Long, Strange Trip: "The White Road" by Sarah Lotz

Simon Newman and his American friend and roommate, Thierry, are trying to build up their website Journey to the Darkside, a site that attracts viewers who want to see such sensational posts as images and video of dead bodies that no one has filmed before, like some students who died in an infamous cave in Wales.
Researching spelunker sites, Simon finds a guide who has been to these caves and knows where the bodies are buried, so to speak. Contacting him they arrange a clandestine meeting and exploration of the caves.
When Simon makes the trip and meets the guide, a seemingly derelict individual named Ed, he almost thinks about turning back. After all, he had survived a climbing fall that put him in the hospital for weeks. Did he want to risk his life again?
What happens in the caverns stays in the caverns... or does it? How does Simon go from the depths of the earth to scaling the most intimidating mountain in the world? You will have to follow his journey on The White Road,  yourself, to uncover these and other mysteries in author Sarah Lotz's addictively un-putdownable new novel.
 Ms. Lotz knows her stuff, too, as she brings to these diverse places a thrilling and breathtaking reality.
The Recommender is a big fan of the Three and Day Four (see these titles previously reviewed here) and the White Road is right up there with these memorable titles. Thank you to NetGalley for the DRC!

And a song that is kind of apt for certain parts of this story! Thank you Youtube, Tammi Terrell and Marvin Gaye:

Day for Night: South Pole Station by Ashley Shelby

Ashley Shelby's captivating South Pole Station may have been written before the current political "climate" but it will be released into it and has a lot to say about science, climate change and the people who winter over in the furthest, coldest corner of the world proving it exists...or, in some cases, that it doesn't.
South Pole Station is a place you have to pass a psychological test before being allowed to spend time there. Cooper Gosling, a former art prodigy, hopes to find inspiration in the place she has heard about all her life. Her father, fascinated by arctic explorers, brought up Cooper, her twin brother and their sister on the survival stories of those expeditions.
 A family tragedy propels Cooper into applying for a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Artists & Writers Program. This grant will take her far from home and away from her problems there and into the midst of a dynamic group of South Pole residents or Polies, that includes scientists, carpenters, engineers, cooks and a lifestyle lived on the edge.
Will Cooper be inspired by the men who lived and died making their way to this isolated spot? Will she be accepted by the teams inhabiting the Station? Find out for yourself in this smart, funny and completely original story that will keep you reading, laughing and even yelling "What! Oh no!" at your kindle. This might very well be the Recommender's favorite book of the year! 5 stars! Thank you, NetGalley, for the DRC!