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 Witch’s Silver Lining by Deanna Chase
This is the first of three books in the Witches of Befana Bay paranormal romance series by a New York Times bestselling author. The other books are $5.99 each, and are in Kindle Unlimited. The third book isn’t out yet, and is scheduled for February of 2025. It is available for preorder. The author’s a regular on our Free Friday list.
From E.S. Foster:
This story starts with August running into a woman he’s known for a long time on the side of the road, Sage. She had been trying to get out to look at her flat tire, but her skirt became stuck while she was trying to get out of the car.
August helps her out, accidentally tearing her skirt in the process. He offers to help replace the flat tire with the spare, but Sage reveals that she doesn’t have one. It turns out that Sage used to be a witch, but her grandmother took away her magic. She doesn’t have a spare tire because she was used to always changing her tires with magic.
August comes up with an idea. He takes her back to his place, a cottage in the woods. There, he offers that she try on one of the dresses his roommate has from working on movie sets. Right now, Sage is just wearing a skirt and T-shirt to a fancy Witches Ball held by her grandmother.
Sage changes into a dress, but she can’t help but wonder why she’s so nervous around August. They have known each other for a long time, but they have never been able to stand each other. August once asked her out, but she said no.
August feels a spark between them too, but he isn’t sure if it’s genuine. It’s clear they have some feelings for each other, but nothing pans out as they head to the ball.
I stopped reading there. I liked the idea of witches and their families being well-known in one specific town and being able to practice different types of magic. This story definitely seemed like it was going to be mostly about romance, so I won’t continue reading. However, if you enjoy a good cozy witch romance, I recommend you check this one out.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
4. No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished by Rachel Aaron
This is the third of five books in the Heartstrikers urban fantasy series. The other books are $4.99 each, but are all in Kindle Unlimited. The fourth book is free today as well. The author has been on our Free Friday list before.
From Maria Korolov:
This book cover looked awfully familiar to me and — yup! I’ve read it! I hadn’t reviewed this particular book for MetaStellar, but one of our other reviewers, Lilivette Domingquez-Torres, reviewed the first book in a related series. That book — Minimum Wage Magic — sounded so good to me that I picked it up, then went on to read all the other books in that series, and then all the other related books I could find.
The story is set in a near-future Detroit, where magic is real, and dragons exist, and all kinds of crazy stuff happens. The protagonist in this series is Julius, a dragon shape-shifter, who’s trying to change how dragon politics works — and to protect the city and the people he cares about.
The books are funny, smart, fast-paced, won awards, and have thousands of five-star reviews. If you like urban fantasy, Rachel Aaron should be on your next-to-read list.
I don’t want to give the plot away. If you have Kindle Unlimited, I strongly suggest that you start with the first book in the series and read that one first.
That one starts with a couple of conniving dragon shifters plotting their plots. Then, after one of them leaves, the other, a dragon leader named Svena, senses a wave of magic and a black dragon tears its way into her bedroom. Then the black dragon shifts and turns into a naked human woman, Svena’s oldest sister, bloody, and holding an evil magical artifact. She’s been gone for four weeks, though it felt to her like it was longer, searching for this artifact. But now she’s back on Earth, and is ready to resume the leadership of her dragon clan. Svena isn’t ready to give up her power, but her older sister has that evil artifact now, and Svena is powerless.
Then we switch to the point of view of Bob, a dragon of another clan. He’s a seer, and he realizes that something really bad has happened. He looks through his sticky notes to find the relevant one and gives it to his pigeon to take somewhere. Then, since he knows he’s not going to have much time to rest in the near future, he goes back to bed for a nap.
I like Bob. In fact, I liked all the characters — that’s why I read all the books!
Anyway, that was the prologue. In chapter one, we meet our main protagonist, Julius, a dragon shape-shifter. He’s battling magical badgers in the underground below downtown Detroit. He’s trying to help a client, a client suffering under a curse that attracts deadly magical badgers. Julius runs a magical animal removal business. He started it a month ago, and the previous four weeks had been the happiest of his life. For the first time ever, he wasn’t dealing with the craziness of the dragon world. Just normal non-dragon craziness.
As I said before, I loved this beginning, and I strongly recommend that if this is your kind of thing, that you start with the first book in the series.
Meanwhile, I just saw that the author has a new series out — Tear Down Heaven — and it’s in Kindle Unlimited. I already grabbed the first book, Hell For Hire. That’s what I’m reading this weekend. My only worry is that the third book isn’t out yet, but it’s scheduled for release in February, and I just added a note to my calendar to keep an eye out for it.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
3. Cities of Smoke and Starlight by Alli Earnest
This is the first of three books in the Gate Chronicles romantic steampunk series. The other books are $0.99 and $4.99 each, and are in Kindle Unlimited. The third book isn’t out let, and is scheduled for September 2025. It is available for preorder. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From E.S. Foster:
This story begins on a distant planet far into the future. Our Earth has long since been abandoned, and our history is mostly considered legend. Then we meet Kase, a pilot who was considered the best in his class. He has been tasked with training a newbie pilot in hover technology.
Kase is already skilled in this new tech, which makes him a little arrogant. He doesn’t see the point in wasting his time teaching new pilots. He gives the new pilot instructions for how to work the practice hovercraft, then prepares to hover toward him in a duel-like way. Unfortunately, the new pilot flies into the air, gets thrown off, and lands on the roof, severely injuring himself.
Kase gets into huge trouble, especially with his father, who heads up the pilot program. Done with Kase’s arrogance and irresponsibility, his father gives him a note with an address and tells him to meet someone there. It’s for a new mission to another planet, one that Kase’s father thinks will teach Kase some responsibility. Upset, Kase leaves in a huff.
The story then shifts to Hallie, a young university student. She’s also at the top of her class, and one of her professors has her working on a difficult translation of an ancient alien document. She gets so caught up in it that she forgets the time. She rushes over to her job at the bookstore, but her boss says that she’s been late several times already and fires her.
Hallie tries not to panic. She was born and raised in the mountains, and the university was her escape to a better life. If she can’t afford her last year of tuition, then she won’t be able to graduate and fulfill her dream of opening a school in a poorer area.
It was at this point that I stopped reading to write this review, but I was super invested in what was happening. I enjoyed the characters, despite Kase’s arrogance, and I wanted to see what would happen to them. I think I’ll continue reading this series!
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
2. King of Flames by Kathryn Ann Kingsley
This is the first of six books in The Masks of Under romantic fantasy series. The other books are $3.99 each, but are all in Kindle Unlimited. The author is a USA Today bestselling author. This book was also our on Free Friday list last week, but has since moved up from fifth to second place.
From Lilivette Domínguez-Torres:
Lydia is a forensic technician who’s had a simple, normal life until the day she woke up with a strange tattoo on her arm.
With no memory of how she got it or what the language the letter on her skin is, she tries to rub it off with all types of cleaners. After failing to get rid of it, she decides to move on with her day and go to work at the forensic institute.
With a new, last-minute case on her table, Lydia gets to work quickly and everything seems normal until two things happen. First, she realizes that there’s no blood inside the corpse she’s working with and, second, she realizes that there’s a similar tattoo—but with a different letter—on the corpse’s arm.
Something isn’t right here, but it’s not until the corpse grabs her wrist and starts chasing her around the room that she realizes how bad things really are. Yet it’s only a matter of time before a mysterious man with a mask appears and saves her from the monster. But does he really save her though?
From my point of view, this book had a great start. The pace is quick and the way the story turns dark so quickly really captures your attention in just a matter of seconds.
I honestly felt like I was reading a horror story and completely forgot about the mysteries and possible future romances and you know what? I really enjoyed that.
I definitely recommend this if you’re looking for a quick story full of horror, forbidden romance and a new dark world full of mysteries. I do think I’ll continue reading this one day!
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
1. Parse Galaxy Omnibus Volume 1 by Kate Sheeran Swed
This is a box set of the first two books in the eight-book Parse Galaxy space opera series, plus a prequel novella. The other books are $4.99 each, and are not in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Hannah M:
Vin doesn’t usually get hired to track spies, so he’s a little out of place as he follows his target through the extremely wealthy Ve Station. His job is to swipe the data the spy has collected — proof that the Fleet is trying to take over the galaxy. Vin’s clothing is a little frayed around the edges, and he doesn’t exactly blend, and the spy spots him, ambushes him, and gives him a bad electric shock before disappearing for good.
He races back to his ship, where his pilot is waiting for him with an “I told you so.” She knew he wasn’t cut out for chasing spies.
Vin figures that the spy is heading to his next destination, and figures out which ship must be his. They have to beat the spy’s ship to the current — something like a wormhole — but the spy’s ship shoots at them. But that’s okay. He knows where the spy has to go next. All Vin has to do is infiltrate a Fleet gathering, and he knows just the person to help him do it.
Then, in the next chapter, we meet Sloane, Vin’s niece. She’s a medical student who miraculously fixed a piece of revolutionary technology at a high-tech lab, which was too far-fetched for me. Vin meets with her, asking for her help, and finally, his whole plan is revealed. He wants to unite the Systems against the Fleet, and the only way to get proof of the Fleet’s tyrannical plans is if he obtains that data. Suddenly, drones attack the café they’re in, causing Sloane to run to the ship with Vin.
I stopped reading after that cliffhanger, as sci-fi stories like this aren’t really my thing: they all revolve around the same topics of spaceships and galaxies and AI, and it gets tiring after a bit.
That said, I enjoyed the world-building. Swed’s descriptions are engaging, with my favorite being the scene where Vin is spotted by the Fleet spy. However, the protagonist, Vin, had no interesting qualities to hook me into the story, as he was the generic mercenary you read about in sci-fi stories. Also, Swed repeats phrases a lot; for example, the repeated word “jam” in one scene makes the text seem clunky.
Though it has been a while since I’ve read a sci-fi story like this, the tropes felt all too familiar, so I don’t think I would continue reading. But if you want to read more sci-fi, check it out.
From Maria Korolov:
This sounds like something exactly up my alley. I just grabbed my copy.
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.
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.
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 on her blog, E. S. Foster and her personal website E. S. Foster - Author
Hannah M is a student with a strong interest in publishing. She hopes to build a career that allows her to share diverse stories and voices.