Best Lauren Fortgang Audiobooks

The best audiobooks narrated by Lauren Fortgang — 13 titles spanning Fantasy, Thriller, Self-Help, averaging 4.15 ABR stars.

Lauren Fortgang is an audiobook narrator with a warm, expressive voice suited to fantasy, nonfiction, and literary fiction. She is the narrator of Leigh Bardugo's original Shadow and Bone trilogy — having voiced Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising — bringing Alina Starkov's journey from obscure orphan to reluctant hero with a characterization that captures both Alina's self-doubt and her hard-won resolve. Fortgang also narrated Holly Black's The Darkest Part of the Forest, demonstrating her ease in dark young adult fantasy. Her nonfiction work includes Brené Brown's I Thought It Was Just Me and Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, showing her range across very different material. Fortgang's narration style is clear and emotionally present without being theatrical, making her well suited to first-person YA narratives as well as nonfiction that benefits from a sense of direct address and personal engagement.

Where to Start with Lauren Fortgang

  1. 1
    Crooked Kingdom cover

    Crooked Kingdom

    Six of Crows • Book 2

    by Leigh Bardugo

    Narrated by Roger Clark, Jay Snyder, Elizabeth Evans, Fred Berman, Brandon Rubin, Kevin T. Collins, Lauren Fortgang, Peter Ganim

    ★ 4.68 ABR Score (797.9K ratings)
    ★ 4.57 Goodreads (779.9K) ★ 4.73 Audible (18.0K)
    17h 58m listening time • Released 2016
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  2. 2
    Six of Crows cover

    Six of Crows

    Six of Crows • Book 1

    by Leigh Bardugo

    Narrated by Jay Snyder, Brandon Rubin, Fred Berman, Lauren Fortgang, Roger Clark, Elizabeth Evans, Tristan Morris

    ★ 4.50 ABR Score (1.2M ratings)
    ★ 4.46 Goodreads (1.2M) ★ 4.55 Audible (22.8K)
    15h 4m listening time • Released 2015
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  3. 3
    Pretty Things cover

    Pretty Things

    by Janelle Brown

    Narrated by Julia Whelan, Lauren Fortgang, Hillary Huber

    ★ 4.41 ABR Score (115.9K ratings)
    ★ 3.89 Goodreads (90.0K) ★ 4.53 Audible (26.0K)
    16h 6m listening time • Released 2020

    Three distinct narrators bring real depth to these two women's collision course: each voice captures the moral complexity of a con that spirals way beyond either of them expected.

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  4. 4
    Hell Bent cover

    Hell Bent

    Alex Stern • Book 2

    by Leigh Bardugo

    Narrated by Lauren Fortgang, Michael David Axtell

    ★ 4.30 ABR Score (187.5K ratings)
    ★ 4.1 Goodreads (183.8K) ★ 4.64 Audible (3.6K)
    16h 16m listening time • Released 2023
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  5. 5
    Ruin and Rising cover

    Ruin and Rising

    Shadow and Bone • Book 3

    by Leigh Bardugo

    Narrated by Lauren Fortgang

    ★ 4.28 ABR Score (607.8K ratings)
    ★ 3.97 Goodreads (595.9K) ★ 4.58 Audible (11.9K)
    10h 57m listening time • Released 2014
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  6. 6
    I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn't): Making the Journey from "What Will People Think?" to "I Am Enough" cover

    I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn't): Making the Journey from "What Will People Think?" to "I Am Enough"

    by Brené Brown

    Narrated by Lauren Fortgang

    ★ 4.25 ABR Score (32.7K ratings)
    ★ 4.19 Goodreads (26.8K) ★ 4.51 Audible (6.0K)
    10h 44m listening time • Released 2010
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  7. 7
    Ninth House cover

    Ninth House

    Alex Stern • Book 1

    by Leigh Bardugo

    Narrated by Lauren Fortgang, Michael David Axtell

    ★ 4.15 ABR Score (413.3K ratings)
    ★ 4 Goodreads (407.3K) ★ 4.45 Audible (6.0K)
    16h 22m listening time • Released 2019
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  8. 8
    Shadow and Bone cover

    Shadow and Bone

    Shadow and Bone • Book 1

    by Leigh Bardugo

    Narrated by Lauren Fortgang

    ★ 4.12 ABR Score (1.1M ratings)
    ★ 3.91 Goodreads (1.1M) ★ 4.39 Audible (15.2K)
    9h 21m listening time • Released 2012
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  9. 9
    Buried Deep and Other Stories cover

    Buried Deep and Other Stories

    by Naomi Novik

    Narrated by Frankie Corzo, Nicholas Guy Smith, Imani Jade Powers, Simon Vance, Elizabeth Knowelden, Saskia Maarleveld, Lauren Fortgang, Ell Potter, Billie Fulford-Brown, Steve West, Lisa Flanagan, Bronwen Price, Anisha Dadia, Naomi Novik

    ★ 3.99 ABR Score (6.9K ratings)
    ★ 4.02 Goodreads (6.8K) ★ 4.58 Audible (98)
    12h 46m listening time • Released 2024

    A star-studded ensemble cast elevates these thirteen stories from clever reimaginings into fully realized audio experiences, each narrator perfectly matched to their tale's voice and world.

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  10. 10
    Sightwitch cover

    Sightwitch

    The Witchlands #2.5

    by Susan Dennard, Rhys Davies

    Narrated by Bahni Turpin, Saskia Maarleveld, Cassandra Campbell, Lauren Fortgang, MacLeod Andrews

    ★ 3.94 ABR Score (8.0K ratings)
    ★ 3.98 Goodreads (7.9K) ★ 4.42 Audible (85)
    7h 18m listening time • Released 2018

    The five-narrator cast brings Ryber's illustrated journal to life with genuine intimacy, turning a novella into something that feels handmade and deeply personal.

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  11. 11
    The Name of All Things cover

    The Name of All Things

    A Chorus of Dragons • Book 2

    by Jenn Lyons

    Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, Dan Bittner, Lauren Fortgang

    ★ 3.92 ABR Score (6.8K ratings)
    ★ 4.04 Goodreads (6.3K) ★ 4.35 Audible (507)
    25h 46m listening time • Released 2019
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  12. 12
    The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life cover

    The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life

    by Twyla Tharp, Mark Reiter

    Narrated by Lauren Fortgang

    ★ 3.80 ABR Score (42.9K ratings)
    ★ 4.09 Goodreads (42.1K) ★ 4.16 Audible (797)
    8h 51m listening time • Released 2013
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  13. 13
    Knaves: A Blackguards Anthology (3) cover

    Knaves: A Blackguards Anthology (3)

    Tales of the Otori #4.9 - Wine, Knife, Sword

    by Melanie R. Meadors, Alana Joli Abbott, Maurice Broaddus, Cullen Bunn, Toiya Kristen Finley, Shanna Germain, Lian Hearn, Walidah Imarisha, Mercedes Lackey, Dennis Lee, Cat Rambo, Linda Robertson, Clay Sanger, Anna Smith Spark, Kenny Soward, Anton Strout, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Howard Tayler, Linda Robertson Reinhardt

    Narrated by Scott Aiello, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Raphael Corkhill, Jonathan Davis, Victor Bevine, Lauren Fortgang, Ryan Vincent Anderson, Kyla Garcia, Barrie Kreinik

    ★ 3.66 ABR Score (32 ratings)
    ★ 3.5 Goodreads (30) ★ 3.5 Audible (2)
    9h 5m listening time • Released 2019
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How We Rank Audiobooks

Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.

Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.

We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.

Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.

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