Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of November 13th.
Comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
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The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu
Narrated by Natalie Naudus
HarperAudio
$12.99 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Natalie Naudus
Julie Tieu sparkles in this debut romantic comedy, which is charmingly reminiscent of the TV show Kim’s Convenience and Frankly in Love by David Yoon, about a young woman who feels caught in the life her parents have made for her until she falls in love and finds a way out of the donut trap.
Jasmine Tran has landed herself behind bars – maple bars that is. With no boyfriend or job prospects, Jasmine returns home to work at her parents’ donut shop. Jasmine quickly loses herself in a cyclical routine of donuts, Netflix, and sleep. She wants to break free from her daily grind, but when a hike in rent threatens the survival of their shop, her parents rely on her more than ever.
Help comes in the form of an old college crush, Alex Lai. Not only is he successful and easy on the eyes, to her parents’ delight, he’s also Chinese. He’s everything she should wish for, until a disastrous dinner reveals Alex isn’t as perfect as she thinks. Worse, he doesn’t think she’s perfect either.
With both sets of parents against their relationship, a family legacy about to shut down, and the reappearance of an old high school flame, Jasmine must scheme to find a solution that satisfies her family’s expectations and can get her out of the donut trap once and for all.
Oblivion Awaits by Christopher Hopper
Narrated by Rebecca Woods, Daniel Wisniewski
Self Published
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
You’ve made the greatest discovery in human history.
Now all you have to do is stay alive.
The legacy hab Astraea orbits high above the Earth in 2251 as a testament to human ingenuity and the enduring mission to settle space. But when researchers in the station’s celestial exploration laboratory think they’ve discovered a signal from an alien species, Astraea suffers a devastating failure.
In response to the growing emergency, the scientific leaders on Earth send one of their best engineers to investigate the explosion. However, the specialist is forced to face old demons as he fights to verify his hypothesis: Astraea Station is under attack. But can he prove it before he runs out of time?
Tensions rise when the growing body of evidence suggests sabotage from within. Motives are questioned, loyalties tested, and friendships strained to the breaking point. Before long, destinies spin out of control as the situation escalates to flat-out survival. No one is safe, including those on Earth below.
Journey into the mind that brought you the number one best-selling hit Ruins of the Earth and Ruins of the Galaxy in this hard sci-fi thriller, set in an epic space-settlement landscape filled with factions, betrayal, adventure, and intrigue. Christopher Hopper’s Oblivion Awaits, first book in the Infinita series, is bound to keep you breathless. Listen to it today!
The Road Home by Erin Zak
Narrated by Lula Larkin
Bold Strokes Books
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
When she’s passed over for the role of a lifetime, Hollywood actress Gwendolyn Carter is absolutely crushed. That’s when things go from bad to worse. Home to celebrate her dad’s birthday, Gwen discovers her mom is sick and might not have much time left. She stays to help and to repair the emotional rift that has kept them apart for so long. That’s easier said than done, though, because oh-so-perfect Lila Machowicz has all but replaced Gwen as Carol Carter’s surrogate daughter.
Gwen and Lila are forced to work together to support the woman they both care about, even though they’re rivals for a place in Carol’s life. The last thing either expects is an attraction as undeniable as it is inconvenient. When Lila helps Gwen rebuild trust with her mom, Gwen’s heart begins to thaw. But every family has a closet full of skeletons, and when she discovers the family secret, will she ever be able to trust Lila again?
You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao
Narrated by Soneela Nankani
Macmillan Audio
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Soneela Nankani
Dustin Thao’s You’ve Reached Sam is a heartfelt audiobook about love and loss and what it means to say good-bye.
How do you move forward when everything you love is on the line?
Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out – move out of her small town with her boyfriend, Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan.
But then Sam dies. And everything changes.
Heartbroken, Julie skips his funeral, throws out his things, and tries everything to forget him and the tragic way he died. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces back memories. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cellphone just to listen to his voicemail.
And Sam picks up the phone.
In a miraculous turn of events, Julie’s been given a second chance at good-bye. The connection is temporary. But hearing Sam’s voice makes her fall for him all over again, and with each call it becomes harder to let him go. However, keeping her otherworldly calls with Sam a secret isn’t easy, especially when Julie witnesses the suffering Sam’s family is going through. Unable to stand by the sidelines and watch their shared loved ones in pain, Julie is torn between spilling the truth about her calls with Sam and risking their connection and losing him forever.
A Macmillan Audio production from Wednesday Books
Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens
Narrated by Charlotte Beaumont
Penguin Audio
$12.99 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
From the New York Times best-selling author of This Time Next Year comes a heartwarming and hilarious tale that asks: What if you picked up the wrong suitcase and fell head over heels for its mystery owner?
Hopeless romantic and lifestyle reporter Laura’s business trip to the Channel Islands isn’t off to a great start. After an embarrassing encounter with the most attractive man she’s ever seen in real life, she arrives at her hotel and realizes she’s grabbed the wrong suitcase from the airport. Her only consolation is its irresistible contents, each of which intrigues her more and more. The owner of this suitcase is clearly Laura’s dream man. Now, all she has to do is find him.
Besides, what are the odds that she’d find The One on the same island where her parents first met and fell in love, especially as she sets out to write an article about their romance? Commissioning surly cab driver Ted to ferry her around seems like her best bet in both tracking down the mystery suitcase owner and retracing her parents’ footsteps. But as Laura’s mystery man proves difficult to find – and as she uncovers family secrets – she may have to reimagine the life, and love, she always thought she wanted.
Angel Maker by Morgan Greene
Narrated by Sofia Engstrand
W. F. Howes Ltd
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Angel Maker is the stunning first outing for DI Jamie Johansson and will have listeners on the edge of their seats. Perfect for fans of Jo Nesbø, Will Dean, Maria Adolfsson, Angela Marsons, and JD Kirk, Angel Maker is sure to cement Greene as one of your new favourite authors.
When a teenage girl is found dead in the woods, her body posed like an angel, Stockholm holds its breath. The kill bears a chilling resemblance to those of the Angel Maker, a serial killer caught two decades ago…. One who just died in prison. Detective Inspector Jamie Johansson is taking some much-needed time away from the London Met when the call comes in. Her father, one of Stockholm’s most notorious detectives, caught the Angel Maker when she was just a girl, and Jamie has long since closed the door to that part of her life. But with the original case files missing, the threat of another kill looming, and her father’s reputation at stake, Jamie is drawn back to the frozen streets of her hometown to finish what he started. Has a copycat emerged? Or did he catch the wrong man all those years ago?
Abandoned by Katie Berry
Narrated by Alex Knox
Tantor Audio
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Alex Knox
Katie Berry continues the interwoven saga of Lively and Minerva Deadmarsh and Chief Inspector John Harder in this second book in the Lively Deadmarsh series.
Some questions are finally answered, but others arise as Lively and Minerva find the Sinclair Resort Hotel to be much more than it seems. In a bold attempt to uncover more of what transpired 40 years before, the pair formulate a plan that will either help them immensely or doom them completely.
Chief Inspector John Harder continues his official investigation to peel back the intricate web of mystery surrounding the Sinclair Incident. Along the way, he discovers that he may have a far greater role to play in things than he’d initially thought and that the stakes are more personal than he could have ever imagined.
The Hidden by Melanie Golding
Narrated by Penelope Rawlins
Dreamscape Media
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
One dark December night in a small seaside town, a little girl is found abandoned. When her mother finally arrives, authorities release the pair, believing it to be an innocent case of a toddler running off.
Gregor, a seemingly single man, is found bludgeoned and left for dead in his apartment, but the discovery of children’s toys raises more questions than answers. Every night, Ruby gazes into Gregor’s apartment, leading to the discovery of his secret family: his unusually silent daughter and his mentally unstable wife, Constance, who insists that she is descended from the mythological selkies. She begs Ruby to aid in finding the sealskin that Gregor has hidden from her, making it impossible to return to her people.
DS Joanna Harper’s investigation into Gregor’s assault leads her to CCTV footage of the mother-daughter pair from town. Harper realizes she knows the woman almost as well as she knows herself: It’s her estranged daughter, Ruby. No matter the depth of Ruby’s involvement, she knows she will choose her daughter over her career. Steeped in local legend and exploring the depths of what it means to be a mother, Melanie Golding’s newest novel is a lyrical and atmospheric folktale for the modern age.
Margot Mertz Takes It Down by Carrie McCrossen, Ian McWethy
Narrated by Carrie McCrossen
Listening Library
Veronica Mars meets Moxie in this hilarious and biting YA contemporary novel following Margot Mertz, a girl who runs an internet cleanup business and embarks on a quest to take down a revenge-porn site targeting the girls in her school.
For the right price, high school junior Margot Mertz will go to the ends of the internet to remove your nip-slip, dick pic, or embarrassing DM. At least that’s what it says on her business card. Margot founded a now notorious company that helps students, teachers, even a local weatherman, discreetly clean up their digital shame. And since her parents lost her college fund, Margot is happy to work for anyone…if they can pay, she can clean.
But when a fellow student hires her to take down some leaked nudes, Margot discovers a secret revenge porn site featuring Roosevelt High girls. And hell hath no fury like Margot when she sees girls’ butts shared without their consent. With the help of an unwitting ally, the popular and uncomfortably handsome Avery Green, Margot will gain access to the far flung cliques of Roosevelt High. Anything to find the mastermind (read: asshole) behind the site. But the more she digs, the deeper and darker the case becomes until Margot realizes that some jobs are so dirty, no one can come away clean. Even her. Gross.
Ian Bragg Omnibus 1-3 by Craig Martelle
Narrated by Chris Abernathy
Self Published
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Craig Martelle
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by Chris Abernathy
Written by an author with over 20 years in the US Marine Corps and intelligence communities. Hours and hours of action adventure in one volume.
When good men have to do bad things….
…a hitman with a conscience.
Problems arise and too often, those problems are scumbags, oxygen thieves, and people who don’t deserve to share the same planet with decent folk.
Ian Bragg provides solutions, resolving issues for people who can afford to pay his price.
When Ian starts to lose his edge, he meets the woman with the sparkling green eyes who changes everything.
Balancing a personal life with a career that can’t ever be public creates challenges above and beyond what would happen if he were caught by the police.
Pick it up today.
Earth’s Last Gambit: The Complete Series by Felix R. Savage
Narrated by James Anderson Foster
Aethon Audio
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles narrated by James Anderson Foster
Get the Earth’s Last Gambit bundle, featuring all four books in this first-contact series blending hard sci-fi and edge-of-your-seat action. Hours of space, aliens, and mysteries you’ll never believe.
Bearing Earth’s hopes for deliverance from the alien threat, Jack Kildare and his fellow astronauts successfully complete the long journey to Jupiter. But someone on board is trying to sabotage the mission. As they approach the mysterious alien spaceship orbiting Europa, the crew fractures into rival factions.
Without warning, a long-range attack cripples the human ship.
Now the broken crew is the least of Jack’s worries.
The alien spaceship isn’t a wreck, after all.
And whoever is on board wants the humans dead.
As the mission unravels into a desperate fight for survival, Jack struggles to decode the enemy plot. If he fails, the astronauts will all perish…and so will Earth.
Buy this special edition omnibus to experience this complete sci-fi series from New York Times best seller Felix R. Savage. It’s perfect for fans of Gerald M. Kilby, Iain M. Banks, and Brandon Q. Morris.
Books included in the set:
Freefall
Lifeboat
Shiplord
Killshot
The Spread, Books 1-3 by Iain Rob Wright
Narrated by Aubrey Parsons
Self Published
The most invasive species.
The Scottish highlands; a sparse, mountainous region some say was carved by the gods themselves. Few places are as untouched as this harsh, prehistoric land. But, nestled deep within the wilderness lies a cottage, and that cottage is a hill.
When a group of friends travel up from Manchester and hire the cottage for a weekend of boozy fun, they discover a threat far greater than the harsh landscape and unforgiving weather. Something deadly lies upon the hill. And, it’s spreading. Soon, there will be nothing left.
If you love claustrophobic horror with a dashing of body-horror, then The Spread series will knock your socks off.
Will by Will Smith, Mark Manson
Narrated by Will Smith
Penguin Audio
One of the most dynamic and globally recognized entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life, in a brave and inspiring book that traces his learning curve to a place where outer success, inner happiness, and human connection are aligned. Along the way, Will tells the story in full of one of the most amazing rides through the worlds of music and film that anyone has ever had.
Will Smith’s transformation from a West Philadelphia kid to one of the biggest rap stars of his era, and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, is an epic tale — but it’s only half the story.
Will Smith thought, with good reason, that he had won at life: Not only was his own success unparalleled, his whole family was at the pinnacle of the entertainment world. Only they didn’t see it that way: They felt more like star performers in his circus, a seven-days-a-week job they hadn’t signed up for. It turned out Will Smith’s education wasn’t nearly over.
This memoir is the product of a profound journey of self-knowledge, a reckoning with all that your will can get you and all that it can leave behind. Written with the help of Mark Manson, author of the multi-million-copy best seller The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Will is the story of how one person mastered his own emotions, written in a way that can help everyone else do the same. Few of us will know the pressure of performing on the world’s biggest stages for the highest of stakes, but we can all understand that the fuel that works for one stage of our journey might have to be changed if we want to make it all the way home. The combination of genuine wisdom of universal value and a life story that is preposterously entertaining, even astonishing, puts Will the book, like its author, in a category by itself.
My Body by Emily Ratajkowski
Narrated by Emily Ratajkowski
Macmillan Audio
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
A deeply honest investigation of what it means to be a woman and a commodity from Emily Ratajkowski, the archetypal, multi-hyphenate celebrity of our time.
Emily Ratajkowski is an acclaimed model and actress, an engaged political progressive, a formidable entrepreneur, a global social media phenomenon, and now, a writer. Rocketing to world fame at age 21, Ratajkowski sparked both praise and furor with the provocative display of her body as an unapologetic statement of feminist empowerment. The subsequent evolution in her thinking about our culture’s commodification of women is the subject of this book.
My Body is a profoundly personal exploration of feminism, sexuality, and power, of men’s treatment of women and women’s rationalizations for accepting that treatment. These essays chronicle moments from Ratajkowski’s life while investigating the culture’s fetishization of girls and female beauty, its obsession with and contempt for women’s sexuality, the perverse dynamics of the fashion and film industries, and the grey area between consent and abuse.
Nuanced, unflinching, and incisive, My Body marks the debut of a fierce writer brimming with courage and intelligence.
A Macmillan Audio production from Metropolitan Books
