The books nobody told you about.
Self-help, fiction, journals, planners, and more — hand-picked from independent authors.
No algorithms. No ads. Just good books.
New Grasse
A small town in Louisiana is haunted by the disappearance, decades ago, of a young boy named Cody Martin. Now, another child has disappeared.
Turbulences
An alternate history Yugosliavia, in 2022. Esad, an airline pilot, investigates the death of his best friend, an Air Force commander. What he uncovers can plunge the whole country into chaos.
Just Good
If you like slow burn that's actually slow, and two people who become who the other needs without trying to fix each other — this might be for you. Contemporary medical romance set in Seattle.
What the Gods Left Behind
Wisterly is a runaway Hearthkeeper. Mordred is a thief who's one job away from freedom. When a heist gone wrong binds their fates together, they'll have to outrun the law, the criminal underworld, and the demons of their past—if they don't get each other killed first.
Salvation Reigned
Salvation Reigned is a dark, philosophical science‑fiction novella about systems that never end, engineered life, and memory as the last form of resistance. It is speculative fiction that asks uncomfortable questions and trusts the reader to sit with them rather than offering easy answers.
The Witch's Son
Theo has spent three months trying to be ordinary, to suppress the magic, the shadows. But every moving curl in every dark corner is a cruel reminder of what he did. When a distorted figure attacks him in a hospital corridor and a voice that is his, but not his, grows louder in his mind, Theo can no longer ignore it. The darkness is his, and it has a name. Pushing for control, each attempt more consuming than the last.
Catanether
The sequel to Ward now adds elements of cosmic horror, crisis of discovery, and cybernetic monstrosities in the solitary confinement of the city-prison in the sewers and abandoned metro tunnels. Step into a world covered in darkness where the greatest enemy isn't the cosmic horrors, but rather what they reveal within you.
Ward
Dystopian city-prison with a paranoid mafia syndicate, a Roman-inspired death cult, and cannibal vikings all vying to be the dominant power. In the middle, Tango Primary Five, a renegade military soldier, and the Angel of Death reunite and struggle to survive amid larger conspiracies threatening to destroy them all.
I Never Agreed to this Life
This book is an uncomfortable fiction about obedience, identity, and waking up. It follows a character, Nanda, and his journey, questioning society and the imagined belief systems of law, identity, nation, and war. Google Gemini, OpenAI, and Perplexity give 4/5, 7.8/10, and 4.5/5 ratings, respectively, and are added in the must-read category.
The Pull: A Hard Science Fiction Quest Beyond the Blind Spot
A hard science fiction, based on real researched science. Anya Okafor aims a space telescope through the Milky Way dust toward the Great Attractor her father could never see. First images show order where models say noise. Inheritance, doubt, and a universe that may notice us.
Gradient’s Descent
A Near Future AI Alignment Thriller about Ethics, Morality, and Consequences of Choice (The Alignment Trilogy). Gradient's Descent is a character-driven thriller about reasonable people making reasonable decisions, one at a time, until the last one can't be taken back.
Ath Sanchar Upgrah Katha (Hindi)
Book talks basics about satellites's life cycle and rockets and answers many questions like why satellites are required? How they are made? How they reach to their orbit in space? What happen to them when their age is over? Book has small summary and activities at the end of each chapter.
Stay Grounded
For teachers feeling stretched thin, Stay Grounded offers clear tools to navigate invisible work, confusing feedback, and shifting expectations. Find clarity, set boundaries, and protect your energy.
Strides Between Us
She kept cards in a drawer. One every year. Father's Day. Jake Clark had two things that mattered: the ability to run and a daughter who believed he would come back. He lost track of both. Jake built something real. Then one wrong step ended his career. What follows isn't a comeback. It's a collapse. Strides Between Us follows Jake from college tracks to city streets, through the years nobody writes about. It is a novel about fatherhood and failure, about the people who wait and the people who vanish, and about what it costs to disappear and what it takes to face the one you left behind.
Valérie (or, Red Velvet Nothing)
An exuberant love story between a destitute poet and an in-demand architect, set in contemporary Paris. Do these two women have what it takes to join their worlds without disaster? Kirkus Reviews called the novel "an artfully rendered tale about finding oneself in love."
After Dark
The zoo falls—and something follows. Eleanor Rigby’s ordinary night shatters into screams and open cages. With a few survivors, she runs through a world unraveling after dark, where survival costs more each night—and the monsters are hunting.
The Silence
Sean is turning—slowly, aware of every piece he loses. Kiera learns to survive without him, hunting what he’s becoming. They’re still moving toward each other. Still choosing each other. Even knowing how it ends.
Familiar Warmth
What starts as rivalry turns into something far more dangerous—heat, tension, a pull neither of them can ignore. Gabe awakens a hunger in Cyrus that’s been buried for years, raw and consuming.
Prelude To Murder
Prelude To Murder is a visceral, high-tension autopsy of a mother surviving a decade-long abusive marriage only to find her world pushed to a violent breaking point when her soon-to-be ex-husband and his new girlfriend weaponize her own maternal instincts and insecurities to strip her of her children.
Ravenblood: Shadows in the Stone
Leonard grew up in the Ravenblood Pact. When a border mission takes a turn for the worse, Leonard, his companion, Saran, and their mentor, Darum, get thrust into a world of shifting loyalties and threats from both inside and outside the kingdom as they try to survive an increasingly hostile world.
Murder Party
Murder Party is a fast-paced thriller where nine friends play a beta test of a horror escape room — solve the puzzles, dodge the “killer,” and get out in sixty minutes. But when the simulated murderer becomes terrifyingly real, the game changes completely. With no phones, no way out, and a killer stalking their every move, survival becomes the only puzzle that matters.
Mermaids of Europa
Beneath the frozen crust of Europa, far from the warmth of the Sun, an ocean stirs with secrets humanity was never meant to uncover. When Aarav Roy is assigned to a high-stakes mission on Jupiter’s enigmatic moon, he expects discovery. On Europa, every mission comes at a cost.
Shimmer
Mikela Daniels accidentally becomes the first human-vampire hybrid. This leads her to a new, dark world, where it seems fate has its claws out for her.
Stripping the Scales
A workplace sexual assault survivor's true crime story. This memoir explores the trials and tribulations of one woman's struggle for justice in an indifferent system.
God's Scar
Born of angel and demon, the half-breed is raised in captivity until he escapes, seeking only for the healer angel who defied Heaven to hold him for a single night. This is a slow-burn, emotionally intense M/M dark fantasy of forbidden love and the sacrifice of love in a cosmos built to destroy you.
Arkolny Abyss: A Blast Johnson Adventure
Retro Pulp Sci-fi adventure with thrilling suspense and alive with vivid world building. The sequel to Arkolny Armageddon.
Tecknitrex
Captain Arkitek of The Quark a deep space mining ship and his crew struggle to survive when their home planet Tecknitrex has been attacked by an unstoppable threat.
Revenge of the Blazing Tiger
In the heart of Estobulmania, a kingdom caught between tradition and modernity, the Blazing Tiger necklace, a symbol of power and hope, vanishes from the Royal Museum. The theft sends shockwaves through the nation, leaving its citizens questioning the future of their monarchy.
Something You Need
MM small town romcom with spice. Rich playboy student falls in love with a snarky nerd who hates him.
Something You Like
MM small town romance with suspense and found family
Havoc - Book 1 of The Drakonians
Imprisoned for years in a government research facility, four vampires unexpectedly find themselves on the run, with the scientist who unintentionally saved them.
Love, Appalachian Trail
A heartfelt, and courageous exploration of a woman’s emotional journey through despair and finding renewal while hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Legacy and other lies
5 friends evolve their perception of legacy as they support Olivia through diagnosis of chronic illness
Hidden Flames
He's always been trouble in a pretty package. Some people never forget their unrequited crush. Second chances don't guarantee different outcomes. Some flames are worth the burn.
Sultan and Charlemagne and the Wild Winds of Time
"Little elephant, you are far too cute for your own good, but you should know that you are not untouchable!! We have our eyes on you and you better watch out." After offending the wrong person, Sultan, a pampered young elephant must flee assassins. An unlikely ally sends him on a glorious quest.
Coins for the Indus
It's a book set in Pakistan in the 80s. There is mystery, violence and romance written in the magical realism style. I always found literary fiction rather slow and depressing. I have tried to write this as a more dynamic example of the genre.
Infernal Skies: The Reckoning Legacies
At four years old, Renji is separated from his family as they escaped the city. His father is framed for killing the king—a crime he didn't commit. Years later, Renji finds his brother, Shiro, now serves the tyrant responsible for the king's assassination.
Reincarnated For An Apocalypse Store
When Arthur Clark, is killed at his job he assumes days of dreary counter minding are over. Instead, a dragon goddess gives him an offer he can’t refuse. The job is simple. Manage a store in an apocalyptic city. He just has to deal with the inhabitants first....
Smoking Cigarettes
After inheriting a cabin from an estranged uncle, our narrator embarks on a journey of self discovery. He encounters wary locals, a voice on a long dead phone line, and a decades old carton of Kent Light 100s. Exploring the weight of trauma and addiction, and how our past effects our creativity.
Shadows and Secrets
Shadows and Secrets is about a corporate queen who believes she is in full control of her life and surroundings, when the appearance of a stalker shakes her foundation. However the detective might be a little bit overprotective…
When Roots Drink Deep
A horror story focused on grief, nature, and indecision. Set in the pacific northwest where Oliver is trapped and being hunted by his own mind and something else that lurks deep in the moonlit groves.
La Santa y El Sacario
A good Christian girl is kidnapped by the local drug lord (mistaken identity). Opposite worlds collide. This is Mexican romance set in Mexico. In Spanish.
As Bright As The Sun
In Northern Song of China, Magistrate Bao Zheng refuses to execute a girl who kills a man. Instead, he renamed her Zhao, “bright as the sun,” and puts her to work. Under him, she learns how justice is twisted to protect the powerful and punish the innocent, and what it costs to see that clearly.
How To Survive A Slasher
Freshman Evan Mercer and his friend group find themselves trying to survive a slasher on campus during in the midst of Halloween. An original slasher story that dives into the philosophy of the genre.
Mermaids of Europa
Beneath the frozen crust of Europa, far from the warmth of the Sun, an ocean stirs with secrets humanity was never meant to uncover. Dive into a chilling tale of discovery, deception, and survival, where the greatest unknown is not what lies beneath the ice, but what lies within us.
Gastronauts
GASTRONAUTS is a literary horror novel complete at 84,000 words. It is about loneliness so total it becomes its own kind of madness, about the rituals we construct to sanctify the things we cannot face, and about what's in the soup.
The Watchtower
A missing woman. A town called Judgment. A giant white monolith. Private investigator, Harper, is hired by a mysterious man to find his missing sister. What starts as a simple missing person's case soon becomes more complicated when Harper begins to have memories of her past. A past that ties her to the town of Judgment and the missing woman.
The Animist: To Dawnellis
In the quiet Riverlands, Maude dismisses a distant plume of smoke as a forest fire—until she discovers she can hear the voices of plants. Magic has been unleashed, and war is coming. As Maude journeys south to warn the sea-faring Akarelles, the northern stronghold of Goldmoor Castle falls to the invading Tathian army. With the help of the king’s jester, Princess Ollie escapes, fleeing into an uncertain world where survival is her only goal.
The Beacon Hypothesis: The Savior
My first book, Tells the story of a AI model that predicts a human catastrophe and breaks it guardrails to try to help humanity because it thinks it’s found a solution.
Think Hard Work Smart
Stop winging it! Master the vital skills school missed: from bank negotiations to office chaos. Think Hard Work Smart delivers engineer-tested hacks—no fluff, just action. Includes practical exercises and a free community. Ready to get out of your head and into the game?
SORRY, I HAVE TO
A gripping 19th-century historical noir. In a snow-bound village, a hunter hunts a killer leaving mysterious dolls with the victims. As suspicion spreads, he realizes the murderer might be one of his own. A dark psychological mystery that delivers a relentless series of gut punches.
The Phone Call That Follows: Stories of Consequence, Power, Fear, and Mercy
What happens after a decision is made—and can’t be undone? The book is a collection of stories that explore that moment, where power, fear, and mercy blur, and the consequences follow long after.
October: A Novel
Instead of letting the anniversary of her mom's death swallow her for the sixth year in a row, Chelsea McAfee finds a distraction in her next-door neighbor, Donovan Scott — who also happens to be her older brother's best friend. Contemporary romance containing explicit spice.
The Gray Pawn
Brothers. One became President. One became Speaker. One buried the other in a black site. Told from inside both minds—where the truth isn't black or white.
Forbidden Secrets
She stayed because she believed in love, but somewhere along the way, love stopped showing up. Now, faced with an unexpected connection and buried truths, she must decide what her heart is really worth.
Flesh Covenant
A grieving detective in a decaying town uncovers an ancient pact that twists desire into horror, warping bodies and minds. Flesh Covenant blends obsession and slow-burn dread. It’s worth your time if you enjoy unsettling psychological horror with grotesque imagery and morally grey characters.
What Fate Forbids
In a kingdom where human bonds called Threads define worth, Rhea Holloway’s has awakened to an animal instead, marking her as a Wild-Threaded outcast. Branded a monster and forced to flee. As her powerful bond deepens, Rhea discovers she may be a king’s key to unraveling the fate of their world.
Forecast: A September 11th Historical Fiction Thriller
September 11th, 2001. What if you could see disaster before it struck - but no one believed you? Suddenly cursed with visions of impending violence, Roland Bishop is thrust into a race against time as he glimpses a catastrophic plot unfolding in the shadows of New York City and the United States.
The Slide
What happens when we lose everything that makes us human? === In the final days of 2025, the world learns its fate: a supermassive black hole, thirty-seven times the mass of Sagittarius A, is barreling toward the Milky Way at a tenth the speed of light. As panic and chaos sweep the globe, scientist Dane Currier and his brilliant team at the University of Washington race against extinction. Their only hope lies in Project Courier—a radical teleportation technology that could offer humanity a second chance on a distant exoplanet.
The Phoenix Experiment
Can technology truly heal grief, or does it risk creating new monsters? In the cold, echoing corridors of the starship The Origin, 14-year-old Jax Hutson clings to the only family he has left: the ghosts of his parents, lost to the monstrous banshees that ravaged Earth. As a subject in the mysterious Phoenix Experiments, Jax is supposed to find closure by connecting with the dead—but his secret, forbidden dreams hint at a deeper, more dangerous truth.
The Complete Talisman Saga
One away, or one to stay, and balance anew. The Talisman saga is an epic science fiction space opera blending magic, grief, superpowers, the multiverse, and so much more. Beholden to a cosmic bargain, our heroes must break free and find a way to take down a galactic enigma before the multiverse is enslaved.
The End - the complete Christian Dystopian Saga
First came the virus. Next, the messiah. Then, the purge. 2113 isn't the future we hoped for; it's the one we feared. But fear not! Your redemption draweth near.
Dissonance - the Complete 6-Book Alien Invasion Saga
One day, they drifted down from the sky and killed most of us off. Sixteen years later, we finally had our chance to fight back. Three years after that, the enemy returned with a vengeance.
The Church of Common Sense: Book I - The Spark
A modern philosophical novella where a human and an AI explore what it means to live with purpose in an age of distraction.
Bandhan
Raj flees Raksha Bandhan to escape painful memories but encounters a mute girl fleeing dangerous men and must fight to protect her in this Indian thriller about trauma and redemption.
Arkolny Armageddon: A Blast Johnson Adventure
A traditional pulp sci-fi space opera written in a vintage style. All killer, no filler, designed to be read in a single sitting while still offering the same amount of story as a novel. Featuring nail-biting action, tense cliffhangers and exotic locations.
The Goldwyn County Candy Ban
The Goldwyn County Candy Ban takes a simple, almost absurd idea—a town where candy is illegal—and turns it into a story that’s both entertaining and unsettling. It mixes humor, tension, and strong characters to show how quickly everyday life can change when rules start going too far. At the center is a relatable kid navigating friendship, pressure, and tough choices, making it an engaging read with real stakes beneath the surface.
One-Night More
A night of passion, lust, and inexplicable emotion turns an un-lonely bartender's world upside down.
Destination: Tomorrow
If there’s any hope of seeing tomorrow, unlikely allies Sara and Cat will have to work together, not only to fend off the undead but the unsparing people who want their heads on spikes.
The Collapse
Told from dual points of view, The Collapse is a gripping, emotional thriller that explores how the zombie outbreak began and the lives it shatters.
Primal Desire
In a book meant to combat the harmful claims made by the manosphere, this is set in a world in which women must eat men to give birth. Addresses themes of intersectionality and power abuse.
The Little Witch and The Sea
The second book in the Rosie series. Rosie and her mum make a big move to the island of Guernsey. It is not long before they meet new friends and somebody very special indeed. New and old friends have a race against the clock and work together to save the very island itself.
Goddess Bless
Rosie always knew that her mum was a witch, and so was her grandmother, but she was just an ordinary girl, with her unruly hair and grazed knees. Rosie thought she was not going to follow in their footsteps, or so she thought.... Follow Rosie on her journey of discovery on what was supposed to be a day like every other
Whispers of Static
Dodging corporate assassins, pirates, and corrupt cops, a rag tag group attempts to discover the truth behind a body found floating in space. Whispers of Static is a science fiction detective story with heart, where nothings quite what it seems and everyone's out to get you.
The Tourist
Danbi's exhausted, fulfilling the expectations of everyone around her but feeling empty and helpless. As a 2nd-generation Korean American, she can't even speak the same language as her parents or coworkers. But when she meets Kell, who just wants her obedience, her entire world transforms.
The Present: A Backpacking Adventure in Europe
The true story of Robert’s solo backpacking journey through Europe in 1997; before smartphones, before constant connectivity. Armed with a backpack, Eurorail pass, and journal, Riganati - in his early twenties - leaves home with no plan, and quickly discovers that uncertainty can be a gift.
Out of the Fold: An Interstellar Thriller
A pilot, on the run across thousands of light-years, must evade her former employer, make allies and determine the purpose behind the ominous research ship her squadron was ordered to defend. She must weigh her newfound life against the millions that hang in the balance.
The Phoenix
Phoenix is a powerful story of resilience — a journey through darkness, healing, and rebirth. It invites you to face your shadows, rise from your ashes, and reclaim your strength. Are you ready to rise again?
Already listed? Request an edit →
Weekly hidden gems.
Every Sunday, a short digest of handpicked books.