Hello! And welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of September 23rd.
Every week I find and post the audiobooks that catch my eye across multiple genres. Take a look and maybe you’ll find your next book!
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.
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Dark Destiny by C. T. Phipps, Frank Martin
Narrated by Gary Noon
Crossroad Press
Check out my review of Dark Destiny here!
Check out my reviews of other titles written by C. T. Phipps
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Gary Noon
Eighteen-year-old Robbie Stone is an anti-corporate activist in 2066. During a protest in Chicago against the sinister Butterfly megacorporation, a riot breaks out, and he’s almost killed before being rescued by a mysterious white-haired girl. Soon, Robbie finds himself almost killed again by an assassin with seeming superpowers. Apparently, one of a group hunting him across America.
The white-haired girl, Jane, reveals that she’s from the future and that the assassins are as well. In their future, Robbie grew up to become the world’s worst dictator, and now the assassins are there to make sure he never achieves his destiny. Robbie has to adjust to Jane’s overbearing presence and figure out why she wants to protect him while dealing with the fact avoiding his fate may lead to an even worse future.
Dark Destiny is an exciting sci-fi action-adventure with cyberpunk elements by C. T. Phipps (Supervillainy Saga, Cthulhu Armageddon) and Frank Martin (Oscanawa, Cthulhu Is Hard to Spell).
Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner
Narrated by Dana Varden, Zim Avaltrades
Macmillan Audio
Review Coming Soon!
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
A sapphic rivals to lovers rom com for fans of Ted Lasso and A League of Their Own, where two soccer teammates are at odds before falling in love as their team gears up for the World Cup.
Grace Henderson has been a star of the US Women’s National Team for ten years, even though she’s only 26. But when she’s sidelined with an injury, a bold new upstart, Phoebe Matthews, takes her spot. 22-year-old Phoebe is everything Grace isn’t—a gregarious jokester who plays with a joy that Grace lost somewhere along the way. The last thing Grace expects is to become teammates with benefits with this class clown she sees as her rival.
Phoebe Matthews is too focused on her first season as a professional soccer player to think about seducing her longtime idol. But when Grace ends up making the first move, they can’t keep their hands off of each other.
As the World Cup approaches and Grace works her way back from injury, a miscommunication leaves the women with hilariously different perspectives on their relationship. But they’re on the same page on the field, realizing they can play together instead of vying for the same position. With every tackle the tension between them grows, and both players soon have to decide what’s more important—being together or making the roster.
The perfect blend of funny and steamy, Meryl Wilsner’s Cleat Cute is about being brave enough to win on and off the field.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
Not for a Moment by Cheyenne Blue
Narrated by Cat Gould
Tantor Audio
Read my review of Not for a Moment here!
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Cheyenne Blue
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Cat Gould
Desperate situations call for desperate lies in this charming, fake-relationship lesbian romance.
Andi Barrons has no time for kids or the chaos they bring—certainly not when she runs a high-end decorating business. Mischief and little fingers around expensive materials? No thanks!
But then her gorgeous friend, Sarah Santoro, winds up in a custody battle with Sarah’s former in-laws and now . . . Well, somehow Andi’s agreed to pretend she’s Sarah’s live-in partner.
She’s still not quite sure how she got stuck playing a role she’s so utterly clueless about and that’s everything she doesn’t want in life. But as long as Sarah and Noa, the world’s cutest seven-year-old, don’t get a hold of her heart, she’ll be fine.
Easy, right?
Contains mature themes.
Purposefully Accidental by G. Benson
Narrated by Quinn Riley
Tantor Audio
Review Coming Soon!
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles written by G. Benson
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Quinn Riley
An unfortunate accident, an old grudge, and a Sapphic fake romance.
Since A-List actress and Hollywood’s sweetheart Wren Acker came out, not only is she at the top of the acting world; she’s also crush number one for her queer fanbase. Loving life, loving her job, loving her cat-everything is fantastic. Except that lack of any kind of private life.
When a car accident brings her to the ER, the bottom falls out of her world when she realizes that reserved Doctor Taylor, her physician, is Madison Taylor from camp way back when she was a kid. And boy, does Madison still hold a well-earned grudge for how that all ended.
When Madison ends up working on Wren’s set as a medical consultant, suddenly everyone’s assuming they’re a couple. The media loses it, their fanbase grows even further, and the entire thing snowballs.
Every grudge has to be moved on from eventually, right?
Contains mature themes.
The Eighth Continent by Rhett C. Bruno, Felix R. Savage
Narrated by Scott Aiello
Audible Inc and Aethon Books
$1.99 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Rhett C. Bruno & Felix R. Savage
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Scott Aiello
A lowly construction worker on the moon is Earth’s only chance.
Nick Morrison always wanted to be an astronaut. When a start-up company recruits him to build a lunar launch system at the moon’s south pole, Nick gladly leaves behind his troubled life on Earth—but Nick doesn’t know that the company is in financial and legal trouble.
Deprived of support from Earth, the team on the moon must figure out how to survive on their own. Worse yet, there’s another base at the lunar south pole, run by a ruthless contractor who has big plans for the moon… and for Earth. Nick’s team just so happen to be in the way.
Join them in their mission to stop the conquest of the moon and Earth in this new science-based thriller from Nebula Award-nominated author Rhett C. Bruno and NYT bestselling author Felix R. Savage. It’s perfect for fans of The Martian, Artemis, and For All Mankind.
Saving Emma by Allen Eskens
Narrated by Gary Tiedemann, Matt Godfrey, Saskia Maarleveld, Janina Edwards, Timothy Pabon
Mulholland Books
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Allen Eskens
A lawyer’s race to reveal a wrongful conviction collides with the dark shadow of a murder in his own home in this propulsive and perfectly-plotted thriller from award-winning writer Allen Eskens.
When Boady Sanden first receives the case of Elijah Matthews, he’s certain there’s not much he can do. Elijah, who believes himself to be a prophet, has been locked up in a psychiatric hospital for the past four years, convicted of brutally murdering the pastor of a megachurch. But as a law professor working for the Innocence Project, Boady agrees to look into Elijah’s file. When he does, he is alarmed to find threads that lead back to the death of his colleague and friend, Ben Pruitt, a man shot to death four years earlier in Boady’s own home.
Ben’s daughter, Emma, has lived with Boady and Boady’s wife Dee ever since that awful night. Now fourteen years old, Emma has been growing distant, and soon makes a fateful choice that takes her far from the safety of her godparents. Desperate to bring her home, and to free an innocent man, Boady must do all he can to investigate Elijah’s case while fighting to save the family he has deeply come to love.
Written with energy, propulsion, and his characteristic pathos and insight, Eskens delivers another pitch-perfect legal thriller that reveals a twisted murder and explores faith, love, family, and redemption along the way.
The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey
Narrated by Carly Robins
Brilliance Audio
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Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Jess Lourey
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Carly Robins
Two girls vanished. A woman buried alive. Between two crimes lie decades of secrets yet to be unearthed in a pulse-pounding novel by the Edgar Award-nominated author of Unspeakable Things.
Summer 1980: Despite the local superstition that the Bendy Man haunts the woods, three girls go into a Minnesota forest. Only one comes out, dead silent, her memory gone. The mystery of the Taken Ones captures the nation.
Summer 2022: Cold case detective Van Reed and forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck are assigned a disturbing homicide—a woman buried alive, clutching a heart charm necklace belonging to one of the vanished girls. Van follows her gut. Harry trusts in facts. They’re both desperate to catch a killer before he kills again. They have something else in common: each has ties to the original case in ways they’re reluctant to share.
As Van and Harry connect the crimes of the past and the present, Van struggles with memories of her own nightmarish childhood—and the fear that uncovering the truth of the Taken Ones will lead her down a path from which she, too, may never return.
The Never Wars by David Pedreira
Narrated by John Pirhalla
Blackstone Publishing
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles written by David Pedreira
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by John Pirhalla
From the author of Gunpowder Moon—a Library Journal Best Debut Novel—comes The Never Wars, a mind-bending mix of Interstellar and The Expanse in which a group of disgraced Special Forces are given one chance to redeem themselves. The question is whether they’ll survive long enough for it to matter.
Special Forces are accustomed to crazy ops, but orbiting a black hole to slow down time and fight Earth’s dirty wars in the future? That’s new, even for them. But that’s the mission for Owen Quarry, Anaya Pretorius, and the rest of COG, a company of elite, disgraced, soldiers from around the globe.
They join a defrocked company commander, an AI warship with self-confidence issues, and a crew of misfit troopers on a dizzying time-quest: prove the concept of stationing armies in space-time.
If they complete ten missions, they’ll be redeemed as citizens in good standing.
But the cost will be heavy—in time and in souls. And as one of their own hunts them down and another rises from the past with a key to freedom, Quarry and Pretorius find that redemption and survival are two very different things.
Salvation-1 by Kate L. Mary
Narrated by Mallory Fuccella
Self Published
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Kate L. Mary
The struggle is only beginning….
After escaping Earth and creating a new life on Salvation-1, Tessa thought her days of fighting were over. But nothing turned out the way the survivors expected, and now humanity is facing a new threat. One that may destroy them for good.
VA-246 was supposed to be humanity’s chance to start over, but making it there was only the beginning.
An alien planet, an atmosphere not conducive to human life, and an unknown enemy. With the fate of humanity on the line and disaster waiting around every corner, Tessa and the other survivors from Earth must fight for their survival. Except the enemy isn’t quite what they expected.
Baby Bank by Sarah Robinson
Narrated by Karla Serrato
Self Published
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Mila Torres is a successful divorce lawyer by day, stand-up comedian by night, and by all accounts—except her mother’s—living a bisexual elder millennial’s dream life in Washington, DC. That is, until she realizes she’s only a year away from hitting the ripe old age of 35, and her doctor suggests at her annual pap smear that maybe she should consider freezing her eggs if she wants kids in the future. Except, she doesn’t want a child in the far future…she wants a child right now.
This poses a bit of a problem, since she’s 10 swipes past single and living Golden Girls style with two of her best friends who work on Capitol Hill and one ornery old cat. That is, until she hears a story from a friend about a free sperm bank online app called Baby Bank. A few margaritas later, and Mila has swiped on more than 50 sperm donors until she finds the perfect match—handsome, successful, brilliant, everything you’d want your sperm to be.
Now, she’s meeting him at a hotel—along with two of her friends for backup—to complete the process. All should have gone smoothly, except when she learns that her sperm donor is the brother of the reporter whom Mila has been dodging for months and that while she originally only wanted this man’s baby, she actually wants his sister too.
In a comedic story of LGBTQIA+ romance and millennial-specific drama, Mila finds that motherhood and dating are not compatible when you keep it all in the family and that the modern millennial woman might not actually be able to have it all. The first in a series of stand-alone lesbian- and queer-themed romance novels coming to e-book, audiobook, and paperback.
The Senator’s Wife by Jen Lyon
Narrated by Abby Craden
Self Published
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Abby Craden
Two women. Two worlds. One love worth risking it all.
When professional soccer player Alex Grey goes on a vacation to the local South Carolina islands, she isn’t anticipating any life-changing events. Just a relaxing weekend to prepare for the upcoming season. But that quickly changes when she finds herself the lone witness to a sailing accident and makes the decision to risk her own life to save a drowning woman—unwittingly coming to the rescue of a US senator’s wife, Catharine Cleveland.
Despite the vast disparity between their worlds, the two women find themselves inexplicably drawn to one another after the near-catastrophic afternoon. Following a series of interactions from the soccer fields of Portland, to the Marina District of San Francisco Bay, and the cutthroat political circle of Washington, D.C., they find their friendship growing, transforming into an attraction neither woman can deny.
Nor an attraction either woman can comfortably embrace.
As the magnetism of their connection grows, both women are forced to decide if the pursuit of love is worth the cost while living under the scrutiny of the public eye.
The Senator’s Wife is Book One of a three book series.
Ghosted by Sarah Ready
Narrated by Sarah Naughton, Rob Brinkmann
Self Published
Jillian Nejat is the only dating and relationship expert on the planet who is incapable of speaking to men. If they’re living, if they’re breathing, it’s game over.
With her bank account at zero, her career a dumpster fire, and her dating life in a 10-year slump, she moves into a tiny, dirt-cheap NYC apartment.
Unfortunately, the apartment is already occupied.
Daniel (no-last-name) is a sexy, shirtless, six-pack wielding heartthrob who is also…dead.
He isn’t living. He isn’t breathing. He’s a ghost. He’s also the only man on the planet who Jillian can talk to.
Soon, Daniel’s convinced that it’s his afterlife mission to resurrect Jillian’s love life. He knows, if he helps her fall in love then he can move on. Jillian agrees. The last thing she needs is a Lothario ghost haunting her living room.
But then, one practice date leads to another, one confession leads to more, and suddenly, Jillian fears she’s falling for the one man she can never have.
Resource Control by Gerald M. Kilby
Narrated by Jeffrey Kafer
Podium Audio
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Gerald M. Kilby
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Jeffrey Kafer
In space, all that matters is survival.
The crew’s efforts to reactivate the long-abandoned Moon Base Delta are hindered by a desperate food shortage which begins to sap their mental and physical energy.
Their dire situation is not helped by an influx of refugees and rebels fleeing the brutal resource conflicts erupting throughout the lunar colonies. Moon Base Delta quickly becomes a melting pot of desperate souls caught in the crossfire, all fighting for survival.
As the pressure on limited resources escalates, and the demands on Renton and the crew intensify, they come to a stark and uncompromising realization: If they are to survive, they must confront the harsh reality of their predicament—they must fight back.
The Lexi Mills Thrillers, Books 1-3 by Brian Shea, Stacy Lynn Miller
Narrated by Michelle Sparks
Severn River Publishing
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Brian Shea, Stacy Lynn Miller
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Michelle Sparks
The first three heart-pounding books in the Lexi Mills thriller series.
ATF Agent Lexi Mills confronts sinister conspiracies and relentless enemies while navigating her personal quest for justice.
Book one: Fuze: When Lexi is presented with an opportunity to hunt down the man responsible for her partner’s death, she must decide between duty and her thirst for revenge.
Book two: Proximity: Lexi is pushed to her limits when she finds herself in a desperate hostage situation where she must outwit a vengeful madman and defuse a deadly trap.
Book three: Impact: When a religious zealot’s violent plot threatens to plunge the country into chaos, Lexi is faced with an impossible decision: prevent a bomb from killing thousands of innocents or save the love of her life.
From award-winning author and US Air Force veteran Stacy Lynn Miller and Wall Street Journal best-selling author and former detective Brian Shea, the Lexi Mills Thrillers are packed with propulsive action and dynamic characters. Perfect for fans of Lee Child and David Baldacci.
- 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
