audiofile audiobook narration reviews

CSOVAS Voice Arts Award Winner - Christa Lewis_edited.png

Audie Award® Finalist (2018, 2020)

🏆 SOVAS Voice Arts® Winner (2019)

SOVAS Voice Arts® Nominee (2017, 2018, 2020)

🏆 10x AudioFile Earphones Award Winner (9x Narration, 1x Directing)

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AudioFile Reviews

Reviews

Narrator Christa Lewis summons an intriguing world of mystics in this Magical Trinket mystery set in the contemporary mortal realm.

When a deadly assassin's trinket is stolen from a visiting diplomat, Dovey Van Dalen, a fashionable, quick-witted 200-year-

old mystic (aka "bonded") investigator, must use her enchanted toolkit to solve the case. As trinket-related deaths in a wealthy unbonded (human) family mount, Dovey develops a forbidden attraction to unbonded FBI Special Agent Barlow, who is

investigating them. Older mystics are voiced with European-sounding accents; Dovey's BFF Ursula, who sounds like Zsa Zsa Gabor, is a vivacious example.

Lewis's nimble characterizations

never give away the thief and murderer, ensuring an air of suspicion towards everyone until the end of the story.

J.R.T. © AudioFile 2025

There's plenty of meat in these 20+ hours chronicling the life and career of THE NEW YORKER'S defining editor, Katharine White.

But much could have been condensed. The author has thoroughly researched White and the magazine, and Christa Lewis's forceful narration keeps to a good pace, even through the sluggish opening hours. The narrative comes together in the 1930s when the magazine, under White's editorship, emerged as a cultural force. One can hear Lewis savoring the insider details. For example, nearly bankrupt, THE NEW YORKER was saved by the timely repeal of Prohibition--and the consequent resumption of liquor advertising.

White is an interesting and impressive figure, and Lewis does her full justice.

D.A.W. © AudioFile 2024

Lovers of Renaissance art will enjoy this lengthy, detailed, and thoroughly researched audiobook about Florentine and other masterworks hidden during WWII.

Two experienced narrators,

Stina Nielsen and Christa Lewis, portray the two women who tell

the story, namely a German photographer and an American stenographer. Both women become passionate about preserving the art, which is part of Italy's heritage, and listeners hear their dedication.

The story is like THE MONUMENTS MEN but told from a female point of view. It is educational and expertly told.

D.L.G. © AudioFile 2023

Christa Lewis's affecting performance illuminates the types of social and political resistance taken up by teenagers in Nazi

Germany during WWII.

Lewis's smooth transitions between

English and German accents immerse listeners in the world of underground jazz clubs that queer Berlin teen Charlie Klaus and

her friends, Geli, Minna, and Renate, discover. What begins as a reprieve from the constant refrain of "Children, Kitchen, Church"

at state-sanctioned youth groups evolves into an increasing understanding of the growing dangers for their Jewish friends and

neighbors.

Lewis underscores the emotional nuances of once strong friendships tested by war and illuminates uncomfortable truths about the price of ignorance.

J.R.T. © AudioFile 2023

Karen Gundersen, Christa Lewis, B.J. Harrison, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, and Rob Shapiro narrate this audiobook composed

of one connected story set in varying timelines.

Harrison narrates as Mikhail, a zoologist in the 1800s who discovers an extinct

breed of Mongolian horse. Harrison handles the era's dialogue deftly. Lewis portrays Karin, a vet who, in 1992, brings the now

thriving horses back to Mongolia. Her accent work is immersive. Gundersen portrays Eva, a climate survivor in the 2060s who is responsible for the last in the line of these majestic creatures.

Listeners will weep as she grapples with the meaning of survival.

Shapiro narrates the final chapter as Karin's son, tying up the audiobook with heart and gravitas.

A.R.F. © AudioFile 2022

In alternating chapters, four talented narrators provide dramatically different performances as they recount the story of a portrait painted in 1492 and its subsequent theft and recovery during WWII.

Reba Buhr captures the youthful innocence and naïveté of Cecilia, mistress of the Duke of Milan, and also brings many other supporting characters from that period to life. Christa Lewis gives German accents and serious tones to Edith, a German art conservator, and her museum colleagues as well as to soldiers. P.J. Ochlan captures the tough-guy attitudes of Dominic and his fellow American soldiers who are tasked with protecting the legendary monuments men in their quest to recover art stolen by the Nazis. And lastly, Paul Woodson gives Leonardo da Vinci a scholarly and somber air as he describes his commission to paint Cecilia, "Lady with an Ermine."

J.E.S. © AudioFile 2020

At the beginning of this audiobook, when Mallory Shepard discovers a lace veil purported to have been made by Betsy

Ross, it sets off a chain of violence in Port Quincy, Pennsylvania, that culminates in murder.

Mallory, a professional wedding

planner, finds herself in the middle of the investigation, which threatens to get in the way of planning her own wedding. It is hard

to imagine anyone other than narrator Christa Lewis voicing the 30-something former lawyer who delivers the first-person

narration of the story. Using pacing to build and ease tension, Lewis keeps listeners hooked.

She contributes significantly to the overall fun of the listening experience.

V.M.G. © AudioFile 2020

Shakespearean scholar Summer Merriweather has returned to her childhood home on Brigid's Island in North Carolina upon the sudden death of her mother in this cozy mystery.

Narrator Christa

Lewis matches the pace of this audiobook--laid-back and slow much of the time but energetic as the pace builds. When Summer

finds a death threat addressed to her mother that orders her to sell her bookshop, Beach Reads, Summer decides to track down the sender. Listeners will love Lewis's voice for Mr. Darcy, the

African gray parrot.

As the conclusion nears, Lewis builds the

suspense with increased intensity, making listeners eager for the ending.

V.M.G. © AudioFile 2020

This appealing audiobook offers a new view of timeless concepts.

As narrator Christa Lewis recounts the lives of Louise and her extended family members, the impact of time, art, and history echo through this novel. When a funeral reunites people long separated, the past is explored alongside the present. There is something welcoming in the broad expanse of human interaction--

parents and children, spouses present and past. Lewis is an excellent narrator who provides a confident pace and impressive

skill with enunciation and accents. Her ease with the text creates an easy listen with no discernible weakness. Her phrasing makes

even the most complex sentences come alive and draw the listener closer.

This is an excellent production for both critical and casual listeners.

L.B.F. © AudioFile 2019

This audio biography begins when Ruth Rappaport, who grew up in Leipzig, emigrated to the U.S. at age 15.

Escaping the Nazis, Rappaport ended up in Seattle and ultimately became a librarian.

In 1959 she set up libraries for the Army, first in Okinawa and then in Saigon; after that, she was a cataloguer for the Library of

Congress (1971-1993). Shifting effortlessly from German, French, and Hebrew to English, narrator Christa Lewis modulates her

voice to distinguish the narrative from letters, diaries, and dialogue. The biography is a reflection of Rappaport's life and her

passion for bringing books to readers, especially soldiers.

Lewis captures Rappaport's life and legacy through an impassioned and enlightening performance.

M.B.K. © AudioFile 2019

Christa Lewis sensitively narrates this post-Katrina story of a married couple, their two adult children, and their paternal grandfather.

They're disconnected by marital discord, dementia, and trauma as they reunite in New Orleans to face the burden of

rebuilding their homes and their lives. Lewis makes each character's grief and guilt palpable through her delivery of

dialogue and vivid descriptions. Each character speaks in adistinctive Southern cadence. Cora, the daughter who defiantly

stayed behind, speaks little, though Lewis makes her fragile presence weighty. Lewis also brings forth the burdens that Joe

and Tess, Cora's parents, carry with a subtle slowness in her voice.

Overall, Lewis masterfully presents a placid story, in which tragedy lurks below the water level.

Christa Lewis soberly narrates a detailed story on racial struggles in the early '90s.

Leslie Marshall returns to Avalon Island with her multiracial family, which stirs up trouble from more conservative

locals. Local girl Maddie falls in love with one of the Marshall's sons, and this causes further tension as she tries to hide her budding relationship from her racist father. Although Lewis's narration can be unvaried in tone and choppy in pacing, she

should be commended for tackling such a meaty performance involving several serious themes including the social divide,

environmental issues, and progressivism.

This audiobook is intriguing for those interested in darker fiction.

Narrator Christa Lewis draws on a pleasant range of pitch and texture to give individual voice to each character in this story collection.

Using accents sparingly but appropriately, she adds a layer that would be missed by a visual reader. Only in the last

story, "The Story of Of," does the listening experience fall short: On the page, you can see the column of text narrowing, reminding you that you're reading a story within a story within a story. The listener doesn't have this visual guide, and it can be difficult to keep one's mental place within the frames.

Overall, however, Lewis's voice and performance are a good match for these quiet, tense stories with their themes of melancholy and desperation.

Listeners will glean sound advice from an array of women who have overcome many of life's adversities.

Christa Lewis narrates their personal stories in a manner that is soothing and calm while projecting the serenity and hope in the advice given on such

difficult topics as loss, betrayal, divorce, and illness. Her caring and reassuring delivery strikes the perfect notes whether the

listener herself has experienced a tragedy or is reaching out to someone else in need. When personal stories are shared, Lewis

delivers the right amount of emotion to ensure that the material is relatable without being overly dramatic.

This is an audiobook designed to empower today's woman with all she and those close

to her may have to face.

Christa Lewis narrates this dark story about a young mother who dreams of a lavish life in 1910 Chicago but is devastated to

discover that the man who enticed her to the big city does not plan to marry her.

As Cora loses her sanity, Lewis dramatically

portrays her increasing hysteria and rambling paranoia. Cora's daughter, Lillian, who escaped to Chicago with her mother, is at first presented with a simpering tone. But Lewis gradually portrays the girl's passive acceptance of her horrible fate as the freshest flower in a brothel called The Garden Room.

Cora's father searches tirelessly for his lost wife and daughter, and Lewis depicts his desperate guilt and heartbreak.