The Indie Books & Authors Newsletter #61
New indie releases, book review, news and link to a free book!
Editor’s Note
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Featured Promotion
Alexia Muelle-Rushbrook is the author of The Minority Rule trilogy, They Call Me Angel and a new book, You.
“A self-confessed geek, she enjoys a variety of genres, but has always been drawn towards sci-fi and fantasy, so it is probably not surprising that her debut novel is dystopian! Having found the courage to put pen to paper, Alexia now has no plans to stop - the voices in her head simply won't let her, but they also refuse to stick to one genre, so stay tuned to see what genre-bending novel is coming next!”
Check out Alexia’s website for more information about the author, books, trigger warnings, newsletter sign-up and social media links.
New Releases
Hall of Hauntings: Spooky Stories by N S Ford
Do you dare to read these six spooky stories of the supernatural? Feel the chills running down your spine and your pulse pounding with fear as you encounter…
The reality show in a haunted mansion where the ghosts aren’t real… are they?
Murder and mayhem at a bakery… who is the evil man in the corner?
A terrifying ancient mummy, but how is it linked to a beautiful portrait?
The old piano with a horrible history... are you afraid to play upon it?
A mysterious glowing figure with a secret to die for… what is hidden in the attic?
The deathly stillness of a barricaded library, but are the hauntings inside, or outside?
A must-read collection of creepy tales from N S Ford, author of A Strange Belief, After the Burning, They Lie Here and We Watch You.
Broken Chances by Eve Koguce
A young wife. A much older husband. Is it only the age gap that threatens to ruin their marriage?
When Margo marries Michael, she believes that her life will change forever. And it really does, only not in the way a young girl from a small country in Northern Europe thought it would.
Latvia, a dreamy land with rich historical heritage and endless beaches stretching for miles, for Margo, is a gloomy place where she would have to struggle for years to have a decent life. All she knows is her hometown – a depressing place built for the needs of the factory workers – dull commuting to the capital Riga, and a bar in the Old Town where she works, always full of loud and often unceremonious tourists.
Skipping a chance to explore her home country and the opportunities it might offer, Margo accepts Michael’s proposal and moves to a dramatically picturesque island in England.
A small, tightly-knit community, where everyone knows everyone and where nothing ever happens, is not particularly welcoming to a newcomer. Unfamiliar with local traditions and quirks, Margo often finds herself in awkward situations. Still, with each walk she takes along the coastal path on the small island she now calls home, Margo falls deeper in love with the stunning landscapes of the Jurassic Coast in Dorset. Alas, with each day she spends with Michael, she realises more clearly that her marriage is falling apart.
Margo keeps asking herself why what she thought was a chance of a lifetime turned into a disaster. Will she find the answer? And will she love again after having been bitterly disappointed in marriage and relationships?
Set against the backdrop of breathtaking landscapes of the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, England, Broken Chances is a self-discovery journey with a dash of cosy mystery and clean romance.
Orbital Strain by Russell D Jones
While orbiting a newly discovered planet, the Celestus research vessel is plagued with technical mishaps, contaminated samples, and interdepartmental hostility.
When an unconscious engineer, found outside the colony domes, is brought up from the surface, Dr. Beth Adler is assigned to his care. With only a sparse incident report to go from, Beth’s investigation uncovers two disturbing facts: he needed senior-level authorization to leave the domes, and no known substance on the planet could have punctured his environment suit.
As the mounting clues point to sabotage, Beth awakens one day in total darkness, with fragmented memories of the previous day’s events. Her ship, now unpowered, is catastrophically damaged, and derelict. The last thing she remembers is the alarm repeating the same horrifying message. “Quarantine breach.” With eerie occurrences and inexplicable phenomena haunting its dark corridors, Beth embarks on a perilous journey to save her missing crew-mates.
In this gripping sci-fi thriller, join Dr. Beth Adler on an adrenaline-fueled odyssey of survival, mystery, and betrayal amidst a colony on the brink of catastrophe.
Pre-Order Now
Fallen (Everwood Falls Book 2) by Kat Kinney, release date April 9th
EVERWOOD FALLS… a small supernatural community tucked up in the Colorado Rockies where witches, werewolves and vampires can live without fear of discovery, and those with curses they can’t control are sent to keep the existence of magic from being revealed to Mundanes.
Once one of thousands of angels who fought against the Underworld at the command of the Archangels, Lucien Girard had his wings broken as punishment for defying angelic law. His crime? Trying to change the fate of the human woman he’d fallen in love with. Centuries later, he bears the curse the Archangels handed down: To fall in love again and again, each time with a new woman who shares the face of the soulmate he failed to save thousands of years before. When Dr. Isabel Romero moves to Everwood Falls, Lucien vows to stay as far away from her as possible, not knowing any other way to prevent her death like all the others who have come before her. But someone from Isabel’s past is stalking her and Lucien can’t simply leave her to her fate. He knows this time will be no different. And yet he refuses to let her go.
Dr. Isabel Romero lives with guilt for the people she’s harmed. The night she died, her life was saved by Costa, a vampire who changed her into one of the undead. But becoming a vampire meant she had to leave her parents behind, only visiting once per year according to vampire law so no one would notice that she isn’t aging. Gifted with a rare healing magic, she saves lives that are beyond her abilities to heal as a doctor. Moving to Everwood Falls is supposed to be a fresh start, but her magic has a dark side and someone from her past is hunting her. The last thing she wants is to be responsible for someone else getting hurt, and that means she can’t allow anyone to get close to her. But she’s going to need Lucien Girard’s help if they’re going to catch the person harming patients in Everwood Falls before someone is seriously hurt.
With a herd of enchanted elk, carnivorous spruce trees, and sentient pumpkins that stalk the local landscaping, Everwood Falls is a quirky mountain town where scales and fur mean found family.
News Round-Up
Nominees have been announced for the many categories of the Indieverse Awards. After a reading period, voting will commence in Fall 2024.
Danielle Paquette-Harvey is looking for romantasy authors for a charity anthology to be published in 2025.
Bloggers have been sharing their reviews for the finalists in the Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS).
Book Review
Horizon by David W Adams, reviewed by Alexia Muelle-Rushbrook
Horizon is the first of David W Adams’ latest sci-fi horror series. If you can imagine the perfect cross between the Alien films and Star Trek, this book would be it.
Humanity is on the brink of destruction, every planet and colony is either gone or on its knees, and salvation seems impossible. Hearing a rumour that a place exists where people can be transported back to a place where they were happiest, one desperate crew searches for humanity’s last hope.
This quest takes them through space’s deepest, darkest, totally uninhabited wasteland, The Expanse. However, as you can probably imagine, the reality of The Expanse is less empty and more dark than previously thought.
I am a slow reader but this book kept me turning the pages until the end—which is satisfying but one-hundred percent needs and deserves the sequel that is currently being written. Thankfully!
Free Book
Entanglement (The Belt Series Book 1) by Gerald M Kilby
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.