Hello, everyone! Today I’ve got a special post. I’m participating as a panelist for the BBNYA 2024 competition. Some of my favorite excerpts didn’t make it through the first round. So, I thought I’d take some time to spotlight them and hopefully help them find a home on some new TBRs. 🙂 Each of the covers links to the book’s Goodreads page.

BBNYA is an annual competition that is hosted and judged by book bloggers from all over the world. The goal is to help indie authors make themselves known. You can find more information about the competition on BBNYA’s website. The full list of entrants for this year can be found on Goodreads. It is a great resource for expanding your indie TBR!

A Slice of Mars by Guerric Haché

Mars is a strange place these days. Corporate overlords, capitalism, and even aging are things of the past on a planet increasingly brimming with biodiversity – yet pizzerias are in short supply!

Siblings Hett and San set out to change that. But a roboticist and a bureaucrat can’t run a restaurant alone, so they bring on some help – a bioengineer, a communications scientist, and an unlikely grad student from Earth. Together, this gang of geeks will brave the fires of small business.

But work is just a small part of life. People are complicated. Different brains, different wounds, different values, and one questionably tame wildcat will all collide as they try to grow and succeed together. What comes out of the oven, in the end, is anyone’s guess.

Down Below Beyond by T. A. Bruno

Lodespace is a collection of worlds dominated by the Fessenog Fleet trade empire. Thanks to the Voyalten portals, alien civilizations from all over the universe can gather for glorious trade. For the wealthy, there has never been a more lucrative circle.

But the Fleet is hiding something from its investors. A secret that, if exposed, could bring the empire to its knees.

Levort Aatra is a prospector on the planet Tayoxe. While scavenging the wastes of the abandoned world, he discovers a mysterious starship and stakes his claim on it. Little does he know, he just made himself the most wanted man in Lodespace.

DOWN BELOW BEYOND is a stand-alone sci-fi fantasy adventure filled with aliens, planets, and portals set in a universe crafted by T. A. Bruno, author of the award-winning Song of Kamaria trilogy.

Fortitude’s Prize by Ceril N. Domace

The Master of Fortitude, the largest city in the Flying Isles, has been robbed.

Normally, this wouldn’t concern Edward Bardsley. He’s an alchemist and surgeon on a small privateering vessel, and there are much larger and better equipped ships in Fortitude. It only becomes his concern when his crew is commissioned to retrieve the master’s stolen property. Between storms, injuries, and secrets that could see Edward exiled from the skies the way his father was, just getting to the thief’s hideout is enough to test the hardiest crew.

Thrust into the middle of an adventure that will take him from one end of the Flying Isles to the other, Edward must use every ounce of his alchemical and sailing knowledge to keep the crew intact as they inch closer to their goal.

The Hunter’s Lament by Steve Pannett

Infamous bounty hunter Bitter Sweet has led his crew of like-minded miscreants for nearly three decades. They can track and capture any man or woman in the known world…for a price. But Sweet is tired. Decades of pursuing the lowest reaches that humanity has to offer have taken their toll. The grime, the lies, the danger, the death. He’s sick of it all.

But it’s the only business he knows, and business is good in the aftermath of a long and bloody war. The unstoppable armies of the Vol Empire have conquered Pratia, obliterating all opposition and occupying the kingdom’s cities as they establish a brutal new order. The Pratian king is slain in the carnage, but his son—the Crown Prince and sole heir to the throne—has vanished.

Eager to tie up the loose ends, the new Vol rulers turn to those who know the land and its people the best. Bounty hunters.

Against his better instincts, Sweet accepts the contract and sets out in search of the fugitive Crown Prince. But his crew are not alone in the hunt. Danger rides with them every step of the way. Rival gangs, Vol soldiers, deadly trackers and dark magickers are all pursuing the heir to Pratia, too.

Soon Sweet and his crew have a choice to make, hunt or be hunted?

It Will Hurt: Queer Love in a Death Metal World by Anya K. Jordan

“Give me one night where you won’t run away.”

Nico and Jonas meet in the Zwo, the closed ward of a psychiatric hospital, which is probably the least romantic place in the world. Yet still, they are drawn to each other, and something happens. Nico doesn’t handle it well.

The thing is, Jonas is gay. Nico isn’t, of course. Or is he? Let’s It’s complicated.
Nico doesn’t like complicated . It’s fine, though. It’s okay. It’s not like they’ll ever see each other again, right?

After his release from the hospital, Nico goes back to his normal life of failing university, getting high with his friends, and listening to death metal. Nothing special. Until his grindcore band ” This Will Hurt ” has a gig at a local youth center, and he spots a familiar face in the crowd.

Bisexual, bipolar, “It Will Hurt” is a love story at a rare intersection.

The author Anya K. Jordan knows what it’s like to be a sexually confused twenty-something in the German underground death metal scenes of the early 2010s, and brings that first-hand experience into this novella. Follow along with Nico as he struggles to confront his feelings for Jonas while grappling with his frustrations with himself, the world, and the fact that one doesn’t quite seem to fit into the other. Take a queer dive into of the World of Death Metal.

There you have it! These were my top five excerpts from BBNYA 2024 round one that didn’t make it through to the next round of the competition. I had quite a few favorites move on in the competition, as well. So, be sure to look out for my opinions on those as future rounds come to a close!