Faelorehn - Book One of the Otherworld Trilogy

Faelorehn - Book One of the Otherworld Trilogy, by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson, free

Meghan Elam has been strange her entire life: her eyes have this odd habit of changing color and she sees and hears things no one else does. When the visions and voices in her head start to get worse, she is convinced that her parents will want to drag her off to another psychiatrist. That is, until the mysterious Cade MacRoich shows up out of nowhere with an explanation of his own.

Cade brings her news of another realm where goblins and gnomes are the norm, a place where whispering spirits exist in the very earth, and a world where Meghan just might find the answers she has always sought.  Books 2 and 3 of the Trilogy are also available.

Playing the Son Card

Playing the Son Card, by Wilson James, free

At age 9, Troy Evanson lost his father in an accident. Ever since then, he’s been steadily losing confidence in himself and his ability to make his way in the world. 

It certainly doesn’t help that his mother has had her own difficulties coping with his father’s death, and Troy has been on his own a lot. He’s stopped doing all the extra things he did with his Dad and he’s just barely hanging on. He had been a good swimmer and was becoming a talented diver, but he just hasn’t been able to convince himself to go near the pool since his father died. 

The kids at his school have really started to pick on him, and Troy has become the victim of bullies. It was just verbal bullying at first, but now in middle school it’s starting to get physical. He is bright and likes learning, but he hates the daily nightmare that school has become. Any kind of socializing has become torture, and he basically just hates being around people.

Now, at age 12, he has a one-time chance to change his life and start new. Will he meet the challenge, or will remain the victim he has become? Will he be able to pull himself together and become the man that his Dad was trying to help him be, or will be forever be the lost little boy whose life ended when his father died? 

Find out if this is the uplifting story we all hope for. Find out what choices Troy makes in Playing the 'Son' Card. 

Sweet Oblivion

Sweet Oblivion, by Bailey Ardisone, free

sweet adjective ˈswēt a : pleasing to the mind or feelings : AGREEABLE, GRATIFYING - often used as a generalized term of approval

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obliv·i·on noun ə-ˈbli-vē-ən, ō-, ä- 1: the fact or condition of forgetting or having forgotten; esp : the condition of being oblivious 2: the condition or state of being forgotten or unknown

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Have you ever wanted to forget? Nariella Woodlinn has. Many times. Especially when her already frustrating life gets turned upside down by a mysterious boy who randomly shows up in her small town and she can’t seem to understand anything about him, despite how much she tries. Nari hates everything about her life except for her best friend Rydan, but now that they’ve been separated during their senior year of high school, she has to learn to make new friends without him. When strange unexplainable phenomenons start becoming an every day part of her life, Nari struggles to come to grips with reality. And with love.

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Naminé has responsibilities. Duties. It is her obligation to fulfill all that is asked of her by their King. But when a glimmer of hope is introduced to her by a prisoner she tends to and it means life or death for her and her people, she does all that she can to turn that hope into reality and finally end the vicious war that has been ensuing since she was born. Even if that means keeping it secret from her King. Even if it means carrying out the biggest betrayal against the King ever seen during her time.

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She has hope. She will fulfill her duty. She will not let her people down.

Socialpunk (Socialpunk #1)

Socialpunk (Socialpunk #1), by Monica Leonelle, free

Ima is just a teenage girl trying to make it in The Dome, an encapsulated, 5-mile radius of downtown Chicago that remains after natural disaster has overtaken most of the earth. When she meets a hooded figure named Vaughn at a party, he takes her on a whirlwind escape that jolts her from her current reality into Silicon City, where humans are upgraded, currency is clout, and bionic eyes are the only way to get information among the glass and metal spiraling buildings that dot the skyline. Oh, and the year is 2198, not 2052 like she thought it was.

But this new city comes with dangers of its own, from degenerates to replications, from hostile hashes to a dictator who seems determined to control the population. To top it all off, Ima has to find some way to get back to The Dome to save her best friend Dash before the powers of Silicon City find a way to destroy it.

Something sinister is brewing in Silicon City, and Ima is determined to figure out how to stop it. Along the way, she will have to give up parts of herself to save the ones she loves. Can she survive the future long enough to fix the past?

Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow

Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow, free at author's website

(cover art depicts print edition for sale in UK)

Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.

But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.

The long-awaited sequel to this book, Homeland, is to be released on February 6, 2013. See Cory Doctorow's comments about the sequel here, on HuffPostBooks.