September 2023 Indie Next List

The Vaster Wilds

A Novel

By: Lauren Groff
Narrated by: January LaVoy
Length: 7 hours 5 minutes

“Lauren Groff is at the height of her power as a writer. The Vaster Wilds explores how one young woman’s experience of survival defines her. Rich in nuance, gorgeous, and full of the mystery of spirit, this novel meditates on life itself. Read more

Rouge

A Novel

By: Mona Awad
Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
Length: 14 hours 42 minutes

“Magnificent, atmospheric, evocative. The ending was so beautiful, but I was genuinely devastated when it was over! My first Mona Awad title and it did NOT disappoint. Read more

Happiness Falls (Good Morning America Book Club)

A Novel

By: Angie Kim
Narrated by: Shannon Tyo, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Thomas Pruyn & Angie Kim
Length: 13 hours 3 minutes

“Watch out because Happiness Falls is so much more than a missing-person mystery full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end. (Even past the very end.) Kim weaves a family drama that will pull at all of your heart strings and leave you questioning how you view everything and everyone. Read more

The River We Remember

A Novel

By: William Kent Krueger
Narrated by: CJ Wilson
Length: 13 hours 33 minutes

“Although I love the Cork O'Connor books, I think William Kent Krueger’s absolute best work resides in his stand-alone titles. This book will reside in my heart for quite a time to come. Great message of truth, love, and forgiveness. Read more

Amazing Grace Adams

A Novel

By: Fran Littlewood
Narrated by: Claire Skinner
Length: 9 hours 51 minutes

“A moving novel about a mother grappling with a past tragedy and oncoming perimenopause. Estranged from her daughter and with a pending divorce, she fights back and shows her family who she really is and how she will not give up on them. Or herself. Read more

The Book of (More) Delights

Essays

By: Ross Gay
Narrated by: Ross Gay
Length: 6 hours 48 minutes

“Oh, to have delights again! No one writes about the dearness of our human frailty with the generosity and good humor of Ross Gay. I can’t wait to wear these delights out to the same degree as the first, and become more present in doing so. Read more

My Roommate Is a Vampire

By: Jenna Levine
Narrated by: Gilli Messer
Length: 8 hours 59 minutes

“Clever, charming, steamy — all a reader could want from a paranormal romantic comedy. Part Kate & Leopold; part What We Do in the Shadows; and witty, warm prose that makes it feel refreshing. It sunk its teeth into me and I was a willing victim! Read more

He Who Drowned the World

A Novel

The Radiant Emperor Duology: Book #2

By: Shelley Parker-Chan
Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
Length: 18 hours 56 minutes

“The perfect follow up to She Who Became the Sun. Parker-Chan’s latest continues to expertly explore themes of power, desire, and gender queerness. An absolutely riveting and intricate sequel. This book will make you feel all the things! Read more

The Six

The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts

By: Loren Grush
Narrated by: Inés del Castillo
Length: 11 hours 41 minutes

“This book was like a mini-biography of each of America's first six women astronauts. It was really uplifting to read about their professional successes especially at a time where women were not seen as equals to men in a scientific realm. A great addition to the library of anyone wanting to familiarize themselves with six heroic and courageous... Read more

The Secret Hours

By: Mick Herron
Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
Length: 12 hours 48 minutes

Something happened in 1994 Berlin that forever changed MI5. Very few know that story and those who do will do anything to keep it secret.
Two years ago, a hostile prime minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating “historical over-reaching” by the British Secret Service.
Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by... Read more

The September House

By: Carissa Orlando
Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
Length: 13 hours 31 minutes

“Why run from a haunted house when you can stay and ignore the ghosts? Just when you thought you'd seen everything a haunted house novel could do, The September House comes along and delivers an eerie, darkly funny, and emotionally grounded book about the ghosts that haunt houses and marriages."– Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author... Read more

The Breakaway

A Novel

By: Jennifer Weiner
Narrated by: Nikki Blonsky, Santino Fontana, Jenni Barber, Soneela Nankani & Joy Osmanski
Length: 13 hours 30 minutes

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner comes a warmhearted and empowering new novel about love, family, friendship, secrets, and a life-changing journey.

Thirty-three-year-old Abby Stern has made it to a happy place. True, she still has gig jobs instead of a career, and the apartment where she’s lived since college still looks... Read more

Terrace Story

A Novel

By: Hilary Leichter
Narrated by: Xe Sands
Length: 4 hours 44 minutes

From the author of the acclaimed novel Temporary, an intimate exploration of time, a fable about love, an epic daydream for a broken-hearted world Annie, Edward, and their young daughter, Rose, live in a cramped apartment. One night, without warning, they find a beautiful terrace hidden in their closet. It wasn’t there before, and it seems to... Read more

What Kind of Mother

A Novel

By: Clay McLeod Chapman
Narrated by: Megan Tusing & Joe Hempel
Length: 8 hours 39 minutes

Nicholas Sparks meets The Empty Man in this modern Southern Gothic horror about a palm reader swept up in a disturbing missing-child case with a twist you won’t see coming.After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her... Read more

While You Were Out

An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence

By: Meg Kissinger
Narrated by: Meg Kissinger
Length: 11 hours 8 minutes

From award-winning journalist Meg Kissinger, a searing memoir of a family besieged by mental illness, as well as an incisive exploration of the systems that failed them and a testament to the love that sustained them.

Growing up in the 1960s in the suburbs of Chicago, Meg Kissinger’s family seemed to live a charmed life. With eight kids and two... Read more

Fall of Ruin and Wrath

Awakening: Book #1

By: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
Length: 16 hours 57 minutes

"Listeners, especially fans of the author's other works, will be entertained." - AudioFile

SHE LIVES BY HER INTUITION. HE FEEDS ON HER PLEASURE.

From Jennifer L. Armentrout, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of From Blood and Ash, comes the beginning of a searing fantasy romance for adults, Fall of Ruin and Wrath.

Long ago, the world was... Read more

Knockout

A Novel

By: Sarah MacLean
Narrated by: Mary Jane Wells
Length: 12 hours 1 minute

New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean returns with the next Hell’s Belles novel about a chaotic bluestocking and the buttoned-up detective enlisted to keep her out of trouble (spoiler: She is the trouble).  With her headful of wild curls and wilder ideas and an unabashed love of experiments and explosives, society has labeled Lady... Read more

The Fraud

A Novel

By: Zadie Smith
Narrated by: Zadie Smith
Length: 12 hours 24 minutes

“An exuberant story based on historical characters and events in Victorian England and Jamaica, this novel is even better as an audio book! Zadie Smith reads it herself and she is an absolutely amazing voice-actor, able to take on the lilt, intonation and brogue of the novel’s characters, whether they are from Scotland, London or Jamaica. Read more

Mother-Daughter Murder Night

A Novel

By: Nina Simon
Narrated by: Jane Oppenheimer
Length: 12 hours 38 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK Nothing brings a family together like a murder next door.“I just loved how intriguing the mystery is but also the dynamics between a grandmother, a mother, and a teenage daughter." —Reese WitherspoonThink: Gilmore Girls, but with murder.High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to... Read more

Creep

Accusations and Confessions

By: Myriam Gurba
Narrated by: Myriam Gurba
Length: 11 hours 11 minutes

“Quite simply one of the best books of the decade.” —Los Angeles Review of Books * “The mother of intersectional Latinx identity.” —Cosmopolitan * “Essential reading, a California classic.” —Rachel Kushner, author of The Flamethrowers * “Witty, confident, and effortlessly provocative.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer * “The most fearless writer in... Read more