The Indie Books & Authors Newsletter #44
Find your next indie read today! New releases and more!
New content is always welcome! Please click here for submissions via Google Forms. Read the T&Cs before you submit. New releases, pre-orders, reviews, news and free books are all wanted. Authors, remember to state the title of your book and/or share a link to it on the form :)
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Featured Promotion
The Enlil & Aris short story series by Rebecca Crunden
“Check out this series if you like short tales with chaotic cinnamon roll mcs, witches, banter, good manners, assorted plants, crows, grumpy cats, rude rabbits, faeries, shapeshifting, true love, fierce hate, suave vampires and revenge”.
Visit the author’s social media and other platforms here.
New Releases
A Strange Belief: Weird Stories by N S Ford
Eight strange tales, some dark, some delightful. Unique and curious, these stories will frighten and amaze you.
Shudder at the ancient horror waiting in an old well. Marvel at a man with a very unusual and delicious disorder. Confuse dreams with reality at your peril. Admire the seeker of gold pursued by flames. Fear the slippery creatures which slither through the night. Muse upon the unknowable inner life of inanimate objects. Descend into paranoia as you listen to the wearer of the tinfoil hat. Join a cult which began from mysterious footprints in the sand…
Are you ready to encounter some strange beliefs? Then dive into this story collection and immerse yourself in the weird world of N S Ford, author of After the Burning, They Lie Here and We Watch You.
Fatal Whims (Wilting Blood Book 2) by Timothy Dempsey
Two months have passed since the return of the Blutsauger Goddess Aswia left Fallende in stunned silence. In a single, terrifying moment, the war raging for over forty years has been brought to a halt, as both sides sit frozen with fear of the rogue deity.
Isaac Shwarzchilde is plagued by nightmares. His mind is bursting with memories of the things he saw and the actions he took during the Battle of Amaranthe. Each night, Isaac lies in fear of the desolate hellscape that dwells within his dreams; a fear that only grows stronger when he begins to suspect that these dreams might be more than he had first imagined.
After training for two months to face the beast that has taken away all that he has loved, Mobiel is ripped away from his ceaseless practice, his duties as a Blut Hunter Captain forcing him to search for a new Second Lieutenant. Reluctantly, he returns to his homeland of Bluerise to scout out a promising young candidate.
Old enemies from the past rear their malformed heads again, and a single question reigns supreme: Cardinals or Corruption?
Which is the true origin of the Blutsaugers?
Paper Daffodils (A Dawn & Rosie Adventure) by Titania Tempest
Is it ever too late for a love story? Dawn Clermont certainly doesn’t think so. Rosie Bishop absolutely disagrees.
The last place divorcee Rosie wants to be is on a Seniors Retreat in the Lake District. She’s determined not to have a good time, but an unexpected reunion with an old friend thwarts her plans. Her armour of bitterness proves no match for the spirited widow Dawn; dragged through a whirlwind of adventures and betrayed by her own sense of humour, Rosie soon realises she hasn’t got a hope of staying sullen.
As Rosie clings to the remnants of her sarcasm, something about Dawn draws her closer than ever before. Soon, their bond threatens to run deeper, but is the possibility of a budding romance worth risking their rekindled friendship?
A Dangerous Brew (Spy/Counter/Killer Book 1) by Jay Requard
Meena Prakanati abandoned her life as the Jade Emperor’s lover and spymaster and did what few had done—made a fresh start.
She’d built her teashop in the imperial city of Hostlann, two oceans and a continent away from her old life. And most importantly, far from the conspiracies and the seductive romance behind the seat of power.
Until one night when a mysterious bard arrives at her door, bearing a letter that the Jade Emperor has been assassinated!
Left heartbroken and with a package containing a mystical stone, Meena brings together a new team. Enlisting the cryptographer Raga Stonecleaver and assassin-thief Keeper, she seeks to run down the darkness, uncover her lover’s final secrets, and kill anyone who stands between her and vengeance.
Sorcerous cults, secret societies, and vicious gangsters clash as the award-winning author of Atenia and A Wave of Lions brings you a new adventure where intrigue waits on a dagger’s edge! Spies haunt the shadows of a magical underworld where the truth will be uncovered in A Dangerous Brew, the first book in the Spy/Counter/Killer series!
Pre-Order Now
Shadows of Nyn'Dira (Fallen Light Book 4) by H C Newell
Deep within the forests of Nyn’Dira, darkness rises, and Neer finds herself hunted at every turn. Fleeing from relentless enemies and vicious creatures of darkness, she embarks on a treacherous journey through the dangerous woodlands in search of strength and salvation.
As the humans push further into the forbidden lands, the Nasir and his men close in, finding strength in the blood of the innocent. With the balance beginning to shift, Neer is caught in a war she was never meant to be in, and is forced to make a decision that could change the tides of fate, or cause it all to collapse and burn.
News Round-Up
Asteria Press, an indie cosy fantasy publisher, is open for submissions.
The SPFBO (Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off) finalists are in the process of being narrowed down from 300 to 10.
R&R Book Tours are currently touring Cynosura 99 by Sam Weiss, Bittersweet Injuries by Kateri Stanley and The Misfit Mage and his Dashing Devil by M N Bennet.
Book Review
Abandoned by Vicky Ball, reviewed by N S Ford
A compelling novel for young adults, packed full of emotional drama, Abandoned is the author's second book and in my opinion it's even better than her debut. I was kept turning the pages to find out what happens to the two main characters, 15-year-old girls with very different backgrounds but who have a surprising and tragic connection to each other...
The story begins from the perspective of Maddie, who has a difficult home life with her alcoholic mother. A dreadful secret is revealed at a family funeral, which sends Maddie on a rollercoaster journey of discovery. Halfway through, we change to the perspective of Ella, who is recovering from a terrible accident and whose world is about to be turned upside down again. The story is well-written and sensitively portrays topics such as alcoholism, domestic abuse, physical disability, coming out and adoption. Some of the coincidences were a bit too convenient, I felt, but they did ensure that the story had a lot of conflict. Occasionally, I wasn't entirely convinced by the narrative voices (would teenagers really call their peers 'teenagers'?) and the dialogue could have been more clearly differentiated from other sentences, as sometimes I had to re-read carefully to work out who was speaking, but despite these minor issues, I was very impressed.
Free Book
Lacuna’s Point by Tim Meyer (DarkLit Press)
Free on Amazon US and UK at the time of composing this edition of the Newsletter.
The Indie Books & Authors Newsletter is compiled and edited by N S Ford, indie author and book blogger.