Half-human Rohan spent a decade fighting for the il’Drach Empire — which has conquered half a galaxy behind the civilization-ending Powers of their mixed-species children. He’s paid a secret and terrible price for his freedom, and now he just wants to live quietly on the space station Wistful, towing starships and searching for the perfect cup of coffee. 🚀
JCM Berne writes superhero space opera for adults, and the setup here is genuinely compelling: a man exhausted by being a weapon, trying to figure out how to be a person. His most pressing problem is talking to a gorgeous shuttle tech without tripping over his own tongue. Then a dormant wormhole opens with a shipful of scared, angry refugees, and the Empire’s attention swings uncomfortably toward Wistful. ⭐
Rohan has to decide whether becoming the monster the Empire created is worth it to protect the people he’s come to care about — knowing that doing so might be the surest way to lose them. Berne balances action, character work, and genuine stakes beautifully. 💥
What makes this special: A half-human supersoldier who paid a terrible price for freedom from the Empire just wants peace — until refugees open a wormhole and bring the Empire’s eyes to his doorstep. Superhero space opera with genuine emotional depth, a protagonist trying not to be a weapon anymore, and the kind of action fans of Invincible and MCU will devour.
Caitríona O’Byrne returns to Ceann Mara Station on the banks of the Darling River — the place where she spent a happy childhood with her four sisters — seeking safety after a harrowing attack at university. Home feels like the only place she can heal, both physically and emotionally. 🏞️
Logan Wainwright, a detective on leave and the new property owner across the river, is facing his own demons. As he helps Caitríona research her family history on the O’Byrne brothers, both of them begin to find something like peace. Then Caitríona stumbles upon a family secret that reaches back to nineteenth-century County Kerry — siblings who faced a life-altering choice and made a decision that echoes forward through generations. 🌊
Annie Seaton weaves the contemporary mystery romance with the historical family saga beautifully, and the revelation of a betrayal threatens not just Caitríona’s newfound peace but her survival. The Australian setting is vivid and specific throughout. 💛
Why this touches the heart: A woman scarred by violence returns home to the Darling River seeking safety — and uncovers a family secret stretching back to Ireland that threatens everything. Mystery romance with a dual timeline, atmospheric Australian setting, and a heroine learning who she can trust before it’s too late.
DCI Jonathan Walker is haunted by the past and hell-bent on redemption — if he can stay healthy long enough to achieve it. When a body turns up in the sleepy Lancashire village of Rufford, he returns from leave early because his experience is considered crucial. Then the investigation reveals a potential connection to a decades-old cold case: the murder of his sister. 💔
JJ Richards writes British crime fiction with genuine emotional stakes — Walker needs this case for his wife, his kids, to make amends for past mistakes, and for the current victim. But if he doesn’t toe the line, he’ll be thrown off the investigation entirely. When more people go missing and bodies turn up with the same bizarre signature, the team realizes they have a serial killer on their hands. 🔍
Time is running out, and Walker has to consider breaking the law himself to make things right once and for all. Richards balances the procedural mechanics with the personal stakes beautifully, and Walker is a damaged protagonist worth following into the dark. 🌑
What makes this a must-read: A Lancashire detective haunted by his sister’s unsolved murder returns early from leave when a body surfaces that might finally give him answers — and a serial killer. British crime thriller with a deeply personal case, a detective willing to cross lines, and atmospheric Lancashire setting that adds to the menace.
The Complete Abandon Series
A devastating EMP attack tears the McDaniel family apart. Colt and Faith, and their three resourceful kids — Marley, Rowan, and Leighton — are separated across a shattered America with no power grid, no communications, and no guarantee that the country they knew still exists in any meaningful form. Getting back to each other means surviving everything in between. ⚡
Ryan Schow writes post-apocalyptic survival fiction with a family at its center rather than a lone wolf protagonist, which gives the Abandon series a different emotional texture than most EMP thrillers. The McDaniels are prepared — but prepared only goes so far when the entire nation is spinning out of control and enemies are actively working to ensure it never recovers. 🇺🇸
This complete series bundle gives excellent value for readers who want to commit to the full story — the scope is epic and the family dynamics keep the human stakes front and center throughout the action. 💥
What makes this a must-read: A tight-knit family is torn apart by an EMP attack that brings America to its knees — and must fight their way back to each other through an apocalyptic landscape while ordinary survivors around them decide whether to rebuild or surrender. The complete Abandon Series in one bundle, from one of post-apocalyptic fiction’s most reliable voices.
The Maxwells and the Popes have built their lives together — college roommates who became neighbors, whose husbands are law partners, whose children have grown up as practically siblings, who share vacations and holidays and the comfortable assumption that some things don’t change. It’s a beautiful life. It looks perfect from the outside. 🏡
Barbara Delinsky has been writing about the hidden lives of women and families for decades, and More Than Friends is one of her most quietly devastating — a single accident strips away the surface of two picture-perfect lives and forces everyone involved to look at what’s actually underneath. The faith these families have in each other, and in themselves, is the thing being tested. 💔
Delinsky handles the fallout with the emotional precision that has made her one of women’s fiction’s most enduring names — unflinching but never cruel, honest about how fragile even the strongest friendships can be when the wrong pressure is applied at the wrong moment. 💛
Why this touches the heart: Two families who have shared everything for decades are shattered by a single moment that can never be erased — Barbara Delinsky at her most perceptive, a novel about friendship, forgiveness, and what we discover about ourselves when the life we’ve built stops feeling safe.
Levy’s specialization is an enchanter — useful mainly for buffing people in towns for coin, the kind of class most serious players wouldn’t choose on purpose. Levy doesn’t see it as a disadvantage. Everyone else does. He’s been planning to take the road most traveled, level up the standard way, find his place in the system. The system has other ideas. 🎮
B.T. Narro builds his LitRPG world with genuine attention to the mechanics — the system of mana here isn’t neutral, and Levy gradually begins to understand that it may have a specific grudge against humanity and a connection to a war that’s building on the horizon. Being the first enchanter to reach max level starts to feel less like a personal goal and more like a necessity. ⚔️
The underdog premise is executed with real craft — Levy’s determination to carve his own path rather than accept the limitations everyone else has assigned to his class gives the book its motor, and Narro keeps the progression satisfying without sacrificing the larger story. 🌟
What makes this irresistible: An enchanter — everyone’s least favorite class — refuses to accept the limitations the system has assigned him and sets out to be the first of his kind to reach max level, while uncovering a mana system that may be actively hostile to humanity. LitRPG with a genuinely compelling underdog and world stakes that keep expanding.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 3Page 3