Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of May 1st.
Comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
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1414º by Paul Bradley Carr
Narrated by Emily Lawrence
Self Published
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
The billionaire predators of Silicon Valley always get what they want.
Now someone is giving them what they deserve.
Journalist Lou McCarthy has spent her career exposing powerful predators in Silicon Valley. Her crusade has cost her everything: her apartment, friends, relationships, and any hope of promotion. And for what? Readers don’t care, her boss and workmates pity her, and the billionaire bro-ciopaths she writes about continue to fail upwards.
But when two of her highest-profile subjects are killed on the same night, their deaths staged as gruesome public suicides, Lou’s work is suddenly and violently thrust into the spotlight. Blamed for the deaths, fired from her job, and pursued by vengeful trolls who have already attacked her mother, Lou has only one chance of survival: to find the killer obsessed with her work, and stop them before anyone else dies.
Or perhaps not. Because the more Lou discovers about the ingenious killer’s past, and their methods, the more she becomes determined to help them succeed.
At the Quiet Edge by Victoria Helen Stone
Narrated by Sarah Mollo-Christensen
Brilliance Publishing
$1.99 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Sarah Mollo-Christensen
A young mother has done everything possible to put the past behind her, but it might not be enough in a gripping novel of suspense by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of the Jane Doe novels.
Abandoned by her fugitive ex-husband, Lily Brown is rebuilding her life on the edge of a Kansas town that still feels the sting of his crimes. Lily lies low, managing the isolated storage facility where she lives with her twelve-year-old son, Everett, and planning a better future for them both. That requires keeping secrets. Everett has them too.
After breaking into a storage unit, Everett finds photographs and news clippings of five girls missing for decades. For Everett, it’s an adventure and a tempting mystery to solve. But digging further into a stranger’s obsession is putting Everett and his mother in the crosshairs of a killer.
Then Lily’s ex resurfaces from the shadows. Just as suddenly, an attentive new man enters Lily’s life. And a suspicious detective, responding to reports of a prowler, watches every move Lily makes. It’s getting harder for Lily to know who to trust—or whose secrets pose the most frightening threat of all.
Data Mine by Lou Iovino
Narrated by Rachael Hip-Flores
Self Published
No more secrets.
Political scandals. Corporate greed. Embezzlement, disinformation, and fraud. Schemes perpetrated, year after year, by an elite few—and yet it’s always, always the little people who are victimized. Who pay the price.
Those little people have finally demanded action. Powerful elites must be watched. And our leaders have responded…by mandating that all individuals who wield global influence receive Harvesters—nanoparticle-infused, flexible circuitry tattoos that transmit a person’s biometric data for monitoring and analysis.
Analysis by Data Miners—like Gwen Elliott.
Gwen is one of the data mining industry’s most talented analysts. She sees things that others miss. And it’s led to her being chosen for a critical assignment: personal data miner for Senator Rosemary Martin, the leading candidate for President of the United States.
But Senator Martin has a dangerous secret. One that she’s determined to keep hidden at all costs.
Only Gwen can solve the mystery buried deep in the senator’s data…but first, she needs to figure out how to survive.
Email from the Future by Michael Rogers
Narrated by Michael Braun
Self Published
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
What would the world look like if we did everything right for the next 50 years?
It’s 2084, and Aldus, an elderly robot repairman, is writing the history of the 21st century for his grandson, Luca. Born in 2010, Aldus lived through it all—the War on the Warming, the repair of the planet, the rise of true artificial intelligence, automation everywhere, and much more. “I was but a foot soldier,” Aldus tells his grandson, “but there is value in that perspective.”
Aldus also fears his time is short. Unlucky members of his generation sometimes experience long-delayed side effects from childhood infection with COVID. Aldus could be among them, and so his writing may have a literal deadline.
Heartfelt, hopeful, and often humorous—a utopian novel in the truest sense—Email From the Future blends fact and fiction to spin a detailed picture of the future. From climate change, education, space travel, and religion to sex, food, crime, politics, and even gaming, acclaimed futurist Michael Rogers describes the world of 2084. And more importantly, how we can survive long enough to actually get there.
Love to Hate You by Olivia Lucas
Narrated by Rachanee Lumayno
Self Published
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Chatty, down to earth, Chelsea Roberts is cruising through life—successful career, great circle of friends, cute dog. Sure, her love life could use an intervention, but everything else is kind of perfect. That is until a new roommate blows in unexpectedly on New Year’s Day and turns everything upside down.
Doctor-to-be Lucy Walker.
Moody.
Conversation-killer.
Jerkette.
And the hottest woman in the universe.
Chelsea is beside herself and plots to get rid of her, while Lucy tries to avoid any type of interaction, even if it means crawling out the window. Things spiral quickly, and it doesn’t take long until they get caught up in a series of tit-for-tat pranks and bad behavior trying to drive each other crazy.
Yet as time goes on, something begins to change. Chelsea slowly pulls back the layers of her roommate and discovers there may be more to her than she thought. Lucy seems to “hate” her with less conviction, and the two women almost begin to enjoy hanging out.
Life soon forces these sworn enemies to work out the true extent of their feelings before one of them walks away.
Her Royal Happiness by Lola Keeley
Narrated by Sienna Frances
Tantor Audio
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Lola Keeley
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Sienna Frances
Keeping a secret isn’t easy when you’re in the most visible family in the world. It’s even harder when you’re a lesbian who has just fallen madly in love. An opposites attract, charming royal romance with a dash of fake dating.
When tabloid darling Princess Alice, the first out member of the British royal family, meets an opinionated single mother, the encounter goes viral. It seems the anti-monarchist education specialist Sara has a view on all things and doesn’t mind sharing.
So when Alice later has to ask Sara to help diagnose her young nephew’s learning difficulties, it’s seriously awkward. At least until they discover how beautifully they click together.
With the press sniffing around them, and Alice desperately wanting to protect her nephew’s privacy, they agree to claim they’re dating.
But as their fake dates start to feel like much more, Sara and Alice must navigate having a real relationship in the public eye. Is that even possible, though, while keeping Sara’s daughter safe and happy, and facing the Queen’s disapproval?
Can they overcome their doubts for love? A love they can no longer hide?
Contains mature themes.
Betting on the House by Cassandra Medcalf
Narrated by Cassandra Medcalf
Self Published
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
“I’m going to be gone in a week. You’ll never hear from me again.”
Bonnie tilted up Natalie’s chin with one, manicured finger.
“Then let’s have some fun.”
Natalie Roche has made it. She has her life, her independence, and her rock-and-roll dream job: a talent manager in LA, at the world’s largest music management firm.
But when Natalie’s grandmother dies and leaves her the family house in Appalachian Maryland, she has no choice but to trek her way back east and confront the past she’s worked so hard to escape. But luckily for her, family drama isn’t the only thing she finds in the mountains.
A luscious lawyer, a heartthrob handyman, a mediocre mom, and an absolute asshole of a half brother…. This road trip might be more than what she’d bargained for.
Grounded by Amanda Radley
Narrated by Amy Putt
Bold Strokes Books Inc
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Amanda Radley
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Amy Putt
Olivia Lewis’ really big mistake has cost her the chance for forever with Emily White and her five-year-old son, Henry. Brokenhearted, she deals with romantic failure in the only way she knows how—by throwing herself into her work. Timely, considering her clients are leaving Applewood Financial in their dozens, and she doesn’t know why. Things go from bad to much, much worse when Olivia’s plane all but crashes into the tarmac and a chance encounter sends her straight back to Emily.
Emily doesn’t have time for forgiveness. She’s lost her job at Crown Airlines, and with no income, rising debts, and Henry’s unscrupulous grandfather making demands, romance is the least of her problems. But Henry really wants his friend Olivia back, and he’s not taking no for an answer.
For a second chance, Olivia and Emily will need to accept their mistakes, learn to communicate properly, and with a little help from Henry, fall madly in love all over again.
Playing for Love by Jeevani Charika
Narrated by Manjinder Virk
HarperCollins Publishers Limited
$10.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
When Sam’s not working on her fledgling business, she spends her time secretly video-gaming. Her crush is famous gamer Blaze, and she’s thrilled when she’s teamed up with him in a virtual tournament.
But what Sam doesn’t know is that Blaze is the alter ego of Luke, her shy colleague—and he has a secret crush, too.
Luke has a crush on Sam. Sam has a crush on Blaze.
How will this game of love play out?
A fun, feel-good romance for fans of You’ve Got Mail, Helen Hoang, Jasmine Guillory and Lindsey Kelk!
Ice Crash by Lynda Engler
Narrated by Marina Kisley
Self Published
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
To come together, one family will have to survive a world coming apart.
A mother and scientist trapped in an earthquake-ravaged Antarctica. A daughter fleeing rising waters in Florida. A father and son escaping tidal waves in Boston. When an earthquake sends the Thwaites glacier crashing into the ocean, the world begins a sudden, violent transformation. Kathryn, a seismologist wintering in Antarctica’s McMurdo base, must survive the crumbling continent after discovering unprecedented seismic activity. Meanwhile, her family struggles to escape raging tsunamis and violently rising global seas halfway across the world.
Can Kathryn and her family find their way back together when the earth itself revolts beneath their feet and the oceans between them expand?
The Jade Stratagem by Steve P. Vincent
Narrated by Tom Jordan
Self Published
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Steve P. Vincent
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Tom Jordan
One shot to stop an empire.
Mitch Herron has a bullet in his gut and a cell to call home. But when a problem arises that only Herron’s unique brand of carnage can solve, he’s put to work for his captor in return for the chance to keep breathing.
As he plays his part in a gambit that will kill thousands and enslave millions, Herron baulks when the mission gets personal. But extracting himself from this mess will mean defying an empire.
If he fails, there’s a hole with his name on it.
If you like Robert Ludlam’s Jason Bourne, Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp and Mark Dawson’s John Milton, you’ll love The Jade Stratagem, the sixth novel in the addictive Mitch Herron series.
Get it now!
An Honest Lie by Tarryn Fisher
Narrated by Lauren Fortgang
Harlequin Audio
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Tarryn Fisher
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Lauren Fortgang
“An Honest Lie is riveting suspense, but it’s also a scream of defiance, a howl of rage.” –#1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover
“I’m going to kill her. You’d better come if you want to save her.”
Lorraine—“Rainy”—lives at the top of Tiger Mountain. Remote, moody, cloistered in pine trees and fog, it’s a sanctuary, a new life. She can hide from the disturbing past she wants to forget.
If she’s allowed to.
When Rainy reluctantly agrees to a girls’ weekend in Vegas, she’s prepared for an exhausting parade of shots and slot machines. But after a wild night, her friend Braithe doesn’t come back to the hotel room.
And then Rainy gets the text message, sent from Braithe’s phone: someone has her. But Rainy is who they really want, and Rainy knows why.
What follows is a twisted, shocking journey on the knife-edge of life and death. If she wants to save Braithe—and herself—the only way is to step back into the past.
This seething, gut-punch of a thriller can only have sprung from the fiendish brain of Tarryn Fisher, one of the most cunning writers of our time.
Looking for more great books by Tarryn Fisher? Don’t miss The Wives and The Wrong Family.
Mercury Rising by R.W.W. Greene
Narrated by Jeff Harding
Angry Robot
Alternative history with aliens, an immortal misanthrope, and SF tropes aplenty
The year is 1975—Robert Oppenheimer has invented the Atomic Engine, the first human has walked on the moon, and Jet Carson and the Eagle Seven have sacrificed their lives to stop alien invaders.
Brooklyn, however, just wants to keep his head down, pay his mother’s rent, earn a little scratch of his own, and maybe get laid sometime. Simple pleasures! But life is about to get real complicated when a killer with a baseball bat and a mysterious box of eight-track tapes sets him up for murder.
So, his choices are limited—rot away in prison or sign up to defend the planet from the assholes who dropped a meteorite on Cleveland. Brooklyn crosses his fingers and picks the Earth Orbital Forces, believing that after a few years in the trenches—assuming he survives—he can get his life back. Unfortunately, the universe has other plans.
Brooklyn is launched into a quest to save humanity, find his true family, and grow as a person—while simultaneously coping with high-stakes space battles, mystery science experiments and the realization that the true enemies perhaps aren’t the tentacled monsters on the recruitment poster…or are they?
