Melinda is one of three founders of AudioGals. A bespectacled business executive by day, a romance audio-junkie the rest of the time, Melinda maintained a private blog for her reading habit under the mysterious name Aunt Rowena. “Since so many people called me anything but Melinda most of my life, I laughingly adopted the persona of Rowena (there may have been alcohol involved) one evening over dinner. Melissa, Belinda, Amanda, Miranda, Linda – you name it, I’ve been called it.” She considers herself “yet another romance listener with opinions” and you are going to benefit from hers here at AudioGals – whether you are in agreement, or find yourself running from her recommendations you’ll still enjoy her witty take on audiobooks, narrators and the state of romance reading today.
She started the slippery slope to romance audiobooks the way many people did, with Diana Gabaldon’s iconic Outlander series (Davina Porter). Having already read the available books multiple times, she got a tip that listening to them added to experience – and that tip was spot on. A wonderful book read by a talented narrator is an experience to be consumed like water in the desert, like fine wine and decadent chocolate, like slow, steamy sex with… you get the picture. Her favorites constantly change as new books are published and old favorites re-released. To wit: LaVyrle Spencer’s Morning Glory (Kate Forbes) was an incredibly hard-to-find gem, now available again; Linda Howard’s After The Night (Natalie Ross) a sort of guilty pleasure, with one of Howard’s love-to-hate heroes; Judith Ivory’s The Indiscretion (Barbara Rosenblat) a witty, pithy jewel of talent personified. In spite of her fascination with Outlander and time travel, she leaves the paranormal audio to Brenda.