Loyalty Staff's 2021 Faves!

Act Your Age, Eve Brown

A Novel

The Brown Sisters: Book #3

By: Talia Hibbert
Narrated by: Ione Butler
Length: 10 hours 51 minutes

“Eve is sunshine and chaos, Jacob is all structure and self-reliance - they're both autistic (as is the author), hard-working, and absolutely obsessed with each other from the beginning. Equal parts significant, silly, and sexy, this finale to the Brown Sisters trilogy does not disappoint. Read more

The Ex Hex

A Novel

By: Erin Sterling
Narrated by: Caitlin Davies
Length: 7 hours 23 minutes

“In line with Halloween classics such as Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic, The Ex Hex is a funny, witchy rom-com about a hex gone so wrong. Main characters Rhys and Vivi have good banter as they work out the many curses affecting the town. A quick and entertaining read. My favorite character is, of course, Sir Purrcival the cat. Read more

Amari and the Night Brothers

Supernatural Investigations: Book #1

By: B. B. Alston
Narrated by: Imani Parks
Length: 11 hours 11 minutes

“Amari and the Night Brothers is a contemporary children's Sci-Fi/Fantasy in the vein of Men in Black and Supernatural. Monsters, magic, and supernatural beings living amongst us, but not everyone can see them (or even knows that they are there). Amari (and her missing older brother Quinton) can and have to balance living in the modern world... Read more

Black Buck

By: Mateo Askaripour
Narrated by: Zeno Robinson
Length: 11 hours 12 minutes

“Perhaps I have a different perspective on this book because I have a younger brother who is a Black, 20-something man in sales, but this book presents an evocative, honest, complex portrait of being a BIPOC person in a white-dominant workplace (albeit one that is high-powered, sales-driven, and New York City-based). This is a book that allows a... Read more

Such a Fun Age: Reese's Book Club

By: Kiley Reid
Narrated by: Nicole Lewis
Length: 9 hours 58 minutes

“When I attempted to write a review for Such a Fun Age, I was at a loss for words. How could I encapsulate how Kiley Reid’s startling debut perfectly captured what it means to be a woman? The societal pressure, the self-doubt, the perseverance, the constant comparison — all of it was perfectly represented through Reid’s two wonderfully flawed and... Read more

The Prophets

By: Robert Jones, Jr.
Narrated by: Karen Chilton
Length: 14 hours 52 minutes

“This was quite the stunning debut - I loved the meta quality of the narration and the overall lyrical writing style. A powerful and commanding story! Read more

A Lady's Formula for Love

The Secret Scientists of London: Book #1

By: Elizabeth Everett
Narrated by: Elizabeth Jasicki
Length: 10 hours 33 minutes

What is a Victorian lady's formula for love? Mix one brilliant noblewoman and her enigmatic protection officer. Add in a measure of danger and attraction. Heat over the warmth of humor and friendship, and the result is more than simple chemistry--it's elemental.

Lady Violet is keeping secrets. First, she founded a clandestine sanctuary for... Read more

Northern Spy

Reese's Book Club (A Novel)

By: Flynn Berry
Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan
Length: 7 hours 52 minutes

“Tessa is a BBC producer and new mother in Belfast, where the lingering presence of the IRA still shapes daily life. But when security footage from a robbery shows her own sister, Marian, pulling on a ski mask, Tessa’s world is turned upside down. Is Marian truly involved, or is there something more sinister at play? As Tessa uncovers the truth,... Read more

Harlem Shuffle

A Novel

By: Colson Whitehead
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 10 hours 35 minutes

“A tribute to Harlem...a mystery...so well written, and great characters too! Read more

Velvet Was the Night

By: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Narrated by: Gisela Chípe
Length: 9 hours 51 minutes

“Velvet Was the Night explores the unpolished edges of our souls we hide from one another and unveils the people who find the inadequacies of their lives to hold an inescapable gravitas. Here is a mystery that spirals into an achingly realistic look at humanity. Whose grit and violence is balanced with poignant moments of vulnerability. It’s... Read more

The Good Luck Girls

The Good Luck Girls: Book #1

By: Charlotte Nicole Davis
Narrated by: Jeanette Illidge
Length: 11 hours 56 minutes

"Narrator Jeanette Illidge delivers a resonating performance of this YA fantasy...this immersive story is hard to pause." - AudioFile Magazine

Westworld meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this stunning fantasy adventure from debut author Charlotte Nicole Davis.

Aster, the protector
Violet, the favorite
Tansy, the medic
Mallow, the fighter
Clementine, the... Read more

The Project

A Novel

By: Courtney Summers
Narrated by: Emily Shaffer & Thérèse Plummer
Length: 9 hours 52 minutes

"This audiobook is essential listening. Narrators Therese Plummer and Emily Shaffer shine as Lo and Bea Denham, two teenage sisters whose lives are upended when their parents are killed in a car accident." -- AudioFile Magazine

From Courtney Summers, the New York Times bestselling author of the 2019 Edgar Award Winner and breakout hit Sadie,... Read more

Firekeeper's Daughter

By: Angeline Boulley
Narrated by: Isabella Star LaBlanc
Length: 14 hours 13 minutes

“A young adult thriller about Daunis Fontaine, a half-Ojibwe teenage girl whose dreams of going away to college are ended when her best friend is shot and killed, Angeline Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter is a rich portrayal of life on and around Daunis’s Michigan reservation. Knowledge of native plants, FBI informants, high school hockey, and the... Read more

Somebody's Daughter

A Memoir

By: Ashley C. Ford
Narrated by: Ashley C. Ford
Length: 8 hours 44 minutes

"Ashley C. Ford brings listeners into her life in this outstanding coming-of-age story...Listeners will cheer as Ford attends college and weep as she visits her father in prison, and when he is finally released." -- AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

This program is read by the author, and includes a bonus conversation between the author... Read more

My Monticello

Fiction

By: Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
Narrated by: Aja Naomi King, January LaVoy, Landon Woodson, LeVar Burton, Ngozi Anyanwu & Tomiwa Edun
Length: 7 hours 35 minutes

“A dynamic, and timely, debut by a new voice in fiction, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson. This collection is comprised of five short stories and one novella all set in the state of Virginia. As you read these stories, you will experience, and feel, the gamut of human emotion as the voices and themes in each are different. The author explores race,... Read more

Ghost Squad

By: Claribel A. Ortega
Narrated by: Almarie Guerra
Length: 5 hours 31 minutes

Coco meets Stranger Things with a hint of Ghostbusters in this action-packed supernatural fantasy.For Lucely Luna, ghosts are more than just the family business.Shortly before Halloween, Lucely and her best friend, Syd, cast a spell that accidentally awakens malicious spirits, wreaking havoc throughout St. Augustine. Together, they must join... Read more

Long Way Down

By: Jason Reynolds
Narrated by: Jason Reynolds
Length: 1 hour 43 minutes

“One of the best parts of listening to this audiobook was getting to hear Jason Reynolds breathe further life into the heartbreaking words he wrote. I don't doubt the emotion would have been evident in the text, but as he said in the interview at the end of the audio, only he knew the right beats in order to make sure his message wasn't lost. I... Read more

How the Word Is Passed

A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

By: Clint Smith
Narrated by: Clint Smith
Length: 10 hours 6 minutes

“Poet Clint Smith’s personal, intimate examination of sites of historical significance to slavery is as soulful and accessible as it is urgent and important. The opening chapter on Jefferson’s Monticello is one of the best chapters of American historical writing in recent memory, and should be required reading on the legacy of America’s founders.... Read more

Sometimes I Trip On How Happy We Could Be

By: Nichole Perkins
Narrated by: Nichole Perkins
Length: 7 hours 2 minutes

In this "saucy and smart" memoir, a journalist uses pop culture as a lens to navigate her identity as a Black woman (Oprah Daily).

Nichole Perkins takes readers on a rollicking trip through the last twenty years of music, media and the internet, exploring her experience with mental illness, her attachment to the TV show Frasier, her role as a... Read more

She Drives Me Crazy

By: Kelly Quindlen
Narrated by: Piper Goodeve
Length: 7 hours 3 minutes

After an embarrassing loss to her ex-girlfriend in their first basketball game of the season, Scottie Zajac gets into a fender bender with the worst possible person: her nemesis, Irene Abraham, who is as beautiful as she is mean. When the damage sends Irene's car to the shop for weeks' worth of repairs, the girls are forced to carpool for the... Read more