Updated 2 February 2023

This page includes an up-to-date list and details of books requiring an assessment.

As an assessor, you are not required to read more than necessary to reach a fair conclusion as to the book’s quality. For example, you might be allocated a book that is littered with errors in the opening chapters! AIBA is not asking you to proofread the book, but it would help if you would note a few examples of the errors that justify your recommendation. You should only recommend a book for approval if you have read and assessed the complete book including the front and back page material. As stated on the Our Mission page of the website, our purpose is to Identify and honor self-published or independently-published books that meet the standard of books published by major mainstream publishers.

Recent research has revealed that despite its common usage, mainstream publishers do not yet recognize the contraction of “all right” as a proper word. Also, “off of” should not be used in narrative.

Some assessors prefer to post the assessment as a review under their own name on Amazon, GoodReads, and elsewhere. To avoid duplication, AIBA will not post your assessment as a review. If in your opinion, the book meets the standard of books published by major mainstream publishers, then please award it 4 or 5 stars and recommend it for approval. Should you assess a book with relatively few errors, you can still recommend approval, but approval will be withheld until the author has made the recommended changes. Please note the errors so that AIBA can advise the author.

Awesome Indies Book Awards’ assessors should primarily recommend books for approval that are well-written and engaging, and that have been edited to a professional standard.

In Brief:

• • The book has been edited and proofread to a professional standard and is free from errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
  • Recent research has revealed that despite its common usage, mainstream publishers do not yet recognize the contraction of “all right” as a proper word.
  • Although often used in dialogue, the none-standard expression:  “off of” should not be used in narrative.
• • The book is correctly formatted for fiction.
• • The cover looks professional.
• • The plot is well structured, well-paced, conceptually sound, and engaging.
• • The characters are well developed and their dialogue and interactions with others are believable.
• • The book is not overwritten or unnecessarily wordy; for instance; no obvious dumps of information, unnecessary repetition, or irrelevant scenes.
• • Changes in point of view are clear.
• • The prose is well-written and engaging.

Assessments are anonymous so your name will not be disclosed to the author unless you choose to reveal it by making direct contact with the author to offer editing or proofreading services. If you offer such professional services to the writer, you must stress that the arrangement will be a private contract between you and the writer and does not guarantee that a subsequent assessor will recommend approval.

To avoid further unpleasant correspondence, authors are no longer informed if the book does not meet the required standard.

Please select a title from the following books and email your choice to admin@awesomeindies.net.. You will then be sent the relevant file and this page will be updated accordingly. If you recommend a book for approval, please complete a short appraisal and allocate 4, 4.5 or 5 stars. This is will prevent the Google search engine from returning a 1-star rating against the books on the website.

The Seal of Excellence.

Any title receiving 5 stars from each assessor in the ‘Approval’ process is automatically added to this list to be considered for a Seal of Excellence. The seal is awarded following a recommendation or a 5-star assessment from a third assessor.

Submission(s) requiring a 2nd Assessment.

PLEASE GIVE THESE BOOKS PRIORITY. This applies to any book which has received a qualifying first assessment and for which the writer has corrected any errors noted by the first assessor.

The Ring

• • Submitted: 23 June 2021
• • Author Name: Florence Osmund
• • Book Title: The Ring
• • Category or Genre: general fiction
• • 2nd Category: literary fiction
• • Reader Age Group: Adult
• • Number of Words: 91000
• •Link to Amazon: (to be published on 28 June 21.
• •Formats available:.mobi,

Synopsis:

Business owner Paige West misses the closeness she had with her now-deceased father. Jessivel Salter, a single mother on the brink of becoming homeless, also misses her dead father, but for very different reasons. When fate unites the two women, Paige is drawn to Jessivel from the start and wants to help her. But Jessivel doesn’t trust Paige or her intentions and rejects her many “helping hand” offers. The two women eventually connect and when certain disturbing truths are unveiled, they discover they have something in common that is inconceivable and shocking. Each has to decide whether to take the easy way out and part ways forevermore or face up to the adversity that fate has thrown at them.

And it all started with The Ring

Secrets In The Mirror

• Submitted:25/01/2023
• Author Name:Leslie Kain
• Category or Genre:Psychological Fiction
• 2nd Category: Dysfunctional Family Saga
• Reader Age Group:Adult
• Language:English (US)
• Number of Words:100000
• Link to Amazon:https://amzn.to/3XVlgrX
• Formats available:.epub

SYNOPSIS:

“A psychological thriller perfect for our time” that “toes the fine line between sympathetic and terrifying,” Secrets In The Mirror is a sweeping saga of one family’s journey to rise above the toxicity of multigenerational domestic abuse and crime. Gavin struggles to salvage his self-esteem from Dad’s bullying, and from narcissistic abuse by his identical mirror twin. But when Devon gets into drugs and trouble with the Mob, people start dying. Gavin flees far away to protect himself and his new family. But he can’t escape his sociopathic brother, or the Mob. Yet inextricable bonds tie him to Devon, and Gavin vows to break the lethal chain of family dysfunction and rescue his twin from his self-destructive path. Can he save his brother before Devon destroys them both?

New Submissions

  Follow the Dove

On March 17, 2013, the Awesome Indies blog included this title under the heading: New Additions. However, this edition was first published on Amazon on September 11, 2019.

• • • Title: Follow the Dove
  • • Submitted: 14-Jun-21
  • • Author Name: Catherine M Byrne
  • • Category or Genre: romance
  • • 2nd Category: historical
  • • Reader Age Group: All Age
  • • Number of Words: 329
  • • Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Follow-Dove-Book-Raums-saga-ebook/dp/B07XTN252J
  • • Formats available:Word file. (.mobi requested)

SYNOPSIS:

Synopsis for Follow the Dove.

Fifteen year old Isa Muirison loves her life working for the floating shops of Orkney at the turn of the 20th century. But her happy family life is thrown into turmoil by her father’s decision to emigrate to Canada, her sister’s illness, and her own love for Davie, a penniless whisky runner. Despite her family’s opposition, she follows Davie to his tiny island home where she is met by the fierce hostility of his mother and his childhood sweetheart, Chrissie.

Alone among strangers, Isa’s unrelenting determination gains acceptance and popularity in the close-knit community. But no one could have foreseen the tragedy that rips the heart out of that community and shatters Isa’s security. Meanwhile, Chrissie has found solace in the arms of Davie’s violent brother Jack, only to discover a darkness in his soul she could never have imagined. Events are set in motion over which the two women have no control.

Will either of them ever find peace—and in whose arms will Davie find solace? Set in the Northern isles of Scotland, amid the treacherous waters of the Pentland Firth, Follow the ove shows how love can conquer all and, how, even in the most diverse of conditions, a community can pull together to protect its own. It describes a way of life that is authentic but gone forever.

This book will appeal to women interested in historical fiction. Follow the Dove won the second prize in the novel category of the Scottish Association of Writers.

Brielle’s Birthday Ball A Dance-It-Out Creative Movement Story for Young Movers

Admin Note: This is a beautifully illustrated book which is best viewed using the PDF link.

• • •Title:Brielle’s Birthday Ball A Dance-It-Out Creative Movement Story for Young Movers
  • •Submitted:20-Jun-21
  • •Author Name:Once Upon a Dance
  • •Book Title:Brielle’s Birthday Ball A Dance-It-Out Creative Movement Story for Young Movers
  • •Category or Genre:Holidays & Celebrations
  • •2nd Category:Children’s
  • •Reader Age Group:Children
  • •Number of Words:2000
  • •Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/dp/1955555001
  • •Link to Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58382133-brielle-s-birthday-ball
  • •Formats available: See links below

SYNOPSIS:

Brielle’s Birthday Ball

Pull back the curtain on the children’s imagination stage where kids join Brielle celebrating her seventh birthday on the moon. A was-it-just-a-dream adventure packed with movement concepts and subtle life lessons. Ballerina Konora suggests moves to develop body coordination, focus the breath, and learn dance fundamentals.

“Another wonderful journey into the imagination with Ballerina Konora, perfect for young dancers everywhere!…”

~Reedsy

MOBI FIle “Brielle’s Birthday Ball.mobi” at: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:24b47eb4-099f-47cc-8ad2-91df1053b568

EPUB FIle “EPUBBrielle’s Birthday Ball Insides.epub” at: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:ab781d90-5095-453f-91f0-3fe0e9259624

PDF File “Brielle’s Birthday Ball InsidesEBOOK.pdf” at: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:b0feb709-d18e-491d-8461-6ad24caf370a

Memory Road Trip

• • Submitted: 23-Aug-21
• • Author Name: Krista Marson
• • Book Title: Memory Road Trip
• • Category or Genre: Memoir
• • 2nd Category: Travel
• • Reader Age Group: Adult
• • Number of Words: 91400
• • Link to Amazon: https://amzn.to/3guqKqo
• • Formats available: .epub

SYNOPSIS:

MEMORY ROAD TRIP is a compendium of travel stories ranging from the sublime to the surreal as told by a money-strapped traveler who gallivanted around the globe on a proverbial shoestring. The journey down memory road is a heartfelt excursion into the past that takes armchair explorers on an odyssey of life, love, and loneliness. The circuitous path is full of philosophical nooks and crannies, and many stories get told from the bottom of a psychological well. Readers will join this intrepid Gen X-er as she gets herself locked inside a cathedral, lost in the desert, and held up at machete point by Zapatista rebels. Her passion for nature, art, history, and architecture gush across the page, along with her contagious curiosity in life and her pragmatic acceptance of death. Many of her stories speak to the angst that simmers inside all of us as we confront the many absurdities that exist in this world. People have always told this adventurer that she needed to write her travel stories down. She always thought that she’d have forever to write them, but now she knows that forever is not as long as she thought it was.

FLIGHTS FOR FREEDOM

• Submitted: 04-Sep-21
• Author Name: Steven Burgauer
• Category or Genre: adventure
• 2nd Category: historical fiction (WW1)
• Reader Age Group: Adult
• Number of Words: 132000
• Link to Amazon: https://amzn.to/3jLLA6T
• Formats available: .pdf .docx

SYNOPSIS:

(From Amazon)

The dangers of flying an open-cockpit WWI aeroplane were many. Flights for Freedom is the exciting story of one brave American flyer — “Petrol” Petronas of the 17th Aero Squadron — as he learns to master the undisciplined two-winged fighter called a Sopwith Camel.

Shot down over France during the course of a bruising air battle, Petrol is then shuttled from safehouse to safehouse by a beautiful yet defiant woman of the Dutch Resistance.

In the background is the poppy-covered landscape known to us as Flanders Fields, a battlefield choked with dead and dying soldiers. Children, orphaned by the war, find safety with a kindly Catholic priest, who raises carrier pigeons vital to the war effort on the rooftop of his Abbey. Every day, his birds carry secret messages to and from the frontlines for Signal Corps.

Life-threatening challenges lay at every turn.

Two thousand volts pulsate through the electrified border fence that separates Holland from Belgium, enough to kill a man. The trick in crossing the border alive is in knowing who to bribe and how much to pay. Otherwise, there is no way for a downed American flyer to get safely across the heavily patrolled border into Holland and back to England.

Soulwinder

• Submitted: 07-Sep-21
• Author Name: Travis Daniel Bow
• Category or Genre: Sword and Sorcery
• 2nd Category: Fantasy
• Reader Age Group: Adult
• Number of Words: 119500
• Link to Amazon: https://amzn.to/2WZPOyR
• Formats available: .mobi, .epub, AUDIO BOOK VOUCHER

SYNOPSIS:

Three strangers.

Two plots.

One champion.

In the crater of a volcanic island, musical magic and enchanted swordplay rule society. Every seven years a champion from each caste climbs the tournament ladder for a chance at a new life. This year three apparent strangers—a sabotaged craftsman trying to save his mentally disabled father, a legendary duelist resisting the machinations of her master, and a Magistry janitor fighting an empathy-sapping talent—are desperate to reach the final battle. But a web of strange coincidence connects them, the city is on the brink of collapse, and nothing is as it seems.

Everyone’s a puppet… but who holds the strings?

The Margins (The Commons 2)

• Submitted: 09-Nov-21
• Author Name: Michael Alan Peck
• Category or Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
• 2nd Category: Metaphysical Fantasy
• Reader Age Group: Adult
• Number of Words: 180000
• Link to Amazon:  https://amzn.to/3EZNecM
• Formats available: .mobi, .epub

SYNOPSIS:

“I think I did something. Something someone really bad was counting on me to do. And I think you helped me.”

Ray-Anne Blair isn’t buying it. She just wants Paul Reid to forget about the imaginary place he says he needs to return to—and to stop calling her Rain.

Everyone wants something. Jeremy Johns wants to do well at his job, but the new office is strange. So is his boss, Mr. Truitt. Annie Brucker wants to understand how she ended up back with her abusive ex. Zach, her son, wants to know if he should trust whatever it is that speaks to him from the darkness of his closet. Jonas Porter, Audra Farrelly, Po the silent monk, and Charlene Moseley want to know why their colleagues and prospective Journeymen have disappeared.

Welcome to The Margins, a place that shouldn’t be—but is, thanks to Paul and his friends. They thought they’d won. But they played right into the hands of an evil that anticipated their heroic act. Now realms are crossing over, the universe is collapsing, and it’s up to those who created the danger to neutralize it.

No one said it would be easy. No one’s sure it’s even possible.

But this is where the difficult and the impossible abound.

This is The Commons

 In the Shadows of Castles

• Submitted:18/10/2022
• Author Name:G K Holloway
• Book Title:In the Shadows of Castles
• Category or Genre:Historical Fiction
• 2nd Category: Norman Conquest
• Reader Age Group:Adult
• Language:English (UK)
• Number of Words:140000
• Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadows-Castles-G-K-Holloway/dp/1781328692/
• Formats available:.pdf

SYNOPSIS:

t’s the 1060s, and William of Normandy is establishing a new and brutal regime in England, but there are those who would defy him. As Norman soldiers spread like a plague across the land, resistance builds, but will it be enough to topple William and restore the rightful king to his throne? The English have the courage to fight, but the Normans, already victorious at Hastings, now build castles seeking to secure their tenuous foothold in these lands.

And what of the people caught up in these catastrophic events? Dispossessed but not defeated, their lives ripped apart, the English struggle for freedom from tyranny; amongst them, caught up in the turmoil, are a soldier, a thane and two sisters. As events unfold, their destinies become intertwined, bringing drastic changes that alter their lives forever.

Firmly embedded in the history of the Conquest, ‘In the Shadows of Castles’ is ultimately a story of love, hope and survival in a time of war.

The Glint of the Luopan

• Submitted:02/11/2022
• Author Name:Sally Feng
• Category or Genre:Urban Fantasy
• 2nd Category: Magical Realism
• Reader Age Group:All Age
• Language:English (US)
• Number of Pages on Amazon: 238
• Link to Amazon:https://amzn.to/3WnlfNC
• Formats available:.epub

SYNOPSIS:

“Lai Fang, a Chinese native living in New York, is working to recover her lost memory and find her father. Along the way, she finds herself in the arms of the mysterious Suresh who supports her search in unconventional ways.
Guided by a Luopan, scattered remnants of recollections, technology, and a little magic, Lai Fang desperately clings to what she hopes will be the path to her truth. However, what if the truth lies far beyond the scope of human comprehension? What is the truth to begin with?
The Glint of the Luopan weaves a mesmerizing web of a world that begins as a dream and unfolds in a journey for family, hope, and love.”

END OF LIST