In my now monthly (three months strong!) post – I give some recommendations of books I’m most excited for in the upcoming month. This month it’s July and there was a lot to chose from.
Contagion by Erin Bowman
Perfect for fans of Madeleine Roux, Jonathan Maberry, and horror films like 28 Days Later and Resident Evil, this pulse-pounding, hair-raising, utterly terrifying novel is the first in a duology from the critically acclaimed author of the Taken trilogy.
After receiving a distress call from a drill team on a distant planet, a skeleton crew is sent into deep space to perform a standard search-and-rescue mission.
When they arrive, they find the planet littered with the remains of the project—including its members’ dead bodies. As they try to piece together what could have possibly decimated an entire project, they discover that some things are best left buried—and some monsters are only too ready to awaken.
Meg: Generations by Steve Alten
Book six in the bestselling Meg series picks up after Meg: Nightstalkers with David Taylor in the Salish Sea, attempting to locate and rescue any surviving Megalodon pups before a local fisherman slaughters them. Meanwhile, Jonas is coerced into joining an expedition into the Panthalassa Sea in search of a prehistoric predatory species possessing liver enzymes that can cure cancer.
Halcyon by Rio Youers
HALCYON is the island answer for all Americans who want to escape the dismal state of the US, but paradise isn’t what it seems. Halcyon: a beautiful island in the middle of Lake Ontario—a self-sustaining community made up of disillusioned Americans looking to live without fear, crime, or greed. It is run by Valerie Kemp, aka Mother Moon, benevolent and altruistic on the outside, but hiding a terrible darkness inside. She is using the weak-willed islanders—manipulating them— for her own cruel purposes. Mother Moon believes in and has dedicated her life to the pursuit of Glam Moon, a paradise-like dimension, a place of eternal beauty and healing. And she believes the pathway to Glam Moon can be found at the end of pleasure. After his wife is killed in a school shooting, Martin Lovegrove moves himself and his two young daughters to Halcyon. A couple of months, he tells himself, to retreat from the chaos and grind, and to rediscover core American values: family, community, hope. However, Martin soon begins to suspect there is something beneath Halcyon’s perfect veneer, and sets out to investigate Halcyon and its founder, Mother Moon … and in so doing uncovers a truth more terrible than anything he could have imagined.
The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James
A surprising and gripping sci-fi thriller with a killer twist
The daughter of two astronauts, Romy Silvers is no stranger to life in space. But she never knew how isolating the universe could be until her parents’ tragic deaths left her alone on the Infinity, a spaceship speeding away from Earth.
Romy tries to make the best of her lonely situation, but with only brief messages from her therapist on Earth to keep her company, she can’t help but feel like something is missing. It seems like a dream come true when NASA alerts her that another ship, the Eternity, will be joining the Infinity.
Romy begins exchanging messages with J, the captain of the Eternity, and their friendship breathes new life into her world. But as the Eternity gets closer, Romy learns there’s more to J’s mission than she could have imagined. And suddenly, there are worse things than being alone….
The Circuit (Complete Saga) by Rhett C. Bruno
USA Today Best-seller Rhett C. Bruno’s debut sci-fi series is a gritty, space-opera epic perfect for fans of The Expanse!
Earth is a dying planet. To survive, humanity founds the Circuit, a string of colonies across the solar system, dedicated to mining resources vital to preserving what remains of mankind. Here there are no heroes or villains, only those willing to do what’s necessary to survive.
The New Earth Tribunal, a powerful religious faction, has risen to rule the Circuit. They believe a Spirit within the Earth will one day appear and welcome humanity back home. Following a string of seemingly random attacks, the Tribunal suspects its mortal enemy, the Ceresians, have again rallied to challenge their absolute rule. But a new, sinister threat has arisen – and it plans to bring down the Tribunal once and for all.
Join an unlikely band of would-be saviors – the Tribunal’s best spy, a roguish Ceresian mercenary, a subservient android, and a disgraced general – as they are drawn into a conspiracy destined to change the Circuit forever.
“Bruno has crafted a complex, multi-dimensional story that combines the best of his genre with age-old truths – and quandaries – about humanity, politics, religion, family, and, yes, love.” (Portland Book Review)
The Breaking (End Time Saga 2) by Daniel Greene
The hunt is on to find Patient Zero …
Both the east and the west coasts of the United States have collapsed, and the US military is in full retreat. All their attempts to stem the tide of the dead have failed.
Former counter-terrorism agent Mark Steele and his fellow survivors have been bushwhacked in the West Virginia hills. The fringe West Virginians are teaching him a valuable lesson in the new rules of the apocalypse. The mountain folk are as resilient as they are ruthless, and Steele must find a way out to save his people.
In a desperate gamble to stop the virus, retired Air Force Colonel Michael Kinnick has been entrusted with finding Dr. Joseph Jackowski, who’s gone missing in West Virginia. Kinnick’s depleted unit of Special Forces soldiers have reached the breaking point as the dead assault them at every step.
Outside of Pittsburgh, Dr. Joseph Jackowski’s quest to find Patient Zero has stalled. Unwillingly conscripted into the National Guard, he has been enlisted into Colonel Jackson’s rapidly depleting force. As the military quarantine disintegrates around Pittsburgh, death marches closer, and time is running out.
Steele is forced to go further than he ever imagined in order to save his loved ones, but when he is done, will anyone still recognize him? Will he recognize them? And will he recognize himself?
In this thrilling sequel to End Time, Daniel Greene continues his fast-paced and gripping apocalyptic saga. The Breaking transports us to a near future composed of death, honor, destruction, and hope as the United States falls and lives crumble before a devastating zombie virus.
Spymaster by Brad Thor
Number-one New York Times best-selling author Brad Thor returns with his latest action-packed Scot Harvath thriller.
Across Europe, a secret organization has begun attacking diplomats. Back in the United States, a foreign ally demands the identity of a highly placed covert asset. In the balance hang the ingredients for all-out war.
With his mentor out of the game, counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath must take on the role he has spent his career avoiding. But, as with everything else he does, he intends to rewrite the rules – all of them.
In Spymaster, Scot Harvath is more cunning, more dangerous, and deadlier than ever before.
If you have never listened to a Brad Thor novel, this is the place to start!
One of Us by Craig DiLouie
In this dark, coming-of-age tale, a group of teenagers fight for their place in a world that shuns and scorns their existence. Read the novel Claire North calls “The Girl with All the Gifts meets To Kill a Mockingbird.”
They call it the plague
A generation of children born with extreme genetic mutations
They call it a home
But it’s a place of neglect and forced labour
They call him Dog
But Enoch is just a boy who wants to be “normal”
They call the children dangerous
They might be right
After the Monsoon by Robert Karjel
From the author of the international best seller The Swede comes an electrifying thriller set in the terrorist- and pirate-infested world of the Horn of Africa – where the sea caresses the desert, alliances shift like sand, and a Swedish detective can count on nothing but his own shrewdness to survive.
A Swedish army lieutenant drops dead on a shooting range in the desert. Was it an unfortunate accident – or something more nefarious? Ernst Grip, an agent of the Swedish security police, is sent to the Horn of Africa to find out. Once he’s on the ground, however, he quickly discovers he’s on his own. No one wants him snooping around – especially not the US Embassy’s CIA station. Which is no surprise, given that military transport planes are leaving from the base carrying untraceable pallets loaded with cash.
What’s more, Grip’s investigation is complicated by another dangerous situation. Somali pirates have kidnapped a wealthy Swedish family during the adventure of a lifetime: a sailing trip from Sweden to the Great Barrier Reef. Why, Grip wonders, is no one back home willing to pay the ransom in order to save these innocent lives?
Solving the mystery of the soldier’s death isn’t the end of Grip’s involvement – it’s a tipping point that leads him deep into a web of intrigue, greed, and dark dealings ensnaring both allies and enemies…and a world where no one can be trusted.
After the Monsoon explores the tough compromises made every day in pursuit of the greater good. How do you know which is the lesser of two evils? And what is the cost of betraying one interest to save another? In this provocative, pulse-pounding, and sophisticated thriller, Robert Karjel vividly creates a world in which the stains of innocent blood cannot be cleansed, and the sins of good men forced to make impossible choices cannot be washed away.
Unidentified by Michael McBride
Four teenagers awaken in a scorched cornfield with no memory of how they got there. All they know is that there were five of them when they found the carcass of the mutilated cow.
Forty years later, Eric Devlin sends a cryptic email to the other three survivors: I remember everything.
Karl Doering has spent the majority of his life trying to understand what happened that night and learn the fate of his missing friend. He responds to the mysterious message and finds that Eric has killed himself in a decrepit barn, behind which is a cornfield filled with mutilated cattle.
When a local girl goes missing, Karl realizes that he and the other two survivors are her only hope. To find her they must confront repressed memories so traumatic they’d driven Eric to take his own life…and creatures straight out of their worst nightmares.
About the Author:
Michael McBride was born in Colorado and still resides in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. He hates the snow, but loves the Avalanche. He works with medical radiation, yet somehow managed to produce five children, none of whom, miraculously, have tails, third eyes, or other random mutations. He writes fiction that runs the gamut from thriller to horror to science fiction…and loves every minute of it.
- Cuffing Season by Monica McCallan (Narrated by Lori Prince) - December 8, 2023
- Bit Rot (Bit Rot #1) by Jason Baronette (Narrated by Bill Davis) - December 6, 2023
- Muted (Silence Jones #10 by Erik Carter (Narrated by Gary Bennett) - December 4, 2023
I’m looking forward to the Rio Youers & the Michael McBride audio!.
I have Contagion as a mobi file and I’m struggling to even finish it, unfortunately.