2018 Debut Novels From Small Presses

You always need more books to read. And with summer travels on the horizon, you could use a list of books to check out. Let's share some of the love with the often overlooked small press debut novels. Here are a dozen from #Authors2018

Wrapped in the Stars by Elena Mikalsen from Wild Rose Press

Elena Mikalsen / Via goodreads.com

Struggling with guilt over her sister's death and the stress of her medical residency, Maya Radelis runs away to Scotland. A robin seems to lead her to an antique shop, where she finds a century-old engagement ring. But what is the ring’s history? She follows the slim paper trail, wondering if it is only coincidence that her dreams reveal the story of a Swiss woman physician who wore the ring during World War I.

In Paris she meets fellow New Yorker David Fischer, a lawyer with family in Switzerland as well as America. He helps Maya follow the memories stored in the ring as they lead her around Europe. The attraction between David and Maya grows, and when they discover a connection between the ring and David’s family, they learn, bit by bit, more about the ring’s earlier owner. Will Maya’s own life have the same tragedy of lost love?

Everything but the Earl (Wayward & Willful, #1) by Willa Ramsey from City Owl Press

Willa Ramsey / Via goodreads.com

Miss Caroline Crispin is on top of the world. But she’s about to take a painful fall.

As the daughter of London’s most in-demand architect, Caro has laughed and danced and pursued her interests with gusto—free from Society’s censure. So when she overhears two lords calling her vulgar names and wagering on whose lover she’ll become, she’s shocked and stung—and determined to teach them a lesson. Though it pains her to ask for help from another brutish lord…

Lord Ryland isn’t the man his father wanted him to be. But he’s about to make an excellent catch.

Adam, Earl Ryland, just wants to get married and tend his country garden, away from the bucks, fops, and gossips who pester him to box like his late father. When this gentle giant meets his sister’s friend Caro—who parries his flirtations with double entendre that would make a barman blush—he’s smitten. But there’s a problem: she’s looking to him for a different sort of partnership. And it’s a risky one.

Dawn Among the Stars by Samantha Heuwagen from Trifecta Publishing House

Samantha Heuwagen / Via goodreads.com

Set against the backdrop of intergalactic politics and war, Dawn Among the Stars follows the stories of three Humans as they struggle to understand the universe on a cosmic scale.

Kayin has a rough start when the Shielders, a potential alien ally for Earth, come out of hiding and into the public consciousness. Not only does their very existence cause her trouble, her panic attacks threaten to derail her everyday life. Can she overcome her mental health issues or will she be swallowed up in a political mess?

As for Henry Rickner, he wishes he could take back all of his mistakes in life, starting with his choice to leave Kayin. Yet he finds himself within the chaos of war as he tries to reunite with those he holds dear.

Melissa Pebbles only has one goal: to keep her family safe during the attack. She will do anything to make sure she and her family make it through whatever challenges are thrown their way. While Melissa fights to keep her family alive, she learns that family is more than just blood.

Can these three work with the Shielders to save Earth or will they lose the only home they’ve ever known?

Love Over Lattes (Desert Monsoon Series #1) by Diana A. Hicks from The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

Diana A. Hicks / Via goodreads.com

In this sexy, contemporary debut set in the sizzling Southwest, recent college graduate gets more than she bargained for when she accepts the help of a hot as hell CEO fighting to keep his company.

Single mom Valentina wants to provide a good life for her son, starting with the perfect home. When the deal on her dream house falls through, rather than move back in with her parents and disappoint them and her son once again, she accepts the help of the intimidating-as-hell stranger she's admired from her coffee shop seat for the last six months. She's afraid to fall for the wrong guy again, so she makes Cole promise to keep their relationship strictly professional.

Following his failed marriage, Cole can't find a reason to care about anything or anyone. Saving his company from his ex-wife is the only thing that has kept him afloat for the past six months. As loneliness sets in and he begins to lose the fight over his company, Valentina becomes his lifeline. Cole wants to be more than her landlord, and he has a plan to get her to release him from his promise.

Crazy on You (Love in the Fast Lane, #1) by Nicole Terry from City Owl Press

Nicole Terry / Via goodreads.com

Diane Thompson wakes up in the backseat of her car, shocked to find she’s acquired a chauffeur. Realizing she’s been inadvertently kidnapped, she swears off tequila—and Chili’s—then dials 9-1-1. But her rescue comes at a cost. Her savior, too-macho-for-words Lt. Cole Anderson, refuses to let Diane out of his sight until her kidnappers are apprehended. He’s already lost one woman he cared about due to his inattention; he’s not letting it happen a second time.

But Diane isn’t a damsel-in-distress type of girl. When it turns out the criminals left a valuable item in her car and they want it back, involving Cole isn’t part of her plan and not only because the criminals have forbidden her from involving the cops. Men are like birds—messy, easily distracted, and only around when there’s something to eat. She’s got this. All she has to do is find and return the item in question to the drug runners threatening her life, survive a high-speed car chase, and keep her vow to never trust a man with her heart.

Love War Stories by Ivelisse Rodriguez from The Feminist Press at CUNY

Ivelisse Rodriguez / Via goodreads.com

Puerto Rican girls are brought up to want one thing: true love. Yet they are raised by women whose lives are marked by broken promises, grief, and betrayal. While some believe that they’ll be the ones to finally make it work, others swear not to repeat cycles of violence. This collection documents how these “love wars” break out across generations as individuals find themselves caught in the crosshairs of romance, expectations, and community.

Asta and the Barbarians by Becca Fox from Tirgearr Publishing

Becca Fox / Via goodreads.com

On the day the Holgarians attack her town, twenty-year-old Asta is blessed by a warrior god and is empowered with the heightened senses and unnatural healing abilities these foreign invaders possess. Grief-stricken and paralyzed by terror, she’s hauled onto the conquering general’s ship and taken to the island of Holger across the sea.

One year later, Asta graduates from warrior academy with honors and is chosen as one of the king’s personal defenders. She will finally have the opportunity to kill the man who gave the general his orders, and avenge her family. She doesn’t expect the king to be young or kind, or completely oblivious of what his men are doing overseas. He has been told peaceful negotiations are going well, and the natural resources and ambassadors from the mainland seem to support this report. But Asta knows better.

Asta must find proof of the general’s treachery and bring it before the king so that she can save unconquered provinces from meeting the same fate as her hometown. But the king’s counselors suddenly start dying, and the king himself is hounded by foreign assassins. Revenge will have to wait if Asta’s going to keep the king, the mainland’s only hope, alive.

Immortal Descent by Carolyn M. Walker from Clean Reads/Astrea Press

Carolyn M. Walker / Via goodreads.com

Deep in the caves of rural Western Germany, the truth about immortality has remained a secret for centuries, but now that secret is about to break free...

Ethan West knows what it means to be different. With a haunted past and a strange sixth sense he sometimes can’t control, Ethan’s in search of a better future. Instead, he’s brutally attacked. Narrowly saved by the beautiful and mysterious Rue, Ethan quickly learns the world is darker and more bizarre than he had ever imagined. And sparing his life comes with a price: being reborn immortal. Now, a dark faction of ancient, cursed immortal beings known as Lorns are after him. And they want his rare, newly awakened soul.

Descended from the mythological Nephilim, Lorns are bound by either the divine force of order or the mortal force of chaos. Ethan is a rarity, bound by neither, yet he is ruled by both. Now, wielding an ancient and volatile power, Rue and her Alliance work to keep Ethan from spiraling out of control. At the heart of a terrifying underground war between Lorns, Ethan becomes the target of one side and a savior to the other. Amid everything, Ethan struggles to understand his own purpose and power—an ordeal that tests his loyalties, beliefs, and sanity in ways unimaginable. And the greatest danger is yet to come.

Carolyn M. Walker's Urban Fantasy Thriller blends history, magic, and mystery into one, exploring the human condition among those who are no longer human. A psychological thriller with a supernatural twist.

IMMORTAL DESCENT - "What if one man's beginning meant everyone else's end?"

Freyja's Daughter (Wild Women #1) by Rachel Pudelek from City Owl Press

Rachel Pudelek / Via goodreads.com

Meet Faline. Bounty-Hunter. Huldra. Wild Woman.

Well behaved women seldom make history, but they still end up as the monsters of folklore.

Faline Frey is a bounty-hunter, more comfortable relying on perp files and handcuffs than using her huldra powers to take down a suspect. No sense in catching the unwanted attention of her local Hunter authority, a group of holy soldiers born to police the supernatural and keep Wild Women—huldras, mermaids, succubi, rusalki and harpies—in check.

All that changes the night she heads out for a date, hoping to get lucky. Instead, she gets screwed.

Now her sister is missing, along with Wild Women from all over the country. The Hunters are on her tail and the one person offering to help is her ex-lover, Officer Marcus Garcia, who has just enough ties to the supernatural world. To unite her enemies against their common foe, Faline will need to convince the Wild Women to do the one thing she fears most—exhume their power buried deep beneath centuries of oppression. That is, if she can keep them from killing each other.

Blood-Bound by Kaelan Rhywiol from NineStar Press

Kaelan Rhyiol / Via goodreads.com

Rhian is content in her life. As a pwca, a Welsh shapeshifter, she is bound to the Dark God Arawn as an assassin. So when he assigns her as ambassador to oversee Ontario for him, it’s a shock.

Her new job? To find out who murdered her predecessor and bring them to justice, as well as to oversee the otherkin and clean up their messes before the humans find them—all to preserve the illusion that magic and supernatural creatures do not exist.

The problem? One of the otherkin she’s supposed to oversee is her estranged husband, Kai, the only person Rhian never regretted having sex with, and the only one she can’t forgive.

Forbidden by Faith (Forbidden Love, #1) by Negeen Papehn from City Owl Press

Negeen Papehn / Via goodreads.com

Sara knows her life would be easier if she married a man of her faith, but when has love ever been easy?

Raised by her immigrant Iranian parents, she’s been taught that a good daughter makes decisions based on her family’s approval, and she’s spent most of her life in their good graces. Until she meets Maziar, and her world is turned upside down. An instant electricity ignites between them, and it seems like fate when she discovers he’s also Iranian. Just as her mind begins to soar with the possibilities, he shatters her hopes.

Sara is Muslim. Maziar is Jewish. Will faith tear them apart?

Despite centuries of unrest behind them, Sara and Maziar embark on a forbidden love affair, attempting to navigate through cultural and religious prejudices.

Deep within the trenches of their battle, Sara finds herself more empowered and careless than ever before, but will her love and newfound life be worth the ultimate cost—her family?

Abducted Hope by Tracy Renee Wolfe from Filles Vertes Publishing

Tracy Renee Wolfe / Via goodreads.com

When lonely college student Melissa Field is abducted and swept into an out-of-this-world adventure, it’s nothing like she imagined. Her life collides with Orion’s aboard a space station where Melissa is the captive subject for Orion’s forced experiment to save his species.

Being the center of this life-changing study has its perks. Having researched humans as a longtime hobby, Orion allows Melissa the comforts of home; even if the pizza is cooked in a replicator. At least his touch is warm and real enough.

As they discover the corrupt intentions of those in charge, their only chance at joy and safety together exists away from the Phaeite leaders known as the Ruling Class. But escaping brings short-lived freedom and peace when the Phaeites aren’t the only species intent on ruining their lives.

It will take more than reliable transportation and courage for Melissa to span a galaxy and save her new family. Being abducted by aliens was nothing compared to getting in the middle of an intergalactic war.