the one she didn’t do :(). I’ve picked up book one in the Kitty Norville series and plan to start soon, since she is the narrator. I’m not familiar with any of the others you mentioned. I’ll have to check them out. Thanks for the recommendations.
      Melanie recently posted…Review: The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe

  16. Berls  

    Our lists are pretty much identical! When I started thinking of favorite female narrators, I started down my lists of favorite series and you named them all. I actually haven’t listened to the last three narrators you named, so I need to check them out.
    Berls recently posted…Deep in Death by Colleen Helme

    • Melanie  

      Hillary Huber has done a lot of the Demonica series (I wish she did the entire series) and Midnight Breed series. She has also done some stuff for Rob Thurman, L.A. Banks and Jocelynn Drake that I haven’t tried yet.

      Karen White did Sin Brothers series by Rebecca Zanetti. I want to try her redemption of FBI/US Attorney by Julie James, Leopard series by Christine Feehan, Animal Magnetism by Jill Shalvis and Dark Protectors series by Rebecca Zanetti.

      Kimberly Alexis does the Anita Blake series and the Game Maker series by Kresley Cole.
      Melanie recently posted…Review: Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson