Shameful Saturday: Ten Indie Books I Keep Saying I’m Going to Read Yesterday

I swear I am plugging away at my “imminent TBR” list! Also, I live for lists now. I’ve stopped buying new books while I tackle my TBR pile for real, and to be accountable, here are ten of the indie books that I’ve been saying I’m going to read forever and just haven’t gotten there yet.

As indie April comes to a close this seems appropriate. I own all ten either in hard copy or on Kindle, and it’s going to happen sooner rather than later (I hope). There’s no excuse, sorry authors!

Will all apologies again to the authors, my goal is to read 2-3 of these a month for the summer!

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1) Godfrey’s Crusade by Mark Howard

I’ve been interacting with the author on Twitter for a while now and have been absolutely dying to read these. They sound amazing and he’s got a lot of knowledge going into the books!

A crusade is called to aid the Kingdom of Azgald in the distant Nordslands, and the young idealistic knight, Godfrey, does not hesitate to volunteer. Yet Godfrey soon learns that the greatest threat to the expedition’s success is not the savage clans under High Warlord Alvir and the Great Witch of the North, Nera, or the orcs and cyclopes that fight beside the clans but the rivalries between the crusaders themselves. Can Godfrey interpret the vision granted to him by the gods and unite the crusaders with his holy blade? Will his love, Madeline, be able to keep her magical powers hidden from suspicious priests and opportunistic lords? Will they be able to stop Nera and Alvir from unleashing an ancient evil upon Azgald or will Godfrey and his friends all meet a bitter end in the frigid Nordslands?

2) The Fall is All There Is by C.M. Caplan

This is a newer addition to the list but C.M. Caplan is hilarious and there’s a cyborg horse on the cover. I don’t really need anything else but the book also has some incredible reviews so far!

You never want to ruin a really good dramatic exit. When you flee home on a cyborg horse the exact second you turn eighteen, you don’t really expect to go back to the place you fled from, you know? But sometimes your old life hits you from behind.

3) Brian, Created Intelligence by AJ Pagan

This book sounds like it contains everything I love in sci-fi, including artificial intelligence and ethical conundrums. I always just seem to have something else to read and it gets bypassed, but no more! It’s also on US Kindle sale right now as of 4/22 so go grab it

Within a four foot stainless steel cube, a bodiless brain is awake, thinking, computing, knowing. Brian was created by genetic engineer Dr. Ellie Parsons, and neuroscientist Tom Marshall, at biotechnology company Dipol Inc., in San Diego, CA. Ethical questions abound as they hide Brian’s true identity from him and the world around. To Brian, he’s merely artificial intelligence, tasked with creating even more intelligent systems. To Ellie and her company, he’s a means to an end, to create true artificial intelligence using his genius and the brain computer interface attached to his only true organ. All is as well as it can be until the day a psychotic agent of DARPA, Jonathan Volt, commandeers it for use in none other than militarization. Once Ellie neurally links herself to Brian, all bets are off to ensure his safety as his entire life is literally on the table.

4) Robocopter Ski Patrol by AC Cross

I’ve liked everything I’ve read by A.C. so far and he’s also hilarious. I started this and was having fun. I don’t honestly remember what happened. A.C. would probably tell you to go read Where Blood Runs Gold instead but I already have 🤷‍♀️

Join Adam, Miss Girl from Ipanema, and a cast of idiots and perverts as they seek to stop the balance of world power from changing before it’s too late.

Also, there’s a Robocopter. Not sure if you picked that up but…it’s kind of important.

5) I’m Sorry About Tommy by Andre Pretty

This author is really acutely aware of blind person problems and I consider him a treasure! I bought this novella immediately after loving a few of his tweets and now it’s been sitting in my TBR pile 🤦‍♀️

A cabin in the woods.

A northern town after the gold rush.

A dysfunctional family torn by the sins of the past. Follow James, a Metis boy coming of age, as he learns to navigate the violent, & unforgiving world around him.

Torn between Mother & Father.

Will a brother’s love be enough to save him?

Can he escape the static pulling him into the grey place inside his head… or is he already too far gone?

6) The Engineer by Darren Handshaw

I think it’s the length that keeps putting me off of this one but NO LONGER! I said I would read it and I’m going to darn it, plus it sounds great

When the Engineer, Actaeon, arrives at Pyramid in the heart of Redemption, nothing goes according to plan. Mysterious raiders pursue him relentlessly across the shattered remains of the ancient metropolis, and the leaders of his homeland pay no heed to his ambitious ideas. Meanwhile, deep beneath Pyramid, a deadly creature stirs. And, when Actaeon meets a skilled young Knight Arbiter with brilliant blue eyes, he starts down a path he could never have imagined.

7) One Man’s Trash by Ryan Southwick

Because my horse’s name is One Womans Trash, I latched onto this book by Ryan Southwick. He had contacted me about another book to review but I wanted this one and grabbed a copy when it released.  There’s a whole series of truck stop at the center of the galaxy books that can be read as standalones

Croft Winder grew up believing that love is blind.

It wasn’t until he took his fiancée on a little vacation to the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy, however, that he learned it can also be downright insane.

Will the wonders of the Truck Stop save their relationship or send it to the executioner’s block? Not even the ancient Delphians could have guessed.

A cozy science fiction romance adventure.

8) The World of Linaria series by L.L MacRae

These books get a ton of praise and I just haven’t had time to look into them too much. They’ve been on my radar though.

If you love dragons, airships, and sky pirates, you’ll love discovering THE WORLD OF LINARIA

9) Norylska Groans by Michael R. Fletcher & Clayton W. Snyder

Ever since Dr Mauro lent me his review for GrimDarkTober I’ve been thrilled by this book. It sounds perfect

Norylska Groans…

with the weight of her crimes. In a city where winter reigns amid the fires of industry and war, soot and snow conspire to conceal centuries of death and deception.

Norylska Groans…

and the weight of a leaden sky threatens to crush her people. Katyusha Leonova, desperate to restore her family name, takes a job with Norylska’s brutal police force. To support his family, Genndy Antonov finds bloody work with a local crime syndicate.

Norylska Groans…

with the weight of her dead. As bodies fall, the two discover a foul truth hidden beneath layers of deception and violence: Come the thaw, what was buried will be revealed.

10) Why Odin Drinks by Bjørn Larssen

This just sounds funny and amazing and I’ve been meaning to get to it since it came out! I also have Children 😅

Poor Odin only just started existing and already has a Universe to decorate, a smug Tree to ignore, and two competitive brothers who think they’d make better All-Fathers. His wife, who knows the future, won’t tell him a word because of his cheating, which he hasn’t even invented yet. Horrible things such as celery, mosquitoes, Loki’s dubious sense of humour, and people keep happening at him. The esteemed egg whisk and highly regarded feather duster? Not so much. There are only two sensible things Odin can do: 1) hang from the judgy Tree for nine days with a spear through his side and 2) drink from the Well of Wisdom, whose guardian, Sir Daddy Mímir, likes one-of-a-kind gifts. In his head, Odin’s idea seems wise…

Bonus) Duckett & Dyer by GM Nair

He literally offered to come on to Sunday Brunch and give an absolutely not sarcastic at all interview, and I don’t even know what’s wrong with me but I cannot get this book read despite wanting to quite badly 🤦‍♀️

Michael Duckett is fed up with his life. His job is a drag, and his roommate and best friend of fifteen years, Stephanie Dyer, is only making him more anxious with her lazy irresponsibility. Things continue to escalate when they face the threat of imminent eviction from their palatial 5th floor walk-up and find that someone has been plastering ads all over the city for their Detective Agency.

The only problem is: Michael and Stephanie don’t have one of those.

Despite their baffling levels of incompetence, Stephanie eagerly pursues this crazy scheme and drags Michael, kicking and screaming, into the fray. Stumbling upon a web of missing people curiously linked by a sexually audacious theoretical physicist and his experiments with the fabric of space-time, the two of them find that they are way out of their depth. But unless Michael and Stephanie can put their personal issues aside and patch up the hole they tore in the multi-verse, the concept of existence itself may, ironically, cease to exist.

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So that’s my list, wish me luck! What are you trying to read that just keeps getting pushed back?