Hello everyone! Welcome to another post of Indie Recommends Indie! Today, I have author Joe Ettle on the series! He recommends books from various genres so there might be something here for you. 🙂 Let’s get started!
Joe, thank you for joining me for this series! Since this is your first time on Armed with A Book, please tell me and my readers a bit about yourself.
Hi, I’m a new author that only started writing a few years ago. My education is in classical archaeology, but my career is in something different so I was looking for a way to get back in touch with that side of me so I started writing. My books follow a team of experts as they try to recover stolen and hidden artifacts. They are heavily influenced by Indiana Jones and Clive Cussler.
Do you primarily read indie books or big publishers books as well?
I try to actively seek out indie books and read one indie book for every two non-indie.
Joe’s Indie Recommendations
Red by Sabrina Voerman
Dark Fairy Tale
Published 2020
Book 1 of Blood Bound Series
Red is a page-turning historical fantasy that invokes the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood and the horror of the Brothers Grimm.
The year is 1891; the place, Bezidu Nou, Romania. For four hundred years, the townsfolk have been telling the tale of a wicked wolf, a beast created by evil that prowls the forest at the town’s border, waiting to be summoned, waiting for a daughter to be sacrificed.
Ever since she was a small child, Rose has suffered terrible abuse at the hands of her father and grandmother. She dreams of escape but doesn’t know it’s possible until she meets Alina and a coven of witches. With them, for the first time, she is loved and empowered, and when she discovers that she is going to be sacrificed to summon the Wolf, rather than succumb to her fate, she wields it. Asserting the strength in sisterhood, the coven help her fight the curse, and as they do, they uncover the twisted truth of who the Wolf really is.
Disturbing, cleverly engaging, and dripping with mystery, Red breaks away from the binary of good versus evil.
An intriguing retelling of Red Riding Hood with wonderful, gripping characters. Red goes back and forth between two timelines, but Voerman weaves the story in a way that it grabs you from the beginning. One timeline follows Red, the main character, and the other follows how the wolf that curses her family was created. The story delves deeply into the bonds of sisterhood, light and dark, and the choices that some people are thrust into. It’s a quick, fast-paced story, but there is still enough time to get to know each character. I really enjoyed how this book twisted the classic fairy tale and am intrigued to see what the author comes up with next. The second book in the series, Aesa, came out recently and is on my to be read shelf.
I would recommend this to readers that enjoy dark fantasy, horror, and anyone that likes witches and werewolves. There are trigger warnings at the beginning, so please review before reading.
A Girl Before Now by Andy Lee Barnes
Thriller
Published 2022
Standalone
A DARK PAST…
To journalist Annabella Lochlin, Clove County seems like the perfect place for a fresh start. With its sprawling forests, crisp air, and quiet streets. And it’s a two-hour drive away from Detective Michael Dempsey, her ex, a part of a dark past she desperately needs to leave behind. But that’s the thing about fresh starts; the past has a way of crashing into the present.
A DEAD GIRL…
When Anna finds a body, her path collides with Joseph Miller, a devastatingly handsome and charming officer, and Anna can feel her defences slowly dropping. After all, a new life is something she’s seeking. But can she really trust him?
The police rule the woman’s death an accident. But to Anna that doesn’t seem right. Unable to let it go, she begins to unravel the truth behind the girl’s mysterious death.
The closer she gets, the closer she gets to grave danger.
AND A DEADLY OBSESSION…
Seductively dark, funny, and tragic, A Girl Before Now, is a gripping story that will have you hanging on until the last page.
Very enjoyable book with lots of good descriptions and enough intrigue to keep me wanting more while I read. What starts as a simple enough scenario, a dead body found with no indications of foul play, takes the main character on a twisting path through a myriad of harrowing situations. Anna, the main character, is struggling to get her life back on track and is thrust into trying to solve the case even when no one wants to listen to her. The twist at the end, where it is revealed who is behind the murders packs an excellent punch. Plenty of red herrings and suspects are thrown at the reader to keep them sufficiently off track, but still engaged.
I would recommend this to readers who enjoy crime thrillers, Mare of Easttown, and strong female characters. There may be some triggering scenes throughout and this is definitely meant for adults.
The Bear House by Meaghan McIsaac
Children’s Medieval History
Published 2021
Part of a series
In a gritty medieval world where the ruling houses are based on the constellations, betrayal, intrigue, and a king’s murder force the royal sisters of the Bear House on the run!
Moody Aster and her spoiled sister Ursula are the daughters of Jasper Lourdes, Major of Bears and lord of all the realm. Rivals, both girls dream of becoming the Bear queen someday, although neither really deserve to, having no particular talent in… well, anything.
But when their Uncle Bram murders their father in a bid for the crown, the girls are forced onto the run, along with lowly Dev the Bearkeeper and the Lourdes’s half-grown grizzly Alcor, symbol of their house. As a bitter struggle for the throne consumes the kingdom in civil war, the sisters must rely on Dev, the bear cub, and each other to survive–and find wells of courage, cunning, and skill they never knew they had.
I found McIsaac thanks to her exciting, hilarious disaster animal series on Wattpad (Zombie Shark Highway, Lava Cat Cruise Ship, and Unicorn Death Drive) that perfectly blended action, humor, and ridiculousness together for compelling fun stories. The Bear House is a different animal altogether (no pun intended, well . . . maybe a little). The world building is top notch, especially for something designed for middle grade readers. It follows two sisters from the ruling house in a kingdom that is based on the animal constellations. After a coup by a minor house, the sisters are forced to go on the run, but there is danger at every turn. What follows is exciting adventure, complex relationships, and an in-depth look at revolution and responsibility.
I would recommend this for anyone that enjoys medieval fantasy, The Eyes of the Dragon, and young readers that aren’t quite ready for heavy high fantasy tomes.
Earth Has Fallen: Return from Darkness by Peter Servidio
Post-apocalyptic/dystopian
Published 2021
Part of a series
Nuclear Armageddon left the planet in ashy ruins. When a man leaves the safety of the underground, will he survive the peril that awaits him above?
Seventeen-year-old Loreto Riker has never known life outside a bunker. After an atomic war thrusts the world into an eternal winter, the descendant of courageous survivors accepts an exploratory mission to search for others on the ravaged surface. But the treacherous task quickly turns deadly when he’s attacked by radioactively deformed flesh-eaters.
Desperately evading the mutant cannibals, Loreto pairs up with a sword-wielding woman on the run from the foul creatures. But when he makes a shocking discovery, he fears a much greater threat looms amongst the corrupted remnants of the apocalypse…
Can Loreto defend the last shred of humanity from a dark new enemy?
Return from Darkness is the page-turning first book in the Earth HasFallen post-apocalyptic science fiction series. If you like fearless heroes, detailed landscapes, and hauntingly speculative stories, then you’ll love Peter Servidio’s thrilling tale.
Buy Return from Darkness to plunge into the unknown today!
Earth Has Fallen: Return from Darkness is the first book in a post-apocalyptic/dystopian series that follows a group of survivors after a worldwide nuclear wars. The survivors are living in an old, abandoned mine trying to stay safe from the nuclear fallout.
The story is engaging and exciting as you follow Loreto, a young explorer from the mine community that is tasked with searching the surface world for supplies and signs of life. The book has some of the standard post-apocalyptic themes (scavenging, roving bands of mutants, isolationist communities at odds) but the author does a good job driving the action forward and setting up the sequel. It’s a short book that hooks you from the beginning and keeps up the pace throughout.
I would recommend this story for fans of post-apocalyptic fiction like The Road, Daybreak 2250 A.D., and The Last She. Some of the fight scenes might be a little too intense for some readers.
Below the Wall by L. Bird
Dystopian
Published 2021
Standalone
In a male dominated world, a few friends try to escape, to find a safe place. A place where your body is yours, a place based on principals. A place where men and women are seen as equals. While most people on earth are suffering, their little community seems to be thriving. Everyone lives together in peace, or so they thought.
This was an excellent dystopian/post-apocalyptic story rife with symbolism and heart. It was a page-turner that kept me engaged the entire time I was reading it.
There were shades of The Handmaid’s Tale, World Made by Hand, and other similar stories that deal with society continuing after some kind of cataclysmic crash. The survivors are slowly picking up the pieces and there are several wistful reflections on how the world is different now.
I really enjoyed the back and forth timelines to see how things became the way they are now. The author does a good job showing the differences between the two societies and why they are in a stalemate. It is a bleak vision about the possible future that lies ahead if divisions continue to grow in our society.
I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys dystopian society-against-society stories.
Joe’s Book Spotlight
The Crusade for Vengeance
Genre: Action/Adventure
Published Year: 2021
A shocking crime . . . a mysterious clue . . .how does it all connect?
Intrepid artifact recovery expert Rex Fletcher is tasked with tracking down a brazen group of criminals after they steal the Crown Jewels of England. But the closer he gets to them, the deadlier they become. With his erstwhile partner, Ruby Clarkson, by his side, can they uncover this mysterious group before all is lost? Or will they be allowed to enact their deadly plan to bring world powers to their knees through fear?
The Crusade for Vengeance follows the exploits of ARROW (Artifact Recovery and Repatriation Organization Worldwide) agent Rex Fletcher on another daring mission.
Find this book on Indie Story Geek, Amazon and Goodreads.
Readers who enjoyed Clive Cussler books and Indiana Jones would like this book. It is already on my TBR as I have mentioned before. 🙂
Connect with Joe on Instagram, Goodreads, his blog, and Facebook. You can also find all his book and social links here.
Did you add any books to your TBR today based on this post or did you see any you have already read? Tell us in the comments!
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Thanks for hanging out with us today!
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