Release Week: 2 September 2025
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Release Week: 2 September 2025
Posted on 2025-09-02 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
PICKS:
Honeyeater By: Kathleen Jennings, read by Felicity Jurd for Audible -- "Sub-tropical Bellworth is founded on floodplains and root-bound secrets. And Charlie, remarkable only for vanished friends and a successful sister, plans to leave for good, just as soon as he deals with his dead aunt’s house. Then Grace arrives, desperate, with roses pressing up through her skin, and drags Charlie into the ghost-choked mysteries of Bellworth, uncovering the impossible consequences of loss and desire—and a choice Charlie made when he was a boy. But peeling back the rumors and lies that cocoon the suburb disturbs more than complacent neighbors and lost souls. And Charlie and Grace are forced to a decision that threatens not only their lives, but all they believed those lives could be."
Sympathy Tower Tokyo: A Novel By: Rie Qudan, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, read by Hanako Footman for Simon and Schuster -- "Welcome to the Japan of tomorrow. Here, the practice of radical sympathy toward criminals has become normalized. The incarcerated are considered victims influenced by their environments to commit crime and are labeled accordingly as Homo miserabilis. A grand, yet controversial, skyscraper in the heart of Tokyo is planned to house lawbreakers in compassionate comfort—Sympathy Tower Tokyo. Acclaimed architect Sara Machina has been tasked with designing the city’s new centerpiece but is filled with doubt. Haunted by a terrible crime she experienced as a young girl, she wonders if she might inherently disagree with the values of the project, which should be the pinnacle of her career. As Sara grapples with these conflicting emotions, her relationship with her gorgeous—and much younger—boyfriend grows increasingly strained. In search of solace and in need of creative inspiration, Sara turns to the knowing words of an AI chatbot."
Trip: A Novel By: Amie Barrodale, read by Eunice Wong for Macmillan -- "A woman embarks on an odyssey through the afterlife to help her son, who is literally and figuratively lost at sea: a hilarious and deeply moving voyage of the body and the mind."
A Land So Wide: A Novel By: Erin A. Craig, read by Cecily Bednar Schmidt for Random House -- "Like everyone else in the settlement of Mistaken, Greer Mackenzie is trapped. Founded by an ambitious lumber merchant, the village is blessed with rich natural resources that have made its people prosperous—but at a cost. The same woods that have lined the townsfolks’ pockets harbor dangerous beasts: wolves, bears, and the Bright-Eyeds—monsters beyond description who have rained utter destruction down on nearby settlements. But Mistaken’s founders made a deal with the mysterious Benevolence: the Warding Stones that surround the town will keep the Bright-Eyeds out—and the town’s citizens in. Anyone who spends a night within Mistaken’s borders belongs to it forever."
Night & Day: Dreadful Dark: Tales of Night Time Horror/Merciless Sun: Tales of Daylight Horror edited by Ellen Datlow, read by Eilidh Beaton, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Kevin R. Free, Cindy Kay, and Helen Laser for Simon and Schuster -- "A horror anthology edited by the genre’s greatest, Ellen Datlow, with one side featuring stories about what haunts the night while the other side showcases the terrors that can exist in the light of day in this new addition to the Saga Doubles series."
Boudicca's Daughter By: Elodie Harper, read by Nathalie Emmanuel and the author for Union Square -- "The story of Boudicca, the notorious warrior queen who led a legendary rebellion in 60 CE against the Roman Empire in Britain. This book follows Boudicca's meteoric rise and devastating fall through the eyes of her youngest daughter, Solina, who seeks revenge against Rome."
Making History By: K. J. Parker, read by Ian Bedford for Podium -- "A group of scholars must do the impossible for a ruthless king. The cost of refusal, of course, is death."
NEW EDITION WATCH:
The Martian Chronicles By: Ray Bradbury, read by Dion Graham for Simon and Schuster -- "The 75th anniversary edition of The Martian Chronicles, a seminal work in Ray Bradbury’s career, whose extraordinary power and imagination remain undimmed by time’s passage."
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, read by Alexis Bledel for Macmillan -- "With an introduction written and read by New York Times–bestselling author Gabrielle Zevin comes this special 50th Anniversary Edition of the beloved children's classic with more than more than 10 million copies sold."
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch By: Philip K. Dick, read by John Skelley for Recorded Books -- "On Mars, the harsh climate could make any colonist turn to drugs to escape a dead-end existence. Especially when the drug is Can-D, which transports its users into the idyllic world of a Barbie-esque character named Perky Pat. When the mysterious Palmer Eldritch arrives with a new drug called Chew-Z, he offers a more addictive experience, one that might bring the user closer to God. But in a world where everyone is tripping, no promises can be taken at face value."
MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:
The Shattered King: The Shattered King, Book 1 By: Charlie N. Holmberg, read by Natalie Naudus for Brilliance -- "A captive healer and a mysterious prince are drawn to each other in the midst of war and magic in a beguiling dark fantasy."
The Entanglement of Rival Wizards: Magic and Romance, Book 1 By: Sara Raasch, read by Sam Stark for Macmillan -- "Ali Hazelwood meets Dungeons & Dragons in this enemies-to-lovers fantasy academia romcom where rival grad student wizards are forced to work together without killing—or falling for—each other."
Kingdom of Tomorrow: Book of Arden, Book 1 By: Gena Showalter, read by Fiona Hardingham for Brilliance -- "A young woman must navigate a secret society, uncover a shocking enemy…and resist an undeniable attraction."
Smoke and Scar: Shattered Crown, Book 1 By: Gretchen Powell Fox, read by Dan Calley and Stephanie Németh-Parker for Simon Maverick -- "An epic fantasy romance where enemies-to-lovers must brave the deadly trials of the Arcane Crucible, facing dark magic and impossible odds that could shape the fate of their world forever."
A Blood as Bright as the Moon by Andrea Morstabilini, read by Michael Crouch for Recorded Books -- "A vampire, desperately torn between worlds, is hunted down by a secret society bent on his destruction, in this timeless and unsettling queer gothic horror, perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher and Silvia Moreno-Garcia."
Moonflow by Bitter Karella, read by Venus Rose Fischer for Run For It -- "Annihilation meets Manhunt in three-time Hugo Award nominee Bitter Karella’s debut horror novel—a gloriously queer and irreverent psychedelic trip into the heart of an eldritch wood and the horrors of (cis)terhood."
Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley, read by Jeremy Carlisle Parker for Sourcebooks -- "It's a Midsommar night's Scream in this blood-soaked thriller set at a remote healing retreat."
TIE-IN WATCH:
- Livewire: The Valiant Universe By: Sarah Raughley, read by Soneela Nankani for Blackstone -- "Amanda McKee is a psiot, an evolved subspecies of humanity with mysterious psychic powers. According to billionaire Toyo Harada and his secret research organization, the Harbinger Foundation, she has the ability to talk to machines, control technology, and even see into a secret parallel world that exists inside computers: the Digital World. But Harada wants Amanda to keep that last bit under wraps—along with the fact that she’s his adopted daughter."
SERIES WATCH:
Vianne: A Novel By: Joanne Harris, read by the author for Dreamscape -- "Harris returns to the world of Chocolat with the long-awaited story of Vianne, which begins six years before she opens her scandalous chocolaterie in the small French village of Lansquenet."
Angel Maker: Karen Memory, Book 3 By: Elizabeth Bear, read by Jennifer Grace for Recorded Books -- "Every cowboy story needs a horse no man can ride. No man—but Miss Karen Memory is all woman. When she and her beloved Priya sign on to do stunts for a motion picture about a rogue Mechanical named Cowboy and a Wild West show, she finds the horse of her dreams: Angel Maker."
Wild Reverence By: Rebecca Ross, read by George Weightman, Hannah van der Westhuysen, and Rebecca Norfolk for Macmillan -- "Set in the world of the gods first introduced in Divine Rivals, a sweeping, beautiful adult novel filled with tension, romance, and dark secrets."
Clan Novel Giovanni: The Clan Novel Saga, Book 10 By: Justin Achilli (2000), read by Kyle Maraglio for Crossroad Press -- "Benito Giovanni has vanished. Enter Chas Giovanni Tello, Mob strong-arm and part of the New World Giovanni. Chas finds himself ordered to Las Vegas where he meets the Old World scion of the necromancers' clan, Isabel, who shares his interest in locating the missing Benito."
YOUNG ADULT WATCH:
When We Were Monsters By: Jennifer Niven, read by Elena Rey, Saskia Maarleveld, and Briggon Snow for Listening Library -- "A dead teacher at an elite boarding school. Four students who had every reason to want her gone. Who is the monster?"
Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley, read by Isabella Star LaBlanc for Macmillan -- "From the instant New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper's Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed comes a daring new mystery about a foster teen claiming her heritage on her own terms."
Thorn Season by Kiera Azar, read by Suzy Jackson for Harper -- "In the Kingdom of Daradon, a persecuted few are Wielders, in possession of a magical Spectre–a shimmering thread that can extend beyond their visible body to give a loving caress, pick a lock . . . even kill. Feared for this ability, Wielders have always been Hunted. Alissa Paine, heiress and daughter of a Hunter family . . . is also a Wielder. At eighteen, Alissa knows she's escaped execution thus far only due to painful self-control and the efforts of her beloved father. Summoned to the harsh and glittering royal court for the debutante season, Alissa finds herself caught in a web of intrigue and betrayal—and caught between two equally dangerous men: one a brutal ruler with the handsome face of a fairy-tale prince, who would destroy her if he knew the truth—and the other a beguiling foreign ambassador with secret agendas of his own."
MOST MISSING:
- Swords and Larceny edited by David Afsharirad and Mark Finn (Baen) -- "When the stakes are high and the odds are stacked, only the cleverest and most daring will make it out with the prize. Thirteen daring tales of fantasy heists and high-stakes capers—where charm is as sharp as steel, and the score of a lifetime is just one misstep away. With stories by Christopher Ruocchio, Wen Spencer, A. Lee Martinez, Edward M. Erdelac, Jim Zub, John C. Hocking, James Enge, Tim Akers, Mark Finn, Bill Willingham, Adrian Simmons, Tracy S. Morris, and Stephen Aryan."