Best Lauren Fortgang Audiobooks

The best audiobooks narrated by Lauren Fortgang — 12 titles spanning Fantasy, Self-Help, Thriller, averaging 4.13 ABR stars.

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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)
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    Kaz and his Dregs crew fight for survival in Ketterdam after their Ice Court heist goes sideways. The full ensemble cast returns to handle this action-packed conclusion to the Six of Crows duology.

  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)
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    Criminal mastermind Kaz Brekker assembles a crew for an impossible heist in this fantasy Ocean's Eleven, brought to life by a full cast capturing each character's distinct voice.

  3. 3
    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)
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    Galaxy Stern attempts to break her mentor out of hell using Yale's occult societies and forbidden magic. Lauren Fortgang returns to capture Alex's gritty determination in this darker sequel to Ninth House.

  4. 4
    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)
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    Alina's powers are broken, the Darkling rules from his shadow throne, and Ravka's hope rests with religious zealots in underground tunnels. This trilogy conclusion burns through every fantasy trope with earned emotion.

  5. 5
    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

    4.20 ABR Score (32.7K ratings)
    ★ 4.19 Goodreads (26.8K) ★ 4.51 Audible (6.0K)
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    Brown examines how shame traps us in perfectionism and people-pleasing cycles. Research-backed strategies for building resilience against the inner critic that demands constant performance.

  6. 6
    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)
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    Yale's secret societies practice actual occult rituals, and Alex Stern monitors them after surviving a multiple homicide. Lauren Fortgang captures Alex's gritty voice perfectly while Michael David Axtell handles the male perspectives with menacing precision.

  7. 7
    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)
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    Orphan mapmaker Alina discovers she can summon light itself when her regiment crosses a monster-filled shadow wasteland dividing her war-torn country.

  8. 8
    The Wives cover

    The Wives

    by Tarryn Fisher

    Narrated by Lauren Fortgang

    4.00 ABR Score (256.1K ratings)
    ★ 3.66 Goodreads (240.4K) ★ 4.07 Audible (15.7K)
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    Thursday shares her husband with two other wives she's never met—until she finds something that changes everything about their arrangement. Lauren Fortgang navigates the increasingly unhinged revelations.

  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)
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    Fourteen different narrators bring Novik's multiverse to life, from Temeraire's dragons to Scholomance's gothic halls, each voice suited to their fantastical realm.

  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

    3.93 ABR Score (8.0K ratings)
    ★ 3.98 Goodreads (7.9K) ★ 4.42 Audible (85)
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    Told through journal entries and sketches, this Witchlands prequel follows Ryber's time as a Sightwitch Sister before the main series events. The full cast brings different voices to the epistolary format.

  11. 11
    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

    3.76 ABR Score (42.9K ratings)
    ★ 4.09 Goodreads (42.1K) ★ 4.16 Audible (797)
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    Legendary choreographer Tharp demolishes creativity myths, revealing the daily rituals and disciplined preparation behind artistic breakthrough in this practical guide to cultivating creative thinking.

  12. 12
    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)
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    Nine narrators tackle tales of medieval swindlers, AI heists gone wrong, and legendary bodyguards whose protection comes with deadly strings attached.

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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