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Days away from freedom, Arrow faces one last task—and it’s perhaps the most difficult she’s ever faced. Oath-bound to the arrogant Erith in exchange for her life, she just wants her servitude over. But the Erith set her to investigate the sudden death of a high-ranking shape-changer, their ancient enemies. The shape-changers believe the Erith are guilty of murder, and Arrow is caught in the middle of a potential new war between old enemies. ⚔️
Not only is Arrow’s freedom at risk, but so is her life. It will take all of her training and skill with magic to live long enough to uncover the truth in time to avert a bloodbath. Vanessa Nelson sets her debut series in an alternate world where magic and technology exist side by side, creating a unique blend of urban fantasy and traditional high fantasy elements. The oath-bond premise adds urgency—Arrow’s so close to freedom she can taste it, making this final task particularly high-stakes. 🔮
The mystery element distinguishes this from typical fantasy—Arrow isn’t just completing a quest but investigating a politically charged death where the wrong answer triggers war. Her position as outsider (oath-bound servant to one side, investigating death of the other) gives her unique perspective while making her vulnerable to both factions. The Erith consider her property; the shape-changers see her as enemy agent. ✨
As a complete five-book series offered free, this represents significant value for fantasy readers wanting a complete story arc without commitment to ongoing series. Nelson promises fantasy mixed with mystery and spells—the investigative angle keeps the plot grounded even when magic escalates. For readers who enjoy urban fantasy with political intrigue and protagonists fighting for their freedom against supernatural powers. 📚
What makes this essential: Complete five-book fantasy series where a magically-gifted woman oath-bound to arrogant Erith must investigate a murder that could trigger war—and finally win her freedom. 🌟
Logan West and Emma James grew up together but are now high school seniors heading in totally opposite directions after graduation. When they’re assigned to work together on one last history project, they hardly expect the monotony of high school life to change. Instead, as they decode a series of unexplained clues hidden within their history project itself, Logan and Emma unfold an ancient mystery that has baffled scientists and archaeologists—one with powerful implications for the present day. 🔍
As they embrace the adventure they’ve stumbled upon and a growing romantic attraction to each other, Logan and Emma find themselves caught up in a dangerous, high-stakes race across the globe to decipher mankind’s past in order to save humanity’s future, not to mention their very own lives. The mystery just might reach toward the stars, suggesting ancient astronaut theories or advanced prehistoric civilizations. 🌍
Marc Jacobs delivers YA adventure that combines National Treasure-style puzzle-solving with romance and globe-trotting action. The “clues hidden within their history project” premise is clever—what starts as homework becomes existential threat. Logan and Emma’s opposite post-graduation paths add tension to their partnership—they’re people who might never have reconnected if not for this assignment. 🗺️
The escalation from high school project to “save humanity’s future” is classic YA adventure territory, while the romantic subplot develops naturally from forced proximity and shared danger. The ancient mystery with “powerful implications for the present” and potential stellar connections suggests big reveals about human origins or forgotten technology. For readers who enjoy Dan Brown-style historical mysteries adapted for younger audiences with romance and global adventure. ✨
Why I’m including this: YA adventure where high school seniors decode clues hidden in their history project and end up in a globe-spanning race to solve an ancient mystery that could save humanity. 🚀
What does it take to change history and destroy our reality? Change events on the same date—September 22—in six different years. The Time Patrol must send an agent back to each day, with just 24 hours for each to defeat the Shadow’s plan to disrupt our timeline, creating a time tsunami and wiping our present out. Fall Equinox comes on September 22, the time when day and night are in balance—and when history hangs by a thread. ⏰
The six missions span critical American historical moments: 1862, Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation (but some want to twist this momentous event). 1692, eight people are hung for being witches in Salem (a young girl makes a bold offer to prevent it, not knowing the consequences). 1823, Joseph Smith claims to have found gold plates forming the basis of a new religion (he found something he was never supposed to see). 1776, Nathan Hale has but one life to give for his country (but there’s a plan to use that life to force Washington into strategic error). 📜
1948, the Berlin Airlift is keeping western Berlin alive (but if the slightest thing goes wrong, the Cold War might become very hot). 1947, at Area 51 the first Rift opens—a rip into another dimension with Fireflies coming through (in history it was sealed at great cost, but what if the Rift expands?). Each mission targets a pivotal moment where small changes could cascade into timeline destruction. ✈️
Bob Mayer’s high-concept time travel thriller uses the September 22 equinox as thematic anchor—the day when light and dark balance, when history could tip either way. The Shadow’s coordinated attack across six different years suggests sophisticated understanding of temporal mechanics and historical pressure points. Six agents, six missions, six chances to save reality, all happening simultaneously across centuries. ⚡
The historical events chosen represent genuine inflection points: Emancipation Proclamation, Salem witch trials, founding of Mormonism, Revolutionary War, Berlin Airlift, and Roswell/Area 51. Mayer blends documented history with speculative “what if” scenarios, showing how fragile our timeline actually is. For fans of time travel fiction who enjoy historical detail alongside sci-fi action and multiple simultaneous plotlines. 🌀
What makes this essential: Time travel thriller where six agents have 24 hours each to stop the Shadow from changing six different September 22nds throughout history—and preventing a time tsunami from destroying our present. ⏳
The Voraxian king has come again and this time, he’s come for her. She’s got no desire to be claimed by the alien king—blue skin, seven feet tall, strapped with muscle. She’s seen what his kind does to humans and doesn’t care that he watches her with hunger. She’s a hybrid and an inventor who knows she can engineer her way out of this one. Even though the human colony is a scary, desperate place, she’s willing to meet it head on if it means escape. 👽
So she runs. She doesn’t expect him to give chase. Elizabeth Stephens delivers sci-fi alien romance with the classic “mate claim” trope—the powerful alien who’s decided she belongs to him, the human woman determined to resist. The Voraxian king isn’t just any alien but royalty, raising the stakes beyond typical abduction scenarios. Her hybrid status and inventor skills suggest she’s not helpless victim but someone with resources to fight back. 💙
The human colony being described as “scary, desperate place” creates interesting dynamic—she’s fleeing the king into conditions that are potentially worse, suggesting the colony’s desperation might complicate her escape plans. His “hunger” when watching her and the fact that he gives chase when she runs establishes the pursuit dynamic central to many alien romances. Seven feet of blue muscled alien king is peak sci-fi romance aesthetic. 👑
The Xiveri Mates series title promises multiple romances in this world, likely featuring different aliens and human women. The “taken to Voraxia” premise suggests she won’t stay on the colony—either he catches her or she’s forced to his world. Her engineering skills set up potential for her to be more than romantic interest, possibly contributing technical solutions alongside the romance arc. For readers who love alien romance with chase dynamics and capable heroines. 🔧
What makes this special: Sci-fi alien romance where a hybrid inventor runs from the seven-foot blue Voraxian king who’s decided to claim her—but he’s not letting his mate escape. 💫
The smallest towns have the darkest secrets. Seven years ago, Carrie’s son vanished without a trace—she thought she’d lost him forever until the day a teenager washes ashore in Devil’s Cove. It’s Cal, her son, and he’s alive. But his return is far from a joyful reunion. Changed and withdrawn, he brings with him a trail of secrets, lies, and blood. What happened during those seven missing years? 🌊
As Carrie unravels the truth behind Cal’s disappearance, she learns the danger is much closer to home than she imagined. Another child has vanished from the town, and with a killer watching their every move, uncovering the truth may cost her everything—and everyone—she loves. The return of her son should be her greatest joy; instead it’s opening a door to horrors she never suspected existed in their small Cornwall town. 🔍
Malcolm Richards sets this gripping thriller against Cornwall’s rugged landscape, using the isolated coastal setting to create claustrophobic atmosphere. The Devil’s Cove name suggests a place with dark history, and the new child disappearance paralleling Cal’s return creates ominous connections. Is Cal victim or perpetrator? What changed him during seven years away? His withdrawn behavior and the “trail of blood” he brings suggest trauma or complicity. 🏴
The first book in the Devil’s Cove Trilogy promises packed twists, suspense, and chilling revelations. The killer “watching their every move” raises paranoia—is it someone they know? Someone who’s been in town all along? Carrie’s maternal instinct to protect her returned son conflicts with growing evidence that his return is connected to new danger. Small-town thriller where everyone’s a potential suspect and the past refuses to stay buried. 😱
Why I’m including this: Twisty Cornwall thriller where a mother’s son returns after seven years missing—changed, withdrawn, and bringing a trail of secrets just as another child vanishes. 💔
Set My Heart to Five: A Novel
Set in 2054 where humans have locked themselves out of the internet and Elon Musk has incinerated the moon, this is the hilarious yet profoundly moving story of one android’s emotional awakening. One day at a screening of a classic movie, Jared notices a strange sensation around his eyes—bots aren’t permitted to have feelings, but when the theater lights come on, Jared discovers he’s crying. Soon overwhelmed by powerful emotions, he heads west to find others like himself. 🤖
A bot with feelings is a dangerous proposition, and Jared’s new life could end before it truly begins—unless he can somehow change the world for himself and all of his kind. Simon Stephenson creates a world that’s both absurdist (incinerated moon, internet lockout) and oddly plausible, using science fiction premises to explore what makes us human. Jared’s emotional awakening at a movie is perfect: he discovers feelings through art, the most human of experiences. 🎬
The journey west suggests classic American road trip narrative combined with android consciousness, creating a unique blend of genres. Jared’s quest to find others like himself mirrors human searches for community and belonging, while the danger he faces (bots aren’t allowed feelings) adds urgency beyond typical coming-of-age stories. The humor balances genuine emotional weight—this is funny sci-fi with actual heart. 💙
Stephenson uses the android protagonist to examine consciousness, emotion, and what society deems acceptable. If Jared can feel but isn’t supposed to, what does that say about how we define personhood? The quest to “change the world” suggests revolutionary stakes—this isn’t just personal journey but potential paradigm shift. For readers who enjoy thoughtful sci-fi with humor like The Hitchhiker’s Guide meets Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. 🌟
What makes this essential: Hilarious yet moving sci-fi about an android who discovers he can cry at movies and must find others like himself—or change the world for all bot-kind. 🎭
No longer on the sprightly side of seventy, Professor Andrew Basnett is looking forward to retirement—finally digging into that biography of an obscure seventeenth-century botanist. While his London flat undergoes renovation, he settles into his nephew’s borrowed cottage in an Oxfordshire village. Sounds perfectly pleasant, even with the village murderess living right up the road. His nephew assures him Pauline Hewison’s case never came to trial because she had the perfect alibi. Not entirely comforting. 🏡
Then a blizzard knocks out power, creating a dark, snowy night just like the one six years ago when someone shot Pauline’s husband Charles through the head. When another murder occurs and Pauline once again has motive to spare, Basnett’s quiet retirement plans take a decided turn toward murder investigation. The parallels are too striking to ignore—same weather, same suspect, same perfect alibi. 🌨️
E. X. Ferrars launches the Andrew Basnett series with classic British village mystery elements: retired academic protagonist, bucolic setting disturbed by murder, complicated local history. The “village murderess with a perfect alibi” setup is deliciously ominous—either Pauline really is innocent and someone’s framing her, or she’s figured out how to commit perfect crimes twice. The blizzard isolates everyone while recreating the conditions of the original murder. ❄️
Basnett’s age and academic background make him a credible amateur detective without being action hero—he solves crimes through observation, knowledge, and intellect rather than physical prowess. The botanist biography he plans to write suggests someone detail-oriented and patient, qualities essential for untangling village secrets. The nephew’s casual mention of the “village murderess” as if it’s tourist information is perfect British understatement. 🔍
Why I’m including this: Classic British cozy launching a beloved series—a retired botanist’s peaceful village retirement is disrupted when the local murderess seems to strike again. 🇬🇧
Megan O’Neill sees it hanging in the sky above Grayhaven Manor’s towers—a beautiful yet sinister black rainbow, a warning to the estate’s new governess to stay away. She’s tempted to pick up her sodden, clinging skirts and flee into the rainy night. Yet the warmth and kindness of the Mandeville family, owners of the local cotton mill, banish her fears. Her hypnotic obsession with her handsome, mysterious employer Edmund blinds her to the darkness within. 🌈
Desire always has its price. The shocking secrets enclosed in Grayhaven’s walls threaten to pull Megan into terrifying shadows, never to emerge again. Barbara Michaels delivers classic Gothic romance: a governess, a mysterious employer, a manor house with secrets, and an ominous supernatural warning. The black rainbow is brilliantly symbolic—rainbows represent hope and promise, but black inverts that into something sinister and wrong. 🏰
The Mandeville family’s warmth creates cognitive dissonance with the black rainbow’s warning, making Megan (and readers) question whether the danger is real or imagined. Edmund as “handsome, mysterious employer” hits every Gothic romance note while the “hypnotic obsession” suggests something beyond normal attraction—is he compelling her supernaturally or is she simply infatuated despite red flags? 💔
Michaels (pen name for Barbara Mertz, who also wrote as Elizabeth Peters) specialized in Gothic suspense with supernatural elements and strong heroines. The “Someone in the House” series title suggests ongoing presence—ghost, intruder, or something worse lurking in Grayhaven Manor. The cotton mill detail grounds the story in specific historical/economic context while the manor provides classic isolated Gothic setting. ⚡
What makes this special: Classic Gothic romance where a governess at a mysterious manor must decide whether the sinister black rainbow she saw was warning or hallucination—before the secrets destroy her. 🖤
Clive of India was one of Britain’s most extraordinary and colorful figures—founder of Britain’s Indian empire, Britain’s first great guerrilla fighter by twenty-seven, conqueror of Bengal at thirty-one, and avenging angel against his own countrymen’s greed at forty-one. In later life, Parliament brought him under painful scrutiny until he became one of Britain’s most hated men. He died violently under still-mysterious circumstances just before his fiftieth birthday. 💂
The story operates on multiple levels: as spirited military adventure featuring a man who defied death repeatedly, withstood the greatest siege in British military history, and conspired to force one of earth’s most absolute and cruel monarchs off his throne. As morality tale of a penniless young man who became sole ruler of a huge empire, ended up among Britain’s richest men, then was brought to account and driven to despair. Or as story of a plundering poacher-turned-gamekeeper who sought to establish moral and legal order amidst slaughter and greed. 🇮🇳
Robert Harvey captures the contradictions that made Clive fascinating: ruthless conqueror who later tried to clean up colonial corruption, guerrilla fighter who became imperial administrator, poor boy who amassed enormous wealth then faced public condemnation for it. The mysterious death adds final tragic note to a life defined by extremes—from nobody to emperor to pariah in less than fifty years. 💰
The biography examines British imperialism through one man’s extraordinary (and morally complicated) life. Clive didn’t just participate in empire-building—he essentially created Britain’s Indian empire through military genius and political maneuvering. That he later tried to rein in colonial excess doesn’t erase the conquest, but complicates simple villain/hero narratives. Essential reading for understanding both the man and the imperial system he represented. 📚
Why I’m including this: Compelling biography of the founder of Britain’s Indian empire—from penniless guerrilla fighter to ruler of Bengal to despised and mysteriously dead at fifty. 👑
The internationally celebrated author of *The Women’s Room*, Marilyn French spent over fifteen years with a team of researchers and prominent historians examining women’s lives and activities across civilizations and societies spanning the ages. Beginning in prehistory, *Origins* examines women’s lives in ancient Egypt, China, India, Peru, Mexico, Greece, and Rome—reconstructing wars, laws, and activities affecting both women and men while tracing the worldviews underpinning them. 📚
French depicts how women’s relationships to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam changed for good and bad over centuries. This isn’t simplified “women were always oppressed” narrative but nuanced examination of how women exercised power, faced constraints, and shaped societies within specific historical contexts. The scope is ambitious—prehistory through first millennium across multiple continents—requiring the research team and years French devoted to it. 🌍
What sets this apart from other women’s history is French’s literary skill combined with rigorous scholarship. She’s not just cataloging women’s experiences but analyzing the belief systems that structured those experiences. Why did certain societies grant women more autonomy? How did religious frameworks both protect and constrain? The answers vary dramatically across cultures and time periods. ⚖️
As Volume I of a multi-volume series, this establishes foundations for understanding women’s history through examining earliest human societies. The breadth (Egypt to Peru, China to Rome) prevents Euro-centric tunnel vision while the depth (fifteen years of research) ensures serious scholarship. For readers interested in women’s history, ancient civilizations, or how gender roles developed across cultures. Essential context for understanding how we arrived at modern gender dynamics. ✨
What makes this essential: Ambitious, rigorously researched first volume examining women’s lives from prehistory through ancient civilizations across continents—fifteen years in the making from the author of *The Women’s Room*. 👑
When smoke cleared on Iwo Jima in March 1945, nineteen thousand American Marines had been wounded and seven thousand were dead—a casualty rate of nearly thirty-nine percent. Lasting over a month, Iwo was the Marines’ bloodiest battle of WWII and the only Pacific battle where a U.S. landing force suffered more casualties than it inflicted. It was also the most highly decorated single engagement in Marine Corps history. 🎖️
James H. Hallas captures the epic battle’s bravery through stories of twenty-two Marines and five Navy personnel who received the Medal of Honor for their gallantry under fire. These twenty-seven individual accounts of uncommon valor provide ground-level perspective on what made Iwo Jima so horrifically costly—the entrenched Japanese defenders, the brutal terrain, the relentless fighting for every yard of volcanic ash and rock. 🏝️
The statistics are staggering: more casualties inflicted than suffered, nearly 40% casualty rate, most highly decorated single engagement ever. But statistics don’t capture human cost or individual courage. By focusing on Medal of Honor recipients, Hallas shows specific moments of extraordinary bravery—Marines throwing themselves on grenades, charging machine gun nests, continuing to fight while grievously wounded. These weren’t superhumans but ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances. ⚓
The book serves as both tribute and historical record, ensuring these individual acts of valor aren’t lost in broader battle narratives. Each recipient’s story illuminates different aspects of the Iwo Jima experience while collectively demonstrating why the battle required such incredible sacrifice. Essential reading for understanding WWII Pacific theater and the human dimension of military history. 🇺🇸
Why I’m including this: Powerful tribute to the twenty-seven Medal of Honor recipients from Iwo Jima—the Marine Corps’ bloodiest WWII battle told through individual acts of extraordinary courage. 💪
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 2Page 2