[Free Audiobooks] 2 free titles from AudioSYNC Summer of Reading [Young Adult Novel, Documentary Memoir]

AudioFile’s SYNC Summer of Listening 2017 promotion for young adults continues, which offers 2 free audiobooks per week—1 classic, 1 modern—as free MP3 downloads, usually available worldwide (some titles are subject to geo-restrictions, and you can see the planned release schedule here).

This week’s two selected titles, available until 7am Eastern Time on May 18th, are as follows:

• Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes, a teen contemporary fiction novel about young people in the inner city learning to express themselves when a teacher begins an “open mic” night for poetry, from Recorded Books, read by a full cast
• Teenage Diaries: Then and Now by National Public Radio, an award-winning personal history documentary programme which followed a group of teens as they recorded interviews, audio journals, and daily life experiences, and then revisited them 16 years later to find out how their lives turned out, from Highbridge Audio, hosted by Joe Richman

Offered as DRM-free MP3s through 7am Eastern Time on May 18th, available in selected countries worldwide (requires installing Overdrive Media console software on your PC, Mac, Android, or iDevice, and you need to finish downloading before the time limit).

[Free eBook] The Turning Point by Freya North [Contemporary Literary Novel with Romance]

The Turning Point by bestselling British author Freya North is her standalone literary personal/family drama novel with strong f/m romantic elements, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher HarperCollins’ Harper imprint.

This is a contemporary literary fiction novel about an unconventional love story (which the reviews hint may be a tearjerker that does not end HEA, YMMV) which takes place in Norfolk and British Columbia, centred around the slow-developing long-distance relationship between a Canadian musician and a British author—both single parents who meet by chance and discover they have a connection; the exploration of which will affect themselves and their families in unexpected ways.

Offered in the UK and selected other countries (excluding North America), available at multiple retailers.

[Free eBook] The Secret Wife by Gill Paul [Past/Present Literary Novel]

The Secret Wife by London-resident Scottish author Gill Paul is her standalone modern/historical literary novel with f/m romantic elements, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher HarperCollins’ Avon imprint.

This is one of those heartwarming past/present journey of self-discovery novels, wherein someone finds some sort of hint or artifact that puts them on the trail of finding a something hidden in the past which in turn unlocks meaningful personal realizations about themselves.

In this case, there’s a journalist escaping from the trauma of a recent personal revelation discovering a jewelled pendant which leads her to uncover a family secret dating back to the Russian Revolution and a doomed aristocratic love affair.

Offered in the UK and selected other countries (excluding North America), available at multiple retailers.

[Free eBook] These Days of Ours by Juliet Ashton [Literary Fiction]

These Days of Ours by Juliet Ashton is her standalone contemporary literary fiction novel with f/m romantic elements, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Simon & Schuster UK.

This is a literary fiction novel which is a love story, but not necessarily a romance, which explores the meaning of love via the intertwining long-term relationships between a set of best friends and lovers, and what would seem to be an unrequited longing where what one thinks is true love may not win out as one has come to expect.

Offered in the UK only, available at multiple retailers.

[Free eBook] A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford [High Society Drama Novel with Romance]

A Woman of Substance by author Barbara Taylor Bradford is the 1st novel in her Emma Harte series of dramatic family sagas with strong f/m romantic elements, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher HarperCollins’s Harper imprint.

This was originally published in 1979 by Doubleday and was a bestseller back in the day, adapted into a popular TV miniseries. The series is one of those epic generational dramatic sagas centred around the lives and loves and fortunes and misfortunes of the women in a particular high-society family. This story establishes the early trials and eventual rags-to-riches rise to fortune of the strong-willed woman who would become the Harte family matriarch.

Offered in the UK and other selected countries worldwide (excluding North America), available at multiple retailers.

[Free eBook] Heiress by Janet Dailey [Contemporary Drama Novel with Romance]

Heiress by bestselling author Janet Dailey is her standalone sibling rivalry family saga drama novel with strong f/m romantic elements free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Open Road Media’ Romance imprint.

This was originally published in 1987 by Little, Brown & Co. and was a bestseller at the time, which has since gone through multiple reprintings over the decades. This is set in modern-day (for 1980s values of modern) Texas, among the wealthy oil and ranching jet-set. The story is centred around the rivalry between two half-sisters who meet for the first time at their father’s funeral, and begin a lifelong feud when it is revealed that one will inherit their father’s remaining money, while the other is left with his indebted properties, creating resentments which escalate into the next generation as each sister tries to one-up and ruin the other in life and love and fortune, in an attempt to prove herself their father’s true heir.

Offered in the US only, available at multiple retailers.

[Free eBook] An Older Man by Wayne Hoffman [LGBT Literary Fiction

An Older Man, by Wayne Hoffman, is his contemporary literary fiction novella with m/m romantic comedy elements, free for a limited time courtesy of LGBT specialty publisher Lethe Press’ Bear Bones imprint.

This is a sequel to Hoffman’s literary fiction novel about the New York gay community set in the aftermath of the AIDS crisis in the early 1990s, Hard, which was previously offered free.

This continues the story of one of the main characters two decades later, as he reluctantly comes to term with the changes in his self-image during the course of a Bear Week vacation celebration as he discovers his prospective romantic partners no longer view him as youthful, but instead a mature suitor. Offered DRM-free worldwide @ Amazon.