The Palisades by Tom Schabarum
292 pages, 12 of 13 reviews are 5-star
The Palisades revolves around family, the search for sustainable love, our place in nature and how it revives us and the threads of our past lives that inform our current ones.
Marjorie and Nicholas, mother and son, come together during one traumatic night in Big Sur, the place where their lives separated decades before. Nicholas has been in a fitful relationship with his partner, Matt, for some time, but the ensuing events, after uniting with his mother, open up familial wounds that threaten them.
He begins investigating what happened to his mother, which takes him deeper into the darkness of his family. His mother, Marjorie, comes back to the world slowly with Nicholas’ help and begins to reveal her side of the story and how she ended up living out of her beloved van in and around Big Sur.
The Palisades delves into the aftermath of a person vanishing from their loved one’s lives and the ripples it causes in their character. After all is revealed, Nicholas and Marjorie must ultimately choose which path to take to transform their lives.
368 pages, 54 of 56 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
The summer of 1984 was a golden time in America. From California, where gymnast Mary Lou Retton was winning Olympic gold, to Cape Cod, where explorer Barry Clifford was discovering pirate gold, the nation seemed obsessed with the precious metal. But for 15-year old Al, that obsession hits a little too close to home when he finds a code-filled notebook belonging to his missing father that may contain the ancient formula for turning lead to gold. Convinced that his father’s sudden disappearance is connected to his secret experiments in alchemy, Al sets out to find the truth. He enlists the help of Cammie, a beautiful girl staying for the summer while her marine biologist father tracks a wayward manatee, and together they begin unraveling the mystery. But the closer they get to an answer, the closer they grow to each other, and as the end of summer draws nearer, Al wonders if they can break the code without breaking his heart.
Scars of the Prophet: A Novel of War and Romance by Mingo Kane
165 pages, 12 of 13 reviews are 5-star, Lending Enabled
Tom Judah, a former Marine recently discharged from the military after serving three tours of combat in the killing zones of Iraq. Jessica Spire, a young woman trying to reinvent her life after fleeing a callus and loveless marriage.
Scars of the Prophet is a dynamic story of what happens when fate and destiny collide in an aggressive world of pawns and broken kings. Tom Judah wanted to fit back into society and forget the horrific necessities of a war his conscious was still fighting. Jessica Spire was looking to start a new life free of the dark and abusive shackles of a marriage she abandoned.
103 pages, 8 of 8 reviews are 5-star, Lending Enabled
After giving up fame, Joss Jones wants a normal life. Maybe she’ll find it in Bandit Creek. Or…maybe not. From the moment she moves into the old mansion she inherited, she’s stalked by a ghost who torments her before dragging her back in time to Bandit Creek, 1899. Has she gone crazy or is this old mining town, full of saloons, gambling, whoring and fortune seekers her new reality? It feels real enough as does the ghost who brought her here. His name is Morgan Hawes and he is very much alive. Is Morgan the key to Joss finding her way home or is Joss stuck for the rest of her life as the Siren of Bandit Creek?
273 pages, 34 of 35 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
REMIX is a feel-good page turner, that you won’t want to put down until you reach the satisfying ending.
Caz Tallis restores rocking horses in her London workshop. When shabby but charismatic Joe and his dog turn up on her roof terrace, she is reluctantly drawn into investigating a rock star’s murder from three years before – an unsolved case the police have closed. Which, as her best friend James says, is rather like poking a furnace with a short stick…
240 pages, 1 of 1 reviews are 5-star, Lending Enabled
682 pages, 166 of 213 reviews are 5-star, Lending Enabled, Previously Free
This is the omnibus edition, and contains the complete novels of IN HER NAME: EMPIRE, CONFEDERATION, and FINAL BATTLE in a single volume.
EMPIRE: This is the coming-of-age story of Reza Gard, a young boy of the Human Confederation who is swept up in the century-long war with the alien Kreelan Empire. Nightmarish female warriors with blue skin, fangs, and razor sharp talons, the Kreelans have technology that is millennia beyond that of the Confederation, yet they seek out close combat with sword and claw, fighting and dying to honor their god-like Empress. Captured and enslaved, Reza must live like his enemies in a grand experiment to see if humans have souls, and if one may be the key to unlocking an ages old curse upon the Kreelan race. Enduring the brutal conditions of Kreelan life, Reza and a young warrior named Esah-Zhurah find themselves bound together by fate and a prophecy foretold millennia before they were born.
CONFEDERATION: Banished from the Kreelan Empire, Reza is once again a stranger in a strange land as he returns to the human Confederation. Befriended by a marooned Confederation naval officer leading a desperate fight against the Kreelans on a distant colony world, she reunites Reza with Nicole Carré. With their help, he fulfills his childhood dream of becoming a Confederation Marine. Reza will need all the help he can get, for dark forces are at work at the heart of the Confederation, and Reza becomes a pawn in a lethal power struggle that leads him back to the planet Erlang. There, a heartbreaking reunion awaits him, along with the discovery of an ages-old power that the Kreelan Empire will stop at nothing to control.
FINAL BATTLE: Reza awakens in a hospital on Earth after having been in a coma for months. Charged with murder and high treason, he finds himself the scapegoat for a daring plot to assassinate the President of the Confederation. Escaping with the help of Jodi Mackenzie, who is now hunted for what she knows about the death of the president, Reza discovers that something is deeply wrong with the Empire: the warriors have lost their will to fight. Compelled to step into a trap set for him and Jodi, the two once again find themselves bound for Erlang. But this time it is to meet Tesh-Dar, who has been captured. When Reza and Jodi are taken prisoner and sentenced to death, they can only watch as a human armada gathers for a strike against the Kreelan homeworld. But the human fleet – and humanity itself – will be doomed to utter annihilation unless Reza can reach the Empress in time…
2 of 2 reviews are 5-star, Lending Enabled
In Albany, New York, Mark hates getting dumped at the mall park while his mom shops. It’s so embarrassing! But Mark quickly changes his mind after he discovers a mysterious path leading to a magical forest.
In Bejing, China, Kelsie finds a similar path, and somehow, she meets Mark in the same magical world!
Now the two friends must work together to unravel the origins of Pandora Park. This wild adventure crosses the globe and is packed with magical powers, dragons, talking unicorns, candy trees, on a roller coaster ride that never stops.
308 pages, 251 of 294 are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled, Previously Free
Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way – not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies.
This is a young adult title with some language, violence, and mild sexual situations recommended for ages sixteen and up.
363 pages, 30 of 32 reviews are 4 or 5-star
When a trained killer threatens ex-cop Travis Mays—and those Travis loves—he finds a skilled adversary and an unexpected fight.
After a high stakes gamble ends in personal tragedy, Travis walks away from years of training and a highly successful law enforcement career. Determined never to look back, he starts a new life and a new career, teaching criminology at the university and building a cabin in the idyllic Idaho Mountains. He hires a beautiful river guide, Jessie White Eagle from the Nez Perce tribe, to guide him safely down the Lochsa. The turbulence of the whitewater, however, is just the beginning of his troubles. Travis finds himself in the crosshairs of a killer—calling himself Creasy—bent on revenge.
This fast-paced thriller takes readers on a wild ride down Idaho’s whitewater rivers, along the historic Lolo Trails once tread by the Nez Perce nation, and onto the city streets of California. Tighten your helmet. This ride never stops until the last shot is fired and the final body falls.
Burden of the Soul by Kate Grace
333 pages, 14 of 14 reviews are 5-star, Lending Enabled
Clara never asked to be special.
She was perfectly happy e-stalking her crush’s blog, avoiding the attention of the Bronze Brigade clique at school, awaiting the next visit from her avant-garde Aunt Grace, and dreaming of a strange young man … who feels too real to be only a dream.
But then one day, her world literally separates at the seams, as a blinding light rips her mother away right before her eyes. In one, inexplicable moment, Clara is tugged from a life where her biggest worry is how to avoid social scrutiny to having the burden of her mother’s disappearance and her father’s subsequent unhappiness hoisted squarely onto her shoulders.
Precisely one year later, on her 17th birthday, the blinding white light returns. This time, the light brings with it more than just grief. It ushers in a cast of Guardians who have been with Clara all along, waiting for her to awaken and remember a promise she made in another world. When Clara learns what is expected of her, and the price she must pay to restore order, she can only hope that the still dormant ancient soul that lives inside of her is truly fighting on the side of Good.
Burden of the Soul grapples not only with the battle between Good and Evil, and Action and Complacency, but pits its unlikely heroine squarely against herself. Half of Clara is an ancient soul who made a promise to fight a war, the other half is an adolescent girl who never asked to be special.
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I have not read any of these books, so they may not be any good. Some of the books from previous Free Book posts are still available for free. If you want to see all free books as they come out you should follow Books on the Knob on their RSS or Twitter Feed. Or Ireaderreview or the many free book threads on Amazon’s Message Boards. As always please check to make sure the books are still free before you “buy” them, especially from Amazon. Prices can change quickly. This may be a one day offer. Pick it up quick.
