Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of May 27th.
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Quiet as the Grave by Erik Carter
Silence Jones #7
Narrated by Gary Bennett
Self Published
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Erik Carter
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Gary Bennett
Desperate crimes call for desperate measures.
In a gambling town, desperation gets drowned out by the ringing of slot machines, but not even a tough city like Reno is prepared for two simultaneous misfortunes: a serial killer prowling the streets, and a surge of mysterious drug overdoses.
Vigilante assassin Silence Jones roots out the conspiracy that links the two crime waves, discovering that mysterious factions have merged to prey on the city’s desperate lost souls. As Silence digs deeper, he uncovers a sophisticated code system blocking his path.
To root out the darkness lurking beneath the neon-soaked streets of Reno, Silence will need help from an expert codebreaker—someone from a memory Silence would rather forget. Can Silence reconcile a dark history in time to stop a present evil poised to overtake a city on the brink?
The next standalone action thriller in the pulse-pounding new series. Enter the world of Silence Jones. Hold on tight….
If you like action heroes with the steely resolve of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, the calculating will of Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X, and the raw power of Mark Greaney’s Gray Man, then you’ll love Silence Jones.
Unlock Quiet as the Grave and start your Silence Jones mission today!
Killing It by Mike Bockoven
Narrated by Joe Hempel
OrangeSky Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Joe Hempel
From the twisted and imaginative mind of Mike Bockoven, author of the cult classic FANTASTICLAND, comes a wholly original and witty new novel of terror, perfect for fans of FROM DUSK TIL DAWN and SHAUN OF THE DEAD.
Since the late 1980’s, The Square had been one of the most important clubs in New York for the alt-comedy scene. But before that it was something much darker and is now a place where evil lingers, waiting for a chance to spill blood.
After a night of killing on stage, four comics find themselves in a desperate situation as the spirits of the past come out to play, and a fight for laughs becomes a fight for survival in the most unlikely of places.
Wild Things by Laura Kay
Narrated by Abigail Hardiman
Random House Audio
Two best friends. One huge crush. A year that could change everything…
A warmhearted, hilarious queer rom-com about what happens when a group of friends are actually brave enough to live the dream and give up their dreary city apartments to buy a house in the country together.
El is in a rut. She’s been hiding in the photocopier room at the same dead-end job for longer than she cares to remember, she’s sharing a flat with a girl who leaves passive-aggressive smiley face notes on the fridge about milk consumption and, worst of all, she’s been in unrequited love with her best friend, effortlessly cool lesbian Ray, for years. So when a plan is hatched for El, Ray, and their two other closest friends—newly heartbroken Will and karaoke-and-Twilight-superfan Jamie—to ditch the big city and move out to a ramshackle house on the edge of an English country village, it feels like just the escape she needs.
Despite being the DIY challenge of a lifetime, the newly named Lavender House has all the makings of becoming the queer commune of the friends’ dreams. (Will has been given a pass as the gang’s Token Straight.) But as they start plotting their bright new future and making preparations for a grand housewarming party to thank the surprisingly but wonderfully welcoming community, El is forced to confront her feelings for Ray—the feelings that she’s been desperately trying to keep buried. Is it worth ruining a perfectly good friendship for a chance at love?
A VINTAGE ORIGINAL.
Up Close by Danielle Girard
Badlands Thriller #3
Narrated by Whitney Dykhouse
Saddle Peak Entertainment
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Whitney Dykhouse
It’s every parent’s worst nightmare.
In only a few months, the small town of Hagen has lost two high school seniors, both under strange circumstances. When a third senior, the mayor’s son, drives through the plate glass window of the town’s diner and ends up in a coma, the deaths no longer seem unrelated accidents. The town is paralyzed with fear. The police can find no good explanation. Other students deny any knowledge of what’s happening, but Detective Kylie Milliard is certain at least some are lying.
Hagen’s sole investigator, Kylie Milliard fears that something sinister is at play, but she can’t convince the town’s powers that be to take her concerns seriously. Mounting discord between herself and Hagen’s sheriff have her thinking that it may be time to leave Hagen for a bigger city and a new job, but she’s not going anywhere until she determines the connection between the self-destructive act of the mayor’s son and the two untimely deaths.
Whoever is behind the dangerous stunts doesn’t want to be discovered. To keep their secret, they’re willing to take out anyone who gets too close. With time running out before the next stunt, Kylie is in a race to solve the puzzle. She is all too clear that, until she does, no one—not the students, nor the town—is safe from danger.
Myriad by Joshua David Bellin
Narrated by Coleen Marlo
Blackstone Publishing
Myriad has been in so many time streams she’s lost count—hiding from her feelings about her brother’s death, she works to prevent crimes from happening but finds herself committing one instead …
Agent Miriam Randle works for LifeTime, a private law enforcement agency that undertakes short-term time travel to erase crimes before they occur. Haunted by the memory of her twin brother’s unsolved murder at the age of six, Miriam thinks of herself as Myriad—an incarnation of the many lives she’s lived in her journeys to rearrange the past.
When a routine assignment goes wrong and Miriam commits a murder she was meant to avert, she is thrown into the midst of a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of LifeTime. Along with her partner Vax, Miriam flees into the past in an attempt to unravel the truth before LifeTime agents catch up with her.
But then her brother’s killer reappears, twenty years to the day since he first struck. And he’s not through with the twin who survived, not by a long shot.
Love at First Set by Jennifer Dugan
Narrated by Lori Prince
HarperCollins Publishers
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Jennifer Dugan
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Lori Prince
Sometimes true love takes a little heavy lifting
This irresistible adult debut from beloved YA author Jennifer Dugan is a queer romcom for fans of Delilah Green Doesn’t Care and Written in the Stars, in which a gym employee accidentally ruins her bosses’ daughter’s wedding, then even more accidentally falls for the runaway bride…
The gym is Lizzie’s life—it’s her passion, her job, and the only place that’s ever felt like home. Unfortunately, her bosses consider her a glorified check-in girl at best, and the gym punching bag at worst.
When their son, Lizzie’s best friend, James, begs her to be his plus one at his perfect sister Cara’s wedding, things go wrong immediately, and culminate in Lizzie giving a drunken pep talk to a hot stranger in the women’s bathroom—except that stranger is actually the bride-to-be, and Lizzie has accidentally convinced her to ditch her groom.
Now, newly directionless Cara is on a quest to find herself, and Lizzie—desperate to make sure her bosses never find out her role in this fiasco—gets strong-armed by James into “entertaining” her. Cara doesn’t have to know it’s a setup; it’ll just be a quick fling before she sobers up and goes back to her real life. After all, how could someone like Cara fall for someone like Lizzie, with no career and no future?
But the more Lizzie gets to know Cara, the more she likes her, and the bigger the potential disaster if any of her rapidly multiplying secrets get out. Because now it’s not just Lizzie’s job and entire future on the line, but also the girl of her dreams.
Mrs. Nash’s Ashes by Sarah Adler
Narrated by Mara Wilson
Penguin Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Mara Wilson
A starry-eyed romantic, a cynical writer, and (the ashes of) an elderly woman take the road trip of a lifetime that just might upend everything they believe about true love.
Millicent Watts-Cohen is on a mission. When she promised her elderly best friend that she’d reunite her with the woman she fell in love with nearly eighty years ago, she never imagined that would mean traveling from D.C. to Key West with three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash’s remains in her backpack. But Millie’s determined to give her friend a symbolic happily-ever-after, before it’s (really) too late—and hopefully reassure herself of love’s lasting power in the process.
She just didn’t expect to have a living travel companion.
After a computer glitch grounds flights, Millie is forced to catch a ride with Hollis Hollenbeck, an also-stranded acquaintance from her ex’s MFA program. Hollis certainly does not believe in happily-ever-afters—symbolic or otherwise—and makes it quite clear that he can’t fathom Millie’s plan ending well for anyone.
But as they contend with peculiar bed-and-breakfasts, unusual small-town festivals, and deer with a death wish, Millie begins to suspect that her reluctant travel partner might enjoy her company more than he lets on. Because for someone who supposedly doesn’t share her views on romance, Hollis sure is becoming invested in the success of their journey. And the closer they get to their destination, the more Millie has to admit that maybe this trip isn’t just about Mrs. Nash’s love story after all—maybe it’s also about her own.
Never Kiss a Cowgirl by Ali Vali
Narrated by Lula Larkin
Bold Strokes Book Inc
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Ali Vali
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Lula Larkin
Asher Evans is living her dreams eight seconds at a time. She’s finally at the top of the rankings and headed for the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, and she owes it all to the man who taught her everything, Silas Wilson.
Reagan Wilson vowed she’d never return to Louisiana. Her father, Silas, had been a world champion rodeo rider until an accident destroyed his career, then killed him. Now, she’s interning at a sports clinic in New Orleans, and her first patient is Asher Evans. Seeing her childhood neighbor and teenage crush brings all those painful memories rushing back.
Asher and Reagan are from different worlds, even if they grew up side by side. Reagan doesn’t understand why anyone would risk their life for a title and belt buckle, and Asher doesn’t do safe and predictable. Falling in love makes no sense, but as the spark between them ignites, they may have more in common than they think.
Knot of Fear by Bryan Cassiday
Scott Brody #5
Narrated by Tim Welch
Self Published
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase – Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Ivy Kingston is about to go down the rabbit hole to meet the ultimate horror.
Ivy, a Los Angeles real estate agent plagued with self-doubts thanks to an overbearing mogul father, is assaulted by two avatars in a metaverse called Rabbit World owned by her husband Orion. Traumatized, she refuses to sell property in Rabbit World, believing the metaverse is unsafe. When she sees the avatars stalking her in the real world, she fears for her sanity. She also fears another assault is imminent, one that will leave her bruised and bleeding this time. No place is safe, she learns and, to her horror, comes to the realization that nobody believes her.
Terrified, Ivy hires the private investigator Scott Brody to help her find justice—and stay alive.
Packed with psychological tension and nerve-racking suspense, award-winning author Bryan Cassiday’s Knot of Fear is a hair-raising horror thriller you won’t be able to put down.
The Nameless by Adrian J. Smith
Narrated by Raphael Corkhill
Blackstone Publishing
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Adrian J. Smith
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Raphael Corkhill
To survive hell, you must make a deal with the devil …
In a city of thirty million, Ryan Connors thought he could vanish into the shadows and escape his old life to grieve the loss of his wife and son. But when the young daughter of one of his closest friends is kidnapped, he must reunite with his former extraction and recon team—The Nameless— and find those responsible.
As Ryan and his team begin to unravel a deep macabre plot that goes far beyond a missing girl, they quickly realize that it threatens the entire world. With the clock ticking and choices limited, The Nameless begin a desperate fight to fulfill their oath of being the beacons in the darkness.
With enemies from the past reemerging, the agents of LK3 will be tested in ways unimaginable as they fight to stop the sinister plan that could doom humanity to an apocalyptic future.
- No Rules of Engagement by Tracey Richardson (Narrated by Joana Garcia) - September 28, 2023
- Love at First Set by Jennifer Dugan (Narrated Narrated by Lori Prince) - September 26, 2023
- New and Notable Audiobook Releases for the Week of September 23rd on Brian’s Book Blog - September 23, 2023
