The Hawk and His Boy

The Hawk and His Boy, by Christopher Bunn, free

One night in the city of Hearne, a young thief named Jute is instructed to break into a wizard's house and steal an old wooden box. It sounds like a straightforward job. Climb down the chimney, creep through the house, find the thing and get out fast. Unbeknownst to the boy, however, the box contains the knife that killed the Wind. Overcome with curiosity, Jute opens the box and sets off a chain of events that soon has him on the run from the wizard, his old masters in the Thieves Guild, and their client, who happens to be the Lord of Darkness himself. On his odyssey of escape, Jute is aided by an unlikely assortment of friends, including a guilt-ridden assassin, a reluctant wizard, and a hawk who just might be able to teach him how to fly. But the Darkness will do anything to find Jute, even if it means plunging the whole land into war.

The Hawk And His Boy is the first book of The Tormay Trilogy. The trilogy continues with The Shadow At The Gate, and concludes with The Wicked Day.

Free eBooks for Young Adults - Christmas theme

This site lists FREE eBooks for Young Adults. Listings are updated every Monday. Regularly, all books for, and about, and by Young Adults are welcome. 

However, for this special Christmas listing, I'm reaching outside the normal YA material. I’ve tried to find some Christmas or holiday reads for this week’s post, but it’s not easy to find good, free fiction with a holiday theme. Alas, I selected one 'first in a series' and one short fiction, and I feature them this week. To those who celebrate Christmas, I hope it is happy. To everyone else, I wish a very good holiday season, and all the best for the New Year.

All I Want for Christmas is You

All I Want for Christmas is You, by Lisa Mondello, free

Sometimes fate needs a little hand…

Santa Claus is going to have a rough season... Lauren Alexander is raising her daughter alone. Abandoned by her family for her decision to keep her daughter Kristen, she has done a pretty good job for the last six years. Or she thought she had. That's why she is crushed when little Kristen gives up her wish for a toy or goodie and instead asks Santa for a present for her mother. She wants Santa to bring a Daddy. Delivering Daddies isn't Santa's bag. 

But this Santa has a plan... 

Kyle Preston knows what it is like to be abandoned too. Luckily he found the support of loving adoptive parents and has turned himself into one of the most successful Real Estate developers in town. 

Building a house is easy. Building someone's trust is a whole other story. But with a little helping hand, a little Christmas magic can make all the difference in the world.

Christmas Truce

Christmas Truce, by Sean McLachlan, free

Christmas 1914:

In the cold, muddy trenches of the Western Front, there is a strange silence. As the men of a crack English trench raiding team enjoy their first day of peace in months, they begin to call out holiday greetings to their enemies on the German line. Soon men are fraternizing in No Man’s Land.

But when the English recognize some enemy trench raiders who only a few days before had launched a deadly attack on their position, can they keep the peace through the Christmas Truce?

Broken City

Broken City, by D.D. Chant, free

Deeta Richards has never seen the outside world. Before she was born a banking crisis brought civilization to an end and now no one leaves the safety of the compounds unless they need to, but Deeta still dreams of seeing more than the building she was born in. 

Tom is in the guard; this group are the only people that the tribal elders allow to leave the compound and Tom knows only too well that Deeta could never survive the harshness that exists outside. 

Then tragedy strikes and Deeta and her Sister Jan find themselves captured by a hostile tribe. Why does Tom know so much about these people? And, why do they know so much about him? As this mystery draws to a climax, they discover that their friend Tom is not quite what he seems...

Broken City, book 2, Broken Truce, is now available.

Eva's Ascension

Ascension, Eva's Ascension - Book 1, by Aimee J. Scott, free for a limited time only, Dec. 11-15, 2014

Ascension is the peaceful world that sits in the once empty space between the lands of the living and the dead. It is home to Eva, a child of the Underworld and an enforcer of the balance. Eva’s existence is entirely dedicated to protecting the realms from threats that may break the fragile truce between the Gods. 

But now a new threat looms over the human world. A threat unlike any other that the immortal enforcers have faced in their constant battle to maintain the balance between Avalon and the Underworld. 

Can Eva and her fellow enforcers save Ascension and the world of the mortals when even the Gods have turned their backs? 

Join Eva and her new vampire partner, Silas, as they battle through the realms in a race against time to challenge the Gods and delay the extinction of mankind. 

Running Wide Open, book 1 of the Full Throttle series

Running Wide Open, book 1 of the Full Throttle series, by Lisa Nowak, free

Cody Everett has a temper as hot as the inside of a combustion chamber, and it's landed him at his uncle's trailer, a last-chance home before military school. But how can he take the guy seriously when he calls himself Race, eats Twinkies for breakfast, and pals around with rednecks who drive in circles every Saturday night?

What Cody doesn’t expect is for the arrangement to work. Or for Race to become the friend and mentor he’s been looking for all his life. But just as Cody begins to settle in and get a handle on his supercharged temper, a crisis sends his life spinning out of control. Everything he’s come to care about is threatened, and he has to choose between falling back on his old, familiar anger or stepping up to prove his loyalty to the only person he’s ever dared to trust.

This is book 1 in the Full Throttle series; Books 2, 3 and 4 are now available.