Staff Picks: 5 Audiobook Originals Changing the Way We Listen

The first audio original from Jeneva Rose, the author of blockbuster bestseller The Perfect Marriage, #CrimeTime is a full-cast mystery written with her husband, Drew Pyne, perfect for fans of Only Murders in the Building and Finley Donovan Is Killing It.

Going viral has never been so dangerous.

Nadiya loves her privacy: living alone and writing a popular series of crime novels under a pen name, she’s worked hard to build the quiet life she cherishes. But all that changes when her long-lost half-brother Chase comes to town, needing a place to stay until he can get back on his feet. Chase’s dream job is Nadiya’s worst nightmare: he’s an aspiring TikTok star, oversharing on the internet at every opportunity.

When a burglary occurs in the apartment upstairs, Chase decides to film and post all the action. Unbeknownst to him, this was not a random break-in, but a targeted operation run by dangerous criminals. Overnight, Chase’s videos go viral, garnering millions of views and amassing a huge following of loyal #Chasers. It’s everything he’s ever dreamt of, expect the attention has brought the wrong kind of heat. Chase and Nadiya are plunged into a world of organized crime, and together, they must uncover the truth and clear their names before they become the next victims.

Performed by a full cast and filled with both laugh-out-loud banter and shocking twists, #CrimeTime is a delightful romp through the murky, unpredictable realms of crime, family, and the TikTok algorithm.

Only on Audio! A new horror novel from the bestselling author of The Only Good Indians and My Heart is a Chainsaw.

A mother carries her six-year-old daughter into the tiled bathroom where the bathtub is already running, is still running, is overflowing, and for a moment the girl calms, seeing her little brother floating facedown in the water, his hair a golden halo around him, but then this mother is guiding her face-first down into that water, that, as it turns out, isn’t just water but scalding water, and eleven years later her scream is the drawer screeching out of the counter by the sink.

When high school senior Charlotte agrees to babysit the Wilbanks twins, she plans to put the six-year-olds to bed early and spend a quiet night studying: the SATs are tomorrow, and checking the Native American/Alaskan Native box on all the forms doesn’t mean jack if you choke on test day.

But tomorrow is also Halloween, and the twins are eager to show off their costumes—Ron is a nurse, in an old-fashioned white skirt-uniform, and Desi has an Authentic Squaw costume, complete with buckskin and feathered headdress. Excitement is in the air.

Charlotte’s last babysitting gig almost ended in tragedy, when her young charge sleepwalked unnoticed into the middle of the street, only to be found unharmed by Charlotte’s mother. Charlotte vows to be extra careful this time. But the house is filled with mysterious noises and secrets that only the twins understand, echoes of horrors that Charlotte gradually realizes took place in the house eleven years ago. Soon Charlotte has to admit that every babysitter’s worst nightmare has come true: they’re not alone in the house.

The Babysitter Lives is a mind-bending haunted house tale from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones.

Featuring a note from the author.

A perfectionist maid of honor and a carefree, surfer-bro best man team up to plan a wedding and end up finding a spark of their own in the first audio original from author duo Christina Lauren, a full-cast sequel to their New York Times bestseller The Unhoneymooners.

Ami is determined to break the Torres family wedding curse. Her own disaster of a reception ended with all the guests getting food poisoning, and she left her cheating husband soon after. But even though she’s still processing her own divorce, Ami won’t let her twin sister Olive’s day be anything but perfect. Olive may think she wants a private ceremony in Maui, where she and her fiancé Ethan first fell in love, but Ami knows better and secretly flies the whole Torres family out to surprise the couple. Now she and her meticulously organized binder have less than two weeks to get everything together for the big day, thousands of miles from home.

Enter Brody, Ethan’s best man, who happens to be living in Maui and insists on helping with the preparations. His playfully elaborate schemes and happy-go-lucky attitude are the last thing Ami needs. When sparks start to fly, could it derail all her carefully laid plans?

Equal parts hilarious and swoon-worthy, this full-cast production is your ticket to the ultimate destination wedding, bringing to life both a captivating couple and an unforgettable family. The Honeymoon Crashers is Christina Lauren at their charming, hilarious best.

An audio original novella from the bestselling author of Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land, The Levee is a powerful, captivating story of a family, a storm, a complicated rescue, and the true cost of survival.

It’s 1927, and the most devastating flood in American history has swelled the Mississippi River to a width of eighty miles. In an attempt to save a family trapped by the rising water, four men in a tiny rowboat battle the treacherous flow: three are convicts, on loan from the local prison and pressed into service; the fourth, the leader of the team, is driven by his own hidden motives. But to their surprise upon arrival at Ballymore, an ancestral home protected by a high, circular levee, not everyone in the family feels the need to be saved. Pride, greed, loyalty, and even love create their own complex currents behind the massive wall. As the threat from the flood increases and time ticks away, the crew and the family must decide on a course of action, and a desperate plan is hatched to save the weakening levee and all it was built to protect.

The Levee is a propulsive, heartfelt tale of courage, cowardice, and sacrifice in a historic moment when the indomitable human spirit is pitted against the awesome and destructive power of nature.

Kiss & Tell: Stand Up & Stories About Love, Sex, Etc. is a breakthrough audiobook that combines the brashness of stand-up comedy, the intimacy of oral storytelling and the energy of a live audience to portray a compelling and hilarious take on modern relationships. Coproduced with Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat and hosted by Emmy Award–winning actress Rachel Bloom and Saturday Night Live alum Jay Pharoah, Kiss & Tell presents an incredible lineup of the funniest comedians unavailable in any other format or on any other platform.

Telling a uniquely collaborative, extensive, and universal love story through a variety of diverse lenses, covering everything from first dates and first dances to cheating, break ups, and everything in between, Kiss & Tell features performances ranging from stand-up and storytelling to original songs, impressions, and more.

Organized along the timeline familiar to anyone who has been in a relationship—tracing the journey from pre-date jitters through settled domesticity—the assorted (and occasionally sordid) tales presented in Kiss & Tell bring the universal challenges and rewards of romantic relationships to hilarious life. Listeners will hear themselves in these talented performers’ fresh takes on these recognizable milestones: crushes crushed, proms attended and virginities lost, couples counseling, parenthood, and blending families.

Along the way, these performers share memories from surprising turns in their own journeys, including the challenges of bringing a sex toy through airport security, and coming to the realization of how threesomes are like horror movies. You’ll hear dispatches from the frontlines of today, men and women, straight and gay, pursuing romance while confronting the realities of dating in your thirties or discovering the truth about Tinder. And you’ll hear love in action as several couples perform together, including newlyweds remembering the vacation that defined their relationship, and longtime partners sharing the microphone to give each other the chance to have their say.

Hosts Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Jay Pharoah (Saturday Night Live) share hilarious stories of their own while introducing a roster of performers assembled exclusively for this recording, including:
Aisha Alfa
Alyssa Limperis
Atsuko Okatsuka
Chinedu Unaka
Chris Garcias
Danielle Perez
James III
JB Ball
Luke Mones
Mike Lawrence
Morgan Jay
Nate Jackson
Noah Findling
Ron Taylor
The Sklar Brothers
Sydney Battle
Sydney Steinberg
Zach Noe Towers