Mara Jacobs

FREE

Mystery

Anna Dawson is a gambler, and like any gambler will tell you, sometimes that’s good—and sometimes it’s an outright problem. 🎰 She loves Vegas and the life she’s built there, but when one of her friends is murdered and another is shot at, she knows it’s time to take a serious look at herself. And maybe call in the big guns.

Even if that means teaming up with Detective Jack Schiller, a man dealing with his own demons. 🔍 Anna’s juggling a lot: protecting her friends, helping Jack while not letting him get too close, and finding a murderer. Oh, and there’s one more thing—no one can learn about her gambling problem, or this will be the last hand she’s dealt.

Jacobs creates a flawed, compelling protagonist in Anna—a woman whose addiction gives her insight into the city’s darker corners but also makes her vulnerable in ways she can’t always control. 💀 The Vegas setting pulses with neon-lit tension, and the will-they-won’t-they dynamic with Jack adds romantic friction without overwhelming the mystery.

The case is solved and the perpetrator caught, but Jacobs leaves threads dangling for future books, building a series foundation that promises more trouble—and more complicated feelings—ahead. ♠️ Anna’s voice is sharp and self-aware, and her struggle to stay ahead of her own worst impulses gives the mystery real stakes.

Here’s what you’re getting: a Vegas-set mystery with a gambler protagonist whose biggest risk might be trusting the detective who sees too much. 🃏 First in the Anna Dawson series—perfect for readers who like their sleuths complicated and their settings atmospheric.

Courtney McFarlin

FREE

Cozy Mysteries

Professional home stager Brynn Sullivan is known as the person to call when you can’t sell a house. 🏚️ She has an eye for transforming spaces, a talent for making rooms irresistible to buyers, and a secret she keeps from all her clients: she can see ghosts.

When a beautiful Victorian sits on the market too long, the desperate realtor reaches out for help. But this time, Brynn may be in over her head. 👻 A ghostly mystery from the past collides with a present-day murder, and she’ll need to solve both cases to save the sale—and possibly herself.

McFarlin delivers a paranormal cozy with a clever premise. The home staging profession gives Brynn legitimate access to properties with histories, and her supernatural abilities add a layer of investigation that traditional sleuths can’t access. 🔮 The spirits she encounters aren’t just spooky window dressing—they’re witnesses, clues, and sometimes complications.

The Victorian setting provides atmospheric charm, and Brynn’s juggling act between her professional reputation and her secret gift creates ongoing tension. 🏡 The humor comes naturally from the absurdity of her situation: trying to stage a house for sale while also dealing with its spectral occupants.

Here’s what you’re getting: a delightful paranormal cozy featuring an amateur sleuth whose real estate expertise and ghost-whispering abilities make her uniquely qualified to solve mysteries—living and dead. 👁️ First in the Soul Seeker series.

Jessie Clever

FREE

Regency Historical Romance

Lady Eliza Darby has been shunned by a society that prizes beauty above all else. 🌸 Her wallflower status has kept her from the one thing she wants most: to be a mother. But when her scorned older sister returns home determined to see all her siblings happily wed, it may be Eliza’s only chance to secure a husband and have the children she so desires.

Dax Kane, the Duke of Ashbourne, was jilted in a publicly humiliating display and has sworn off love forever. 💔 When duty demands he marry, he selects the most perfect candidate for a loveless arrangement: Lady Eliza Darby, a wallflower so unattractive he won’t be in danger of falling in love with her. But the Jilted Duke is about to discover that looks have nothing to do with love.

Clever sets up a classic Regency premise—the marriage of convenience between two people who think they’re safe from feelings—and then systematically dismantles their defenses. 💕 Dax’s cruel reasoning for choosing Eliza creates tension that must be overcome, and watching him realize his mistake is deeply satisfying.

Eliza is no passive victim of society’s judgment. She knows her worth, even if the ton doesn’t, and her quiet strength is exactly what the wounded duke needs, whether he knows it or not. 🔥 The steam is present, the humor is warm, and the romance earns its happy ending.

Here’s what you’re getting: a steamy Regency romance about two people deemed unwanted by society who find everything they need in each other. 💜 First in The Unwanted Dukes series—perfect for fans of Tessa Dare and Lisa Kleypas.

Vincent B. Davis II

FREE

Ancient Historical Fiction

Rome, 107 BC. Quintus Sertorius has just lost his father, and he may lose his home. 🏛️ When his rural village is stripped of its political status, the young man must leave his family to secure their food and protection from inside Rome’s cutthroat government. The transition from countryman to politician thrusts him into the middle of a bitter political war.

As Quintus struggles to gain the aid his village desperately needs, he approaches Gaius Marius—the uncle of Julius Caesar himself. ⚔️ But with each passing day in the unforgiving landscape of the Eternal City, he puts his family and his own life in even greater danger.

Davis delivers a gritty, well-researched portrait of Republican Rome at its most ruthless. This isn’t the marble-statue Rome of popular imagination but a city of mud and blood, where political advancement requires moral compromise and a young man’s idealism is ground down by the machinery of power. 🗡️ The historical Sertorius was a real figure—a brilliant general who would later challenge Rome itself—and this novel traces his origins.

The detail is immersive without being overwhelming, and Quintus makes a compelling protagonist: ambitious enough to play the game, principled enough to hate himself for it. 🦅 Fans of Conn Iggulden and Simon Scarrow will find much to admire.

Here’s what you’re getting: a powerful historical epic about sacrifice, corruption, and the price of survival in ancient Rome. 🔥 First in The Sertorius Scrolls—perfect for readers who like their Roman history raw and their heroes complicated.

Lana Pecherczyk

FREE

Genetic Engineering Science Fiction

Deadly sin has consumed Cardinal City. Violence, murder, and mayhem are only the beginning. 🧬 A family of genetically modified heroes is the city’s only hope—if they can resist sin long enough to stand a chance.

Disgraced hero Evan Lazarus punishes himself in the underground cage fighting scene. He blames himself for the tragedy that tore his family apart and left the city without its saviors. 💔 Traveling a dark path toward vengeance, if he’s not careful, he’ll become the evil he was created to fight. And then he meets her—a woman who embodies his sin’s opposing virtue.

Grace Go almost died in the blast that killed her parents and now seeks justice for the survivors. When her investigation crosses paths with a fiercely protective but damaged hero, she’s intrigued. 🔥 The more she sees him, the more he ignites a desire she thought long gone—and the easier it becomes to stay ignorant of the secret that could ruin everything.

Pecherczyk builds a world where the seven deadly sins are literally programmed into her heroes, creating built-in conflict between their nature and their purpose. ⚡ The romance runs hot, the action is intense, and the premise—heroes designed to save humanity who might destroy it instead—provides rich material for a series.

Here’s what you’re getting: a dark, steamy superhero romance with genetically modified heroes, deadly sins, and a city on the edge of destruction. 💚 First in The Deadly Seven series—perfect for fans of paranormal romance with sci-fi edge

Barbara Michaels

Regularly $14.99, Today $3.99

Gothic Romance

Lucy Cartwright placed her life and future into the hands of the dashing Baron Clare, despite the rumors of his dark, unsavory past. 🏰 Trusting his kind words and gentle manner, she agreed to be his wife and followed the enigmatic lord to Greygallows, his sprawling country estate in Victorian England. What she found was not the haven she’d hoped for.

Mystery, deception, betrayal, and danger surround the magnificent manor. A ghostly secret charges the atmosphere, and terror reigns in its shadowed hallways. 👻 Lucy entered Greygallows willingly—and now she may never leave. Michaels, a New York Times bestselling author and master of the gothic romance, crafts a tale that echoes the great Victorian sensation novels while delivering genuine chills.

The gothic tradition lives in every element: the isolated estate, the brooding husband with secrets, the bride who begins to question everything she thought she knew. 🕯️ Michaels builds dread slowly and expertly, letting Lucy’s growing unease mirror the reader’s own suspicions. Is the Baron what he seems? What happened to those who came before her? And what walks the halls of Greygallows after dark?

This is classic gothic romance at its finest—atmospheric, suspenseful, and deeply satisfying for readers who love their heroines resourceful and their mysteries steeped in shadow. 🌙 Michaels (a pen name for the legendary Barbara Mertz, who also wrote as Elizabeth Peters) knows exactly how to keep you turning pages late into the night.

Here’s what you’re getting: Victorian gothic atmosphere thick enough to cut with a knife, a heroine trapped in a beautiful nightmare, and secrets that refuse to stay buried. 🖤 Essential reading for fans of Daphne du Maurier and Victoria Holt.

Abigail Johnson

Regularly $17.99, Today $2.99

Young Adult Fiction about Friendship

When Adam Moynihan’s oldest brother died, his life fell apart around him. 💔 Now his mom cries constantly, he and his remaining brother can’t talk without fighting, and the father he always admired moved out when they needed him most. Adam is drowning in grief and rage, convinced that forgiveness is weakness.

Jolene Timber is used to being a pawn in her divorced parents’ war—weaponized, manipulated, exhausted by their endless battle. 🏢 But when she develops an unlikely friendship with a boy who spends every other weekend in the same apartment building she does, suddenly the future seems less bleak. Two broken kids, same custody schedule, same rundown complex where divorced parents warehouse their children.

Johnson crafts a “heart-wrenching and hopeful” (Kirkus Reviews) story about finding connection in the wreckage of family. Adam and Jolene are both damaged in different ways—he’s consumed by anger, she’s armored herself against hope—and watching them slowly learn to trust each other is the book’s quiet triumph. 🌱 The romance unfolds naturally, built on shared understanding rather than grand gestures.

The every-other-weekend structure gives the narrative a distinctive rhythm, with time jumps that mirror the disjointed experience of split custody. Each visit brings these two closer together, and each departure makes the waiting harder. 💜 Johnson doesn’t offer easy answers about divorce, grief, or forgiveness—just honest ones.

Here’s what you’re getting: a tender YA romance about two teenagers learning that love and forgiveness aren’t weaknesses—they’re the only way forward. 🌟 Perfect for readers who want their contemporary romance with emotional depth and genuine stakes.

Gunnar Staalesen

Regularly $25.99, Today $0.99

Crime Thrillers

Four installments of the Varg Veum series from the international bestselling father of Nordic Noir, translated by Don Bartlett. 🇳🇴 PI Varg Veum returns to solve a series of dark, dangerous cases in his hometown of Bergen, Norway, in perfectly plotted and thought-provoking thrillers that helped define the Scandinavian crime genre.

The collection opens with We Shall Inherit the Wind, set in 1998. Veum sits by the hospital bedside of his long-term girlfriend Karin, whose life-threatening injuries provide a deeply painful reminder of the mistakes he’s made. 💔 Investigating the seemingly innocent disappearance of a wind-farm inspector, he’s thrust into one of the most challenging cases of his career—riddled with conflicts, environmental terrorism, religious fanaticism, unsolved mysteries, and dubious business ethics. Then, in one of the most heart-stopping scenes in crime fiction, the first body appears.

Staalesen has been writing Varg Veum since 1977, making this one of the longest-running detective series in European crime fiction. 🔍 The Bergen setting is as essential as the detective himself—a rain-soaked port city with layers of history and secrets. Veum is a classic flawed investigator: principled but damaged, persistent but self-destructive.

These are not cozy mysteries. They’re dark, morally complex explorations of Norwegian society, touching on environmental politics, religious extremism, and the corruption that festers in small communities. ⚡ Staalesen writes with the confidence of a master who’s spent decades perfecting his craft.

Here’s what you’re getting: four novels from a legendary Nordic Noir pioneer at an extraordinary price—less than twenty-five cents per book. 🖤 Essential reading for fans of Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbø, and the Scandinavian crime tradition.

Melinda Mullet

Regularly $14.99, Today $1.99

International Mystery & Crime

Maeve Gardner kills people for a living. A dodgy occupation perhaps, but as ghostwriter for the long-running Simon Hills mysteries, she’s planned the perfect murder time and again—and she enjoys it. 🖊️ She dreams of writing something under her own name someday rather than babysitting her adopted character Simon, but at least she’s writing. And as one of the burnt-out souls who’ve run away to live on London’s waterways, she has the joy of working from home: a colorful houseboat.

Life on the canals is grand, until her cheating ex-boyfriend turns up floating facedown in the water outside her boat. Murdered. And the police arrest her. 💀 Suddenly, Maeve is thrust into one of her own crime dramas, complete with missing money, violent thugs, extortion, and conspiracy. Only this time, there is no real-life Simon Hill to come to her aid.

Mullet delivers a charming, wickedly imaginative mystery perfect for fans of Anthony Horowitz and Richard Osman. 🚤 The London canal boat community provides a delightful setting—a floating world of eccentrics, dreamers, and people reinventing themselves. Maeve’s helpers include India, owner of a popular floating bookshop; Paul, the exceedingly attractive landlord of the local pub; and Ash, her quiet, nerdy neighbor who’s keeping some secrets of his own.

The meta element—a mystery writer trapped in a real mystery—gives the book its playful edge. Maeve knows all the tropes, all the red herrings, all the ways a plot can twist. 📚 But knowing how murder mysteries work on the page doesn’t mean she knows how to survive one in real life.

Here’s what you’re getting: a witty, twisty mystery with a heroine who writes death for a living and now has to outsmart it. 🎭 Fans of bookish cozies and London settings will be charmed.

Benjamin Wiker

Regularly $9.99, Today $1.99

Books & Reading Literary Criticism

You’ve heard of the “Great Books”? These are their evil opposites. 📚 From Machiavelli’s The Prince to Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, from Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto to Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa, Professor Benjamin Wiker argues that these influential books have led to war, genocide, totalitarian oppression, the breakdown of the family, and disastrous social experiments.

Wiker’s thesis is provocative: the toxic ideas peddled in these books are more popular and pervasive than ever—and they might influence your own thinking without your realizing it. 🎯 He sets out to expose the beguiling errors in each, providing intellectual ammunition against arguments readers may have encountered without knowing their source.

The book is unabashedly polemical. Wiker writes from a conservative philosophical perspective, and readers who share that worldview will find his takedowns satisfying; those who don’t may find themselves arguing with the pages. 🔥 Either way, the book succeeds in forcing engagement with ideas that have genuinely shaped the modern world, for better or worse.

Witty, learned, and deliberately provocative, this is intellectual history with a sharp edge. Wiker doesn’t pretend to neutrality—he thinks these books did real damage, and he wants readers to understand exactly how and why. 💡 Whether you agree with his conclusions or not, the tour through these influential texts is illuminating.

Here’s what you’re getting: a quick, opinionated education in some of the most controversial ideas in human history, written by a professor who believes ideas have consequences. ⚖️ Perfect for readers who like their intellectual history with a point of view.