10 Best Audiobooks for Couples

10 Best Audiobooks for Couples


March 13, 2020
While it’s commonly believed that relationship-centric audiobooks are only for people struggling in their partnerships, nothing could be further from the truth. Even the most loving relationships take commitment, nurturing, and hard work to maintain. With the help of insights from scientists, therapists, and other professionals, you can listen to effective strategies for creating and preserving a healthy, fulfilling relationship, no matter what situation you and your partner find yourselves in.
  • The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts Audiobook By Gary Chapman cover art

    • The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts

    • By: Gary Chapman
    • Narrated by: Gary Chapman
    • Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
    • Release date: 12-26-04
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 38,120 ratings
    • One of the most well-known phrases in the world of self-help is love language, a term coined by Gary Chapman to describe the various strengths and needs that different people display in their relationships. Once you know your love language, you can use this information to better understand your current relationship or set clearer expectations for potential partners in the future. Love languages can also be used to interpret relationships with your kids, your friends, and just about anyone else in your life. Performed with authority and empathy by the man who developed the concept, The Five Love Languages is undeniably one of the strongest foundations on which to build a better understanding of your relationships.
  • I Hear You Audiobook By Michael S. Sorensen cover art

    • I Hear You

    • The Surprisingly Simple Skill Behind Extraordinary Relationships
    • By: Michael S. Sorensen
    • Narrated by: Michael S. Sorensen
    • Length: 2 hrs and 45 mins
    • Release date: 08-16-17
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 4,925 ratings
    • If you’re looking to maximize your relationship know-how in the least amount of time, few audiobooks pack more insights than I Hear You. At under three hours, Michael Sorensen’s work focuses on one very specific skill: better conversational listening. Narrating his research, Sorensen draws on his personal expertise in communication to convey the small but significant changes to your conversational vocabulary that can make the difference between complete confusion and seamless understanding. Sorensen also dives into explanations of how these changes can impact different types of relationships. With examples that range from conversations between romantic partners to persuasive presenting in a professional setting, he expertly lays out an airtight method for using his techniques in all of your relationships.
  • Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give Audiobook By Ada Calhoun cover art

    • Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give

    • By: Ada Calhoun
    • Narrated by: Ada Calhoun
    • Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
    • Release date: 05-16-17
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 99 ratings
    • Ada Calhoun originally penned Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give as an essay for The New York Times. It was a raw, honest, and endearingly humorous letter from a woman who, married relatively young for her group of friends and relations, found herself attending the weddings of her peers with a unique perspective on what might lie ahead for each pair of newlyweds. Wildly popular, the essay sparked a demand for a longer version, a full-length book that Calhoun also performs as the narrator of the audiobook. Picking apart the naivety of the wedding-themed clichés she was hearing over and over, Calhoun offers up a different picture of a marriage in which picture-perfect romance is also paired with fights, frustrations, and heartbreak that, in their own way, are what lead spouses to discover what true intimacy really is.
  • If You're in My Office, It's Already Too Late Audiobook By James J. Sexton cover art

    • If You're in My Office, It's Already Too Late

    • A Divorce Lawyer's Guide to Staying Together
    • By: James J. Sexton
    • Narrated by: James J. Sexton
    • Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
    • Release date: 04-10-18
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 1,136 ratings
    • It’s often that uncommon perspectives provide the most impactful insights, so it makes sense that some of the best advice on maintaining a relationship comes from someone who built his career on ending them. After a lifetime of work as a divorce lawyer, James Sexton realized he had gained a wealth of insights on relationships—insights that, unfortunately, came too late for his clients to take advantage of. In his characteristically hold-nothing-back style of honesty, Sexton lays out an entire career’s worth of advice to help couples do the hard but necessary work of maintaining a healthy marriage. Listening to Sexton narrate his insights will feel like sitting in the front row of the courtroom as he pulls out all of the performative stops to make his points, ensuring his wisdom really sticks with you long after you’ve finished listening.
  • The Science of Trust Audiobook By John M. Gottman Ph.D. cover art

    • The Science of Trust

    • Emotional Attunement for Couples
    • By: John M. Gottman Ph.D.
    • Narrated by: J. Charles
    • Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
    • Release date: 04-01-12
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 604 ratings
    • One of the reasons relationships can feel complicated is because so much of our interpersonal communications feel subjective. That’s why psychologist John Gottman’s research is so valuable—it approaches and breaks down the intuitive field of human trust with quantifiable research and analysis, offering the listener insights into their own relationships that they wouldn’t be able to get from traditional self-help books. Narrator J. Charles brings a crystalline clarity to his performance of Gottman’s work, which is loaded with detailed statistics and behavioral science to support the author’s argument that trust or, as he calls it, emotional attunement, is a skill that can be learned and practiced. In this way, Gottman argues, couples can build better resilience to negative events that might otherwise derail their relationship.
  • Ep. 1: I've Had Better Audiobook By Esther Perel cover art

    • Ep. 1: I've Had Better

    • By: Esther Perel
    • Narrated by: Esther Perel
    • Length: 47 mins
    • Release date: 05-18-17
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 6,678 ratings
    • The unique format of Esther Perel’s Where Should We Begin? gives listeners a fly-on-the-wall perspective to actual counseling sessions where couples bring real problems for the relationship expert to help them process and unpack. This listen brings clarity to couples in the studio while also offering up wider insights and advice on common relationship problems and themes for the listener to learn from at their own pace. Perel’s guests grapple with issues across a wide spectrum—a disconnected couple struggling to regain the intimacy lost when one partner had an affair, a wife holding resentment toward her ailing husband for making her feel like a nurse rather than a partner, a couple with different desires involving having children, and more. In every scenario, the session gives listeners the opportunity to gather valuable takeaways from the experience of witnessing others process their issues firsthand.
  • Difficult Conversations Audiobook By Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen cover art

    • Difficult Conversations

    • How to Discuss What Matters Most
    • By: Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen
    • Narrated by: Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen
    • Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
    • Release date: 07-27-00
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 2,274 ratings
    • Whether you fear confrontation or embrace it wholeheartedly, everyone has certain topics and conversational dynamics that are harder to discuss than others. When the anticipation of these difficult conversations heightens our anxiety and fear, it leads us to feel defensive, overly sensitive, and quick to attack—virtually guaranteeing that the conversation won’t end well. The aim of How to Discuss What Matters Most is to help avoid that exact situation by coaching listeners on ways to communicate more healthily, even when it’s most difficult, and to work internally on calming the stress we feel about these uncomfortable encounters. Drawing on unique research from the Harvard Negotiation Project, Douglas Stone expertly outlines a practical, step-by-step process that makes it possible for anyone to feel confident in even the most unpleasant confrontations.
  • Mating in Captivity Audiobook By Esther Perel cover art

    • Mating in Captivity

    • Reconciling the Erotic & the Domestic
    • By: Esther Perel
    • Narrated by: Esther Perel
    • Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
    • Release date: 01-01-06
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 8,954 ratings
    • The second title on our list from relationship expert Esther Perel, Mating in Captivity takes on a very specific and niche concern that arises in numerous relationships: the complicated dynamic between bedroom behavior and the day-to-day domestic happenings. Confronting some of the most taboo topics with unflinching candor, Perel discusses how to maintain a functional, healthy partnership while also cultivating a robust sex life—even and especially if the erotic aspects of your relationship include power imbalances or structures that would, in any other context, feel uncomfortable. Perel’s intimate narration approaches these sensitive topics with a balance of clinical forthrightness and humanizing empathy, bringing together this unparalleled resource on a tough relationship topic in a way that sets the listener at ease.
  • Hold Me Tight Audiobook By Dr. Sue Johnson EdD cover art

    • Hold Me Tight

    • Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love
    • By: Dr. Sue Johnson EdD
    • Narrated by: Helen Keeley
    • Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
    • Release date: 02-11-20
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 1,079 ratings
    • Couples therapy, in general, can be a game-changing tool for feeling happier and healthier in your relationship, but there are many different types and approaches to couples therapy—many that may or may not work for your unique situation. Hold Me Tight presents a therapeutic method called Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), which is designed to root out sources of deep dysfunction that lie in the couple’s baseline attachment styles and cause each individual to react to relationship stressors in a particular way. In her audiobook, Dr. Sue Johnson outlines the basic principles of EFT and illustrates seven different examples of the method in action and how it can bring a couple closer together over a strengthened bond. Narrator Sandra Burr expertly infuses her performances of these relationships with empathy while articulating the more factual portions of the audiobook with clarity, providing the listener with all of the tools they need to start incorporating elements of EFT into their own relationship.
  • Love Sense Audiobook By Sue Johnson cover art

    • Love Sense

    • The Revolutionary New Science of Romantic Relationships
    • By: Sue Johnson
    • Narrated by: Sue Johnson
    • Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
    • Release date: 12-31-13
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 752 ratings
    • The second of Dr. Sue Johnson’s works on our list pairs well with Hold Me Tight, since Love Sense is an exploration of attachment psychology, the science that forms the basis for EFT. While EFT draws on the science of human attachment to build a practical therapeutic tool, Love Sense is a full deep dive into attachment science and how it influences all human connections. Johnson uses her exploration of this attachment research to argue that people are, indeed, meant to mate for life, and that the science of how we attach to others can prove it.


Inclusion in Audible’s “best audiobooks” series is based on a number of factors, including presence on Audible best seller lists,
listener ratings and reviews, Goodreads ratings, and input from the Audible Editors. All audiobooks featured here have a minimum
of 500 reviews averaging at least 4.5 stars, with some exceptions made for outstanding stories and performances.


Explore more audiobooks from our Best of the Best collection.
Sign Up for Our Monthly Self Dev Newsletter

Love Self Dev Listens?

Subscribe to our self dev newsletter for a monthly
look at new listens, editors’ picks, and more.

Subscribe Now