2012 was a great year for me. I started my book review blog in February and have since met a number of wonderful people and reviewed 97 novels. Some of the novels were great and some…. well, I’ve never met a book I regret reading because as a side benefit of age, I can always forget with time. Highlighted in this post are the seven best Indie books that I’ve read this year.

Best Indie Novels of 2012

(in no particular order)

American Goddesses by Gary Henry

Two women are chosen for a program that gives them superpowers. Henry’s American Goddesses gives the new superheroes a super-baddie who causes problems for the women in an unexpected way. The twists and turns in this story were astoundingly clever as were the ways in which Henry addresses the problems that arise in their daily life as a result.

Henry is working on the second book in this series and anticipates a 2013 release date.

Sedition: A Political Thriller by Tom Abrahams

The President dies unexpectedly shortly after the Vice President’s demise. A tough, smart, female Speaker of the House is poised to take the main seat while the not yet sworn in, replacement, Vice President challenges her right. On the other side, an anarchist group sees this as their perfect opportunity to make their move (based on a real 1820 British plot). With an author who has spent many years as a political reporter, you can expect and get the best of the best political thriller.

In a Silva-esque move, Abrahams’s website gives us a look into the real places highlighted in Sedition: A Political Thriller.

Creator Class (The Creator Class Series) by KM Breakey

This book just squeaked in under the 2012 wire but would have certainly been on the 2013 list.

Shawn Lowe is a P-class 18-year-old who knows that there’s more out there than he can see. The Laws of Earthism that must be obeyed aren’t for him. Why can he only compete in the gaming rooms? Why can’t someone be recognized as the best at something? His Nana knows and she tries to tell him but talking about Pre-Great Transformation events is strictly prohibited. Up in C-class, unknown to Shawn, a 14-year-old girl watches. When she believes that Shawn will be terminated for blasphemous speech, she tries to warn and his friends in high places see this as a perfect chance to bring him to their world. Going to C-class may save Shawn’s life but the cost to him personally is great. Creator Class (The Creator Class Series) is thought-provoking and poignant.

Action packed and entertaining, I can’t wait to read the next book in the series which is due out in 2013.

Alien Invasion of the Zombie Apocalypse by Ford Forkum

Aliens, who don’t have enough going on in their own world, decide to invade Earth only to find it in the midst of a Zombie Apocalypse. As a huge fan of both Douglas Adams and Dr. Who, I found this story reminiscent of their spirit. Short but wacky, the little Teddy Bear like aliens would be perfect for the small screen. I once again appeal to the producers of “Dr. Who” to hire Ford Forkum immediately – and to bring David Tennant back.

The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap by Paulette Mauhrin

In the wake of Oscar Wilde’s 1985 conviction, Mildred Dunlap hatches a plan to distract curiosity away from her own relationship with her female cousin and lover. What results in this novel is an appeal to the reading audience to reevaluate the way they look at the world and people who choose (or are born to) a lifestyle different from their own. Mildred may be the main character of title but, really, the object of her faked affection stands as the audience. Will he endanger Mildred once he knows her secret or understand that sometimes life is more than we can comprehend?

Profits from this novel go to the Ventura County Shelter, a no-kill animal shelter.

A Darkness Shattered (The Darkmind Saga) by Bruce Clothier

Clothier’s book was one of the first I read when starting to review Indie novels and it has stuck with me all this time. A teenage boy who has been sheltered and coddled his whole life is home when the Zombie Apocalypse happens and realizes that he must leave his home or die. He makes it out of the city just before bombs are dropped and meets up with a teen girl, also fleeing the gathering zombies as well as those who are taking the opportunity to attempt to victimize her. Together they start a journey to his grandparents home some several hundred miles away. I generally enjoy zombie tales but A Darkness Shattered (The Darkmind Saga) was one of the more human driven stories I’ve read. Clothier honors the life the zombies led before their death and provides us with an entertaining coming of age story in an impossible time.

The Other Guy by Cary Attwell

Emery James is left at the alter and goes on his honeymoon alone. While away, he meets a new friend and finds himself deeply attracted to the other man. What follows is a beautiful, same sex, love story. Emery must come to terms with his new attraction. The Other Guy was emotionally fluid with a plot that made sense and characters with whom there was a deep connection. I have since recommended this novel to many of my gay (and straight) friends who say that there’s so little in the way of love stories out there for them.

This was a great year. Thank you to everyone who has been with me along in the way whether you’re reading my website, liked my Facebook page or given me the massive support and help I needed when launching (this one is for you, Rangewoman Inc). I hope that everyone has had a wonderful 2012. Rabid Readers Reviews will have great things to come in 2013.

Publication Date: May 27, 2012

When Megan and Trish, average women, are taught to release the superwoman within they find coping with the new abilities difficult. It seems with power comes violence. Will their relationships survive their new abilities and will they be able to survive the dark new evil that can slip in at the most unexpected times.

It is truly rare to find new favorite author, especially one whose releases I’ll pick up on the day they premiere, but new author, Gary Henry, has made that list.

To be fair, if an author was writing a book specifically tailored for me I don’t think they could have done a better job.

Superheroes – Check

Good, meaty, storyline – Check

Author who isn’t afraid to make readers cringe – Check

True baddie with clear motivations and sympathetic background – Check.

Storyline surprises left and right – Check

To top the list, the baddies who are in charge of the overriding evil plotline are all code named after birds and a slight bird phobia helps this reader in the conviction that these former heads of state are just pure evil.

Megan and Trish are average women in extraordinary circumstances. They are painted so beautifully and clearly by Henry that they are easily identifiable with that girlfriend you like to meet up with from time to time for drinks. The dialogue, to me, was very real. This is what women talk about. That stigma regarding male authors writing female characters as less than realistic does not apply to Mr. Henry. Megan and Trish are very real.

Megan and Trish also have very real partners. At the start, we know that there are many people jealous of the power these women have. There’s a lot of “why couldn’t it have been me” floating around in the narrative. While Megan and her husband aren’t very likable at the start, I urge the reader to continue. I think, whether Henry intended it or not, we are presented with a very real idea of what happens when one spouse achieves success and the other feels a bit left behind.

I’d like to hear from those of you who read this novel, would you have liked to have seen rather than heard about Trish’s fight in the bar? I know I would have but, yes, I know, novels have ideal lengths and it was a spectacular novel even without my “taking the law into one’s own hands” voyeurism.

The plotline was outstanding. It’s been a very long time since a steady stream of plot points surprised this reader. Whenever I thought Henry was turning one way, he went in a completely different direction that I had never considered. The baddies and the superheroes play off of each other in a cunning way that keeps the reader locked into the narrative with the need, rather then the desire, to know what comes next.

The baddie was one for whom we could really feel sorry. She had a good life and then a hard life and was just thrown away. Can we blame her for how wonderfully brutal she has become? The baddie is written with such humanity that there were times I wanted her to succeed and I wanted it to be for herself. Does that sound twisted? Read the baddie and tell me if you don’t feel the same.

Everyone in this novel is running their own agenda in such a way that is not only believable but compelling. American Goddesses was simply too fast a read and when it was done I wanted much more. The ending of this novel is wonderful in the promise it holds for future novels. Henry tells me that there will be future novels in the series but that he does not yet have a release date for the second novel.

Halfway into 2012, this is one of the best novels I’ve read this year. I would put this author on my list of Indie authors to watch. Gary Henry, if he keeps this level of quality in plotting and characterization, is going to be a very big deal someday.

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Best Indie Novels of 2012

“American Goddesses” by Gary Henry