Need inspiration for the Indie Voices Read-a-thon? We've rounded up some of our favorite independently published books of 2026 to help you kick off a month of indie reading.
Tell us what book you picked and share your progress with #IndieVoicesReadathon
2026 indie read-a-thon recommendations: top 2026 releases
Midnight Message
by Avina St Graves
Mina knows three things to be true.
1. She hates sports.
2. She's obsessed with an ice hockey player anyway.
3. Sliding into his DM's is the best and worst thing she's ever done
Dark Romance author Mina Mendoza has an obsession, and his name is Leo Duval. She knows everything about the star hockey player... like how many tattoos he has, where his aunt likes to holiday, the layout of his house and the date he bought it. But he doesn't know she exists. Or at least he didn't.
When Mina messages Leo in the middle of the night to say that he's exactly how she imagines the hero in her latest novel, she forgets that men can be cruel. One message turns into twenty screenshots, and a drunken group chat that alters the course of both their lives.
As it turns out, Leo knows some things about Mina too. Like the password to her phone, that her roommate sometimes forgets to lock their door at night, and that she sleeps like the dead.
Mina might have been stalking him first, but he can do it better.
2026 IngramSpark® Editorial Selection - Romance
Later Bloom
by Laurie D R
Emotional, inspiring, reflective, intimate Coming of Age
Perfect for fans of Dolly Alderton, Claire Daverley, Lily King and Sally Rooney, Later Bloom is a romantic literary fiction novel about the struggles of forging connections while trying to stick to our own timeline, desires and identity.
Aubrey is turning twenty-eight this year. She has never been in a relationship. She's never been anyone's girlfriend, never said I love you, never had a first fight or first of mostly anything. She swears it's not a big deal. No one really believes her. No one seems to agree.
She's not sure how she got there, really-maybe it was because of Oliver, or Rami, or Sam, or Simon. Maybe it's her. Maybe spending a year in Nova Scotia helping her aunt manage a creaky old inn might just fix everything.
There's only two ways this story can end. Either everything changes, or nothing at all.
It's simple.
It makes her head spin.
Later Bloom is Laurie D.R.'s contemporary fiction debut. Weaving between past and present, it explores what it means to bloom a little late, what it takes to find "the one", and how our identities are shaped by our experiences (or lack thereof).
Wild Summers
by Cassie Steward
Summer, 1969. The youth revolution has swept through London. Joan Summers is seventeen and it appears to have passed her by. Until the glamorous Nelson family move in next door, bringing far more than just a Rolls-Royce and rockstar rumours. They bring the summer that will change everything.
As fame and rebellion edge ever closer, Joan is catapulted into wild nights on the notorious Eel Pie Island, becoming submerged in the underground community of artists and anarchists who inhabit its crumbling hotel.
Temperatures rise, loyalties splinter and Joan discovers that every revolution has its price.
A Necromancer's Guide to Grave Mistakes
by Melissa Wright
Ellenora Morgrave has a problem letting go. When her emotions grow unruly, so does her magic, and the creatures she accidentally raises from the dead refuse to return to the grave. In a kingdom where necromancy exists solely to investigate crimes against the crown, Ella's undead family could spell her end. But when her father is murdered and her stepfamily stands to inherit not just his estate but his post as head necromancer, Ella must turn to investigations of her own.
Prince Silas has a problem hanging on. Over the years, he's gained a bit of a reputation. But as sole heir, he's used to the things he cares about being torn away, including the wild and slightly terrifying girl with a penchant for collecting wounded creatures he fell for in his youth. When his valet dies under suspicious circumstances and the palace guard can't be trusted, he knows just who to turn to.
Together, Ella and Silas dig up a conspiracy, old wounds, and the dead. But setting things right will test the walls they've built to protect themselves, and as Prince Silas realizes he's found something worth holding onto, Ella may be forced to finally let go.
What Happened Yesterday
by Matt Sturniolo
Best known as one-third of the Sturniolo Triplets, YouTuber and social media personality Matt Sturniolo unpacks his complex past and makes his literary debut with What Happened Yesterday.
From simple yet meaningful milestones such as learning to drive, confusing moments in therapy, and navigating overnight virality, to the significant loss of his childhood home due to a house fire and the passing of his grandfather, Matt shares with dark humor, raw honesty, and his signature wit what no video could ever capture.
But this is not a sob story. It's a reminder that progress isn't always some huge life-changing moment. Sometimes, it's as small as standing in a grocery store line alone, or making it through an entire school day without running for the door.
As Matt's mom always told him: Yesterday's problems shouldn't affect today. Because what once felt like mistakes or painful experiences . . . is simply what happened yesterday.
Conjuring the Hurricane: The Best Way to Save Your Life is Any Way You Can
by Sarah Hanson
When Sarah Hanson realized she had to leave her abusive relationship, she didn't have a plan. She had fear, instinct, and a body that had learned how to survive.
Conjuring the Hurricane is a survival memoir-in-verse about leaving a life that's killing you and rebuilding a self you can finally live inside. Told in fragments that mirror the way trauma lives in the body, the book traces the nonlinear work of reclaiming identity, trust, and agency after abuse.
This is a story of escape and aftermath, of learning to trust what the body knows, and of joy returning slowly, in unexpected forms. It is not a guide to the perfect exit, but a testament to the exit that saves you.
For anyone who has ever wondered how she got here.
For anyone who has ever whispered, how do I get out.
This book is a permission slip to choose survival.
Set the Bone
by Jillian Stacia
SET THE BONE is an uncompromising interrogation of contemporary womanhood-its trauma, quiet rage, and relentless search for healing. Confronting the forces that shape women from the inside out, this collection reckons with family, mental health, feminism, and the cost of surviving in a world determined to keep women contained.
Both blistering and darkly funny, these poems challenge the political and social systems that police women's lives, bodies, and choices. With sharp insight and unapologetic honesty, SET THE BONE dismantles the myths of obedience, niceness, and silence, offering a defiant refusal to shrink or comply.
At its core, this is a book about becoming-about motherhood and marriage, anger and tenderness, breaking cycles and claiming space. Bold, intimate, and brimming with urgency, SET THE BONE is both a reckoning and a rallying cry for anyone ready to stop apologizing and start telling the truth.
Life is Luck
by John Morgan
Most people are afraid to admit the role of luck in their lives.
It feels better to be "self-made" - the kind of person who boldly declares that if you drop them in the middle of New York, penniless and naked, they'll emerge a millionaire thirty days later.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
John Morgan is not afraid to acknowledge the tremendous role luck has played in his life. There's been plenty of good - like deciding to attend Mass on a whim and meeting the love of his life - and plenty of bad - like being raised by an alcoholic father who couldn't keep a job. But the bundle of good and bad luck we inherit doesn't mean we're helpless.
This book will show you how to find luck, get return on luck, enhance luck, and turn bad luck into good luck.
Unflinching, honest, and sometimes raw, Life is Luck looks at the remarkable life of the man who built the largest personal injury law firm in American history, along with an enterprise of attractions, hotels, apartment buildings, and shopping centers.
LIFE. LUCK. LEGACY.
I wrote this book to tell the truth about life and success. And the truth is, I can trace everything back to a paperboy in Lexington, Kentucky who borrowed money from his grandmother at eleven years old and had no idea that luck was already doing most of the heavy lifting. And today, looking back at the remarkable journey that paperboy would take, gratitude stands as the most important part of my life.
I wrote this book for my wife, who is by far the luckiest break in my life, and my children and grandchildren. And I wrote it for anyone who has ever been dealt a bad hand and wondered why or caught a lucky break and didn't recognize it until it was in the rearview mirror. If this book does what I hope it does, it gives people an honest framework for accepting the role luck plays - finding the opportunity buried in the bad and being ready when the good eventually comes around.
-John Morgan
The Butcher of Nazareth
by David Scott Hay
GOODREADS #1 HORROR TO READ IN 2026
Haunting visions drive a grieving butcher to hunt down an obese, pre-ministry Jesus to prevent an age of fire and ash.
But when the Butcher 'adopts' a dead newborn, his hunt for the son of Nazareth takes a personal and horrific turn.
How does one choose between personal redemption and world-wide salvation?
From Bethlehem to Jerusalem to Nazareth, familiar events and figures are reimagined with a modern sensibility, building to a gut-wrenching conclusion.
A heart of darkness story that explores: fathers and sons, grief, zealotry, and choice.
Chaotic
by Shantel Tessier
New York Times Bestselling author
An all-new dark romance within the Lords world from the USA Today & Wall Street Journal bestselling author Shantel Tessier.
HIS ANGEL
I was born into a secret society known as the Lords. There is no limit to their depravity. If they want to be respected, they have to earn it.
Women like me are merely allowed to exist in their world ... until they no longer need us.
I've spent most of my life wishing death would find me. That I'd be granted an escape from the reality I was forced to endure. But luck has never been on my side. It seemed I was destined to never be anything more than a failure.
I VOW. YOU VOW. WE VOW.
Then one night I took control of my life. It was my first taste of freedom, and I wanted someone to notice me.
Turns out, that was a mistake, and my father had been right, I didn't deserve to be seen.
A Lord-Kashton Landon Pierce-saved me, and I offered to pay him the only way I knew how-with my body. After he finished with me, I ran.
Now he's back in my life, wanting to pick up where we left off.
The problem with that is I'm no longer the scared woman I was when we met. I've spent years digging myself out of a dark hole, and I refuse to allow any man to drag me back. Especially a Spade brother. Even if he is promising me everything I've ever wanted.
I underestimated him. Kashton inserted himself into my everyday life and invaded my dreams.
He needed a pet to keep chained in the basement. A toy to occupy his free time. His brothers were busy living their lives, so he decided to take over mine.
What I didn't expect was for him to make me feel loved. To be taken care of and put first before anything else. After being told you're worthless your whole life, it's hard not to believe it.
Kashton made me feel cherished and accepted me for who I was-unworthy.
For a moment, I found myself hoping for a future that I knew wasn't possible. One where I could be what he needed. But our world has a way of teasing happiness before stripping it all away.
Vasmora (The Eating Woods, #3)
by Keri Lake
In the harrowing conclusion of The Eating Woods trilogy, an age-old prophecy will come to pass, plunging the immortal world into a blighted web of destruction and despair.
Fate has never been entirely kind to Maevyth Bronwick. Though, after having survived a sinister plague, grotesque monsters, and gut-wrenching tragedy, she never imagined things could possibly get worse. But cursed gods, she was wrong.
It seems fate was only sharpening its claws.
Ensnared in the golden gauntlet of the most sadistic general in Aethyria, Maevyth faces the wrath of a jealous tyrant who longs to watch her suffer a slow and painful ruin.
A torment said to be worse than death.
Without the protection of her blood magic, Maevyth is no more than a powerless mortal and must fight the urge to succumb to the cruelty. Not an easy task, given the devastating loss she refuses to accept-and rightly so.
Because Zevander "The Scorpion" Rydainn isn't dead, after all.
He's very much alive and seething with vengeance. Brimming with rage. Merciless in his pursuit to reclaim his beloved mate and bring the ancient godsflame to anyone who stands in his way.
A necessary brutality when a slumbering god awakens and Aethyria's foretold destruction reignites the hunt of those who seek Maevyth's precious blood.
Prophecies will unravel. Walls will crumble. Kingdoms will fall. And through it all, a monolith of truth stands unbroken:
Their love may conquer all, but death will tear them apart.
My Boyfriend Is a Swamp Monster
by Paige Lavoie
A struggling songwriter returns to her childhood summer camp and comes face-to-face with the imaginary boy from her past-and a second chance she never believed was real.
Marina is used to being overlooked. She works at her manipulative aunt's boutique, writing songs on a broken keyboard and spending her free time with her grandmother. Her last close friend was a boy from summer camp years ago, but he was imaginary, so he doesn't count. When Marina lands an audition that could change everything, her Grams pushes her to find inspiration where it all started. Armed with an old camp notebook, Marina returns to the now-abandoned campground, hoping to write one good song. Instead, she meets a handsome stranger.
Gil has never forgotten the girl who made his summers full of sunlight. He remembers the snacks she shared with him, the songs she wrote, and the promise he made to always come back for her. But he wasn't prepared for the wave of emotions he felt when she came back. Eager to keep his second chance from slipping away, Gil spends the weekend with Marina, hoping she'll realize he's the boy she imagined all those years ago.
Together, they return to a time where the summer is magic and the days are never ending. Marina can't help but wonder if Gil is real, then maybe happy endings are too.
2026 IngramSpark® Editorial Selection - Romance
Hell to Pay
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Brand new from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon-a darkly witty supernatural thriller where the Devil's exiled son must solve crimes on Earth or be damned for eternity.
Lucian "Luke" Teivel isn't just any exile-he's Lucifer's son, freshly banished from Hell with no forwarding address and zero explanation. Now he's stuck in the human world, working for Infernal Affairs, a secret task force that polices supernatural crime and decides whether the guilty belong in prison...or back in the Pit.
Luke's doing his best to blend in and not burn his petty annoyances when a new partner storms into his life: Detective Sorcha O'Malley. She's sharp, stubborn, suspicious-and assigned to keep him from indulging in his more demonic tendencies. But Sorcha carries shadows even Luke can't read.
Just as they're settling into their begrudging partnership, college students start dying across Savannah, Georgia. And every clue points directly at Luke. Someone is framing him-someone with a grudge, a plan, and a very personal reason to keep him out of Hell.
To survive the setup, Luke and Sorcha must team up against enemies both infernal and annoyingly human. But as the danger escalates and Sorcha's secrets inch closer to the surface, Luke faces the worst dilemma: stay with humans he loathes or return to the home he craves.
And if he's not careful? Savannah might wind up with a fresh vacancy in its homicide department-and one very pissed-off Prince of Hell.
The Washwoman at the River's End
by Megan Shade
A stunningly haunting gothic romantasy inspired by the Scottish legend of the Washerwoman, following an immortal woman cursed to wash the grave clothes of the dying for eternity and the man blood-sworn to kill her. Perfect for readers who love The Knight and the Moth, One Dark Window, and Outlander.
They call her a monster.
A murderess.
But legends rarely tell the whole truth…
For over a century, Bea has haunted the River's End. Forced to eternally wash the grave clothes of the dying, she spends her days searching the bloodstained garments she cleanses for the pieces of a spell that could finally break her curse and allow her to go to her rest. But Bea's search is interrupted when the river brings her a warning:
He is coming.
Brennen knows the Washwoman's tale all too well-the monster who murdered the woman he loved and left him with nothing but an unbreakable vow of vengeance. So when he's assigned as her guard, he believes the Fates have finally blessed him. But the woman he finds at the River's End is nothing like the monster from her legend.
When women across the kingdom begin to vanish and mysterious deaths follow-deaths only Bea can foresee-Brennen is forced into an uneasy alliance with the very woman he's spent years hunting. But as they search for answers, hatred twists into reluctant trust, and trust into something far more dangerous: desire.
With fate closing in and time running out, Brennen must decide if he will damn his soul to save the woman he swore to kill, while Bea must choose between the rest she once longed for and the love that could destroy them both.
The Last to Drown
by Noelle W Ihli
Five days. Twenty strangers. No way out.
The rafting trip was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime. But Kaia's starting to think she made a mistake.
Because ever since the whispers about Camas Creek began, all she feels is dread.
Seven years earlier, a guide murdered a group of rafters on this same isolated stretch of water. The killer's body was recovered downstream-but the true-crime community has never stopped asking questions.
And for good reason.
The incidents start small-a flipped raft, missing supplies, and screams in the night-but the pattern is sickeningly familiar. And with eighty-four miles of whitewater until any sign of civilization, safety has never felt so far away.
Kaia suspects that one of the guides is lying. One of the guests knows more than she's saying. And somewhere on this river, someone is planning to finish what started at Camas Creek.
2026 IngramSpark® Editorial Selection - Mystery/Thriller
Because I Killed Him
by Edith Birde
Guillotines made of gold still cut off heads.
In the Civilized World, everyone is rich, yet money doesn't buy safety. It only buys a gold coffin. The real currency is having the right allies. Low-citizens survive by joining high-citizens' exclusive inner circles, trading loyalty for protection from laws that govern speech, dress, and posture-and punish mistakes with public beheading.
Low-citizen Loredana Waldsten already knows the cost of breaking the rules. Once a rising fencing prodigy, she lost the right to carry weapons after killing a high-citizen in a brutal locker-room attack. The courts erased his death to preserve his family's honor. Now she's unarmed, legally defenseless, and enrolled at the elite Grandmaster University, where champagne spills into the gutters and reputations are built on death duels.
When Loredana's father, a low-citizen politician, publicly challenges the high-citizens, she becomes a target. Some classmates demand her execution. Others hunt her for sport. And by law, she's forbidden to fight back.
Her only chance of survival lies with Edmund Prew, a charming yet ruthless high-citizen student she's been warned against. His family has been locked in a bitter feud with Loredana's for years, and he wants nothing to do with her until a lost bet forces him to protect her within his inner circle. What begins as a scandalous, strategic alliance turns perilous as they fall for each other.
Because the man Loredana killed was more than an average high-citizen. And if Edmund ever learns the truth, the only person keeping Loredana alive may become the one most determined to kill her.
The Cabin In The Storm
by Lexie Axelson
I love art. I love the stories you can tell with imagery and color. I can lose myself in a world I create, evoking emotions that help others connect and be seen.
I'm full of ambition, stardust, and hope. These things drive me. Until one day, my entire life feels like it's crashing, and someone is after me.
Determined to keep going, I find myself in Sleepy Coldwater, a small town in Alaska, seeking healing and adventure. What I didn't expect was to be blindsided by a snowstorm in the mountains, leaving me desperately in need of a life-saving sanctuary.
Gavin Ariksen finds me.
Handsome. Tall. Mysterious.
With glowing blue eyes that hold a tortured past. There's an intoxicating connection between us, dripping with tension.
The thing is, we're both souls with warm, broken hearts.
As time passes, the snow keeps rolling in, and truths unfold. Suddenly, this may be a storm I cannot survive.
2026 IngramSpark® Editorial Selection - Romance
The Undertow of Evelyn Graymore
by Matteo Franco
Evelyn Graymore is dead-murdered by one of Seattle's most powerful men. Dumped into the waters of Washington's Puget Sound, lost to the undertow of corruption, but instead of sinking into the abyss, Evie is reborn as a siren. She makes a bargain with Layne Murrows, an enigmatic man made of shadows who seemed to rise from darkness itself.
With nothing left to lose, Evie takes the offer of cursed power for the chance at revenge on Preston Willows, the man who murdered her. Armed with a deadly glamour, a voice that bends will, and the power to control water itself-Evie isn't just a monster of the deep now, she's a weapon. But everything comes with a cost, and the bargain's rules are ironclad. She must feed on the darkness that festers in men's hearts or die. The catch? She can never fall in love, or the curse will slowly chip away at her lover's mind and body, inevitably drowning them from the inside out.
A small price to pay and not much of a concern for Evie-until she meets Ethan Ward, a paralegal who works right alongside Preston. Now, Evie must decide between the mortal who makes her feel like a human again, stoking the embers of forbidden love, and the enticing monster who created her.
Backstitch
by Marian Mitchell Donahue
"[a] fascinating and rewarding novel." - The New York Times
"Backstitch is a splendid, irreducible work of art - about making art, about time, about memory, about the stars in the heavens, and maybe most of all about family." - Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tinkers
Two sisters, Violet and Marigold, reunite at a retrospective of their troubled mother's art. Together they must confront the consequences of her ambition and the difficult, private reality of the family's public narrative. Moving through the gallery's rooms and through time to arrive at the truth of her life and death, the daughters unravel their family ties, the gift and cost of artistic talent, and the legacy that they must carry.
To Educate an Earl
by Gabrielle Meyer
For those swept away by The Gilded Age and The Sound of Music.
In 1886, when a scheming suitor threatens her family's fragile reputation, Adeline Ranier is sent to England under a false name to pose as a governess for the Earl of Torrington's five motherless children. Stripped of her title and fortune, she steps into a world of quiet sorrow and stubborn resistance-and discovers a household aching for joy.
George Stafford, the Earl of Torrington, has buried his heart along with his late wife. His children have driven away every governess, and he has no hope that Miss Ranier will be any different. But Addie's unconventional charm, fierce loyalty, and refusal to give up begin to awaken something long forgotten in all of them-including George.
As laughter returns to Raven Hall, Addie finds herself falling for the children-and for their father. But secrets from her past threaten to unravel everything, especially when George chooses a wealthy heiress to be his bride. Torn between duty and desire, Addie must decide whether to protect her heart or fight for the family she's come to love.