Did you know that Amazon has a list of the top-selling and free sci-fi and fantasy books? The list changes constantly — authors and publishers set their books to free temporarily to promote their work, and, of course, books move up and down in the rankings. Read on to find your fun free read for this weekend! And grab the books quickly because they don’t always stay free for long.
This week’s list is completely different from those of the previous weeks. So if you’re a fan of free books, there are going to be new things to read all the time. If you want to get this list in your inbox every Friday afternoon, subscribe to the MetaStellar weekly newsletter.
There are a lot of books to go through, so this week I’m being helped out by a couple of other members of our MetaStellar community. If you’d like to join me in doing these reviews — and taping our regular Free Friday videos — email me at maria@metastellar.com.
5. The Scarlet Huntress by Tea Spangsberg
This is one of five books in Shattered Fairytales romantic fantasy series, which can be read in any order. The other books are $4.00 each, but are all in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From E.S. Foster:
Ruby’s grandmother has just died. She is looking at the gravestone on the land her family has lived in for generations. It turns out that Ruby’s grandmother had just been killed by a great beast. She knew that her grandmother couldn’t handle fighting on her own anymore, so she’s left standing in the snow and wondering how her grandmother could have made that mistake.
Ruby’s family has been hunting monsters for generations. Her parents had been killed by this same beast years earlier, and now with her grandmother gone, she’s alone. Ruby vows to kill the monster who did this, but her judgment is a little clouded since she’s been drinking. With a bottle of whiskey, she heads off into the snow, starting to hunt.
The story then shifts to Peter’s perspective. He’s riding on a horse through the snow when he spots what turns out to be Ruby walking along the trail. She’s falling over drunk, so Peter lifts her onto his horse, brings her back to a cabin nearby, and gets her inside. He also partially undresses her before she wakes up and puts a knife to his throat. The author wants us to believe that he’s doing this with honorable intentions — after all, she is drenched from the cold snow — but I’m still suspicious. Then, Ruby urges him to sleep next to her. Again, still innocent, but neither one of these characters are making good decisions right now.
Ruby wakes up and realizes that there’s a random guy in her bed. But instead of freaking out, they start making out. Peter then learns that Ruby is part of the Redshield family. This family has hunted monsters for generations. He happens to be one of these “monsters.” It’s explained that he has a wolf spirit attached to him, and right now it wants nothing more than to attack Ruby for being a hunter.
Peter tries to escape, but Ruby goes after him with a knife. She stabs him, but Peter bites her shoulder, turns into a werewolf, and runs away. When he bites Ruby, he has a vision of her as his mate on top of all that. Luckily Peter escapes, but Ruby vows to track him down.
I didn’t know what I was getting into when I first started this book. I just knew that it was going to be a take on the Red Riding Hood story. So while things like shifting and the romance aren’t my cup of tea, I have to admit that the story was engaging. I don’t think I’ll continue this myself, but if you enjoy werewolves, romance, and fairytales, check this book out.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
4. The Songbird & The Forest by Emma Elizabeth
This is the first of three books in the Creatures of Domhan na Rùin romantic fantasy series. The other books are $2.99 each, but are in Kindle Unlimited. The third book isn’t out yet, but is scheduled to be released next month and is available for pre-order. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Maria Korolov:
Dalia is an adept necromancer who normally spends her time taking care of her shop in the Dead City when she’s asked to go and represent her city at a celebration in a foreign kingdom. She’s excited — she and her cat, Fluffy, get to go on an adventure. She’s doesn’t usually get to travel. Oh, and Fluffy is a reanimated skeleton of a cat.
Then, in the next chapter, we switch to the point of view of Ilex, a dryad who’s getting a touch of wanderlust as well. They — the dryad is a they — then sees a person riding on a skeleton horse. The most beautiful person they’d ever seen.
Then we’re back with Dahlia. Judging by the cover — and the switching point of view — and the fact that Dahlia has raised a horse skeleton up from the dead — I’m guessing she and Ilex the dryad are going to get together.
She’s named the horse Misty.
As she’s traveling through the kingdom on her skeleton horse, with her skeleton cat next to her, people are giving her a wide berth. She decides to charm people with her warm and glowing personality.
Then, in the woods along the road, she sees a weird tree, which immediately disappears when she looks at it, then appears again. Surprised, she screams, the horse bucks, she falls off the horse, and the dryad catches her. And Dahlia thinks the dryad is the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen.
And when Dalia and the dryad introduce themselves, they also tell each other their preferred pronouns.
And I’m going to stop reading right there. Not because of the pronouns — I like that part and thought it was cute. But there’s no violence in this book so far. No mystery. Everyone is nice. It feels like a perfectly wonderful magical love story to cozy up to on a fall weekend.
My cold, dead heart can’t take it!
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
3. Voices In The Dark by Ariel Dawn
This is the first of two books in the Monsters of Ashwood paranormal romance series. The other book is $3.99, but it is in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Lilivette Domínguez-Torres:
Everybody thinks that Jenna is crazy because she hears voices and is drawn to the darkness. Turns out that Jenna is actually able to see ghosts, hear their voices, and sense the supernatural.
Now that’s she’s getting out of Shadyside, a mental institution, Jenna is trying to get her life together. She’s been working at the Ashwood Visitor Center for two months, she’s living in a group home and earning her own money, but everything changes the day she decides to buy the Ashwood Manor.
The Ashwood Manor has been abandoned for hundreds of years after a gruesome murder is rumored to have happened in it, but Jenna can’t help feeling drawn to it. The darkness of the manor draws her closer every time she looks at it, and she’s dying to know why. Apparently, the house is haunted, but it’s not until Jenna buys the house to live in that she will know who or what it is haunting it and why.
Considering this is a novella, I think it’s safe to say that I will continue reading this and see where it goes. I love how mysterious the house is and the fact that in the first three chapters of it we get a glimpse of who or what might be haunting the house but we don’t get to know why yet.
I’m also really enjoying the fast pace of the story and I can’t wait to know more about Jenna and what will happen now that she bought the biggest haunted house in the small town of Ashwood. If you’re looking for a quick, mysterious, paranormal novella to devour in a few minutes or hours, I definitely recommend checking this one out–especially if you’re a fan of paranormal, monsters, dark romance and so on.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
2. Hollow by Amanda Sinatra
This is the first of three books in The Hollow Series of paranormal romance. The other books — which are not listed on the series page — are Shattered and Fallen, which I can’t find a link to anywhere, but it looks like this book might include the entire second book and the first chapter of the third. It’s very confusing, though, so don’t hold me to that. If anyone knows what’s up, let us know, and we’ll update this listing. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From E.S. Foster:
A young woman wakes up in the middle of the woods with no memory of how she got there. Actually, she has no memory at all. While she’s lying there in the darkness, she hears what sounds like several people walking around. She opens her eyes to see a strange man standing over her. He explains that he saved her life and that she needs to go with him if she wants to live because there are terrible people after her.
Obviously, this girl doesn’t trust him, but she follows him anyway. She realizes she can’t remember the basics of her life, including her name and age. Also, while they’re working, she’s able to jump over a high wall with hardly any effort.
They make their way to a small cottage in the middle of the forest. There, the man, Theodore, greets the woman who lives there, then asks the girl if she’s ready to “start her new life.” Without any other options, she heads inside.
The girl inspects herself in the bathroom mirror, trying to figure out who she is. Suddenly she has a vision of a young girl named Ivy playing with her kite and her dog. She isn’t sure if this is a memory or something else.
Theodore explains to her that he turned her into a dhampir, a half-human, half-vampire. To prove that he is an actual vampire, he pulls out a bag of blood, bites into it, then drains it. The girl realizes she is drawn to the blood. Theodore also explains that the girl had been found attacked in the woods, and he only turned her to save her. Creating a dhampir is tricky, though, so they’ll know in the next few days whether the change will work. If not, she will succumb to the injuries she didn’t even know she had and has no memory of.
Theodore announces that she will meet someone who will train her in the ways of the dhampir. Some perks include stopping aging, being able to walk in the sun, eating human food, and more. Before she goes to bed, Theodore announces that her new name is Ivy, the same name as the girl from her dream/memory.
So I normally don’t read vampire novels, but I loved the beginning of this one. I loved the premise and the concept that you lose your memories when you turn. I think I might stick with this one.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
1. Kenai by Dave Dobson
This a standalone science fiction adventure, but if you like the author’s style, he’s got other science fiction and fantasy books on Amazon, all of which are in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Maria Korolov:
When I grabbed this book to review, I honestly thought it was about an AI named Ken.
But Kenai is not Ken, the AI, but a planet named Kenai.
Jess is the protagonist, and she’s a former marine. She decided to come to this planet way out on the edge of known space because she’s been through some stuff and her doctor recommended some peace, quiet, and distance. She and a few others are providing security to a big team of archeologists studying a long-dead alien civilization. And there’s not much for her to do. The local animals are all herbivores and even the insects don’t bite.
But there is some AI in the book. For example, the lead archeologist has an annoying robot assistant that carries stuff around for him.
Then a couple of weird things happen. First, the archeologist says that the planet’s cities date back to around 50,000 year ago. But the site they’re at dates back only 22,000 years. Which is pretty odd. Then, even odder, a big bird falls out of the sky right onto the archeologist. And the odd part its that it’s been chopped into pieces.
Okay, that got me interested.
In the next chapter, we get a flashback to an experience Jess had back in her old career as a soldier. When something else fell out of the sky and hit someone near her.
Even before the archeologist has time to say “What the…,” Jess is on the move, rifle up, scanning the surrounding area, looking for energy emissions and other threats. She doesn’t seen anything, and can’t get any scan data from the ship back in orbit.
So she examines the pieces of the dead bird. There are burned edges, so it wasn’t torn apart by another animal.
Then she finally connects with the ship. They don’t see anything either, though there’s a glitch blocking their feeds in the area, and signs of lightning. But the archeologist doesn’t think the bird was hit by lightning. The wounds don’t seem right.
Anyway, the book starts out slowly. Over the course of the first few chapters, we get some of Jess’s backstory, the archeological mystery, and the dead bird. The pacing feels more like a cozy mystery than a space opera adventure, but I like it, and I like Jess. I’ll probably stick with it this weekend.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
See all the Free Friday posts here. Do you have other free books for us to check out? Comment below or email me at maria@metastellar.com.
Have you read any of these books? Are you planning to? Let us know in the comments!
Or watch Maria and Emma discuss all five books in the video below:
MetaStellar editor and publisher Maria Korolov is a science fiction novelist, writing stories set in a future virtual world. And, during the day, she is an award-winning freelance technology journalist who covers artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and enterprise virtual reality. See her Amazon author page here and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and check out her latest videos on the Maria Korolov YouTube channel. Email her at maria@metastellar.com. She is also the editor and publisher of Hypergrid Business, one of the top global sites covering virtual reality.
E. S. Foster is a writer and graduate student at the University of Cambridge. Her work has been featured in a variety of literary journals and small presses. You can find out more about her and what she does at her blog, E. S. Foster.
Lilivette Domínguez-Torres is MetaStellar's marketing assistant and an aspiring book editor based in Puerto Rico. You can find her talking about fantasy books or K-dramas on Twitter at @lilivettedt.