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💖 Beyond the Algorithm: Your Free Pass to 11 Diverse Worlds 👽

Featuring Sweet Regency, Monster Romance, Urban Fantasy, and Crucial Public Speaking & Abolitionist History.

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Steve Weber
Oct 31, 2025
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Kurinji Flowers: A Love Story of India (The Separation Series)

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Author: Clare Flynn

FREE
Genre: Women’s Historical Fiction

A society scandal. A convenient marriage. A love that could set her free 💔

  1. Ginny Dunbar, a debutante yearning for love and freedom, finds herself ostracized from London society. The exhibition of a nude portrait, painted by her manipulative older lover, leaves her reputation in tatters and her dreams of a grand wedding shattered. 😱 Desperate to salvage her daughter’s future, Ginny’s ambitious mother coerces her into a hasty marriage with Tony Tilman, a tea planter from South India.

Colonial life proves to be a gilded cage for the spirited Ginny. 🦜 Stifled by the shallow expatriate community and overwhelmed by the lush, mysterious beauty of India, she struggles to find her place in this alien world – until she meets the enigmatic Jag Mistry, whose passion for his homeland awakens Ginny’s heart. ❤️

As Ginny navigates the complexities of love, cultural barriers, and her own inner turmoil, the looming shadow of World War II threatens to tear apart everything she’s come to cherish. ⚡

Why I’m including this: Clare Flynn is a bestselling author known for her richly atmospheric historical fiction that transports readers across continents and eras. This sweeping tale set against the backdrop of colonial India captures the tension between duty and desire, tradition and transformation. Perfect for fans of Dinah Jefferies and Renita D’Silva, this story offers a vivid portrait of a woman finding her voice in a world determined to silence it. The evocative setting, forbidden romance, and exploration of cultural identity make this a compelling read for anyone who loves historical fiction with emotional depth and exotic locales. 🌺

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The Art Of Hood Love: Savvy

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Author: Antoinette Sherell

FREE
Genre: African American Urban Fiction

It’s a cold world for Savvy Madden. 🥶 With few people in her corner and family secrets that have shaped her upbringing for the worse; she’s searching for a way out but only digging deeper holes in the process. A night out with her big cousin, Michi, introduces Savvy to Shabu Blaise—a pragmatic hustler that shows her the art of love in a way she’s never experienced. 💕 Just when Savvy feels her safest, life reminds her that past decisions always have unavoidable repercussions. ⚡

This is an urban, three-part series

What pulled me in: Antoinette Sherell brings authentic street lit storytelling with complex characters navigating love and survival in challenging circumstances. This series launch hooks readers immediately with its raw portrayal of a young woman caught between her past and her future. If you’re a fan of authors like Ashley Antoinette or Mz. Lady P, you’ll appreciate Sherell’s unflinching look at hood romance with all its passion and peril. The three-part series structure promises an immersive journey through Savvy’s world, making this perfect for readers who love urban fiction that keeps it real while delivering compelling romantic tension. 🔥

Arrival (The Kyron Invasion Book 1)

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Author: Jasper T. Scott

FREE
Genre: Alien Invasion Science Fiction

THEY HAVE ARRIVED. 🛸

2150 AD: Chris Randall just lost his job as a bodyguard. That night, after picking up his wife, Bree, from her shift at a local casino, he breaks the bad news.

Moments later, thunder cracks the sky, but there’s no lightning. ⚡ Flaming debris rain across the valley, and a dark mass goes sailing out of the clouds, headed straight for LA. 💥

It’s not one of the Union’s starships, because they can’t defy gravity like that. But then what is it?

The answer chills both Chris and Bree to their cores: it’s an invasion. 👽

They have to pick up their kids and get away from the city. But the Randalls soon discover that nowhere is far enough away to keep them safe. 🏃‍♂️

Here’s why this matters: Jasper T. Scott is a USA Today bestselling author who’s made his mark in military sci-fi and space opera with over a million books sold. This series opener delivers the kind of high-stakes, action-packed alien invasion story that fans of A.G. Riddle and B.V. Larson crave. Scott excels at putting ordinary people in extraordinary situations and watching them fight for survival against impossible odds. The focus on a family trying to stay together during humanity’s darkest hour adds emotional weight to the explosive action, making this perfect for readers who want their alien invasions served with both heart-pounding thrills and genuine human connection. 🌍

Master Public Speaking with Confidence: Influence, Engage and Connect with your Audience, Rock the Stage, Lead Meetings, Pitch and Present like a Pro

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Author: Cassandra Wardle

FREE
Genre: Motivation & Self-Improvement

Unlock the power of your voice and improve the way you communicate! 🎤 Whether you’re addressing a room of ten or a stadium of thousands, public speaking is an essential skill that can skyrocket your career and build lasting connections. 🚀

In this comprehensive guide, Master Public Speaking with Confidence, you’ll discover the proven techniques and insider tips used by seasoned speakers to captivate audiences, command attention, and leave a lasting impact. ✨ This book will show you how to:

Overcome stage fright and embrace the spotlight with ease. 💪 Craft compelling speeches that resonate with your audience. 📝 Use storytelling, tone, and body language to boost your delivery. 🎭 Adapt your message for any audience or setting. 🎯 Lead meetings, pitches, and presentations with authority and poise. 👔

Bottom line: Cassandra Wardle delivers a practical, no-nonsense guide that demystifies public speaking for professionals at every level. Whether you’re terrified of presenting in meetings or looking to polish your keynote delivery, this book provides actionable strategies you can implement immediately. Perfect for anyone who’s ever felt their heart race before a presentation or wished they could command a room like TED speakers do. Wardle’s approach combines psychological insights with practical exercises, making this essential reading for entrepreneurs, managers, educators, and anyone whose career depends on effective communication. The comprehensive coverage—from overcoming anxiety to mastering body language—makes this a one-stop resource for becoming the confident speaker you’ve always wanted to be. 🌟

All of Me (Starlight Hill Series Book 1)

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Author: Heatherly Bell

FREE
Genre: Romantic Comedy

A midwife returns to her small hometown with a secret. 🤫

From a bestselling author, a feel-good, sweet romantic comedy involving a midwife with a secret, a hot doctor, and a reunion a long time coming. 💕 No shortage of small-town shenanigans, including a matchmaking aunt, and a town far too involved in the outcome of this second-chance, first love romance. 😄

What makes this special: Heatherly Bell is a beloved contemporary romance author known for her warm, witty small-town love stories that feel like coming home. This series launch delivers all the cozy comfort readers crave—meddling family members, childhood sweethearts getting a second chance, and a tight-knit community that’s invested in everyone’s happiness. Perfect for fans of Debbie Macomber and Susan Mallery, this is the kind of sweet, heartwarming romance that makes you believe in love again. Bell’s knack for creating characters who feel like old friends and settings you wish you could visit makes this ideal for anyone who loves their romance with a side of small-town charm and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. 🏡❤️

Sparkles and Spankings (Christmas Cherry Auction)

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Author: Sylvie Haas

FREE
Genre: Reverse Harem Romance

My sassy mouth has gotten me in trouble more than once. Then I’m bid on by three guys who understand how to handle it! 😏

I’m participating in a charity auction to raise money for the local fire department and I’m doing it right. 🎄

Wasting no time identifying the ‘money guys’ in the room, I taunt them into a bidding war. It works—possibly too well. 💰 When the bidding gets out of hand and the auction is halted, the three highest bidders come to me with a private proposition. They’ll triple the top bid if I’ll commit the required four hours to each of them…and not just for the suggested tasks like cleaning or gift wrapping. 🔥

Will they change their minds if I tell them I’m not experienced in those other types of tasks?

Logic tells me this is a bad idea, but the Christmas season has me in the mood to believe this can work. ❄️ Will my decision become a regret? I have twelve hours to find out.

If you love dirty-talking men who have over-the-top ideas of how to please their woman and want to give her babies, enroll yourself in the Christmas Cherry Auction! 🎁

Here’s the deal: Sylvie Haas delivers a spicy holiday romance that’s equal parts naughty and nice. This reverse harem romance with its charity auction premise and three alpha heroes offers exactly what fans of the subgenre crave—over-the-top possessive men, steamy encounters, and a heroine who can hold her own. If you enjoy authors like Lila Fox or Suki Williams, you’ll appreciate Haas’s playful approach to the why-choose trope wrapped in holiday cheer. The short timeline creates delicious tension, and the charitable angle adds a feel-good element to the steaminess. Perfect for readers looking for a quick, festive escape with plenty of heat and heroes who aren’t afraid to show their devotion. 🌶️

Wyndcross (Families of Dorset Book 1)

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Author: Martha Keyes

FREE
Genre: Sweet Regency Romance

When Kate Matcham’s choices are tainted by scandal and secrets, she faces a dilemma: become a scoundrel’s mistress or enter into a marriage of convenience—little does she know, her heart has other plans. 💔

With a dubious inheritance hanging in the balance, Kate Matcham is confronted with two offers: one, to become the mistress of a notorious scoundrel, and the other, a marriage of convenience. 😰 Reluctant to choose, she embarks on a final adventure—a visit to a childhood friend.

However, what should have been a last hurrah takes an unexpected turn when Kate finds herself falling for the very man her friend intends to marry, a gentleman of higher station harboring enigmatic secrets. 💕 As smuggling operations grip the county, shrouding everyone in deceit, Kate’s options dwindle. Torn between her deepening affection for a man of duplicity, her loyalty to her friend, and a long-standing promise to avenge her father’s murder, Kate’s path to destiny is fraught with peril and passion. ⚡

Why this one stands out: Martha Keyes is a rising star in Regency romance, beloved for her emotionally rich stories that balance historical authenticity with swoon-worthy romance. This series opener combines classic Regency tropes—marriages of convenience, forbidden love, and class differences—with a darker edge of smuggling and revenge that elevates it beyond typical fare. Perfect for fans of Mimi Matthews and Megan Frampton, Keyes creates heroines with backbone who face genuine moral dilemmas. The complex plot weaves together romance, mystery, and Kate’s quest for justice, making this ideal for readers who want their historical romance with substance and intrigue alongside the courtship. 🏰

My Best Friend’s Mate: A Monster Romance

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Author: Winter Randall

FREE
Genre: Romantasy

I’ve been in love with my wolfman best friend since we were teenagers. But we’re not kids anymore, and now it’s time for his body to choose a mate. 🐺

I know it won’t be me, and that thought is enough to make me wish I had never met Eli James. 💔 How can I watch him mate and fall in love with someone else?

Tonight is the mating, and there’s a wolf with red eyes tapping at my window. 👁️

What caught my attention: Winter Randall taps into the explosive popularity of monster romance with a friends-to-lovers twist that hits all the right emotional notes. This paranormal romance delivers the kind of fated mates angst that fans of Ruby Dixon and Tiffany Roberts devour—unrequited love, supernatural bonds, and the delicious tension of wondering if fate has other plans. The wolfman hero and the mysterious red-eyed wolf add layers of intrigue to what’s already a emotionally charged setup. Perfect for readers who love their romance with a paranormal edge, found family bonds, and the sweet agony of pining for someone you think you can never have. The short format promises a quick, satisfying read packed with emotion and heat. 🔥🌙

Among the Living (PsyCop Book 1)

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Author: Jordan Castillo Price

FREE
Genre: MM Urban Fantasy

Once upon a time if you told doctors you heard voices, they’d diagnose you as schizophrenic, put you on heavy drugs, and lock you away in a cozy state institution to keep you from hurting yourself or others. Nowadays they test you first to see if you’re psychic. 👻

Victor Bayne, the psychic half of a PsyCop team, is a gay medium who’s more concerned with flying under the radar than making waves. He hooks up with handsome Jacob Marks, a non-psychic (or “Stiff”) from an adjacent precinct at his ex-partner’s retirement party, and it seems like his dubious luck has taken a turn for the better. 💕 But then a serial killer surfaces…and no one can agree what he looks like. 😱

Solving murders is a snap when you can ask the victims whodunit, but this killer’s not leaving any spirits behind. 🔍

Among the Living is book 1 of PsyCop, an ongoing M/M Urban Fantasy series featuring steamy love scenes, astonishing psychic talents, gruesome murders, and a slew of creepy otherworldly creatures. 🌃

Why you’ll love this: Jordan Castillo Price is a trailblazer in M/M urban fantasy romance, and this cult favorite series has been captivating readers for years with its unique blend of paranormal crime-solving and slow-burn romance. Victor Bayne is an unforgettable protagonist—damaged, sarcastic, and dealing with his abilities through questionable coping mechanisms. Perfect for fans of Charlie Adhara’s Big Bad Wolf series or K.J. Charles’s work, this series offers a gritty, atmospheric take on psychic detectives with genuinely creepy supernatural elements. The chemistry between Victor and Jacob builds across the series, rewarding patient readers with one of M/M romance’s most satisfying relationships. The mystery is compelling, the world-building is fresh, and the voice is distinctive—this is urban fantasy with bite. 🖤

Twelve Years a Slave

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Author: Solomon Northup

FREE
Genre: Abolition History of the U.S.

The harrowing true story that inspired the critically acclaimed film

The son of a freed slave, Solomon Northup lived the first thirty years of his life as a free man in upstate New York. In the spring of 1841, he was offered a job: a short-term, lucrative engagement as a violinist in a traveling circus. It was a trap. In Washington, DC, Northup was drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years on plantations in Louisiana, enduring backbreaking labor, unimaginable violence, and inhumane treatment at the hands of cruel masters, until a kind stranger helped to win his release. His account of those years is a shocking, unforgettable portrait of America’s most insidious historical institution as told by a man who experienced it firsthand.

Published shortly after Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist classic Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Northup’s memoir became a bestseller in 1853. With its eloquent depiction of life before and after bondage, Twelve Years a Slave was a unique and effective entry into the national debate over slavery. Rediscovered in the 1960s and now the inspiration for a major motion picture, Northup’s poignant narrative gives readers an invaluable glimpse into a shameful chapter of American history.

This book was also adapted for the 2013 biographical historical drama film directed by Steve McQueen from a screenplay by John Ridley. The movie received widespread critical acclaim and was named the best film of 2013 by several media outlets and critics.

Why this matters: This is essential American literature—a firsthand account of slavery written with devastating clarity and eloquence by someone who lived it. Northup’s narrative stands alongside Frederick Douglass’s autobiography as one of the most important slave narratives ever published, offering irreplaceable historical testimony about the brutal reality of the peculiar institution. The book’s rediscovery and subsequent film adaptation brought this crucial story to new generations, reminding us why primary sources matter in understanding history. For readers interested in American history, social justice, or simply powerful storytelling, Northup’s memoir is mandatory reading—a document that bears witness to both humanity’s capacity for cruelty and the unbreakable human spirit. This is history that must not be forgotten.

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