The Saint of Heartbreak by Morgan Dante

Two of the Bible's greatest villains... After his betrayal with a kiss, Judas Iscariot dies in despair and goes to Hell. When Christ saves other souls during the Harrowing of Hell, he leaves Judas behind—but not alone in the ninth circle, where the most detestable traitors go. Callous, resigned, and abandoned by God long ago, the Devil sees Judas as a pathetic wretch, but he soon finds a kindred spirit. As the centuries pass, they struggle to find even a sliver of happiness in Hell. Doomed by the narrative, will they find happiness, or will their story continue to be a tragedy?

A Case of Madness by Yvonne Knop

Andrew Thomas just got sacked. He's permanently drunk. He's got cancer. Is inescapably gay. Was hit by a bus. And he's fallen in love with a stranger whose life he saved. As a newly-unemployed Sherlock Holmes scholar, Andrew knows only Holmes can help him untangle the madness his life has become, but Holmes isn't real. Except he absolutely appeared in Andrew's house, told him he's in love with a man he just met…and then in a fit of pique Andrew sent him away. Sure Holmes is probably a hallucination or a specter or a ghost, but now Andrew desperately needs his help. So to find the answer to his case and the man of his dreams, Andrew takes to chasing a fictional character through London with his very own Watson.

Beneath the Gods' Tree by S. Kaeth

Amanah knows all-too-well the dangers of catching the attention of the upper class of Arruk. Using her position as a guard to steal secrets of healing and help other lower class people means she works hard to remain unnoticed. Fellow guard Taunos is boisterous, laughing, larger than life–and always around. He attracts attention as easily as breathing, which makes being associated with him dangerous. Better to stay far away, regardless of her attraction to him and his easy calm. But when Amanah inadvertently insults a magistrate, she must flee the city to avoid his vengeance. She takes a last-minute job escorting a pair of noblemen to another town–a job Taunos is also hired for. Along the way, she’s forced to reveal her stolen healing skills to keep the small group alive, and finds more support from Taunos than she ever would have dreamed. His confident charm becomes hard to ignore as he sees her as no one else has, even when she’s doing her best to be invisible. But opening herself to romance might be as dangerous as the wildlife and bandits they face in the wilderness, and pursuing her dreams of becoming a healer could attract the ire of those in power. This book has: so much banter; strong sibling relationship; strong friendships; friends-to-lovers (low steam); gay side characters; main character anxiety rep; diverse cast with immersive worldbuilding; action and adventure, wilderness survival style; low fantasy (none of the main group displays clear magic on page); single PoV, third person past tense

Rose's Gold by WB Welch

After waking up in a tower with no memory of events past her adolescence, Rose must examine every nook and cranny of her prison in the sky to solve the mystery of who brought her here and how she might escape. She soon realizes the contents of the room--clothing that fits perfectly, a hairbrush that rests naturally in her hand--are her own belongings, and as she starts to piece together her past, she discovers that an even greater mystery resides in her own identity. There’s a wedding band here, and a golden locket containing a photo of a family she’s convinced are her husband and children. But things aren’t always as they seem, and sometimes desire can send you plummeting mercilessly into the depths. Inspired by Rapunzel, Rose's Gold is a dark fantasy tale about hope, perseverance, and the preservation of love.

The Artificial Structure Formerly Known as the Moon by I. K. Stokbaek

SPSFC 2024

The Order of the Demolition has one objective – destroy the broken world. And Darlan dreams of joining them. His zeal and willingness to do anything takes him far from the abandoned school that has sheltered him throughout his young life. In a world where AI has enhanced some people and replaced others, the Indigents have no purpose and nothing to look forward to. Marianne accepts her fate. She is in all ways the last person one would expect to lead a revolution – until the Order of the Demolition involves an innocent in its schemes, and beliefs come tumbling down. Sabine’s uncle runs the Space Ladder Project. Her father is a prominent politician fitted with a brain chip. Her only friend is the governing AI – the Order of the Demolition’s main target.

Red Right Hand: A Post-Apocalyptic Superhero Novel by Chris Tullbane

"If life’s taught me anything, it’s that you scrap and claw for every moment you can get. And if you’re a Crow like me, you don’t let a little thing like dying get in your way." Following the events of See These Bones, Damian is back at the Academy of Heroes as the Free States' most unlikely potential Cape. He has a new name, a new reputation, and a whole host of new questions about his own past. If he's going to find answers to those questions, let alone survive another year at the Academy, he'll need to learn a skill the orphanage never taught him: teamwork. Nothing's ever easy, is it?

The Call for Finis: Pride by A.J. Torres

Seven sins. Seven hosts. One city purged. After everything you’ve learned, can you still stand with your faith, or finally rise up against it? Salvia VerdaderaFe has signed a pact with Ultor, a demon of Infernos, to enact the end of all and purge the world of sin. Ultor and six others were granted permission to enter the middle world of Eldara, bound to mortals by the Seraphim of Hevellum. Upon his arrival a messenger of Hevellum should have been waiting to assign him his task, unfortunately the messenger did not appear and thus his mission is a mystery. Along their journey through the country of Marlela, they are set upon by a group of Templar Equitums, bearers of virtue and enforcers of the Cirine faith. From their encounter their destination is revealed. Their journey to Lumen Magnum begins.

Everdark by N.A. Soleil

Sixteen year old Redd is a runaway with psionic powers and PTSD. While escaping the parents who experimented on her, Redd unwittingly opens a portal to a planet populated by the last remnant of the angelic species. Trouble follows. With nowhere else to go, she is caught up in an intergalactic conflict: the militant, space-faring Rangers and their allies must prevent the fortress Everdark, the angels’ last bastion, from being overrun by evil forces. The abuse Redd survived takes its toll in the form of nightmares, mood swings, and paranoia — but there is comfort in combat, so she joins the front line. There, she discovers that she can wield terrible power at the behest of a mysterious entity residing somewhere within her, though the transaction is not in her favor. Clinging to an often nebulous connection to shared reality, she becomes inextricably involved with more than just the battle to protect the angels. The events of Everdark are the key to a mechanism that, with Redd and her companions as integral gears, will start a countdown. And at zero … a shift in the core of the metacosm, one written into its very code before Time began.

Children by Bjorn Larssen

SPFBO7

Gods make lousy parents. All Magni wants is peace and quiet, but when your father is the God of thunder, you don’t get to live the life you want. When Thor destroys all his son knows and loves, Magni vows to bring prosperity and end the violence… forever. But can you escape cruelty in a universe built on it, or the shadow of your father when everyone calls you by his name? Maya, her rage more powerful than she knows, wants freedom to pursue her own destiny. Neither torture nor blackmail can make her obedient or pretty enough for Freya, her foster-mother and Goddess of love. Fighting for independence and revenge, can a mere human win a game where Gods dictate the rules? 2020 Stabby Nominee –Best Self-Published/Independent Novel The book includes strong language, depictions of sexual, physical, and emotional violence. For full list of triggers, which may contain spoilers, see: https://www.bjornlarssen.com/children-tw

Shades and Silver by Dax Murray

Kraken Collective

The birthright of every Ástfríður is to know each metal in the earth, command it, and bend it to their desires. To hear metal singing, some of it waiting just beneath the surface, so much of it deeper in the earth. If they wanted, they knew they could pluck that metal from the earth, melt it with a thought, and shape it as they pleased with a breath of air and their will. Each Ástfríður must choose which metal they would wear upon their heads, denoting the path they would walk. They craft beautiful horns to wear on their brow, forged with the metal they wish to identify with. But Britt does not know if they can choose the path they want; if they can overcome a past that has stolen their identity. The day has come for them to choose, and they have no idea if they have any right even to try to. And Astrid has never felt the pull of the metal at all. Wearing a forged circlet and horn, they try to navigate a world that they feel has rejected them, all the while fearing someone will learn their secret. The Veil of the Ástfríður has kept them hidden from the world and safe from intruders. Yet Britt and Astrid feel they are imposters in their own homes. Shades and Silver is a duology of novellas about identity, doubt, and acceptance.

Fragmented Fates by Nancy Foster

SPFBO9

The hero. The seer. The child. The condemned. After surviving two bloody purges that nearly exterminated both the Grey Clan and Orsenmuray City, the elf and harlequin survivors struggle to bring the tent city of Almjarhad to life. Surrounded by the ocean and desert, these inhospitable lands are slowly being developed with the aid of their magic. As the culprit of their misfortune, the condemned elf Lord Jamarnid is forced to rely on his son Jarahad to rule the city due to ending up disabled before his frantic escape. Bitter about his situation because he wanted to be executed, Jamarnid distrusts the true intentions of the seer Talgel. Unwanted by the Elf Kingdom and his harlequin great-grandfather Hurrujat, Jarahad struggles to accept his fate. As the interim ruler of Almjarhad, Jarahad wishes to complete his sword initiation to protect his people... and gain Talgel's unrequited love. Talgel is a woman of perpetual mystery with dubious morals. Upon awakening magic that grants her the ability to predict the future with absolute certainty, Talgel lost her eyesight. She now wears a masquerade mask to hide her true feelings. Embroiled in this story is a young hybrid elf named Tioja, who doesn't understand his role in the greater scheme of things. Four characters are about to have their fates manipulated, and their willpower tested. All for the sake of a demon inhabiting Talgel's body that will use them for its own nefarious purposes.

A Song for the Road by Catherine Labadie

An outcast in her tight-knit community, Larkspur endures her poor health with help neither from her family nor her fickle sweetheart. At a yearly moon festival she beseeches the spirits for better luck...but they lead her to a foundling elf child she did not want and a quest she did not ask for. Yet she and the mute spryte form a bond over their shared struggles. When danger arrives at their cottage, Larkspur sets out with the girl she's named Gentian from the country of her homefolk into the land of songs and tales itself. Through leagues of treacherous border woods lies miraculous Beledan, where dwarven chieftains quarrel amongst themselves and, far to the north, the mysterious elves marshal for war.

Warlock of Muscovy by Brien Feathers

SPFBO9

When words fail, bring out the guns, swords, and death spells. Marina is the daughter of Tsar Alexander the Cruel, the most powerful warlock. She's also a princess of the Court of White Rose. The only problem is that she's mundane—she has no magic. On her sixteenth birthday Marina fled from her father's tsardom to the revolutionist side of Muscovy, and five years later she's doing all right, working as a seamstress in the United Workers' Factory. Despite the political police, the never-ending witch hunt, and her best friend living as an orange cat, she's happy. She gets along with her cottage mates and is even seeing a guy... until the city blows up, she's implied in the sabotage, her guy turns out to be an enemy, her friends are murdered, and an alchemist maniac hunts her down for a blood vendetta. With the Red Army and the Alchemist Federation on her heels, Marina runs back to the Court of White Rose, but when death follows her home she must uncover a prophecy, reconcile with the warlock, and stop an oncoming war. It's a tall order for a seamstress. The first book in the Sun War Trilogy, this intensely dark tale of magic and mayhem is full of grey characters that blur the line between good and evil. Content warning for strong language, graphic violence, and intimate situations.

A Gathering of Chaos by Cameron Hopkin

SPFBO8

The world of Asunder is dying. Its gods are long fled, and they took all the world's metal with them... but it all happened so long ago that not even legends remain. In the now, a country girl sails into port, the only survivor of a plague ship, and a scheming priestess takes charge of her. Far to the south, an aging warrior monk forcibly recruits one of the Beast Riders to be his tracker. A remarkable vision of a demon lord binds them all together, and they scramble to find a bit of Chaos, the raw energy of their world, to protect humanity against this new threat. It's too bad they're only going to make things worse.

Eye of the Ouroboros by Megan Bontrager

The woods surrounding the insular town of Mill Creek, West Virginia, have a habit of taking people and refusing to give them back. The National Parks Service Search and Rescue Team knows this, just like they know when you find a door in the woods, you don’t go through it. But park ranger Theo Buchanan has a knack for sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. Determined to find the truth behind her sister Flora’s strange disappearance, she boldly steps through one such door, catching the attention of the Federal Bureau of Reality. She quickly learns how far they are willing to go to keep their secrets locked tight, even if it means silencing those who stumble upon them permanently. Together with her journalist ex-girlfriend, a fellow ranger, a conspiracy theorist, and a rogue member of the Bureau’s Requisitions Department, Theo must brave the horrors of the Infinite Corridor and its web of connected realities to find Flora…before the Bureau does.

Dust and Deliverance by Benjamin DeHaan

Paulo, a father, high school counselor and recent widower, searches for his lost daughter Adriana who has become bound to the cocaine drug cartel. Adriana, daughter of Paulo, runs away from higher education and seeks fortunes and a life of paradise. Sam, gaming addict and divorced Denver Police officer, blames his failed marriage on his wife’s misunderstanding. Harold, protector of Adriana and ex-opera singer of Mexico City, yearns for nothing more than to get his singing voice back. San Isabel National Park, Colorado, a place where four broken people collide and are set free. This is a story of the heart’s deliverance.

The Old Love And The New by Alistair Caradec

'My priority is, and has always been to protect the citizens of our country. God save the King.' Twenty-five years after the infection started spreading across Britain and Ireland, most people have stopped asking questions. Nobody seems to care anymore what happened to the women in the provisional quarantine centres. Sid doesn’t have the headspace to care. Since receiving a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder at age nineteen, he has stuck to a strict regimen of routine, low expectations, and tuning out the world. When his best friend brings home the first woman either of them has seen since the epidemic, Sid has to push back the boundaries he set for his own safety and face outwards for the first time

Odder Still by D.N. Bryn

SPFBO9 Kraken Collective

Rubem of No-Man’s Land was content keeping to his wine, his pets, and his extensive collection of fishnets. But since a sentient, fuel-producing parasite bonded to his brainstem, every morally-depraved scientist and hardcore rebel for a hundred miles wants to ruthlessly dissect him. The parasite itself is no better, influencing his emotions and sassing him with his own memories as it slowly takes over his body. The only person offering Rubem help is Tavish K. Findlay, a dashing and manipulative philanthropist whose mother’s fuel company monopolizes their corrupt underwater city with an iron claw. She desperately wants to tear Rubem apart for the parasite before those who oppose her can do the same. Her son is irresistibly charismatic though, and after a lifetime of being kicked out and disavowed, Rubem is desperate to believe in the friendship Tavish offers. With revolutionary plots and political schemes tangling his every choice, Rubem must soon decide whether or not to trust Tavish in his fight against the parasite’s growing control.

Demon's Song by Julie Boglisch

Alex always wished to see the Overlands, a place of sunshine and freedom. However, as a slave in the far corners of the Underlands, it was all but a dream. That is, until he’s framed for murder and is forced to flee during a demon attack. Searching for the answers to why he was framed and seeking a chance at the fleeting freedom he’s always dreamed about, he journeys to the capital, meeting friend and foe along the way. But the Underlands are both beautiful and dangerous. Having a demon hunter on his tail and a witch whose sole desire is to become the high Seer around him, he’s in for quite the journey.

The Freezer by Kim Hunt

In the endless tracts of the New South Wales bushland Ranger Cal Nyx finds a dead body under unusual circumstances. It soon becomes apparent this is a historic death. Growing attention on the crime puts the blowtorch to a murderer who’s managed to evade justice. For now. Detective Inspector Liz Scobie leads the police investigation while her partner, Nyx, uses her own considerable - some might say unorthodox - methods to chase down a killer. With speculation growing in the small community, someone privy to information becomes a new target for the killer. Join Nyx and Scobie in their dogged pursuit of a bold predator with everything to lose.

Curse Breaker Books 1-3 by Melinda Kucsera

Curse Breaker Books 1-3 features the first three books of the Curse Breaker Series in one action-packed boxed set. Curse Breaker Enchanted Sarn wants to be like everyone else, not a mage with a power he can barely control. But he must hide his magic in a country run by a group that wants to destroy all magic. But that magic comes in handy when he wakes up far from home with only his cloak to protect him from monsters and murderous trees. How will Sarn return home in time and unravel the dark conspiracy that’s destroying it before his son pays the ultimate price? Curse Breaker Darkens When a disembodied voice warns him that a demon is after his mage, Jerlo sets off to find the man who could summon it. He swore an unbreakable oath to protect Sarn, no matter the cost. In a country run by a group that wants to destroy all magic, mages and demons shouldn’t exist. But they do, and Jerlo’s in a fight, not just for his life but for his soul. Even if he risks both, how will he save Sarn without magic? Curse Breaker Faceted Sarn spies on the men responsible for his best friend's death with his young son in tow. And those men are hunting for magic-stealing rocks to fuel a zealot's quest. When their greed leads them into a forbidden cavern, they release an ancient monster, and it's hungry for a certain mage and his son. Who will survive the dark terror lurking under the mountain? Curse Breaker Books 1-3 contains the first three books of the Curse Breaker Series: Curse Breaker Enchanted, Curse Breaker Darkens, and Curse Breaker Faceted. It’s an epic fantasy adventure starring a loving father, his young son, and the people and monsters that dwell in an immersive world of intrigue and adventure. Get Curse Breaker Books 1-3 now if you love found family, reluctant heroes, and magical mayhem, then this is the book for you!