Book picks similar to
The Whisper of Stars by Nick Jones


science-fiction
sci-fi
fiction
first-reads

Untraceable


Shelli R. Johannes - 2011
    When her dad goes missing on a routine patrol, Grace refuses to believe he’s dead and fights the town authorities, tribal officials, and nature to find him.One day, while out tracking clues, Grace is rescued from danger by Mo, a hot guy with an intoxicating accent and a secret. As her feelings between him and her ex-boyfriend get muddled, Grace travels deep into the wilderness to escape and find her father. Along the way, Grace learns terrible secrets that sever relationships and lives. Soon she’s enmeshed in a web of conspiracy, deception, and murder. And it’s going to take a lot more than a compass and a motorcycle (named Lucifer) for this kick-butting heroine to save everything she loves.

The Settlers


Jason Gurley - 2013
    Great storms destroy cities. Rising seas reshape the continents. Afraid for its survival, mankind constructs a fleet of space stations in orbit, and steps off-world. Among the humans fighting for their future are Micah Sparrow, a widower who uncovers a plot to return mankind to the dark ages; Tasneem Kyoh, who undergoes life-extension treatments and begins the search for humanity's next home; and David Dewbury, a prodigy who believes he knows where that home might be. But in space, the rules aren't the only things that have changed. Man himself has changed, and with the Earth in tatters behind him, man turns his attention to the one thing left to destroy: himself.The Settlers is the explosive first book in Jason Gurley's Movement Trilogy, the epic story of man's small step into space, and the great leaps humanity must make to save its own future.

The Three


Sarah Lotz - 2014
    Three child survivors. A religious fanatic who insists the three are harbingers of the apocalypse. What if he's right?The world is stunned when four commuter planes crash within hours of each other on different continents. Facing global panic, officials are under pressure to find the causes. With terrorist attacks and environmental factors ruled out, there doesn't appear to be a correlation between the crashes, except that in three of the four air disasters a child survivor is found in the wreckage. Dubbed 'The Three' by the international press, the children all exhibit disturbing behavioural problems, presumably caused by the horror they lived through and the unrelenting press attention. This attention becomes more than just intrusive when a rapture cult led by a charismatic evangelical minister insists that the survivors are three of the four harbingers of the apocalypse. The Three are forced to go into hiding, but as the children's behaviour becomes increasingly disturbing, even their guardians begin to question their miraculous survival.

Miranda Warning


Heather Day Gilbert - 2014
    The Glock-wielding, knife-carrying housewife knows how to survive whatever life throws at her. But when an anonymous warning note shows up in her best friend Miranda’s mailbox—a note written in a dead woman’s handwriting—Tess quickly discovers that ghosts are alive and well in Buckneck, West Virginia. Hot on a cold trail, she must use limited clues and her keen insight into human nature to unmask the killer...or the next victim might be Tess herself.Tinged with the supernatural and overshadowed by the mountains' lush, protective presence, this twisting psychological mystery is the first in A Murder in the Mountains series.

Not One of Us


Debbie Herbert - 2021
    Now, after moving back home to Alabama to care for her ailing grandmother and autistic brother, she comes face-to-face with the deadly mystery behind his disappearance.Jori has a rare form of synesthesia, meaning she can “hear” colors; to her, tones of voice are as unique as fingerprints. With the help of this ability and a sympathetic cop, Jori comes dangerously close to uncovering the truth. But those responsible will go to any length—including murder—to keep their dark secrets buried.Soon, it seems that no one in the sleepy bayou town is safe, and after Jori’s brother is kidnapped, she knows she must drop the investigation or risk losing her family. But when protecting them means letting an evil deed go unpunished, putting family first may be the last thing she’ll ever do.

The End of Marking Time


C.J. West - 2010
    While he was sleeping, the Supreme Court declared long term incarceration to be cruel and unusual punishment and ordered two million felons released. The result was utter chaos and the backlash from law-abiding citizens and police departments reshaped the United States. Felons now enter reeducation programs where they live freely among the population. At least that's what they think. In reality they are enslaved to an army of counselors and a black box that teaches them everything they failed to learn from kindergarten through adulthood. Michael believes he's being tested by the black box, but what he slowly begins to realize is that everything he does is evaluated to determine whether he lives or dies.

The Problem with Crazy


Lauren K. McKellar - 2014
    It can be good crazy, bad crazy ... or "crazy" crazy--like it was when my ex-boyfriend sung about me on the radio." Eighteen-year-old Kate couldn't be more excited about finishing high school and spending the summer on tour with her boyfriend's band. Her dad showing up drunk at graduation, however, is not exactly kicking things off on the right foot--and that's before she finds out about his mystery illness, certain to end in death. A mystery illness that she could inherit. Kate has to convince everyone around her that her father is sick, not crazy. But who will be harder to convince? Her friends? Or herself? The Problem With Crazy "is a story about love and life; about overcoming obstacles, choosing to trust, and learning how to make the choices that will change your life forever.

Mad Tinker's Daughter


J.S. Morin - 2014
    She didn’t listen.Madlin Errol is heiress to the greatest fortune in Tellurak. Her father, the Mad Tinker, has built an empire by crafting devices that no one else in the world could match. Madlin grew up spoiled, given everything she could wish for: the finest tools, all the raw metals she could ask for, and a workshop of her very own. Yet in her sleep, she lives another life, in another world.Korr...a world where humans are subjugated, working menial jobs or even enslaved. The ruling kuduks treat them like talking animals. In that world, Madlin is known as Rynn, a girl who grew up without her parents, mired in the depths of an underground city, sleeping in a boiler room. But unlike so many of her fellow humans, she has seen a world where there are no limits. She, and a growing number of human rebels, have begun to fight back.

Driven


Eve Kenin - 2007
    She's spent her life on the run, one step ahead of the megalomaniac who hunts her. All she wants is to stay out of trouble and haul her load of grain to Gladow Station--but trouble finds her in the form of a sexy stranger called Wizard. He has the trucking pass she needs, and she has to drag him out of a brawl with the very people she's trying to hide from in order to get it. She may have rescued him, but Raina's not foolish enough to see Wizard as anything close to helpless. He's hard and honed and full of secrets--secrets that may destroy them both. As they race across the Waste, trying to outrun rival truckers, ice pirates, and the powerful man bent on their destruction, Raina's forced to admit that trouble's found her. And this time, there's nowhere left to run.

The King Tides


James Swain - 2018
    And that of strangers, too. Wherever she goes, she’s being watched. Each stalker is different from the last, except for one thing—their alarming obsession with Nicki.Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Nicki’s father is turning to someone who can protect her: retired private detective and ex–Navy SEAL Jon Lancaster. Teaming up with FBI agent and former abduction victim Beth Daniels, Lancaster can help—his way. He’s spent most of his career dispatching creeps who get off on terrorizing the vulnerable. Unlicensed, and unrestricted, he plays dirty…But this case is unusual. Why so many men? Why this one girl? Does Nicki have something to hide? Or do her parents?Trawling the darkest depths of southern Florida, Lancaster faces a growing tide of secrets and deception. And the deeper he digs, the more he realizes that finding the truth won’t be easy. Because there’s more to this case than meets the eye.

Crucible of Stars


Erica Lindquist - 2009
    The infamous bounty hunter, Logan Coldhand, chases close behind her and intends to drag Maeve back to the planet of Axis to collect the high price on her head. When he finally corners her, the long chase seems to be over… until a frightened alien girl stumbles into their fight and begs for their protection. Maeve and Logan call a reluctant end to their battle and promise to help the girl, but they have agreed to far more than they know.Can the fragile peace between hunter and mark hold long enough to save the lives that depend on them?Crucible of Stars is the first book of the Reforged Trilogy. It was previously published as Anvil of Tears.

The Death House


Sarah Pinborough - 2015
    until it was unravelled by something as simple as a blood test.Taken from his family, Toby now lives in the Death House: an out-of-time existence far from the modern world, where he, and the others who live there, are studied by Matron and her team of nurses. They're looking for any sign of sickness. Any sign of their wards changing. Any sign that it's time to take them to the sanatorium.No one returns from the sanatorium.Withdrawn from his house-mates and living in his memories of the past, Toby spends his days fighting his fear. But then a new arrival in the house shatters the fragile peace, and everything changes.Because everybody dies. It's how you choose to live that counts.

Repatriate Protocol


Kelli Kimble - 2016
    But she soon learns that there is another path she can follow.In nearly a thousand years, only a few have seen the outside world, and virtually everyone inside is terrified of it. When Hillary is offered the chance to see it herself, she can’t help but want to jump into the adventure.But it isn’t just a matter of opening a door. Hillary must endure a rigorous education and brutal physical training to get outside. Can she pass through the grueling gauntlet to get outside? And what does she risk if she makes it?Part coming-of-age adventure, part survival horror, and part science fiction, REPATRIATE PROTOCOL is the gripping first installment in THE REPATRIATE PROTOCOL series by Kelli Kimble.

Ice Diaries


Lexi Revellian - 2012
    Okay, so London is under twenty metres of snow, almost everybody has died in a pandemic or been airlifted south, and the only animals around are rats. Plus her boyfriend never returned from going to find his parents a year ago when the snow began - but she's doing fine. Really.She lives in an apartment that's luxurious, if short on amenities, in a block which used to be home to rich City bankers. A handful of fellow survivors are her friends, and together they forage for food and firewood, have parties once a month and even run a book club. The problem is they have no long-term future; eventually provisions will run out. Tori needs to find transport to make the two-thousand-mile journey south to a warm climate and start again.One day she comes across an exhausted and wounded stranger face down in the snow, and saves his life. Morgan is a cage fighter from a tougher, meaner world where it's a mistake to trust people. He's on the run from the leader of the gang he used to work with. He's disturbingly hot. And he has a snowmobile.

The Nexus


J. Kraft Mitchell - 2012
    They failed. Less than a century old, the satellite metropolis of Anterra now harbors a massive criminal underground.Jill Branch is just one of countless teenagers who have been sucked into the illegal activities of the city. She’s an errander--a pawn for crime lords to hire for their grunt work. But her latest task turned out to be more than she bargained for. Now she’s on the run from an undercover government agent. But she’s about to find out he doesn’t want to arrest her; he wants to recruit her. And if Jill agrees, she may be part of one of the most unique crime fighting projects in history.