Handpicked by the unread team

Part time bartender. Struggling actor. Missing father. Add a dash of tiki and shake well.For struggling actor and full‑time tiki nerd Gilley Martin, the bit role seemed perfect: bartender in a biopic about Don the Beachcomber. Then the majestic tiki statue—an artifact with a past of its own—decided to get involved. What follows is a slightly shaken romp through the early days of the tiki craze and the half‑hidden stories that shaped his family generations ago, some of them thanks to Gilley himself. A time‑bending, twisty tale about memory, myth, and the fine art of winging it, The Tr...

"Amid discord, distrust, and chaos......hold on to unity, for it is a most precious thing indeed."Grand Master Sarkeshi. Reverend Mother Diadra Maurian. Nez Yannaf. The unflinching Queen of the Asaan al-Atollen, Malina Varkallas, has triumphed over them all, with the help of her close friends and her lover, Quanaris Veilstar. But there is much, much more to know about the world which Quisillon and Xorgali share......and once Malina's inner circle learns of the truth, their lives as they know them may never be the same.The secrets lie with Xorgali's ruling line, the Garai dynasty. Its current m...

"To have a full and knowledgeable grasp on the present and future......one must look to the past."The Asaan al-Atollen have been restored to their golden age. With the corrupt Reverend Mother Diadra Maurian now completely overthrown and her favored subordinate, Malina Varkallas, now having taken the mantle of the Sirens' leader instead—alongside her lover Quanaris Veilstar—the future looks bright for Quisillon's protectors, with both women and men being granted equal opportunities to practice magic should they so choose.But it isn't long before unrest and distress comes calling once again....

"Look more closely, through the blood and tears......for not everything here is as it appears."Almost a year and a half after the decisive defeat of the Wyrmriders—and the permanent end to their atrocities across the Asaan al-Atollen's home continent of Quisillon—the devoted and dutiful Sister Malina Varkallas continues to serve at her mentor Diadra Maurian's side, unflinchingly carrying out the Reverend Mother's will while also hunting down the last few clusters of stubborn Wyrmrider rebel cells. But just when all seems right once again, the Asaan al-Atollen become targets of a mysterious...

"One must simply look deep inside themselves......to see the magic within."The continent of Quisillon is a magical, fantastical realm filled to the brim with a diverse collective of species. Every being—human, goblin, robot, manticore, and others—has no need for fear......for the people are protected by the remarkable peacekeepers known as the Asaan al-Atollen—or the Shadow Sirens—who also wield powerful magic at their disposal should situations escalate.The Asaan al-Atollen's all-women ranks are split up into three factions: Recruits, Acolytes, and Sisters......of which the dutiful, o...

"Open your eyes, that you may see......just who you're truly meant to be."The story of the liberated Cerulite servant Morrisette comes to an explosive end in the third and final novel of the Azure Aegis Series. With the malevolent force known as Balaal threatening to bring ruin to Cerulea—and the worlds beyond as well—Morrisette, who has just escaped the Royal Convergence with the help of Fifth Sector, must navigate the unfamiliarity of Endolynn alongside her devoted guard Damien, and find out the secrets of the fabled Azure Aegis before the universe itself is brought to irrecoverable ruin...

"Though your enemies' hearts harden, and their patience wears thin......never stop fighting for what you believe in."The second book in the Azure Aegis Series brings readers back to the fantastical and magical world of Cerulea and continues Morrisette's story directly following the defeat of her former master, King Tyrhenius Stygian. Now with her new friends by her side, they must work together to preserve Morrisette's newfound freedom and autonomy as the remaining royals of Cerulea close in on her, determined to make her pay for Stygian's downfall. Along the way, a mysterious faction lends th...

"The chains that bind you can be broken. And it all starts......with that first pull."The world of Cerulea is a magical land divided into four distinct regions, each with their own rulers, servants, decrees to make, and hardships to overcome. But when it becomes clear that not everything is what it seems to be, one young woman must step up out from her deceptive master's shadow and find her true place in this grand collective of kingdoms.Liberation tells the story of twenty-five-year-old Morrisette, a girl who has the power to bend crystal and materialize crystalline constructs from nothingnes...

When data analyst Mara Venn is hired to audit a disappearing communication system inside a European research hub known as Helix Station, she expects corrupted files, bureaucratic errors, and technical noise.Instead, she finds something impossible:Entire conversations that never happened—but are still stored.People who remember events that were never recorded.And a protocol buried deep in the system that rewrites silence itself.At first, it looks like a glitch.Then colleagues begin to “sync” with versions of themselves that act differently.Messages arrive before they are sent.And every at...

At five years old, Kasiel was found with the pointed ends of his ears cut off...Despite that brutal start, he's lived twelve peaceful years with the man who took him in. Keeping his hair long over his mutilated ears helps him hide the fact that he is Vanrian, a child of the enemy.Everything changes when mercenaries arrive hunting for him. The last people he expects to come to his rescue are Vanrian soldiers, one of whom claims to be his spirit brother. They plan to take him across the war zone to deliver him to his real father, a man whose name strikes terror in his enemies.With his secret exp...

Why You Felt CrazyWhat Gaslighting Does to You, Why Leaving Is Hard, and How to Find Your Way OutIf you've ever found yourself asking...Am I overreacting?Maybe it's my fault.Why is it so hard to leave?...this book was written for you.Why You Felt Crazy explores the hidden psychological effects of gaslighting, emotional abuse, and coercive control. Rather than offering quick fixes or generic advice, Quinn Morgan explains how manipulation slowly erodes your confidence, your memory, and your ability to trust your own instincts.Written from lived experience, this book helps readers understand:Why ...

When his ex shows up on his doorstep after three years of silence, Collin doesn’t know if it’s fate, a mistake, or something in between.What begins as one night of catching up turns into an unpredictable ride through old haunts, reckless dares, and unspoken truths. As Collin and Lacie navigate fights, stolen moments, and the ghosts of their shared past, they’re forced to confront the question neither has answered: are they still in love, or just in love with who they used to be?Pieces of Us is a raw, intimate, and chaotic love story about two people who can’t seem to let go no matter h...

For fans of blurred-reality stories like Inception, The Matrix, and The Truman Show.It’s all in your mind…The gap is the place where our intentions meet our actions.The gap is the place where our failings are exposed.All humanity exists in the gap.The gap is the next global battlefield, and the war has already begun.Two organisations are locked in battle to control the mysterious gap.Schelldhardt, the largest company in the world, is using its powerful online reach to divide the global population.The Friary is a secretive institution aiming to stop them.Lana Carter is a young woman searchi...

For fans of blurred-reality stories like Inception, The Matrix, and The Truman Show.What if there were a way to make a perfect decision? If poor choices, even addictions, could be controlled from within the mind.Schelldhardt is the largest company in the world and will do anything to grow. When Joe Massey is unexpectedly offered a role aboard Schelldhardt’s luxurious corporate headquarters at sea, his main priority is Rachel. Joe has trailed Rachel through school and university into the workplace and cannot imagine life without her.Realistic dreams disturb Joe’s sleep as he is drawn deeper...

A hilarious comedy about friendship, family and fresh starts, set in the Scottish HighlandsThis uplifting, fast-paced story tackles the challenges of middle-age and will have you laughing, crying, and wondering how many Fs rule your life too.Jaye never expected everything to fall apart when she turned fifty, but Fs are back in charge and ruining her life again.Fitness… Her spare tyre’s self-inflating but she’s allergic to exercise, unless it’s wine bottle unscrewing where she’s fast becoming an Olympic athlete.Frustration… Why has her soulmate of 30 years shacked-up with his young,...

You Don't Need FixingThoughts on emotions, relationships, and the art of being yourselfYou don't need to be better. You need to live better.There is no right answer to who you should be. No correct answer to what you should become, what you should feel, or how quickly you should figure it out. And yet, most young people spend enormous energy trying to become a version of themselves they think the world wants to see.This book is not a self-help book. It won't give you techniques, checklists, or a plan for personal improvement. Instead, it offers something rarer: understanding.Understanding why ...

Something happens to intelligent people when they cross a boundary they cannot see. They do not become less articulate. They become more articulate — and everything they say becomes wrong.A Marxist economist reframes 350 million women gaining bank accounts as oppression. A Hindutva scholar flattens six centuries of Mughal civilization into a single wound. A liberal commentator invites foreign journalists to humiliate an elected leader as a service to democracy. Each is intelligent. Each is sincere. Each is structurally incapable of seeing what the evidence shows.The Antithesis Trap identifie...

Something happens to intelligent people when they cross a boundary they cannot see. They do not become less articulate. They become more articulate — and everything they say becomes wrong.A Marxist economist reframes 350 million women gaining bank accounts as oppression. A Hindutva scholar flattens six centuries of Mughal civilization into a single wound. A liberal commentator invites foreign journalists to humiliate an elected leader as a service to democracy. Each is intelligent. Each is sincere. Each is structurally incapable of seeing what the evidence shows.The Antithesis Trap identifie...

Your mother read you the tale of The Three Little Pigs.The story she read to you was a lie.Deep within an ancient forest, live the three Pigg brothers. Very different but very close. Arnold, the eldest, a battle-hardened former special forces warrior retired to his secluded, hand-built log cabin. Brother Harold, a brilliant scientist with strength to match his intellect who spends his days conducting sometimes dangerous experiments in his brick home and laboratory. Youngest bother Norman is an accomplished architect and fitness fanatic, proudly residing in the innovative straw-bale house of hi...

Ready to be served?

It's Jennifer's birthday, and her best friend is taking her to the exclusive opening of the elite steakhouse, Club Carnivore! What begins as an enchanted evening of gourmet delights soon becomes a waking nightmare of pain, terror, and unnatural appetites.

Club Carnivore: What are you hungry for?

In the adult film industry, every generation has its Queen: Ginger Lynn, Jenna Jameson, Sasha Grey. This generation’s Queen is Madison Walsh, praised by her followers as “the ivory goddess” and “the envy of angels.” When you’re the most popular star in the industry, you draw fans . . . And Madison’s number one fan is devoted and deadly.This new stalker leaves a trail of bodies in their wake, and they crave the blood of this once-in-a-century beauty. Enter Evan, a production assistant learning to live again after his wife’s unexpected death. The two begin an unlikely romance, ju...

Everything went wrong at the end of the first day . . . Just after sunset. Alone while her housemates are away on a business trip, Susan had enjoyed having the place to herself: remote, no neighbors, the scenic Appalachian mountains rising over her.Then she saw the creature emerge from the darkness. A creature that defies nature. But at least it won’t come into the house after her . . . Will it?The Internet is down, her phone has no signal, and no one is coming to help. Haunted by the skull-faced creature, harassed by criminals who sense she is alone and vulnerable, Susan must summon the wil...

Lose yourself in a story of quiet longing and hard-won trust.The Lantern and the Sea is a moving new romance about rebuilding after loss, finding your own voice, and choosing love in the face of uncertainty. Dubrovnik, Croatia. Isla has spent years repairing broken cellos and protecting the fragile pieces of her own heart. She keeps her world small, focused on her music, her students, and her carefully guarded secrets. Everything changes when she meets Adrian, a reserved yet fiercely loyal restorer who is quietly wrestling with his own scars. Their encounter begins to challenge everything...

A Silent Spring?It proves anything but…After a century of dereliction, Toad Hall stirs back to life.Its revival is led by the irrepressible Horatio Toad, newly returned to his ancestral home with six wives, no money, and a plan to save the estate by making nature pay. His uneasy partner is Georges Montgolfiere, an eccentric and radical Rewilder who speaks of a Silent Spring—an eerie absence of birdsong and wildlife, a warning etched into the land itself.Horatio dreams of zipwires, cafés, and gift shops. Georges dreams of ecological redemption. Ideology collides with insolvency—and neith...

In a near future of rising seas and failing empires, a young woman designer builds a floating world from the ruins of the old one, confronting climate dystopia with low-tech ingenuity under the pressure of global powers.Floating Eden Defies Empires.As the world is being parceled out, Ayesha, born Bajau, a stateless Southeast Asian sea dweller, loses her mother in a traumatic accident. Orphaned in Sumatra, adopted in Singapore, her Leonardesque gift for drawing leads her to study design in France.At every stage of her journey, mentors and bullies, some real and some composite, appear like stepp...

The Dark Side of Human Nature: Beneath the Mask of HumanityWhat if the greatest danger in your life is not the people you fear, but the people you trust?Behind every smile may exist insecurity. Behind every act of kindness may exist hidden motives. Behind every display of confidence may exist fear, jealousy, or self-doubt.The Dark Side of Human Nature is a thought-provoking exploration of the hidden forces that shape human behavior. Drawing from psychology, philosophy, history, and human experience, this book examines the darker aspects of the mind that often remain concealed beneath social ma...

Lisa Doyle is fine. Absolutely fine.At least, that's the story she's been telling herself.Her best friend is getting married. Everyone around her seems to have a partner, a plan, and a life that makes sense. Lisa, meanwhile, has four glasses of wine in her, a talent for making bad situations worse, and a growing sense of being left behind.So she does what any sensible woman in a crisis would do. She announces that she's engaged.There is only one problem.Brian does not exist.Now Lisa needs a fiancé before the wedding, her actor flatmate is far too willing to get involved, and the real Brian, w...

BROTHERS, FATHERS, AND OTHER STRANGERS includes stories about family dysfunction in a not-so-blended family, work, Adolf Hitler’s imagined alternative lives and possible reincarnation, the spirit of Kurt Cobain, a green angel giving an aging alcoholic man a second chance at redemption, men struggling to find some meaning in their lives, and more. Many of these stories deal with feelings of alienation and abandonment, and feelings of the characters that they do not fit in in their families, their lives, their jobs, or, sometimes, in their very bodies.In all there are thirty-eight stories and ...

He wakes up in a different body.So begins the journey of Ash—short for Pin Asher9919—who awakens on a hospital bed on, he believes, a different planet after an automobile accident took the bodily life of an Earth human named Edward Fleishman. Ash is told he was the victim of a serious brain injury and miraculously recovered from being brain dead in a coma, but Ash feels he knows the truth: his spirit has replaced the distressed spirit of the former Edward Fleishman.Thus, Ash's new life on earth begins, complete with a spouse who is a stranger to him, a body he is not sure how to use, a wor...

Almost It was almost just a weekend fling.It was almost romance.It was almost supernatural.It was almost self-help… if healing could happen between blindfolds, whiskey, and songs that hit too perfectly.One woman. One man. One hotel room that feels like it’s watching them.Tarot cards that refuse to lie.And a connection that blurs every line between desire, trauma, and something neither of them can explain.Dark. Psychological. Sensual.With just enough humor to keep you breathing.Almost — because sometimes “almost” is where the real story begins.Queue up the music from the playlist and...

This lesbian action/adventure thriller continues the saga of Mika and Leah Cross. Angel Mika and Witch Leah move their family to a small Texas town where things appear to be peaceful. They are welcomed with friendly handshakes and warm smiles but what is hiding behind those smiles? Mika begins the task of building a church but soon encounters rabid religious persecution. As town citizens begin to disappear Leah realizes that something Beyond Evil is engulfing their community. The discovery made by their oldest daughter shines a spotlight on the eternal lovers and causes people to ask Leah, "Ho...

A Touch of Murder is the fourth novel in the saga of Mika and Leah Cross. Mika is an angel and Leah is a witch who have found eternal love in spite of their differences. An ancient evil lurks in the background as our lovers make the decision to leave New York and move to a safer place. But there may be no safe place for them in this world.

 Donna Raider ramps up the action and suspense with Marked for Murder. Priest Mika Cross strives to keep her family safe when accidents begin to happen to those in power in the church. Secrets are revealed. An ancient serial killer rises to exact his own brand of retribution and our lovers are caught in the middle of something they can't stop.

Sometimes even Angels have to get their hands dirty!
Leah and Mika battle the forces of hell for one another. Sacrifices are made to save a life. A twist of fate tore them and their world apart. Could one of them, alone, put it back together again?

A hundred years in the future homosexuality is a forgotten word as everyone’s love is accepted. Everyone freely marries whomever they wish, except Catholic Priests whose ranks are now filled with female and male ecclesiastics. Follow Priest Mika Cross as she struggles with her desire for Leah Anthal, the poster child for evil.A twist in time brought them together testing Mika's faith and Leah's strength. Romance, action and adventure combine to make this one of the best novels of the year. Theirs was a love that spanned the ages. A twist in time brought them together, only a twist in time co...

Emma Clarke thought the hard part was falling in love.She was wrong.Because staying in love?That’s where things get complicated.Now officially offline and very much together, Emma and Noah are stepping into something far more dangerous than dating apps and fake relationships—Real life.And real life comes with:Miscommunication that hits harder than silenceCareer choices that pull them in different directionsFamilies who suddenly have opinions about everythingAnd the quiet fear that love might not be enoughWhen an unexpected opportunity threatens to separate them—and a familiar face from t...

"Close your eyes, and he takes your mind."Dr. Aris Thorne thought moving to the quiet, fog-draped village of Oakhaven would save his career. He came to study a rare, localized form of fatal insomnia. Instead, he found a curse.When the sun sets, the villagers are paralyzed by terror that walks the tree lines-an ancient entity that calls The Slumbering King. The rules are simple: stay awake, or become his next vessel. As Aris begins to hallucinate the king's whispers, he realizes his scientific instruments are useless against the creeping dread. Trapped by the encroaching forest, Aris must uncov...

The door was never confined to an apartment.It was never trapped behind a wall.It was never something that could be closed.In THE LAST TENANT III: The Door Is Everywhere, the nightmare has evolved beyond recognition.The world feels normal again.The voices have faded.The strange disappearances have stopped.People have moved on.But Daniel knows the truth.The pattern never ended.It simply became invisible.Now, a new tenant discovers a door that shouldn't exist.A door with no number.A door no one remembers seeing before.A door that appears only when noticed.As old horrors begin to awaken in new pl...

Superstition, mysticism, and religion weave like tangled vines through the tales of Amelia’s newly discovered ancestry. As a widow struggling to sustain herself and her ten-year-old son, Amy’s modest life is tragically disrupted when a dubious lawyer determines her late mother, adopted at birth, was the estranged daughter of the recently deceased Lexington McClary. Although the net worth of the once enormous estate is petty, Amy decides to travel several hundred miles to attend the funeral, in the hope of at least learning a semblance of her newfound ancestry.After the interment, alone in ...

Hugging Eric Clapton... drinking espressos with Ronnie Wood... tea with Emma Thompson in her kitchen... turning down an audience with Roger Moore in St. Moritz… it’s all in a day’s work for some random lanky bloke called Sebastian Wocker. But why has this relative nobody continued to cavort with so many household names? In an honest account of his experiences with the great, the good and the occasionally odd, Wocker shares with us his close encounters of the famous kind. ‘A great read. Deserves to be widely read and acclaimed!’&n...