Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of February 6th.
Comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
Authors, narrators, producers, and publishers — any of the books featured here are prime candidates for review.
If you see yourself featured here, I would love to review your audiobook! Click the button to submit your book for review.
Book covers and bold titles may have affiliate links to Amazon (where you can buy the Audible version).
Clicking these helps support this site, so thank you if you do.
New to Audible or Audiobooks in general? Welcome!
Get 2 FREE Audiobooks (instead of one) by clicking on the banner or here.
Allegiance by Tom Abrahams
Narrated by Jay Snyder
Audible, Inc.
A conspiracy so big, it takes a microscope to see it.
Beer, redheads, and politics…Jackson Quick should have known better. First, he trusted a Texas politician. Then he fell for a leggy woman. Worst of all, he drank a beer that tasted funny.
Now, he’s running for his life and trying to save the world. When Quick is kidnapped and interrogated about the encrypted tech he’s been charged by his powerful boss to deliver, he has no idea it’s connected to a missing research scientist on the verge of an earth-shaking breakthrough. Nor is he aware of its proximity to the attempted assassination of a political candidate.
Now he has to piece all of it together and stop the unthinkable from becoming a reality.
Allegiance is book one of the trilogy of Jackson Quick Sci-Fi Adventures and introduces the unwitting hero with a secret past and a penchant for uncovering the truth. It’s perfect for fans of Michael Crichton, Pierce Brown, and John Scalzi.
Water Memory by Daniel Pyne
Narrated by Christina Traister
Brilliance Publishing
A fast-paced, pause-resisting thriller that contemplates the consequences of motherhood, memory, and crime as a commodity.
Black ops specialist Aubrey Sentro may be one concussion away from death. But when pirates seize the cargo ship she’s on, she must decide whether to risk her life to save her fellow passengers.
Sentro’s training takes over, and she’s able to elude her captors, leaving bodies in her wake. But her problems are just getting started. Her memory lapses are getting more frequent, symptoms of serial-concussion syndrome.
As she plays a deadly game of cat and mouse with the pirates, she pushes herself to survive by focusing on thoughts of her children. She’s never told them what she really does for a living, and now she might not get the chance.
While her memories make her vulnerable, motherhood makes her dangerous.
Spore by David Kristoph
Narrated by James Anderson Foster
Podium Audio
John Harmon has tried everything to cure his severe insomnia: an endless stream of doctors, treatments, and multi-colored pills. So when he’s finally admitted into an experimental sleep study promising to cure his ailment and pay for his daughter’s chemotherapy…it’s convenient that he doesn’t suspect a thing.
But the Skyline Facility, nestled in the mountains and only accessible by helicopter, is anything but normal. Strange antennae are mounted throughout the hallways and in the surrounding forest. Intrusive thoughts begin invading John’s mind. And the swirling blue liquid injected into their veins each night does not seem like part of any legitimate study. As the true motive for the research facility is revealed, John’s focus shifts from his crippling insomnia to his own horrific imprisonment. Can he and his fellow subjects escape the facility alive, or are they doomed like all the test subjects before them?
The Acadia Enigma by Steven Becker, Chuck Benton
Narrated by Paul J. McSorley
The White Marlin Press
A rash of killings threatens “the way life should be” in Downeast Maine.
The Downeast region of the Maine coast is known for its independent, hard-working people, its picturesque settings – and its seafood. But behind the thousand islands, the countless miles of coastline, and the postcard scenery, bad things are happening in Acadia National Park.
Kendra Hale, fresh off a dangerous assignment in Miami, is brought in by the FBI’s Special Projects Group to assist area law enforcement in their investigation. Though she’s drawn in by the friendly people, good food, and beauty of the area, her investigation places her in the crosshairs of a serial killer.
Filled with the action, adventure and seaworthy settings you’ve come to expect in best-selling author Steven Becker’s books, this new series promises not to disappoint.
The Setup by T.B. Markinson
Narrated by Ella Lynch
Self Published
Can a weekend change your fate?
As soon as Rory Price’s plane touches down in Britain for her two-year work contract, she has big plans to see and experience everything she can. The one thing that isn’t on the 27-year old’s agenda is a relationship.
Tell that to her matchmaking British friend who sets Rory up on a coffee date on her first full day in the new country.
Imogen Wright doesn’t want any more complications in her life. The only thing she’s considering committing to is adopting a dog.
Their blind date starts off disastrous, but there might be more than meets the eye.
Will the two headstrong women continue to clash, or will they see what’s so obvious to their matchmaking friend?
Best-selling lesbian romance author TB Markinson, has written a touching and quirky novella about finding love when you least expect it. Listen to it it today!
Meet You in the Middle by Devon Daniels
Narrated by Brittany Pressley, Mark Deakins
Penguin Audio
What happens when the person you find most impossible becomes impossible to resist? Opposites distract in this hilarious romantic comedy about America’s least likely couple.
There’s just one thing standing between liberal Senate staffer Kate Adams and passage of the landmark legislation she’s been fighting for all year: Ben Mackenzie, intimidating gatekeeper for one of DC’s most powerful conservative senators. After Kate and Ben lock horns in a meet-not-so-cute, they vow to take each other down – by any means necessary.
She thinks he’s arrogant (and doesn’t deserve those gorgeous green eyes). He thinks she’s too quick to judge (and irresistibly maddening). But as their endless game of one-upmanship becomes Kate’s favorite part of the day, she starts to wonder if her feelings for Ben are closer to attraction than animosity…and maybe their sparring is flirting. When Kate realizes there’s more to Ben than meets the eye, she’s forced to confront her biggest fear: In her sworn enemy, she may have found her perfect match.
A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel
Narrated by Andrew Byron, Dugald Bruce Lockhart, Imogen Wilde, Jilly Bond, Kevin Shen, Laila Pyne, Richard Trinder, Sylvain Neuvel, Thomas Judd
Macmillan Audio
This program includes additional material read by Sylvain Neuvel, and a bonus conversation with narrators Jilly Bond and Imogen Wilde.
Showing that truth is stranger than fiction, Sylvain Neuvel weaves a sci-fi thriller reminiscent of Blake Crouch and Andy Weir, blending a fast moving, darkly satirical look at 1940s rocketry with an exploration of the amorality of progress and the nature of violence in A History of What Comes Next.
Always run, never fight.
Preserve the knowledge.
Survive at all costs.
Take them to the stars.
Over 99 identical generations, Mia’s family has shaped human history to push them to the stars, making brutal, wrenching choices and sacrificing countless lives. Her turn comes at the dawn of the age of rocketry. Her mission: to lure Wernher Von Braun away from the Nazi party and into the American rocket program, and secure the future of the space race.
But Mia’s family is not the only group pushing the levers of history: an even more ruthless enemy lurks behind the scenes.
A darkly satirical first contact thriller, as seen through the eyes of the women who make progress possible and the men who are determined to stop them….
This program is read by Jilly Bond, Imogen Wilde, Richard Trinder, Laila Pyne, Andrew Byron, Thomas Judd, Dugald Bruce Lockhart, and Kevin Shen, with additional material read by the author.
A Macmillan Audio production from Tor.com
Make Up Break Up by Lily Menon
Narrated by Natalie Naudus
Macmillan Audio
The sparkling and heartfelt romantic comedy debut from Lily Menon, Make Up Break Up….
Love, romance, second chances, fairy-tale endings…these are the things Annika Dev believes in. Her app, Make Up, has been called the “Google Translate for failing relationships”.
High efficiency break-ups, flashy start-ups, penthouses, fast cars…these are the things Hudson Craft believes in. His app, Break Up, is known as the “Uber for break-ups”. It’s wildly successful – and anathema to Annika’s life philosophy.
Which wouldn’t be a problem if they’d gone their separate ways after that summer fling in Las Vegas, never to see each other again. Unfortunately for Annika, Hudson’s moving not just into her office building, but into the office right next to hers. And he’ll be competing at the prestigious EPIC investment pitch contest: A contest Annika needs to win if she wants to keep Make Up afloat. As if it’s not bad enough seeing his irritatingly perfect face on magazine covers when her own business is failing. As if knowing he stole her idea and twisted it into something vile – and monumentally more successful – didn’t already make her stomach churn.
As the two rival app developers clash again and again – and again – Annika finds herself drawn into Hudson Craft’s fast-paced, high velocity, utterly shallow world. Only, from up close, he doesn’t seem all that shallow. Could it be that everything she thought about Hudson is completely wrong? Could the creator of Break Up teach her what true love’s really about?
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press
“A delightful, clever enemies-to-lovers romcom full of Menon’s trademark sunshine with a bit of extra heat, Make Up Break Up will make you swipe right.” (Casey McQuiston, New York Times best-selling author of Red, White & Royal Blue)
Cruel Future by Juaren Martinez
Narrated by Gracia Gillund
Intesseract, LLC
Take a trip through the dark web rabbit hole in this futuristic murder mystery. Cruel Future imagines the dangers of social media in a post-truth society.
In the near future, AI and automation have rendered humans obsolete. If you want to make a living, you have to go Live. A young podcast starlet becomes the target of a criminal social media cult in this gritty high tech neon noir. Future cops, 3D-printed guns, research chemicals, and cryptocurrency. In 2038, nothing is real, and no one is safe.
Bewilderness, Part Three: Destroyer of Worlds by Jonathan Maberry
Narrated by Shayna Small
The Gateway is open, sending destructive chaos waves throughout the infinite parallel Earths. Thousands of worlds have already been torn apart, and if the Prime Earth—our Earth—falls, then all of reality will be destroyed.
Abby Corman and a dwindling group of survivors are racing to shut down the threshold, but everywhere they turn they encounter alien hunters, unimaginable monsters, and a deadly threat from within.
From New York Times best-seller Jonathan Maberry, the exciting conclusion of Bewilderness asks: How far would you go to save the world, if it meant losing the world you know?
And Then She Vanished by Nick Jones
Narrated by Ray Porter
Blackstone Publishing
Previously released as The Unexpected Gift of Joseph Bridgeman this updated version includes extra chapters, new plot lines, and even deeper character development. It makes way for an expanded vision of The Joseph Bridgeman Series, with the first four books released in 2021 and 2022.
He only looked away for a second.
Still haunted by the disappearance of his little sister, Amy, over 20 years ago, Joseph Bridgeman’s life has fallen apart. When a friend talks him into seeing hypnotherapist Alexia Finch to help with his insomnia, Joseph accidentally discovers he can time travel. His first trip only takes him back a few minutes, but his new-found ability gives him something he hasn’t felt for the longest time: hope.
Joseph sets out to travel back to the night Amy went missing and save her. But after several failed attempts, he discovers the farther back he travels, the less time he gets to stay there. And the clock is ticking.
With the help of Alexia, Joseph embarks on a desperate race against the past to save his sister. Can he master his new skill and solve the mystery of Amy’s disappearance before it’s too late?
The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden
Penguin Audio
Reese’s Book Club Pick
“An eerie, atmospheric novel that had me completely on the edge of my seat.” (Reese Witherspoon)
You won’t want to leave…until you can’t.
Half-hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Long plagued by troubling rumors, the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel.
An imposing, isolated getaway spot high up in the Swiss Alps is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But Elin’s taken time off from her job as a detective, so when her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, invite her to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, Elin really has no reason not to accept.
Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge – there’s something about the hotel that makes her nervous. And when they wake the following morning to discover Laure is missing, Elin must trust her instincts if they hope to find her. With the storm closing off all access to the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic.
Elin is under pressure to find Laure, but no one has realized yet that another woman has gone missing. And she’s the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they are all in….
Not One of Us by Debbie Herbert
Narrated by Shannon McManus, Amanda Ronconi, Patrick Lawlor, Michael Crouch
Brilliance Publishing
From the bestselling author of Cold Waters comes a brooding thriller about a woman who must decide if safeguarding her family is worth burying a truth that will haunt her forever.
Thirteen years ago, Jori Trahan’s boyfriend vanished without a trace. Now, after moving back home to Alabama to care for her ailing grandmother and autistic brother, she comes face-to-face with the deadly mystery behind his disappearance.
Jori has a rare form of synesthesia, meaning she can “hear” colors; to her, tones of voice are as unique as fingerprints. With the help of this ability and a sympathetic cop, Jori comes dangerously close to uncovering the truth. But those responsible will go to any length – including murder – to keep their dark secrets buried.
Soon, it seems that no one in the sleepy bayou town is safe, and after Jori’s brother is kidnapped, she knows she must drop the investigation or risk losing her family. But when protecting them means letting an evil deed go unpunished, putting family first may be the last thing she’ll ever do.
- New and Notable Audiobook Releases for the Week of December 3rd on Brian’s Book Blog - December 3, 2023
- Disease X by N.J. Croft (Narrated by Joshua Saxon) - December 1, 2023
- A Purrfect Gift by Jae (Narrated by Anastasia Watley) - November 30, 2023
