Since the latest edition of the Indie Ink Awards is coming to an end and I was absent from blogging last year, I didn’t get to share the winners for the Indie Ink Awards 2024! I plan to remedy it as I never need an excuse to talk about indie books, especially those centered on inclusion and by authors of marginalized identities. I did participate as a judge and found awesome books for which I’ve shared reviews, and I’ll continue sharing the ones I’m missing in the near future.

About Indie Ink Awards:

Books by marginalized authors, self-published books, and books by small presses often get overlooked. The Indie Ink Awards is a unique event that brings together the writing community to celebrate books that have made an impact on us. This is our way of highlighting the future we want to see in books–by uplifting those that shine.

All awards are segmented into two categories: Best-In and the Writing The Future We Need awards. The “Best In” awards should exemplify the chosen category. We are looking for exceptional inclusion and diversity in works nominated for “Writing the Future We Need” awards.


Breeze Spells and Bridegrooms, by Sarah Wallace and S.O. Callahan

A tall elf in fancy clothes holds a red rose. Next is a chubby man holding a stack of books.

Awards: Best audio narration, Asexual or Aromantic Representation

Book blurb

Roger not only had to prove himself to the Council, he also had to prove himself to Wyndham Wrenwhistle.

Fae and humans alike are returning to London for the Season, but the excitement is marred by the growing poverty rate among humans with low magical scores.

Tenacious Roger Barnes proposes a new rubric for testing magic to the Council, hoping to resolve the predicament for his fellow humans. But when he is paired with Wyndham Wrenwhistle, a dashing fae who has disliked him since childhood, the project seems destined to fail. Even after reaching a tentative truce, their fragile partnership crumbles due to malicious lies.

Adding to the disarray, a popular gossip column unexpectedly announces that Roger and Wyn are engaged. Obliged to go along with the falsehood to save their families from scandal, they are forced to reconcile their differences for the sake of the rubric — and for their impending marriage. As the project bleeds into their wedding plans, the pressure to flawlessly execute both mounts even higher.

Together, they have the chance to solve a crisis decades in the making — but they’ll need more than magic to succeed.


Illusion of Stars, by Sarah Marie Page

Cover for ILlusion of Stars by Sarah Marie Page. White big letters  with the title in the center, surrounded by illustrations of flowers over a dark background.

Awards: Best Book Cover and Cover Artist, Best Friendship, Best Morally Gray Character, Best Setting, Best Use of Tropes, Side Character MVP, Wittiest Character

This title will be republished by Pan Macmillan in 2027.

Book blurb

She’s stealing more than secrets. 

As the royal physician of a tiny, windswept island, Isabel spends her days trying to keep the queen from dying and the mad king from streaking naked down the halls. But when her best friend is found murdered on the beaches, her world is ripped apart. Desperate for answers, she discovers a stash of letters that reveal a terrifying truth: the neighboring kingdom of Volgaard possesses a kingdom-shattering weapon and is poised to conquer everything in its path. 

Seeking vengeance, Isabel infiltrates the enemy. Her mission? Woo Erik Lothgarson, the general’s steamy, illusion-magic wielding son, and steal the dangerous weapon. She can bring Volgaard to its knees—if she isn’t caught. 

But as Isabel dances along the knife edge of deception, the lines between truth and fiction blur, and she must wrestle her quest for vengeance against her undeniable attraction to the enemy.


The Finding Machine, by Lucy Lyons

Book blurb

It’s 1998, and Alex Martin’s life is falling apart. She’s fast approaching the big 3-0, with her dreams of making it as an artist in shreds. Her handsome housemate Antony’s moving on to better things while she’s stuck in a dead-end job, touch-typing for a living like a 1950s pool secretary.

Then, one grey winter morning, Alex inherits a mysterious invention from her late father that changes everything. The Finding Machine solves mysteries. But the biggest mystery of all lies deep within its wiring — the unsolved disappearance of a little girl, dating back seventy years.What happened to the girl, all those years ago? Who was she?

Alex is going to need Antony’s help if she’s to join the dots and solve the case. But as dark family secrets are revealed, will the Finding Machine bring them together…or push them further apart?

Full of twists and turns, the Finding Machine is an unputdownable mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end.


Under the Dragon Moon, by Mawce Hanlin

Cover of Under the Dragon Moon by Mawce Hanlin. A tattoed man sitting while holding a book in one hand and a large egg in the other. He's surrounded by stacks of books. On the background there's a stained glass with two other characters on it.

Awards: Best Mentor Character, Prettiest Book Interior, Gay or Lesbian Representation, Trans or Nonbinary Representation

Book blurb

To break the thread of weaver’s fate, those who witness must weave anew…
Mael Nguyen doesn’t believe in fate, but he does believe in magic. His entire life revolves around the study of the arcane—spells and rituals, potions and illusions. As far as Mael is concerned, all he needs is a book in one hand and magic in the other. Anything outside of his bookshop, hidden away in the streets of New Orleans, isn’t worth his attention. But when a strange human stumbles into his life and hires him for a job, bringing along his blinding smile and curious magic, Mael finds that Fate is just as dangerous as Magic.

Leo Greyson refuses to believe in fate, but he desperately wishes to believe in magic. As a small time rockstar, full time radio host, Leo has never been one to shy away from experience and adventure. He’s always lived his life on the edge—always moving, never standing still. But when his twin sister is murdered, and he gains custody of her strangely magical daughter, that constant motion comes to a screeching halt. Instead, he is launched into an entirely new world hidden right beneath his nose, and Leo finds himself wondering if Fate really does exist, and if she’s led him right where he needs to be.


Defiant, by Michael R. Miller

Book blurb

The great powers are stirring, and Holt and Ash are ready to return to the fight.

A summons from the Life Elder sets them on a perilous mission, leading to steaming jungles and blistering islands where ancient secrets will challenge everything they know of magic and dragons.

Talia, the Red Queen, is beset on all sides by pirate raiders and marauding mercenaries. Empress Skadi has abandoned her, battling uprisings in her own lands. As the noose tightens on Feorlen, Talia faces a difficult choice: let her people suffer or turn her powers against mortal foes?

Osric Agravain has found hope with his newly bonded black dragon, but some wounds run deeper than flesh and bone. Along the Fallow Frontier, he seeks the inner peace that has long eluded him.

And within the sanctum at Falcaer, Paragon Adaskar is struggling to unite the fracturing riders. If he fails, ruinous chaos will break across the world.

For when Elders and Paragons quarrel, kingdoms will fall.


Cleats, Corsets, and the Cutie, by Ashish Rastogi

Cover of Kleats Corsets and the Curie by Ashish Rastogi. A white readhead man wearing full glam maleup holds a soccer ball. A brown man with a moustache looks over his shoulder at him while read hearts float over his head.

Awards: Asian Representation by an Asian Author

Book blurb

One football star, one drag queen, and a pansexual. Eliot’s closet is crowded. Living one life is tough. Living three!? Eliot craves acceptance. He wants to show the world his flamboyance. Most of all, he yearns for a love that accepts the different parts of his life.

The floodlights and the spotlights make him wary till he crosses paths with the Indian chef, Raghuvendra, with his ‘tutti-frutti’ English, who speaks in the third person. Six months is long enough to make goo-goo eyes from across the stage. Eliot needs to make a move on the cuddle-worthy bear.

But? What if he shows Raghu who he really is and all that he has worked for burns down? While his cleats and corsets are stored in the safety of different compartments of his life, Eliot must find a way to keep the cutie.


Yours Celestially, by Al Hess

Cover of Yours Celestially by Al Hess. An invisible man with a black fedora. The words "Yours Celestially" where his head would be. Clouds in the background.

Award: Bisexual or Biromantic Representation

Book blurb

After divorce, death, and having his reformatted soul uploaded into a new body, Sasha expected resurrection to be a fresh start. His time spent in digital Limbo with the program’s cheeky AI guardian angel, Metatron, was cathartic, but what good is a second life when he only sees his daughter on the weekends, he has all the same problems he had before he died, and he can’t seem to shake the ache for the married life he lost?

If that weren’t frustrating enough, a glitch in the program has given Sasha the ability to sense Metatron even outside of Limbo. And Metatron is in love. The angel’s sickly-sweet yearning for one of the souls still in Limbo has turned Sasha’s stomach into caramelized lead. It’s hard enough to move on without someone else’s feelings making the emptiness in his own life even more acute. He didn’t have playing wingman to an actual winged being on his bingo card, but he’s determined to help Metatron make a move on their crush so he can get love off of his mind.

Sasha takes a job with the resurrection company in order to covertly contact Metatron. Except Sasha’s new coworker, Mr. C, keeps showing up at the worst moments. The man is annoying, he’s pushy… and he’s incredibly hot. Sasha can’t decide whether Mr. C wants to blackmail him or be his new BFF, but he seems to know things about Metatron and the resurrection program that Sasha doesn’t. Getting close to him might be the key to solving Sasha’s problem, but if he isn’t careful, he’s going to end up catching feelings of his own.


Cupid Calling, by Viano Oniomoh

Cover of Cupid Calling by Viano Oniomoh. Illustration of two black men on a bridge with ornate railing in the sunset. They are close enough to kiss.

Award: Black Representation by a Black Author

Book blurb

Ejiro Odavwaro wants to fall in love. Obiora Anozie wants a free vacation. Both hope they’ll find what they want on the upcoming reality dating show Cupid Calling, where they’ll be competing alongside twenty-eight other bachelors for the heart of one bachelorette.

The very last thing they expect is to fall for each other.


Pray For Him, by Tyler Battaglia

Cover of Pray for Him by Tyler Battaglia. A b/w priest extends hands towards the viewewr, with a showing ribcage from which flowers bloom. A burning cross where his guts would be.

Award: Disability Representation by a Disabled Author

Book blurb

A psychic priest is thrown headfirst into a battle of faith and love against the forces of Hell when his dearest friend becomes possessed

Father Isaias Flores may not have much, but he has his faith—and his dear friend Hector to keep him anchored when he is mired in self-doubt. But when Hector’s daughter, Violet, comes to Isaias with concerns that her father is acting strangely, Isaias’s doubts only increase, now with no one to keep him steadfast. For Hector seems to be possessed by something darker than even the traumas of the past, and Violet has nowhere else to turn to save her only family. 

This is a problem that may require divine intervention—the rites of exorcism. 

Unsure of his place in the church, doubting his gifts from God, and struggling to make sense of his feelings for the man he had thought was only a friend, Isaias isn’t sure if he is strong enough to save anyone’s soul from damnation. 

For what can one man do against the torments of Hell?


Green Fuse Burning, by Tiffany Morris

Cover of Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris. Illustration of a green-skined person in bols make-up with a starry void for hair with bangs. Weird red lines come out of their mouth. Their eyes glow yellow.

Award: Indigenous Representation by an Indigenous Author

Book blurb

After the death of her estranged father, artist Rita struggles with grief and regret. There was so much she wanted to ask him—about his childhood, their family, and the Mi’kmaq language and culture from which Rita feels disconnected. But when Rita’s girlfriend Molly forges an artist’s residency application on her behalf, winning Rita a week to paint at an isolated cabin, Rita is both furious and intrigued. The residency is located where her father grew up.

On the first night at the cabin, Rita wakes to strange sounds. Was that a body being dragged through the woods? When she questions the locals about the cabin’s history, they are suspicious and unhelpful. Ignoring her unease, Rita gives in to dark visions that emanate from the forest’s lake and the surrounding swamp. She feels its pull, channelling that energy into art like she’s never painted before. But the uncanny visions become more insistent, more intrusive, and Rita discovers that in the swamp’s decay the end of one life is sometimes the beginning of another.


The Reanimator’s Remains, by Kara Jorgensen

Cover of The Reanimator’s Remains by Kara Jorgensen. Two green silhouettes of men, one walking away and the other reaching out to him. A green skull is framed in the center.

Awards: LGBTQ+ Representation, Mental Health Representation, Neurodivergent Representation by a Neurodivergent Author

Book blurb

An autistic necromancer, his undead love, and a covenant that must be broken.

Oliver Barlow never knew what happened to his parents. With a note from his mother as his only lead, Oliver had given up hope of ever learning the truth. But when the dead start rising in the town of Aldorhaven, Oliver jumps at the chance to take the case if it means he can investigate the last place his parents were seen alive.

Felipe Galvan would like to be anywhere but Aldorhaven. Between protecting Oliver and Gwen, dealing with distrustful townsfolk, and an unexpected letter from his estranged parents, Felipe is already stretched thin. But when he is suddenly plagued by whispers from the woods and nightmares from his past, Felipe fears he is only one misstep away from becoming the monster he was meant to be.

Far more sinister things than the dead lurk in Aldorhaven’s woods. A centuries old bargain has been broken, and the only thing that can satisfy it is Oliver’s blood. Together, Oliver, Felipe, and Gwen must finish what Oliver’s parents started or they too will be ensnared by their devil’s bargain


Sordidez, by E.G. Condé

Cover of Sordidez by E.G. Condé. Painting of a person looking towards the viewer. Black leaves surround them. Title in white simulates a brush stroke.

Award: Latinx/Latine Representation by a Latinx/Latine Author

Book blurb

Vero has always felt at odds with his community. As a trans man in near-future Puerto Rico, he struggles to gain acceptance for his identity and his vision of an inclusive society.

After a hurricane decimates the island and Puerto Rico is abandoned by the United States, Vero leaves his home to petition the centralized government for aid and seek the truth about new colonists arriving on the island. But in the Yucatan, Vero finds a landscape ravaged by an ecological disaster of humanity’s own making—the Hydrophage, a climate technology warped into a weapon of war and released onto the land by the dictator Caudillo.

Amidst the destruction, Vero finds both desperation and hope for regrowth as he documents the lives of the survivors. Details about the colonists’ intentions emerge when Vero meets the Loba Roja, an anti-Caudillo revolutionary who imagines the renewed power of the Maya. Intrigued by her vision of the future and her unapologetic violence, Vero is faced with life-changing questions: can an Indigenous resurgence protect his beloved island? And what must he sacrifice to support it?


That’s it for now on my favorite indie book awards. Expect news on the Indie Ink Awards 2025 from me soon, as the winners will probably be announced next month. Meanwhile, you can check the previous year’s winners.


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