With Kobo Plus expanding to the US and UK, it’s time to highlight more books available in the Kobo Plus library. If you want to know more about the subscription model from Kobo, check out my previous post here. I talked about my own experiences of using the program as a reader and included a list of all the books I read. I definitely enjoyed my time using it and I will consider it again once my Scribd subscription expires. Here are nine books you can read right now if you have a subscription. Don’t forget to check out the authors’ other books. You can fill up your month of reading with over a dozen amazing books.
Scales and Sensibility by Stephanie Burgis
Summary
Sensible, practical Elinor Tregarth really did plan to be the model poor relation when she moved into her aunt and uncle’s house. She certainly never meant to kidnap her awful cousin Penelope’s pet dragon. She never expected to fall in love with the shameless – but surprisingly sweet – fortune hunter who came to court Penelope, either. And she never dreamed that she would have to enter into an outrageous magical charade to save her younger sisters’ futures.
However, even the most brilliant scholars of 1817 England still haven’t ferreted out all the lurking secrets of rediscovered dragonkind…and even the most sensible of heroines can still make a reckless wish or two when she’s pushed. Now Elinor will have to find out just how rash and resourceful she can be when she sets aside all common sense. Maybe, just maybe, she’ll even be impractical enough to win her own true love and a happily ever after…with the unpredictable and dangerous “help” of the magical creature who has adopted her.
All of Stephanie’s other self-published books are also available in the Kobo Plus library.
At The Gates and Other Stories by Patrick Samphire
Summary
A ghost searches for revenge in ancient Egypt. A boy unearths the bones of a dragon. A girl risks awakening a dark god to save her dog…
*He reached out a hand and touched Grace’s cheek. The touch made her shiver. “You can’t save everyone, Grace.”
“I don’t want to,” Grace whispered. “Just her.”*
At the Gates and Other Stories is a collection of sixteen fantasy short stories.
Patrick is adding his books to the Kobo Plus library as the Kindle Unlimited exclusivity ends for the other books, so check back soon! Some of them are already available.
The Lost Sentinel by Emma L. Adams
Summary
They say the country of Zeuten no longer has any need for heroes.
Quests have been completed, the great Powers have withdrawn from the world, and the Sentinels who guard the last Relics are largely forgotten. Unlike their neighbours in the country of Aestin, whose Invokers wield the magic of the deities in exchange for glory and prestige, they leave the gods alone, and the gods extend the same courtesy to them.
When Zeuten’s last Sentinel disappears, Zelle, her granddaughter, intends to track her down. Instead she runs into an Aestinian stranger with no memories of his past, who claims to be looking for a long-lost Relic hidden in the mountains by the first Sentinels. To Zelle, the rumours of lost Relics are just stories told to trick gullible travellers, but the hordes of enemies on the stranger’s tail suggest otherwise. Armed with nothing but her grandmother’s sentient (and temperamental) magical staff, Zelle finds herself tasked with keeping them both alive.
Between monstrous beasts, magical storms, and an enthusiastic but inept aspiring assassin and her dragon sidekick, Zelle has her work cut out if she wants to survive long enough to save her grandmother and prevent the destruction of a nation.
Maybe Zeuten is in need of a few heroes after all…
Also check out Emma’s other books in the Kobo Plus library.
Manipulator’s War by Elise Carlson
Summary
All roads lead to war.
Nonbinary Ruarnon is determined to prove their worth as heir to Tarlah’s perfect King. Things get complicated when their parents are abducted and they’re left ruling Tarlah in the shadow of impending war, with absent allies.
Neighbouring King Kyura has no intention of invading Tarlah. But his warmongering subjects long for the glory of expansion. When Kyura rejects their calls for war, assassins threaten his family and mutiny threatens his reign.
Stranded Aussie Linh is desperate to return to her family in Australia. But the only transport to her gateway home is Ruarnon’s absent allies, sailing to Tarlah’s aid.
Monsters at sea threaten everyone. Linh’s monster observations could save Kyura’s people, and clear her homeward path. If she risks her life aiding Ruarnon. But to secure peace with Kyura’s unruly subjects, Ruarnon’s ultimate test as heir risks betrayal and Tarlah’s bloody defeat.
Petition by Delilah Waan
Summary
In the Dominion of Aleznuaweite, anyone can rise to the greatest heights—if they are willing to pay the price.
Failure is a luxury Rahelu can’t afford. Her family sold everything, left their ancestral home, and became destitute foreigners for the sake of her resonance skills. Now she can manipulate emotional echoes to discern truth from lies, conjure the past, and even foretell the future.
But an act of petty revenge by her rival destroys her chance at joining one of the great Houses. Desperate to prove her family’s sacrifices were not in vain, Rahelu calls upon the most dangerous magic of all—altering fortune.
A slight twist of fate is enough to restore her way forward…with deadly consequences she never bargained for. The Houses make a pawn of her in their bitter struggle for control of the Dominion. A shadowy cult grows ever closer to completing an ancient ritual.
And Rahelu discovers that fulfilling her oath to her family might come at the cost of her mother’s life.
Insiders by Shannon Knight
Summary
In a universe of long-haul truckers, parasite-bearing megalomaniacs, asteroid rustlers, and homicidal peace keepers, some people just want to stay alive.
Deep within Kerberos Station, pipe crawler Sachi Inside is dying of the planet-killing Hibravian virus. In a state of delirium, the agoraphobic girl agrees that in exchange for life, she will not only leave her pipes, but even the station. A parasitic plant wraps around her, guides her to an exiting ship, and adheres to the hull.
Captain Karasi Kwei is not pleased to discover a stowaway, but the crew thinks there’s money to be made on the plant, and the fact that both the Eastern Star Corporation and the Elysium Empire are tracking it confirms its value. However, none of that matters when the entire crew falls sick with the incurable Hibravian.
But Sachi’s plant is more than it seems. All they have to do is fight the mercenaries, survive the virus, evade the Elysium Empire, and navigate a fluctuating microwave wall in order to save the universe.
Also check out Wish Givers and Grave Cold
Tales of Lunis Aquaria by Tessa Hastjarjanto
Summary
Lose yourself in the wondrous world of Lunis Aquaria. Explore daunting deserts, treacherous mountains and the deep blue of the Morcain sea.
If you enjoy the fairy tales of old you will definitely enjoy this collection of nine short adventure stories.
All of Tessa’s books are available in the Kobo Plus library.
The Phoenix and the Sword by J.C. Snow
Summary
Determined to escape her past, Aili Fallon refuses to let anything impede her training as a combat nurse. But when the woman she loves binds her with blood and disappears, Aili is transformed into a magical killer, a blood-bound healer, an immortal being.
Gambling with her own existence, she crosses through phoenix gates into a new world to reunite with her lost love – only to learn that they are pawns in an ancient game of immortals, the keystone in a demon’s curse.
Will Aili’s newfound power and the secrets of her past destroy her, or can she and her beloved phoenix unravel the binding of life and death?
The Phoenix and the Sword is the first of two books in the Crane Moon Cycle, a queer epic fantasy novel set in a world of spiritual powers, past lives, and beings of myth and legend. Unexpected, multilayered, and beautiful, The Phoenix and the Sword begins a tale of love and adventure that crosses centuries and worlds.
Book 2, The Shoreless River, is also available in the Kobo Plus library.
Oracle of Life by Katherine D. Graham
Summary
Six fallen lords. Three vengeful goddesses. And one mortal, damned to prophesy for them all.
An Exiled Oracle
Nariah, the Heiress of Ellonai, is dead. An exiled, desert-dwelling Doomsayer is all that remains within the shell of the powerful princess she once was.
A Heretic
She isn’t sure which of her visions her people hate more: the one where the three benevolent goddesses they serve have decided to destroy the world, or the vision of six lords falling from the skies to save them.
The World’s Only Hope
Stumbling across the very lords she’s been seeing in her visions for years, only Nariah’s accursed gift of Sight can aid the lords in their rebellion against the goddesses, and determine the fate of her world before it’s turned to ash.
But does she even want to save those who’ve wronged her?
