This is a follow-up to our first guide, and the idea is the same: a lot of the shows people are watching right now, or are about to, started as books, and most of those books have audiobook editions you can listen to. This round leans into recent and upcoming releases. For each show you’ll find where it comes from, how the seasons line up with the books, and what to know about the audio versions, with print and Kindle editions linked for anyone who prefers to read.
Audible is also running an early Prime Day deal that covers the audio editions below. Prime members get three months FREE. Those without Prime are likely to see three-month promos for $0.99 or one month free. Eligibility applies if you haven’t had Audible in the past 12 months. Details are at the bottom.
11 TV Shows Based on Books You Can Read or Listen To
The Shows, and the Books Behind Them
House of the Dragon
IMDb
Watch on HBO Max
House of the Dragon is the prequel to Game of Thrones, set about two hundred years earlier. It follows the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, a fight over the Iron Throne between Rhaenyra Targaryen and her half-brother Aegon that splits the family and the realm in two. Season 3 arrives June 21 and moves the war past the maneuvering of the first two seasons into open battle.
The show is drawn from Fire & Blood, George R.R. Martin’s history of House Targaryen, written as if compiled by a maester long after the events. One volume is out so far, with a second still to come, so the book already runs well ahead of the show. The audiobook is narrated by Simon Vance and includes a recorded conversation between Martin and the historian Dan Jones.
Is House of the Dragon based on a book?
Yes. It is based on Fire & Blood, George R.R. Martin’s history of House Targaryen, covering the early kings through the civil war the show is adapting now.
What readers say: Readers treat it as a history of Westeros rather than a novel, and how much they like it tends to follow that. Fans of the lore single out the depth and Simon Vance’s narration. (★ 4.5 · 37,000+ ratings)
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
IMDb
Watch on HBO Max
Another trip into Martin’s Westeros, this one set roughly ninety years before Game of Thrones and pitched lighter than the main saga. It follows Ser Duncan the Tall, a hedge knight of humble birth, and his young squire Egg, a boy who is more than he lets on. The stories are smaller in scale than the dynastic wars, more about two travelers and the scrapes they land in.
The show is based on the Dunk and Egg novellas, collected in a single book titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which gathers the first three: The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight. The audiobook is read by Harry Lloyd, who played Viserys Targaryen in the first season of Game of Thrones. One collected volume covers everything the show is working from.
Is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms based on a book?
Yes. It adapts George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas, collected in one book that gathers the first three.
What readers say: Often called the most approachable way into Westeros, with readers pointing to Dunk and Egg’s odd-couple dynamic and the shorter length. (★ 4.6 · 33,000+ ratings)
Scarpetta
IMDb
Watch on Prime Video
Scarpetta brings Patricia Cornwell’s forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta to the screen for the first time, with Nicole Kidman in the title role and Jamie Lee Curtis as her sister Dorothy. The series runs across two timelines, cutting between Scarpetta early in her career as a chief medical examiner and her present-day return to her old post, where a new case echoes one from decades before.
Cornwell started the series in 1990 with Postmortem, and it has grown to twenty-nine books with more than 120 million copies in print, the most recent being Sharp Force from October 2025. The show pulls from across that run rather than adapting one book straight through, so Postmortem is the place to start. Prime Video gave the series a two-season order, so there is more coming.
The Scarpetta books in order, and where to start
The show draws on Patricia Cornwell’s twenty-nine-book series. Start with Postmortem, the first; the latest is Sharp Force.
What readers say: Credited with helping launch the modern forensic thriller. Longtime readers say the early books are where to start, even if the ’90s tech shows its age. (★ 4.4 · 19,000+ ratings)
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
IMDb
Watch on Netflix
Pip Fitz-Amobi picks a closed local murder case as her school project and keeps pulling at it after everyone else has moved on, convinced the town convicted the wrong person. The first season was a global hit for Netflix, and the second arrived May 27, picking up in the fallout of the first case with a new disappearance to chase.
The show follows Holly Jackson’s trilogy in order: Season 1 is the first book, Season 2 is Good Girl, Bad Blood, and a third and final season set for 2027 will adapt As Good As Dead. There is also a prequel novella, Kill Joy. The US audiobooks are a full-cast production led by Bailey Carr, built to match the books’ mix of transcripts, interviews, and project logs.
The A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder books in order
Holly Jackson’s three novels are adapted in order, plus a prequel novella. Season 2 maps to book two, Good Girl, Bad Blood.
What readers say: The full-cast audio and the mixed-media format (interviews, transcripts, project logs) are what readers single out about the listening experience. (★ 4.5 · 76,000+ ratings)
- A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (Book 1 · Season 1): Audiobook | Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle
- Good Girl, Bad Blood (Book 2 · Season 2): Audiobook | Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle
- As Good As Dead (Book 3): Audiobook | Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle
- Kill Joy (Prequel novella): Audiobook | Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle
Margo's Got Money Troubles
IMDb
Watch on Apple TV+
Margo is the daughter of a Hooters waitress and a former pro wrestler, and when an affair with a college professor leaves her a single mother with bills she can’t cover, she starts an OnlyFans and runs it using the showmanship she picked up from her father. The Apple TV+ series stars Elle Fanning, with Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman, and Nicole Kidman among the cast, and premiered April 15.
It is adapted from Rufi Thorpe’s standalone novel, a single book rather than a series. The story is told largely in Margo’s own voice, and the audiobook is narrated by Elle Fanning, who also stars as Margo on screen, so the voice carries straight over from the show.
Is Margo’s Got Money Troubles based on a book?
Yes. It is based on Rufi Thorpe’s standalone novel of the same name, a single book.
What readers say: Readers tend to be surprised by it, calling it warmer and funnier than the premise suggests, with Margo’s voice doing the heavy lifting. (★ 4.0 · 21,000+ ratings)
The Last Thing He Told Me
IMDb
Watch on Apple TV+
Hannah’s husband disappears without warning, leaving behind a note that reads “protect her” and a duffel bag of cash. The “her” is his teenage daughter Bailey, and the two of them, who barely know each other, are left to work out who he really was and why he ran. Jennifer Garner plays Hannah, and the second season premiered February 20.
Season 1 follows Laura Dave’s novel of the same name. Season 2 draws on her sequel, The First Time I Saw Him, which Dave wrote while the show was being made, so the book and the season were built in parallel and diverge as they go. Rebecca Lowman narrates the first book on her own; the sequel switches to a full cast, with Lowman joined by Tessa Albertson, Colin Donnell, and CJ Wilson. Two books, read in order.
What books is The Last Thing He Told Me based on?
Two by Laura Dave. Season 1 follows The Last Thing He Told Me; Season 2 is loosely based on the sequel, The First Time I Saw Him.
What readers say: Described again and again as a one-sitting read, with the opening hook (the note, the vanishing husband) cited as what pulls people through. (★ 4.3 · 172,000+ ratings)
It: Welcome to Derry
IMDb
Watch on HBO Max
Welcome to Derry is a prequel to the two It films, set in the same Maine town decades before the Losers’ Club, and it builds on the idea from Stephen King’s novel that the evil under Derry wakes on a cycle every twenty-seven years. The show reaches back into earlier turns of that cycle and the town’s long history of looking the other way.
It all traces back to King’s 1986 novel It, a single very long book that moves between two timelines of its own and fills in Derry’s past through a series of interludes. The audiobook is narrated by Steven Weber. One novel covers the source material, and King’s wider catalog is deep if it sends you looking for more.
Is It: Welcome to Derry based on a book?
Yes. The prequel series draws on Stephen King’s novel It, whose interludes hold much of Derry’s backstory.
What readers say: Treated as a King landmark. Long but immersive, and Steven Weber’s narration comes up often as a reason to take the audio route. (★ 4.6 · 53,000+ ratings)
Murderbot
IMDb
Watch on Apple TV+
Murderbot is a security android that has quietly hacked the module meant to control it, which means it has free will and would mostly like to use that freedom to watch soap operas in peace. Instead it keeps getting assigned to protect groups of humans it finds exhausting. Alexander Skarsgård plays the title role, the first season landed in 2025 to a strong response, and Apple has renewed it for a second.
The show is based on Martha Wells’s The Murderbot Diaries, with Season 1 adapting the first book, All Systems Red. The series runs to eight entries, mostly novellas with one full novel, Network Effect, in the middle. The audiobooks are narrated by Kevin R. Free, a particular favorite among fans of the series, and the newest book, Platform Decay, arrives in May 2026, so reading ahead is easy to do.
What book is Murderbot based on, and where to start
Season 1 adapts the first book, All Systems Red, by Martha Wells. The series runs eight books in total; the rest are named under the link for reading ahead in order.
What readers say: Readers overwhelmingly single out Murderbot’s narrating voice and Kevin R. Free’s performance, with the novella length called an easy way in. (★ 4.4 · 67,000+ ratings)
The series continues with Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect (the one full-length novel), Fugitive Telemetry, System Collapse, and Platform Decay (out May 2026).
The Summer I Turned Pretty
IMDb
Watch on Prime Video
Belly spends every summer at Cousins Beach with her family and the two sons of her mother’s closest friend, Conrad and Jeremiah, and the series follows the long love triangle that grows up between the three of them as the summers pass and the families change. It became one of Prime Video’s signature romance shows over its run.
The show is based on Jenny Han’s trilogy, which spans roughly a book a season: The Summer I Turned Pretty, It’s Not Summer Without You, and We’ll Always Have Summer. The audiobooks are narrated by Lola Tung, who plays Belly on screen, so the voice carries straight over from the show.
Do the Summer I Turned Pretty books match the show?
Closely. Jenny Han’s three novels each map roughly to a season, read in order.
What readers say: Readers point to the nostalgic, summery tone and the love triangle, and many note Lola Tung’s narration carrying over from the show. (★ 4.4 · 75,000+ ratings)
Lucky
IMDb
Watch on Apple TV+
Lucky is a con artist who has been running scams her whole life, and when a heist goes wrong she finds herself alone and on the run, holding a lottery ticket that turns out to be worth a fortune she can’t claim without surfacing and getting caught. Anya Taylor-Joy plays the lead, and the limited series premieres July 15, so this is one to read ahead of.
It is adapted from Marissa Stapley’s standalone novel, a Reese’s Book Club pick, told as one self-contained story rather than a series. The audiobook is narrated by Soneela Nankani, an award-winning AudioFile Golden Voice narrator. One book covers everything the show is built on.
Is Lucky based on a book?
Yes. It is based on Marissa Stapley’s standalone novel of the same name, a single book.
What readers say: The con-artist hook and the twists get the most mentions, and being a Reese’s Book Club pick is its own bit of social proof. (★ 4.1 · 14,000+ ratings)
The Prime Day Audible Deal
Prime Day is the cheapest time all year to start. Right now, Prime members new to Audible get 3 months free, with a new audiobook to choose each month plus the Plus catalog of podcasts and Originals. Not a Prime member? You get 3 months for $0.99/month, still a steep discount on the same thing. After the intro it auto-renews at $8.99/month, and you can cancel anytime in a click. If any of the books above caught your eye, this is the moment to grab one.
Prefer paper or ebook? Every title above is in print and on Kindle too, the audio route is just the one that’s nearly free right now.
Audible FAQ
Is it really free? For Prime members new to Audible, yes. The first three months cost nothing, and you receive three audiobook credits plus access to many titles in the Plus Catalog. Non-Prime listeners will usually see a promo for $0.99/month for three months or one month free.
Eligibility applies if you haven’t had Audible in the past 12 months.
Do I need Prime? No. Prime members get the better version (3 months free); without Prime you are likely to see a promo for 3 months at $0.99/month. Either way you can cancel anytime.
What happens after the trial? It auto-renews at $8.99/month. Cancelling takes a click, and you can do it before you’re charged.
Related Posts 11 TV Shows Based on Books You Can Read or Listen To
