Hello! And welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of September 17th.
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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Teleport by Joshua T. Calvert
Narrated by Eric Altheide
Tantor Audio
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
“Joshua T. Calvert has a gift for making nail-biting science fiction that you can’t put down. Get ready for some sleepless nights!”—M. A. Rothman, USA Today bestselling author
In Lake Maracaibo, in the northwestern part of Venezuela, a long-hidden extraterrestrial artifact underneath the ocean floor triggers a disaster. The United States military launches an expedition, sending a cutting-edge team of international researchers to the source of a magnetic instability that’s destroying any electronics in the region.
Inside the large artifact is a chamber that’s large enough for the researchers to enter. After a shocking death, the scientists from the United States, Europe, and Russia realize that it is a teleportation device. But they soon face a fundamental question: Why do those who enter the chamber fall into a coma? Are they traveling to other places, or is it all just an illusion? Dream or reality, the other side of the teleporter turns out to be a hell that puts not only the team, but the entire project to the test—because they are not alone out there.
Cherish by Kris Bryant
Narrated by Melissa Sternenberg
Bold Strokes Book Inc
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Melissa Sternenberg
Josie Lockner scores big when she’s awarded a summer artist-in-residence in the small beach town of Goda, Massachusetts. The Wellingtons are the perfect host family, and Revere Estates the best backdrop. She’s more than ready to capture the beauty of nature with her pencils and brushes. Falling for the Wellingtons’ quiet neighbor, Olivia Monteclair, isn’t in the picture, but just because it won’t last forever doesn’t mean she can’t have some fun.
Olivia’s peaceful days are interrupted when Josie, with her infectious grin and sunny disposition, crowds her space. Was Olivia ever that young or that hungry about life? She isn’t in the market, not after her devastating heartbreak, but there’s something about Josie that brings out a lightness she’s missing from her life. Both cherish the time spent together, but when the summer ends and their temporary romance melts into the real deal, reality gets complicated.
The Hues of Me and You by Morgan Lee Miller
Narrated by Lula Larkin
Bold Strokes Book Inc
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Lula Larkin
Arlette Adair has always done what’s right. From the day she was born, she’s lived the life her parents forced upon her. Now, she’s stuck in a sparkless relationship and a job she never wanted. Her father’s presidential campaign will forever root her in the world of politics that she’s trying to escape from.
Brooke Dawson has always made her own rules. She’s a struggling freelance artist by day and a catering bartender at night, but her heart is full…almost. When she picks up a bartending shift at a high-society party, she hopes to bring home enough money to pay her rent. She never expects to run into Arlette Adair: her former best friend, the girl she spent all of college secretly crushing on, and the one who got away.
Now face-to-face with their unresolved past, Arlette and Brooke quickly fall back into their old ways while dancing around the biggest question: Why hadn’t they fallen in love all those years ago?
The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu
Narrated by Catherine Ho
Recorded Books
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Catherine Ho
A lyrical queer sci-fi retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a locked-room thriller
A Twenty-First Century Hamlet.
Hayden Lichfield’s life is ripped apart when he finds his father murdered in their lab, and the camera logs erased. The killer can only have been after one thing: the Sisyphus Formula the two of them developed together, which might one day reverse death itself. Hoping to lure the killer into the open, Hayden steals the research. In the process, he uncovers a recording his father made in the days before his death, and a dying wish: Avenge me…
With the lab on lockdown, Hayden is trapped with four other people—his uncle Charles, lab technician Gabriel Rasmussen, research intern Felicia Xia and their head of security, Felicia’s father Paul—one of whom must be the killer. His only sure ally is the lab’s resident artificial intelligence, Horatio, who has been his dear friend and companion since its creation. With his world collapsing, Hayden must navigate the building’s secrets, uncover his father’s lies, and push the boundaries of sanity in the pursuit of revenge.
The Sky Vault by Benjamin Percy
Narrated by Michael David Axtell
Harper Audio
The third book in Percy’s innovative and acclaimed Comet Cycle, The Sky Vault, follows an investigation of a mysterious weather phenomena in Fairbanks, Alaska, and a government secret buried since WWII.
The comet, Cain, came from beyond our solar system, its debris containing elements unknown. Now, in the isolated region of Fairbanks, Alaska, the skies shift and stretch as an interstellar dust cloud seeds the atmosphere. When a plane shudders its way through pulpy, swirling, bruise-shaped clouds, lit with sudden cracks of lightning, the sky opens and the aircraft vanishes…but only for a minute.
When the flight lands, everyone on board and in the community will be changed forever. Chuck Bridges, a local DJ and conspiracy theorist, was on board and later reported dead to his family, but not before proclaiming that something inside the clouds was speaking to him. Now his son, Theo, must chase down answers to the mystery his father unlocked. He’ll find himself at odds with Sophie Chen, an agent with a shadowy employer desperate to secure the black box from the airplane, as well as Rolf Wagner, a widowed sheriff investigating a series of increasingly strange and unsettling reports. And then there is Joanna Straub, a contractor reconstructing a top-secret government lab active during WWII and shuttered deep within the nearby White Mountains.
The answer to the comet’s origin is about to be unveiled, and its impact on Earth is more treacherous and sublime than humanity could imagine.
You, Again by Kate Goldbeck
Narrated by Kristen DiMercurio
Random House Audio
Can they stop hating each other long enough to fall in love?
A commitment-phobe and a hopeless romantic clash over and over again—until heartbreak and unexpected chemistry bring them together in this clever enemies-to-friends-to-lovers debut romance.
“Fresh, witty, and utterly romantic.”—Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis
When Ari and Josh first meet, the wrong kind of sparks fly. They hate each other. Instantly.
A free-spirited, struggling comedian who likes to keep things casual, Ari sublets, takes gigs, and she never sleeps over after hooking up. Born-and-bred Manhattanite Josh has ambitious plans: Take the culinary world by storm, find The One, and make her breakfast in his spotless kitchen. They have absolutely nothing in common . . . except that they happen to be sleeping with the same woman.
Ari and Josh never expect their paths to cross again. But years later, as they’re both reeling from ego-bruising breakups, a chance encounter leads to a surprising connection: friendship. Turns out, spending time with your former nemesis is fun when you’re too sad to hate each other—and too sad for hate sex.
As friends-without-benefits, they find comfort in late-night Netflix binges, swiping through each other’s online dating profiles, and bickering across boroughs. It’s better than romance. Until one night, the unspoken boundaries of their platonic relationship begin to blur. . . .
With sharp observations and sizzling chemistry, You, Again explores the dynamics of co-ed friendship in this sparkling romantic comedy of modern love in all its forms.
The Snowball Effect by Avery Kane
Narrated by Meghan Kelly
Self Published
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Meghan Kelly
Ava Mason is sassy and sure of herself. Everybody in Bellaire, a quiet, snowy hamlet in northern Lower Michigan, knows her by attitude if not the bright auburn color of her hair. She’s been holding on to a specific dream since she was a teenager, and her chance to make it come true is finally here.
There’s just one problem…
Griffin Holden was living a big city life full of glitz, glamour, and the accolades that come from associating with the richest businessmen in the state, and then it all came crashing down around him…literally. He decides he needs to take refuge in the one place no one will go looking for him: his grandfather’s farm.
Ava is just waiting for the Holden Farm to go to auction so she can build the bed and breakfast of her dreams. Griffin doesn’t know what he wants to do with his late grandfather’s property, but he does know that the woman who keeps hanging around telling him what to do with it is a mouthy nightmare.
They’re two opposites determined to take charge of the same property. What could possibly go wrong? More importantly, what could possibly go right?
Diverse Energies by Greg van Eekhout, Ken Liu, Ursula K. Le Guin, Malinda Lo, K. Tempest Bradford, Paolo Bacigalupi, Daniel H. Wilson, Ellen Oh, Cindy Pon, Rahul Kanakia, Tobias S. Buckell, Joe Monti
Narrated by James Chen, Catherine Ho, Kurt Kanazawa, Neil Shah, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Jasmin Walker, Nick Walther
Recorded Books
Best Children’s Books of the Year, Bank Street College of Education
A collection of dystopian short stories featuring diverse main characters and by authors of color.
“No one can doubt that the wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men. No one can doubt that cooperation in the pursuit of knowledge must lead to freedom of the mind and freedom of the soul.” -President John F. Kennedy, from a speech at University of California, March 23, 1962
In a world gone wrong, heroes and villains are not always easy to distinguish and every individual has the ability to contribute something powerful. In this stunning collection of original and rediscovered stories of tragedy and hope, the stars are a diverse group of students, street kids, good girls, kidnappers, and child laborers pitted against their environments, their governments, differing cultures, and sometimes one another as they seek answers in their dystopian worlds. Take a journey through time from a nuclear nightmare of the past to society’s far future beyond Earth with these eleven stories by masters of speculative fiction. Includes stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, Ursula K. Le Guin, Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Daniel H. Wilson, and more.
Mindbreaker by Kate Dylan
Narrated by Stephanie Cannon
Stoughton Limited
Set in the same world as the extraordinary Mindwalker, Mindbreaker is an action packed young adult science fiction novel asking: what would you sacrifice to survive?
They saved her life. But at what cost?
Born into a religious, anti-tech cult, seventeen-year-old Indra lives a simple, mod-free existence on the fringe of society. But when an illicit trip to the city leaves her with a debilitating – and terminal – condition, Indra must make a choice: die faithful, or betray her Order and accept the cure Glindell Technologies is offering.
Forced to sign over full ownership of her life, Indra is horrified to learn how Glindell chose to save her mind and body. On the outside, she still looks the same. On the inside, Indra’s not so sure. She’s missing time, for one thing, and more than once, she finds herself in places she really shouldn’t be, with no memory of how she got there and abilities she can’t explain.
So when news breaks of a vicious attack against Glindell’s biggest rival, Indra begins to suspect the worst about her new master. With help from her one friend at the company, Tian – a research assistant with a genius IQ and a smile that won’t quit – Indra manages to escape the lab. Then together with the anti-corp faction she and Tian turn to for help, Indra must uncover the truth behind the procedure that saved her life, before Glindell can use it to change the face of technology – and what it means to be human – forever.
Have You Seen My Sister by Kirsty McKay
Narrated by Liz Pearce
Recorded Books
Gaia Gill is the last person in the world anyone would expect to go missing. Beautiful, athletic, and recently accepted to a prestigious college, she has everything to look forward to—but the night of her going-away party at the Moon Mountain ski resort, she disappears.
Gaia’s younger sister Esme is supposed to be flying back to England with her family after the party, but she can’t leave with Gaia missing—especially because nobody remembers Gaia leaving the party. Or if they do, they’re not saying. Everyone at the lodge has their own secrets: the little rich girl, the ex-boyfriend, the ski instructor, the failed reality star.
Esme’s out of her depth searching the dark, dangerous forests and icy slopes of Moon Mountain, until she teams up with a local boy who promises to help her. The clock is ticking, and it’s down to Esme to piece the clues together and work out who—if anybody—is telling the truth.
- 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