Welcome to Brian’s Book Blog’s weekly New and Notable Audiobooks Post for the Week of May 14th.
Comment below on any I missed or what you’re excited about!
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Even If Everything Ends by Jens Liljestrand
Narrated by Matt Addis, Tamsin Kennard, Joe Jameson, Imogen Wilde
Simon & Schuster Audio
Life goes on in the face of a climate crisis in this astonishing and unforgettable debut novel that follows four characters as they struggle to survive in a burning world.
Even when the climate crisis escalates beyond our worst nightmares and people become refugees, the world keeps turning and life carries on as usual: teenaged love stories, marital collapses, identity crises, and revolts against hopeless parents continue to play out.
Didrik is a forty-year-old media consultant whose misguided efforts to become the family hero render him a pathetic vision of masculine incompetence. Melissa is an influencer with a suitcase full of lost dreams after denying climate change for years. André is the nineteen-year-old loser son of an international sports star who uses the erupting violence around him to orchestrate his own personal vengeance on his negligent father. And Vilja is Didrik’s teenaged daughter who steps into a leadership role in the face of adult ineptitude.
No One Needs to Know by Lindsay Cameron
Narrated by Brittany Pressley, Rebecca Lowman
Random House Audio
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Lindsay Cameron
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Brittany Pressley, Rebecca Lowman
When an anonymous neighborhood forum gets hacked, the darkest secrets of New York’s wealthiest residents come to light—including some worth killing for—in this gripping suspense novel from the author of Just One Look.
It was all confidential. Right up to the moment when it wasn’t.
UrbanMyth: It was lauded as an alternative to the performative, show-your-best-self platforms—an anonymous discussion board grouped by zip code. The residents of Manhattan’s exclusive Upper East Side disclosed it all, things they would never share with their friends or their spouses: secret bank accounts, steamy affairs, tidbits of juicy gossip. The same people who, as parents, go to astonishing lengths to ensure that their children gain admission to the most prestigious boarding schools and universities. So when a “hacktivist” group breaks into the forum and exposes the real identity of each poster, the repercussions echo down Park Avenue with a force that none could have anticipated.
And someone ends up dead.
Is the murderer Heather, the outsider who would do anything to get her daughter into the elite’s good graces and into their even better schools? Norah, the high-powered executive failing to balance work with the emotional responsibilities of motherhood? Or Poppy, whose perfect-on-the-outside façade conceals more than her share of secrets?
Each of them has something to hide.
Each of them will do anything to keep secrets hidden.
And each of them just might kill to protect their own.
Deadly Memory by David Walton
Living Memory #2
Narrated by Sofia Rowley
Self Published
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Check out my reviews of other titles written by David Walton
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Sofia Rowley
The past turns deadly in this sequel to the globe-spanning paleontology thriller Living Memory.
Ancient genetic technology drives world politics as China and the US vie for the power contained in Thailand’s fossil deposits. Deep in an underground CIA facility, Samira studies an unprecedented find, but fears her discoveries will be used as a weapon.
Meanwhile, from the depths of the ocean, a killer organism surfaces that hasn’t been seen in 250 million years. Will world powers share what they know in time to save humanity?
Click by L. Smyth
Narrated by Chloe Endean
HarperAudio
STRANGER.
FRIEND.
OR ENEMY?
Who is it really hiding behind the screen?
A gripping story that will stay with you long after the final word, perfect for fans of FRIEND REQUEST and HE SAID/SHE SAID.
Eva arrives at university ready to escape her past. She wants a new life, a new personality. But old habits creep in and she finds herself alone, online, watching the digital lives of others.
One profile in particular captures Eva’s attention: that of her glamorous classmate, Marina. As Eva’s obsession builds, she becomes drawn into a web of lies, danger and suspicion. Because Marina’s perfectly filtered life isn’t what it seems.
What is Marina hiding? And behind the screen, who is Eva really – her friend, a stranger, or an enemy?
It only takes a click to find out.
Divide by Zero by Christopher Charles Berg
Narrated by Kate Reading, Michael Kramer
Self Published
Kindle Edition Currently Available with Kindle Unlimited
Truth and failure at the edge of understanding.
Winston doesn’t think like other people. He struggles to explain himself, and questions basic mathematics. Fearing expulsion from his graduate program, he takes a leave of absence to test a new class of computer.
Nothing about this computer is normal, and Winston unleashes ambitious code to push its limits, only to discover there is a reason he struggles with people and can’t follow norms. Now, his greatest failure has him facing the truth about himself, the limits of human understanding, and the forgotten legacy of the dead laying deep somewhere in the Pacific.
The Rules of Us by Jennifer Nissley
Narrated by Jessie Cannizzaro
Listening Library
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Jennifer Nissley
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Jessie Cannizzaro
Come out. Break up. Stay friends? In this heartwarming queer love story about love of all kinds, exes navigate new crushes, new feelings, and a newly uncertain future after unexpectedly coming out to each other on prom night turns their lives—and their friendship—upside down. Can they figure out how to move on without losing each other?
Jillian and Henry are the kind of couple who do everything together. They take the same classes, have the same hobbies, and applied for the same super-competitive scholarship so they can go to the same dream college. They even come out as gay to each other on the same night, after junior prom, prompting a sudden breakup that threatens their intertwined identity and carefully designed future. Jillian knows the only way to keep everything on track is to approach their breakup with the same precision and planning as their scholarship application. They will still be “Jillian and Henry”—even if they’re broken up.
Except they hadn’t planned on Henry meeting the boy of his dreams or Jillian obsessing over a cool girl at school. Jillian is desperate to hold on to her best friend when so much else is changing. But as she and Henry explore what—and who—they really want, it becomes harder to hold on to the careful definitions she has always lived her life by. Stuck somewhere between who she was with Henry and who she might be on her own, Jillian has to face what she can’t control and let go of the rules holding her back.
If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come by Jen St. Jude
Narrated by Georgina Sadler
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Georgina Sadler
We Are Okay meets They Both Die at the End in this YA debut about queer first love and mental health at the end of the world—and the importance of saving yourself, no matter what tomorrow may hold.
Avery Byrne has secrets. She’s queer; she’s in love with her best friend, Cass; and she’s suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to live: an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it.
Trying to spare her family and Cass additional pain, Avery does her best to make it through just nine more days. As time runs out and secrets slowly come to light, Avery would do anything to save the ones she loves. But most importantly, she learns to save herself. Speak her truth. Seek the support she needs. Find hope again in the tomorrows she has left.
If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come is a celebration of queer love, a gripping speculative narrative, and an urgent, conversation-starting book about depression, mental health, and shame.
This Is the Way the World Ends by Jen Wilde
Narrated by Jesse Vilinsky
Listening Library
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Jesse Vilinsky
Fans of One of Us Is Lying and The Hazel Wood are cordially invited to spend one fateful night surviving an elite private school’s epic masquerade ball in Jen Wilde’s debut thriller, This Is the Way the World Ends.
As an autistic scholarship student at the prestigious Webber Academy in New York City, Waverly is used to masking to fit in—in more ways than one. While her classmates are the children of the one percent, Waverly is getting by on tutoring gigs and the generosity of the school’s charming and enigmatic dean. So when her tutoring student and resident “it girl” asks Waverly to attend the school’s annual fundraising Masquerade disguised as her, Waverly jumps at the chance—especially once she finds out that Ash, the dean’s daughter and her secret ex-girlfriend, will be there.
The Masquerade is everything Waverly dreamed of, complete with extravagant gowns, wealthy parents writing checks, and flowing champagne. Most importantly, there’s Ash. All Waverly wants to do is shed her mask and be with her, but the evening takes a sinister turn when Waverly stumbles into a secret meeting between the dean and the school’s top donors—and witnesses a brutal murder. This gala is harboring far more malevolent plots than just opening parents’ pocketbooks. Before she can escape or contact the authorities, a mysterious global blackout puts the entire party on lockdown. Waverly’s fairy tale has turned into a nightmare, and she, Ash, and her friends must navigate through a dizzying maze of freight elevators, secret passageways, and back rooms if they’re going to survive the night.
And even if they manage to escape the Masquerade, with technology wiped out all over the planet, what kind of world will they find waiting for them beyond the doors?
The Love Deal by Misha Bell
Narrated by Erin Mallon, Joe Arden
Self Published
Check out my reviews of other titles written by Misha Bell
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Erin Mallon, Joe Arden
Honey Hyman (do not call her “hon”) is all leather, piercings, and tattoos. And yes, she may be just a tad deal-obsessed, but who isn’t? It’s not like her using coupons is stealing from anyone…unless, of course, those coupons are the fakes she created to help her elderly neighbors afford groceries from the Munch & Crunch, the uber-expensive supermarket that’s replaced their local grocery store.
It really isn’t fair for her to go to jail. Or to be blackmailed into working for the Munch & Crunch CEO whom she’s supposedly defrauded—a CEO who turns out to be none other than Gunther Ferguson, her high school crush who once ruined both her school record and her life.
Let the war begin.
You Don’t Have a Shot by Raquel Marie
Narrated by Marisol Ramirez
Recorded Books
A queer YA romance about rival soccer players from author Racquel Marie, perfect for fans of She Drives Me Crazy.
Valentina “Vale” Castillo-Green’s life revolves around soccer. Her friends, her future, and her father’s intense expectations are all wrapped up in the beautiful game. But after she incites a fight during playoffs with her long-time rival, Leticia Ortiz, everything she’s been working toward seems to disappear.
Embarrassed and desperate to be anywhere but home, Vale escapes to her beloved childhood soccer camp for a summer of relaxation and redemption…only to find out that she and the endlessly aggravating Leticia will be co-captaining a team that could play in front of college scouts. But the competition might be stiffer than expected, so unless they can get their rookie team’s act together, this second chance—and any hope of playing college soccer—will slip through Vale’s fingers. When the growing pressure, friendship friction, and her overbearing father push Vale to turn to Leticia for help, what starts off as a shaky alliance of necessity begins to blossom into something more through a shared love of soccer. . . and maybe each other.
Sharp, romantic, and deeply emotional, You Don’t Have a Shot is a rivals-to-lovers romance about rediscovering your love of the game and yourself, from the author of Ophelia After All.
“You Don’t Have a Shot has every ingredient that makes rivals-to-lovers such a great trope, but it’s also so much more. It’s a story of grief and loss, of legacy, of culture, of holding the things and people that bring us joy close. I don’t think anyone will be surprised when I say that Racquel Marie has done it again: this is truly young adult contemporary at its best.”—Jonny Garza Villa, author of the Pura Belpré Honor Book Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun
Politics of Love by Annette Mori
Narrated by Heidi Bindhammer
Affinity E-Book Press NZ Ltd
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by Heidi Bindhammer
Governor Sandra Murphy is rethinking the sanity of allowing her mother to talk her into considering becoming the democratic party’s choice for the presidential nominee. Sandra has enough to contend with after surviving a bomb attack, thanks to the brave border control agent working alongside the clever undercover FBI agent. Now, she has to worry about a pesky reporter who seems to be everywhere, scoping stories Sandra would prefer Wynter Holmes steer far away from.
Wynter admires the charismatic governor. After all, she voted for the woman. But that doesn’t give Governor Murphy a free pass. A breaking story is what Wynter lives for, and she isn’t about to stop digging just because the engaging governor is attractive, single, and an out lesbian. Besides, reporting for the famously biased right-wing media conglomerate is not exactly making Wynter a friend of the enigmatic leader.
Will repeated attempts on Governor Murphy’s life where Wynter might be collateral damage bring them closer together, or tear them apart from what might be a perfect match?
The Retreat: The Complete Series by Craig DiLouie, Stephen Knight, Joe McKinney
Narrated by R.C. Bray
Self Published
Check out my reviews of other titles Narrated by R.C. Bray
The world would die laughing….
When a new disease turns people into sadistic, laughing killers, a light infantry battalion fights to maintain order in Boston. As infection spreads, the Army loses control, and the soldiers find themselves fighting the people they once swore to protect.
As the country slides into violent collapse, the lost battalion learns the last bastion of the federal government is still holding out in Florida. Harry Lee, its commander, decides the only hope is to lead the survivors there.
But first, they must cross more than a thousand miles of an apocalyptic America, hunted by a savage and merciless enemy.
Inspired by The Anabasis and written by a team of best-selling zombie authors—Craig DiLouie, Stephen Knight, and Joe McKinney—The Retreat: The Complete Series for the first time brings together all six volumes, chronicling a horrific vision of the apocalypse and a brutal depiction of courage in the face of impossible odds.
Volume includes the following works:
The Retreat: Pandemic
The Retreat: Slaughterhouse
The Retreat: Die Laughing
The Retreat: Alamo
The Retreat: Crucible
The Retreat: Forlorn Hope
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- Ordinary Soil by Alex Woodard (Narrated by Scott Brick, George Newbern) - November 6, 2025
- Learning to Fall by Peach Morris (Narrated by Zara Hampton-Brown) - November 3, 2025
