Both pass the technical standards checks, but in my opinion they’re a little too crisp and piercing. “AliSS felt thiSS could not be denied.”
That little haystack between 3500 and roughly 8000 (along the bottom) should not be there. That produces the “ice pick in the ear” sound which microphone makers would like you to think is “professional.” It’s not.
There is a tool for this called DeEsser, but I’m not good at using it. It’s really easy to convert one sound quality problem into a different sound quality problem.
https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/updated-de-clicker-and-new-de-esser-for-speech/34283/1
Did you use our Audiobook Mastering Suite, or are you using a different tool collection?
You did violate one technical rule. Never do production in MP3. MP3 quality gets worse each time you make a correction or different theatrical version and the MP3 audiobook submission is required to be Constant Bitrate 192 or higher. Not optional. Export WAV (Microsoft) 16-bit for Raw Reading protection copies and your Edit Master before you make the final MP3.
Are you going to read Alice? It’s a lovely reading, but did ACX agree that was OK? Apparently, ACX doesn’t offer audition services any more, so you won’t know there’s anything wrong until they reject the whole book.
Koz