Apple Books - can’t open audiobooks once they are finished

Within the last couple of months I’m experiencing a problem with Apple AudioBooks, purchased from the store.. And played on an IPhone X running latest IOS.. they play fine but once I finish the book I can’t reopen the book, the book opens momentarily then closes again.. I’ve tried marking it as unfinished, and I’ve tried deleting and re downloading but it doesn’t resolve the problem.. I have tons of spare memory and don’t have anything set to offload media or apps.. anyone else have this problem and any known successful fix (please don’t suggest try resetting reinstalling the phone!)