The best relationship listens to help you navigate dating, marriage, and more

A certified sex educator and intimacy expert, Shan Boodram focuses on the challenges of dating in The Game of Desire. Unsurprisingly, finding someone else to love you in a relationship starts with self-love. Boodram offers practical advice on how to accomplish just that, with case studies and facts about the psychology of sex and love, all delivered in a humorous and warm tone. Boodram narrates her own work, and as you listen, it feels like the author is sitting down next to you and doling out expert advice in a very personal way.

Conventional advice about dating leads to a lot of game-playing and superficial relationships based on pretense. In Deeper Dating, psychologist Ken Page offers up a new approach to dating that leads to long-lasting and meaningful relationships. This listen emphasizes that when you present the real you in your dating life, you will attract people who will love you for who you truly are. Deeper Dating includes practical advice, exercises, and inspiring stories to lead you on the path to being more self-assured and emotionally available in relationships. This audiobook, narrated by Allan Robertson, is only available from Audible.

In The Science of Happily Ever After, relationship psychologist Dr. Ty Tashiro gets to the bottom of what it takes to find true, enduring love and lasting happiness. Drawing on research in the fields of demography, sociology, medical science, and psychology, and rooted in real-life situations, Tashiro provides helpful, actionable advice for how singles can find their happily-ever-after. Narrator Chris Chappell adds a bit of his joy and humor to the science, making this a particularly enjoyable listen.

If you’re looking for a relationship book grounded in faith, then Relationship Goals is the listen for you. In a style that's relatable rather than preachy, Pastor Michael Todd writes about intentional dating, true love, mutually supportive friendship, and sex in marriage. He also examines common pitfalls of relationships and offers up practical suggestions for how to get past them. Ameen Gaines narrates it all in a friendly, conversational style that fits perfectly with Pastor Todd’s inspiring approach.

The Five Love Languages have become such a part of how people understand relationships and communication in the modern age—if you’re like me, then you probably heard about the concept before you even knew it came from a book. Whether you think you’ve already heard all there is to know about love languages or you’re just discovering them, The Five Love Languages is a relationship-changing listen. In this celebrated guide, Dr. Gary Chapman looks at how people express love languages in different ways—through touch, acts of giving, and more—and how couples can work towards understanding one another’s unique language of love. The Audie Award-winning audiobook is narrated by Chapman himself, and it comes with a helpful reference guide.

Getting the Love You Want is recommended by therapists, and when you start listening to this audiobook, you’ll see why. In this bestseller, therapists and married couple Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt offer a guide to finding lasting companionship in your relationship. Getting the Love You Want will help you learn how to truly listen to your partner, increase the joy and laughter in your relationship, see your partner as not only a romantic interest but also a close friend, and much more. Hendrix and Hunt narrate the audiobook together, and in doing so, the authors offer a sense of their own deeply caring and mutually supportive relationship.

Let's be honest: nobody likes to fight, especially with their partner. It's scary and can often reveal ugly truths about a relationship. Life partners and founders of the world-famous Love Lab, Drs. Julie Schwartz-Gottman and John Gottman hold a different view. In Fight Right, the Gottmans share their belief that no relationship can grow without conflict and show how fights can lead to greater intimacy, deeper understanding, and a stronger foundation in any relationship. The key is engaging in "productive" conflict, the authors make clear, and they provide couples a solid roadmap for fighting with emotional control and without tearing one another down.

In Attached, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Amir Levine and psychologist Rachel Heller get into the science behind relationships—specifically, the reasons why some people have an easier time making them work than others. The authors look at how adult attachment styles inform the way people act in relationships. For instance, anxious people often worry about whether their partner really loves them. Avoidant people see relationships as a loss of independence, and so they often push their partner away. And secure people are comfortable in their relationships. This listen will help you identify and understand both your own attachment style and the style of your partner. From there, Attached will guide you towards building stronger, more fulfilling connections.

Dr. Sue Johnson is a leading innovator in couples therapy, and in the bestselling Hold Me Tight, she uses the concepts of Emotionally Focused Therapy to help couples improve their communication. Johnson believes that the best way to save a relationship or to make it even stronger is through establishing a safe emotional connection and preserving the attachment bond. And if you’re not sure what she means by that, don’t worry. Johnson makes these concepts easy to grasp and apply through case studies, practical advice, easy-to-follow exercises, and much more, while Helen Keeley narrates it all with genuine compassion.

If you’ve ever told yourself that you’re not really the marrying kind, then you’ll probably appreciate author Elizabeth Gilbert’s skeptical approach to marriage. After a brutal divorce, Gilbert told herself that she would never, ever get married again. But life is full of surprises, and she found herself in circumstances where marriage was the only thing that made sense. In Committed, she tackles her fears about marriage through research, interviews, and personal reflections on the subject. Gilbert narrates her story with wit, humor, and warmth, ultimately offering a celebration of love.

Has marriage become obsolete? Far from it! In The All-or-Nothing Marriage, psychology professor E.J. Finkel argues that the best marriages today are better than any marriages in history. While yesterday's marriages were based on practical concerns like food, shelter, or even basic companionship, now marriage is more about self-discovery, emotional support, and personal growth. But how do you get your marriage to be truly fulfilling and joyful? Using cutting-edge science and practical advice, Finkel offers paths to improved communication and responsiveness, realistic expectations, and, yes, marital bliss. Whether you’re thinking about getting married or remarried, you're a newlywed, or you’ve been married for decades, this listen will help you get the most out of marriage.

What if you've said "I do" to a narcissist? A clinical psychologist, Dr. Ramani Durvasula does not want you to support your partner unconditionally. Instead, she wants to arm you with the tools to defend and protect yourself. In It's Not You, Durvasula offers an unvarnished look at being in a relationship with a narcissist, starting with the telltale behavioral patterns that distinguish narcissists from simply difficult personalities. It's impossible to change a narcissist person. Yet by learning how to become gaslight resistant, establish realistic boundaries, and recover your sense of self, Durvasula shows that is it possible to thrive after, or even during, a marriage to one.

If you’ve ever been curious about exploring an open relationship, The Ethical Slut is a great starting point. Based on their own experience as well as extensive research, authors Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy dispel common myths about romantic relationships beyond monogamy. What's more, they cover all the skills needed to navigate polyamory—committing to open, honest communication, setting and honoring boundaries, dealing with conflict and jealousy, practicing safe sex, and even raising a family.

Sophie Lucido Johnson first made waves with her candid, charming memoir of polyamory, Many Love, and her latest release builds on the steadily growing idea that committed, whole relationships need not fall within the traditional bounds of monogamy. This excellently researched, three-part series explores the widening spectrum of modern relationships—from nontraditional and chosen families to asexuality and polyamory—in a multi-voiced, audio-first format.

For as long as there has been marriage, there has been adultery. And yet for an experience so common, couples continually struggle with the emotional fallout of cheating. In The State of Affairs, Esther Perel, the renowned couples therapist behind Where Should We Begin?, argues that affairs have a lot to teach us about marriage, and sometimes, they can lead to a new, stronger relationship with our spouse. Drawing on her work with hundreds of couples, the author weaves real-life case studies with psychological analyses and practical guidance. In her own voice, Perel offers insights to help couples rebound and grow from the experience of infidelity—whether they choose to remain together or part ways.

Over her years as a therapist, Mira Kirshenbaum has treated thousands of people struggling to make sense of their own infidelity. In When Good People Have Affairs, she offers a compassionate and understanding exploration of what drives a spouse to cheat. To help listeners find their own answer, she identifies 17 types of affairs, from "see-if" to "unmet-needs" to "distraction." Then, through six easy-to-follow steps, Kirshenbaum leads listeners towards finding clarity and peace, whether they decide to end their marriage or their affair—or both. Callie Beaulieu narrates with just the right amount of emotion.

A spouse's sexual betrayal can be devastating. In fact, psychologist Dennis Ortman likens the aftermath of infidelity to post-traumatic stress disorder, with shared symptoms including anxiety, rage, and flashbacks. In Transcending Post-Infidelity Stress Disorder, he uses PTSD treatment as a model for recovering from the blow of adultery. Combining psychological insights with the teachings of faiths from Christianity to Buddhism, Ortman walks listeners through the six stages of healing, with exercises, guided meditations, and real-life stories of struggling couples to help along the way.

Yes, the goal of most serious relationships is long term stability. Yet, after a while, the same habits tend to get boring, especially in the bedroom. Dr. Emily Nagoski seeks to shatter the assumption of predictability in Come Together. Addressing intimacy concerns nearly every couple faces, she leads the way to a long-lasting, ever-improving sexual connection between partners. Nagoski, renowned for her work on female sexuality in Come As You Are, also narrates Come Together with her signature progressive, judgment-free style.

In The Sexually Confident Wife, bestselling author, speaker, and podcast host Shannon Ethridge speaks directly to every woman who is yearning to enjoy great sex with her husband. Narrating her own audiobook with authority and compassion, Ethridge helps women overcome inhibitions, guilt over past intimate relationships, or feelings of body insecurity to find sexual fulfillment in marriage, night after passionate night and year after year.