Five Self-Published Books on my TBR Pile I NEED to Read!

As we draw to the end of Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week, this is where I take a look at my overwhelmingly large TBR pile and make a sort of strangled-moaning sound. Throughout this week I’ve been adding more recommendations to my pile, but there’s so many amazing self-published books and not enough time in the day to read ’em all!

How do you decide which books get to the top of your reading list? Do you decide by length? Genre? Mood? Since I am terrible at making decisions, I’m going to list my top five choices and you can help pick one for me. These are five self-published books that I can’t wait to read next.

An Altar on the Village Green by Nathan Hall

“If one suffers, I suffer. If one is chained, I am chained.”

My faith called me to become a Lance. My compassion drew me into one of the fallen lands. Through my connection with the Chained God, I alone can find and destroy the Horror that stains the land.

Death can no longer chain me.

But I couldn’t have imagined the madness waiting for me in this village. I’m not sure my faith can withstand the secrets I’ll uncover. Or that my compassion can survive the violence to come. This Horror may swallow me whole.

Death can no longer free me.

A creature stalks in the dark. Buildings burn. People die. An altar has been built on the village green.

Add An Altar on the Village Green to your Goodreads

Legacy of the Brightwash by Krystle Matar

Follow the law and you’ll stay safe. But what if the law is wrong?

Tashué’s faith in the law is beginning to crack.

Three years ago, he stood by when the Authority condemned Jason to the brutality of the Rift for non-compliance. When Tashué’s son refused to register as tainted, the laws had to be upheld. He’d never doubted his job as a Regulation Officer before, but three years of watching your son wither away can break down even the strongest convictions.

Then a dead girl washed up on the bank of the Brightwash, tattooed and mutilated. Where had she come from? Who would tattoo a child? Was it the same person who killed her?

Why was he the only one who cared?

Will Tashué be able to stand against everything he thought he believed in to get the answers he’s looking for?

Add Legacy of the Brightwash to your Goodreads

Paladin Unbound by Jeffrey Speight

The last of a dying breed, a holy warrior must rise up against a growing darkness in Evelium.
The most unlikely of heroes, a lowly itinerant mercenary, Umhra the Peacebreaker is shunned by society for his mongrel half-Orc blood. Desperate to find work for himself and his band of fighters, Umhra agrees to help solve a rash of mysterious disappearances, but uncovers a larger, more insidious plot to overthrow the natural order of Evelium in the process.
As Umhra journeys into the depths of Telsidor’s Keep to search for the missing, he confronts an ancient evil and, after suffering a great loss, turns to the god he disavowed for help.
Compelled to save the kingdom he loves, can he defeat the enemy while protecting his true identity, or must he risk everything?

Add Paladin Unbound to your Goodreads

Sairō’s Claw by Virginia McClain

An action-adventure fantasy romp featuring sword lesbians, sea battles, and a grumpy wolf spirit.

Torako has done many things to protect the valley that she calls home, but she’s never looted a corpse before. So when the katana she steals off the still-cooling body of a bandit turns out to be possessed by a grumpy wolf kami, she can only assume it’s because she’s somehow angered the spirits. An impression that’s only reinforced when she returns home to find her wife abducted and her daughter in hiding. But angry spirits or no, Torako isn’t about to let bandits run off with the love of her life, even if it means taking their 3 year old on a rescue mission.

In all Kaiyo’s years as Captain of the Wind Serpent she has never once questioned her admiral’s orders. So when she receives the command to abduct a civilian scribe with the help of fifteen felons, she registers her objections, but does as she is bid. Yet, as the mission unfolds, Kaiyo finds herself questioning everything from her loyalties to her convictions.

As Torako and Kaiyo’s fates cross like dueling blades, their persistence is matched only by their fury, until they uncover a series of truths they may never be ready to accept.

Add Sairō’s Claw to your Goodreads

The Iron Crown by L. L. MacRae

Fenn’s first and only memory is finding himself in the middle of a forest, face to face with a dragon spirit mocking him, all knowledge gone apart from his own name.

Lost and confused, his only hope for answers is Calidra—a woman living on the edge of the world with her partner. Forced to return home when her father dies, Calidra has put off facing her estranged mother for seven years, and she begrudgingly helps Fenn, forging papers for him so he can avoid the Queen’s Inquisitors.

But her mother is the least of her worries when they discover an ancient enemy is rising again. It should be impossible with the Iron Crown in power—and Fenn is terrified he might unwittingly be playing a part in the war’s resurgence.

Surrounded by vengeful spirits and powerful magic, Fenn’s desperate attempt to find his way home might well alter the fate of Tassar, and every power in it.

Add The Iron Crown to your Goodreads

So that’s what’s on my current TBR pile, but I’m not done yet! Here are three more books coming out later this year that I can’t wait to add to my reading list:

City of Reckoning by Brianna da Silva

Kindy Sharro is used to hiding. As a Nocturan, her bat wings, claws, and night vision place her under constant threat of hunters, who cruelly slaughter her kind for sport.

But everything changes the day of the invasion. The Dorish Empire drafts the Nocturans it once persecuted to help defend against a godlike foe. Kindy enters the war, but she has an ulterior motive: Use the war to destroy her arch enemy, Charris Pouden, before he gains enough power to destroy her first.

Meanwhile, Lasía Mae’olo, an elite wolf-accompanied warrior, plots rebellion against the Dorish Empire. When she is drafted to fight for her enemies, she must find a way to subvert the war for her own purposes.

But suspicion and distrust haunts her every move. This war has many sides—and she’s not sure which side she’s on anymore.

The bonds of friendship will be tested. Alliances will be questioned. In a story of political intrigue, ethics of war, and young love, one question must be answered: Which side will you join?

Add City of Reckoning to your Goodreads

The Ravyn’s Words by Rowena Andrews

Fate belongs to the Gods. They Weave it. Sing it. Harvest it.

Ravyn was born between life and death, free of the weave of fate. She dreams of distant places and grand deeds far from the eyes of the Gods that she refuses to believe in.

Eleyn is thrice-sworn to the Gods, marked for death and cursed with the knowledge that the Gods are stirring and what that will mean for the world she will leave behind. Unless she can change things, and that means twisting the weave of fate.

But fate is a dangerous thing, especially when it is stolen from the Gods.

Add The Ravyn’s Words to your Goodreads

The Necessity of Rain by Sarah Chorn

The god-ruled city of Meadowsweet has been at peace for a millennia.

Divided between deities Aether and Oceana, Meadowsweet thrives in harmony. In a place where prayers are currency and worship is obligation, life is prescribed and comfortable for most. However, when Father Luna, interloper god, arrives with a strange girl in tow, the balance of power shifts. Suddenly, everything is in peril.

Gambled away by a father she hardly knows, Rosemary finds sanctuary in Father Luna. Soon, she is thrust into the center of a divine conflict. When everything she loves hangs by a thread, Rosemary realizes she has the power to change the game, but at the cost of her soul. To survive, she must reveal who she truly is.

When gods go to war, the world trembles.

When the gods move, nothing is sacred.

Add Necessity of Rain to your Goodreads

What self-published books are on your TBR pile and how do you choose what to read next?