Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of December 18th.
Comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
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No Good Deed by Tom Abrahams
Narrated by Kevin Pierce
Self Published
Check out my review of No Good Deed here
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Tom Abrahams
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Kevin Pierce
Apocalyptic survivor John Beck has beaten the wolves who prey on the sheep. But can he defeat his own demons on his path to redemption?
John Beck is on a mission to find his daughter. After learning she has left him handwritten letters as clues, he and new friends embark on what could be the end of his quixotic odyssey to reunite with his daughter. But before he finds her, dangerous obstacles stand in his way and they could as quickly kill him as lead to his salvation.
No Good Deed is book two of The Crusader EMP Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series and is perfect for fans of Franklin Horton, AR Shaw, Kyla Stone, and Ryan Schow, and Jack Hunt.
Angels of the Deep by Nicholas Harvey, Nick Sullivan
Narrated by Nick Sullivan
Self Published
Read my review of Angels of the Deep here
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Nick Sullivan
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Nick Sullivan
A royal visit. A generous gift. A deadly plot.
What could be better than Christmas in the Cayman Islands?
When the British royal family donates a beautiful bronze statue to the people of the Cayman Islands, everyone is excited to see the Christmas Eve presentation go off with a bang – especially one man with a grudge.
Dive boat operators and friends AJ Bailey, Nora Sommer, Boone Fischer, and Emily Durand planned on spending Christmas together, but as the royal visit nears, they’re thrown into the middle of the festivities – and a devious plot to assassinate his royal highness.
Angels of the Deep brings together well-loved characters from Nick Sullivan’s and Nicholas Harvey’s best-selling series for a holiday adventure that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat, with a few chuckles along the way.
The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams
Narrated by Renee Dorian, Teddy Hamilton
Dreamscape Media, LLC
Hi, my name is Bree Camden, and I’m hopelessly in love with my best friend and star quarterback Nathan Donelson (so is half of America, judging by the tabloids and how much the guy dates). The first step is admitting it, right? Except, I can never admit it to him because he clearly doesn’t see me that way, and the last thing I want is for things to get weird between us. Nothing but good old-fashioned no-touching-the-sexiest-man-alive platonic friendship for us! Everything is exactly how I like it! Yes. Good. (I’m not crying; I’m just peeling an onion.)
Our friendship is going swimmingly until I accidentally spill my beans to a reporter over too much tequila, and now the world seems to think Nathan and I belong together. Oh, and did I mention we have to date publicly for three weeks until after the Super Bowl because we signed a contract with…oops, forgot I can’t tell anyone about that!
The bottom line is that my best friend is now smudging all the lines and acting very un-platonic, and I’m just trying to keep my body from bursting into flames every time he touches me. How am I going to make it through three weeks of fake dating Nathan without anything changing between us? Especially when it almost-sorta-kinda seems like he’s fighting for a completely different outcome?
Send help.
XO Bree
The Cheat Sheet is a closed-door sizzling-with-chemistry romantic comedy that will have you laughing and rooting for these lovable best friends from the very start!
When We’re Thirty by Casey Dembowski
Narrated by Asia King, Curt Bonnem
Scribd Audio
Two friends. One pact. The performance of their lives. Hannah Abbott is stuck in a dead-end relationship and at a job she loves but that barely pays the bills. The four walls of her tiny New York City apartment have never seemed so small. She’s barely toasted her 30th birthday when her old college friend Will knocks on her door with an unexpected proposal.
Will Thorne never forgot the marriage pact he made with Hannah, but he also never imagined he’d be the one to initiate it. One ex-fiancée and an almost-career-ending mistake later, however, he finds himself outside Hannah’s door, on bended knee, to collect on their graduation-night pinky promise.
With both of their futures at stake, Hannah and Will take a leap of faith. Now, all they have to do is convince their friends and family that they’re madly in love. As long as they follow the list of rules they’ve drafted, everything should go smoothly. Except Will has never been good with rules, and Hannah can’t stop overthinking the sleeping arrangements. Turning 30 has never been so promising.
Widow Falls by Kiersten Modglin
Narrated by Jess Nahikian
Dreamscape Media, LLC
When Sloane takes a job at the infamous whitewater-rafting camp Widow Falls, she quickly learns that the camp has a reputation for more than just summer fun.
People go missing at Widow Falls. The guide she’s replacing was just one of many. As Sloane settles into her new home — a one-room apartment she’ll be sharing with the five other guides — she can’t help asking questions and digging into the disappearances she’s heard about. Her new roommates tell her stories of dark legends and dangerous folklore surrounding the secluded camp but assure her there’s nothing to worry about. It’s all just superstition.
When Sloane stumbles upon a clue and a secret message hidden beneath the floorboards of their loft, she begins to realize there may be more to the myths than she’s been told. The message gets her attention: Don’t trust anyone at Widow Falls. As she follows clues to better understand the missing guide she replaced, Sloane can’t help noticing the similarities between the two of them. Whatever’s happening at Widow Falls, it’s clear someone doesn’t want her digging into it.
As the seams of her reality are torn apart, making her question everything, Sloane has to uncover the truth about the camp — and its occupants — before someone else goes missing.
The Sprawling by Jonathan Chateau
Narrated by Sheldon Roberts
Self Published
Trapped in a nightmarish skyscraper and stalked by their darkest secrets, a group of office workers must band together to escape the malevolent plans of their new employer.
SiDug Tech promised to change the lives for a team of newly hired employees. Twice the pay of other firms, the ability to work from home, zero micromanagement, and incredible benefits. All that was required was to complete one week of training at their headquarters near downtown Tampa.
Beginning with their first day of training, the new hires quickly realize that something is wrong with this office. The place is plagued with frequent power outages, doors that lock on their own, and something sinister moving about…just above the ceiling tiles.
When they try to leave, they find themselves locked inside this nightmare building, lost within a labyrinth of cubicles and endless hallways, chased by the very things they hoped to never experience again. Soon, the lines of reality become blurred, and some of the darkest secrets they have buried in their minds long ago have somehow been resurrected by this cursed place.
But, if they want to escape, they will have to fight to maintain their sanity as they uncover the truth behind what their new employer has in store for them.
The Geek Who Saved Christmas by Annabeth Albert
Narrated by Tim Paige
Tantor Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Tim Paige
His grumpy neighbor needs some holiday sunshine….
Gideon Holiday is the perfect neighbor. Need a cup of sugar? Spare folding chair? Extra batteries? He’s always ready to help. And he’s waited years for his hot, grumpy, silver-fox neighbor, Paul, to need him. For anything. But right now, Gideon would be happy if he could just get the Scrooge-like Paul on board with the neighborhood holiday lights fundraiser.
Paul Frost has no intention of decking his halls or blazing any Yule logs. Even if his spunky bowtie-clad neighbor does look perfect for unwrapping, Paul would prefer to hide away until December is done. But when his beloved younger brother announces an unexpected visit, Paul needs all the trimmings for a festive homecoming – and fast.
Luckily, Gideon is there with a color-coded plan to save Christmas. Soon Paul’s hanging lights, trimming trees, and rolling out cookies. And steaming up his new flannel sheets with Gideon. How did that happen?
It’ll take some winter magic to preserve their happiness and keep these rival neighbors together longer than one holiday season.
Contains mature themes.
Touchwood by Karin Kallmaker
Narrated by Angela Dawe
Tantor Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Angela Dawe
Twenty-nine-year-old Rayann Germaine, betrayed by her lover, flees in grief and rage. She meets book-store owner Louisa Thatcher, a woman many years her senior, who offers shelter and work…and soon, passion, and a loving place in her life.
But Rayann encounters challenges to this new love – from friends who question its wisdom, from her mother who disapproves of this liaison with a woman her own contemporary, from Louisa’s son who learns for the first time his mother’s true sexuality.
And there are profound differences between Rayann and Louisa themselves, two women who come from dramatically different places in the spectrum of age and life experience. Their only common ground seems to be the searing attraction that they both try to deny….
On the Rocks by Georgia Beers
Narrated by AJ Ferraro
Bold Strokes Books Inc
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Georgia Beers
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by AJ Ferraro
No straight women. No parents of students. Nobody under 35. Vanessa Martini makes no apologies for her dating checklist. She’s been up close to enough messy breakups to know what havoc they wreak in life. Just because people see her as fun and happy, and just because she loves her life in general, that doesn’t mean she can’t be careful. Or discerning. Or, okay, fine, super picky.
Grace Chapman is tired of being judged by her boss, by the husband she’s divorcing, by her parents. All she cares about now is her six-year-old son, Oliver. The divorce is making him act out in school, and she just needs to find a way to help him so they can start again. What she does not need is the silent judgment she gets from his teacher. His wildly attractive, super sexy, annoyingly gorgeous teacher.
Grace ticks all Vanessa’s “Do Not Date” boxes. Vanessa is yet one more person who disapproves of Grace. Of course, they’re never going to fall in love.
Just One Week by Chelsea M. Cameron
Narrated by Kate Wisniewski
Self Published
Emerald Witmer is beyond pissed when her brother begs her to drive all the way across the country to pick up his girlfriend’s sister from college in Arizona and bring her back to Castleton, Maine. She would tell him to go [blank] himself, but then he agrees to pay her, and let’s be real, she could use the money. She’s not going to think about the fact that the girl she’s going to pick up, Natalie Johnson, was her best friend when they were kids, until Natalie decided she’d rather hang with the cool kids and abandoned Em. Not that she’s still holding a grudge or anything.
All she has to do is manage to get through one week with Natalie and then never think about her again, but those plans go out the window when she sees Natalie and feels something more intense than her anger at the past: lust. It’s fine. All she has to do is get through one week. What happens afterward is a problem for future Em.
What starts as an annoying chore turns into a road trip of redemption when Em realizes how much she misses having Natalie in her life, and things escalate further when they get back to Castleton and share a kiss. Those feelings Em has been trying to ignore aren’t going to be silenced. Will Em put the past in the past and let herself fall for the girl who used to be her best friend? Or will she cling to her painful past and reject Natalie completely?
Dreadnaught by Anthony J. Melchiorri
Narrated by R.C. Bray
Podium Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by R.C. Bray
The race to control a newly discovered ancient alien technology threatens to tear civilization apart.
Master Sergeant Cole Shaw and his team of mech operators are on the front lines of the new war. But instead of mechs, they pilot bioengineered beasts called Sentinels. Only they can stop the Imperial Alliance from unleashing a devastating alien weapon with unparalleled power.
Shaw’s team is sent to a colony planet where rebels clash with government forces, intergalactic empires vie for influence in the shadows, and monstrous feral creatures wreak havoc in forests as deadly as they are beautiful. Amid the chaos, Shaw must make tenuous alliances with untrustworthy forces and face impossible decisions with catastrophic consequences. If he doesn’t succeed, then it’s not just his team’s lives at stake – it’s all of mankind.
Dreadnaught is the long-awaited second book in the Deadmen’s War series. Pacific Rim meets Starship Troopers in this thrilling military sci-fi series.
The Great Charade by Gerri Hill
Narrated by Abby Craden
Audible, Inc.
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Gerri Hill
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Abby Craden
Abby Carpenter is in a tailspin knowing she is about to spend 10 days in the company of her ex-girlfriend – who is now engaged to her brother – for a family holiday gathering in Red River, New Mexico. The same ex-girlfriend who last year at Christmas had lured her into bed. Abby’s solution? A pretend girlfriend for the holidays would surely keep her ex away and in her own room at night, right?
Nic Bennett’s life has been far from ideal and Christmas is her most dreaded holiday of all as she relives horrors from the past. When an attractive stranger approaches her with the offer of a chance to get away for ten days, she agrees but with a counteroffer that brings both anxiety and excitement to the desperate Abby.
Among the holiday lights and snow-covered grandeur, the lines between pretend and reality blur as the two women have the time of their lives while Abby learns it isn’t her ex she cannot resist and Nic learns what it means to be part of a family for Christmas.
A proposition, a counteroffer, and a Christmas charade heal two souls and meld two hearts into one.
The Love Con by Seressia Glass
Narrated by Zenzi Williams
Penguin Audio
A Library Reads pick
He’s cosplaying as her boyfriend, but their feelings for each other are real in this romantic comedy from Seressia Glass.
Sometimes Kenya Davenport believes she was switched at the hospital – how else could a lover of anime, gaming, and cosplay come from STEM parents? Still, Kenya dreams of being able to turn her creative hobby into a career. She finally has a chance to make it big when she joins the reality show competition Cosplay or No Way.
There’s just one catch: The challenge for the final round is all about iconic pairs, and the judges want the contestants’ significant others to participate. Unfortunately, Kenya is as single as can be at the moment. Luckily her best friend, Cameron Lassiter, agrees to be her fake boyfriend for the show.
Roleplaying a couple in love will force them to explore what they’re hiding under the mask of friendship. Can Kenya and Cam fake it until she makes it, or will she be real about her feelings, knowing it could cost her the best friend she’s ever had?
The One Night by Meghan Quinn
Narrated by Teddy Hamilton, Laurie West
Brilliance Audio
From USA Today best-selling author Meghan Quinn comes a romantic comedy novella about the magic and misadventures of a one-night stand.
Recently divorced Cooper Chance knows he’s officially in a rut when his parents take him barhopping in the hope of resuscitating his love life. At first, he’s skeptical. How could a gritty dive bar possibly solve his problems? But then he runs into Nora McHale.
Nora isn’t at the bar looking for love. She’s there to unwind after yet another exhausting day at her bakery. And even if she were hoping to meet someone, it sure wouldn’t be Cooper – her best friend’s ex-husband.
According to the unwritten rules of romance, Cooper and Nora are completely off limits to each other. But after a fun, flirty night at the bar, they can’t ignore the wild attraction between them.
Is this the beginning of something real, or will their passionate night together be their one and only?
