The Indie Books & Authors Newsletter #48
New indie releases, news round-up, book review and more!
Editor’s Note
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 links to free book promotions 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
Anne Mattias is a British author who loves books, films, plays and cats. Her debut novel Kingsrise is an Arthurian-inspired urban fantasy murder mystery, which is available in German as well as English. Check out her website to find purchase links and newsletter sign-up.
New Releases
The Siren’s Song (Demons Among Us Book 2) by Katelyn Brehm
A woman who’s lost everything. A demon without a care. And a chance encounter that sparks an unwanted passion.
Lena Sommer can’t win. Her marriage is a failure. The yoga studio she founded no longer needs her. And she just lost her grandma, the only family she’s ever known. Alone, grieving, and determined not to repeat the mistakes of her past, she tries to ignore the advances of a rakish singer she meets on the beach. But his carefree nature is infectious, and his mesmerizing voice proves too seductive to resist.
Elias Georgiou has it all—a loving family, the endless ocean, and, most importantly, his independence. Constrained by nothing but the pursuit of pleasure, the last thing he’s interested in is a relationship with any of the countless admirers he charms with his song. Until he meets Lena, and a future with the resilient and courageous woman becomes more tempting than freedom.
Can Lena learn to trust herself and Elias in the face of past betrayal? Or will the enchanted song of a consummate bachelor ruin all hope for a future filled with love?
However Many Must Die (The Blood Scouts Book 1) by Phil Williams
Wild Wish was trained to do one thing: kill.
Saved from a lonely backwater existence by a global war, Wish couldn't believe her luck when she got into the Blood Scouts. Now she gets to share tents with an all-female platoon of night-stalking, giant-slaying, boat-sinking, battle-swaying legends in the making.
The problem is, they keep dying.
And they've been given their worst assignment yet.
The enemy Dread Corps are combining magics deep within the nightmare lands of Low Slane, to unleash a weapon that could sway the entire war. It's up to the Blood Scouts to stop them – with a journey that gets more dangerous with every step.
Far behind enemy lines, death hangs in the air. Monsters lurk around every corner.
Are Wish's skills – and positive attitude – enough to keep her Blood Scouts alive?
Or will the cost of survival finally break her?
Lords and Lace (Lords and Ladies of St James Book 1) by Various
A collection of five new exclusive novellas by your favorite historical romance authors all featuring Lords and Lace.
The Wallflower Wins by Christine Donovan
The Raja & the Lost Princess by Shanti James
His Unlaced Love by Judith Lynne
Betting on a Baron by Rachel Ann Smith
How to Love the Perfect Lord by Tabetha Waite
The Hunter’s Lament by Steve Pannett
A novel for fantasy fans who like fast-paced, gritty story-telling and unpredictable characters with rough edges. Join Bitter Sweet and his motley crew of bounty hunters as they lie, fight and flee their way across a war-torn kingdom in pursuit of a fugitive prince.
Infamous bounty hunter Bitter Sweet has led his crew of like-minded miscreants for nearly thirty years. They can track and capture any man or woman in the known world... for a price.
But Sweet is tired. Decades of pursuing the lowest reaches that humanity has to offer have taken their toll. The grime, the lies, the danger, the death. He's sick of it all. But it's the only business he knows, and business is good in the aftermath of a long and bloody war. The unstoppable armies of the Vol Empire have conquered Pratia, obliterating all opposition and occupying the kingdom's cities as they establish a brutal new order. The Pratian king is slain in the carnage, but his son - the Crown Prince and sole heir to the throne - has vanished.
Eager to tie up the loose ends, the new Vol rulers turn to those who know the land and its people the best. Bounty hunters.
Against his better instincts, Sweet accepts the contract and sets out in search of the fugitive Crown Prince. But his crew are not alone in the hunt. Danger rides with them every step of the way. Rival gangs, Vol soldiers, deadly trackers and dark magickers are all pursuing the heir to Pratia, too.
Soon Sweet and his crew have a choice to make, hunt or be hunted?
Pre-Order Now
Secret of the Thistle (Rainfallen Book 2) by Benjamin Aeveryn
There's nothing more dangerous than a paranoid king.
Wickerton is in peril. Obsessed with the idea of an attack coming from the Bright Crown of Northumbria, the Unholy King keeps raising taxes to pay for an ever-expanding army. But such an attack will never come. With taxes on the rise, and no money to pay the collector, Fay must find a small fortune within a month or Wickerton’s canvas shelter will be torn down as punishment.
While Galahad languishes in the dark of New London, a bloody letter arrives from the north: Elaine is in trouble. Despite everything that's happened between them, Galahad can't help but to rush to her aid. Now he must travel to the origin of the magic that stained his eyes the colour of whisky, and try to save the woman he both hates and loves.
Each must do their best to slay new monsters, face old enemies, and reforge broken relationships.
It's time to fight for the things that matter.
News Round-Up
The Kindle Storyteller Awards shortlist was announced in September and the winner will be announced soon.
Nominations are open for the Indie Ink Awards and judges are also required for next year.
TheWriteReads has been running spotlight blog tours of the BBNYA 2023 semi-finalists.
Book Review
Twisted Tome by Vanora Lawless, reviewed by Charity Jackson
Picking up a few months after Imperfect Illusions, Twisted Tome continues Sully and Elliot’s story in one of the scariest times in human history, made scarier by the added element of magic. Despite that, it’s a romance through and through, and these two characters find a way past everything to be with each other and protect each other, owning a piece of my heart in the process.
What do we get in the second edition of the Devastating Magic series? New characters, more of Elliot’s history, heaps of character growth from everyone, emotional and intimate firsts between our precious MCs, big plot developments, world building, hurt/comfort trope in SPADES, rollercoaster, tremblingly intense emotional connection to everyone and everything throughout.
When a second book can hook me as much as the first book, it’s made of something special. Why? A second book often feels like a bridge between the first and third books, support for the over-arcing plot of the *third* book that the *first* book set into motion.
Twisted Tome subverts that idea, and it does it… beautifully.
As before, book two EXCELS at connecting you to all the characters and everything that happens to them, which is remarkable considering the full cast present here. I… legitimately have scores of notes with nearly indecipherable screaming over the developments and emotions everywhere. There were whole chapters I wanted to highlight!
Of course, at the center of all of them are Warren Sully and Elliot Stone, my two sweet angels, who are desperately, irreparably, heart-meltingly in love. From the beginning of this book I was reminded how badly these two want each other and to what lengths they’ll go to keep each other safe. This a theme throughout the novel, and my adoration for these characters and how well they suit each other only kept growing to the end.
The twist on history via magic is big part of what drew me in to this series in the first place, and Lawless delivers with the second book. We get to see more magic types and how that magic is used, both practically, but more especially, in this dangerous setting with soldiers fighting to survive and protect each other. It’s a heart-wrenching tale at times, charged with danger. The way Lawless writes gives you every feeling of the fear and chaos always just around the corner or just under the characters’ noses.
Which, if you couldn’t tell, I *love* the writing style of this series. LOADED with feeling, the exceptional prose had me physically swooning, gasping, crying, blaspheming, and giving my screen the biggest freaking doe eyes and softest, melting smile from one page to the next.
My mind is filled with sense-loaded scenes of love and fear and worry and tenderness. There are some images so sharp in my mind I don’t know how they came there from the pages of a book. It’s… exceptional, and I would read dozens of books by Lawless if I could.
This is an author I will be following forever. I can’t recommend this series enough. Book two gave me everything I wanted and more, and I can’t WAIT for book three.
Free Book
Six Weeks with You by Janet Koops
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.