
The Competition
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $18.12
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Emma Chelsey
-
Ric Herbert
About this listen
Katherine Collette's much-anticipated and hilarious follow-up to The Helpline, the debut Aussie novel that charmed the world.
Frances quite honestly isn’t that excited about the SpeechMakers annual national conference and public-speaking competition. What she’s excited about (relatively speaking) is that this year there’s a major prize. Frances has a few small problems, and 40,000 dollars would go a long way to sorting them out.
Keith is Frances’ probably ex-mentor, it’s hard to tell since she’s not talking to him and he disapproves of the prize money. He thinks SpeechMakers should be about self-improvement, not self-enrichment. He wants to win the competition, though. He thinks it might help the situation with his wife, Linda.
Neil doesn’t care about the competition at all, but Judy, his mother and coach, does so.
And Rebecca....
Actually, what the hell is Rebecca doing here? Rebecca belongs to Frances’ past, not her present. And certainly not her (hopefully) less-disastrous future.
Katherine Collette, author of the hilarious The Helpline, returns with another sharply observed comedy of manners and a cast of loveable underachievers, headed for self-improvement despite themselves.
©2022 Katherine Collette (P)2022 W F HowesListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Murder Rule
- A Novel
- By: Dervla McTiernan
- Narrated by: Kate Orsini, Sophie Amoss, Michael Crouch
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For fans of the compulsive psychological suspense of Ruth Ware and Tana French, a mother daughter story—one running from a horrible truth, and the other fighting to reveal it—that twists and turns in shocking ways, from the internationally bestselling author of The Scholar and The Ruin.
-
-
Disappointed
- By Lynn on 05-17-22
By: Dervla McTiernan
-
Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting
- A Novel
- By: Clare Pooley
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day Iona, a larger-than-life magazine advice columnist, travels the ten stops from Hampton Court to Waterloo Station by train, accompanied by her dog, Lulu. Every day she sees the same people, whom she knows only by nickname: Impossibly-Pretty-Constant-Reader and Terribly-Lonely-Teenager. Of course, they never speak. Seasoned commuters never do. Then one morning, the man she calls Smart-But-Sexist-Manspreader chokes on a grape right in front of her. He’d have died were it not for the timely intervention of Sanjay, a nurse, who gives him the Heimlich maneuver.
-
-
Wonderful friendship story
- By Barbara S on 10-17-22
By: Clare Pooley
-
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
- Reese's Book Club (A Novel)
- By: Gail Honeyman
- Narrated by: Cathleen McCarron
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office.
-
-
Please be warned
- By N. Thompson on 06-20-17
By: Gail Honeyman
-
One More Thing
- Stories and Other Stories
- By: B. J. Novak
- Narrated by: B. J. Novak, Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
B.J. Novak's One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories is an endlessly entertaining, surprisingly sensitive, and startlingly original debut that signals the arrival of a brilliant new voice in American fiction. A boy wins a $100,000 prize in a box of Frosted Flakes - only to discover how claiming the winnings might unravel his family. A woman sets out to seduce motivational speaker Tony Robbins - turning for help to the famed motivator himself. A new arrival in Heaven, overwhelmed with options, procrastinates over a long-ago promise to visit his grandmother....
-
-
It gets better, and better, and better, and better
- By David Shear on 02-07-14
By: B. J. Novak
-
Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel
- By: Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, and others
- Narrated by: Ben Levi Ross, Mike Faist, Mallory Bechtel
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a letter that was never meant to be seen by anyone draws high school senior Evan Hansen into a family's grief over the loss of their son, he is given the chance of a lifetime: to belong. He just has to stick to a lie he never meant to tell: that the notoriously troubled Connor Murphy was his secret best friend. Suddenly, Evan isn't invisible anymore - even to the girl of his dreams. And Connor Murphy's parents, with their beautiful home on the other side of town, have taken him in like he was their own, desperate to know more about their enigmatic son from his closest friend.
-
-
One of the most emotional books I have ever read.
- By Darec Goheen on 10-26-18
By: Val Emmich, and others
-
Someday, Someday, Maybe
- A Novel
- By: Lauren Graham
- Narrated by: Lauren Graham
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Lauren Graham, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, comes a witty, charming, and hilariously relatable debut novel about a struggling young actress trying to get ahead - and keep it together - in New York City. It’s January 1995, and Franny Banks has just six months left of the three-year deadline she set for herself when she came to New York, dreaming of Broadway and doing "important" work. But all she has to show for her efforts so far is a part in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters, and a gig waiting tables at a comedy club....
-
-
A Fun read
- By Elisa on 05-05-13
By: Lauren Graham
-
The Murder Rule
- A Novel
- By: Dervla McTiernan
- Narrated by: Kate Orsini, Sophie Amoss, Michael Crouch
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For fans of the compulsive psychological suspense of Ruth Ware and Tana French, a mother daughter story—one running from a horrible truth, and the other fighting to reveal it—that twists and turns in shocking ways, from the internationally bestselling author of The Scholar and The Ruin.
-
-
Disappointed
- By Lynn on 05-17-22
By: Dervla McTiernan
-
Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting
- A Novel
- By: Clare Pooley
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day Iona, a larger-than-life magazine advice columnist, travels the ten stops from Hampton Court to Waterloo Station by train, accompanied by her dog, Lulu. Every day she sees the same people, whom she knows only by nickname: Impossibly-Pretty-Constant-Reader and Terribly-Lonely-Teenager. Of course, they never speak. Seasoned commuters never do. Then one morning, the man she calls Smart-But-Sexist-Manspreader chokes on a grape right in front of her. He’d have died were it not for the timely intervention of Sanjay, a nurse, who gives him the Heimlich maneuver.
-
-
Wonderful friendship story
- By Barbara S on 10-17-22
By: Clare Pooley
-
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
- Reese's Book Club (A Novel)
- By: Gail Honeyman
- Narrated by: Cathleen McCarron
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office.
-
-
Please be warned
- By N. Thompson on 06-20-17
By: Gail Honeyman
-
One More Thing
- Stories and Other Stories
- By: B. J. Novak
- Narrated by: B. J. Novak, Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
B.J. Novak's One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories is an endlessly entertaining, surprisingly sensitive, and startlingly original debut that signals the arrival of a brilliant new voice in American fiction. A boy wins a $100,000 prize in a box of Frosted Flakes - only to discover how claiming the winnings might unravel his family. A woman sets out to seduce motivational speaker Tony Robbins - turning for help to the famed motivator himself. A new arrival in Heaven, overwhelmed with options, procrastinates over a long-ago promise to visit his grandmother....
-
-
It gets better, and better, and better, and better
- By David Shear on 02-07-14
By: B. J. Novak
-
Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel
- By: Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, and others
- Narrated by: Ben Levi Ross, Mike Faist, Mallory Bechtel
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a letter that was never meant to be seen by anyone draws high school senior Evan Hansen into a family's grief over the loss of their son, he is given the chance of a lifetime: to belong. He just has to stick to a lie he never meant to tell: that the notoriously troubled Connor Murphy was his secret best friend. Suddenly, Evan isn't invisible anymore - even to the girl of his dreams. And Connor Murphy's parents, with their beautiful home on the other side of town, have taken him in like he was their own, desperate to know more about their enigmatic son from his closest friend.
-
-
One of the most emotional books I have ever read.
- By Darec Goheen on 10-26-18
By: Val Emmich, and others
-
Someday, Someday, Maybe
- A Novel
- By: Lauren Graham
- Narrated by: Lauren Graham
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Lauren Graham, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, comes a witty, charming, and hilariously relatable debut novel about a struggling young actress trying to get ahead - and keep it together - in New York City. It’s January 1995, and Franny Banks has just six months left of the three-year deadline she set for herself when she came to New York, dreaming of Broadway and doing "important" work. But all she has to show for her efforts so far is a part in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters, and a gig waiting tables at a comedy club....
-
-
A Fun read
- By Elisa on 05-05-13
By: Lauren Graham
-
Surprise Me
- A Novel
- By: Sophie Kinsella
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After being together for 10 years, Sylvie and Dan have all the trimmings of a happy life and marriage; they have a comfortable home, fulfilling jobs, and beautiful twin girls and communicate so seamlessly, they finish each other's sentences. However, a trip to the doctor projects they will live another 68 years together, and panic sets in. They never expected "until death do us part" to mean seven decades. In the name of marriage survival, they quickly concoct a plan to keep their relationship fresh and exciting.
-
-
Sophie Kinsella never disappoints!
- By Ellen Zelda on 02-20-18
By: Sophie Kinsella
-
The Queen of New Beginnings
- By: Erica James
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clayton Miller's life is a mess. His career as one of the country's best comedy script writers has stalled and his long term girlfriend has left him for his ex best friend and ex writing partner. Just when he thinks his life couldn't get any worse, he commits a spectacularly public fall from grace and with the press hounding him, his agent banishes him to the middle of nowhere until the dust has settled.
-
-
I couldn't put it down....
- By Kevin Herman on 01-15-17
By: Erica James
-
The Secret
- By: K. L. Slater
- Narrated by: Lucy Price-Lewis
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You think you can trust the ones you love most. But what if one secret could make you question everything? Every day, a woman like Louise passes you in the street: elegant, confident, determined. But underneath, she’s struggling. She doesn’t know her sister, Alice, has been scared of leaving the house since their mother died. She doesn’t know when Alice babysits her little boy, Archie, he sometimes sees things he shouldn’t. She doesn’t know Archie has a secret. A secret that could send cracks through the heart of Louise’s carefully constructed life....
-
-
Disappointed
- By Coreen Raterman on 02-09-19
By: K. L. Slater
-
The Buddha, Geoff and Me
- By: Edward Canfor-Dumas
- Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ed is having a hard time - at work, in his love life and, well, generally. Then he meets an unlikely Buddhist - who drinks and smokes and talks his kind of language. Bit by bit, things begin to change...Ed doesn't always take Geoff's advice. Or, when he does he lapses at the crucial moment. His path to understanding is not a straight one, especially as life keeps throwing more and more 'stuff' at him.
-
-
This book actually changed my life view
- By J. Wood on 10-15-12
-
Lies, Love, and Breakfast at Tiffany's
- By: Julie Wright
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Silvia Bradshaw begins her Hollywood career loving every aspect from the glamour and style of Audrey Hepburn to the behind-the-scenes filmmaking magic - and she is ready to prove her worth as the newest film editor at a major production studio in Hollywood. A studio scandal and lawsuit jeopardizes her job and forbids her from seeing love interest Ben from a rival studio.
-
-
A great tribute to Audrey Hepburn/ Saint Maries, Idaho
- By Anonymous User on 05-22-21
By: Julie Wright
-
Enchanted, Inc.
- A Novel
- By: Shanna Swendson
- Narrated by: Eva Wilhelm
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Katie Chandler had always heard that New York is a weird and wonderful place, but this small-town Texas gal had no idea how weird until she moved there. Everywhere she goes, she sees something worth gawking at and Katie is afraid she's a little too normal to make a splash in the big city. Working for an ogre of a boss doesn't help. Then, seemingly out of the blue, Katie gets a job offer from Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc., a company that tricks of the trade to the magic community. For MSI, Katie's ordinariness is an asset.
-
-
Enjoyable Story Ruined by Awful Narrator!
- By Theresa on 04-28-14
By: Shanna Swendson
-
Until I Met Her
- Emma Fern, Book 1
- By: Natalie Barelli
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beatrice Johnson Greene, a bestselling crime writer, has an unusual favor to ask. When a chance encounter brings Emma Fern into her life, she thinks she's found just the person for the job. Soon Beatrice will wish they'd never met. For Emma, desperate to please, it's an offer she can't refuse. All she has to do is lend her name to Beatrice's next novel, her first in a new genre. But when the book becomes a huge triumph, Emma finds herself the toast of the literary world.
-
-
Listen to a sample..
- By Suzanna on 10-22-17
By: Natalie Barelli
-
The Shadow Between Us
- By: Carol Mason
- Narrated by: Billie Fulford-Brown
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Olivia moves to Port Townsend, her marriage is floundering, and her life is in pieces. She doesn’t know if things with her husband Mark are truly over, or quite why the phone call she longs for on her daughter’s birthday will never come. Joining a letter-writing club seems like a harmless decision. But when she meets Ned, an ex-soldier badly wounded in Afghanistan, this unlooked-for friendship revives unexpected emotions and memories she’d rather forget.
-
-
Interesting
- By Content on 08-12-19
By: Carol Mason
-
Third Wheel
- By: Nick Spalding
- Narrated by: Will Watt
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jake Carlisle is living his best life, thanks to the crazily successful influencer channel he created with his best friend Sy. Reviewing whacky hobbies and adrenaline-fuelled adventures, Sy has pushed Jake into doing more exciting stuff than either ever thought possible. Then disaster strikes. When newbie Helena joins the team, Sy quickly falls head over heels for her…All of a sudden, with romance blossoming and the business dynamic shifting, Jake is horrified to find himself becoming the dreaded third wheel.
-
-
I love Spaulding, but this is a thumbs down
- By Laura OC on 12-04-22
By: Nick Spalding
-
Home
- By: Matt Dunn
- Narrated by: James Clamp
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's been eighteen years since Josh Peters left dreary, dying Derton - the seaside town where he grew up - and headed for the bright lights of London. Now his dad is sick and his mum needs him, so he's back - though he's promised himself he won't be staying for long.... Then Josh finds himself unexpectedly detained in Derton, living in his cramped teenage bedroom, with simmering family tensions a little too close for comfort.
-
-
good book
- By Kindle Customer on 08-25-21
By: Matt Dunn
-
The Meet Cute Method
- By: Portia MacIntosh
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Frankie doesn't believe in true love. As relationships expert at popular magazine Stylife, she has learnt that dating disasters are far more common than happy-ever-afters. So when she is tasked to find out if meet cutes can work in real life, she is up for the challenge—but whether it's being a damsel in distress with a flat tyre or spilling coffee over a stranger, she isn't convinced this can really lead to love. But little does Frankie know that the ultimate meet-cute opportunity is just around the corner.
-
-
As ever Karen Cass makes any book come alive!
- By FIRE on 07-24-22
By: Portia MacIntosh
-
The Furies
- A Novel
- By: Natalie Haynes
- Narrated by: Zara Ramm
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After losing her fiancé in a shocking tragedy, Alex Morris moves from London to Edinburgh to make a break with the past. Formerly an actress, Alex accepts a job teaching drama therapy at a school commonly referred to as "The Unit," a last-chance learning community for teens expelled from other schools in the city. Her students have troubled pasts and difficult personalities, and Alex is an inexperienced teacher, terrified of what she's taken on and drowning in grief. Her most challenging class is an intimidating group of teenagers who have been given up on by everyone before her.
-
-
Excellent listen!
- By Dee on 08-19-21
By: Natalie Haynes
Critic reviews
"A book centred around a collection of endearing but socially challenged misfits who need to let go of their less-than-perfect pasts in order to take control of their lives. Inspired by the author’s real-life experiences in Toastmasters, The Competition tells an amusing tale of ambition, friendship and redemption, with just a touch of romance. It will appeal to fans of heartfelt books with quirky characters such as those by Graeme Simsion and Toni Jordan." (Books+Publishing)
"Colette’s writing is funny, propulsive and smart. She continues the compelling comedic flair of her debut, The Helpline, which also saw a complicated, 'oddball' heroine portrayed in a nuanced, sensitive manner. She has been involved heavily in Toastmasters in the past—this real-life experience comes through in her storytelling—and as a reader, her evocative depictions of the cut-throat world of competitive speech-making is delightfully welcome at a time when indoor gatherings still seem like a fantasy." (Jessie Tu, Sydney Morning Herald)
"Katherine Collette is back in fine form with The Competition, proving (in case anyone was in any doubt) that she is a skilled master of the light-hearted comedy—drawing you in, keeping you laughing, compelling you to feel emotionally invested in this quirky cast of characters.... This is one I’d happily press into the hands of everyone who came into the shop, so go grab your towel, head down to the beach and settle in with a new favourite book." (Readings)