Distress Signal

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Adam takes his girlfriend Sarah to the airport in Cork, Ireland, for a quick business trip to Barcelona. He is supposed to be working on his writing, so he isn't alarmed when he doesn't hear from her at first. But then her parents call him, worried that she isn't answering her phone Then Sarah doesn't come home as scheduled. 

Adam discovers that Sarah actually called in sick to work, and lied about the purpose of her trip. So why did she go to Barcelona? And where is she now? The police seem to think she left of her own accord, but Adam is determined to investigate. He may not survive finding the truth...

This was a great story with several surprises! I will look for more by this author.

The Interdependency Trilogy

The Collapsing Empire, The Consuming Fire, and The Last Emperox 
Audible Original Fiction by John Scalzi

https://www.audible.com https://www.audible.com https://www.audible.com

Thousands of years in the future, humans live all over space, not just on Earth. In the star system of this story, they live in The Interdependency and have completely lost touch with Earth altogether. The Interdependency is a network of planets and space stations joined by The Flow, which is the only method of connection between planets that are light-years apart. (Think wormholes in Star Trek. Like that.)

Okay, I understand that long sci-fi backstory is a lot, but just go with it. Because this is an amazingly good trilogy. I loved the characters so much! And the narration is also top-notch.

Definitely listen to these in order.

I also listened to recently from Audible Original Fiction: Constituent Service

I also read by this author: Starter Villain

The Reformatory

 Fiction by Tananarive Due

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

It's 1950 in Gracetown, Florida, and 12-year-old Robbie is living with his older sister Gloria in the old shack on their family's land. There had been a house there, but the Klan burned it down after their daddy, Robert Stevens Senior, was discovered trying to unionize the Negros at the mill. The audacity he showed really riled the white folks in town, and a bogus criminal charge was quickly found to issue a warrant for the arrest of Robert Stevens, causing him to flee the area and leave his children behind. 

Then Robbie kicks a white boy who tries to put an arm around Gloria, and all heck breaks loose. The local authorities see this incident as a perfect pretext to catch Robert Senior, arresting Robbie for assault and sentencing him to six months at the Boy's Reformatory outside of town, a true horror of a place. (The ghosts that haunt it are probably the most benign problem. It's BAD.) There the story really begins.

This was an amazing novel with great characters and an affecting storyline. Real and imagined events mix together to give the reader an exciting ride through the past, and also inspires a lot of thought for the present.

The Plea

 Fiction by Steve Cavanaugh

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book is the sequel to The Defense, which I read recently. In this story, con artist turned defense attorney Eddie Flynn is approached by the FBI to help them uncover a money laundering scheme. All he has to do is convince a tech billionaire accused of murder to hire him (Eddie) for his (the billionaire guy's) defense.

The problem is that Billionaire Guy already HAS a lawyer, and it's a super-duper expensive fancy one. But the FBI says Eddie has to get hired, pronto.

Oh, and if he doesn't succeed they will arrest his (Eddie's) wife.

This was an exciting story with great characters and several surprises.

A Bigfoot Homecoming

 Fiction by Kim Orendor

https://www.amazon.com

In 1956, Zeke Renik was a poor kid in Missouri when he saw Bigfoot. Nearly seventy years later, he's an old man in a Florida nursing home when he hears about a new Bigfoot sighting back home, and he wants to investigate. So he and an orderly named Nate head off on a road trip.

This is a self-published book recommended to me by a friend. I wanted to love it, but didn't. It did have a good ending.

The Defense

 Fiction by Steve Cavanaugh

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I read a novel by this author recently that I discovered was #3 in a series (see below), so I went and got this book-- it's #1.

In this story, Eddie Flynn is a New York City man who has been a con artist, an alcoholic, and a defense lawyer; however, he's not currently any of those things. Then he is contacted by the Russian mob with the news that they have kidnapped his daughter in order to force him back into defense law, and maybe into the con game as well...

This was an exciting story with lots of plot twists and several surprises.

I also read recently by this author: Thirteen

Constituent Service

 Audible Original Fiction by John Scalzi

https://www.audible.com

This was a hysterically funny little story about an office full of aliens.

I also read recently by this author: When the Moon Hits Your Eye

I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: The Authorities

Still Beating

 Fiction by Jennifer Hartmann

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Cora and her sister's fiancé Dean have a cute banter-y relationship that makes people think they might be into each other, but they insist they aren't. After all, he's her sister's fiancé! But then they get kidnapped together, and there's no doubt they will fall in LURVE immediately. But what about the sister?!

The author categorizes her writing style as angsty romance, and that's very accurate. So this book is definitely a straight romance with quite a bit of heterosexual S-E-X. That's not really my style in general, but it wasn't a bad novel, I guess...

The Authorities

 Audible Original Fiction by Scott Meyer

https://www.audible.com

Sinclair Rutherford is new to the Seattle police force, but he's sharp. He hopes to become a homicide detective, but for now, as a rookie, he has to settle for being needled and hazed by the current detectives. But then he gets a lucky break and is noticed by someone important... or is it so lucky after all? Time will tell.

This was a hilarious and exciting story with great characters. I highly recommend it!

I also listened to recently from Audible Originals: When the Moon Hits Your Eye

I also read recently by this author: That's Not Right

Necessary People

 Fiction by Anna Pitoniak

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Violet and Stella have been best friends since the first day of college. Stella is the "fun" friend, a free spirited rich girl that everyone likes, and Violet is the responsible one who makes sure that Stella's antics don't get them into any real trouble. It's a great partnership, but after graduation, the cracks between them begin to show. Although they still need each other in many ways, they are starting to resent it. Neither is ready to break away from the other just yet, but the reader can sense a crisis coming...

This was an exciting story with well-written, if not always likeable, characters.

Whalefall

 Fiction by Daniel Kraus

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Seventeen-year-old Jay Gardiner's father Mick recently drowned himself in the Monastery Bay, and Jay can't seem to get over it. Mick was actually a terrible person, but he was also something of a beloved local legend, known for his diving prowess and colorful personality. Since he and Jay had been estranged for over a year when he died, everyone in town knows that Mick died alone, and that it's all Jay's fault. (Or at least that's how Jay perceives things.)

Jay gets it into his head that the only way to honor his father's memory, and win back the respect of the town, is to recover Mick's remains from the dangerous depths of the bay. This is a truly bad idea, especially as Jay plans to go alone. But he's a seventeen-year-old kid, so he does it anyway.

This story is about Jay making that dive, and about all the disturbing memories of Mick that drive him there. It's unpleasant, and then it veers into unbelievable. I did not like this book.

Girls Like Us

 Fiction by Cristina Alger

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

FBI agent Nell Flynn comes back to her hometown when her father Martin dies; she's already on an administrative leave after shooting a suspect, so she has time. When she arrives, she gets interested in the last case her father, a homicide detective, was investigating: a murdered girl whose death might be related to another similar case the year before. As she learns more, however, Nell begins to suspect that her father may have been involved in the case as more than an investigator...

This book had an okay plot but I didn't really like it. It was hard to get interested in and the characters weren't very compelling.

The Family Experiment

 Fiction by John Marrs

https://www.audible.com

In a futuristic Britain, the divide between rich and poor becomes ever-wider, and government control over individuals grows stronger and stronger, as the line between private corporations and public entities blurs. In this installment of the story, couples who can't have biological children compete on reality TV for the opportunity to have AI kids.

Wait, what? Just accept the premise. It's the dystopian future!

This book is listed as #3 in the "Dark Future Series," which includes The One, The Marriage Act, The Passengers, and The Minders. I have read all of these and I think they have the order wrong; this one is more like number four or five. But that's not important, I guess.

The important thing is that this book was really good, especially in audiobook form with the different narrators.

Look Closer

 Fiction by David Ellis

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of this book, Lauren Betancourt is murdered in her expensive Grace Park, Illinois, home. It's Halloween night, and to all appearances, she was killed by the man she was having a secret affair with. But is that really what happened?

This was an exciting thriller with several surprises. Most of the characters were truly awful people...

The Suicide House

 Fiction by Charlie Donlea

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

There's an elite high school in Indiana called Westmont Prep, where parents who can pay for it send their high-achieving (or problem) kids. The school boasts a 100% university graduation rate, and prides itself on excellence and discipline. But there's a secret society inside the student body that the school administration pretends not to see, and one night an initiation in the nearby forest gets out of hand. Two students end up dead and a teacher is accused of murder. 

But there are many who don't think the teacher was guilty. One year later a true-crime podcaster tries to find out what really happened in the woods at Westmont Prep.

This was an exciting mystery, but just a little over-the-top in believability. I did like the characters.

I also read recently by this author: Don't Believe It

Bad Monkeys

 Fiction by Matt Ruff

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Jane Charlotte has been arrested for murder, and she's being interviewed by a psychiatrist when she makes some startling claims. Jane says she's been employed by a worldwide organization who is tasked with fighting evil by identifying and removing it. Specifically, Jane claims to be an assassin for the unnamed organization; she says she kills Bad Monkeys, that is, people who are deemed irredeemably evil and dangerous to others.

This is an interesting beginning, and the book starts out really good. Unfortunately there are so many unbelievable plot twists, and Jane is such an unreliable narrator, that I ended up unsure at the end of the story what had really happened. The novel gave me a bad case of I-Can-No-Longer-Suspend-My-Disbelief-Syndrome.**

**I-Can-No-Longer-Suspend-My-Disbelief-Syndrome: 

(See The Truth About the Accident by Nicole Trope)

This is when the plot twists push the boundaries of believability too far, (such as a long-lost-identical twin showing up at the last minute to take the blame when it had never before been mentioned that the person has a twin) or too often (such as three or four coincidences lining up to reveal the final twist.)

Thirteen

 Fiction by Steve Cavanagh

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Attorney Eddie Flynn has a strict policy: he will only defend clients that he genuinely thinks are innocent. In this story, he's given the opportunity to gain a major paycheck by defending Bobby Solomon, a Hollywood star accused of murdering his wife and her bodyguard, but he needs to be convinced that Bobby is truly not guilty, and the actor is definitely lying about something. 

And then there's the crazy guy who has infiltrated the jury, who may be the real killer....

This was an exciting thriller with several surprises. I will look for more by this author; this is apparently #3 in the Eddie Flynn series.

The House of My Mother

 Nonfiction by Shari Franke

https://www.audible.com

Family vlogger Ruby Franke was big news a couple of years ago when she and her best friend Jodi Hildebrand were convicted of neglecting and abusing Ruby's four minor children. No charges were brought up concerning the two oldest kids, Shari and Chad, because the two of them had already left home.

In this story Shari tells her own story of how Ruby's abuse of her children started long before she met up with Jodi, and how the support and validation Jodi gave her escalated everything exponentially.

This was an honest memoir and very interesting, but it was also extremely sad.

Don't Tell Me How to Die

 Fiction by Marshall Karp

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Maggie Dunn is at the top of her game at forty-three years old. She's happily married to a doctor, the mother of teenaged twins, a successful lawyer, AND the mayor of her small town. But then she receives the news that she only has a few months left to live...

This was an amazingly good story with several surprises!

Small Fry

 Nonfiction by Lisa Brennan-Jobs

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Lisa is the daughter of Steve Jobs and his high school girlfriend Chrisann Brennan, but she was raised in her early years exclusively by her mother. Steve Jobs refused to acknowledge paternity, until the state of California sued him for back child support (to reimburse them for the food stamps and welfare Chrisann had been forced to apply for in order to support his daughter.) 

Even after DNA test had proven that he was indeed Lisa's father, Steve continued to deny her for many years. He gave her little scraps of attention as she longed for his approval. At the same time, her mother loved her, but was emotionally unstable and chronically poor.

This was a very interesting memoir; it gives the reader a clear picture of Lisa and her parents. I didn't love it, since everyone was kind of unpleasant...

Once was Willem

 Fiction by M.R. Carey

https://www.audible.com

This was a very interesting story, set in a 12th century England where magic is real. It’s imaginative and has great characters.

I also read recently by this author: The Boy on the Bridge

Pay it Forward

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is THE Catherine Ryan Howard book, the one she is famous for. I thought I had read it before, but it turns out I had just heard the concept or watched the movie or something, because if I had read THIS book before I would have remembered.

This is a lovely story.

I also read recently by this author: Seven Perfect Things

Restart

 Fiction by Gordon Korman

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Middle schooler Chase Ambrose wakes up in the hospital after falling off a roof, and he doesn't remember anything about his life. When he begins to find out about himself, he learns some things he doesn't really like: it seems like he was a real jerk before his accident. Can he become the person he wants to be, or is he stuck being the guy everyone remembers that he was before?

This was a great story for young people!

More News Tomorrow

 Fiction by Susan Richards Shreve 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

On June 17, 1941, a group of nine people take three canoes along the Bone River in Wisconsin on the way to a place called Camp Mini HaHa. They stop on the shore along the way to camp, next to a sign that reads “Missing Lake.” The next morning Josephine Grove, one of the nine people, is found strangled to death underneath that very sign, and her husband William confesses to the murder. Four years later William Grove dies in prison. 

Over sixty-five years later, William and Josephine’s daughter Georgie (who had been only four years old at the time of the tragedy) goes on an odd quest to find out what truly happened that night. What she really wants to believe is that her father did not actually kill her mother; however, there is the irrefutable fact that he  said he had. And can anyone ever find out the truth of events that took place so long ago?

This was an interesting story. I categorized it as a mystery, but it’s more of a story about how the past affects the present, whether we know the truth about it or not. It has very good characters. 

I also read by this author: You Are the Love of My Life

The Flatshare

 Fiction by Beth O'Leary

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Tiffany Moore is desperate to find a new place to live in order to get away from her terrible ex-boyfriend, but she really doesn’t have enough money for anything decent, especially in London. She ends up signing on to a strange flat sharing agreement with a man called Leon, wherein she gets the flat’s single bedroom on nights and weekends, and he occupies it on weekdays from eight am to six pm. 

Theoretically the two of them will never see each other. But the reader can guess that they definitely will…

This was a lovely little straight romance with great characters. I will look for more by this author!