Frankly, the good stuff in the KDP exclusive or else slushpile is repeats, of which there are quite a few. And apparently it's erotic fairy tale week in the slushpile as well, if you happen to like erotic fairy tales.
Nevertheless, we do have one reasonably decent speculative fiction backlist thing and a few minor treats for romance and horror readers.
The Many by David B. Silva (
ISFDB), who reminds us with every blurb that he is a Bram Stoker and World Fantasy Award winner, is a 2004 Delirium small-pressed horror-ish novel which also serves as a family drama/coming-of-age story, according to the sole review. This actually doesn't seem to be listed on his ISFDB page, but sometimes they're missing some of the really obscure stuff.
Anyway, free without DRM for who knows how long @ Amazon
main UK DE ES FR IT
Description (I like how the full blurb gives instructions on how to 1-click to buy the book in case any of the Gentle Readers are sufficiently clueless to require such direction; although that doesn't actually get people reading immediately, so perhaps the instructions could use some clarification)
Kiel Reed is beginning to suspect there's something wrong with his eleven-year-old brother, Justin.
After the death of their parents, the two boys have gone to stay with their aunt and uncle. It should be a time of healing, but nothing is as it seems and the scars of their father's torment run deep, especially in Justin.
Deeply haunted by his past, Justin turns to The Many for help.
It's a deadly relationship.
The probably-new stuff as far as I can tell, since about 7 pages in, eReaderIQ decided not to load the covers, thereby blocking off the convenient hover-over blurb pop-up function which is amazingly helpful in distinguishing, if not which titles have a good chance of being backlist, at least the ones which are obviously too illiterate to bother with. Though I admit I did like the one which claimed it was "a copulation of the author's best stories".
(ETA: Apparently
more than one aspiring author has done that. It's really rather depressing when you think about it once you stop laughing so hard.)
Anne Frasier probably-repeats her 2007-Onyx psychologist vs serial killer thriller:
Hush She also repeats one of her romances written as Theresa Weir.
William Morrow-published screenwriter Ryne Douglas Pearson offers a short crime/horror story:
Beholder: A Short Story
Mills & Boon-published Saskia Walker offers a short contemporary f/m erotic romance:
Forbidden
Kensington-published Christina T. Crooks offers the self-explanatory:
Romance Stories - An Interactive Fiction Collection
The following Lovecraftian tribute magazine contains stories from ISFDBed authors, some of them fairly well known such as Nick Mamatas:
Innsmouth Magazine: Collected Issues 1-4
Sourcebooks-published Susan Higginbotham, whose formerly officially freebied historical novel The Traitor's Wife is actually fairly good and which I would recommend reading if you picked it up then and are interested in the historical events, offers a semi-related non-fiction piece set roughly around the same time period:
The Prince Who Did Not Become King: Edward of Lancaster, 1453-1471
ISFDBed fellow MR member author Keith Brooke offers a short:
Sweats (a near-future science-fiction technothriller
ISFDBed Iain Rowan also offers a crime/horror short:
Sighted
Victoria Chatham offers a story set in the mostly-published multi-author shared western romance setting for your collection:
Always A Lady (Bandit Creek Books)
Carina Press-published Crista McHugh offers the self-explanatory:
The Tears of Elios (A Fantasy Romance) (The Elgean Chronicles)
Zebra-published Lori Brighton offers an historical romantic suspense:
A Night Of Secrets (The Night Series)
David Greene says that his US Civil War-set historical interracial LGBT looks-like-love-triangle romance was a winner of the Book of the Year Award, and it seems that the BOTYA do indeed exist as some sort of minor giver-outer of awards to independent authors and you can see the
entry on their website here. I have no idea what criteria they apply or how stringent their standards are, but if you're interested in reading a probably-vetted indie:
Unmentionables - A Novel
Speaking of independent authors, minor startup-looking probably-UK imprint Sunbury Press has a number of such, mostly in the historical fiction/mystery categories, some of which have interesting looking blurbs, so if you want to take a look:
Linkage to the lot
The most significant repeats today are previous main feature titles from A.A. Attanasio and Mary Monica Pulver (highly recommended, her particular SCA-set historical recreationist murder mystery is one of my personal favourites). We've also got assorted minor mystery, historical, fantasy, horror, litfic, and Christian thriller from Alex Irvine, Jane Toombs, Patricia Rockwell, Attic Clown Press, Martin Roth, Annie Bellet, Charles Ortleb, Scott Nicholson, Robert W. Walker, Lee Goldberg if you're missing stuff in series.
Happy reading, if you happen to spot something you think you might like and neither the shadows over Innsmouth nor the rats in the walls get you.