Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of June 10th.
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Solar Storm by Gerald M. Kilby
Narrated by Jeffrey Kafer
Podium Audio
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.
Rapid colonization of the moon is pushing both national space agencies and powerful corporations to negotiate a New Lunar Accord in an effort to prevent escalating conflicts over valuable resources and territory.
But hope that this treaty will bring stability to the nascent lunar civilization is suddenly dashed when a high-energy solar storm causes a cascade of destruction to the vast satellite constellations that orbit Earth. Now it’s only a matter of weeks before the ever-increasing debris cloud makes travel back to the home planet impossible.
Panic soon begins to grip the lunar population as they scramble to evacuate, all fearing that they could be stranded on the moon with no prospect of ever returning to Earth. But for some, those caught in the grinding gears of the unfolding chaos, the situation becomes much worse. For them, it’s simply a matter of survival.
This is their story.
Solar Storm is a dramatic new hard sci-fi epic from the author of the highly acclaimed Colony Mars & The Belt series.
Drive A by Merritt Graves
Narrated by Jay Myers
Self Published
In the near-future world of Drive A, people can sell up to 49 percent of themselves in IPOs to cover expenses like tuition, medical insurance and housing payments—all of which have become largely unaffordable for the middle and working classes. Cable Rostenfarm did so when he was twelve to escape a deteriorating, nightmarish public school system, and now works as an analyst for a human capital hedge fund, Navarium, that buys and short sells other people.
His first activist assignment is Traeger Logan, a disillusioned livestreaming star, who went public himself to avoid a medical bankruptcy, and who recently had a high rise jumping suicide attempt thwarted by a proactive group of his fans. Cable and his colleagues are tasked with rehabilitating Traeger, growing his subscriber base and increasing shareholder value.Cable’s high sincerity and trustworthiness scores are initially instrumental in convincing Traeger to go along with the make over. However, when they start falling, and Traeger’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Cable realizes there might be deeper pockets than his own on the other side of the trade.
The Ascent by Ronald Malfi
Narrated by Joe Hempel
Tantor Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Joe Hempel
Six months after he almost died in a caving accident, sculptor Tim Overleigh spends his time crutching his broken body from bar to bar in downtown Annapolis. He has told no one that it was his dead wife, Hannah, who helped him survive—and that he’s still seeing her . . .
But a chance meeting with an old friend—and a plane ticket to Kathmandu—reawaken Tim’s passion for adventure. He agrees to join an expedition to one of the last unexplored places on earth: the Canyon of Souls in the Himalayas. The daunting climb will pit Tim and the other climbers against icy winds, mysterious forces, and the ghosts that live within each of them.
Congo Variant by Robin Crumby
Narrated by Roo Morris
Self Published
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Imagine a virus so deadly it could alter the course of human history. In the wrong hands, a bioweapon more destructive than anthrax and smallpox combined.
Congo Variant is the new, fast-paced thriller from the author of the best-selling Hurst Chronicles series.
Dr. Alice Bishop, a promising rookie in the field of infectious diseases, is assigned to a scientific expedition exploring deep within the Congo rainforest. Her mission: to trace the origins of a mysterious outbreak before war engulfs central Africa. As she descends deeper into the unknown what she finds is more terrifying than anyone dared fear.
Half a world away, MI6 operative Blake Harris, embedded in a United Nations inspection team, probes the truth behind Iraq’s weapons program as the Allies’ patience with Saddam Hussein begins to wane. Harris must embark on his most dangerous mission yet searching for evidence in war-torn Iraq before time runs out.
As their paths intertwine, Harris and Bishop stumble upon a terrifying plot that could plunge the Western World into chaos with unimaginable consequences.
Congo Variant is the gripping first instalment of an action-packed series that takes you on a thrilling journey through Iraq and Central Africa. A story set against the backdrop of the explosive events leading up to Operation Desert Fox and the Allied bombing of Baghdad in 1998.
If you enjoy edge-of-your-seat thrillers like Contagion, Outbreak, The Cobra Event and The Hot Zone then you’ll love Congo Variant. Get ready for heart-pounding suspense and grab your copy of book one today.
Crazy Bao You by Lyn Liao
Narrated by Gabriel Spires, Jennifer Aquino
Podium Audio
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Can an Etsy shop owner in Oklahoma and an FDNY firefighter make things work when he doesn’t know what she really looks like?
Kimmie Park has finally met a man who gets her and laughs at her jokes. Matt West is kind, compassionate, and a smoking-hot FDNY firefighter. There’s just one—okay, many—problems. They’ve never met in person because he lives in New York, and she’s in Oklahoma. He also doesn’t know that her life recently imploded when she very publicly quit her retail job and became a meme in a viral video, known as the woman who twerked as she told off her boss. And he has no idea what she really looks like.
After quitting her job, Kimmie focuses on her Etsy shop designing purses and accessories. She’d posted pictures of her best friend Alicia with her merchandise, not realizing people would assume Alicia was Kim from My Crafty Bao. That’s fine with Kimmie since she’s still hiding out from her recent unwanted internet fame. But as the chemistry between her and Matt sizzles, and their every interaction threatens to set them both on fire, she knows she needs to tell him the truth. Especially since Matt’s father, the CEO of a huge retail store, sees Kimmie’s shop and wants to partner with her.
As Kimmie prepares to visit New York City for the first time, she grapples with the sorrows of her past, which have kept her in Oklahoma ever since her parents died when she was sixteen. Will she be able to let go of her fears and embrace who she really is, or will it cause her to lose the man of her dreams and the opportunity of a lifetime?
Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman
Narrated by Kristen DiMercurio
Random House Audio
When a single dad meets the former rock-star crush of his youth, everything they thought they knew about happiness and love is thrown into chaos in this hopeful, heartwarming romantic comedy.
Billy Perkins is happy. And why wouldn’t he be? He loves his job as an independent music teacher and his apartment in Baltimore above a record shop called Charm City Rocks. Most of all, he loves his brainy teenage son, Caleb.
Margot Hammer, on the other hand, is far from happy. The former drummer of the once-famous band Burnt Flowers, she’s now a rock-and-roll recluse living alone in New York City. When a new music documentary puts Margot back in the spotlight, she realizes how much she misses her old band and the music that gave her life meaning.
Billy has always had a crush on Margot. But she’s a legitimate rock star—or, at least, she was—so he never thought he’d meet her. Until Caleb, worried that his easygoing dad might actually be lonely, cooks up a scheme to get Margot to perform at Charm City Rocks.
It’s the longest of long shots, but Margot’s label has made it clear that any publicity is an opportunity she can’t afford to miss. When their paths collide, Billy realizes that he maybe wasn’t as happy as he thought—and Margot learns that sometimes the sweetest music is a duet.
Double-Decker Dreams by Lindsay MacMillan
Narrated by Madeleine Maby
Dreamscape Media
American consultant Kat is staffed on a six-month project in London and has two very small, very reasonable ambitions before returning home: get promoted to partner and fall in love with a handsome English aristocrat. No problem, right?
But work is a grind, and the British men she meets are a far cry from her royal ideal. Then one morning, she sees a man on a double-decker bus and just knows that he’s her person. But when Kat finally musters the courage to board the bus and introduce herself, he turns out to be very different from the Prince Charming she expected.
Can Kat open herself up to a love that’s not like the movies, or is she too imprisoned by her rom-com expectations? And just as importantly, will she be able to see that success isn’t about landing a C-suite job but rather living a life that’s aligned with her soul?
Listeners looking for a charming modern love story will be smitten with this sharp, emotionally resonant rollercoaster ride through the heart of London.
The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller
Narrated by Genevieve Gaunt
Penguin Audio
From the award-winning author of Our Endless Numbered Days, Swimming Lessons, Bitter Orange, and Unsettled Ground comes a beautiful and searing novel of memory, love, survival—and octopuses.
In the face of a pandemic, an unprepared world scrambles to escape the mysterious disease causing sensory damage, nerve loss, and, in most cases, death. Neffy, a disgraced and desperately indebted 27-year-old marine biologist, registers for an experimental vaccine trial in London—perhaps humanity’s last hope for a cure. Though isolated from the chaos outside, she and the other volunteers—Rachel, Leon, Yahiko, and Piper—cannot hide from the mistakes that led them there.
As London descends into chaos outside the hospital windows, Neffy befriends Leon, who before the pandemic had been working on a controversial technology that allows users to revisit their memories. She withdraws into projections of her past—a childhood bisected by divorce, a recent love affair, her obsessive research with octopuses, and the one mistake that ended her career. The lines between past, present, and future begin to blur, and Neffy is left with defining questions: Who can she trust? Why can’t she forgive herself? How should she live, if she survives?
Claire Fuller’s The Memory of Animals is an ambitious, deeply imagined work of survival and suspense, grief and hope, consequences and connectedness that asks what truly defines us—and the lengths we will go to rescue ourselves and those we love.
Sleeper Cell by Paul Heatley
Narrated by Alex Pineda
Recorded Books
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase – Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
A deadly explosion rocks the nation’s capital…
Three seemingly unconnected people—a British ex-Special Forces operative, an ex-Navy Seal, and a teenage girl—find themselves under suspicion for the attack.
Soon, they’re in the middle of a conspiracy that threatens to unsettle the entire United States. If they have any hope to survive the dangerous situation they’ve found themselves in, these strangers must learn to rely on each other, all while the question remains:
Did one of them cause the explosion?
Nefarious organizations arrange themselves behind the political scenes. The players prepare their moves. An entire Country hangs in the balance. Can anyone stop them? Find out in this adrenaline-pumping action-thriller from bestseller Paul Heatley.
The Dark That Doesn’t Sleep by Simon Mockler
Narrated by Johnny Heller
OrangeSky Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Johnny Heller
In this chilling novel—introducing an exciting new talent in thriller-writing—a psychiatrist is tasked with unraveling a mystery at a top-secret military base.
Winter 1967.
An arctic storm traps three soldiers at a secret American military base located under the ice in Greenland. When the rescue team finally reaches them, two of the soldiers have died in what seems to be an accidental fire and the third, Private Connor Murphy, is left severely burned—with no memory of the previous seven days.
New York psychiatrist—and occasional FBI consultant—Jack Miller is tasked with uncovering Murphy’s memories. Carrying his own scars from World War II, Miller feels a kinship with the badly disfigured young soldier and patiently works to help him recall the events of that deadly storm.
However, the FBI wants Miller to do more than just uncover the missing memories. They also tell him that one of the three soldiers was a Soviet spy—and he needs to figure out who. As Miller delves into the personal background of the other two soldiers, and the history of the isolated base, he quickly realizes that nothing is as it seems.
Blackout by Owen Baillie
Narrated by B.J. Harrison
Aethon Audio
$7.47 Whispersync Deal with Kindle Purchase – Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
At the height of a scorching summer, multiple EMP attacks are launched against the world’s western allies.
Australia and the US are at the top of the hit list.
Planes fall from the sky. Cars crash through buildings. Power outages create desperation for food and water and people quickly succumb to the heat. The world crumbles faster than anybody can imagine.
Up at Hell Ridge outside a small town on the outskirts of Melbourne, Parker Richardson sits on the banks of the King Parrot Creek, ready for a quiet two-week camping trip. A much-needed escape after the death of his mother, separation from his long-time girlfriend, and the sudden loss of his best mate’s friendship.
But when his phone and truck go dark, Parker loses all contact with his friends and must make the long, hazardous walk down into the township to uncover what has happened. Along the way, he slowly discovers there is more to the situation than he first thought.
Without the essentials on which they have come to rely, Parker and his friends must overcome their relationship issues, then band together to avoid the perils of a town drowning in chaos and an invading enemy intent on taking everything they have ever known.
Can the local people overcome their differences and repel the invasion? Or will this be the first of many towns to fall across the country and the western world as we know it?
Don’t miss the start of the next action-packed post-apocalyptic EMP survival thriller from Owen Baillie, best-selling author of Invasion of the Dead. This disaster series is perfect for fans of Kyla Stone, A.G. Riddle, Bobby Akart, Jack Hunt, and Ryan Schow.
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