Browse hundreds of free online ebook samples from the authors and publishers at Smashwords. Once you find a book you want to purchase, click over to Smashwords to get the book in multiple DRM-free ebook formats.
|
|
The King of Silk | by Joe Douglas Trent Feb. 07, 2011 | $5.99 | 106524 words | Sample 20% |
| Michael Patriate thinks he has it all. Fate decides to teach him a lesson. Welcome to the 15th Century. | |||||
|
|
The Mercenary's Price ( Historical Romance Novella) | by CJ Archer Feb. 06, 2011 | $0.99 | 23518 words | Sample 50% |
| Being a national treasure wouldn't be such a curse if she only knew she could trust him. | |||||
|
|
The Seahawk's Sanctuary | by Lynne Marie Feb. 04, 2011 | $3.99 | 109605 words | Sample 10% |
| Pirates. Now she had to contend with pirates. Victoria wondered at the magnitude of her bad luck as she tried to gulp down her fear. Contempt narrowed her eyes as they swept over the British captain's inert form lying on the floor. Her hopes rose with her gaze when the blows to the door ceased. "Find Buck," ordered a voice of authority. "Seems I have need of his special talents. I'll handle this." | |||||
|
|
The Iron Snake | by John Gaudet Feb. 03, 2011 | $9.99 | 118413 words | Sample 20% |
| It's 1897, a period marred by unrest in colonial Africa. Back in Britain, stories abound about the wild nature of the African railroad line. The tabloid term, 'Lunatic Express,' seems to fit. Join the spirited Alice McConnell, the Honorable Geoffrey Stanford and a host of fascinating characters as they witness Africa's first steps into the modern era and the transformation of their own lives. | |||||
|
|
The Murder of Rose Connelly | by R.S. Dean Feb. 03, 2011 | $0.99 | 6760 words | Sample 20% |
| In the late summer of 1882, the son of a wealthy Georgia lumberman sits in jail, awaiting his execution. He is to be hung by the neck until dead, condemned for the brutal murder of a young woman he claims still to love. As his own death draws near, he reflects on the crime that led to his downfall--a crime he never really wanted to commit in the first place. | |||||
|
|
The Art of Candle Dipping | by Judy Alter Feb. 02, 2011 | Free! | 2519 words | Sample 20% |
| A short story based on an actual incident in the 1880s in North Texas, when Comanches threatened a family. The mother was dipping candles and used hot wax to protect her children. | |||||
|
|
Out From The Woods | by Steven Ehrlick Feb. 02, 2011 | $5.99 | 140763 words | Sample 20% |
| In 1956, four men dug up the grave of the legendary Canadian artist Tom Thomson only to discover the bones of an anonymous Indian. This mysterious discovery unravels in the 1960’s as we follow the Ontario summers of Alex Cutler, a camper who comes under the spell of a beautiful wild child from Buffalo and the tutelage of Thomas Tucker – canoe guide, artist and keeper of Tom Thomson's secrets. | |||||
|
|
Sultana: A Novel of Moorish Spain | by Lisa J. Yarde Feb. 02, 2011 | $3.99 | 96832 words | Sample 20% |
| In thirteenth-century Moorish Spain, the realm of Granada is in crisis. The union of Fatima, granddaughter of the Sultan of Granada, with the Sultan’s nephew Faraj has fractured the nation. A bitter civil war escalates and endangers both Fatima and Faraj’s lives. | |||||
|
|
John Paul Jones: Finding the Forgotten Patriot | by Robert Saunders Feb. 01, 2011 | $4.00 | 81969 words | Sample 20% |
| You don't need to be a history or nautical buff to truly enjoy the fascinating characters in this historical novel. The astonishing life of John Paul Jones has been forgotten through the ages. He is but a footnote; seldom mentioned as a respectable peer among the honored land generals of the Revolutionary War. | |||||
|
|
Houdini's Last Illusion | by Steven Savile Jan. 31, 2011 | $0.99 | 17457 words | Sample 20% |
| Harry Houdini is a haunted man. Haunted by success; his emotions; and now by some of his compatriots: famed and feted illusionists like himself. The only problem is that they are dead. Houdini knows that time is running out, and before he is ready to die he must perform one final trick, the greatest illusion of his life... | |||||
|
|
A Court Lady | by Clova Leighton Jan. 30, 2011 | $2.99 | 57788 words | Sample 20% |
| In the excitement of Emperor Napoleon and Empress Josephine's reign, Corisande becomes a valued member of Court under Josephine's protection, and has no end of suitors. Sebastian is a confidente of the Emperor and an expert military strategist. Napoleon suggests strongly it is time for Sebastian to wed, even though he prefers not. Will he find the lady to change his mind at Court? | |||||
|
|
The Anvil Stone | by Kathleen Guler Jan. 27, 2011 | $7.99 | 137292 words | Sample 20% |
| While fifth-century spy Marcus ap Iorwerth struggles to quash rival factions’ treachery, he discovers they also search for Excalibur, a magnificent sword of the ancient high kings. As battle erupts, Marcus learns an assassin from the factions may be the only one who could lead him to the sacred sword. | |||||
|
|
Fame and Infamy | by Iva Polansky Jan. 25, 2011 | $2.99 | 154389 words | Sample 10% |
| Is it hard to be famous in the 1870's Paris? Ask the sharp-shooting contest winner Miss Nelly McKay, formerly of Butte, Montana. She is already walking the thin line between fame and infamy when she is noticed by Chancellor Bismarck and the German Secret Service. Yet all she ever wanted was to marry a gentleman! | |||||
|
|
El surco espiral | by Alfredo Carrasco Teja Jan. 25, 2011 | $0.99 | 3349 words | Sample 50% |
| Oswald Spengler definió la historia como una espiral en ascenso, cuyo surco confluye por ciclos en sucesos análogos a los del pasado. Inspirado en “El triunfo de la muerteâ€, de Pieter Brueghel, el Viejo, "El surco espiral" circula entre cataclismos para delinear el cuadro de un linaje marcado por el frenesà de la naturaleza y la devoción a las armas. | |||||
|
|
The Galvanized Yankees of Company D | by Troy D. Smith Jan. 24, 2011 | $0.99 | 4571 words | Sample 20% |
| Several Confederate POWs were offered a choice, prison or go West to fill ranks on the frontier. Joe Evans and several Rebs from his captured outfit opted for the frontier and became 'Galvanized Yankees'. Their duties should have been endless patrols and drills with very little real Indian fighting. Trouble was someone forgot to tell the Indians. | |||||
|
|
First Fleet | by M Howard Morgan Jan. 23, 2011 | $2.99 | 91154 words | Sample 50% |
| Love, murder, betrayal, and adventure with transportation of convicts in 1787 and the founding of the penal colony that became Australia. | |||||
|
|
Pilgrims of War | by Carl A. Veno Jan. 20, 2011 | $9.99 | 49888 words | Sample 20% |
| It's 1941, the Japanese have just attacked Pearl Harbor and immigrants are being sent to US internment camps. Amid this upheaval is Doctor Magdalena Russo, an Italian doctor on a passenger ship caught in the conflict. She would spend the next three years in internment camps. Her struggle to get back to her homeland takes her on a voyage of confinement, loneliness, fear and sometimes love. | |||||
|
|
Behold a Pale Horse | by Delphine Cull Jan. 19, 2011 | $5.99 | 163400 words | Sample 20% |
| England: 1349. A virulent plague rages across Europe. Alyse Elsey, a well-known healer, loses her husband and children despite her best efforts to save them. Unable to foresee a future without her family, and blaming herself for their deaths, Alyse undertakes a perilous journey to Norwich, where she hopes to find sanctuary with the monks at the priory. Suitable for general audience. | |||||
|
|
A Knight to Remember (Blood Sword Legacy) | by Karin Tabke Jan. 19, 2011 | $0.99 | 16295 words | Sample 20% |
| Promised to the cloister, the free-spirited Lady Mercia returns home before her final vows for her sister Rowena's wedding to a Welsh prince. But fate intervenes when she finds a badly wounded man washed up upon the shore. Unable to resist his fevered pleas for her help, she hides him amongst the caves she played in as a child. And there, she discoverers a passion for him she cannot resist... | |||||
|
|
The Ship in the Hill | by William Sullivan Jan. 19, 2011 | $4.95 | 121565 words | Sample 20% |
| Based on the true story of a Viking burial ship unearthed on a Norwegian farm in 1904, this historical novel alternates chapters between the archeologists and the Viking queen who sailed the ship a thousand years earlier. | |||||
|
|
In the Shadow of Dragons | by Kathleen Guler Jan. 19, 2011 | $7.99 | 124977 words | Sample 20% |
| As iron-willed spy Marcus ap Iorwerth and his wife Claerwen unearth plots against Britain’s high king, personal revenge closes in on them. Falsely declared fugitives, they become trapped in a labyrinthine intrigue between their accusers and the traitors while pushing Britain towards freedom, peace, and the future called King Arthur. Book 2 of the Macsen's Treasure Series. | |||||
|
|
Into the Path of Gods | by Kathleen Guler Jan. 17, 2011 | $7.99 | 112129 words | Sample 20% |
| In fifth century Britain, spy and master of disguise Marcus ap Iorwerth has a penchant for blunt talk, strong drink and sardonic humor. He also has an affinity for fighting the good fight. A clandestine alliance he participates in is plotting to depose the detested high king Vortigern whose misguided actions threaten Britain’s very existence. Book 1 of the Macsen's Treasure Series. | |||||
|
|
The Real Jesse James | by Bradly Dalton Jan. 17, 2011 | $2.98 | 153266 words | Sample 20% |
| Jesse James eluded Union soldiers, railroad agents, Pinkerton detectives, federal marshals, local sheriffs and bounty hunters. In so doing, he became one of America's most accomplished and controversial bandits. For over a century Jesse James has been both praised and vilified in print and legend as a common criminal and a Confederate "Robin Hood. In real life, he was all these things and more. | |||||
|
|
Christmas Traditions-An Amish Love Story | by Fay Risner Jan. 15, 2011 | $9.99 | 59401 words | Sample 30% |
| Levi Yoder threatens to make this Margaret Goodman's last visit to keep her away from his son Luke. A terrifying fire sets a girl's dress on fire at the school program, Margaret struggles to save a girl from an icy creek and a Yoder cow nearly kills her. Forced to nurse Margaret, Levi rethinks his buried feelings for this woman he once loved. Will this couple ever resolve their problems? | |||||
|
|
El Maestro Envenador | by Angeles Goyanes Jan. 15, 2011 | $4.99 | 95422 words | Sample 10% |
| En 1473, con la ayuda de Leonardo Da Vinci, Ghezzo Bardi entra como aprendiz en el taller del maestro Verrochio, al tiempo que ambos jóvenes trabajan juntos como camareros en la famosa taberna de "Los Tres Caracoles", donde el padre de Ghezzo es cocinero. Tras la muerte por envenenamiento de todos los cocineros Leonardo es ascendido a jefe de cocina mientras en Ghezzo nace una oscura sospecha. | |||||
|
|
Strangers | by Nigel Gray Jan. 12, 2011 | $7.99 | 75350 words | Sample 20% |
| Nigel Gray is an author acclaimed for his honesty and his compassion as well as for the clarity and elegance of his prose. He has breathed new life into an almost extinct literary form, the epistolatory novel. ‘Everything of Nigel Gray’s I have read is humane, wise and linguistically melodic.’ - Kurt Vonnegut | |||||
|
|
Night Dancer [a short story] | by Kris Sparks Jan. 11, 2011 | $0.99 | 3908 words | Sample 50% |
| In the winter of 1891, ex-soldier Virgil Dean, broken by life, leads a solitary, nomadic existence with only a bottle of whiskey for company. One night a young stranger appears in the shadows beyond Virgil's camp. Virgil believes the man simply wants to share the warmth of the fire, but guilt and sorrow call more than just men out of the dark, lonely night. | |||||
|
|
Second Chance | by Lori Handeland Jan. 11, 2011 | $2.99 | 86773 words | Sample 20% |
| Struggling with a bad marriage and foreclosure on her horse ranch, young widow Katherine Logan has neither time nor inclination to take responsibility for some low-down bandit, until the sight of wickedly tempting Jake Banner changes her mind. | |||||
|
|
Without a Lord | by Kat Duncan Jan. 10, 2011 | $0.99 | 111424 words | Sample 20% |
| Denied the lands that had been long promised him, Sir Roger vows to take what is rightfully his, the lands of his own lord, and the lord's new lady along with them. Lady Caille is not the type to run from a fight. Faced with an indecent proposal she must choose between love and honor. | |||||
|
|
Spring Blossom | by Jill Metcalf Jan. 10, 2011 | $2.99 | 89468 words | Sample 25% |
| A Heart-warming Romance from the Heart of America. Maggie... As a spirited girl of fifteen, she fell head over heels in love with a handsome stranger...a love she was too young to understand. Hunter... Part Indian, and all gentleman, he was touched by young Maggie's charms and secretly vowed to ask for her hand when she was of marrying age. He did return to her years later... | |||||
|
|
Give Me Your Name | by Karen Horst Jan. 09, 2011 | $4.00 | 86355 words | Sample 50% |
| After Julia Hamilton's placid life is changed by a horrifying encounter with a runaway slave, she becomes a covert to the abolitionist cause. Her parents send her away from Boston to a girl's school in Charleston but they can't get her to change her mind about slavery. Friends in Bleeding Kansas and a young man convince her to go west for the cause. | |||||
|
|
Pray for Reign | by Thea Atkinson Jan. 08, 2011 | $2.99 | 97552 words | Sample 20% |
| As Anne Boleyn forges her way into a married man's heart and onto England's throne, she convinces herself that the resulting bloodshed and religious upheaval is a necessary price for the country to pay. But how will she reconcile the letting of her brother's blood when he is accused with her of incest? | |||||
|
|
The Uprisers | by Jeannine Vegh Jan. 07, 2011 | $5.00 | 77443 words | Sample 20% |
| After eleven years of brutal communist leadership, a young girl and her brother join a grass roots campaign to end oppression in Hungary. Only the girl survives and will go on to America for safety, where she will learn what freedom really means. | |||||
|
|
Mackenzie Breakup | by Murray Lundberg Jan. 04, 2011 | $7.99 | 110603 words | Sample 20% |
| This novel was written by Jean Kadmon, who worked on the Canol Project during World War II as a girl fresh from school. As one of a handful of women working among 8,000 men, she experienced the excitement and social upheavals of the war years, both the loneliness and the camaraderie of camp life, and most of all, "The North" in all of its moods. | |||||
|
|
Riding to Sundown | by Troy D. Smith Jan. 03, 2011 | $3.99 | 46484 words | Sample 25% |
| Retired lawman, Luke Temple, has seen it all, and become a living legend along the way. Now, he must come out of retirement to face his greatest challenge. With his oldest friends by his side, he trails the vicious Thaw gang to an outlaw stronghold where he almost died forty years before. Will the mountainous fortress called Sundown be Luke Temple's redemption, or his final defeat? | |||||
|
|
The Silence of Trees | by Valya Dudycz Lupescu Jan. 03, 2011 | $4.99 | 94514 words | Sample 15% |
| In Chicago’s Ukrainian Village, Nadya Lysenko has built her life on a foundation of secrets. Her beloved dead insist on being heard, through dreams and whispers in the night. They want the truth to come out. Nadya needs to face her past and confront the secrets she buried within–THE SILENCE OF TREES. | |||||
|
|
Iudaea | by Jim Branch Jan. 03, 2011 | $4.99 | 83035 words | Sample 50% |
| In AD 132, the Jewish leader, Simon bar Kokhba brought the Roman legions in the province of Iudaea to their knees. The Emperor Hadrian called legions from across the Empire to quell the revolt. This is the story of Marcus Fidelis Coranus, a cavalry officer, who travels from Britannia across the Roman world to Iudaea where he is then forced to weigh his very survival against his cherished ideals. | |||||
|
|
Formed of Clay | by Thea Atkinson Jan. 02, 2011 | $2.99 | 27765 words | Sample 20% |
| More than anything, young Sentu wants to learn the new letters of Pharaoh Menes's court. The acolytes suffer under the tutelage of the High Priest: ritual sacrifices involve more than mere beasts, they involve anyone who stands in Hozat's way to ultimate power. Though Sentu is at first spared much of the darkest of Hozat's secrets, he soon realizes he cannot escape the fate of his ka forever. | |||||
|
|
Kissing in the Dark | by Wendy Lindstrom Jan. 02, 2011 | $4.49 | 117878 words | Sample 20% |
| A man of fierce integrity, Sheriff Duke Grayson is shocked when he discovers his beautiful wife Faith lied about her identity and is hiding from a man with the power to destroy their family—and Duke's fine reputation as a lawman. Torn between his code of honor and his love for Faith, Duke must put everything on the line when the man from Faith's past finds her. | |||||
|
|
Lips That Touch Mine | by Wendy Lindstrom Jan. 02, 2011 | $4.49 | 117498 words | Sample 20% |
| Playboy saloon owner Boyd Grayson is intrigued by Claire Ashier, and considers her temperance crusade to shut down his noisy tavern nothing more than a game. While matching wits with the beautiful, aloof widow, he uncovers her torturous secrets. Boyd never expected that the love of one abused woman would affect him so deeply and force him to face his own painful wounds. | |||||
|
|
The Spartacus Prophecy | by RD Le Coeur Jan. 01, 2011 | $3.99 | 88378 words | Sample 20% |
| The real life of Spartacus was far more complex than Hollywood would have you believe. There really was a Spartacus & a prophecy and no body of the gladiator was ever found. The story covers an epic journey of one man’s struggle against oppression. Spanning two continents, the fight, flight, love and betrayal across the ancient landscapes, form the backdrop to this compelling novel. | |||||
|
|
The Cause | by Kristie Poehler Dec. 31, 2010 | $9.95 | 64975 words | Sample 20% |
| Left in the middle of a divided nation, Emily Garnett MacKinnon quickly learns what it means to be impartial during the American Civil War. Nine months with the "enemy" shows her the true meaning of loyalty--and brings to light who really cares for her--and who wants her out of the way. | |||||
|
|
The Longing | by Wendy Lindstrom Dec. 26, 2010 | $3.99 | 94685 words | Sample 20% |
| When staunch businessman Kyle Grayson confronted his competitor and friend Tom Drake, he only planned to stop the man's suspect business practices; not be forced into marrying Tom's daughter. Driven by guilt and his promise to Tom, Kyle enters his forced marriage to Amelia, burdened by secrets and an unwelcome desire for his beautiful, strong-willed wife. | |||||
|
|
The Prodigy | by Georgiann Baldino Dec. 23, 2010 | $2.99 | 79705 words | Sample 20% |
| Aubrey Swann catapults onto the concert stage at age four and soon becomes the world's musical darling. Much later, during his transition to mature artist, Aubrey composes his own survival. How does life history shape the creative process? How does art shape an artist? Baldino explores tough questions from a child's point of view. | |||||
|
|
Redcoat | by David Crookes Dec. 20, 2010 | $3.99 | 117272 words | Sample 20% |
| 1873...A landslide at a diamond mine in Africa leaves a British army major crippled. He holds a young lieutenant responsible and wants him court-martialed. A soldier is killed when the army try to arrest the lieutenant on his wedding day in England. But he escapes and so begins a ruthless worldwide manhunt, throughout the U.S. Canada and Australia until eventually the hunted becomes the hunter. | |||||
|
|
The Blackwell Claim | by Troy D. Smith Dec. 20, 2010 | $0.99 | 5382 words | Sample 35% |
| GOLD... Seeking a fortune from a pile of rocks or out of a streambed. Men from all walks of life are digging and panning for gold in the West and the Blackwell brothers are no different. But along with gold mining comes rough towns like Grizzly Gulch, fighting the elements, and claim jumpers. Raised tough in the hills of Tennessee, are the Blackwell brothers up to the challenges of prospecting? | |||||
|
|
Someday Soon | by David Crookes Dec. 18, 2010 | $3.99 | 137954 words | Sample 20% |
| The bombing of Darwin by the Japanese in 1942 was Australia's Pearl Harbor.Faith and her brother,Joe,escape the carnage aboard Joe's ketch Faraway,along with Koko,an Australian born Japanese fleeing internment.They are soon separated by the fortunes of war and face their own personal battles against espionage and injustice,Joe as a soldier,Koko as a POW and Faith as the lover of a U.S.army pilot. | |||||
|
|
Looking For Jamie | by Angela Rigley Dec. 18, 2010 | $2.99 | 87218 words | Sample 10% |
| A young boy, found bedraggled and starving, all he knows is his name, Jamie. He is taken in by the household of The Grange who soon come to love him as their own, especially the master David Dalton. Some months later Tillie Raven is released from prison where she had been sent for stealing a loaf. Now she has to find her son, not knowing if he is still alive, but where should she look first? | |||||
|
|
Orange County Punk | by Max Robeierre Dec. 16, 2010 | $0.99 | 54152 words | Sample 10% |
| In this tale of punk Tomfoolery, six friends blast through their senior year causing massive mayhem. Orange County Punk follows the group through punk gigs, riots, pooping on the rich, golfing for Mercedes, disrupting Disneyland, thrashing the senior prom and laying waste to Tijuana. Filled with classic shenanigans, this story peels back the hilarious reality of what it meant to live punk in 1983. | |||||
|
|
The Light Horseman's Daughter | by David Crookes Dec. 15, 2010 | $3.99 | 116558 words | Sample 20% |
| While resisting eviction from the Queensland family property during the Great Depression Emma's father is shot dead. But left destitute, with her crippled mother and young twin brothers to care for, Emma fights back. In her struggle to survive she must overcome, ruthless wealthy relatives, racial bigotry, child abuse, corrupt financiers and choose between the love of two very different men. | |||||