So, as this blog is all about championing Independent Authors, I thought I might do a listicle of great books from indie authors that you can currently read for free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited.
Kindle Unlimited is an amazing tool for avid readers – you can borrow up to 20 books at any one time – and borrow them for as long as you subscribe or as long as the author allows the book to be in the Kindle Unlimited program.
It’s pretty great for authors too, especially indie authors. An author gets paid per page that’s read from the books they’ve published – and they have very few fees to contend with. Amazon sorts out all the payments and the other bits too! Well, that’s probably incredibly simplified – but that’s the gist. The author will also still get royalties from sales of the book via Amazon, so everyone’s a winner, really.
I know a lot of the more traditional readers bemoan the invention of e-readers, but for me, they’re incredible. They last a relatively long time, hold their charge incredibly well and allow you to take as many books on holiday with you as you want without taking up your entire suitcase. Then of course, there’s the advantage to the environment – no new trees are being cut down to produce a book – but people are still reading.
Anyway – enough of me waffling on about the virtues of e-readers, here’s the list of 20 Great Book Series From Indie Authors You Can Read Via Kindle Unlimited.
So, get your kindle at the ready, and get set to start downloading enough pages to keep you enthralled for a very, very long time.
1 – A Tale of Stars and Shadow – Lisa Cassidy
When I started reading this series, I was gripped. OK, the twists might be a bit obvious – you might see them coming before you’ve seen them coming, but it is still a brilliant fantasy series for grown ups.
This is a four book series – perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas.
2 – Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac – Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti
I’m a bit embarrassed to say I came across these two ladies because my (then) 15 year old daughter had downloaded the first book of their Zodiac Academy Series. I quickly banned her from the series.
With Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac, we’re still in Solaria, but we’re approximately five years prior to the events of ZA. We meet a few favourite characters from that series, as well as get to know a certain grumpy Harpy a little better. It’s still incredibly steamy, so I wouldn’t recommend it for younger readers – as the sex scenes are very graphic. There’s moments of hilarity in the series – one point I couldn’t actually read anymore because I was crying from laughing so hard.
This is a four book series – perfect if you’re a fan of their Zodiac series.
3 – The Magelands Box Set – Christopher Mitchell
Five different species of ‘people’ inhabit a star shaped continent. Each species have mages – and their mages have different abilities depending on their race/species. An epic war against the Creator is brewing and only if the races can somehow put their differences aside and band together can they defeat him. It can be a bit sweary, and often lapses into a very strong Scottish dialect.
This is initially a five book series – which is followed by a further five books set some 20 or so years later. Then there’s another set of books set in different worlds, but still containing the same characters. I think Mitchell is planning around 20 or so books for this series. If you love a series that you can really get your teeth into, this is the one for you.
4 – The Prime Prophecy – Tamar Sloan
A series about Werewolves and coming of age in the modern world. About working out if fate and destiny is set in stone or if it can be made.
This is a six book series, with a prequel included in it. Perfect for fans of Twilight (as cheesy as that sounds).
5 – Seeker’s World – K.A. Riley
When all you’ve ever wanted is to be normal, to be accepted – you just know that your world is going to go completely, catastrophically turned upside down. And that’s what happens here when Vega receives a strange birthday present.
This box set is three books long – but there are more in the series. At time of publishing, the final book in the series is yet to be released.
6 – The Firebrand Series – Helen Harper
DS Emma Bellamy has just been assigned to her first posting – but it’s not what her boyfriend wanted. She’s not going to be sitting behind a desk in New Scotland Yard. No, she’s assigned to Supe Squad. When she’s summoned to meet her DCI at a graveyard, she remembers only a strange sound and then nothing. Until, with the smell of sulphur she wakes up in a morgue.
Helen Harper writes Urban Fantasy for adults with a sense of humour and a nod to the more quirky characters. Her female leads are always strong, independent minded and end up kicking arse.
The Firebrand Series is a five book series, but has a couple of spin offs which are also worth reading.
7 – The Resistance Trilogy – K.A Riley
The Valta is a sleepy little town, high in the Colorado Mountains – inhabited purely by children aged 16 and under. Because whenever you turn 17, you’re taken away to be trained to fight the nefarious Eastern Order – a terrorist organisation which has pretty much destroyed the world.
The Resistance Trilogy is the first trilogy in a set of three trilogies, which then has another two spin off trilogies following it. If any of that makes sense?
8 – The Thaw Chronicles – Heidi Catherine and Tamar Sloan
The Polar ice caps have melted, and the only civilisation remaining is a group of people living just off the coast of Alaska on a rusting cruise liner called the Oasis. They’ve renamed their little piece of tranquility Askala, and all they want is to live in peace and try, somehow, to regenerate the world.
Now, there’s a lot of books in this series, with more being set for release. There’s the four in this box set (and the prequel), and then the story continues on with the next generation. The next set of books within the series will be set before the ice caps melted, I believe.
9 – Age of Vampires – Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti
A seven book saga of twins trying to change their fate which was decided centuries before they were born. A prophecy was made by a vengeful Norse god who exacted his revenge upon the humans who dared to steal his treasure, cursing their children to become Vampires. Can the twins end the curse, without succumbing to it themselves?
Not as steamy as Peckham’s and. Valenti’s ‘SolariaVerse’ (as I call it in my head – Vampire Academy et al), but still with a bit of heat.
10 – The Cure Chronicles – K.A. Riley
Riley loves to write about post apocalyptic America and The Cure Chronicles is no different. This time, a young woman is chosen to go and live in the monstrous Arcology, which dominates the landscape for miles around (think The Gherkin in London and then times it by fifteen thousand, and you might be halfway there.). In it, the Wealthies live a life of luxury and are reigned over by the ‘King’ and the ‘Nobles’ – Wealthies who have given themselves royal titles to ensure their rule is absolute – and if she proves herself to be loyal to the Royals, she’ll be given the chance to take the ‘cure’ – a remedy for the disease which killed her father.
This is a slow burn romance as well as post apocalyptic science fiction. So far, there have been three books released, with the fourth in the series due at the end of March 2022.
11 – The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Magic – Helen Harper
If you’ve ever just wanted to kick back on the sofa and bugger the rest of the world while you snuggle in your duvet and watch Friends re-runs on Netflix, then this series isn’t just perfect for you, it is probably you in a nutshell. It’s funny and relatable.
12 – Spell Breaker – Charlie N. Holberg
I’ve only read the first book in this series, and I did really enjoy it. It’s a two book series about a girl who uses magic illegally. It’s set in Victorian Era England – somewhere in the south where it’s easy enough to travel to London, I assume – and has fun with the language and the expected primness of a Victorian Lady.
Holberg also wrote The Paper Magician series – which, again I haven’t read – but it is on my TBR list. I promise.
13 – The Furyck Saga – A. E. Rayne
I’ve only just downloaded this series onto my Kindle, so I’m not entirely sure what to write about it – other than I’ve read RAVE reviews of the whole saga. It’s a long one, I think I’ve seen at least book 9, so if you’re up for it, curl up on a comfy chair.
14 – The Kingdoms of Evernow – Heidi Catherine
This is an unbelievably sweet series, starting with a Kingdom ruled by a selfish and greedy king. The series five books long, and each book contains a tale about a different country – but they all connect in the end. The series deals with love, loss, eating disorders and a wide range of mental health conditions in a way that’s neither patronising nor too simplified.
15- The Princess Trials – Cordelia K. Castel.
If you like the The Hunger Games or The Red Queen, you’re going to enjoy this series. Thirty young women have to prove themselves worthy of the hand of the prince. They must take part in a deadly televised beauty pageant – no one can be trusted.
Set in a post apocalyptic America, where water is scarce and elitists have turned the country into the unrecognisable Phangloria.
16 – The Evermore Chronicles – Emily R. King
Everly Donovan has a clock for a heart and is the lone survivor from when her family were brutally murdered. She’s sent off to a penal colony on a deadly island (maybe based on when the British sent criminals off to Australia to establish a colony), where she’s married off to a general who serves the man who ordered her family to be killed. Her clock is literally running out, though, and she must try to expose the man who betrayed her family before her heart stops, for good.
17 – The Hundredth Queen Series – Emily R. King
This series took my breath away – a stunning story of a beautiful and wilful woman who is forced to fight against 99 other women for her place at the Rajah’s side as his wife – and queen. The trouble is, she really doesn’t want it – but she does want to survive – and that brings out her hidden, forbidden power that’s buried deep within her.
18 – The Oremere Chronicles – Helen Scheuerer
Bleak is a Mind Whisperer – she hates being a Mind Whisperer, hates hearing the voices of everyone in her head. She drinks copiously to make sure the voices are dampened, believing that it is the only way to stay safe from the clutches of King Arden.
Oremere is a three book series, with Dawn of Mist as a standalone prequel. I have written a review of this series previously and can be read here.
19 – The Curse of the Cyren Queen – Helen Scheuerer
Roh was born in a cell of bones, to a Cyren who had committed a terrible, terrible crime decades earlier. She’s now bound to a life of cleaning bones with her friends. Until, that is, the Queen’s Trial is announced. Now Roh must ensure she’s not only competing in the trials, but wins them – no matter the cost or who she betrays.
Set in the same world as The Oremere Chronicles, Curse of the Cyren Queen is going to be a four book series – with book. three due for release in April 2022.
20 – The Mage Chronicles – Lisa Cassidy.
Set some twenty years before the events of Heir to the Darkmage (book three in the series reviewed here), all Alyx Egalion wants is to marry her darling Prince Cayr. And it seems as though her dream is becoming a reality when he kisses her. The next morning though, she’s shocked when she’s sent away to study at the ominous sounding Darkskull Hall – a school for Mages – even though she’s never shown the slightest Mage ability. The Mage Chronicles is a four book series.
S. A