I wish Audible Escape had been around a few years ago.
I was writing romance novels and devouring romance books.
Seductive thrillers, sweet romance, sexy new adult, regency romance.
You name it, I was into it.
When I get into a genre, I binge. Binge hard.
And romance is one of the most compulsively bingeable genres out there. Especially when it comes to audiobooks.
Sure, there’s a lot of trash out there. A lot of romance is formulaic. But there’s nothing wrong with a bit of escapist trash now and then.
And every once in a while you’ll get a book that hits real hard – whether it’s the beautifully drawn characters bursting with chemistry, the colourful choice of time and location, the writing (either resplendent and luxurious in the case of regency romance or hard-hitting and witty in the case of contemporary romantic comedies), or just the impossible situations and scenarios you get to play out.
Romance rocks.
So I was like a kid in a candy store when I gave Audible Escape a test run with my free trial.
But was it the best candy store in the world?
Did I find Audible Escape to be the audiobook equivalent of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory? Or was it more like a school tuck shop?
Let’s find out in this Audible Escape review.
Audible Escape Review – is it worth it?
Here’s my review of Audible Escape.
We’ll cover what Audible Escape is, what you get, the good, the bad, and the sexy.
Read carefully because, while I am a fan of Audible Escape and have great things to say about it, I don’t think this package is for everybody.
Obviously if you’re not a romance fan, Audible Escape not for you.
But…
Audible Escape isn’t even for every kind of romance reader.
But we’ll get to that shortly!
First…
What is Audible Escape?
Audible Escape is an audiobook subscription service that lets you binge-listen to thousands of romance audiobooks.
You can borrow up to 10 romance books at a time, return them whenever you want, and then borrow more.
The normal Audible subscription (my review here) gives you credits, which let you download one audiobook per month (along with deep discounts), but Audible Escape gives you so much more than that.
How much is Audible Escape?
Audible Escape has a 1-month free trial, which you can sign up for here:
There’s no obligation to continue with it and you can cancel right after signing up and still benefit with the whole month free to test it out.
If you like Audible Escape, it’s $12.95 per month or if you’re already an Audible or Kindle Unlimited member it’s half the price at $6.95 per month, which is a bargain if you already binge-read romance.
We’re already agreed Audible is a must-have for any audiophile.
If you need more convincing about Audible, I’ve got a lengthy Audible review here which contains recommended audiobooks.
But is Audible Escape worth it?
For me, Audible Escape wasn’t worth it.
At least, for the time being, Audible Escape wouldn’t be part of my long-term subscription collection.
Audible is part of my long-term subscription collection. So is Kindle Unlimited. But unless I was still deep into writing romance stories, I wouldn’t subscribe to Audible Escape for more than a couple of months at a time, then potentially reopen the subscription at a later date.
Why?
Simply put…
There wasn’t enough variety in Audible Escape for me.
That doesn’t mean the Audible Escape catalogue isn’t huge.
It is very big. And there are plenty of audiobooks there to justify a subscription model.
You won’t run out of reads.
And the fact that you can have access to all of them for as little as under seven bucks a month is fantastic.
But there weren’t enough romance audiobooks that I personally wanted to listen to.
Audible Escape has a ton of the latest romance bestsellers.
Audible Escape has a huge selection of Audible Originals, and audiobooks from the catalogue of authors like Sylvia Day, Emma Chase, Nora Roberts, Laurelin Paige, and Lauren Blakely.
Audible Escape also has a rich supply of the best classic romance novels ever written by authors like Jane Austen and Emily Brontë, along with one of my favourite romance authors of all time, Georgette Heyer.
But once you get through these books, you’ll realise the large majority of the audiobooks on Audible Escape are geared towards a very specific type of romance reader.
There are a ton of new authors and independent authors on Audible Escape.
There’s also a ton of audiobooks that just follow formulaic trends and are little more than erotica dressed up as romance.
It’s already peculiar enough that as a guy I like romance (84% of romance readers are women), but you’d have to admit it would be even more strange if my choice of romance strayed into stories about hockey-playing billionaire step-brothers who feel compelled to punish their bratty step-sibling.
Yes, that’s the kind of romance story you’ll find in overwhelming supply at Audible Escape.
I’m not being a snob here.
This just isn’t my choice of reading, or listening, material.
But if that is you’re choice of romance, you will absolutely love Audible Escape and the subscription price is a complete steal.
Plus you can’t argue with the Audible Escape free trial.
If you just listen to one audiobook from Audible Escape per month, it’s a steal.
But when I think about who Audible Escape is aimed at, the people who will really love it are getting the membership for basically nothing.
If you’re the kind of romance reader, or audiobook listener, that has to immediately go onto the next book in a series, won’t even start a new series unless all the books are out, then you’ll love Audible Escape.
If you’re the kind of romance reader who feels like you live a secret life with the characters and worlds you read about, you’ll love Audible Escape.
If you’ve ever thought reading romance was like your version of drinking or taking drugs, you will also love Audible Escape.
Audible Escape wasn’t worth it for me.
And it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
But for the intended audience…
Audible Escape is tremendous.
And there are a lot of romance readers out there that will fall in love with their Audible Escape membership.
I recommend you grab a free trial here and browse around to see if Audible Escape is for you.
Look down all the curated lists (Audible Escape does this well and breaks down books by sub-sub-sub category, mood, type of character, and so on) and load up your Audible app with whatever takes your fancy.
You’ll know by the end of the week whether you absolutely have to keep Audible Escape as part of your subscription collection.
Check out the Audible Escape free trial here, then let me know what you think about it, along with any recommendations for your favourite romance audiobooks on the platform.