Hi folks. Another Hidden Gems issue for you today. At the time of writing, this might help populate your reading plans for 2025 with some lesser known books you might want to try! I’ve included a list below of links to ALL previous 7 issues.
The Wolf and the Wild King
K. V. Johansen
High fantasy born of myth and folklore, of the dark and the trees and the winter’s cold, the flint blade’s edge and the secrets that are spoken only in dreams…
Assassin, executioner, shapeshifter, and dutiful son of the undying Queen of the land called only the Forest, Mairran is haunted by the voice of an Immortal long lost, who runs with him as a wolf in his dreams. More used to being the instrument of death than an arbiter of justice, he is dispatched by his mother to find the killer of an earl whose life was offered in an unsanctioned sacrifice to the Forest.
In an earlier age, the outlaw Lannesk swears an oath to follow the Grey Hunter and the Wild King, ancient guardians of the Forest, in a war against the invading dragon-kin and their sorcerer-priests, who seek to wake the great dragon long ago bound in sleep beneath the Lake. Past and present tangle around troubled assassin and mute outlaw, as a conspiracy of fell magic threatens the land and its people.
Blood Price
Nicole Evans
The law of the gods is those who kill must pay for it in blood.
In the land of Armadin, where nine clans exist in a fragile peace, Ashilde is one of the few chosen to pay the blood price. Through it, she becomes a warrior, capable of killing to protect her clan—alongside her hunters, who provide the essential animal sacrifice, lest they become the next clan to suffer the gods’ wrath.
When an attack wipes out their few remaining hunters, Ashilde must find a way to protect her clan and still appease the gods, despite her shaken faith. But when her monthly bleeding stops, she can no longer kill. Cast out by the gods’ decree, she’s given a single task: travel to the gods’ realm, atoning for the failures of the clan and herself alike. If she dies, another will be sent in her place, until the demanded atonement is fulfilled or her clan is wiped out. Entirely.
Bound by a promise to protect her people above all else, Ashilde embarks on a quest driven for answers. Aided only by a pair of animals and a small child she meets along the way, Ashilde must battle the elements, her pursuers and her own mind to reach the gods’ realm.
To save her people, Ashilde’s journey forces her to answer the ultimate is she willing to pay the price asked of her, now that she can no longer pay in blood?
Die Young
Morgan Shank
Magon Dross graduated his mage school, the Tower, with flying colors. Then his old schoolmaster burned his runebook and stole his magic. Now the Tower wants him dead.
To spare himself, his family, and his people from danger, Magon must find help and answers. His country is on the brink of war, and a school of rogue mages could topple everything.
Powerless and on the run, he’ll find help through his childhood friend, his estranged sister, a tribal exile, a violent priest, and the daughter of King Terrus, Freytilia’s most hated man. This makes for a precarious alliance, but it must hold.
The Tower’s pursuit spreads collateral damage, and as war approaches, it grows apparent that if the Tower isn’t stopped, every country will fall.
The Dragon Legion
Isaac Hill
Broken generations ago in the Cleansing,The Sunborn Bloodline persists.
Dragh the Sunborn Empire’s last son rises in the ranks of the Second Legion, a Legion of criminals. Sent to quell the rebelling Northern Tribes, the last Sunborn son finds himself in a cruel world of politics, murder and betrayal as he struggles to survive.
Welcome to the Sunborn Series, where Empires rise, fall and against all odds, rise again.
The Dragon Legion is born.
The Dragon Legion: Braveheart meets The French Foreign Legion. A reluctant prince, a criminal legion, a nation of at peril.
The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword
Dewey Conway, Bill Adams
Galdifort Quillpen has grand dreams of writing epic tales of heroic deeds, just like his famous aunt. Unfortunately, he’s been assigned to Tanna the Tendersword, an excruciatingly carefree would-be-champion who can’t seem to find a qualifying entry-level quest.
When things are at their most miserable, the young Questers meet an enigmatic old woman who offers Tanna a quest: follow a peg-legged, sword-wielding rooster to help save a crying mushroom lost within a haunted forest. Tanna heroically accepts, regardless of how incredibly unsafe the odd quest seems.
But Galdifort’s fears become reality when a sorceress sends her fog monster and lizard henchmen after them. Only a true Champion should confront a sorceress, and, in his eyes, Tanna is not up to the task. But if he wants to write his chronicle, Galdifort must learn to do something he certainly isn’t comfortable doing — trust in honest friendship with Tanna the Tendersword.
He’s just a chronicler, after all, not a hero!
The Fear of Moncroix
Bryan Asher
All the Waywards have Fallen…
After a mission against the Royal Vampiric Court goes horribly wrong, all of the Waywards are slaughtered.
All except one.
Davion, the last surviving member, must consume potions to mask himself and hide amongst the very people who killed his brethren. After a decade of living this double-life, Davion has resigned himself to his new purgatory. But all will not remain calm for him or the Court.
An unknown swordsman arrives, and after killing several Royal Vampires, rumor spreads that he’s searching for anyone still belonging to The Wayward order.
Davion decides he must track down this mysterious swordsman. But will finding him bring freedom or his own demise.
Spells and Spaceships 