VLC alternative

I've been using VLC for donkeys years and never had an issue until last week. I listen to audiobooks as I drive and I used to be able to put say 10 books into a playlist, hit play and they would just carry on 1 after the other. This was especially helpful if the book was split into multiple parts but now, VLC is only playing 1 file at a time and then repeating it. So I need a free alternative that I can add stuff to a playlist and it just works