Best Lauren Fortgang Audiobooks
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
- New to Lauren Fortgang? Start here → Six of Crows
- What fans keep coming back to → Shadow and Bone
- Short listen, big payoff → The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
- Highest rated by listeners → Crooked Kingdom
- Best narrator–author pairing → Ruin and Rising
Best Lauren Fortgang Audiobooks
- 1
Crooked Kingdom
Six of Crows • Book 2
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)More about this pick
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
Six of Crows
Six of Crows • Book 1
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)More about this pick
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
Hell Bent
Alex Stern • Book 2
Narrated by Lauren Fortgang, Michael David Axtell
★ 4.30 ABR Score (187.5K ratings)★ 4.1 Goodreads (183.8K) ★ 4.64 Audible (3.6K)More about this pick
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
Ruin and Rising
Shadow and Bone • Book 3
Narrated by Lauren Fortgang
★ 4.28 ABR Score (607.8K ratings)★ 3.97 Goodreads (595.9K) ★ 4.58 Audible (11.9K)More about this pick
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
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)More about this pick
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
Ninth House
Alex Stern • Book 1
Narrated by Lauren Fortgang, Michael David Axtell
★ 4.15 ABR Score (413.3K ratings)★ 4 Goodreads (407.3K) ★ 4.45 Audible (6.0K)More about this pick
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
Shadow and Bone
Shadow and Bone • Book 1
Narrated by Lauren Fortgang
★ 4.12 ABR Score (1.1M ratings)★ 3.91 Goodreads (1.1M) ★ 4.39 Audible (15.2K)More about this pick
Orphan mapmaker Alina discovers she can summon light itself when her regiment crosses a monster-filled shadow wasteland dividing her war-torn country.
- 8
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)More about this pick
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
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)More about this pick
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
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)More about this pick
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
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)More about this pick
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
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)More about this pick
Nine narrators tackle tales of medieval swindlers, AI heists gone wrong, and legendary bodyguards whose protection comes with deadly strings attached.