Seaweed

Seaweed, by Elle Strauss, free

A teen swim athlete falls for a merboy, only to find out they have more in common, and more to fear, than she thought. 

Dori Seward can’t wait to get out of Eastcove, a sleepy fishing village on the border of New Brunswick and Maine. She bides her time by hanging out with friends, attending swim club, and holding her biggest competition, Colby–who wants more than just friendship, at arm’s length. 

Then Tor Riley comes to town and he has everything Dori dreams of in a boyfriend–looks, athleticism and mystery.

But Tor also has a tantalizing secret and Dori is determined to find out what it is. The truth is crazier than her wildest imaginations and more dangerous, too. Dori has new enemies, and they will do anything to get to her.

Her life, her dreams and her love for Tor are all weighing in the balance. Will Dori risk it all in order to have it all? 

The Heliand Train

The Heliand Train, by Brynne McKay, free

Heliand is a small city in the Commonwealth of Carolingia in the Inannan Empire, beloved by commuters and tourists wishing to escape the big city. It is connected to the nation’s sprawling capital, Gospel, by the fastest train on the Continent. Powered by steam and by magic, no one knows for sure how fast this train travels or who controls it, but it is part of the network of super-fast trains that keeps the Inannan Empire the most dominant in the region, firmly above the Sapphemus Consortium, its southern neighbor. 

Thirteen-year-old Jacklen Endervaar is a citizen of Carolingia and a resident of Heliand, but he spends most of his time on the train. He sells periodicals in three languages to commuters and foreigners alike, but his dream is to one day be the kind of engineer who operates the railway. 

Jacklen’s world is literally turned on its head when in an accident he falls under the wheels of a train. He’s seen other newsboys lose limbs and even their lives under the pounding wheels of the track, but by some miracle he escapes such a fate—but finds something quite unexpected that jars him from his comfortable dreams and sets him on a path quite different from the one he planned—one in which the world is far less clearly defined than Jacklen once thought, and one in which he must learn whom to trust before it’s too late.

Night Marchers

Night Marchers, by Courtney Nuckels & Rebecca Gober, free

“NEVER, EVER lock eyes with a Night Marcher!” Everyone in Hawaii has heard this warning, except for seventeen-year-old Emma Townsend that is. For most Hawaiians know that looking into the eyes of Night Marcher can strike a curse that will end in death or eternal servitude.

Even though her father, who is a paranormal investigator, solely raised Emma, she has little experience in the realm of the supernatural. When she is forced to move with her father to Hawaii, only months before her graduation, Emma finds that her world as she knows it, is shaken when she starts seeing the unexplainable: fire balls in the distance, beating drums in the middle of nowhere and strangers who vanish into thin air. Then one day when she has a run in with a procession of Night Marchers, ancient Hawaiian spirits wandering from their burial grounds to their locations of battles past, Emma has no choice but to believe that the unbelievable does exist. 

Now Emma must go on the run with the help of a mysterious stranger, as they seek out how to free Emma from the curse of a Night Marcher, who will stop at nothing to get her soul.

Night Marchers #2, Redemption, is now available.

Rise of the Red Dragon

Rise of the Red Dragon, by Martin Rouillard, free

When Samuel Osmond sees two pairs of mysterious dice in a store for role-playing games, he thinks they’d be fun to show off at a cosplay event. He buys the white pair, leaving their black companions in the case. But when he casts the dice in his room that evening, he suddenly finds himself transported to a strange landscape, surrounded by scarred men in leather armor.

Samuel soon realizes that the dice have carried him back to ancient Britain, where the Briton army is at war with the Saxons. In this place, he has uncanny gifts, which he must use to put the rightful king on his throne. But darker forces are at work: back in his home world, someone has bought the black dice. Samuel must find the hidden enemy and undo his evil work before he unleashes a force from an even more ancient time.