Welcome to YA Books Central’s “What’s Hot in KU” post. This weekly event will highlight what’s hot, new and exciting in the Amazon Kindle Unlimited Library.
Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscription is a great way to enjoy unlimited reading on a tight budget. With over a million titles and counting, we thought a spotlight on our favorite KU hits was our logical next step in sharing the book love. Check us out on Thursdays.
Don’t miss out on these fantastic reads, available in the Kindle Unlimited libraryand for purchase on Amazon.com
Fairytales and Folklore
Contributed by Kelly St Clare, staff reviewer
Heart of Ice (The Snow Queen Book 1)
by K.M. Shea
Rakel, a princess by birth, has spent most of her life exiled on a barren mountain, despised because of her powerful snow magic. Though she longs to be accepted, she hides in her ice-castle and lives with the fear that her brother—the King—will one day order her execution.
Her empty life changes forever when an army of magic users—led by the enigmatic Colonel Farrin Graydim—invade her home country with plans to enslave its citizens. Swallowing her fear, Rakel joins forces with her jailers and uses her magic to save the people who scorned her.
If Rakel cannot defend her homeland, the country will be lost.
Pippa of Lauramore
(The Eldentimber Series Book 1)
by Shari L. Tapscott
Act like a lady. Don’t swim in the waterfall. And whatever you do, never slip into the woods for a romantic, moonlit ride.
When a princess turns eighteen, she is not supposed to sneak away from her own birthday celebration with the first handsome prince she meets. But Pippa is not just any princess, and there is nothing she enjoys more than a moonlit ride through the woods. Only one thing could ruin a beautiful evening under the stars with Galinor, the dark-haired, blue-eyed prince of Glendon—and that’s her father tracking her down.
When King Ewan catches Pippa, he orders her to spend twelve days of confinement in the castle. This is an inconvenience for the princess, considering thirty princes and lords have come from all across the Kingdoms of Elden to fight in a tournament for her hand in marriage. Not willing to stand idly by while her fate is being decided, Pippa enlists the help of her childhood friend Archer, master archer of the kingdom. Together they make a pact to do everything in their power to ensure Galinor’s victory in the tournament.
But as the events progress and the stakes get higher and higher, Pippa not only begins to doubt Galinor’s chances—she also realizes the tournament may be forcing her toward a future she no longer wants…
Start Reading Pippa of Lauramore
The Princess Companion (The Four Kingdoms Book 1)
by Melanie Cellier
Danger and romance await a woodcutter’s daughter in a royal palace.
One dark and stormy night, lost and alone, Alyssa finds herself knocking on the door of a castle.
After a lifetime spent in the deep forest, Alyssa has no idea what to expect on the other side.
What she finds is two unruly young princesses and one very handsome prince. When Alyssa accepts the job of Princess Companion she knows her life will change. What she doesn’t know is that the royal family is about to be swept up in unexpected danger and intrigue and that she just might be the only thing standing between her kingdom and destruction.
This retelling of the classic fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea, reimagines the risks and rewards that come when one royal family goes searching for a true princess.
Start Reading The Princess Companion
Of Ice and Snow (Fairy Queens Book 1)
by Amber Argyle
Otec thought destiny forgot him.
The middle child of the clanchief, Otec is the overlooked son in an overflowing house. He dreams of escape and adventure, so when a mysterious stranger offers both, he doesn’t need persuading. But when his faraway village comes under attack, Otec will do anything to save the people he loves. Cut off from his nation, he must trust a foreign woman with a dubious past as they race to save his clan. But nothing is what it seems, and Otec may have to trust his enemy if he is to become the leader he was never meant to be.
Destiny is not always kind.
Before Beauty (The Becoming Beauty Trilogy Book 1)
by Brittany Fichter
With the freedom of the kingdom at stake, can an accursed prince and a broken beauty move beyond their hatred for one another, not only to break the curse, but to find love as well?
Prince Everard’s father spent the boy’s youth forging the prince into a warrior. Upon the king’s death, however, Everard realizes he’s lost himself somewhere along the way, and in his pain, makes a decision that brings a dark curse upon both him and the great Fortress that has so long guarded the people of Destin.
The prince’s sin doesn’t simply affect those of his citadel, however. Isa, the daughter of a local merchant, has suffered the prince’s hasty temper before, and it changed her life forever. When Everard’s final outburst cuts off his people’s source of protection with the curse, he demands that she, a crippled commoner, comes to help him break it. All the while, Destin’s northern enemy crouches at the foot of the Fortress’s mountain, waiting for the right moment to capture the stronghold that has stood for a thousand years.
Can Ever and Isa move past their brokenness to save Destin together, or will they and their beloved kingdom remain under darkness forever?
The Ugly Princess: The Legend of Winnowwood by Henderson Smith
What would you give up to be beautiful? I don’t mean attractive, or pretty or any other term you could conjure up to describe that thing most women seek to be or most men seek to be with.
I mean staggeringly beautiful, men falling at your feet with hopeless adoration as they gaze upon you dumbfounded. That beautiful. I could become that beautiful if I chose, but only with a steep price. Would you pay the price? Does that call to your heart?
It doesn’t call to mine. Yes, when I look at the girl in the mirror, I see a young woman of average height and slight build. I see her lovely emerald green eyes and I see her coarse, orange hair poking out in all directions like some unnatural haystack.
I see the forty-seven warts that line her face, which accompany one large lump and two small boils. You’d probably think that I would be more than eager to trade for the great gift of beauty because I know some, if not all of you, would call me hideous. But I don’t think of myself as ugly.
I think of myself as powerful, strong and fierce – for I have magical powers – powers that amaze and terrify me at times. And today is the most important day of my life, because today my mother will say the words over me and seal my fate. For I, Olive, am the last of the Winnowwood and this is my story.
Start Reading The Ugly Princess
Princess without a Palace: A King Thrushbeard Fairy Tale
by Kristen Niedfeldt
Once Upon a Time
Princess Liesel has always insisted that the last thing she would ever want is to have to leave her splendid palace and marry a prince. But after she scorns one too many suitors, her father loses his temper with her spoiled ways and declares that she must marry the next man who dares to seek her hand! Unfortunately for her, the next man who proposes–albeit unintentionally–is only a humble, traveling minstrel.
Now, cast off and penniless, she finds herself at the mercy of her handsome betrothed who intends for her to become a proper peasant. But after a lifetime of being pampered, ordinary chores and tasks are not as easy as she expected, and she soon realizes she will need her prospective husband’s help if she hopes to salvage anything of her future.
Will the two strangers be able to find a way to work together and perhaps free themselves from their forced betrothal? Or might they find that “happily ever afters” sometimes happen in unexpected ways…
A retelling of the timeless Grimm fairy tale, “King Thrushbeard.”
Start Reading Princess without a Palace
Traitor’s Masque (The Andari Chronicles Book 1) by Kenley Davidson
What if Cinderella didn’t go to the ball to dance with the prince?
What if she went to betray him?
Trystan Colbourne never meant to be a traitor. All she wanted was to escape the suffocating walls of the place she used to call home, where her stepmother’s hatred has made her an unwilling prisoner.
Desperate for a taste of freedom, Trystan accepts an offer of sanctuary from an old family friend, and for a moment, it seems as though all of her dreams are about to come true.
But dreams are fickle, and neither politics nor princes are ever quite what they seem. When she agrees to attend the royal masque, Trystan is plunged headlong into a nightmare of conspiracy, espionage and intrigue. With lives and even kingdoms at stake, she may be forced to sacrifice everything she thought she wanted in order to save the man she loves.
Start Reading Traitor’s Masque
The Ugly Stepsister (Unfinished Fairy Tales Book 1) by Aya Ling
What if you are trapped in a fairy tale?
When Kat accidentally rips apart an old childhood picturebook, she’s magically transported into the world of Cinderella–as Katriona, one of the ugly stepsisters! To get back, she’ll have to complete the story, right to the end of happily ever after. But the odds are huge: the other stepsister is movie-star gorgeous, the fairy godmother is nowhere to be found, and the prince doesn’t care about balls. Things get even more complicated when the prince starts paying attention to Kat. Can she ever return to the real world?
Start Reading The Ugly Stepsister
Towers and Braids (A Twisted Fairy Tale, #4) by Holly Hook
Rae’s world is safe. Her one room tower is all the shelter she needs from all the scary bandits, beasts, and other dark forces her mother says are roaming her world.
Or is it?
When she overhears her mother’s fears that Rae is, in fact, part of a story and that a young man is soon coming to take her away, it changes her entire world. After the young man, Henry, befriends her and is chased off by her mother, Rae learns that she carries a special gift capable of fighting the worst darkness in the world—a gift that her mother wants to keep for herself. And it is also because of this gift that the most evil wizard in the land, Alric, wants to take her life.
Forced to leave her home when the dark wizard comes knocking, Rae’s only hope of saving her story and chasing away Alric’s darkness is to make sure she has her happily ever after. But to do that, Rae must venture into the dangerous world and find Henry. On the way, she will need to decide where her loyalty lies and who she can trust. A mistake could cost her life and her entire kingdom.
