Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of February 19th.
Comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
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Unmissing by Minka Kent
Narrated by Carly Robins, Jane Oppenheimer
Brilliance Publishing
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Minka Kent
$1.99 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
A return from the past knocks a family dangerously off-balance in a novel of spiraling suspense by Washington Post and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Minka Kent.
Merritt Coletto and her husband, Luca, have the life they dreamed of: a coastal home, a promising future, and a growing family. That dream ends with a late-night knock on the door.
Weak, broken, and emaciated, it’s Luca’s first wife, Lydia. Missing for ten years, presumed dead, and very much alive, she has quite a story. Her kidnapping. A torturous confinement that should’ve ended with her dead. And finally, escape. Racked with guilt over the beautiful life they’ve built, Merritt and Luca agree to help get Lydia back on her feet – it’s the least they can do.
But the more enmeshed Lydia becomes in Merritt’s family, the more questions Merritt has. What is it about Lydia that’s especially unnerving? Why hasn’t she gone to the police with her harrowing tale? What does she really want of them? The answers, when they come, are terrifying.
Because Lydia isn’t the only one with secrets.
The Cage by Bonnie Kistler
Narrated by Piper Goodeve, Chris Andrew Ciulla
HarperCollins Publishers
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Piper Goodeve
$12.99 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Combining the propulsive narrative drive of The Firm with the psychological complexity of The Silent Patient, a gripping and original thriller about two professional women – colleagues at an international fashion conglomerate – who enter an elevator together…but only one is alive when they reach the ground floor.
On a cold, misty Sunday night, two women are alone in the offices of fashion conglomerate Claudine de Martineau International. One is the company’s human resources director. Impeccably dressed and perfectly coiffed, she sits at her desk and stares somberly out the window. Down the hall, her colleague, one of the company’s lawyers, is buried under a pile of paperwork, frantically rushing to finish.
Leaving at the same time, the two women, each preoccupied by her own thoughts, enter the elevator that will take them down from the 30th floor.
When they arrive at the lobby, one of the women is dead. Was it murder or suicide?
An incredibly original novel that turns the office thriller on its head, The Cage is a wild ride that begins with a bang and picks up speed as it races to its dramatic end.
The Asset by Saul Herzog
Narrated by Eric Whitman
AuthorContact
Montana, USA.
When Lance Spector quit the CIA, he swore he was out for good.
One more government lie and he would go off the deep end.
They could find someone else to do their dirty work.
As far as he was concerned, Washington, Langley, the Pentagon could all go to hell.
Yekaterinburg, Russia.
A secret Russian expedition returns with a devastating new pathogen, harvested from the frozen corpses of mammoths.
It’s the biological super-weapon they’ve been looking for, an apocalypse-level pathogen, a virus more deadly than anything ever to come from a Russian lab.
Something that will stop NATO and the Americans in their tracks.
A biological Chernobyl.
Washington, DC, USA.
A mysterious vial, sealed in a titanium case, arrives at CIA headquarters. They have no idea who sent it, but it comes with a note.
“I will only speak to Lance Spector”.
The Asset by Saul Herzog is a stunning new thriller, a spectacular tour de force, an audiobook that has single-handedly taken the publishing industry, and Hollywood rights departments, by storm. This dazzling debut kicks off the jaw-dropping new Lance Spector series, and sets the stage for a franchise that’s on track to break all records. From the mind of one of the most creative and versatile writers working in America today, this audiobook will go down as a classic of the spy thriller genre.
If you listen to only one audiobook this year, this is it. Action, adventure, rebellion, provocative foreign agents, characters you can sink your teeth into. If you’re looking for a new spy thriller series that will stay with you long after you listen until the end, look no further.
Recommended for fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp, Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne, and Brad Thor’s Scot Harvath.
Agent of Influence by Andrew Watts, Dale M. Nelson
Narrated by Michael Wolfe
Severn River Publishing
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
From USA Today best-selling author Andrew Watts and Dale M. Nelson.
In a world where artificial intelligence offers unlimited power, government spies and tech giants fight a ruthless battle to come out on top.
When an undercover Mossad agent is killed on a private Caribbean Island, the death sets off alarm bells in Washington, Tel Aviv, and Moscow. The island is owned by Guy Hawkinson, the controversial CEO of Hawk Enterprises, and member of one of America’s most powerful family dynasties.
Within hours of the agent’s death, multiple agencies set new plans in motion.
Israeli Intelligence Officer Ava Klein is ordered to Washington, DC. Tasked with salvaging their operation, she’ll need to infiltrate the Hawkinson’s inner circle.
To beat Mossad to the punch, CIA Officer Colt McShane must steer clear of Ava – a former love interest – and recruit a fresh face with no former ties to the intelligence community: a young female veteran who is just finishing up a master’s degree in machine learning.
And a Russian SVR chief has agreed to provide counterintelligence support for the Hawkinsons – at a price.
Each side is playing the world’s most dangerous game of espionage, attempting to win the ultimate technological victory. But with foreign agents and Hawkinson private security violently eliminating threats, any false move will be deadly.
51 by Patrick O’Leary
Narrated by Sean Runnette
Podium Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Sean Runnette
What really happened in Area 51?
Adam Pagnucco is just trying to help out a stranger who’s down and out. He has no idea that man is Winston Koop, his exceptionally talented ex-best friend. Koop and Nuke had been inseparable in college, but then life happened. Nuke finally quit drinking, and Koop – Koop was at the center of a massive conspiracy that the government faked UFOs just to cover it up.
Even after confessing to removing the memories of hundreds of people, Koop is still hiding something crucial from Nuke. The truth is even stranger than fiction, and time is running out for the real inhabitants of the Roswell site. Can Nuke somehow find a way to forgive…but not to forget?
In his long-awaited new novel, Patrick O’Leary (Door Number Three) deftly navigates the invisible currents of secrets and forgiveness. Gripping, profound, and utterly unique, 51 is sure to please fans of fans of smart paranormal nostalgia, such as The X-Files, Old Man’s War, and Stranger Things.
Traitor by Devon C. Ford
Narrated by R.C. Bray
Podium Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by R.C. Bray
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Quinn, now keeping unexpected company, returns to Jackson to find his friends had been and gone.
Facing a choice of north or south – of home or unfamiliar territory – he has to make the tough call and deal with the consequences.
Rivera and Valentina are in Helena, where they struggle to tell allies from enemies.
The race is on to get back to Zion and uncover the traitor before disaster strikes. Operating in the open, the game of telling friend from foe becomes deadly.
Don’t miss book two in a harrowing post-apocalyptic series from the best-selling author of After it Happened.
Stars and Bones by Gareth L. Powell
Narrated by Rebecca Norfolk
W F Howes
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
From the multi BSFA award-winner comes a stunningly inventive action-packed science-fiction epic adventure. A brand-new series for fans of Becky Chambers and Ann Leckie.
Seventy-five years from today, the human race has been cast from a dying Earth to wander the stars in a vast fleet of arks – each shaped by its inhabitants into a diverse and fascinating new environment, with its own rules and eccentricities.
When her sister disappears while responding to a mysterious alien distress call, Eryn insists on being part of the crew sent to look for her. What she discovers on Candidate-623 is both terrifying and deadly. When the threat follows her back to the fleet and people start dying, she is tasked with seeking out a legendary recluse who may just hold the key to humanity’s survival.
Gareth L. Powell’s Embers of War won 2018 BSFA Award for Best Novel and was shortlisted for the 2019 Locus Awards and the 2021 Seiun Awards in Japan. Its sequels, Fleet of Knives and Light of Impossible Stars, were both shortlisted for the BSFA Award for Best Novel, and Fleet of Knives was also shortlisted for the 2020 Locus Awards.
Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson
Narrated by Talon David
Thomas Nelson
$12.99 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
You’ve Got Mail meets The Proposal – this romance is one for the books.
Savannah Cade’s dreams are coming true. The Claire Donovan, editor in chief of the most successful romance imprint in the country, has requested to see the manuscript Savannah’s been secretly writing while working as editor herself – except at her publishing house, the philosophy is only highbrow works are worth printing and commercial fiction, particularly romance, should be reserved for the lowest level of Dante’s inferno. But when Savannah drops her manuscript during a staff meeting and nearly exposes herself to the whole company – including William Pennington, new publisher and son of the romance-despising CEO herself – she races to hide her manuscript in the secret turret room of the old Victorian office.
When she returns, she’s dismayed to discover that someone has not only been in her hidden nook but has written notes in the margins – quite critical ones. But when Claire’s own reaction turns out to be nearly identical to the scribbled remarks, and worse, Claire announces that Savannah has six weeks to resubmit before she retires, Savannah finds herself forced to seek the help of the shadowy editor after all.
As their notes back and forth start to fill up the pages, however, Savannah finds him not just becoming pivotal to her work but her life. There’s no doubt about it. She’s falling for her mystery editor. If she only knew who he was.
“Meet Me in the Margins is a delightfully charming jewel of a book that fans of romantic comedy won’t be able to put down – and will want to share with all their friends. Readers will lose themselves in Melissa Ferguson’s witty, warm tale of Savannah Cade and the perfectly drawn cast of characters that inhabits her world. This literary treat full of missed opportunities, second chances, and maybe even true love, should be at the top of your reading list!” (Kristy Woodson Harvey, New York Times best-selling author of Under the Southern Sky)
“Ferguson has penned a lively romance for every bookworm who once longed to step through the wardrobe or sleep under the stairs. Meet Me in the Margins brims with crisp prose and crinkling pages as Savannah Cade, lowly editor at a highbrow publisher, secretly reworks her commercial fiction manuscript with the help of a mystery reader – and revises her entire life. You’ll want to find your own hideaway to get lost in this delightful, whip-smart love story.” (Asher Fogle Paul, coauthor of Without a Hitch)
A sweet rom-com that can be listened to as a stand-alone novel
Book length: 80,000 words
The Island Between Us by Wendy Hudson
Narrated by Ruth Urquhart
Tantor Audio
Review coming soon!
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Ruth Urquhart
Lesbian romance and adventure collide in this gripping story of survival and second chances.
Georgia Hamilton is an adventurer. After a life spent exploring the most remote places on earth, she’s found her way back home to Scotland, where she teaches her expert survival skills.
Kelsey Campbell has spent her whole life acting, both personally and professionally, and has had it with the pressure of keeping everyone else happy. Craving somewhere far from the glaring spotlight, she signs up for a two-week team survival course.
It’s not just the remote island location that appeals to Kelsey. There’s the fact she met the course leader years ago and always regretted how they left things.
However, just as Georgia and Kelsey are renewing their long-lost connection over bushcraft, a storm hits, leaving them stranded. With the group’s lives now in Georgia’s hands, the race is on to find a way home.
As the reality of survival kicks in, their battle becomes about more than just facing the elements.
Contains mature themes.
The Fifth Surgeon by Faith Prize
Narrated by Abby Craden
Tantor Audio
Review coming soon!
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Abby Craden
A lesbian medical romance about the powerful breakthroughs we can’t always see.
Nadia Keating has barely started her cardiothoracic fellowship training, but she already has the archetype nailed – she’s direct, uncompromising, and suffering from a God complex.
Before she can focus on her impressive research, deeply closeted Nadia has a personal project: getting her inconvenient attraction to women out of her system. She picks a stranger online for a one-night stand.
Ashley Rylan, the chief of Nadia’s department, is her polar opposite – sweet, agreeable, and soft-spoken – and the stranger Nadia unwittingly chooses.
The two women’s meeting is a hostile disaster, and they would love nothing more than to never see each other again. However, their paths keep colliding as Nadia embarks on an ambitious experiment that could lead to a historic medical breakthrough.
Despite warring egos and the secrets they keep, their connection is powerful and growing. Maybe having sex would help them get over their distraction at work? Or would that just ruin everything?
Contains mature themes.
Perfect Timing by Dena Blake
Narrated by Lula Larkin
Bold Strokes Books Inc
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Lula Larkin
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Lynn Monroe is finally living life on her terms. The niece she raised as her own has finished medical school and started an internship, and she’s healing from a painful divorce that was long overdue. But, when she runs into a ghost from her past, the stable life she’s worked so hard to build begins to crumble.
Dr. Maggie Randall is focused, driven, and in love with her best friend’s aunt. When she unexpectedly bumps into Lynn, it’s like no time has passed. She’s sure it’s a sign they’re meant to be. But, all Maggie ever wanted in life is to raise children, and Lynn’s not ready to start a second family.
The choice between love and family has never been so difficult, and different visions of the future may end their romance before it’s begun.
The Awkward Truth by Lee Winter
Narrated by Angela Dawe
Ylva Publishing
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Angela Dawe
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
This funny, opposites-attract lesbian romance digs up the awkward truth about what really matters in life.
Ambitious ice queen and corporate lawyer Felicity Simmons has spent her life focused on one thing: Scuttling up the career ladder. She’s achingly close to taking charge of a media empire for her boss, when she’s sent to investigate a South Bronx charity that helps homeless people’s pets.
Has the charity made off with her boss’s generous donation? And who on earth is that gorgeous soft-butch veterinarian, who looks as if she could toss a Shetland pony over one shoulder? Not that Felicity has any interest in some opinionated Amazon, or her adorable fleabag of a dog.
Felicity is quite sure she will not be distracted, thank you very much. She has a minor mystery to solve, a mentor to impress, and her life’s dream to fulfill. Even if a distraction might be exactly what she needs.
The Awkward Truth takes place during the last half of Lee Winter’s The Brutal Truth, but can easily be heard as a standalone story.
The Chandler Legacies by Abdi Nazemian
Narrated by Abdi Nazemian, Vikas Adam
HarperCollins Publishers
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Vikas Adam
$12.99 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
From the Stonewall Honor-winning author of Like a Love Story comes a revelatory novel about the enclosed world of privilege and silence at an elite boarding school and the unlikely group of friends who dare to challenge the status quo through their writing. Perfect for fans of E. Lockhart, Kathleen Glasgow, and Jandy Nelson, with crossover appeal for fans of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep.
Beth Kramer is a “townie” who returns for her sophomore year after having endured a year of tension with her roommate, Sarah.
But Sarah Brunson knows there’s more to that story.
Amanda Priya “Spence” Spencer is the privileged daughter of NYC elites, who is reeling from the realization that her family name shielded her from the same fate as Sarah.
Ramin Golafshar arrives at Chandler as a transfer student to escape the dangers of being gay in Iran, only to suffer brutal hazing under the guise of tradition in the boys’ dorms.
And Freddy Bello is the senior who’s no longer sure of his future but knows he has to stand up to his friends after what happened to Ramin.
At Chandler, the elite boarding school, these five teens are brought together in the Circle, a coveted writing group where life-changing friendships are born – and secrets are revealed. Their professor tells them to write their truths. But is the truth enough to change the long-standing culture of abuse at Chandler? And can their friendship survive the fallout?
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