Interview with narrator Samantha Brentmoor

1 – How did you come to narrate romantic novels?

I studied performance in college and then moved to NYC. I was working in cartoon and commercial voice over and slipping into an audiobook studio before they opened so I could record my auditions and commercials. One day they said I should audition for audiobooks since I was already in the studio. Chelle Bliss was the first author to consistently cast me while I did audiobooks on the side of my day job for several years but then in 2018 I became an audiobook producer and started to focus more on my audiobook work.

2 – Have you narrated books from different genres?

Yes I record lots of other genres under my real name. I love any chance I get to record a big fantasy series.

3 – What was the most fun \ easy book you narrated?

This is a fun question because sometimes the books that are fun aren’t always easy. I would say that a book that was both fun and easy was the Beautiful Enemies trilogy by Piper Lawson, I got to use a British accent for the male main character and the female main character was a bad ass Iranian American DJ. It’s a spicy fun story!

4 – What was the most difficult book \ character you narrated and why?

The most difficult book I had to narrate recently was a Curse of Queens by Amanda Bouchet because I was stepping into a big rich world she had created and I wanted to get it right for ilsteners.

5 – What are the preparations you make before each project? Do you read the whole book in advance? Do you rehearse out loud before the recording itself? or maybe something else?

So it depends on the project. I read it at least once before but sometimes I will do a quick scan read first to pull out any pronunciation questions I have, words I need to look up, foreign language phrases, accents I need to prep Also, if you goto my Instagram account @ms_brentmoor you can check out the highlight I have called book prep to learn more about my process.

6 – Is there a genre \ book \ character that you won’t agree to narrate? If so – why?

My hard limit is related to identity casting. I’m an Iranian-American bi-sexual actress comfortable with accents, so there’s a lot I can do but I have to pass on roles where the character’s ethnic identity is very far from my experience and a major aspect of her life and character development. As far as other more sensitive content if there is dubious consent, I am sure to ask for an opportunity to read or chat with the author about it as sometimes it does make sense for the story but if it is just for flash entertainment I tend to let someone else narrate that.

7 – Did you ever “take” something from a character you narrated? it could be some advice, a trait, a habit…?

Oh yes! Heidi Hutchinson had a character in the book Key Change that was working through a lot of issues and she would repeat the phrase “All I can do is all I can do.” When I feel like I’m failing at all the things or just plain overwhelmed I remember this.

8 – Are you working on more than one book at a time?

Yes! And probably too many. But I am almost also prepping 1-2 books while recording another. 

9 – What is the genre you like to read in your free time?

I do I enjoy reading new to me authors in romance to continue to know more about what people are writing but outside of that I am an absolute sucker for fantasy and sci-fi. I love how creative the world building is and how fun they are to escape into.

10 – Is there an author you particularly like? To read or to work with.

I love every author that I get the chance to chat with or have a back and forth with regarding their story because I think authors are just really special. I have worked with Chelle Bliss for years and I even had the chance to chat back and forth when she recently had writer’s block and that felt like a cool insight into the process. The same is true for Elizabeth O’Roark, she will chat with me about the stories she’s currently working on and I love being that involved in the process.