Listen to Best Full Audiobooks in Fiction, Coming of Age

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/509110 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Note to Self

Author: Anna Bell

Narrator: Eilidh Beaton

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 56 minutes

Release date: June 23, 2022

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

From the author of We Just Clicked and The Man I Didn’t Marry comes a brand-new romantic and moving love story daring to find a second chance in life and love. ‘The perfect combination of poignancy and charm. A warm hug in book form, and a gorgeous summer read’ Holly Miller, The Sight of You ‘I absolutely adored Note to Self. A brilliant, fun concept, characters that will steal your heart and a love story to make you swoon. It should be on everyone’s summer reading list!’ Emily Stone, Always in December ‘A triumph of humour and heart! I'm such a sucker for nostalgia and romance combined, and Note to Self took me on the most perfect rollercoaster of emotion’ Laura Jane Williams, Our Stop ‘Warm, emotional and thought-provoking’ Fabulous –– It’s never too late to follow your heart. One summer’s day seventeen years ago Edie and Joel meet. Their connection is instant and a friendship is born, although Edie can’t help but wish for more. But just as she builds up the courage to lay her heart on the line, one night changes everything… Edie’s moved on from the heartbreak of years ago. So the last thing she expects to receive on her thirty-fifth birthday is an email… from her eighteen-year-old self. As more emails arrive, she starts to remember what – or rather who – she left behind. Following her own advice, Edie heads back to the place where it all began, and finds her path unexpectedly crossing with Joel’s once more. Could this finally be their chance at love? Or are some things better left in the past? –– ‘Absolutely adored Note to Self – such a brilliant concept, and the sizzling chemistry between Edie and Joel had me rooting for them right from the first! Definitely one to add to your beach reading list this year’ Beth Reekles, bestselling author of The Kissing Booth ‘Warm, charming and totally relatable, I was so engrossed in this gorgeous story that I almost missed my tube stop! Loved it’ Lorraine Brown, The Paris Connection

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/551355 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: On Rotation: A Novel

Author: Shirlene Obuobi

Narrator: Mela Lee

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 28 minutes

Release date: June 21, 2022

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.2 of Total 10

Ratings of Narrator: 4.6 of Total 5

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

AS SEEN ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA! ONE OF TEEN VOGUE'S 25 BOOKS BY BLACK AUTHORS THEY CAN'T WAIT TO READ THIS YEAR ONE OF BETCHES' ''22 BOOKS YOU NEED TO READ THIS YEAR'' ''As a fan of Grey’s Anatomy (and Chicago Med!), I couldn’t put down On Rotation, and you won’t be able to, either. Shirlene Obuobi makes you feel as if you’re actually right there with the lovable Angie, and I personally couldn’t get enough.''—Meg Cabot, New York Times bestselling author For fans of Grey’s Anatomy and Seven Days in June, this dazzling debut novel by Shirlene Obuobi explores that time in your life when you must decide what you want, how to get it, & who you are, all while navigating love, friendship, and the realization that the path you’re traveling is going to be a bumpy ride. Ghanaian-American Angela Appiah has checked off all the boxes for the “Perfect Immigrant Daughter.” Enroll in an elite medical school Snag a suitable lawyer/doctor/engineer boyfriend Surround self with a gaggle of successful and/or loyal friends But then it quickly all falls apart: her boyfriend dumps her, she bombs the most important exam of her medical career, and her best friend pulls away. And her parents, whose approval seems to hinge on how closely she follows the path they chose, are a lot less proud of their daughter. It’s a quarter life crisis of epic proportions. Angie, who has always faced her problems by working “twice as hard to get half as far,” is at a loss. Suddenly, she begins to question everything: her career choice, her friendships, even why she's attracted to men who don't love her as much as she loves them. And just when things couldn’t get more complicated, enter Ricky Gutierrez—brilliant, thoughtful, sexy, and most importantly, seems to see Angie for who she is instead of what she can represent. Unfortunately, he’s also got “wasteman” practically tattooed across his forehead, and Angie’s done chasing mirages of men. Or so she thinks. For someone who’s always been in control, Angie realizes that there’s one thing she can’t plan on: matters of her heart.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/550477 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: A Blind Corner

Author: Caitlin Macy

Narrator: Vanessa Johansson

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 6 hours 24 minutes

Release date: June 21, 2022

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

From the author of Mrs. and TheFundamentals of Play comes a brilliant and biting short story collection about pride, privilege, and our nagging need to belong. In an era of “hot takes” and easy generalizations, this collection reclaims the absurdities and paradoxes of life as it is actually lived from the American fantasy of “niceness”. In Macy’s world, human desires and fatal blind spots slam headlong into convenient, social-media-driven narratives that would sort us into neat boxes of insider or outsider; good or bad; with us or against us.   Time and again, whether at home or in the age-old role of Americans abroad, Macy’s women see their good intentions turn awry. A woman who tries to do a good deed for an underprivileged child sees it go horribly wrong. A wife, attempting to be a good host to a friend’s strange ex-boyfriend, finds herself in a compromised situation. And, in the title story, a newlywed fancies herself a Euro-sophisticate until an accident reminds her just how truly foreign she really is. In tales where shocking and sometimes brutal events disabuse characters of their most cherished beliefs, Macy forgoes easy moralization in favor of uncomfortable truths that reveal the complexity of what it means to be human.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/548780 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair: A Novel

Author: June Gervais

Narrator: Jesse Vilinsky

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 12 hours 1 minute

Release date: June 21, 2022

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

“I adored this novel. It’s a story about being an awkward, misfit girl with big dreams in a man’s world. It made me laugh out loud, and it made me really, really want a tattoo.” —Clare Pooley, New York Times bestselling author of The Authenticity Project   An uplifting, feminist coming-of-age love story about a young woman who dreams of becoming a tattoo artist, and living life on her own terms Introvert Gina Mulley is determined to become a tattoo artist, and to find somewhere she belongs in her conventional Long Island town. But this is 1985, when tattooing is still a gritty, male-dominated fringe culture, and Gina’s whimsical style is far from the norm. Luck is on her side: Gina’s older brother Dominic owns a tattoo shop, and he reluctantly grants her one year to prove herself.   Gina devotes herself to perfecting her craft, but her world is turned upside down when a mysterious psychic and his striking assistant, Anna, arrive on the scene. Anna’s friendship opens Gina’s eyes to thrilling possibilities: finally stepping out of her brother’s shadow and embracing her own quirky self, both in her art and beyond.    The tattoo shop is rocked by a crisis just as Gina finds herself falling in love with Anna. When Dominic gives Gina an ultimatum, she’s faced with an impossible choice: Is this newfound independence and a shot at romance worth sacrificing her dreams? Or can she find a way to have it all?

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/551351 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Wild One: A Novel

Author: Colleen Mckeegan

Narrator: Jesse Vilinsky

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 19 minutes

Release date: June 14, 2022

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

“Addictive from its first pages, Colleen McKeegan’s The Wild One mines all the complexities and darkness of young women in the battleground of summer camp, fashioning a riveting tale of secrets, shame and a harrowing reckoning.”—New York Times bestselling author Megan Abbott “I couldn't put down this smart and astute page-turning debut. Colleen McKeegan has beautifully crafted a narrative that explores the ways trauma and societal expectations shape the women we become. The engaging prose and razor-sharp twists and turns will keep readers on the edges of their seats until the very last page.”—Jo Piazza, internationally bestselling author of Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win and We Are Not Like Them In this dark and twisted coming-of-age thriller, a deadly childhood secret that binds three young women threatens to destroy their lives. Amanda Brooks is a born-and-bred New Yorker with an envious life: she’s in a great graduate school program, lives in a cozy Tribeca apartment, and is head-over-heels for her handsome, committed boyfriend. But Amanda’s life isn’t as picture perfect as it seems. For over a decade she’s been hiding a dark secret—a secret that goes back to that summer at Camp Catalpa when a man died in the woods. Fellow campers Catherine and Meg were there too, and in the years since, not one of them has ever spoken about what happened that day. Until Amanda slips—and the truth threatens to explode the tightly controlled façade of her life. When her past begins to poison her present, threatening her relationship, Amanda has no one to turn to except the two women who know her most monstrous self. Reuniting with Catherine and Meg one last time, Amanda is desperate to put the demons of that twisted summer to rest.  But when trusting anyone, even one another, starts to feel like a wildly risky proposition, just how far will these three go to keep the truth from emerging—and their lives from unraveling?

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/551263 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Last Summer on State Street: A Novel

Author: Toya Wolfe

Narrator: Shayna Small

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 6 hours 6 minutes

Release date: June 14, 2022

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 3

Ratings of Narrator: 4.5 of Total 2

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

PEN Open Book Award finalist Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award winner Stephen Curry Underrated Literati Book Club Pick Named a Best Book of Summer by Good Housekeeping, Chicago Magazine, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, Chicago Tribune, Veranda, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, and more! “[A] powerful novel.... Tragic, hopeful, brimming with love, Wolfe’s debut is a remarkable achievement.”—New York Times Book Review For fans of Jacqueline Woodson and Brit Bennett, a striking coming-of-age debut about friendship, community, and resilience, set in the housing projects of Chicago during one life-changing summer. Even when we lose it all, we find the strength to rebuild. Felicia “Fe Fe” Stevens is living with her vigilantly loving mother and older teenaged brother, whom she adores, in building 4950 of Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. It’s the summer of 1999, and her high-rise is next in line to be torn down by the Chicago Housing Authority. She, with the devout Precious Brown and Stacia Buchanan, daughter of a Gangster Disciple Queen-Pin, form a tentative trio and, for a brief moment, carve out for themselves a simple life of Double Dutch and innocence. But when Fe Fe welcomes a mysterious new friend, Tonya, into their fold, the dynamics shift, upending the lives of all four girls. As their beloved neighborhood falls down around them, so too do their friendships and the structures of the four girls’ families. Fe Fe must make the painful decision of whom she can trust and whom she must let go. Decades later, as she remembers that fateful summer—just before her home was demolished, her life uprooted, and community forever changed—Fe Fe tries to make sense of the grief and fraught bonds that still haunt her and attempts to reclaim the love that never left. Profound, reverent, and uplifting, Last Summer on State Street explores the risk of connection against the backdrop of racist institutions, the restorative power of knowing and claiming one’s own past, and those defining relationships which form the heartbeat of our lives. Interweaving moments of reckoning and sustaining grace, debut author Toya Wolfe has crafted an era-defining story of finding a home—both in one’s history and in one’s self.  ''Toya Wolfe is a storyteller of the highest order. Last Summer on State Street is a stunning debut.''—Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Believers

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/551346 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Hop: A Novel

Author: Diana Clarke

Narrator: Carolina Hoyos, Laura Petersen, Taryn Ryan, Olivia Mackenzie-Smith, Adam Verner

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 47 minutes

Release date: June 7, 2022

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

“The Hop is a fresh ode to sisterhood and sexual agency that crackles with verve and wit. I couldn't put it down.”—Gabriela Garcia, author of the New York Times bestseller and Good Morning America Pick Of Women and Salt A page-turning feminist novel that tells the story of a poor scrappy girl from rural New Zealand who grows reluctantly into a sex icon, the face of a movement, and a mother, all at the same time. Kate Burns grows up wanting attention from her Ma, but her Ma wants only money and Kate learns how to get both. She and her childhood friend, Lacey, run kissing lessons for cash in the janitor’s closet of Fenbrook High, and just like that, they find themselves in the sex work industry. From there, they go on to work at The Purple Panther, a strip club in Auckland. When Ma dies of cancer, Kate discovers that the men her Ma was always inviting over to their home were, in fact, clients. Ma was no stranger to sex work either.  Following in Ma’s footsteps, Kate heads to Nevada where she picks up a job at America’s most prestigious brothel: The Hop. In her new life as a Bunny, Kate searches for an identity she can perform—the other Bunnies include a goth, a housewife, a cheerleader, a rebel, not to mention Betty, a trans beauty queen, Mia, a Japanese cosplayer, and Rain, a dominatrix. Kate becomes Lady Lane. The girls at The Hop are more fantasy than fact, and performance is always more perfect than the real. Kate is a natural and quickly rises through the ranks to become the bestselling Bunny and the owner, Daddy’s favorite. But when ten street hookers are killed in a nearby city, just bodies with no names, Lady joins her sister Bunnies in mourning and begins to see things in a new light. Lady’s success breeds scandal and unwanted fame, deeply affecting her, transforming her life and The Hop forever. Diana Clarke’s provocative second novel is subversive in the very best way, an unforgettable work of fiction with a radical message about women that couldn’t be more important. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/552932 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: On Gin Lane

Author: Brooke Lea Foster

Narrator: Jennifer Aquino

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 56 minutes

Release date: May 31, 2022

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.33 of Total 3

Ratings of Narrator: 4 of Total 1

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

“Utterly captivating. What a lovely summer novel!” —Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author “On Gin Lane encapsulates the very best of historical fiction.” —Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author After her fiancé whisks her off to the glistening shores of Southampton in June of 1957, one young socialite begins to realize that her glamorous summer is giving her everything—except what she really wants—in this new novel from the author of Summer Darlings. Everleigh “Lee” Farrows thinks she finally has life all figured out: a handsome fiancé named Roland, a trust in her name, and a house in Bronxville waiting for her to fill it with three adorable children. That is, until Roland brings her out to the Hamptons for a summer that will change everything. Most women could only dream of the engagement present Roland unexpectedly bestows on Lee—a beachside hotel on the prized Gin Lane—but Lee’s delight is clouded by unpleasant memories of another hotel, the Plaza, where she grew up in the shadow of her mother’s mental illness. Shaking off flashbacks, Lee resolves to dive into an unforgettable summer with poolside Bellinis, daily tennis matches, luncheons with her Manhattan circle, and her beloved camera in tow. But when tragedy strikes on the hotel’s opening weekend, the cracks in Lee’s picture-perfect future slowly begin to reveal themselves, and Lee must look deep within herself to determine if the life she’s always wanted will ever truly be enough. From the regal inns to the farmland, the well-heeled New Yorkers to the Bohemian artists, the East End of Long Island is a hodge-podge of the changing American landscape in the late 1950s—and the perfect place for Lee to discover who she really is.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/548456 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Either/Or: From the bestselling author of THE IDIOT

Author: Elif Batuman

Narrator: Elif Batuman

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 54 minutes

Release date: May 26, 2022

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3 of Total 1

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

Brought to you by Penguin. SELIN IS THE LUCKIEST PERSON IN HER FAMILY: the only one who was born in America and got to go to Harvard. Now it's her second year, 1996, and Selin knows she has to make it count. The first order of business: to figure out the meaning of everything that happened over the summer. Why did Selin's elusive crush, Ivan, find her that job in the Hungarian countryside? What was up with all those other people in the Hungarian countryside? Why is Ivan's weird ex-girlfriend now trying to get in touch with Selin? On the plus side, her life feels like the plot of an exciting novel. On the other hand, why do so many novels have crazy, abandoned women in them? How does one live a life as interesting as a novel-a life worthy of becoming a novel-without becoming a crazy, abandoned woman oneself? Guided by her literature syllabus and by her more worldly and confident peers, Selin reaches certain conclusions about the universal importance of parties, alcohol, and sex, and resolves to execute them in practice-no matter what the cost. Next on the list: international travel. Unfolding with the propulsive logic and intensity of youth, Either / Or is a landmark novel by one of our most brilliant writers. Hilarious, revelatory, and unforgettable, its gripping narrative will confront you with searching questions that persist long after the last page. © Elif Batuman 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/528421 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Tomorrow I Become a Woman

Author: Aiwanose Odafen

Narrator: Nneka Okoye

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 20 minutes

Release date: May 26, 2022

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4 of Total 6

Ratings of Narrator: 4.5 of Total 2

Genres: Coming of Age

Publisher's Summary:

What can I do?’ she asked. You can fight, I thought, you can fight for your daughters. But then again, who was I to speak of such things   When Gozie and Obianuju meet in August 1978, it is nothing short of fate. He is the perfect man: charismatic, handsome, Christian, and – most importantly – Igbo. He reminds her of her beloved Uncle Ikenna, her mother’s brother who disappeared fighting in the Civil War that devastated Nigeria less than a decade before. It is why, when Gozie asks her to marry him within months of meeting, she says yes, despite her lingering and uncertain feelings for Akin – a man her mother would never accept, as his tribe fought on the other side of the war. Akin makes her feel heard, understood, intelligent; Gozie makes her heart flutter. For Uju, the daughter her mother never wanted, marriage would mean the attainment of that long elusive state of womanhood, and something else she has desired all her life – her mother’s approval. All will be well; he is the perfect match, the country will soon be democratic again and the economy is growing, or so she thinks … Loosely based on the real stories of real women known to the author, Tomorrow I Become a Woman follows a complex relationship between mother and daughter as they grapple to come to terms with tremendous loss. This powerful debut by Aiwanose Odafen is a sensitive exploration of a woman’s struggle to meet societal and cultural expectations within the confines of a difficult marriage, a tribute to female friendship and a love story that spans two decades and continents against a backdrop of political turmoil and a fast-changing world.