Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of November 5th.
Comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
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The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey
Narrated by Jess Nahikian
Brilliance Audio
Review Coming Soon!
$1.99 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase – Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Jess Lourey
Killers hiding in plain sight. Small-town secrets. A girl who knows too much. From the Amazon Charts bestselling author of Unspeakable Things and Bloodline comes a nerve-twisting novel inspired by a shocking true crime.
Minnesota, 1977. For the teens of one close-knit community, summer means late-night swimming parties at the quarry, the county fair, and venturing into the tunnels beneath the city. But for two best friends, it’s not all fun and games.
Heather and Brenda have a secret. Something they saw in the dark. Something they can’t forget. They’ve decided to never tell a soul. But their vow is tested when their friend disappears—the second girl to vanish in a week. And yet the authorities are reluctant to investigate.
Heather is terrified that the missing girls are connected to what she and Brenda stumbled upon that night. Desperately searching for answers on her own, she learns that no one in her community is who they seem to be. Not the police, not the boys she met at the quarry, not even her parents. But she can’t stop digging because she knows those girls are in danger.
She also knows she’s next.
Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun
Narrated by Natalie Naudus
Simon & Schuster
Review Coming Soon!
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Natalie Naudus
The author of the “swoon-worthy debut” (Harper’s Bazaar) The Charm Offensive returns with a festive romantic comedy about a woman who fakes an engagement with her landlord…only to fall for his sister.
One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money.
Finding work at a local coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it’s Jack—the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Now, Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real.
Perfect for fans of Written in the Stars and One Day in December, Kiss Her Once for Me is the queer holiday rom-com that you’ll want to cozy up with next to the fire.
Once upon a Galactic Time by N.D. Shar
Narrated by Abby Craden
Tantor Audio
Read my review of Once Upon A Galactic Time here!
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase – Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles written by N.D. Shar
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Abby Craden
Basically, I died
My name is Storm Redfield: Navy Commander, Special Forces.
Born on Earth in the year 2057, I don’t belong in the twenty-third century. Nevertheless, that’s where I end up following the worst betrayal of all by my own people. During my time asleep, humanity has become a spacefaring civilization. We are no longer alone in the universe, and the galaxy is at peace . . . more or less. Now, I have a choice to make.
Call it a day after a traumatic rebirth, and spend the rest of my life on a Martian beach, sipping margaritas? Or grab myself a weapon, and go kick ass with the civilian outfit that brought me back? Good question, easy answer: with a name like mine . . .
Sheltering from the squalls of life is no option.
Dungeon World Drifters by Craig Hamilton, Tao Wong
Narrated by Shamaan Casey
Starlit Publishing
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase – Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Craig Hamilton, Tao Wong
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Shamaan Casey
The hunter becomes the hunted
Bounty hunter Hal Mason is doing well for himself, a year after the System converted Earth into a lawless, apocalyptic Dungeon World.
Now, though, old friends have come calling with a new opportunity and with it, the murky politics of Galactic interests and overlapping contracts. Hal must protect the first train to cross the new wildlands of the American Midwest.
Broken terrain, monsters, Galactic renegades, and even System enhanced weather all plague the journey. With pressure building from external forces, hidden agendas threaten to tear the expedition apart from within.
Will Hal persevere or will he be consumed by the System?
Dungeon World Drifters is the second book in the System Apocalypse – Relentless series. Set in the same universe as Tao Wong’s best-selling post-apocalyptic LitRPG, the System Apocalypse, it’s another glimpse into what humanity will do when the chips are down and the monsters are crawling from the shadows.
Almost Perfect by Tagan Shepard
Narrated by Lula Larkin
Bold Strokes Books Inc
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Olivia Duran has made being a TV fangirl her life. Creating fan art sure beats her job as a parking lot attendant, and immersing herself in fictional worlds where girl gets girl helps her cope with her less-than-happy reality. If anyone deserves a little escapism, it’s Olivia.
Queer entertainment influencer Riley St. James has a huge following and an even bigger secret that could tank her career. Somewhere along the way her love for TV turned into a job that pays the bills. She’s never told anyone she sometimes has to fake it.
When Riley and Olivia attend QueerCon, Olivia gifts her favorite actress one of her drawings and goes from unknown to overnight sensation, while devoted fans flock to Riley, who only has eyes for Olivia. Navigating the world of long-distance dating, career crisis, and family obligations, Olivia and Riley begin to wonder: Can their real-life love ever be as perfect as those they see on-screen?
Camptown Ladies by Mari SanGiovanni
Narrated by Bren McElroy
Self Published
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
There is plenty to distract Marie Santora when she comes home to lick her wounds after the end of her relationship. Not least of which is her sister Lisa’s plan to transform a rundown campground into a gay and lesbian paradise—complete with a five-star Italian restaurant—with the help of a contractor who just happens to be the woman who broke their brother’s heart.
Marie’s eccentric family doesn’t know the meaning of minding their own business, so when the whole Italian clan decides to fix things for their girls, they wreak havoc all the way from the backwoods of Rhode Island to the campy streets of Provincetown. And when the campfire heats up, it’s a recipe for heartburn!
Camptown Ladies was the winner of the Golden Crown Literary Society Award for Best Traditional/Contemporary Romance and is the hilarious sequel to Mari SanGiovanni’s first novel, Greetings from Jamaica, Wish You Were Queer… a romantic comedy that short-listed for a Lambda Literary Award. The third novel in the romantic comedy series, 80% Done with Straight Girls, continues the wild escapades of the Santora family as they (badly) navigate the ups and downs of life and love. All books in the series come with a laugh out loud guarantee (not really…you will laugh out loud, but there is no official guarantee!).
Saha by Cho Nam-Joo
Narrated by Kahyun Kim
Blackstone Publishing
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
From the internationally best-selling author of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 comes this chilling dystopian fable for fans of Netflix’s Squid Game.
A National Book Award Finalist hailed as “a social treatise as well as a work of art” (Alexandra Alter, New York Times), Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 announced Cho Nam-Joo as a major literary talent. In her signature sharp prose, brilliantly translated by Jamie Chang, Nam-Joo returns with this haunting account of a neglected housing complex in the shadows of Town: a former fishing village bought out by a massive conglomerate. Town is prosperous and safe―but only if you’re a citizen with “valuable skills and assets,” which the residents of Saha Estates are not.
Disenfranchised and tightlipped, the Saha are forced into harsh labor, squatting in moldy units without electricity. Braiding the disparate experiences of the Saha residents―from the reluctant midwife to the unknowing test subject to the separated siblings―into a powerful Orwellian parable, Nam-Joo has crafted a heartbreaking tale of what happens when we finally unmask our oppressors.
Mark of the Crijik: A LitRPG Adventure by ThinkTwice
Narrated by Neil Hellegers
Aethon Audio
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase – Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Neil Hellegers
Andross Silver has a nice life…until he is pushed off a building and finds himself in a new world.
Reborn into a family that wants to kill him, gifted with a System, and armed with determination, Andross must rise to the challenges of a strange new world he suddenly finds himself in.
His only blessing is the Mark of the Crijik, a magical gift from a divine being that bestows great powers onto those that possess it.
It also kills them at the age of 25.
Andross must master magic to help him carve a path to greatness and overcome the countdown of death that has been placed upon him.
Experience the start of an Isekai LitRPG adventure about an unexpected hero coming of age in his new home, progressing in power and abilities as he unlocks the secrets of magic, and a System that may not be as trustworthy as it seems.
Anthrax Island by D. L. Marshall
Narrated by David Morley Hale
Self Published
FACT: In 1942, in growing desperation at the progress of the war and fearing invasion by the Nazis, the UK government approved biological weapons tests on British soil. Their aim: to perfect an anthrax weapon destined for Germany. They succeeded.
FACT: Though the attack was never launched, the testing ground, Gruinard Island, was left lethally contaminated. It became known as Anthrax Island.
Now government scientists have returned to the island. They become stranded by an equipment failure and so John Tyler is flown in to fix the problem. He quickly discovers there’s more than research going on. When one of the scientists is found impossibly murdered inside a sealed room, Tyler realises he’s trapped with a killer…
A gripping thriller that will leave you guessing until the final page. Perfect for fans of Terry Hayes, James Swallow and Alistair MacLean.
The World We Make by N. K. Jemisin
Narrated by Robin Miles
Orbit
Four-time Hugo Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author N.K. Jemisin crafts a glorious tale of identity, resistance, magic and myth.
All is not well in the city that never sleeps. Even though the avatars of New York City have temporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading—and destroying the entire universe in the process—the mysterious capital “E” Enemy has more subtle powers at her disposal. A new candidate for mayor wielding the populist rhetoric of gentrification, xenophobia, and “law and order” may have what it takes to change the very nature of New York itself and take it down from the inside.
In order to defeat him, and the Enemy who holds his purse strings, the avatars will have to join together with the other Great Cities of the world in order to bring her down for good and protect their world from complete destruction.
N.K. Jemisin’s Great Cities Duology, which began with The City We Became and concludes with The World We Make, is a masterpiece of speculative fiction from one of the most important writers of her generation.
The Great Cities Duology
The City We Became
The World We Make
The Leviathan by P.K. Hawkins
Narrated by Kolyn Marshall
Severed Press
Dr. Markowitz thinks his days of deep-sea diving are over. He’s perfectly happy to let his apprentice, Dr. Applebaum, take over the mantle of the world’s number one deep sea explorer. But when Applebaum’s sub mysteriously vanishes on a dive into the very deepest parts of the ocean, the terrifying evidence that is left behind is enough to force Markowitz into one last dive.
The last images that Applebaum’s sub sent up to the surface suggest there may be something monstrous down there, a deep sea fish beyond the size of anything Markowitz has ever seen in all his days of ocean exploration. And even more horrifying, those last images suggest Applebaum and his sub may have been swallowed alive.
But if Markowitz doesn’t act fast, Applebaum won’t be alive for long.
The Complete Clockwork Chimera Saga: Books 1-5 by Scott Baron
Narrated by Vivienne Leheny
Self Published
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Scott Baron
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Vivienne Leheny
Yanked from cryo to join a crew of modded humans in deep space? Daisy’s life just got a whole lot more complicated.
As if nearly burning up in a freak accident on her way to Earth wasn’t bad enough, Daisy had a whole mess of other trouble on her plate. Big trouble. And she was going to get to the bottom of it if it was the last thing she’d do, which it was starting to look like it very well might be.
The thing is, Daisy had a simple rule for space travel. Don’t blow up, and so far she’d been managing to abide by that, but mere survival wasn’t enough.
With the powerful AI supercomputer guiding the craft beginning to show some disconcerting quirks of its own, and its unsettling cyborg assistant nosing into her affairs, Daisy’s unease was rapidly growing, as was her bigotry toward artificially intelligent beings. Add to the mix a crew of mechanically enhanced humans, any one of whom she suspected might not be what they seemed, and Daisy found herself with a sense of pending dread tickling the periphery of her mind.
Something was very much not right, she could feel it in her bones. The tricky part now was going to be overcoming her biases and figuring out what the threat was, before it could manifest from a mere sinking feeling in her gut into a potentially deadly reality. Only things were quite different and much worse than she could ever have imagined, forcing her to repeatedly adjust and overcome a reality that turned out to be far from what it had originally seemed. And it was looking like Daisy wouldn’t have to save only herself, but the entire planet Earth in the process.
The complete series set of all five of the Clockwork Chimera books:
Daisy’s Run
Pushing Daisy
Daisy’s Gambit
Chasing Daisy
Daisy’s War
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
Narrated by Matthew Perry
Macmillan Audio
$7.49 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
This program is read by the author.
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK BY TIME, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, GOODREADS, USA TODAY, AND MORE!
The beloved star of Friends takes us behind the scenes of the hit sitcom and his struggles with addiction in this candid, funny, and revelatory memoir that delivers a powerful message of hope and persistence.
“Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”
So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more.
In an extraordinary story that only he could tell—and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it—Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humor, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening—as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the audiobook fans have been waiting for.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.
- 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