Release Week: 24 June 2025
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Release Week: 24 June 2025
Posted on 2025-06-24 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
PICKS:
The Compound: A Novel By: Aisling Rawle, read by Lucy Boynton for Random House -- "Lily—a bored, beautiful twenty-something—wakes up on a remote desert compound, alongside nineteen other contestants competing on a massively popular reality show. To win, she must outlast her housemates to stay in the Compound the longest, while competing in challenges for luxury rewards like champagne and lipstick, plus communal necessities to outfit their new home, like food, appliances, and a front door. Cameras are catching all her angles, good and bad, but Lily has no desire to leave: why would she, when the world outside is falling apart? As the competition intensifies, intimacy between the players deepens, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between desire and desperation."
The Whyte Python World Tour: A Novel By: Travis Kennedy, read by Wil Wheaton for Random House -- "Rikki Thunder, twenty-two-year-old drummer for the scorching new ’80s metal band Whyte Python, is about to have it all: absurd wealth, global fame, and a dream girlfriend. But an unwitting role as an international spy? That was definitely not part of the plan."
The Tiny Things Are Heavier By: Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo, read by A’rese Emokpae for Bloomsbury -- "A heart-rending debut novel about a Nigerian immigrant as she tries to find her place at home and in America—a powerful epic about love, grief, family, and belonging."
Smile for the Cameras: A Novel By: Miranda Smith, read by Abigail Reno, Marwan Salama, Louisa Zhu, Vas Eli, and Jeff Ebner for Random House -- "An actress desperate to reclaim her fame must survive the real-life plot of the horror movie that made her famous in this psychologically twisted locked-room thriller."
A Magic Deep and Drowning By: Hester Fox, read by Lauren Ezzo for Harlequin -- "Set in the waning days of the Dutch Golden Age, this enchanting, lush reimagining of The Little Mermaid is perfect for fans of Jesse Burton’s The Miniaturist and Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar."
Glass Girls By: Danie Shokoohi, read by Christine Lakin for Gillian Flynn Books -- "When possession threatens to destroy the ones she loves, a former child medium is forced to face her deadly inheritance and the ghosts she left behind in this electrifying debut."
Don't Let Him In: A Novel by Lisa Jewell, read by a full cast for Simon and Schuster -- "Nina Swann is intrigued when she received a condolence card from Nick Radcliffe, an old friend of her late husband, who is looking to connect after her husband's unexpected death. Nick is a man of substance and good taste. He has a smile that could melt the coldest heart and a knack for putting others at ease. But to Nina’s adult daughter, Ash, Nick seems too slick, too polished, too good to be true. Without telling her mother, Ash begins digging into Nick’s past. What she finds is more than unsettling."
MORE HORROR:
Ten Sleep by Nicholas Belardes, read by Kim Ramirez for Recorded Books -- "Jordan Peele's Nope meets True Grit in a supernatural modern-day western about a trio of young people on a 10-day cattle drive that leads them through a canyon haunted by ancient mysteries and savage beasts who existed long before humankind."
Of Flesh and Blood: A Novel by Hunter Burke and NL Lavin, read by a full cast for Spotify -- "A forensic psychiatrist’s investigation into an infamous Louisiana serial killer leads him down a dangerous path of obsession as he discovers they share the same cursed blood."
The No-End House by Jeremy Bates, read by Joe Hempel for Tantor -- "It's the ultimate haunted house challenge. A crumbling stone mansion nestled in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, it may be the best-kept secret in Europe—a little-known attraction featuring nine escape rooms to explore, nine puzzles to solve, and a large cash prize for anyone who makes it to the end. There's just one catch: no one makes it to the end of The No-End House."
MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:
The Last Vigilant By: Mark A. Latham, read by Saskia Maarleveld for Orbit -- "In a world where magic is forgotten, monsters lurk in the dark woods, and honorable soldiers are few, this utterly gripping epic fantasy tells the story of an out-of-practice wizard and a hot-headed sargent who are thrust into the heart of a mystery that threatens to unravel their kingdom's fragile peace."
A Legionnaire's Guide to Love and Peace: A Novel By: Emily Skrutskie, read by Natalie Naudus for Random House -- "In this charming fantasy with a swoony friends-to-lovers romance, two soldiers must choose the futures they want in the wake of a last-chance hookup on the night before the world was supposed to end."
The Ether Witch: The Casting Call By: Delemhach, read by Matthew Wolf for Audible -- "Tamlin Ashowan has troubled his family for years. Between the fearfulness of his magic and his refusal to share exactly what it does, his loving parents and sister don’t know how best to guide him. Tam, on the other hand, insists he doesn’t need any assistance. Despite ignoring his magic and possessing a preference for remaining locked up in his room with a good book, Tam is determined to play his role as the heir to his dukedom to the best of his ability. But being the son of Finlay Ashowan, the famous hero of Daxaria, his life is prone to chaos. Will a new assistant, who has even more secrets than Tam himself, be able to help navigate Tam's endless responsibilities?"
The Secret Romantic’s Book of Magic edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane, stories by Kelly Andrew, Olivia Blake, A.G. Slatter, Melissa Marr, Tasha Suri, Kelley Armstrong, Megan Bannen, Paul Kane, A.C. Wise, Eliza Chan, Katherine Arden, Marie O'Regan, Hannah Nicole Maehrer, and Kamilah Cole, read by Jessica Preddy and Am Stubberfield for WF Howes -- "Enemies become lovers, rivalry turns to romance, and convenient marriages create true love in these 12 addictive tales."
The Chosen Queen: A Novel of the Pendragon Prophecy by Sam Davey, read by Anna Burnett for Recorded Books -- "The story of Camelot begins not with the sword in the stone, but rather with a twisted chain of murder, magic, and deceit in this powerful, feminist retelling featuring Igraine, the destined mother of King Arthur."
TIE-IN WATCH:
- All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, adapted by Meghan Fitzmartin, read by a full cast for Random House -- "A spectacular reimagining of the Superman mythos, from the Man of Steel's origin to his greatest foes and beyond and considered one of the most iconic storylines in the character’s history. In the audiobook, The Man of Steel goes toe-to-toe with Bizarro, his oddball twin, and the new character Zibarro, also from the Bizarro planet. And Superman faces the final revenge of Lex Luthor in the form of his own death!"
BACKLIST WATCH:
The Dragon and the George: The Dragon Knight Series, Book 1 By: Gordon R. Dickson (1976), read by Eric Burgher for Tantor -- "Through no fault of his own, the once human Jim Eckert had become a dragon. Unfortunately, his beloved Angie had remained human. But in this magical land anything could happen. To make matter worse, Angie had been taken prisoner by an evil dragon and was held captive in the impenetrable Loathly Tower. So in this land where humans were edible and beasts were magical—where spells worked and logic didn't—Jim Eckert had a big, strange problem."
Scream to the Shadows by Tunku Halim (2020), read by Andrew Hoffland for Random House -- "Unconfined to a single theme, this new collection of twenty short stories by Halim offers five distinct worlds–the paranormal mysteries from ‘The occult world’, with its dark settings reveal supernatural existences in the characteristic Halim style."
INDIE WATCH:
The Mudpuddle Manual of Natural Magic: Natural Magic, Book 1 By: Ciara Blume, read by Ryan H. Reid, Jessica Threet, Andrea Parsneau, and Travis Baldree for Soundbooth Theater -- "Eccentric heiress Maida Westabrook treasures her peaceful, "ordinary" life in California—morning strolls along the beach, warm evenings by the fire, and losing herself in her beloved library of myths and legends. Yet Maida can’t shake the nagging feeling that there’s more to her story than she’s been led to believe. Strange and inexplicable occurrences have always surrounded her, dismissed as nothing more than her overactive imagination. When a distant relative mysteriously vanishes, a body is discovered, and Maida’s lifelong dream of owning an enchanted bookshop suddenly comes true she realizes her "wild" imagination might not have been so far-fetched after all. There’s just one hitch: the sentient bookshop has gone into hiding and it’s up to Maida to coax it back."
Helloween by Duncan Ralston, read by Joe Hempel for Podium -- "On October 31st, 2001, five teens set out to make a horror film at a Halloween haunt in the small town of Crooks Corner."
MOST MISSING:
Magnitude by Victor Jiminez (Zeppelin) -- "In the near future, on the shortest night of the year, 137 stars appear in the outline of a set of human eyes. Everyone races to point every instrument of man at them. All except David, a radio astronomer at a university, who left his equipment pointed elsewhere. Now, he has to mail the tapes of his useless data, probably for the last time. He almost gets run over by a cement truck and encounters a beautiful woman who stops a break in into his car. They hit it off and have dinner that night. Ecstatic to be with someone out of his league, he returns home to discover his apartment has been firebombed, the tapes destroyed. Two friends try to console him. The beautiful woman calls him and David lets it slip he still has a copy of the data in his pocket on a USB stick. This sets off a globe spanning adventure, running from a mysterious and powerful enemy intent on devastation."
The World Turns Red by Tim Waggoner (Cemetery Dance) -- "Welcome to the meat room. At first, it’s a whisper on the edge of your consciousness. As it gets louder, you begin to make out words—dark, sharp, dangerous words… You clap your hands over your ears to shut them out, but you can’t escape what comes from inside you. The voice tells you to do things to yourself. Bad things. Awful things… The longer you listen, the more they seem reasonable. Desirable. Inevitable."
Indifferent Universe by Joseph Blackhurst -- "An all-knowing A.I. was asked: How did our universe begin, how will it end, and what is the meaning of life? The answer follows the life story of Aldo Go—an artist living in a hilarious alternate universe from our own. The reader watches as Aldo is transformed by the ugliness of the modern-day zeitgeist from a starry-eyed child to a disillusioned man who drags a dead body into his condo to watch it decompose."