Early Access.

Editors' Picks.

Exclusive Prices.

HOW IT WORKS

Get early access to editors' picks

Choose one Kindle book each month for $1.99

Shop select print editions for $9.99 or less in participating months

Prime members enjoy one Kindle book for FREE. Already a Prime member? Sign in now

Psychological Thriller

(5907)

SHOP NOW

$1.99 (Save $3.00)

Have you ever felt that sudden drop in your stomach and quickening of your breath when you look down from a dizzying height? There are moments in The Hike where I felt that lurch. When I felt everything I thought I knew about the characters being ripped out from under me.

Cat and Ginny have planned some much-needed bonding time for themselves and their husbands—summertime hiking in the Swiss Alps, followed by champagne and relaxing evenings. But what starts out as the picture-perfect vacation quickly descends into a nightmare. As they climb higher, the tension between the two couples builds until it is bursting at the seams; old grudges rise to the surface and new secrets are spilled. When two of the hikers are involved in a tragic accident high up in the mountains, the remaining two are left to make it back to ground zero. But the question is, Who survives? And what really caused the accident?

Despite the open expanse of the summertime Swiss Alps, the creeping, claustrophobic tension claws at you as two timelines reveal not just what happened but who it happened to. Susi Holliday is the queen of the twist, and you’re guaranteed to be kept guessing until the very last page.

—Victoria Haslam, Editor

(3042)

SHOP NOW

$1.99 (Save $3.00)

Based in part on author Olivia Hawker’s own family history, The Fire and the Ore is the compelling story of three courageous women who were forced to endure great sacrifice during the Utah War. Combining a heartrending narrative with richly detailed historical accuracy, this novel reminded me of both Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds and Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven .

Drawn together by a man who had secretly embraced polygamy, Tamar, Jane, and Tabitha have little power and few choices within the patriarchal leadership of the Mormon church. All three women need their marriage for reasons of their own, and yet they can’t reconcile themselves to their circumstances.

But when the United States Army marches on Utah Territory, the women and children must retreat into the hostile desert wilderness. The three wives must cooperate if they hope to keep themselves and their children alive—and in the process, each finds a new definition of family, one that unites her with her sister-wives in a bond stronger than the ties of faith and marriage.

This novel is both epic and nearly impossible to put down. Because they became so real to me, I simply had to know what became of Tamar, Jane, and Tabitha—and their unorthodox sisterhood.

—Chris Werner, Editor

(799)

SHOP NOW

$1.99 (Save $3.00)

When the birds started falling from the sky, Billie Laure tried to stay calm. It was probably the smoke from the fires, she told herself. When those around her started asking her strange questions, she went home and locked the door. There was no one following her. That was her imagination.

Everything was fine, she told herself. Except it wasn’t. And then her daughter went missing.

J. Todd Scott’s The Flock is a terrifying vision—part thriller and part cult horror with a dash of the inexplicable. It’s also a uniquely immersive reading experience, told through both traditional narrative and “found material” that lead you deep into Billie’s—formerly Sybilla’s—cult upbringing and her frantic pursuit to rescue her daughter from dangerous kidnappers from her past.

A book that made me feel like I was reading Dean Koontz and House of Leaves with a shadow of Hitchcock, The Flock left me questioning the world—not just the people—around me. I hope it haunts you just as much as it haunted me.

—Jessica Tribble Wells, Editor

(1389)

SHOP NOW

$1.99 (Save $3.00)

Take it from Kevin Kwan (who wrote the novel Crazy Rich Asians ): “ The Goddess Effect is a fall-on-the-floor funny, fresh, and modern take on one woman’s journey to hell and back—and by ‘hell and back,’ I mean a three-month stay in Los Angeles.”

As someone who has a love-hate relationship with exercise classes and a closet with way too many pairs of yoga pants, I was completely captivated by Sheila Yasmin Marikar’s debut novel. The book centers around Anita, a woman trying to make it in LA with dwindling job prospects and a lackluster romantic life, who becomes obsessed with her outlandish workout coach and the intense class she offers. For the first time, Anita’s feeling good, strong, and healthy—until things start to get a little dicey and cultlike. What are these medical procedures she keeps hearing about? And why is she suddenly so willing to bare her soul to these women?

Anita is forced to make some big decisions, and she finally has an opportunity to stand for something. The way she does it is hilarious and charming, and I found myself smiling the entire ride.

—Carmen Johnson, Editor

(3414)

SHOP NOW

$1.99 (Save $3.00)

We affectionately refer to New York as the “city that never sleeps.” The lights and bustle are part of the appeal. But during a blackout, everything changes. Buildings go dark. Cars stall at nonfunctional traffic lights. Strange noises echo in alleys.

Roger A. Canaff’s latest legal thriller opens during the infamous 1977 blackout. Young Joe and Robbie are abandoned by their mother as the city fades to black, and that’s the last time either of them sees her—until forty years later when Joe, now a lawyer, must identify her body.

Joe does what he does best: he drinks and he works, trying to reconcile his memories of that night in 1977 with his life now. But there’s so much he can’t remember; there’s so much he’s never understood about his family. And now, he’s suspected of his mother’s—and another—murder. And again, he doesn’t remember anything.

City Dark is the rare kind of legal thriller that combines incredible emotional depth with legal expertise. But it’s also a fierce cat-and-mouse game that will leave you hoping no one switches off your lights.

—Jessica Tribble Wells, Editor

(300)

SHOP NOW

$1.99 (Save $3.00)

Danielle Prescod’s sharp and tender memoir, at first blush, was like a shot of Pixy Stix–scented nostalgia—plunging me back into the decades that were ruled by Baby-Sitters Club books and low-slung jeans. But this personal story of growing up as a Black girl in an overwhelmingly white suburb also offers a clear-eyed take on elite New England communities and a peek behind the curtain of the exclusive fashion and beauty media, which adds an exciting depth and awareness to that ’90s childhood experience in a way that is fresh, exhilaratingly honest, and incendiary.

Token Black Girl is Danielle’s honest, witty, and often infuriating story of how that environment and moment in America shaped her—told her what to value (often to her own detriment) and how to succeed—and ultimately how that narrative of exceptionalism failed her, shrinking her identity into something that served everyone but her.

Any person who has experienced being thrust into the Token Black Girl role, tried to fit in, or longed to reflect the image of perfection that society has set will relate to Danielle’s story. Token Black Girl is as much riveting and entertaining as it is a critical story in understanding the varied experiences of young Black women in America.

—Laura Van der Veer, Editor

(1047)

SHOP NOW

$1.99 (Save $3.00)

For parents of school-age children, the start of classes in the fall is often cause for celebration—after all, now it will be someone else’s turn to tell Amy to stop eating crayons! But in Ted Fox’s Schooled , stay-at-home dad Jack has just gotten into the groove of this whole full-time parenting gig and feels ready to up his challenge. Next level: parent board!

Unfortunately for Jack, the only pull stronger than service to his children turns out to be his high school rivalry with Chad, who moves back to town and decides to swoop in and run for the board himself. Is Jack a middle-aged man with a family and host of responsibilities? Yes. Is he above a minivan race or two to work out some latent high school insecurities? Absolutely not.

Schooled is a work of tremendous heart and humor, one that perfectly captures the absurdities of modern adulthood and parenting in a world where it seems everyone but us has it figured out. The truth this novel illuminates is that we’re all just doing our best and, like for Jack, our failures are opportunities to grow. And if we can laugh uproariously while getting, um, schooled? Well, those are the kinds of lessons it’s a joy to sign up for.

—Erin Adair-Hodges, Editor

(1213)

SHOP NOW

$1.99 (Save $3.00)

My best friend and I have a shorthand term to describe our friendship: H&H&hih. Head & Heart & hand in hand . We may be wildly different in many ways, but for twenty years, we have been each other’s biggest supporter. I would not be the person I am today without her.

In Never Meant to Meet You , Marjette Lewis and Noa Abrams are two women with seemingly nothing in common but their neighborhood. Marjette, a Black Baptist kindergarten teacher, is doing her best to keep her nose out of other folks’ business. And Noa, a Jewish cookbook editor with a handsome husband and a charming young daughter, appears to have a perfect life. But one evening, Marjette spots Noa sitting on her front stoop, kept company by an empty package of cookies and a quickly dwindling bottle of booze.

Marjette can’t help helping, and what follows is the building of a beautiful friendship full of surprises (and some light hijinks). Though neither Marjette nor Noa are living the lives they expected to be at age forty-something (ladies don’t need to be specific!), their friendship is exactly what they need to embrace the lives they have.

Never Meant to Meet You is an affirming and hilarious story of friendship and motherhood, about women who aren’t afraid to say the quiet parts out loud and will not apologize for living their best lives. With my head and my heart and both my hands, I am proud and excited to share this book with you.

—Alison Dasho, Editor

Amazon Original Stories | Read all 6 Kindle short stories from the Getaway Collection | Browse now.

The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith | Limited-time bonus offer | Shop now.

Celebrate Hispanic and Latino stories | Browse now

Check out previous Amazon First Reads editors' picks

Kindle Unlimited members can read most previous First Reads editors’ picks free.

Not a Kindle Unlimited member? Join now.

Get to Know Us

Make Money with Us

Amazon Payment Products

Let Us Help You

English United States

Psychological Thriller

Historical Fiction

Thriller

Contemporary Fiction

Legal Thriller

Memoir

Book Club Fiction

Women's Fiction