The Duke and I

Daphne Bridgerton, the fourth of eight siblings, is popular, likable, and somehow perpetually on the wrong side of the Regency marriage market: everyone's friend, no one's obsession. Simon Basset, the new Duke of Hastings, is back from the Continent determined never to marry and produce an heir, a vow rooted in childhood injury he cannot let go. Their proposed fake courtship should benefit both parties and harm neither, which is of course exactly when complications arrive.

Rosalyn Landor's performance of the Bridgerton series has become definitive for the books' enormous audiobook audience. Her sense of the social comedy, the arch observations about the marriage market and the ton's obsessions, is impeccable, and she handles the romantic tension with equal skill. Landor's voice gives the novel's Regency London a warmth and humor that makes even its more frustrating characters enjoyable, which is no small feat given how long some of them persist.