I picked up Emma Newman's novels because of the podcast with the homicidal butler. Obviously.
(No, seriously, Tea and Jeopardy is a joy to listen to - it and The Hidden Almanac are my two favorite "bemuse the spouse" podcasts).
And because I was introduced to her work through podcast (and because the library only has the third volume in The Split Worlds), I got the audio version. Which I loved. Newman's performance, at least in terms of character voices, is understated and she works through slight modulations in tone and pitch. It's more like storytelling than acting, which works, both for the story and for her voice. I really like the sense that the author is reading me their story - not just in the "I can pay 15 dollars a month and have famous people read me a bedtime story" sense, although there is that, but in the perceived connection of hearing the story as the author imagines it. It's pretty cool.
And it helps that Newman's take on the Fae court and urban/fairy fantasy feels both innovative and fun. You can tell that she put an extraordinary amount of thought into the world building...but she never seemed to sacrifice the story just to share the details. And the geeky references were just the icing on the cake. Not that I have a checklist of things an urban fantasy novel should do to make me like it, but if I did, Newman's book would hit every one.