Welcome to a new blog series I’m starting on indie books you should definitely add to your shopping lists this season. This is the “Ten in 10 Series.” They don’t just have to be for you! Tis the gift-giving season after all. I’m going to make daily posts showcasing ten more books (or more!) by Indie authors that could benefit from some more reviews.
(This may — or may not — continue through the shopping season, we shall see.)
1. Passionate Travellers: Around the World on 21 Incredible Journeys in History by Trish Nicholson
Book Categories: Adventure Travel, Travel Writing, Travelogues & Travel Essays
Reviews as of this posting: 3 on Amazon + 1 on Goodreads
Current Combined Star Rating: 5/5
Formats Available: Paperback and eBook
Accompanying these 21 passionate travellers on their personal quests, we discover what drove them, and share their incredible journeys through deserts, mountains, jungles and seas to every continent, spanning 2,000 years of history from 480 BCE to the 1930s. These are true stories of daring adventure, courage, cunning, even murder and, above everything, sheer determination against all odds.
Most of these eight women and thirteen men were ordinary people transformed by their journeys. They travelled from Africa, China, Persia, Russia, and the Mediterranean as well as from Europe and America. Their backgrounds were diverse, including: poet, artist, invalid, slave, pilgrim, doctor, missionary, scholar, diplomat, dilettante, storyteller, and anarchistic opera singer.
Not all survived. Many have been forgotten. Who now knows that Octavie Coudreau, stranded in a canoe on the Amazon in 1899 with her dead husband, continued to chart the river? That Thomas Stevens was the first person to cycle around the world on a penny-farthing? And why was an English parlour maid abandoned on the Trans-Siberian railway and arrested by Stalin’s secret police?
With painstaking research and powerful storytelling, the author, herself a world-traveller, has created an intimate experience of each traveller’s journey and recaptured a vanished world. A compelling travel read and a treat for history lovers.
Find the Author on Twitter: @TrishaNicholson
2. The Madness in Our Intentions by CJ Landry
Book Categories: Poetry
Reviews as of this posting: 6 on Amazon + 8 on Goodreads
Current Combined Star Rating: 4.62/5
Formats Available: Paperback and eBook
A collection of 32 poems written by mother and son examining love, family, breakups, mental illness, sexual health, self-confidence, and abuse.
Find the Author on Twitter: @InevitableCJ
3. Murder So Heartless: A Merry March Mystery (Merry March Mysteries Book 3) by Eileen Curley Hammond
Book Categories: Cozy Mystery, Amateur Sleuths, Mystery Romance
Reviews as of this posting: 6 on Amazon + 5 on Goodreads
Current Combined Star Rating: 4.8/5
Formats Available: Paperback and eBook
Nothing spoils Valentine’s Day in a small town like a murdered florist.
The First Gulf War lasted less than a year. Now, nearly three decades later, the local florist is murdered in Hopeful. Merry’s pulled in once again, as her daughter begs her to save her boyfriend’s father from prison.
When Merry investigates, she realizes that secrets kept during that War are beginning to unravel. Wine and cats keep her sane while her boyfriend, Rob, and best friend, Patty, pitch in to help her solve the mystery before the murderer kills again.
Find the Author on Twitter: @curleyhammcozy
Visit the Author’s Website: Eileen Curley Hammond
4. Earth Sucks: the Fringeants by Heather Chambers
Book Categories: Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic
Reviews as of this posting: 2 on Amazon + 4 on Goodreads
Current Combined Star Rating: 4.4/5
Formats Available: Paperback and eBook
It’s the apocalypse.
And Feng has a knack for pissing people off.
There are certain things you come to accept when Earth comes closer to its expiry date, like being invaded by bloodthirsty creatures you didn’t even know existed.
He just wanted to find his family. Now he’s being hunted.
With the love of his life dead, his family missing and every surviving human on the run, Feng is feeling a bit grouchy.
The death, he expected. Her? Not so much.
Meet Diem, an adorable alien healer with boundless curiosity and a glowing crimson mouth. She grew up on stories of Humans but never thought she’d meet one. Now that the opportunity has surfaced, she wishes she never did.
Something far more sinister is at play.
The mystery surrounding the fate of the disappearing humans is not all that it seems. What Feng and Diem discover will change everything. For both sides of the war.
But will it allow them to get out alive?
Find the Author on Twitter: @HeatherC_Author
5. Captain Jon Hunter Psychic Spy (Sky Walkers Book #1) by D. Owen Powell
Book Categories: Science Fiction, Military Sci-Fi,
Reviews as of this posting: 0 on Amazon + 0 on Goodreads
Current Combined Star Rating: None Yet
Formats Available: eBook
Part human. Part alien. All hero…
Countless worlds have fallen before the merciless Drakonian Empire. Now, the Earth is in their sights…
If the reptilian invaders’ plan succeeds, they will decimate the planet, reducing humanity to slaves… or food. And only one man can stop them: Captain Jon Hunter.
Once a highly trained United States Army Ranger, Hunter is now Earth’s top operative in the Military, Psychic Warfare Unit. After a lifetime of battle, the heroic soldier just wants to spend some quality time with his new family. But when he learns of the coming threat, Hunter must tap into his secret past… For within his DNA lies an alien linage, a history of past lives whose memories reach back for eons.
Drawing upon this ancient knowledge, Hunter rescues a long lost ally, who may be able to help avert the coming devastation. Together, they uncover an impossible fate lurking in Hunter’s future.
Earth’s final destiny will rest upon Jon Hunter’s shoulders. But to save the world, he may have to sacrifice more than he ever bargained for… The SKY WALKER PROJECT begins.
Find the Author on Twitter: @Write2Night
6. The Joy of Cruising: Passionate Cruisers, Fascinating Stories by Paul C. Thornton
Book Categories: Non-fiction, Cruise Travel
Reviews as of this posting: 7 on Amazon + 4 on Goodreads
Current Combined Star Rating: None Yet
Formats Available: Paperback and eBook
The Joy of Cruising is about passion. Award-winning author Paul C. Thornton profiles travelers from all over the world with a passion for cruising and who act on that passion in creative and fascinating ways. From a Grammy award winner, Poker Hall of Famer, winner of the TV series Last Comic Standing, to “ordinary” cruisers doing extraordinary things, The Joy of Cruising will fascinate anyone who has ever cruised, aspires to take a cruise, or just loves travel.
The Joy of Cruising is an anthology that takes a look at the magic of cruising from the vantage point of travelers passionate about travel—a compendium of anecdotes, stories, and profiles of cruisers who have some unique or interesting perspective. It is not cruise-line specific, nor an industry overview, cruising guide/how-to, exposé or behind the scenes. The Joy of Cruising is a positive examination of why cruisers do what they do in the pursuit of their passion.
Find the Author on Twitter: @joyofcruising
See the book website here: The Joy of Cruising
7. The Digital Eye (Traced) by Tobias Wilson
Book Categories: International Mystery & Crime, Mystery Action & Adventure, Crime Action & Adventure
Reviews as of this posting: 0 on Amazon
Current Combined Star Rating: None Yet
Formats Available: Paperback and eBook
Darby was a dedicated family man until he accepted a job offer which turned out too good to be true and more terrible than he could have imagined. Kept away from his family for the longest eighteen months of his life, Darby is still a prisoner, stuck on a ship involved in the human trafficking business where he is routinely forced to do terrible things that will haunt him for the rest of his life. That is until a stranger boards, a stranger named Alek Ivanov who is far more than he appears and is being hunted by those who would also do him and his family deep harm if he is caught.
Now Darby must team up with this stranger to fight for their freedom as well as the lives of their loved ones against those who have control over the digital eye that watches over our world, unblinking, twenty-four hours every day and holds digital or real-world footprints of anyone who would dare fight back.
But the tools that can be used to blackmail people, threaten their families and destroy lives are just that, tools. If Darby and Alek can work together and get off the death ship they are trapped on, then find out who they are truly fighting against, they might be able use those tools to their own ends. But against some of the most ruthless criminals on the planet its kill or be killed, and the race is on between these two and the powers they are fighting against to see who survives. Will it be Darby and Alek, forced into impossible situations to forge an alliance to the death or the powerful criminals they have to bring down to save themselves and more importantly, their families?
A fast-paced thriller, with adrenaline-fueled action, Traced: The Digital Eye is a modern-day revenge story that gives an insight into just how easy it is to find a person in the digital age and use that knowledge gathered to compel them to do almost anything, even kill.
Find the Author on Twitter: @TobiasTheAuthor
8. Littlethumb Sneezed by Truant D. Memphis
Book Categories: Humorous Fiction, Teen & Young Adult
Reviews as of this posting: 6 on Amazon + 2 on Goodreads
Current Combined Star Rating: 5/5
Formats Available: Paperback and eBook
What would happen if everything in the world froze but you?
Littlethumb Sneezed is the tale of prolific artist and renowned philanthropist Littlethumb Brooks. From the discovery of his creative genius as a child to his rise to fame, join Littlethumb on a satirical journey through the world of American pop culture. It is a life filled with love, laughter, charity, art, disguises, magic tricks, international intrigue, and unfortunately, horrible tragedy. There’s also a punk rocker named Tommy Toxic.
It began with the Occurrence. Littlethumb was a little boy…
Find the Author on Twitter: @BeKindHumans
Visit the Author’s Website: Truant D. Memphis
9. The Disciples of Fire (Disciples Series, #1) by Stephen C. Wright
Book Categories: Action Adventure, Military Science Fiction
Reviews as of this posting: 0 on Amazon + 0 on Goodreads
Current Combined Star Rating: None Yet
Formats Available: Paperback and eBook
For as long as he can remember, Derrick Hart always wanted to be a hero. Hearing stories about his country’s military fighting foreign pirates and slavers, he wanted nothing more than to become a soldier in the New Duron Army.
After being chosen to participate in a special military training program, Derrick cannot pass up such an opportunity. Joining four other cadets, Derrick becomes a member of Fire Squad.
With his fellow cadets, and with war looming over the horizon, will he be able to become the hero he always wanted to be? Or will he discover that life of a soldier is not like the stories he fantasized about?
Find the Author on Twitter: @StephenCWrite
10. Tales for the Camp Fire: A Charity Anthology Benefitting Wildfire Relief by Multiple authors (Suggested by Ben Monroe)
Book Categories: Horror Short Stories, Horror Anthologies
Reviews as of this posting: 5 on Amazon + 9 on Goodreads
Current Combined Star Rating: 4.2/5
Formats Available: Paperback and eBook
Scary Stories for a Good Cause. From Bram Stoker Award-nominated editor of the cult magazine Morbid Curiosity comes Tales for the Camp Fire, a new charity anthology of short stories to help support wildfire relief efforts.
Through these pages roam werewolves, serial killers, a handful of ghosts, plenty of zombies, Cthulhu cultists, mad scientists, and a pair of conjoined twins.
In November 2018, fire broke out on Camp Creek Road and raced through Butte County, California. By the time the fire was extinguished, the town of Paradise had been scoured from the map. Nearly 100 people died. Damage ran to an estimated $16 billion. The disaster has been named the Camp Fire, in memory of its place of origin. The horror writers of Northern California rallied to raise money for the survivors.
Tales for the Camp Fire ranges from fairytale to science fiction, from psychological terror to magical realism, from splatterpunk to black humor, all rounded out by a messed-up post-apocalyptic cookbook. All profits from the sale of this anthology will be donated to Camp Fire relief and recovery efforts.
Find Ben Monroe on Twitter: @_BenMonroe_
Visit Ben Monroe’s Website: Ben Monroe
Visit the Book Website: Tales for the Camp Fire
That’s Ten in 10 (Part 1) Complete!
If you’re looking for a new read or a gift for friends/family this season, you should definitely consider these books. Nothing catch your attention? Jump over to the top of the sidebar and sign up for the blog updates so you get notified of future postings.
Next: Read 10 in Ten (Part 2)
Take care!
