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Author: Ben Colley
Humorous Thriller & Suspense
FREE
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What hooked me: A successful photographer whose work appears on billboards and magazine centerfolds started his career shooting low-budget porn, and now the people he used to work with are dying in ways that might be connected. When a starlet he once cared for puts herself in danger, he faces an unstoppable slide back into the dark world he thought he’d escaped.
The premise of someone trying to leave their seedy past behind only to have it violently resurface creates genuine noir tension. The description promises it’s as funny as it is disturbing—comic noir that’s a grimy tale of excess, obsession, and unrequited lust. Colley studied under Martin Amis and Ian McGuire, which suggests literary chops beneath the pulp premise.
Perfect for: Noir fans who want their crime fiction darkly funny and morally murky, or readers who appreciate when someone’s past catches up in the worst possible way.
This book is Colley’s debut novel. He grew up in Yorkshire and currently lives in London. He completed a Masters in Creative Writing at The University of Manchester, where he was taught by renowned writers including Martin Amis and Ian McGuire. In his day job as a marketing manager for a design practice, he oversaw marketing for projects involving high-profile stakeholders such as Apple, Google, Vitsoe, and NASA. And he’s also moonlighted as a stand-up comic.
Author: Monica Ross
New Adult Romance
FREE
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What drew me in: Zelda Gordon is plus-sized with chronic illness and an ex who called her a beached whale. After kicking him out, her confidence is in the gutter until two amazing men—Drew and Aithan—call her a Valkyrie and love her just as she is.
The setup of someone learning to love themselves while two supportive partners help lift them up creates positive body-positive romance. The detail about jealousy potentially murdering their happiness and an ex’s spite being more dangerous than her curves adds genuine stakes beyond just the romance, suggesting this explores how toxic past relationships can sabotage present happiness.
Perfect for: New adult romance readers who want body-positive representation with genuine emotional healing, or anyone who thinks the best relationships help you learn to love yourself.
Author: Laura J. Mayo
Humorous Fairy Tale Fantasy
FREE
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Why I’m intrigued: Lady Theodosia faces bankruptcy and forced betrothal to a geezer who wants to use her as a brood mare, so she summons a fairy godmother. But Cecily of the Ash Fairies is drop-dead gorgeous, slightly devious, and more interested in smoking her pipe than providing charitable magic.
The premise of a fairy godmother who needs convincing rather than automatically helping creates comedy gold. Theo must prove she’s good to gain Cecily’s trust, but proving goodness turns out to be rather ridiculous. The collision of desperate human and reluctant fairy with the goal of getting OUT of a marriage rather than into one flips the Cinderella story perfectly.
Perfect for: Fairy tale retelling fans who want their godmothers unconventional and their heroines working for their happy endings, or readers who think proving goodness should involve more than just being nice.
Author: Marie Mistry
Romantic Fantasy
FREE
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What caught my attention: Nilsa is a lunar witch and divine assassin framed for her high priestess’s murder, forced to seek refuge among pirates who think she’s a harmless solar witch. Keeping up the charade while surrounded by a cursed fae, two broken shifters, and an overprotective vampire is hard enough without constantly restraining the urge to murder their captain.
The setup of someone powerful pretending to be weak while planning vengeance creates delicious tension. Add the complication of a siren claiming she’s his mate and four immortal males tempting her at every turn, and you’ve got romantic fantasy with genuine stakes. The detail that she needs to stay alive long enough to reclaim her place in her coven while having no place for men in her life suggests she’s fighting both external enemies and internal attraction.
Perfect for: Romantic fantasy fans who want their witches deadly and their reverse harem situations complicated by secrets, or readers who love when the protagonist has to hide their true power.
Author: Jessica Harlan
Japanese Cooking
FREE
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Why I’m including this: A cookbook for takoyaki pans covering everything from traditional Japanese octopus balls to Western delights like arancini and jalapeno cornbread balls to desserts like matcha cake pops. Whether you have a stovetop or electric pan, Harlan shows you how to mix batters, prepare hidden centers, and beautifully garnish your creations.
The appeal is taking one specialized pan and unlocking dozens of possibilities beyond the traditional use. From salmon onigiri to pigs in a blanket to molten brownie bites, this explores how a simple tool designed for one dish can create an entire universe of appetizers, snacks, and desserts. For anyone who owns a takoyaki pan gathering dust or is curious about getting one, this provides practical inspiration.
Perfect for: Home cooks wanting to maximize specialized kitchen tools, or anyone fascinated by Japanese street food and creative adaptation of cooking techniques.
Author: Deborah Bladon
Contemporary Romance
FREE
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What hooked me: A woman moves into an apartment and notices her gorgeous neighbor watching her from his window every night with intense hunger. She starts stripping slowly just for him, sensing his gaze trailing over her skin. It’s innocent until she pitches her business idea to private investors and realizes the man who watches her nightly is one of three people holding her startup’s future in their hands.
The voyeurism setup creates immediate tension, and the collision of exhibitionist fantasy with professional reality adds genuine complications. The question of whether their window attraction can survive the reality of business relationships and power dynamics makes this more than just steamy romance.
Perfect for: Contemporary romance fans who want their office power dynamics with exhibitionist tension, or readers who think the best complications come from mixing business with very personal pleasure.
Author: Jack London
Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
FREE
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What drew me in: Set in 2073, sixty years after a devastating epidemic wipes out most humanity, James Howard Smith tries to impart his wisdom to his grandsons who only know the savage world they’ve been raised in. They mock their grandfather’s indecipherable babble about scientific and technological wonders before the Red Death.
Written by Jack London (The Call of the Wild, White Fang), this 1912 novel is eerily prescient about pandemic devastation and the loss of civilization. The tragedy isn’t just the plague itself but the inability to pass knowledge to the next generation who can’t comprehend what was lost. Smith’s despair for humanity’s future creates genuine pathos in what could be just another apocalypse story.
Perfect for: Classic science fiction fans interested in early post-apocalyptic literature, or readers who appreciate how London’s themes about civilization’s fragility remain disturbingly relevant.
Author: Sean Alexander
Twelve-Step Programs
FREE
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Why I’m including this: An international bestselling guide for people stuck in the drink/hangover/regret/repeat cycle who are sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. Alexander guides readers through uncommon steps to quit drinking and master sobriety, moving from talking about quitting to actually putting in the work.
The practical approach—acknowledging that maybe hangovers last longer than 24 hours and you want to start living with more time, energy, and money—meets people where they are without judgment. The promise of uncommon steps rather than just standard approaches suggests fresh perspective for people who’ve tried and struggled with traditional methods.
Perfect for: Anyone genuinely ready to stop drinking and looking for practical guidance beyond conventional approaches, or people who need support moving from intention to action on sobriety.
Author: Morgana Best
Humorous Cozy Mystery
FREE
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What caught my attention: Laurel inherits a funeral home and discovers it’s literally a dead-end job—she can see ghosts. She must breathe life into the business while contending with her manipulative religious mother, a wise-cracking ghost, and a secretive handsome accountant. When a local woman’s murder in the funeral home strangles the finances, Laurel must solve it or lose the business.
The collision of funeral home setting with ghost-seeing protagonist and actual murder investigation creates multiple layers of supernatural comedy and mystery. The USA Today bestselling series starting here promises established quality, and the pun-filled description (“grave responsibility,” “dead-end job”) suggests the humor is self-aware and playful.
Perfect for: Cozy mystery fans who want their supernatural elements genuinely funny, or readers who think funeral homes are the perfect setting for ghost-assisted murder investigations.
Author: Jodi Picoult
Sisters Fiction
Regularly $3.99, Today $1.99
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Why I’m intrigued: When Willow is born with severe osteogenesis imperfecta—she’ll suffer hundreds of broken bones and a lifetime of pain—her parents Charlotte and Sean face sleepless nights, mounting bills, and haunting what-ifs. Yet Willow is perfect in other ways: smart, beautiful, brave, and kind.
Events force Charlotte and Sean to confront the most serious what-ifs: What if Charlotte had known earlier? What if things could have been different? What if Willow had never been born? To do Willow justice, Charlotte must ask what constitutes a valuable life. Picoult’s exploration of impossible choices and medical ethics through one family’s experience creates the kind of provocative storytelling Stephen King calls “unassuming brilliance.”
Perfect for: Readers who want fiction tackling profound ethical questions about disability and value of life, or Picoult fans ready for her characteristic blend of family drama and moral complexity.
Author: Clive Cussler, Dirk Cussler
Men’s Adventure Fiction
Regularly $3.99, Today $0.99
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What caught my attention: Dirk Pitt investigates a toxic Caribbean outbreak that may threaten the U.S. and unwittingly becomes involved in a post-Castro power struggle for Cuba’s control. Meanwhile, his children Dirk and Summer chase an Aztec stone that may reveal a vast historical treasure, believed destroyed on the battleship Maine in 1898, which brings them to Cuba and squarely into harm’s way.
The collision of environmental thriller with Cuban political intrigue and Aztec treasure hunting creates multiple story threads. Getting Pitt father, son, and daughter all in desperate situations—perhaps never quite as dire as this one—in the same location promises family dynamics alongside adventure. At $0.99, this is remarkable value for established adventure series fans.
Perfect for: Adventure fiction readers who want their marine mysteries with political intrigue and treasure hunting, or Cussler fans ready for multi-generational Pitt family chaos.
Author: A. R. Torre
Domestic Thrillers
Regularly $4.99, Today $2.49
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What hooked me: Actress Nora Kemp loves two men: philanthropic movie star Hugh Iverson who gives her security, and his twin brother Trent who brings out her wild side. When Trent and an unidentified woman are found dead on the Iversons’ Beverly Hills property, an investigation suggests murder-suicide but there’s more to it: suspicions of a serial killer, Hugh’s unnerved staff, and a missing mother and son.
The twin brothers love triangle creates immediate complications, and the mystery of who died alongside Trent adds layers to what seems straightforward. As two LA detectives sift through deceptions of innocent and guilty (living and dead), solving the case becomes cat-and-mouse. The detail that in a city of illusions, truth is easy to hide frames this as examining Hollywood’s relationship with reality itself.
Perfect for: Domestic thriller fans who want their Hollywood settings with actual mystery complexity, or readers who love when seemingly simple cases unravel into something much darker.
Author: J.T. Geissinger
Women’s Romance Fiction
Regularly $5.99, Today $2.99
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What drew me in: Professional matchmaker Maddie McRae, known as the “Wedding Whisperer,” believes opposites attract but don’t stay together—until she meets Mason Spark, the rude, arrogant, notoriously monogamy-allergic hottest quarterback in the NFL who’s her new client. He’s paying her an outrageous sum to find him a fake wife because his contract’s at risk due to bad behavior.
The setup of a matchmaker whose entire philosophy contradicts being attracted to her client creates perfect rom-com tension. Mason willing to pretend to settle down but starting to fall for the adorable matchmaker who can’t stand him suggests this explores what happens when the playboy finds himself in the game of his life for something he never thought he’d lose: his heart.
Perfect for: Sports romance fans who want their NFL players with fake relationship complications, or readers who love when matchmakers become their own best match despite professional beliefs.
Author: Nelson DeMille
Military Thrillers
Regularly $3.99, Today $1.99
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Why it caught my attention: Ben Tyson is a good man—brilliant corporate executive, honest family man—but sixteen years ago as a Vietnam lieutenant, his men committed a murderous atrocity and swore never to tell. Now the press, army justice, and events he tried to forget have caught up with him. His family, career, and personal honor hang in balance, and only one woman can reveal his past’s truth and set him free.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author whose books sold over 50 million copies, this explores the collision of past war crimes with present respectable life. The question of what Ben actually knew, what he’s responsible for, and whether honor can be reclaimed after atrocity creates moral complexity. Dan Brown calls DeMille “a true master,” and this examination of how war’s darkest moments haunt good men decades later shows why.
Perfect for: Military thriller fans who want their action with genuine moral complexity about war crimes and responsibility, or readers interested in how Vietnam’s legacy destroyed men long after they came home.
Author: L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain
Psychological Thriller
Regularly $5.99, Today $2.99
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What hooked me: A body is found at the Sea Spray Motel and all hell breaks loose for the guests, but college student Ellie gets it worse than others. She lied to her parents about spring break and now finds herself drawn deeper into nightmare—taken, trapped, alone. Meanwhile Detective Avery Stinson works the case following clues deeper into danger.
The collision of fun-in-the-sun vacation turning to blood-on-the-beach creates immediate tonal whiplash. The detail about Ellie being “taken, trapped, alone” suggests this goes beyond typical murder mystery into genuinely dark psychological territory. The parallel narratives of Ellie’s captivity and Stinson’s investigation create dual tension tracks racing toward each other.
Perfect for: Psychological thriller fans who want their spring break settings turned horrifying, or readers who appreciate dual narratives where victim and detective perspectives create full picture of danger.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 2Page 2