
Best Chick Lit Audiobooks
The phrase chick lit audiobooks conjures up classics like Bridget Jones’s Diary, Diary of a Shopaholic and, a personal favourite of mine, The Devil Wears Prada. Fun, relatable, hopeful and often romantic, these stories represent women the reader knows or with whom they can identify. Or maybe someone they aspire to be.
These remain central characteristics of the genre, but women’s fiction has evolved and grown to encompass a whole lot more. It has blended with everything from dystopias and sci-fi to psychological thrillers and horror and done so seamlessly. As such there is more choice in the realm of women’s fiction audiobooks than ever before.
Best Chick Lit Audiobooks 2021
The year 2021 was an interesting mix of shattering our perceptions of perfection and testing the limits of the mind. See Jane Snap is a prime example of both, telling the tale of a woman who has it all, but then loses her grip. The Perfect Ruin is a story of vengeance and the power of portraying an image. And as for Nightbitch... That's in a league of its own.
Best Chick Lit Audiobooks 2022
2022 got off to a thrilling start, with releases such as The Marriage Secret and Just Another Liar. Other immediately strong themes for this year are dystopia and apocalyptic. Of particular note are The Last She and The School for Mothers.
Top 10 Chick Lit Audiobooks
1
By
Meg Elison
Read By
Angela Dawe
The concept of childbirth becoming a rare event is not new. Children of Men and The Handmaid's Tale are just two phenomenal examples of the premise. The Book of the Unnamed Midwife is the diary of a woman trying to survive in a world that fears an empty future. But it is so much more than that. It becomes an invaluable record, a guide for future generations and a catalyst for renewal.
2
By
Matt Haig
Read By
Carey Mulligan
Matt Haig's masterpiece about life and death will not only provoke your thoughts, but fill your mind for a long time after you've finished listening. If the fascinating concept isn't enough to entice you, perhaps the lure of narrator Carey Mulligan will do the trick.
3
By
Christina Sweeney-Baird
Read By
Cathleen McCarron, Aysha Kala, Denica Fairman, Penelope Rawlins, Debra Michaels, Julia Locascio, Sasha Alexis, Robert Bradley, Sara Lynam, Rebecca Perfect, William Hope
An epic story deserves a grand production and that is delivered in the 2021 audibook for The End of Men. Eleven narrators come together for this pandemic apocalypse with a difference, bringing to life this end of the world where a virus renders men all but extinct.
4
By
Bethany Crandell
Read By
Xe Sands
When Jane Osborne snaps, she does it in style, in public and in contravention of the law. It's quite the sight to see. From there, cracks apear in Jane's seemingly ideal life, growing, spreading and destroying everything in their path.
5
By
Adele Parks
Read By
Rachel Atkins
Adele Parks has long been responsible for many of the best audiobooks for women. Once upon a time, her novels were classic chick lit, residing in the realm of prickly friendships and tricky relationships. She has since turned her pen to much darker themes and this, her first thriller, proved she is more than equal to the task.
6
By
Gill Sims
Read By
Gabrielle Glaister
Motherhood is beautiful, magical, tranformative. That's one way to look at it at least. Mum of two, Ellen would add that it is also exhausting, frustrating, impossible and does require a decent amount of gin to get you through. Then she might mutter something profound, like FML. Gabrielle Glaister is equal parts snarky and relatable in her performance of this hilarious depiction of mummyhood.
7
By
Jennifer McMahon
Read By
Cassandra Campbell, Käthe Mazur
How strong is the bond between mothers and daughters? This is a central theme in many works of women's fiction and The Winter People is no exception. Cassandra Campbell and Kathe Mazur deliver a breath-taking performance of this supernatural story of enduring love, betrayal and revenge.
8
By
Sophie Mackintosh
Read By
Hannah Murray, Gemma Whelan, Morfydd Clark
Three sisters alone on an island, their parents gone. Brought up to believe men are dangerous, their lives are upturned by the arrival of three of them. This wistful, disorientating coming of age story follows the girls as they navigate unchartered waters.
9
By
Liane Moriarty
Read By
Caroline Lee
Any list of the very best audio lit for chicks and chickens must, by law, include at least one by Liane Moriarty. When Alice loses 10 years' worth of memories, she finds that the life she knew at 29 has fallen apart in the course of a decade. Whilst not her most well-known title, What Alice Forgot is a masterful look at the disintegration of a marriage and how small changes over time can add up to big mistakes.
10
By
Wendy Holden
Read By
Suzy Aitchison
Wendy Holden's humour is drier than a drained Martini glass. She puts this wit to excellent use in this lighthearted tale of pregnancy and parenthood. The characters range from sweet and naive to infuriating and vile, each and every one performed with the snark they deserve, courtesy of Suzy Aitchison.
Best of the Rest Chick Lit Listens
There's a lot more where that came from. And here it is. The best of the rest of women's fiction audio books. The dark, the funny, the epic and pithy.
By
Read By
Nick Hornby
Scott Brick, Simon Vance, Kate Reading
Endearing, witty, an entertaining commentary on human nature.
By
Read By
Heidi Perks
Sally Scott, Nathalie Buscombe
Closets Open, Skeletons Everywhere.
By
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Ronald Malfi
Joe Hempel
A carefully crafted mystery with echoes of (and I don't bandy this about) Gone Girl
By
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Stephanie DeCarolis
Norma Butikofer
I Know What You Did Last Summer Meets Gossip Girl
By
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Gail Honeyman
Cathleen McCarron
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Charming
By
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Nick Spalding
Heather Wilds, Napoleon Ryan
Big Fat Fun - Great For Fans of Nick Hornby and Mike Gayle.
By
Read By
Sequoia Nagamatsu
Jason Culp, Stephanie Komure, Micky Shiloah, Joe Knezevich, Brianna Ishibashi, Kotaro Watanabe, Matthew Bridges, Kurt Kanazawa, Greg Watanabe, Jeanne Sakata, MacLeod Andrews, Keisuke Hoashi, Brian Nishii, Julia Whelan
High Praise for this Darkest of Tales
By
Read By
Lisa Jewell
Donna Banya, Katherine Kelly, Connor Swindells
Lisa Jewell Casts Another Dazzling Spell
By
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Mandy Byatt
Melissa Woodbridge
Elements of John Marrs, Rachel Abbott and Adele Parks.
By
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Sarah Vaughan
Sophie Roberts, Esther Wane, Elliot Fitzpatrick, Sarah Feathers
Predictable but still enjoyable.
By
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Vera Kurian
Brittany Pressley
Aaaaaargh-mazing. Jon Ronson’s The Psychopath Test meets Alice Feeney’s Sometimes I Lie meets Scream (shout out 1996).
By
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Rachel Yoder
Cassandra Campbell
This is a literary art installation. Think Damien Hirst meets American Beauty.
By
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Sarah Lyons Fleming
Thérèse Plummer, Luke Daniels
28 Days Later as written by Tina Fey
By
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Leni Zumas
Karissa Vacker, Erin Bennett
This is to dystopia what Station Eleven is to the post apocalyptic genre. Beautiful, Funny and Scarily Prescient. Inches From Reality
By
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Alice Feeney
Stephanie Racine, Richard Armitage
Thrilling and Creepy With A Killer Twist
By
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Sarah Lyons Fleming
Julia Whelan
The Walking Friends. See what I did there? Yes, I know it doesn't work.
By
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Paul Tremblay
Erin Bennett
Wistful Apocalypse With Echoes of Station Eleven
By
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Rowan Coleman
Juanita McMahon
The second instalment of the series is just as engaging as the first.
By
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Karen Thompson Walker
Laurence Bouvard
The Wonder Years: Post Apocalypse.
By
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Rowan Coleman
Phoebe James
Funny, endearing and filled with colourful characters.
By
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Meg Elison
Angela Dawe
As powerful and Inspiring As The Handmaid's Tale
By
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Lauren Weisberger
Laurel Lefkow
A classic. The audiobook that started it all.
By
Read By
Shaun Bythell
Robin Laing
Charming and funny, sardonic and quirky.